It is tough to build something new & unique... especially when the only model is book trackers 🤯

Merry Christmas, and talk to you in 2025!

Every 3 weeks, I share my notes on building Shepherd.com.

Join the rebellion and help me create the indie book platform readers and authors deserve! Three hurrahs for our 856 Founding Members who keep us independent and fund new features. Readers and authors can become Founding Members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

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My mood is…

I’ve been on a pretty intense work sprint and am ready for the holiday downtime. For the next couple of weeks, I plan to make cookies, eat said cookies, read books, watch Christmas movies, build legos with my son, and spend time with my family.

What are your favorite Christmas movies?

Mine are Scroodged (Bill Murray), Klaus, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and Shaun the Sheep’s Christmas special.

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It is tough to build something new & unique...

This occupies a lot of my thoughts as I map out what we are building in 2025 and 2026. With our limited resources, I only get a few swings a year, and I am trying to make sure the highest number hit…

Readers know Goodreads & not much else.

When you talk to readers, they know the Goodreads model really well. Goodreads is where you go to record your reading, review a book, view book reviews, and see what others are reading (although the last two are rarely used, I’ve found).

This concept serves as an anchor in the minds of readers.

This can be helpful when you explain what you are doing, such as “Shepherd is like Goodreads, except we do x…”. You wedge yourself into their mind with a model they already know.

But it can also be a roadblock if you are doing something so new and unique that it requires a lot of education and convincing. Usually, you get a lot of early adopters willing to try you, and as you find product fit (which is also super hard), you attract mainstream users.

This process is a roller coaster of emotions.

Sometimes, you think you are breaking through and onto something; sometimes, you feel like you are repeatedly hitting a brick wall with your head for fun.

This process was focused on authors, but now it is shifting to readers.

I’ve got authors pretty much figured out; I know what they want and what we are building for them, and I have a solid community to advise me.

Readers are new to this process.

Before October 2024, readers came to Shepherd the same way they went to the grocery store. They browsed our aisles, picked delicious items, and took them home to eat.

Now, we are inviting them to become gardeners. We want them to contribute, nurture, and grow their small plot of Shepherd into something that delights them.

But what do they want as gardeners?

The big questions rolling around in my head…

How important is book tracking? Is it a required base feature?

In 2025, readers will be able to leave a Book DNA review of any book they want. But I am not sure if more robust book tracking logs are a base requirement that I need to build to also build the unique features I have in mind.

Will a big enough group of readers be more interested in sharing the top 20% of their reads in unique ways instead of a book tracker? And is that enough data to power the more unique features I want to build?

Will readers use Shepherd if we don’t do book tracking? Is that a necessity?

Is there something unique I can do with book tracking that is currently leaving a group of readers out?

What incentivizes readers to contribute?

With book tracking, the big incentive is stats and the sense of accomplishment they provide (whether that be internal and/or external)

If I can deliver readers 10x or 100x better book recommendations, is that enough for them to want those every month? And how much of their reading data do we need to deliver that?

Anyway…

I am working through these thoughts as I plan out the 12-month roadmap.

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What is going on outside of Shepherd?

Christmas! I hope you have a fantastic holiday with friends, family, and other loved ones.

What am I reading?

I just finished…

• In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts is an incredible book about addiction, causes, empathy, treatment, and society. I wish this was taught in high school as a half-year unit (in conjunction with other books). I had a great discussion about it in my book club.

I am reading...

• I am reading book 5 (Sons of Fenris) of the Space Wolves Warhammer 40k series by William King and Lee Lightner. This series is fun, and I am slowly getting into Warhammer 40k a bit more. As you can probably tell, I am a bit of a barbarian regarding books 🧐.

• Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zetter - I’ve heard great things about this book and am reading it with my Brother/Dad book club. It is about the attack on the Iranian nuclear facility and the advent of this new type of warfare.

Have a great week,
Ben

P.S. I am curious what everyone listened to this year; here are my top 15 artists…