What's new for June?

1. If you ever wonder what Ben and the designer dream up, here is your answer 🤔

2. Roadmap + traffic updates

3. Ben's updates and reading list 

Funsize:

• I’d rather have an investor than a publishing contract. This was an enjoyable read by Elle. I've thought about this concept for the last few years, including how it could work. If you are building your fan base and collecting their emails, you are already on this track. 

• Reminder - Here is my April Zoom call, where I share our roadmap for the next 24 months and answer questions from authors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihTl8GqdgSU

Summer is here! 😀

June -> What are we working on for you?

• Launch a personalized book recommendation email for readers. This will be yet another place we feature you and your book list based on authors, books, and genres readers love. This is 75% done! I will show off the first version in 2 weeks!

• Adding audiobook links - We are trying to make these only appear when an author has an audiobook. This is harder to do than it sounds. Marton should have some time in June/July to work on this. 

Our full 24-month roadmap is here for readers and authors.

If you ever wonder what Ben and the designer dream up, here is your answer 🤔

Want to help us build features faster?

Shepherd has one part-time developer who works 10 to 12 hours a week. I want to hire an additional part-time developer to help us build faster.

And luckily, an anonymous patron is helping us achieve that goal. They will match everything we raise from new members this summer!

We need to get 150 new Founding Members so that we can hire an additional part-time developer this summer.

Can you help?

If so, Please join our Author Membership program so that we can build the features you are about to see. 

What features are we dreaming up?

Book Series Page

For Authors who have a book series: This page promotes an author's book series and will be created even if your book is not yet recommended on Shepherd. It also alerts readers who want an email when a new book in that series is coming out.

For Authors in general: This is another way we help readers find you and your book through your book list. Readers can bump into your book list and book under the "Books like" and "Related list" sections. This is all about building new paths for readers to discover your books. 

For Readers: Many readers email me to request this. They want to know the order of the series, receive an email when a new book is out, and find similar books based on the book series they love. 

When can you build this?

This is 100% ready for our developer, but we can't build this until 2025 unless we can hire an additional developer to help speed up our progress. 

An anonymous patron will match everything we raise from new members who join this summer. Please join our Author Membership program and help us hire an additional part-time developer. 

Interesting Facts & Stories Page

For Authors: This is a way to directly get your book in front of readers interested in that topic/subject and engage them through an interesting fact or story. This will work especially well for nonfiction authors. 

For Readers: Every month millions of people search for interesting facts about every topic you can imagine. Let's help them get verified facts by experts and nudge them toward a book at the same time. 

When can you build this?

This is 75% done and almost ready for our developer to build. But we need an additional part-time developer so that we can launch this in 2024. 

(An anonymous patron will match everything we raise from new members who join this summer. Please join and help us build a better book discovery website for readers/authors.)

Improved Book Recommendation List

For Authors: This is a big design update for your book recommendation list designed to engage readers even better. It also features you and your book in two spots (the top spot like normal and after the five books you share). 

For Readers: Readers love our book recommendation lists and this will further delight them (tests have gone really well). 

When can you build this?

This is 95% done and almost ready for our developer to build. But we need an additional part-time developer so that we can launch this in 2024. 

(An anonymous patron will match everything we raise from new members who join this summer. Please join and help us build a better book discovery website for readers/authors.)

Improved Bookshelf Pages

For Authors: This is a big expansion for bookshelves which are a big way that readers discover books and your book lists. This helps more readers find a diverse range of books and book lists. This is in addition to our current bookshelf page which helps readers narrow in on a book based on different filters. 

For Readers: Readers love our bookshelves and this is going to further delight their book discovery experience. The visual format is testing wonderfully! 

When can you build this?

This is 60% done and will be ready for our developer to build in 60 days. But we need an additional part-time developer so that we can launch this in 2024. 

(An anonymous patron will match everything we raise from new members who join this summer. Please join and help us build a better book discovery website for readers/authors.)

Improved Book Pages

For Authors: This is an update for our book section which will help more readers browse related book lists and help you reach more readers so they can meet you and your book. My hope is that in 2025 we can expand to support all books with a page like this, but that has some significant licensing cost and development cost.

