Meet readers by…

Sharing your 3 favorite reads of the year.

(This is about what you read, not when it was published.)

Want to take part?

How does this format help me?

Every year, millions of readers want to know the “best books” for that year. 

We show them your favorite reads and introduce them to you and your book.

For the last 13 years, I’ve been picking my favorite three reads of the year (and sharing why I love them). I know from feedback from my friends, family, and book buddies that this format is powerful and meaningful. This is about your favorite reads of the year; it doesn’t matter when those books were published.

This format is not as targeted toward the most likely readers for your book.

I am looking at how I can improve this for authors. This format is good as a broad way to engage your fan base while nudging them toward your book.

Share your favorites & remind everyone about your book.

We create a beautiful page for you to share your 3 favorite reads of the year with your fans. And alongside your list we show one of your books. It is a great way to engage your fan base and nudge them toward your book.

Explore author Ingrid Ricks’ favorite 3 reads of 2023 to see how this works.

Tap into the huge traffic looking for “best books of the year.”

From November to January millions of readers start looking for the “best books of x year” and we want to help authors get in front of that audience. We work to get big media exposure during this period.

It is a little odd, but people start looking for the best books of 2023 before 2023 is over. That is why we made the book year from October 1st of the previous year to September 30th of the current year.

We promote it across our entire website and marketing channels.

We use your book recommendations to pull readers toward your list. We do this so readers can meet you, your book, and your favorite 3 reads of the year.

In the long term, we will launch a Book DNA feature that helps readers with similar Book DNA find you, your list, and your book.

Build your fan base on Shepherd with our new email feature.

Readers can also subscribe to your book recommendations via email.

This is our first step toward build our email marketing channel. In 2024 we will be expanding this feature. Our long term goal is to use this to remind readers about you and your book (in addition to your favorite 3 reads every year).

I’ll share more as we build this feature out in the coming year.

What will my page look like?

What is the timeline?

October 1st

We email the Word doc template to all the authors who signed up to take part.

Turn your list in as quick as possible :)

We need your submission back as soon as possible if you want to be part of the November 1st unveiling of the most-read books. Why?

There is a lot of work on our end to set everything up, create the books in our database, and edit everything. This is a enormous surge of work, and we don't know how many submissions we can do in this period. I am working to improve our efficiency for 2024 (2023 did not go as smoothly as I would have liked).

November 1st

We unveil the top picks for the most-read books of the year (both books read in that year and books read and published in that year). I am working to make this a big media event that celebrates books, authors, and reading!

We keep adding book lists every day and as soon as your list is published you go into our overall promotion system. I do a lot of publicity from November through February so please get your submission in as quick as possible.

August 31st

We take submissions through August 31st for people who want to take part in the previous year.

What questions do you have?

What does the most-read page look like?

Can readers see the most-read books of [this year]?

Yep, we have a switch at the top that allows readers to switch between the most-read books and the most-read books that were also published that year.

We did a lot of testing and found that readers wanted both options. I love it as I can get a healthy mix of new books and books I might have missed.

What genres, topics, and ages do you break things into?

View the full 2023 list here. Every year, I look at what I can add (email me if you have any suggestions). The main requirement is that we have enough volume of books to offer it as a category.

In 2023, we added one for books people listened to on audiobooks and loved, as well as those they did as part of a book club.

What are you changing in 2024?

I will be improving the design of the modal that appears if you click a book. I want to better show off the authors who picked each book and their recommendation. I’ll share mockups in the author newsletter later this year.