We’re building a private, personal way to track your reading and get deeply personalized book recommendations. Think Goodreads, but for readers who want a calm, private space to track what they read, keep notes, and explore books that match their Book DNA. Like Spotify or Pandora, but for books.

Want to help shape it? Apply to be a beta tester! And a huge thank you to our 750+ members! Readers and authors can join, and more perks are coming as we grow.

I am feeling…

Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve held 9 1-hour Zoom sessions with our first beta users. They were incredibly helpful, and we found some problems we need to fix. The best part was that 6 of the 9 testers felt the app had enough for them to start logging their books. 🥳

We will see if that holds up in practice, but it was fantastic to hear, and it backs up my own day-to-day experience using it (as it has replaced my previous method, which was a spreadsheet).

What we learned from nine 1-hour Zoom sessions with our first beta testers

The good news is that our testers rated the app easy to use.

This was really important to me, as I wanted something that made sense intrinsically rather than the chaos of Goodreads. I want this app to feel calm and easy to navigate, and so far, we are doing well.

What surprised me?

• Every tester liked our rating system over stars. That was awesome to hear, as I wasn’t sure that was going to be the case. Our system is designed to capture how “you” felt about the book, as that will enable us to deliver much better book recommendations in the long term.

• A lot of my worries about the scope and quality of our book database were alleviated by a really good, easy-to-use “add missing book” option. I wasn’t expecting that, and it was good to hear. We still have a lot of improvements to make with our book database, but that gives us some breathing room.

What features are we building due to user feedback?

Reading page (dashboard)

One great piece of feedback we got is that many testers wanted to see what they are currently reading in its own area, rather than at the top of the “My log” screen. And it sounds like they wanted a more dashboard-like view to get an overview of everything.

In my own usage, I found similar, and we are working to build this now.

Book series tracking

This tested really well, and it is something I want 😀 . We are working to finalize the design now so we can build it later this year.

Stats (simple to start)

Stats were very popular with the majority of our beta testers. We are also working to finalize the design of this feature.

I’ll share more down the road 😃.

We found two main areas of UX confusion.

Adding a book to your TBR that you have already read

About half of our testers got confused about why there was an “Add TBR” button next to a book they had already read. Functionally, they understood that once you clicked the button, it was added to the TBR, but it still felt a bit confusing.

Instead, we are looking at replacing that button with one that says “+ Read again” if you already read the book to make it clearer.

And, then we would add a Smart TBR item where you can see how many books in your TBR are books you have already read at least once.

We still need to test this proposed fix with users.

Star icon & the read next queue

About half of our testers found it confusing to click the star icon to add a book to their “read next” queue. The “read next” queue is a list of books in your TBR that you want to read next.

We are currently testing a switch to a bookmark icon like this:

And then on the top left menu, making sure that it is clear with the same icon and showing the number of books within both.

We are testing this improvement now to see if it avoids any confusion.

What we’re shipping in the next 2 weeks

First, we are prioritizing any serious bugs that our users have reported.

We always prioritize any serious bugs that our users hit.

Second, for the next two weeks, we are focused on UX improvements that testers helped us see:

• Add missing buttons to add books you are reading or listening to under the “currently reading” section (currently, the only way to do this is to add the book to TBR and then mark it as reading).

• Keep our success messages visible until the page fully refreshes. We’ve found that this increases trust in the app, as users can see where a book went when they log it or mark it as “reading.”

• Improve our messaging around “add missing book” so users know our team will add the book’s metadata and cover.

• Fix an issue where book cover images were slightly blurry under the “currently reading” section.

• Improving a bunch of text on page two of our rating process based on user feedback.

• Fix the issue where scrolling in a modal would sometimes scroll the page beneath it (annoying).

• Rename “series notes” and “author notes” to series/author history. We found that this cleared up a lot of confusion.

• Switching the gear icon to text to ensure users notice that they can change the date option settings.

And, lastly, bigger improvements:

• A big round of improvements to our book database and search

  • Improving how we weight books so that more common books show up first in search, and we put a bit more weight on the exact match for book titles.

  • Integrating book series data into search

  • Improving search so that if you are looking for an author’s name, it can still try to anticipate what you are searching for.

• Making it so that any books users add manually go into our main book database and our small librarian team. That way, any books our users add go through our normal automated/manual systems to add book metadata, editions, and a cover.

• Adding audiobook support so you can mark your listening progress.

What is going on outside of Book DNA?

I am headed to Greece for a two-week vacation with my family (my son's spring break). I’m excited, as I haven’t been to Greece in ~20 years. I can’t wait for the delicious food, and hopefully the weather is nice!

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• The Devil In The White City: Big thanks to Ben for the recommendation! It is about the Chicago World Fair, the birth of the modern world, and a creepy serial killer. It was a fantastic read that made me very thankful for modern medicine, antibiotics, vaccines, and a semi-functional police force with database technology.

• I read books #1 through #5 of the Iron Crucible series by T.K. Blackwood. This is a fun alt-history look at the Cold War as WW3 breaks out. They are Clancy-like but much shorter and less dense. I’ve enjoyed them, and I’ve got two more in the series.

I am reading...

• Status and Culture by W. David Marx. This was my brother’s pick for our family book club, and it has been interesting so far.

• Rust Skies by T.K. Blackwood: Book #6 in the Iron Crucible series, fun alternative history fiction set during the Cold War as WW3 rages.

Have a good weekend,
Ben

P.S. Spring is here!

Every 2 weeks, I share notes on building Book DNA.

Join the rebellion and help me create a smarter, more personal way to manage your reading life, with recommendations shaped by your Book DNA. Think Goodreads, but rebuilt for readers who want a private space to track what they read, keep notes, and get truly personalized book recommendations (like Pandora or Spotify for books). It is also designed from the ground up to help authors. We are on track to start testing the beta in February (apply here to be a beta tester).

Three hurrahs for our 750+ members who keep us alive! Readers and authors can become members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

I am feeling…

The jet lag is crushing me this week. I keep getting one night of 4.5 hours of sleep, then a good night’s sleep, then another night of 4.5 hours of sleep… hopefully tonight breaks that pattern.

I was in the USA for 10 days visiting my adorable 2.5-year-old nephew (and family). I had a blast, and now I need to retreat into a cave for a month as it was a TON of people time.

All my 2026 reading data is in the beta! Woohoo 🎉

I am celebrating because I am not using the app's beta instead of my normal spreadsheet to track my reading this year!

Adding my 2026 reading went really smoothly, and I only hit one bug with a pretty rare book (and that bug is now fixed).

And a close-up of what I read in March and private notes.

And now Marton and Elo are adding our design motif, so it is getting prettier every day.

My initial goal here is to build a private book diary that isn’t some giant public social network. And then let you choose what data you want to share with family/friends (if any).

We’ve got a few bugs to knock out, but we are ready to do Zoom user tests with 5 early users next week.

What do we hope to learn from the first user tests?

• Test UX and feature flow, and make sure this is easy to use.

• Test our assumptions on what features are “must-haves” for users.

