What's new for April?

1. Do you want an easy way to do newsletter swaps with other authors? 

2. Our upcoming Book DNA review format (early data)!

3. Survey results on what authors want from Shepherd.

4. March traffic, clicks, and sales.

5. Ben's updates and reading list... 

Funsize:

• How many readers will see my list every month? I wish I could build an author dashboard, but I don't have enough money to build that yet. I did create a breakdown of traffic for a month and how that distributes over the book recommendation lists -> here are the results! 

• I will do a live Zoom event for all authors on Saturday, April 13th. I will start with an overview of what we will focus on over the next 12 to 24 months (and how that will help authors). And a big Q&A after that short bit.

  • What timezones?

    • USA East Coast - 12 pm

    • USA West Coast - 9 am 

    • UK - 5 pm

    • Central Europe - 6 pm

    • (Sorry, Australia/Asia, email me if you want one, and if I get at least 3 requests, I'll do one in your time zone)

Please reply to this email, and I can add you to the event.

Status: What are we working on for authors?

• Improving our audiobook links - We are trying to make these only appear when an author has an audiobook. And make the audiobook links go directly to the audiobook. This is harder to do than it sounds. 

• Adding interesting facts as a marketing method - This is a way for authors to connect with readers directly. You can view the early design mockups at the bottom of this page.

• Adding book series pages - This will show an author's entire book series and allow Shepherd to use this concept all over the website. The design is done, and I am writing the spec for the developer now (not sure on ETA). 

• Improve our genre/topic system - This is a HUGE project, but my goal is to improve the accuracy of this system. The system publishers use is inaccurate and missing so many genres. I am looking at how to pull in more genres and improve both systems. 

Read the full breakdown of each feature and view our entire roadmap here. 

How do newsletter swaps help me sell books?

A newsletter swap is a marketing technique where an author finds other authors with similar readers and trades exposure on each of their mailing lists. It is a great way to market each other's books. 

For example, imagine an author named John Smith who published a hard science fiction book about colonizing Mars. He has 1,000 readers on their mailing list, and they want more exposure. 

John finds an author named Susan Jackson, who publishes science-fiction and has a mailing list of 1,500 sci-fi readers. John does a newsletter swap with Susan, and they each do a newsletter featuring each other's books and encouraging their fans to check them out. Now, John has gotten exposure to 1,500 sic-fi readers, and Susan has an additional 1,000 readers. 

How would it work?

• Browse a database of authors who want to do newsletter swaps. You can find them based on genre, number of subscribers, and how their previous newsletter swaps have performed.

• Pitch authors that are a match for doing a newsletter swap with you. 

• Track the results of the swap so you know how many clicks they generated. 

Can you tell me if you would use this feature? 

Take the 4-minute survey here (click here).

Our upcoming Book DNA review format...

I just surveyed readers to test our upcoming Book DNA review format. If you'd like to participate as a reader, you can complete the survey here. 

I got some excellent data, and I will send out an improved survey in a few weeks to test the revisions. 

What is the goal of our Book DNA review format?

• To build a Book DNA profile of each reader to help them find books they will love based on other readers who share their Book DNA. 

• To focus the conversations around "reviews" on whether "I" will like the book, not what all these other people think. 

• To start building an engaged community of readers within Shepherd.

I do not like Goodreads reviews.

Books are deeply personal.

Some books are a match for me; some are not. That doesn't mean they are bad books just because I didn't enjoy them. 

For example, I don't like Lord of the Rings (no death threats please). I've tried to read it 3 times and do not like the writing style (I can't see what is happening in my head). I am unsure why, but it doesn't work for me. Does that mean Lord of the Rings is a bad book? NO! It just means it isn't a match for me.

I want to review it, but I know that it is helping me to find books I love. And that my Book DNA profile is helping readers similar to me also find books they love.  

What is this review format likely going to focus on?

• Did you dislike, like, or love the book? (no star rating)

• What did you dislike/like/love most about this book? (trying to nail down the top reason you disliked, liked, or loved the book)

• Probably a specific rating on the characters

• Probably a specific rating on the world it immersed you in

• What the book made you feel, think, and reflect on. I hope to understand the book's impact and see if it helps you find other books. 

• The book's pace (I couldn't put it down, steady, slow at times). 

I am still playing with these factors, but this is a rough sketch... 

This is early in the research process, and feel free to send me your thoughts.

Wanted: Courageous and scrappy authors who want to build an indie book website that helps your fellow authors sell books. Join Shepherd's membership program on this hazardous and long journey, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success. 

Survey results on what authors want from Shepherd.

Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey; it helped me immensely! 

Traffic, bookstore clicks, and sales

For March 2024:

• We had 375,000+ visitors.

• We had ~25,000 clicks to bookstore partners this month 🥳.

For a big-picture perspective:

• In 2023, we had 5 million visitors! Woohoo! 

• In 2022, we had 1.8 million visitors.

• In 2021, we had 266,000 thousand visitors (launched in April). 

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

What else is going on?

My son was on Spring break, so we drove up to Bordeaux, France. We are moving to Bordeaux in July and wanted to see more of it prior to the move. 

Crazy enough, we bought a house while we were there!!!! I was not expecting it, but we were looking at a few places to get a feel for the market. We stumbled into a house that was perfect for us, and the timing worked out. I am hoping we get the keys in 2 to 3 months! Exciting!!! 

What am I reading?

I just finished...

• Midnight by FX Holden. This is book 4 in a Tom Clancy like series about World War 3 breaking out between China and the USA. It is set around 15 years in the future and is surreal to read. The drone/AI technology in the book is surreal to read. I highly recommend this series. 

• Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein. This book is from the 1950s, and I read it as part of a book club I am doing with my dad and brother. I enjoyed it, although it is more of a philosophical tale about freedom than a complete book. I enjoyed discussing it with my dad/brother last week. 

I am reading...

• I am on book 7 in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. This is a beautiful series, and I wish I had picked it up earlier. It is like Harry Potter meets Sherlock Holmes (reminds me of the Dresden Files series). 

• M: Son of the Century - About Mussolini. I am ~65% done. I am digging it, but it is slow reading with much to consider. 

• Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World - This is a fascinating account of a group that is part of our DNA, yet we don't know much about them because they didn't leave much physical evidence. 

Thanks, Ben

P.S. My son and I dug a hole on the beach near Bordeaux 😂🤪

Do you like what we are doing?

I need your help. Can you join our Founding Member program for $50 a year to help me create a better book website for readers and authors?

How do we help authors like you?

In the last 12 months, Shepherd has helped 5 million visitors find new books and connect with authors like you.

We have a two-pronged strategy to help authors in the coming years. 

1. Shepherd will create features to help authors get their books in front of the most likely readers for their book (and do so in a way that delights readers). 

2. Shepherd will create a platform for authors and book lovers to build a fan base around book recommendations. Not only is that great for readers, but it will create thousands of book recommendation channels for authors to reach different slices of readers. 

• Here are my longer thoughts on how I plan to do this.

• And why I am using a big chunk of my savings to get this started. 

• And a timeline showing our history toward this goal!

What are some of the perks of joining?

Founding Members get to use our new book launch program to help you meet readers! And once our new front page launches in January they will be featured there as well. 

And I am aiming to launch two new formats in 2024.

Meet readers by...

1. Sharing interesting facts and selling more books.

2. Introducing your character and selling more books. 

You can sign up here to take part.