Today’s edition covers:

• 80% done with our new bookshelves, getting close!

• Recording of the Basic Book Marketing presentation

• What do you think of our new membership page?

• June roadmap & traffic updates

• Ben's updates and reading list

Fun Size! 🦥

• We are up to 2,300+ submissions for our Readers’ Favorite Reads of 2024! Please share your favorites and join the club. If you need any tech support, just let me know 😀.

• We now have 2,734 book series published on the website, and we are working to add 3,865 more. If you want us to add your book series, please email [email protected], and we will bump it to the top of the list.

80% done with our new bookshelves!

Reminder: Bookshelves are discovery points centered around genres, topics, and age groups. Currently, they are advanced filters so readers can zoom in on something they would be interested in reading (try our literary fiction bookshelf). We are upgrading them to add the all-time best books within that category (and loads of breakdowns within that category to get people out of the typical top 100 silo), trending books to help new and upcoming authors, new books to help new releases, and a dedicated page to related book lists.

I want to make the bookshelves the BEST place on the entire web to discover “science fiction books” in fun and unique ways. This applies to any topic, genre, or age group (and theme, trope, and mood as we expand to those).

What is left to do?

We must connect all backend elements to the frontend and finish all the design tweaks.

I don’t have a good ETA, but early July seems possible 😃.

It is cool to see the overall stats in these categories. I can’t easily pull this information on the backend right now. I knew that Dune was popular, but I didn’t realize that it is one of the most recommended books on Shepherd.

Recording of the Basic Book Marketing presentation

This is a new presentation I am doing, so it is a bit rough. I will rerecord a more polished version to share on the website soon.

My goal is to show authors what I consider the basic steps to take before you start sending traffic to your Amazon bookstore page listings.

What do I cover?

• The impact of a professional book cover that matches your genre expectations.

• How to create a near-perfect Amazon bookstore page (and some new tricks)

• How to encourage readers ethically to leave reviews on Amazon.

• How to encourage readers to buy another book from you.

• How do you collect fans via email after they finish your book?

Toward the end, I talk more about marketing after those are in place.

Please let me know if it is helpful, if you have any suggestions, and if you want to see presentations on different strategies for increasing traffic to your book sales pages.

What do you think of our new author membership page?

I’ve been slowly improving our “Building Shepherd” pages for authors. I’d love to get your thoughts on our new author membership page.

• What is missing that you want to see?

• What information do you want on this page that I don’t have?

• What could I add that would encourage you to become a member and help us continue our mission?

My June Roadmap Update (For Authors)

What are we building now?

• A massive upgrade to our bookshelves, which group books around genres, topics, and age groups. (80% done)

What are we building after that?

• We are upgrading our Book Boost perk for Founding authors and adding a paid marketing program for authors who want it. This will also add a stats email for our Book Boost ad for all members.

• We are revamping our genre and topic system. It needs a significant revamp to improve genre/topic accuracy. We are also working to add themes, tropes, moods, and more!

• Launching our full reader app!

Browse our full roadmap here.

Traffic, bookstore clicks, and sales

For last month:

• We had 175,000+ visitors.

• We had 15,000+ clicks to bookstore partners this month. 

• Of those, 2,600+ were clicks to an author’s promoted book.

Last year, we had a total of 3.2 million visitors.

Detailed stats on our traffic, clicks, sales, and demographics.

What else is going on?

My son was off school on Thursday/Friday, so we headed to the Pyrenees mountains for a long weekend. It was outside Ordesa Monte Perdido National Park in Spain, and a stunning location. We had so much fun, and I got two long gravel rides in (pictures below).

What am I reading?

I just finished...

• The Venetian Heretic by Christian Cameron. Christian is one of my all-time favorite authors, and I read every book he writes! This is a new series set in 17th-century Venice with murder, statecraft, and a mystery. I loved it and can’t wait for more with this character.

I am reading...

• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I found this through Shepherd and a list on the magic of books, bookshops, and libraries list. So far, it has been fantastic, and I love reading books set in Spain.

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones—I don’t read much horror, so I am trying something outside my wheelhouse. It is pretty good so far, and some tension is steadily building.

Thanks, Ben

P.S. Picture of our time up in the Pyrenees a few weeks ago.