• Find any bugs or areas for improvement in what we have so far.

What will we likely add next to the app?

• Simple audiobook selection

• Adding a genre filter

• Adding public reviews

• Adding a user folder system so you can organize how your brain works.

• Adding an import system from Goodreads/Storygraph

Once we get a solid foundation, we will start working on what makes us unique, our deeply personalized book recommendation system based on your Book DNA.

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

Not much now that I am home from my trip. The sun is visiting after a long winter. I am looking forward to a bike ride this Sunday that might be considered “slightly warm.” 😀

What am I reading now?

I am reading...

• Book 3 of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. I read books 1 and 2 long ago, but I am finally reading through the entire series now that it has reached book 5.

• The Devil In The White City: Amazing book, thanks to Ben for the recommendation! It is a nonfiction book about the Chicago World Fair, the birth of the modern world, and a serial killer. It is hard to put down.

Have a great weekend wherever you are in this mad, mad world.
Ben

P.S. Photo from my recent trip to Florence, Italy. What a stunning city.

Every 3 weeks, I share notes on building Book DNA.

Join the rebellion and help me create a smarter, more personal way to manage your reading life, with recommendations shaped by your Book DNA. Think Goodreads, but rebuilt for readers who want a private space to track what they read, keep notes, and get truly personalized book recommendations (like Pandora or Spotify for books). It is also designed from the ground up to help authors. We are on track to start testing the beta in February (apply here to be a beta tester).

Three hurrahs for our 750+ members who keep us alive! Readers and authors can become members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

I am feeling…

We are around a week from having the rough beta ready for its first real beta testers!

To start, I'll bring in 5 beta testers to give feedback and slowly expand from there. The next phase is to add some crucial features we know readers want: imports from Goodreads/StoryGraph, public reviews, user folders for organization, and a few small things. Plus, we will add our design vibe.

I’m waiting for one bug to be crushed, and then I will start using it as my main book logger as well (right now, I use a spreadsheet in Airtable).

Track the book series you are reading and your favorite authors.

I’m working with Roman (our part-time designer) to map out the UX for tracking book series you are reading and tracking your favorite authors. This is something that came up often in user testing and that I dearly want as well.

Plus, we want the ability to alert users when a new book in a book series they are tracking is released, or when an author they love releases a new book.

These are very rough mockups, but here is what we are playing with:

I feel we are getting close on the book series tracking UX versus previous tries. And we will soon adapt the Favorite Authors page to work similarly.

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

February was intense. I took a week off to take my son on a trip to Florence, Italy, and we had a blast. But upon return, I got sick for a week, which set me a bit behind. And a day after I was feeling better, I flew to the USA to visit family, and that will slow me down until I get back home in a week. I’m having a fun visit, and it is so much fun to play with my 2-year-old nephew.

What am I reading now?

I am reading...

• Book 2 of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. I read books 1 and 2 long ago, but I am finally reading through the entire series now that it has reached book 5. It is great so far!

Have a great weekend, and I hope your March is fantastic!
Ben

P.S. Photo of my son and me making pasta in Florence!

Every 3 weeks, I share notes on building Book DNA.

Join the rebellion and help me create a smarter, more personal way to manage your reading life, with recommendations shaped by your Book DNA. Think Goodreads, but rebuilt for readers who want a private space to track what they read, keep notes, and get truly personalized book recommendations (like Pandora or Spotify for books). It is also designed from the ground up to help authors. We are on track to start testing the beta in February (apply here to be a beta tester).

Three hurrahs for our 800+ members who support us! Readers and authors can become members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

I am feeling…

What an insane month. I didn’t think the USA could get any crazier, and somehow, it did. Watching the video of Federal agents executing a man on the streets of my birth country just makes me want to scream. So I will. It doesn’t help that I’m reading The Coming of the Third Reich: How the Nazis Destroyed Democracy and Seized Power in Germany by Richard J. Evans. The parallels are sleep-depriving. Sometimes I have to put the book down and find a Looney Tunes cartoon.

Aside from the current global order breaking down, I am doing well. The Book DNA beta will be ready in late February. We pushed it back as hiring slowed us down, and we are getting our new team member up to speed! Elo is doing great, and we are super happy to have him on the team.

We found a design vibe we liked :)

One of the things I’ve been struggling with is finding the right vibe for the design. We finally got some time to devote to this and found our vibe.

We are going for a very minimal, calm feel, with illustrated 2D drawings for our far-left icons. I like how it feels, and user tests have been positive.

(Keep in mind this isn’t the finished UX, as this is a mess, just a vibe mockup)

Part 1 of the Shepherd → Book DNA migration and rebrand is complete.

On Tuesday, we switched the domain URL from Shepherd.com to BookDNA.com. That was the scariest part of the migration, and I am glad it was fairly easy. We will keep redirects from Shepherd.com active for 6 to 12 months.

I will spend the next 8 weeks moving over small subdomains (like this one), email, letting authors know, and all the little fixes.

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

Winter is dragging me down as it feels like every day is rainy. To break up the rain, we visited the mountains to play in the snow last weekend. My son couldn’t remember what snow was like, and it was magical to watch him experience it for the first time. I didn’t have the right gear to enjoy it as much as I wanted, but it was a good lesson. 🥶

In a few weeks, I am taking my son on a trip to Italy for his winter break. That should be a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to the food, museums, and history.

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• I read and loved book 18 of the Dresden Files series. This is one of my favorite book series (urban fantasy), and the characters are so good.

I am reading...

• Coming of the Third Reich: How the Nazis Destroyed Democracy and Seized Power in Germany by Richard J. Evans: This is part of my deep dive into the rise of Fascism I’ve been doing over the last few years. This book is exceptionally good, and I’ve learned so much that my big picture history classes skipped over.

Have a great weekend and stay warm!
Ben

P.S. My son is meeting snow for the first time he can remember!

Every 3 weeks, I share notes on building Shepherd and Book DNA.

Join the rebellion and help me create a smarter, more personal way to manage your reading life, with recommendations shaped by your Book DNA. Think Goodreads, but rebuilt for readers who want a private space to track what they read, keep notes, and get truly personalized book recommendations (like Pandora or Spotify for books). It is also designed from the ground up to help authors. We are on track to start testing the beta in February (apply here to be a beta tester).

Three hurrahs for our 800+ members who support us! Readers and authors can become members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

I am feeling…

The last three weeks have been busy!

We spent a ton of time interviewing and finding a fantastic full-stack developer (onboarding later this week). That will help us move a little quicker and take some things off Marton’s plate so he can focus on the big stuff.

Because of the time we put into finding our new hire, the Book DNA beta slipped a little. We are on track to open a rough beta in February and start getting feedback from early users (apply here to be a beta tester).

A big migration and rebranding as Book DNA!

Soon, we will be moving the website from Shepherd to Book DNA.

This is a huge move, and we wanted to get it done before we launch the app's first beta. We will be moving over the entire website, followed by emails and other parts of our infrastructure.

