Meet more readers & sell more books.

This is totally free for authors & we had 5 million visitors in 2023.

How do we help authors?

We help you meet the most likely readers for your book.

And we do this in a way that engages and delights readers.

How does our book recommendation format work?

It puts you in front of your most likely readers for your book.

We ask you to recommend five books you love around a topic, theme, or mood that is close to your book. The goal is to get you and your book in front of the most likely readers for it. And we do this while giving those readers something of value, recommendations for books you love.

Here is a short case study and a breakdown of how many readers click the bookstore links for the author’s featured book. This doesn’t work for all authors. If you don’t read close to your book, it won’t help you since you can’t recommend similar books.

It gets readers interested in you and your book.

We are a little sneaky here because our short book recommendation format is entirely focused on why you love each book. By exposing your personality, passion, and expertise, we get the reader more interested in you and your book.

It promotes you and your book year after year.

We feature you and your book at the top of the list forever. And we promote your list throughout our website and marketing channels forever. This isn’t like a blog or magazine with a short time period; it is timeless.

Here is a breakdown of all the ways we get the most likely readers to your list. We are constantly working to add new ways for readers to find books externally and internally.

Want to take part?

Contact us if you want to take part.

Learn more about this format and watch a video walk-through here.

Author and Paleontologist Michael J. Benton's book recommendations.

What other formats are you working on to help authors?

Meet the most likely readers by sharing interesting facts and stories.

The goal here is to engage with people already interested in the topic of your book and help them learn more about it through your book. This is primarily aimed at nonfiction authors but will work for some fiction authors. This feature will launch in 2024.

Meet the most likely readers by introducing your characters to them.

The goal is to engage readers by helping them browse and find characters similar to them or similar to a character they already love. This is primarily aimed at fiction authors but could work for some fiction authors (especially historical fiction). I don’t have an ETA on this feature yet.

Are you Oprah?

I get this question a lot. I am not Oprah 😀.

We are slow & steady exposure to the most likely readers for your book.

We do not provide a massive burst of exposure. Shepherd is designed for slow and steady exposure month after month and year after year. But that exposure is to the most likely readers for your book (if you do this right). 

I like to tell authors that Shepherd is 1 of the 100 things they should do online to market their book. And I hope to be 4 of the 100 things they do to market their book within a few years.

As we grow, I will help authors get more and more exposure if their book has that “magic spark” with readers. Our new Best Books of 2023 feature was our first step in this direction, and we are trying to highlight a more diverse set of books with additional publicity. We have a lot more planned as we grow.

If you are curious about my long-term strategies for helping authors, I break down my strategies here (or watch the 8-minute video).

What is your long-term strategy to help authors with marketing?

What is your business model?

We are bootstrapped & don’t waste money.

To start Shepherd, I funded it using my savings and sweat equity (more about me and why I started Shepherd). To achieve sustainability, I need support from authors through our membership programs.

Everything you see at Shepherd was built with one part-time developer and one part-time designer. Goodreads has 347 employees listed on LinkedIn; imagine what we could do if we had enough money to hire one full-time developer (or two).

My goal is to break even on our costs this year and make enough to hire a full-time developer next year.

What are our costs?

  • 20% - Servers, software, and licensing costs.

  • 30% - Our small team that runs the day-to-day operations.

  • 50% - The cost of our fantastic part-time developer and part-time designer.

How do you currently make money?

Shepherd makes money from our member’s program for authors, affiliate revenue, banner ads, and donations. 

Author Membership Program

We are proudly supported by authors who want to create a better book website and support us with an annual membership year after year. 100% of this program goes toward creating new features for authors and readers. In return, we give authors special perks such as our Book Boost program to feature a book of their choice on the website in special ad spots, featuring their book recommendation lists in a special spot on the front page, hand-tweaking their book’s discover points, and we have a lot more perks coming.

Affiliate Revenue

Partners like Bookshop.org and Amazon give us a small percentage of any book sold from links on Shepherd (this comes from the bookstore, not from authors/publishers). Amazon and Bookshop.org only give us credit for sales within 24 to 48 hours, so we don’t get credited for many of the sales we generate.

This helps to offset our costs, but the percentage our partners give us is meager and can’t sustain us long-term. For example, Amazon pays us 4% to 4.5% depending on the book format. When we sell $1,000,000 worth of books, that only gives us ~$42,000, which is 1/6th of what we need to reach sustainability. 

Banner Ads

I hate banner ads, but we need them to cover our current costs. We got accepted into a prestigious ad network, and they are a pleasure to work with. I try to keep the ads as minimal as possible. My goal is to make Shepherd ad-free. I can do that if we can get enough authors & readers in our membership program.

Donations

Donations are hugely appreciated. 100% of donations go toward new features and our goal of hiring one full-time developer. 

As you grow, how else will you make money?

Reader Memberships

Soon, we will launch a reader membership program with special perks for readers.

Book Celebration Store

Soon, I will launch an online store with fun stickers and other great swag celebrating reading, books, and authors. And each purchase supports Shepherd’s mission.

Publisher Memberships

I am talking with publishers to understand how Shepherd can help them. I am pitching them on using Shepherd’s custom platform to run aspects of their own website to develop and grow their own fan bases (via the web and email). Publishers need to be in direct contact with readers to market the books they publish and create marketing channels they control.

I am also pitching them membership plans that come with special perks & features for their authors. I am especially focused on how I can help them launch new books with more publicity and give them the tools to better convert browsers to buyers.

I have questions!