Shepherd & your favorite 3 books of 2023...

Author

Ben Fox
June 07, 2023

What's new for June?

  1. How will we help you sell books by sharing your 3 favorite reads of the year?

  2. What's next on the roadmap?

  3. Traffic for May

  4. Ben's life updates and reading list...

Funsize:

How will we help you sell books by sharing your 3 favorite reads of the year?

Every year millions of readers want to know what the "best books" are for that year.

You can see millions of searches on Google for "best books 2022", "best mystery books 2022", and other major book categories. 

A massive search spike starts in November for the holiday season. I want to help you benefit from this interest while giving readers a fantastic "best books of 2023" experience. I want to build this into a big event celebrating books, reading, and authors. 

How will this work for authors? 

Starting on October 1st, 2023, I will ask you for your "3 favorite reads" made between September 30th, 2022, and September 30th, 2023 (if you want to participate, sign up here). 

I want to make this super easy; all I need is the following: 

  • The name of each book.

  • 50+ words on why you loved each book (same format as our book lists)

  • The name of your book you want to promote (next to your list).

  • (and probably a short bit about what you love to read) 

What are we doing that is unique?

We will share the best books read in 2023, no matter when they are published. As well as a way to see only new books published in 2023. 

Readers will be able to see both options easily. 

This is testing very well with readers, and I am super excited about this approach. For the last 13 years, I've been doing this format, and it is fun. I know from feedback from my friends, family, and book buddies that this format is powerful and meaningful.

Tactically, how does this help me sell my books?

  1. We will create a beautiful page to share with readers and connect through a shared love of books. This page will promote one of your books alongside your list (much like the book list page).

  2. We will tabulate everyone's favorite books and create beautiful category pages to help readers connect with you, your favorites, and your book (similar to how we use the bookshelves to pull readers to your book list).

  3. We will encourage readers to subscribe to your future book recommendations and help build a fanbase not only around your books but about what you love to read. This is the first step in my long-term goal to help grow your fanbase.

  4. All your book recommendations will plug into our entire website, and we will use them to attract more readers to you, your book, and your recommendations.

Want to see an early preview of the designs?

Here is a very early preview of the page with your favorite three reads of the year. 

Here is a very early preview of the page showing the best science fiction books of 2023.

Does this help some authors more than others?

If you read in the genres you write within, this will help you more than other authors. 

Why?

Because the readers we pull to your list will also be readers that are a match for the book you are promoting. 

This can also work on a broader level.

For example, if I write a book about software engineering and my 3 favorite books for 2023 are:

  • A science fiction book about artificial intelligence

  • A nonfiction book about machine learning

  • A fantasy book about elves

That is still a good match between the types of readers we will pull to your list and your book on software engineering. That said, this is less targeted than our book list format. 

Anytime you share your passion for reading with readers, that builds a connection.

This feeds into my long-term strategy to help you build a fan base through your writing and what you love to read. 

What's next on the roadmap?

June

Our part-time developer, Marton, is on a much-deserved vacation. While he is gone, the designers and I are working to prepare designs for when he returns. And I am working to clean up many things related to genres and age data. 

July

  • Update the front page with... genre & age sections, a featured spot for Founding Members, a new book section, and a lot of little improvements. 

  • Integrate genre & age bookshelves into search.

  • Integrate genres & age into the rest of the website (things like the recommendation engine and the rest of the website)

Sneak peek of the design update for the front page... 

August & September

  • We will create the new "my 3 favorite books of the year" format and get everything for its launch on October 1st. I want to make sure we finish this early, given the deadlines. 

  • Toward late September, we will launch a program to help authors with new book launches. This feature will get your book in front of the most likely readers across Shepherd. This will be our first paid product to help fund the website. You can learn more about this feature here and signup to be notified when it launches. 

I am very keen to expand to email as soon as possible... I'll share more as we nail down more of the roadmap. 

Traffic updates

For May, we had 413,000+ visitors and 555,000+ pageviews. That is up slightly versus last month, but otherwise pretty flat. That is up 348% over the previous year. 

Traffic from Google was flat in May. That is part of the process, but I am frustrated (search traffic has been flat since January). I am working on a big round of improvements, and I trust that growth returns as I put in the work. 

For a big-picture perspective:

  • In 2022 we had 1.8 million visitors.

  • In 2023 we've already had 2.1 million visitors (through May)! Woohoo! 

My goal for 2023 is to reach one million monthly visitors. 

What else is going on?

I hadn't seen my brother in 5 years, and I visited him for ten days in Cannes, France (for the film festival). He lives in China, so Covid made it difficult to see him. 

He is in the movie industry and was on a team that won this year's 48-hour film contest in Shanghai. They then got picked by the global 48-hour film contest as one of the best short films worldwide and were given free tickets to Cannes to do a screening in the short-film corner. They are working to line up funding for a feature-length horror film they have planned (a fantastic horror script about a dog gone wrong).

And this last weekend I took my son camping in a beautiful area of Spain. It rained a bit, but we still had fun!

What am I reading?

What did I finish reading?

  • Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle - A super interesting book about Earth being invaded by baby alien elephant creatures. 

  • Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson - A GIANT book about colonizing Mars. If you love hard sci-fi, you will like this book. 

  • In Search Of King Solomon's Mines by Tahir Shah. A subject that has always fascinated me, and a fun read about his adventures.

Have a great week; thank you for your continued support :)
Ben

P.S. From our camping adventure in Spain :), he loves smores! 

 Do you like what we are doing?

Please help us create an awesome book website for readers and authors :)

How do we help authors?

In the last 12 months, Shepherd has helped 3.8 million visitors find new books and connect with authors like you. 

I want to help you reach new readers, sell more books, and build a larger fan base.

What are some of the perks?

I am launching three new formats in 2023.

The goal is to help you meet readers and sell more books. 

Click those links to learn more and signup here to take part.

What else?

  • In July, Founder Member will be featured in a special front page section.

  • We will launch a premium feature in September or October to help authors launch their new book! We will show your new book throughout the website to get exposure from readers most interested in it. Founding Members will get one new book launch each year. 

  • More perks coming!