This was not an easy decision; I’ve been thinking about it for most of 2025. Ultimately, I decided it is a better brand going forward and fits what we are building with the full app. I’ll share more in the official newsletters and on the website as we get rolling…

What else?

We are finishing up the UX for the first version of folders.

And the same for our public review feature:

And the UX for the import process is coming along nicely:

And, I built a snazzy Airtable app to help me manage all the user testing for the upcoming beta.

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

I’m trying to enjoy Winter as it is not my favorite season. We are taking my son up to the mountains to see snow (he was so little the last time he saw it). That will be fun! Otherwise, I am scarfing down Vitamin D, using a sun lamp, and working a lot.

What am I reading now?

I am reading...

• The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer: This is part of my deep dive into the rise of Fascism I’ve been doing over the last few years. I love history, and I thought I knew a lot about this period, but this book has been far more detailed than any of my previous studies. I am enjoying it immensely. I just finished a chapter on the Weimar Republic, the rise of propaganda/opinion “newspapers,” and the daily editions that barely touched upon the truth. Reading about how the far-right newspapers would attack politicians with very little truth felt a bit dark, given our modern world full of Fox News, podcasts, and social influencers doing the same thing. It didn’t seem like politicians or society in those areas had any recourse, as the libel and defamation laws were weak and ineffective.

Have a great week,
Ben

P.S. From a summer bike ride with my son.

Every 3 weeks, I share notes on building Shepherd and Book DNA.

Join the rebellion and help me create a smarter, more personal way to manage your reading life, with recommendations shaped by your Book DNA. Think Goodreads, but rebuilt for readers who want a private space to track what they read, keep notes, and get truly personalized book recommendations (like Pandora or Spotify for books). It is also designed from the ground up to help authors with 3 goals.

Three hurrahs for our 800+ members! We need to reach 1,500 members over the next two years as we bootstrap this platform. Readers and authors can become members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

I am feeling…

I am feeling good, my Christmas shopping is done, and I am ready to relax with my family and enjoy the holidays.

The Book DNA beta is coming along nicely, and being able to use something you have only seen in mockups for 6 months is an amazing feeling (and a big inspiration for my eventual goal to learn to code).

We are on track to start testing the beta in late January! Apply here to be a beta tester.

The beta is coming to life 🤩

We’ve been testing our reading log page, which shows what you are currently reading and your past reads.

And our global search page, where you can search for books to add to your TBR and more.

Import from Goodreads (and others)

I’ve got a 19-page spec written on how I want to import everyone’s reading history from Goodreads (and others). I want to make it really easy, but it is a tough situation because they don’t provide much information in their CSV file.

This is the first feature we will add once the basic beta is up and being tested with users.

Reminder: What will be in this first MVP?

Only the basics.

• The TBR (to-be-read) section, where you can add what you want to read next. You can add private notes, add a book to your “read next” queue, and see what other books you have read from that author/series. Plus, some simple sorting and keyword filtering of this list.

• The book log section, where you can see what you are currently reading, as well as what you have read and how you rated it in the past (and edit those log entries). Plus, some simple sorting and keyword filtering of this list.

• Global search so that you can search and find a book to add to your TBR, reading stack, or log.

• The process to rate/log a book (and edit that).

• The process to add a book to your TBR.

• The process to add a book to your currently reading stack.

• The first version of our giant book database. This database is still pretty messy but functional. And we will be working to consistently improve it, given how important it is to everything 😀 .

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

Just getting ready for Christmas and today is my son’s last day of school!

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• The last book in the Sun Eater series was a fantastic read. This is one of the best science fiction series I’ve read in many years. I’m looking forward to what the author writes next.

I am reading...

• Genghis: Birth of an Empire by Conn Iggulden. This was my pick for our family book club, and I am about 75% done. It is fantastic, and I’ve really enjoyed it! I’ve had it on my TBR list for a while.

Have a great week,
Ben

P.S. Some beautiful street art in Italy from a trip I took this Fall.

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

Join the rebellion and help me create a smarter, more personal way to manage your reading life, with recommendations shaped by your Book DNA. Think Goodreads, but rebuilt for readers who want a private space to track what they read, keep notes, and get truly personalized book recommendations (like Pandora or Spotify for books). And it is designed from the ground up to help authors achieve 3 goals.

Three hurrahs for our 800+ members! We need to hit 1,500 members over the next two years as we bootstrap this platform to reality. Readers and authors can become members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

I am feeling…

It is a good feeling to know where you are going and why.

2024 was a very difficult year as Google quietly destroyed the open web. I spent June 2024 through early 2025 trying to improve and see if they planned to unshitify their search. But it is clear they have no plans to fix search (in fact, files their DOJ monopoly trial has shown they have purposefully made search worse to gain advertising revenue). With the growth of AI, Google is in full panic mode, with no thought for independent publishers or the open web (they’ve also iced the people within Google trying to help us).

Once got through that mess, it was clear that the only way forward was to build an app and a more direct relationship with readers to fulfil our mission. And after extensive user testing, I am excited to be creating an app for readers who want a private space to track what they read, take notes, and get truly personalized book recommendations.

Now we are building it 😀.

MVP user testing kicks off in late January 😀

It is awesome to see the app coming to life!

Yesterday, I tested the TBR section and gave Marton/Marcos feedback (Marton is my co-founder, and Marcos is our awesome part-time frontend developer).

What will be in this first MVP? Only the basics.

• The TBR (to-be-read) section, where you can add what you want to read next. You can add private notes, add a book to your “read next” queue, and see what other books you have read from that author/series. Plus, some simple sorting and keyword filtering of this list.

• The book log section, where you can see what you are currently reading, as well as what you have read and how you rated it in the past (and edit those log entries). Plus, some simple sorting and keyword filtering of this list.

• Global search so that you can search and find a book to add to your TBR, reading stack, or log.

• The process to rate/log a book (and edit that).

• The process to add a book to your TBR.

• The process to add a book to your currently reading stack.

• A basic version of the public review process (and edit that).

• The first version of our giant book database. This database is still pretty messy but functional. And we will be working to consistently improve it, given how important it is to everything 😀 .

A lot is still missing at this stage… But this gets us to the point where we can start user testing all the things that we can’t with pure design mockups.

What do I want to learn from the first 5-10 testers?

1. Check: Is anything in the UX confusing or frustrating them? If so, we want to fix that (but hopefully we caught 90% of that in mockup testing).

2. Check: Watch actual usage and see if there is any low-hanging UX fruit to ensure we are as efficient with users’ time and clicks as possible. This should feel very natural and easy to use.

3. Book DB: How do they feel about our book database? Is it good enough for use, or does it need work before this app is used? Building a book database is incredibly hard, and ours is not perfect. We want to see what bothers them, how much, and where that gap is.

4. Mission: What I heard during early-stage testing is that users want a private journal to track their reading. Is this hitting the right notes? How do they describe it to a friend? Is this providing enough of an incentive to use us on a daily/weekly/monthly basis? If not, why not? We know a lot is missing at this stage, but this is a chance to understand where the gaps are as we keep working on the MVP.

