What we’re building for authors (and readers)
For authors: We help the right readers discover your book. Then, for readers who rate it highly, we identify them as fans and give you an easy way to let them know when your next book is out. Each book builds on the last, making every launch easier and helping word-of-mouth grow without adding more work on your side.
For readers: A private, personal way to track your reading and get deeply personalized recommendations. Think Goodreads, rebuilt as a calm private space to track what you read, keep notes, and get truly personalized book recommendations, like Pandora or Spotify for books.
We’re in beta. This won’t be easy, but we’re building this alongside you. Thanks for supporting us as we build the app and our reader community 😀.
This month:
🔔 Public launch of the reader app coming around November 30th!
Best books of 2026 is live; want to share your fav 3 reads?
App updates: What’s coming next?
Plus, our progress this month and what I’m reading 📚.
Massive thanks to our 750+ author members! 🥳
Because of your membership, we can build a platform that helps authors sell their books, easily collect fans, and easily notify their fans when their new book is out.
Here’s what members receive:
♥️ You keep us independent and fighting for authors!
📚 Book Boost Perk: We introduce you to 100 to 200 of the most likely readers for your book every month as a thank you for your support! Plus, we send out stats on those ads on the 1st and 15th of every month.
🔔 New book launch perk: Our Spotlight ad perk features your new book (published in the last 3 years) in every new book section of the website that matches its genre, topic, or age group on our 3,000+ bookshelves. We send out stats on those ads on the 1st and 15th of every month.
🗓️ Open hours every Thursday: I hold 4+ hours of open Zoom slots for any book marketing questions you have. I don’t have all the answers, but I can help with what I know and tell you when I don’t.
Fun Size! 🦥
Got a new book coming out? Here is how Book DNA can help.
Got a book series? Email us, and we will add it to our system.
Want to meet more readers? Share your 3 favorite reads of 2026.
Questions? Ask me anonymously, and I’ll answer next month.
🔔 Public launch of the reader app coming around November 30th!
We are aiming for a public launch of the Book DNA app around November 30th.
This won’t be a loud launch. We still have a lot to add, but it is ready to go live and start pulling in users who can give us feedback as we add more features.
We currently have ~100 early users giving us feedback as they track their reads. If you want to help me test, sign up here.
What do we need to add before a public launch?
Integrate the improved book database: We’ve decided to use Nielsen as we like them, and they are easy to work with. This will add ~13 million active book titles to our database, improving coverage. The downside is that it will increase our licensing costs by ~5x, and licensing is already one of our highest costs. But I think that is worth it, and over time we will make that up from increased member sign-ups to support our mission.
Add Goodreads and StoryGraph imports: This is 85% done, as we can’t finish it until we integrate the improved book database. I also need to finish more testing for large imports.
Finish the simple mobile webpage for the app: This is about 85% done, and should be ready in a few weeks. This is a simple mobile website so our users can log what they just finished reading from their phone, add what they are reading/listening to next, and add books to their TBR. It won’t have full functionality, just the core items people need now. We'll build full apps eventually, but we have a lot to do before then.
And lastly, ship our new app page to pitch users on what we offer them 😃
Preview of our new web page for the app 😀
Best books of 2026 is live; want to share your fav 3 reads?
Every year we ask authors and readers to share their favorite 3 reads of the year. Not only do we make beautiful individual pages you can share with friends, family, and fans, but we also share the complete results here.
Share your 3 favorite reads of 2026 here 😀 . Make your picks any time between now and Summer 2027.
How does this help authors?
We promote your book alongside your favorite 3 reads of the year (example here using Andrew Welsh-Huggins’ list).
We give you a referral link to share with your friends, family, and fans. If they share a list, we'll give your book an extra mention under their 3 picks.
We promote your favorite 3 reads of the year list across the website and in our Book Twins feature, where readers can plug in a book or author they love and connect with similar readers (like you). You can try it at the top of the best books of 2026 page here:
Try the Book Twin feature and meet similar readers 😀
I’ve been doing this for 15+ years, and it's fun. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do; it is a great way to share books you love with a new audience.
App updates:
What are we building now?
50% done.
85% done.
85% done.
What are we building next?
Adding book series tracking (never miss a new release again)
Adding favorite author tracking (never miss a new release again)
When will we publicly launch?
We are aiming for November 30th 😁
Our progress this month
Our app:
~100 beta testers are actively using the app and giving us feedback. Public launch coming around November 30th 😎!
Our website:
208,000+ readers visited the site to discover a new book. We tracked 3,800+ clicks to bookstores, including 1,500+ clicks to promoted books (the actual number is higher due to tracking limitations).
Last year, we had 2.2 million visitors (stats on our traffic, clicks, sales, and demographics here).
What else is going on?
I’m in Athens for my son’s Fall holiday. I’ve never been, and it has been amazing to see this Ancient city! We went to the Acropolis and yesterday to the beach near Marathon. So much history, and my son is having fun as ’s spent a lot of time studying Greek Mythology.
What am I reading?
I finished…
Soulstealer by Miles Cameron: I loved this book, and Miles/Christian is one of my favorite authors. It is set in a really unique fantasy world; think colonial Canadian wilderness vibes (and book two is set in that world, but in a city with London vibes). The magic system is super unique and slowly unfolds as the story progresses, with a big dose of necromancy. I can’t wait for book #2.
I am reading...
Storm of Arrows by Paul Banister: I just started this historical fiction set in the 14th Century in England. I’m looking forward to it as I’ve heard good things.
Thanks, Ben
P.S. My first visit to the Acropolis. 😃
P. S. Don’t forget…
☎️ Need book marketing help? Let’s talk!
Recently, I’ve talked with authors about the following…
Reviewed their Amazon listing for what could be improved
Reviewed their book cover and how that fits in with their genre
Talked about possible outside-the-box book marketing they could be doing
Reviewed book marketing options and what is/isn’t working
Talk about pay-per-click ads on Amazon and Facebook, and what to try.
Give them a space to bounce ideas off someone who talks to hundreds of authors a year and has a marketing background.
I walked them through the full-reader app we are building and how it will help authors long-term. Or, explained how aspects of Book DNA work and answered questions they have about the different formats.
This is one of many perks for members: membership costs only the price of one fancy coffee drink a year, and everything we raise goes toward our mission to help authors and readers (I work for free).
Once you sign up for a membership, you can schedule a time to meet 😀.