3 ms·

This is cool—I mean it—but what do you mean you interviewed 10,000+ people in three years? How is that possible, given the number of hours in a day? Is it inste

This is cool—I mean it—but what do you mean you interviewed 10,000+ people in three years? How is that possible, given the number of hours in a day? Is it instead that you surveyed 10,000+ people? I ask because fivebooks.com, which I suppose is a "competitor" of yours, actually does conduct interviews with people about the five books they choose on a subject, and it seems like a lot of work. They only do a couple a week, versus 12-13 a day.

bwb 3y ago
With books, I really don't view anyone as a competitor; the goal should be to help readers find books, as they are the closest thing we have to magic. Five Books is doing great work, as is https://hardcover.app/ https://hardcover.app/ and https://app.thestorygraph.com/ https://app.thestorygraph.com/. The more book websites we have in the world, the better the world; each one is doing things uniquely. I am super lucky to have a small part-time team that helps make the publishing process work -> https://forauthors.shepherd.com/team https://forauthors.shepherd.com/team The publishing process works like this: -> We talk over email to see if they are a good fit and interested -> They fill out a Word doc and return it to us -> Bella & Joy add it to our system and start setting up the books/author profiles -> I screen each list personally for quality and fit (I learned a lot in the first year) -> Our fantastic editors, Frances and Lauren, edit and tweak everything. -> The author gets a preview, and we tweak and adjust as they see fit -> We schedule publishing once they are happy So, ya, not a video or audio interview, but we do a lot.
- karaterobot 3y ago
  Ahh, okay. It was the "I" in "I interviewed" that confused me. I thought it was just you interviewing 13 people every weekday for three years, and maintaining the website by yourself. I think that would either be impossible, or a job fit only for a maniac. I understand now.

bwb 3y ago

With books, I really don't view anyone as a competitor; the goal should be to help readers find books, as they are the closest thing we have to magic. Five Books is doing great work, as is https://hardcover.app/ https://hardcover.app/ and https://app.thestorygraph.com/ https://app.thestorygraph.com/. The more book websites we have in the world, the better the world; each one is doing things uniquely. I am super lucky to have a small part-time team that helps make the publishing process work -> https://forauthors.shepherd.com/team https://forauthors.shepherd.com/team The publishing process works like this: -> We talk over email to see if they are a good fit and interested -> They fill out a Word doc and return it to us -> Bella & Joy add it to our system and start setting up the books/author profiles -> I screen each list personally for quality and fit (I learned a lot in the first year) -> Our fantastic editors, Frances and Lauren, edit and tweak everything. -> The author gets a preview, and we tweak and adjust as they see fit -> We schedule publishing once they are happy So, ya, not a video or audio interview, but we do a lot.

karaterobot 3y ago
Ahh, okay. It was the "I" in "I interviewed" that confused me. I thought it was just you interviewing 13 people every weekday for three years, and maintaining the website by yourself. I think that would either be impossible, or a job fit only for a maniac. I understand now.