And, what are we working on as soon as this MVP version is shipped?

Core features we know we need to add during MVP.

• Import process for Goodreads and other data sources (so that users can bring over all their book data).

• Adding audiobook selection in the UX (with a hefty amount of work behind the scenes to make that possible).

• Add our pro paid account so that as we get more in place, we can hopefully sign up paying users who believe in what we are building (as we are bootstrapped).

And then we will be looking beyond the core features to what sets us apart:

• Smart organization that lets you see your favorite authors, genres, and which books in your TBR match them.

• Custom folders to organize the way your brain works.

• Adding the heavy exploration pieces, where you can see your Book DNA and Book Twins, and get books matched based on that.

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

Recovering from a bit of dental surgery, looking forward to being able to eat real food soon instead of puree. I am excited about Thanksgiving as we are having some new friends over to our house (which we haven’t done since we moved in).

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• I, Robot Soldier by Joel R. Dennstedt - This was a nice little sci-fi read. It reminded me of a classic short novella by Asimov or Heinlein. It is from the perspective of a robot waking up from a global armageddon and finding a little girl whose prime directive is his mission now.

I am reading...

• The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams - I’ve been recommended this one several times within fantasy groups. The writing is beautiful, but the story pacing is very slow, and I am not sure this one is a match for my Book DNA. I am about 75% done and enjoying it, but only in small bursts. I am going to keep going and see what I think once it finishes. The world is amazing.

• The Whale Road by Robert Low - I am looking forward to a good Viking historical fiction. I’m half done and it is great so far, curious where it ends up.

• The last book in the Sun Eater series came out yesterday!!! This is one of the best science fiction series I’ve read in the past 10 years, and I can’t wait to finish the series. I’m going to start it as soon as I finish The Whale Road.

Have a great week,
Ben

P.S. From a bike ride in early fall in Valencia, Spain. Some pretty horrific flood damage to the trail :(

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 800+ members who keep us independent and fund new features. Readers and authors can become members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

I am feeling…

I’ve had a really good Summer & Fall, and I am excited about our shift to building an app for readers. I’ve gotten really great feedback, and it is exciting to see it starting to come to life 😀. I can’t wait to get the MVP out to its first batch of testers!

What features am I playing with for our upcoming app?

We are in the process of building the core features, but what else are we playing with?

Goodreads imports + a quick welcome process

We want to make it easy to import books from Goodreads (or another source).

We are playing with the UX now, and then will start testing the UX on readers before we build it.

Logging reading progress & specific editions

Some readers want to log their reading progress as they work their way through the book (it is an optional feature for those who want it).

I am working to nail down the UX and test it on readers (especially for audiobooks).

We are also working on how to allow readers to select the specific edition of the book (it will also be optional for that group of readers). We are just starting the first UX elements.

Making your TBR list “smart”

We are playing with how to use your reading history to help you find books within your TBR. We are playing with ideas based around your favorite authors, genres, and other factors.

We are playing with the UX and trying to figure out how this might work so that we can test the concept further with readers.

I am still trying to figure out this one, but I hope to be to a spot soon where I can test the concept on readers and see what they like and don’t like.

Custom user folders to organize your books how you want

We want to give readers an easy tool to organize their books however they want.

We are still tweaking the UX after testing it on readers.

Seamless tracking of the book series you are reading

I read a lot of book series, and I want to easily track them so I know when the next book in the series is out.

We are playing with UX on how we might do this based on your reading log, and allow readers to indicate which book series they want to track versus those they have abandoned (or finished and waiting for a new release).

I haven’t tested this on readers yet as I am not quite happy with the UX yet.

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

My dad was in town for a month, and we had a great time visiting! Our 7-day bike tour in Italy was fun, though we had some very “exciting” weather :).

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams - This is a FANTASTIC book about the negligence and abuse that Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sheryl Sandberg have inflicted on society. Sarah was in the room with them at key moments, and I am so glad she wrote this. It is hard to put down, and I finished it in two days (my wife is almost done as well). I quit FB after the 2016 election, and I think they will go down in history as being worse than Big Tobacco on our health. Thanks to Claire for the recommendation!

I am reading...

• Oscar Wars - This is my brother’s pick for our family book club, and so far, it is incredibly boring as it covers the history of the Motion Picture Academy. It isn’t the book, rather I am not interested in this subject.

Have a great week,
Ben

P.S. From my bike ride in Puglia, Italy, with my dad!

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 800+ members who keep us independent and fund new features. Readers and authors can become members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

I am feeling…

I had a great solo biking adventure! I spent 3 weeks biking from Belgium down through Switzerland and eventually ended up in Nimes, France. I rode 1,269 km with ~16,000m of elevation gain. I’m a bit tired, but happy to be home and excited to be working on the new app for readers 😃.

What do we have planned for our upcoming 2025 best books of the year event?

The 2025 picks open up on October 1st, 2025, and we’ve got a few minor changes.

#1 - We automated the email notifications (big chunk of work off my back)

Previously, I had to send these manually, and I am excited that we are automating these. We will notify authors who have participated in previous years on October 1st, once the event is live, and readers who have participated in previous years on January 1st.

#2 - Towards the end of the year, we will add personalized results for each reader.

It will allow readers to pick a book they loved and see what books readers who loved that book also loved.

Here is a rough mockup showing how this will work. So if they picked the book “James,” it will share books that readers who loved James also loved, as well as show off their favorite reads of the year lists.

Should be fun 😃!

Updates on our full reader app!

We’ve gotten some great feedback, and we are working to build the MVP. I’ll keep updates coming as we get closer and closer to sharing that with our beta users.

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

My dad is in town visiting! We have some fun planned here, and we are going to do a 7-day bike ride together in Italy next month! Otherwise, I am working to catch up after my nice vacation.

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• I finished books four and 5 of the Kingsbridge series by Ken Follett. He is a fantastic writer, and I love how he throws you into a really distinct era with each book. The prequel was good, but not great. The Armor of Light was fantastic as always. I wonder if he will do any more as we get closer to the modern era?

I am reading...

• The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi. This is book 7 in the series Old Man’s War. I reread the series on my bike ride so I could read this new entry (I think I had previously only read the first 2 in the series before I lost track of it). It's been excellent so far, and it's fantastic to be back in this universe. I like how he jumps around to different characters within it.

• They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933 - 1945, by Milton Mayer. I am almost done with this one. I had to leave it at home during my bike ride, so it has been paused…

Have a great week,
Ben

P.S. An amazing stop in France from my long bike ride.

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 800+ members who keep us independent and fund new features. Readers and authors can become members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

I am feeling…

I just finished a wonderful month biking and working in the Black Forest. And now my family has joined me in Belgium for a family vacation (I’ll be off most of the coming weeks). We have a lot of fun planned 😀.

Bookshelves are launched 🚀

Authors and readers found some bugs we missed, and we are working to fix all of them (we are still working to improve the infinite scroll, as it is buggy). I am happy to see this feature live and being used daily by readers!

