What is Shepherd's mission for readers?

How I am trying to help readers (like me)...

This is a bonus episode, as I want to talk about how I am trying to help readers (like me).

---

What is Shepherd's mission for readers? 

I talk a lot about what we are doing for authors, but today, I want to discuss my goals for readers. 

Shepherd has 3 goals when it comes to readers: 

1. We want to help readers find books they will LOVE (not just like).

2. We want to create fun and unique ways for readers to explore and discover books.

3. We want to create a strong reader community around sharing what you LOVE to read.

Everything we create is done with one of these goals in mind.

Why do I think these goals are worth pursuing?

Helping readers find books they will LOVE (not just like).

Reading a book is a big time commitment for most people. If you only read 10 to 15 books a year, you will do a lot of analysis before buying an unknown author or book. This is one of the reasons that readers tend to read the most popular authors and books (thus making it hard for newer authors to gain traction). The internet and social media have further amplified this effect. 

If we can help readers find books they will love (and not just like), we give those readers a greater joy of reading (and increase book buying) and introduce them to a wider range of authors and books.

Personally, I want to find books I will LOVE (and not just like) with a higher degree of accuracy. This mission won't be easy, but I think it is worth doing. If you feel similar, please join our crazy quest here. 

What are we working on over the next 12 months within this goal?

• Rolling out our Book DNA review format that focuses on why you enjoyed a book. As we gather more data, the goal is to match you with readers who have similar Book DNA and thus produce a greater chance you will love the books we recommend. We will learn and evolve as we put this into place. 

Creating fun and unique ways for readers to explore and discover books. 

On the internet, books are sold the same way as toothpaste or beans. Given the magic of books, this might be a crime against humanity 🤯. 

When you walk into a bookstore, you feel something magical as you stare at all those books. That physical space is full of ideas, history, knowledge, and the wild imaginations of thousands of weird humans floating together in the blackness of space on a big blue ball. 

Carl Sagan said it best in Cosmos:

"What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."

You can't pick up a book in the online world, so we must invent new ways to help readers explore and discover them. The online medium also allows us to do things we can't do in the physical world, and I want to explore more of those as we pursue this goal. 

We've started with the basics like genre and topic, and now it is time to start exploring the fun/unique ways that we can help readers bump into a book. 

What are we working on over the next 12 months within this goal?

• We are significantly improving our bookshelves so that they can be explored visually and highlight the most recommended books (while still allowing a much deeper view than Amazon), trending books (to help drive increasing publicity to books sparking more interest), and new books. 

• Improving the accuracy of our genre/topic system this winter. 

• We are working to add tropes and themes to our discovery system and examine more difficult ideas, such as time periods and characters. 

• Adding interesting facts & stories as a way, authors can bump into readers and vice versa. 

What questions am I thinking about as I work on this?

• How can we give readers, experts, museums, and others the ability to create "book exhibits" that spark our curiosity and mix books, ideas, knowledge, and imagination in unique ways?

• How do we imbue the search for a book online with meaning? How do we go from a 2d search screen to something that feels more personal or riveting?

• How does Disney instill a sense of magic in their theme parks with a visual line of sight?

• How can we help readers find the right book at the right time in their lives?

Creating a strong reader community around sharing what you LOVE to read.

I want to give readers a place to share and celebrate books and authors they love. I love helping my friends and family find books they will love, and I want to build a place where readers can share book suggestions with other readers. 

We will start this with our "3 favorite reads of 2024" and expand now that we have user accounts in place (coming October 1st). I'll share more about our work in this area early next year.