For Readers: Readers want more discovery points and testing has gone really well for this update. This will also be where we roll out our "Book DNA review" format which will help readers find books they will love. 

When can you build this?

This is 60% done and will be ready for our developer to build in the next 60 days. But we need an additional part-time developer so that we can launch this in 2024. 

(An anonymous patron will match everything we raise from new members who join this summer. Please join and help us build a better book discovery website for readers/authors.)

Improved Book Ads For Founding Members

For Authors: These are new book ad formats for our Book Boost program. They are a perk for our Founding Members who help keep us independent. In 90 days, our Book Boost ads will become persistent rather than a 60-day burst. This program is our way to thank authors who are helping us build a better book website for authors and readers. 

For Readers: This will allow me to remove all the ugly display ads from the website and replace them with book ads that readers do like. 

When can you build this?

This is 95% done and will be ready for our developer to build in 2 to 3 months. 

Book DNA Review Format + Favorite Reads Of 2024

For Authors: With our new user system we will collect your favorite reads of 2024 on our website. Last year, we did this manually, and that was really hard on me and our team (we got super burned out and struggled to keep up). This year, we are going to open it up to readers, more authors, and change how it works so that authors get more exposure for their book in return for taking part. 

For Readers: Readers will be able to share their favorite reads, help authors they love, and build a Book DNA profile. This Book DNA profile will help them find books based on the Book DNA profiles of similar readers (and many other things). 

When can you build this?

The design and spec is 33% done. This will be the next item our part-time developer will work on so that it is ready for our October launch of the best books of the year program. They will start working on it in July. 

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. 

Roadmap Update

What are we building now?

• User accounts for Shepherd.com (75% done)

• Personalized book recommendation email (75% done)

• Improving our audiobook preview links (research stage is 75% done)

What are we building after that?

We are working to switch the "favorite reads of 2024" to the new user system. This will make it easier for us to handle the big end-of-year burst and allow us to open the awards to readers. It will also be the first feature using our new Book DNA review format. 

What are we building after that?

Switching the Book Boost program for Founding Members to provide persistent exposure for their books as a perk to thank them for their continued support. 

What are we building after that?

A big update for our genre and topic system. It needs a big revamp to improve genre/topic accuracy and a lot more. This is a monster project.  

What am I working on?

• Building a spec for the developer to revamp the Best Books Of The Year program (as mentioned above).

• Building a spec for the developer to revamp the Book Boost ads for Founding Members. 

• Researching how I can improve our genre/topic accuracy. This is a HUGE project, but my goal is to improve the accuracy of this system later this year or in early 2025 depending on our dev resources. 

What are the designer and I working on?

• Design updates as we update how the Best Books Of The Year program is going to work for 2024. 

• All the design work needed to expand the bookshelves as a discovery point for readers.

• Finishing the interesting facts/stories design.

• Improving the book section design to expand it.

Traffic, bookstore clicks, and sales

For May 2024:

• We had 247,000+ visitors.

• We had 19,000+ 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?

I just finished a three week 1,051 km gravel bike tour from Spain to France. I needed the reboot, and I had an amazing time. 

Over the rest of June/July I am moving from Portugal to France. I've got the movers coming next week and hopefully by July 2nd we are at our house in Bordeaux and unpacking boxes. Then we have the rest of July to do loads of paperwork and get situated. 

What am I reading?

I just finished...

• Rereading the entire Wheel of Time Series. This is one of my all-time favorite book series, and this is my 4th re-read since my 20s. 

• M: Son of the Century - Great book about Mussolini (next, I hope to read about the rise of Franco in Spain). This is a very slow-paced book, but I enjoyed the format. They do an almost week-by-week account of the rise of fascism based on first-person sources and writings. Mussolini and his party came across as real buffoons, and it seems like they got incredibly lucky that it somehow led them into power. I probably need to read another perspective this year as I am trying to learn more about how fascism was able to hijack democracy historically. 

• As part of my book club with my brother and dad, I read The Man Who Loved China. This was a fascinating book about Joseph Needham - "the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, long the world's most technologically advanced country".

I am reading...

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

Thanks, Ben

P.S. Pictures from my gravel tour from Spain to France in May and early June. 

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 2023, 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 they are featured on our frontpage! I've got more perks coming 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.