Next, we are working toward improving our topic/genre accuracy, as the data publishers give us is often a mess. At that time, I want to add themes, tropes, and moods.

I’ve got more info on how we plan to do that here (in our roadmap).

Updates on our full reader app!

User testing has gone well, and we are almost ready to build the frontend! I’ve got a few more tests I want to run, and we will start building the MVP.

Behind the scenes, we are working to build a database of “all” books and evaluating whether we can use data from Open Library or if it is too messy. I hope to share more information on that progress in a few weeks.

Book series update!

We’ve published 4,3036 book series. We have 2,598 in our queue that we are working on (I am sure more will pop up). Please email forauthors@shepherd.com if you want your book series added.

I want to build a dashboard for authors, but we need to reach 1,500 paying author members to afford the required work.

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

Marton and I did some great biking during my stay in Germany! Marton built everything on Shepherd for the first few years and still advises on key decisions. We had a good time biking and eating delicious German cake 🍰.

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• I am working my way through Harry Sidebottom’s Warrior of Rome series, but I am stuck, as something is wrong with Harry’s listings, and I can’t buy the eBook for book #7. I hope he can fix that, as I want to finish them! It is like his publisher broke his book series entry, which is likely impacting his sales.

I am reading...

• I am reading book #6 of the Sun Eater series, which is so good. It is one of my all-time favorite science fiction books. The final book in the series comes out on November 18th…

• They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933 - 1945, by Milton Mayer. I am almost done with this one. I’ve been doing a long-running deep dive into the rise of fascism historically this year. This book has been disturbing to read; so much of what the Germans say sounds similar to what I hear from many Americans. I should finish it this week.

Have a great weekend,
Ben

P.S. A little German town in the Black Forest…

If you like what we are building at Shepherd.com, join as a member!

Join the rebellion and help me create the indie book platform readers and authors deserve! Three hurrahs for our 800+ members who keep us independent and fund new features. Readers and authors can become members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

Bookshelves are live!

Here are a few examples to try:

• Biographies

• Books for 8-year-olds

• Fantasy

• Fiction

• Historical fiction

• History

• Horror

• Literary fiction

• Mythology

• Nonfiction

• Science Fiction

• Spy books

• Travel

• Women’s fiction

• World War 2

Or search the 3,000+ options here on Shepherd.com

What did we add?

• The all-time best book page is one of the most requested features by readers. They want to see what books are recommended the most, and we are trying to push them further outside of that silo so they can explore by decade, age, and related shelves.

• The trending book page updates every month and shows readers what books are discussed the most on Shepherd.

• The new book page shows the most recommended books within that bookshelf that were published in the last 3 years.

• The Lists by Experts/Fans pages help readers find book recommendation lists by authors, and are another great way to bump into books you might love.

What have we been building?

Here's a timeline of all the new features we’ve added to Shepherd.

We are a small team, but mighty!

What’s next?

You can see our roadmap of what we are working on next here.

• We are upgrading our book boost perk for authors and launching paid book ads (part of how this is funded).

• Building a big book database as we work toward launching a full app for readers.

• Improving the accuracy of our genre/topic system (and adding themes, tropes, moods, and more).

• Launching our full reader app (like Goodreads but smarter and more personal).

How can you help?

Join as a member for $50 a year, as it funds everything we do. We can’t survive without our members.

Join as a reader here, or an author here.

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 800+ members who keep us independent and fund new features. Readers and authors can become members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

I am feeling…

I am doing great and in the Black Forest of Germany to bike and work for July.

User testing is going well for the full reader app, and we’ve honed in on what we are doing for the MVP. Today, I am starting a round of 20-minute Zoom interviews with readers. These interviews aim to go deeper into usability testing and ensure they are super excited about the core features we are trying to solve.

I’ll do 10 of these interviews over the next seven days and tweak the UX/features as we get feedback. We should be in good shape to start building the frontend toward the middle of August.

The new bookshelves are 99% done!

We are crushing the last group of bugs, and then we will roll out this monster update!

Our reader and author members will get to try out the new features later today in our member newsletters! If you love what we are doing, please join, as every dollar we raise goes directly toward building new features.

Here are a few screenshots of what is coming 🫨…

I will be throwing a big launch party once these are ready 🥳🎊🍾!

Updates on our full reader app!

We have started building the full reader app and are starting with some backend pieces first (it made sense since the frontend mockups won’t be ready for another 30 days).

We hired a new developer (whom I will introduce soon), and he is working on building a big book database for the app. Why is that so important?

Shepherd currently only has ~100,000 books in its database, as we only add them when a reader or author picks one of them to share. This means that when we roll out a feature like our 3 favorite reads of the year, readers often have to click “Add Missing Book” and tell us what they want to add.

So, we are looking at Open Library’s data and using it to populate a bigger database of books. With this first version, we aim to have book readers want to add ~90% of the time. As the app grows, we will work to improve that further.

What is going on with user testing?

Roman and I have been working hard to tweak the UX based on reader feedback.

What have we finished since the last update?

• The book logging process is super smooth and ready.

• The book cards for the TBR and Reading Log pages are ready.

• We know what readers want with the “My Book DNA” tab, and now we are working to perfect the UX elements (and then test again).

What’s next?

• Create the first draft of our smart organization for the TBR pages and test it on readers to ensure it meets their expectations.

• Get the "My Book DNA” feature nailed down further.

If you are interested in testing and can spare 20 minutes for a Zoom, please email me at ben@shepherd.com. I’ll be doing testing all this summer.

Book series update!

We’ve published 3,309 book series. We have 3,318 in our queue that we are working on (I am sure more will pop up). Please email forauthors@shepherd.com if you want your book series added.

I want to build a dashboard for authors, but we need to reach 1,500 paying author members to afford the required work.

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

I am biking in the Black Forest as much as possible! My bike is out of commission due to a brake failure, but hopefully it will be fixed soon 😀.

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• I am working my way through Harry Sidebottom’s Warrior of Rome series. I read the first 5 books, and they are fantastic. Harry is a scholar, and the books immerse you in a period of Roman history we don’t know much about.

I am reading...

• The Amber Road by Harry Sidebottom is book 6 in the Warrior of Rome series, and I am looking forward to seeing where Ballista goes next.

• They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933 - 1945, by Milton Mayer. I am doing a long-running deep dive into the rise of fascism historically this year. This book has been disturbing to read; so much of what the Germans say sounds similar to what I hear from many Americans. I should finish it this week.

Have a great weekend,
Ben

P.S. From one of my recent gravel rides in the Black Forest, this area is amazing as it just keeps going.

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 800+ members who keep us independent and fund new features. Readers and authors can become members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

I am feeling…

Things are flowing!

I’ve been doing a lot of user testing with mockups of the full reader app and learning a ton. User testing involves video interviews with readers to understand what they expect from this app and what excites them. I want to ensure we nail our core features before we build the first MVP.

The new bookshelves are ~90% done!

We are getting very close to being ready to upgrade all our existing bookshelves. I am incredibly excited as I’ve wanted this for a long time.

Today, I will review all the mobile, tablet, and desktop designs for the little bugs.

