Support a better book website for authors.

How is Shepherd Funded?

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 book 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.