User accounts are live!
And ideas for upcoming user features...
Every 3 weeks, I share my notes on building Shepherd.com.
Why am I building Shepherd? Books build better people.
Readers - I want to decode readers’ Book DNA and match them with books they will love (not just like). And I want to create that magical feeling you get exploring your favorite bookstore (but reimagined for the online world).
Authors - I want to help authors reach the most likely readers for their books through a shared love of reading. And I want to build a platform for indie book recommendations to give authors more places for exposure (my strategery here).
Three hurrahs for our 782 Founding Members who keep us independent and fund new features. My 2024 goal is to reach 1,000 members to fully fund our part-time developer and part-time designer so we can keep building great new features for our community.
Mood check for Friday, September 27th 🤪
I am on a nature high! I just finished up a 6-day bike ride covering 483km from the Southeast of France back home to Bordeaux. Once I stopped riding, I spent the afternoons and nights working on testing the upcoming Best Books of 2024 updates we are making.
User accounts are live!
We shipped the new user account system this week!
We decided to add this now to help streamline how we test the new Best Books of the Year feature…
It is still pretty rough, but a good start.
How is the 2024 Best Books Of The Year program coming?
Testing is going well, and I think we will meet our October 1st launch goal. If it isn’t quite ready, we will delay it for a week or two.
Our book series pages!
Work is going well, and we will launch these in October.
We are going to review each book series page manually, so it will take some time to ship each series page. I am worried the way we build this data is flawed, so I want to launch each page slowly in case we need to rebuild some of the backend to fix those issues.
Marcos (one of our part-time developers) still needs to build the Pages for the Books Like and Related Lists. And then we will start working on the email side of things.
What am I thinking about as we add more user features?
Book DNA reviews of all books
In 2025, we will roll out our Book DNA reviews for all books. First, we must find a database of all books and build many new systems, but we are 100% doing this in 2025.
Personalized book newsletter
We launched our first test earlier this year (try it here), and it is helping me learn what readers want. We will expand this test as part of the 3 favorite reads submission that readers will do. If they opt into the newsletter, it will use their 3 favorite books as a base to send them book ideas every week.
In 2025, we will ship options to change the frequency (as many people wanted it every two weeks or monthly) and give users more control over which books, authors, and genres influence the system. Once I am happy with the results, we will also make it easier for readers to sign up.
Author & book series notifications
I want to be notified as a reader when an author or book series has a new book coming out. Amazon tries to do this, but it works poorly.
"Suggest me a book" forum-esque feature
I ran a small test earlier this year, asking website visitors if they wanted our community to suggest books based on what they were looking for and had loved previously.
The response was quite good, and I am considering making this an early feature similar to the Reddit group of the same name (as Shepherd can do this better than them, IMO).
It would be very forum-esque, where readers could submit what they were looking for, and other Shepherd users could chime in to suggest books and why they think they would be a match.
A monthly "What was your favorite read in September?" prompt...
Quite a few authors and readers have suggested this idea!
At the end of the month, we would ask readers to share their favorite read of that previous month (or if they didn't have one to skip it). Then, we would share that with our community and compile the results (i.e., the best reads of September).
Ask the author & community
I want to test this one as we get further along, but some authors have requested this feature, and it might be interesting. The idea is that readers can ask the author a question or the community about the book or other topics. We would heavily moderate those and see if the author wanted to answer.
This would also have a very forum-esque feel to it.
Reader suggested "books like"
I've been testing this lightly with readers and have had excellent results.
The idea is that when a reader leaves a Book DNA review, we can also prompt them to recommend books like the one they love. We would then connect those recommendations to our "books like" section for that book to help readers find books they love.
This gives authors more ways to show up alongside similar books with high-quality data (which helps readers find books they will LOVE).
Reading challenges (not sure about naming, but you get the idea)
Shepherd's team, users, or authors could create reading challenges. These challenges would be made up of 3+ books, and any reader can join the challenge.
They could be organized in creative ways. When completed, the reader would receive a badge and internal Shepherd perks, and possibly open up a discussion area only for readers who are taking part in that challenge (along with the challenge host).
What are some examples of reading challenges?
Mark Galeotti might create a three-book challenge called "If You Want to Understand Putin and Modern Russia." It would include his book and two others, and he might participate in the discussion area as readers dive in.
I might create a three-book challenge on "Understanding homelessness in the USA and what can be done."
Andrew Fraknoi might create a three-book challenge around "Exploring the best of Peter F. Hamilton" (as he is a fan)
A reader might create a three-book challenge centered on the theme "If science fiction scares you, but you want to try it."
A travel blogger might create a 10-book challenge centered called "10 travel books to take you around the world."
This is also an area where I am interested in creating paid speaking gigs for authors and engaged readers. I've taken part in a few of those within history, and I think it is an interesting model for helping authors connect to readers, sell books, and get paid for their passion/expertise.
Book polling & prompt system
I plan to build this once we have a database of all books in 2025. There is a high demand for it, and I've already talked to several groups who would like to use it with existing book groups.
It would allow users to create a "book vote" that they can share within their community, social media, work, etc.
What are some examples?
Book clubs can ask their members, "What was your favorite book this year in a book club?" and we make it easy for them to pick the book, vote, and see the results.
Bob at Microsoft wants to ask the company, "What were the best books you read this year?" and we make it easy for them to pick the books and share the results.
Susan runs a Facebook group around spicy romance and wants to ask her group what their favorite books are each month. Using this tool, she can prompt them every month and share the results.
Wish list
As you can imagine, this is on my radar so that users can save books, book lists, and more that spark their interest.
What do you think?
Which of these ideas excites you the most?
Let me know → ben@shepherd.com
What is going on outside of Shepherd?
Dealing with carpenter ants, trying to figure out furniture for the living room in our new house, and enjoying Fall 😀.
What am I reading?
I just finished...
Monroe Doctrine - A military thriller in the style of Tom Clancy. It was a good read, but it was a little light on the characters for my liking. If you like Tom Clancy's books, you might like this one.
Tales of Pannithor: Broken Alliance - A really cool fantasy book about a halfling military strategist and leader. It was a fun read! My only wish was that the character felt more rounded; I wanted him to have PTSD or get blindsided in one of the big battles and lose badly (and have to pick himself up). He was a little too perfect at every step of the way.
Off Midway Station - Marc wrote an amazing fantasy series that brought the Roman military into a fantasy setting (Stiger’s Tigers). So, I was looking forward to his first science-fiction series. I really loved his main character, and it was a good read. I am looking forward to the sequel! It is a solid sci-fi military book.
I am reading...
Blood Work by Michael Connelly - Connelly is one of my favorite authors, and somehow, I hadn’t read this. It is good, but the guy running around after heart surgery makes me stressed!
Cities in Flight - My dad’s pick for our family book club! I am 85% done and trying to find the motivation to finish. I didn’t realize it was a collection of short stories, but that makes a lot more sense. It is an interesting idea, but it never seems to finish the thought. I wonder if part of the problem is I just don’t have a 1950s cultural mindset, and I am missing some of the nuances of the commentary.
Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World is a fascinating account of a group that is part of our DNA. Yet we know little about them because they left little physical evidence. I am almost done with this one. I don’t often read paperback books as I do a lot of my reading at night, so this one has taken a while as I forget to pick it up.
A Pilgrimage to Eternity - I love books about pilgrimage routes, and this one has been lovely so far. I did part of this route on my bike a few years ago.
Thanks, Ben
P.S. From my bike trip last week (amazing gorge)!