I will have a big launch party once these are ready 🥳🎊🍾!

And an even bigger one after we improve our genre and topic systems.

Updates on our full reader app!

User testing is helping a ton to find our weak spots.

What am I testing this week?

• Testing to ensure our “My Book DNA” tab delivers what readers expect. This is our crucial feature as it is how we deliver deep personalization.

• Testing to ensure our “book review” process is super smooth, asks for the minimal info we need to deliver deep personalization, and delights readers with their Book DNA breakdown.

• I am trying to figure out the best way to show past reads on the reading log. I am struggling with what data to include, as we don’t want to overwhelm (hard balance).

If you are interested in testing and can spare 20 minutes for a Zoom, please email me at ben@shepherd.com. I’ll be doing testing all this summer.

Book series update!

We’ve published 3,008 book series. We have 3,577 in our queue that we are working on, and I am sure more will pop up.

Cathy is about 98% done with all the authors who sent us a book series. She will reach out soon if you are still wondering (or email forauthors@shepherd.com if you haven’t gotten an email saying that your series has been added). Eventually, I want to build a dashboard for authors, but we need to hit 1,500 members to make that happen financially.

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

I have some good friends from Dublin visiting this week! I am looking forward to showing them around Bordeaux. Apart from that, I am doing a lot of bike training to prepare for the summer rides.

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• The Venetian Heretic by Christian Cameron. Christian is one of my all-time favorite authors, and this book was fantastic. I do not know enough about 17th-century Venice, and this book puts you in the middle of that period along with espionage, murder, and politics. I look forward to more books with this character and setting. And hopefully, Christian will soon have a sequel to his space opera series 😀.

I am reading...

• I am trying 12 Miles Below by Mark Arrows (progressive fantasy series). I am on book 2 and digging it. Mark has created this incredibly original world, and that pulled me in. I found it from a recommendation on Reddit LitRPG—some fun summer reading.

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunger by Stephen Graham Jones: I don’t read much horror, so I am trying something outside my wheelhouse. I am pausing this one for a bit, but I will pick it up soon.

• They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933 - 1945, by Milton Mayer. I am doing a long-running deep dive into the rise of fascism historically. This book examines how Germans view this period.

Have a great weekend,
Ben

P.S. From one of my recent gravel rides…

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 700+ members who keep us independent and fund new features. Readers and authors can become members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow).

I am feeling…

I had a lovely, long mountain weekend with my family. We swam in an icy river, ate delicious Spanish food, and rambled about in nature. I also managed two glorious gravel bike rides (and set a new elevation record).

The new bookshelves are ~75% done!

The frontend work is 90% complete, and Attila will now work on the remaining backend elements (Marcos has done a great job).

That will take a while to finish as we perfect everything. I hope to launch these pages publicly in 3 weeks. I am excited as these pages are what I’ve wanted for a long time (and based on a ton of reader feedback).

Warning 👉 These are early mockups, so the data isn’t accurate yet, and some design elements are still missing.

I’ll share links soon, hoping to launch them in 3 weeks.

Our full app for readers is coming along nicely…

I’ve done a few rounds of reader testing, and we are adding their feedback now. Once we finish revising the mockups, I’ll do more reader testing and see how we stand.

I hope to finalize the mockups in the next 6 to 8 weeks. Then we can start building!

We’ve shifted to a left-side navigation bar for the app. That makes much more sense and gives us more room to experiment.

This will allow for a lot more nuance in folders and how we plan to bring your TBR list to life.

If you are interested in testing and can spare 30 minutes for a Zoom, please email me at ben@shepherd.com. I’ll be doing testing all this summer.

Book series update!

Things are going well with this new feature, and we’ve added 2,400+ book series so far. We’ve got another 4,000 in our backlog that we are working through 😃

Cathy is about 80% done with all the authors who sent us a book series, she will reach out soon if you are still wondering (or email forauthors@shepherd.com).

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

I am getting ready for an action-packed Summer. I plan to do a lot of biking in the Black Forest in Germany. After that, I am headed to the Ardennes forest with family for more biking, nature, and hopefully a fair bit of WW1/WW2 historic sites.

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• Vindolanda by Adrian Goldsworthy. I love Roman historical fiction, and this was a fun read. I am eyeing the sequel now…

• I enjoyed books 1 and 2 of the LitRPG Nine Realms series set in a Viking universe. I’ll probably pick up book 3 this summer.

I am reading...

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunger by Stephen Graham Jones: I don’t read much horror, so I am trying something outside my wheelhouse. It goes very slowly as nothing happens, but the writing is fantastic (as is the mood/setting).

• They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933 - 1945, by Milton Mayer. I am doing a long-running deep dive into the rise of fascism historically. This book examines how Germans view this period.

Have a great weekend,
Ben

P.S. From one of my gravel rides in Spain this weekend…

Join the rebellion and help me create the indie book platform readers and authors deserve! Three hurrahs for our 922 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).

I am feeling…

I am home from my Ireland trip and feeling good as France is sunny and warm. I’ve had some great bike rides where I finally don’t need a jacket! Woohoo!

Big update for the personalized book recommendation newsletter!

Reminder: We have a personalized book newsletter where readers can input their favorite books, authors, genres, and topics. Then we email them book ideas based on their desired frequency (weekly to every 4 weeks).

This feature has been in beta testing, and we just made some big updates based on everyone’s feedback (check your account here):

1. Readers can change the frequency from weekly to every 2, 3, or 4 weeks.

2. Readers can change the variables that go into the selection (so you can update the books, genres, authors, etc., on which it is built).

We now have 1,200+ subscribers who receive personalized book recommendations every week. We are seeing high engagement, and I am pleased with the progress.

• ~60% open rate (although probably higher as email providers mess with this stat).

• Around 15% to 20% of readers click on at least one book recommendation list.

• Our CTR rate to bookstores is around 5x our regular traffic.

The next step is to roll out integration throughout Shepherd later this year. We are going to try an exit pop-up like this based on the type of books they are looking for:

And play with a footer spot to raise awareness about it:

The most significant improvement we can still make is improving the system's genre and topic accuracy. I’ve got more information on how we plan to do that in our roadmap. I’m not sure on the ETA for that piece, but as soon as we upgrade that system, it will instantly improve everything here.

Book series update!

We made it easier to add books that are only on Amazon, and we are working to add all our members’ and supporters ’ book series to our system. We’ve added ~1,000 so far, and I will start emailing all our authors who submitted their book series soon (waiting until we get them all in). Then we have another 6,000 to add 😃.

One unresolved problem is that Amazon’s API doesn’t give us the book description. So if the book is not in a book database outside of Amazon, we cannot get it right now. I am looking at how we might solve that in the future; for now, those books will have blank book descriptions until we find a fix.

We are also working on a fix to make the books-like system work if we don’t have a recommendation yet for a book in the series.

TBR app updates!

We are making solid progress on the mockups for the app to bring your to-be-read pile to life. I am feeling a bit better about how we are presenting the books in your TBR pile.

