We are 90% done with the web designs for the "best books of 2023" pages!

Early preview of both!

Every two weeks, I share my notes on building Shepherd.com. It will include struggles and frustrations 🤣.

Shepherd is like wandering around your favorite bookstore. We make exploring and discovering your next book magical (while helping authors get their books in front of the most likely readers). Please join us as a founding member and support our mission.

• I have a polished newsletter for authors here (it is focused on how we help authors + sharing data + business updates).

• I have a polished newsletter for readers here (shares my favorite book lists + early access to new features + stats).

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July 17th to July 28th

I am on a 70% vacation in France for July/August.

Updates will be shorter than normal while I take some downtime to recharge (especially in August, as I will be biking the entire month).

We are 90% done with the designs for the new “best books of 2023”.

I got some great feedback from authors, and we are testing revisions now.

I’ll share the final designs in a few weeks.

Roughly what the author pages will look like…

Roughly what the category pages will look like…

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

I am on a 70% vacation in France!

My mom and stepdad visited for the last 2 weeks, which was amazing. We went canoeing on the Dordogne and a lot of other fun stuff. Plus, I celebrated my 42nd birthday on this planet 😃.

What am I reading?

• Rereading Tom Clancy’s The Bear and The Dragon. I was curious as it held up as I read it as a kid.

• Savage Peace - I need to finish this one, put it down, and haven’t picked it up in a few weeks, even though I love it. It is about the year right after WWI.

Thanks, Ben

P.S. From our canoe trip!