Shepherd - The book launch program is ready! Woohoo!

Author

Ben Fox
December 08, 2023

What's new for December?

  1. The book launch feature is ready! Woohoo! 🥳

  2. What's next? New frontpage + search 

  3. November traffic, clicks, and sales.

  4. Ben's holiday updates and reading list... ☃️🎄🍾

Funsize:

  • WrittenWord posted their yearly "State of Indie Authorship" survey with fantastic data. I highly recommend a read. 

  • December is a huge book-buying season, so I recommend sharing your book list again on social media. It is a great way to share a love of books while smartly promoting your own book. 

  • I hired a new part-time editor! She started last week, and she is doing great. I will properly introduce her in the next issue. 

The book launch feature is ready!

What is this feature?

This is a perk for our Founding Members that shows your book to the readers most likely to be interested in it in different spots on Shepherd. We do this based on your book’s genres, topics, age groups, and similar authors/books.

Video walkthrough: How it works and what you can expect from it 😀

Was the video ok?

I'd love feedback if I am talking too fast or if something is confusing. 

Here is what I talk about in the video:

  1. I show how this system matches your book to readers and where it appears on Shepherd.com. If you don't like video, you can see a written breakdown with images here: https://forauthors.shepherd.com/new-book-launch-program

  2. I explain how much exposure this can get your book and that I am not Oprah 😳. If you don't like video, I've got more details here: https://support.shepherd.com/hc/en-us/articles/15479390014098-How-often-is-my-book-shown-

  3. I also share what type of CTR (click-through-rate) you might get. If you are getting a 1% average CTR rate, that is good. Within that average, we can see CTR rates as high as 10% to 30% when the reader match is perfect but as low as 0.25% to 0.5% when it is a very broad reader match. I share some examples in the video. 

I will share more data as we get results in the coming months. 

Who is eligible for this perk?

Our Founding Members get one credit each year for a book they choose. This is a perk I am giving them as a big thank you for helping to fund the creation of this website and new features. Your annual membership is a massive part of what keeps us going. 

How long does the new book launch ad run?

For now, it runs for 60 days. I just launched this feature, so I need 2 to 3 months of data to decide whether that is a reasonable period.

For Founding Member:

Submit your book here when you want to take part: 
https://forauthors.shepherd.com/submit-new-book-launch-program

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. 

Over December and January, we will improve the frontpage and revamp search. 

How is the frontpage changing?

I didn't have enough money to do everything I wanted right now, but here is what it will receive with this update:

  • Much better design with a lot more visuals. 

  • A big focus on search. 

  • Featured spot for the best books of 2023

  • Featured spot for new book lists by authors

  • Featured spot for Founding Members' book lists

How is search changing?

This is a massive improvement for search. 

  • No more picking between topics and books/authors. We will have one combined search index where users can search genres, topics, ages, authors, and books.

  • We are adding search result pages. So when someone clicks on a genre, topic, age, book, or author, they will get a custom page with search results. This will be a much better result for readers (I did a TON of user testing over video, and readers loved it). 

I am also changing how genres/topics/ages work so that only the ones with a bookshelf appear in search. This is a temporary bandaid, as I need several months of research to find a long-term solution for how that works in our backend systems. It is complex and needs a significant improvement so that we can untangle what is a topic and what is a genre. 

Traffic, bookstore clicks, and sales

For November:

  • We had 378,000+ visitors.

  • We had ~35,000 clicks to bookstore partners this month.

  • We are on track to sell ~$800,000 worth of tracked book sales this year. That is likely quite a bit higher, but we don't get credit for many of those sales (which is okay -> details here). 

For a big-picture perspective:

  • So far in 2023, we've had 4.5 million visitors! Woohoo! 

  • In 2022, we had 1.8 million visitors.

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

What else is going on?

This is my last update before the holidays! I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season full of health, adventure, and joy. 

My dad and stepmom are visiting us in Portugal for 3 weeks, and I am super excited! We will explore more of Portugal, eat delicious food, and drink fantastic Portuguese wine (and port)! 

What am I reading?

  • I just finished Babel by R.F. Kuang - This was a fun read, and RF created an utterly unique world. I would love to see a sequel, as I want to know where this goes now that the story has started. 

  • You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo - Might be the best book title ever. I am loving this science fiction book so far. 

  • M: Son of the Century - The story of Mussolini. 

Thanks, Ben

P.S. Talk to you in 2024!

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. 

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 launching two new formats in 2024.

Meet readers by...

You can sign up here to take part.