And make it easy to choose which one you are reading.

The next step will be testing the mockups with readers and seeing their thoughts.

And the reading log page is one I am loving, as it feels good.

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

We had a fantastic time in Ireland. There was amazing food, beautiful nature, and tons of history. It was especially great to see my good friends and their new baby.

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• The Century Series by Ken Follett: I loved this series. It follows five families through WWI and over the next 100 years in Russia, the UK, and the USA. I love how the books weave significant historical events into their day-to-day lives. It was beautiful and an excellent overview of this incredible time. The rise of fascism was incredibly disturbing as we watch a lot of our modern safeguards crumble away.

• Book 4 of the A Soldier’s Life series is a LitRPG book (which I’ve been trying more of since I read DGC). It plops a character down in a world based on Ancient Rome but with magic, and I love it. It is like a combination of a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court with fantasy. I read book #4 in two days.

I am reading...

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunger by Stephen Graham Jones: I don’t read much horror, so I am trying something outside my wheelhouse.

Have a great weekend,
Ben

P.S. From a beautiful hike in Ireland

Join the rebellion and help me create the indie book platform readers and authors deserve! Three hurrahs for our 916 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).

I am feeling…

I am on vacation and will be home in a week. We are on a road trip through Ireland with my mom and stepdad (a present for my mom’s 70th birthday). Ireland is so beautiful! I’ve never seen anything outside Dublin and ultimate frisbee fields, and I am incredibly happy to see more of one of my favorite countries in the world.

Book series are live!

We are adding a missing feature to make it easier to add books only on Amazon. Once that is in place, we will add all the pending book series to our queue (with our founding authors' book series first). We have ~6,000 book series we need to add once this is ready so we will be working on this for many months.

Check out an example of this feature here:

• Bobiverse books in order

• Books like the Bobiverse series

• Book lists around the Bobiverse series

I am happy to see this one launched, as readers often request it. Now that we have this concept in our system, we can use it in future features!

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

My family and I are in Ireland, and I’ll be back in a week or so. We are on a road trip with my mom and stepdad, visiting friends in Dublin, and enjoying life.

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• Fall of Giants by Ken Follett - I blew through this one and loved how he told the story through a big cast of characters. This walks you through World War 1 and the lives of normal and privileged people in that period.

• Night Soldiers by Alan Furst—This is our dad/son/son book club pick, and it was an okay read. However, the writing and story style are not a match for my Book DNA. I felt like it was eight short stories meshed together, and the main character never really developed or changed. I look forward to discussing it with my dad and brother soon, as I am curious if they liked it.

I am reading...

• Winter of the World by Ken Follett - This is book 2 in the Century series, and you can see World War 2 coming. I am reading a heavy mix of nonfiction and fiction this year about the rise of fascism

• Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It

  by Ian Leslie - I am researching curiosity as it is one of the big foundations of Shepherd in the coming years.

Have a great weekend,
Ben

P.S. From a very pukey boat road off Dingle! Luckily, none of us puked as it was a bit rough…

Join the rebellion and help me create the indie book platform readers and authors deserve! Three hurrahs for our 897 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).

I am feeling…

It has been a wild couple of months at Shepherd!

I am working like a madman to reorient everything as we build an app to bring readers to-be-read piles to life (plus light book tracking). It is fun but a bit chaotic, given the speed of this shift due to Google’s murder of the open web.

How is UX coming along?

Reminder: We are working on a full app for readers that will bring their TBR pile to life, record what they read, and use that to help them find books they love (not just like). Plus, we want to make it fun to celebrate the books we love and reward those authors on Shepherd.

The UX is still very raw as we poke and prod it. In 2 to 3 weeks, I hope to start testing some of the mockups on readers...

We are using a pretty heavy filter design. I am worried this might be overwhelming; reader interviews should help me understand that.

We want to make it easy to save a filter. Then, you can quickly jump to a part of your TBR list, such as “all my sci-fi TBR books” or “all my nonfiction TBR books about biology.”

For wide book cards in your TBR pile, we are finally honing in on something more doable. This approach is feeling a bit calmer than the others we tried. We are grouping actions in the top right, and the sections make it easy to scan a book to see what it is about and what others think of it.

(we are launching the beta purely on the web in desktop form, and once we get things nailed down, we will proceed to a mobile app)

The reading log is meant to show what you are reading now and in the past.

And then, we are playing with ways to visualize your reading timeline…

And we are paying with some wide views here as we play…

And because I love stats, I am playing with some ideas like:

That is it for now…

I relaunched our For Authors section 🤩

I moved it from ForAuthors.Shepherd.com to Building.Shepherd.com, as it now focuses on explaining what we are building for authors and readers (and eventually publishers). The new design and platform make my life much easier (Squarespace is a bit limiting, but it treated us well through our early years).

Check out the new roadmap page!

What is left to work on?

• A lot of spell-checking and word tweaking.

• I need to redo (and add) a lot more videos.

• I need to redo the menu to improve navigation.

• I will also add a lot more pages with in-depth explanations.

If you notice any bugs, please email me.

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

My wife is out of town helping our family, so between Shepherd and going from zone to man-on-man with my son, things are intense.

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy—I listened to the audiobook while driving my son to a castle this weekend. He loved it and laughed nonstop! I liked it, but it didn’t hit me the same way. It would have been amazing if I had read this in my teens.

I am reading...

• Night Soldiers by Alan Furst - This is our dad/son/son book club pick, and I love it so far (but I am only 10% in). It is set in 1934 and is about a young man whose brother is killed by fascists in Bulgaria. He is pulled into the NKVD, and I am looking forward to where it goes next…

• Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It

  by Ian Leslie - I am researching curiosity as it is one of the big foundations of Shepherd in the coming years.

Have a great weekend,
Ben

P.S. From a father/son weekend trip to explore castles and go hiking. Cathar country in France!

Join the rebellion and help me create the indie book platform readers and authors deserve! Three hurrahs for our 881 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).

My mood is…

It's been a rough 3 weeks, but I'm working to get out of this funk 😝.

Google has announced a core update to their search engine. I am watching carefully to see if it improves the problems they created for the independent web. The Verge did a great podcast episode on the destruction it has caused and how it is reshaping the modern web. It is wild to see Google transforming their search engine to be an AI engine with zero outbound links.

What is hanging heavy on me right now?

My original plan for Shepherd was the following:

1. Create the most amazing website for book discovery.

2. Build the publishing side of the website until we reach ~500,000 readers a month.

3. Once we hit ~500,000 readers a month we would break-even on our cost. Which would allow us to keep investing in the platform and shift our focus from publishing to building a full app for readers (where they can bring their TBR to life, record what they are reading and celebrate the books they love, and so much more.)

This plan was going great!

We hit 500,000 visitors in December 2023 and were break-even on our costs.

Then, Google broke the web in 2024 (detailed post here). To sum it up, they stopped ranking independent websites and started shifting from being a search engine to being an AI chatbot. If they can keep all the visitors on Google they make a lot more money (and they have publicly stated this is where they are headed).

As you can imagine, this broke the original plan.

Our website traffic is down by 50% and we are only meeting 50% of our costs (even after cutting costs). We are diversified on traffic, but there is no escaping the Google monopoly when it comes to search/discovery. Around 55% of our traffic is not from Google (and some months as high as 68%).

Where does this leave us?

We need a new plan.

We knew to survive long term we needed to evolve into a full app for readers. But we didn’t expect Google to self destruct like this (or the rise of AI chat bots to replace the written web).

So now I am working to figure out the following…

1. How do we build the full app faster? We don’t have a ton of dev resources and I am hyper focused on only building the most essential features.

2. How do we pay for this given that we have lost a huge chunk of our revenue? That weighs heavy right now as I plan.

So that is what I am wrangling with right now…

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

I am starting to get excited about the warmer weather that is creeping toward us.

Spring, is that you?

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• All 3 of David McCloskey’s thrillers: Damascus Station, Moscow X, and The Seventh Floor. They were fantastic and some of the best thrillers I’ve read in the last 10 years. The ending of Seventh Floor was brutal. I’ve got a book club meetup over Damascus Station this weekend! Woohoo!

I am reading...

• Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It

  by Ian Leslie - I am doing some research on curiosity as it is one of the big foundations of Shepherd in the coming years.

Have a great weekend,
Ben

P.S. From a weekend bike ride with my son in Northern Spain.

Join the rebellion and help me create the indie book platform readers and authors deserve! Three hurrahs for our 867 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).

My mood is…

Apart from a week with a nasty cold, we are humming along 😎.

New website for authors

I am moving our current “for authors” website to a new platform. We’ve been using Squarespace, but it has become too limiting. I am switching over to Ghost, and I should be finished with this move in ~ three weeks.

Why am I switching?

• The new design/structure makes it a lot easier to share more information and keep it updated.

• The move will allow me to add sections for readers, publishers, and other book communities.

• I hope that sharing more of this information will accelerate our membership growth, which is crucial to our ability to build Shepherd.

Here is a preview of the new roadmap page:

And a timeline of big events and features at Shepherd:

Best Books of 2024 update!

We hit over 2,000 reader submissions for the Best Books of 2024! It gives me a lot of joy to see everyone using it 😁. Plus, due to some nice mentions this month, we had an extra burst of 60,000 visitors.

I’ve already had great luck with the book recommendations. I read Dungeon Crawler Carl last month, and it is one of the best fiction books I’ve read in the last few years.

How are the new book series pages coming?

They are 99% done, but we hit a small roadblock.

The API provider we used to create the data that creates the concept of a “book series” in our backend was bought by a hedge fund, which promptly discontinued the product and raised prices. Weeeeeee!

So…

We are having to switch to a new API provider. I don’t know how long that will take, but it could be a month or two. In the meantime, we are finishing the last 1% of work so we are ready to launch once this is fixed.

What are we building over the next 12 months?

I did a live Zoom event with authors last weekend; here is a sketch of our roadmap over the next 12+ months. Sorry for my scratchy throat; I was just getting over a cold.

What else is going on?

• We started working on the massive upgrade to our bookshelves. Once our part-time developers dig in (details in the video above), I'll share more details next month.

• The designer and I are 50% done with the improved ad designs and integrations. I am excited to see how these compare to our baseline ads.

• The designer and I are 75% done with some quick UX improvements to the book section of the website.

• The designer and I are 75% done with some quick UX improvements to the book section of the website.

• I finished a bunch of design specs in the last few weeks:

  • One is for bringing the Book DNA data into the book cards we use around the website.

  • One is for the upcoming TBR app for readers.

  • One is for updates to improve the Books Like pages for readers.

• I am also about 50% done with the first part of the dev spec for the interesting facts and stories work.

I am feeling productive!

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

We are headed to Spain for my son’s two-week Winter break. I am ecstatic, as Spain is one of my favorite places in the world. I am looking forward to a lot of bike rides, sunshine, and delicious food.

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• A Soldier's Life by AlwaysRollsaOne—I love fiction about Ancient Rome, and this book moves Ancient Rome into a fantasy world (along with some LitRPG elements). I am really enjoying it and am about to finish book #3. I can’t quite tell why I am enjoying it so much, as the characters are not crazy deep, but the world has ensnared me.

• Not Till We Are Lost (Bobiverse #5) - I love this series and Dennis Taylor didn’t disappoint with book #5. I can’t wait to see where it goes.

• A Tide of Black Steel by Anthony Ryan - This is a fantastic fantasy book from an author I enjoy. The first 150 pages were a bit slow, but once I got the characters and world, I was hooked. He has created an amazing world, and I am looking forward to the sequel this summer.

• The Russia House by John le Carre—My brother picked this as his choice for our family book club. It is my first John le Carre book, and I thought it was okay. However, my brother said this book wasn’t as good as his others. I am going to try The Little Drummer Girl next.

I am reading...

• Damascus Station By David McCloskey - This was my pick for our family book club. I found this book through Shepherd.

• Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It

  by Ian Leslie - I am doing some research on curiosity as it is one of the big foundations of Shepherd in the coming years.

Have a great weekend,
Ben

P.S. From my favorite city in Spain!

Join the rebellion and help me create the indie book platform readers and authors deserve! Three hurrahs for our 866 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).

My mood is…

Things are humming along 😎!

How are the new book series pages coming?

We are getting close to launch!

For launch, we are skipping the email notification system. We will add that once we make sure that the system we build is delivering accurate results.

The goal with this page is to showcase an author’s book series to readers and if they are already reading it help them find the next book in the series.

Plus, we want to connect them to book lists that include that book if they are finished with that series and looking for something new.

How are we personalizing the “Best Books Of The Year” results?

This is something we are playing with but I am not sure yet when we will add it.

The feature works by asking readers to share a favorite book or author and then we how them personalized results based on similar readers.

And then we would return results with a mix of books and book lists.

This is where we are headed broadly in the future as we build out more personalization for readers based on what they like.

What is going on outside of Shepherd?

I am headed to Serbia to visit my brother and his family today. I am looking forward to playing with my 17-month-old nephew!

The 10 days have been rough, as my son had a bad case of the flu. A lot of low sleep nights and intense days while his fever was raging. He is headed back to school today and I am glad he is feeling better. It is a small miracle my wife and I didn’t get hit (knock on wood).

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman: I finished the entire series in two weeks, and it is one of the best book series I’ve read in the last two years. It is utterly hilarious, and I can’t wait for the eighth one. So good!

• The Big Empty by Robert Crais - One of my favorite series and it didn’t disappoint. It is a detective series based out of LA.

I am reading...

• Camino Island by John Grisham - My dad picked this as our book club book this month. It is good so far, I like that it is a bunch of authors talking throughout the book.

• Curious by Ian Leslie - I am interested in the nature of curiosity and so far this book has been fascinating. I hope to spark people’s curiosity with a lot of future features at Shepherd and I am hoping this teaches me a few things.

Have a great weekend,
Ben

P.S. From a small town in Spain this summer…