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Create the indie book platform readers deserve!

Become a Founding Reader and shape our roadmap!

  • 100% of your membership goes toward new features.
  • We're bootstrapped & forever independent!
  • Want to bring your TBR pile to life? So do I!

Our mission for readers: 3 big goals!

  1. 📚 Be the go-to platform for readers to track and bring their to-be-read pile to life.
  2. ❤️ Be 100x better at helping readers find books they LOVE (not just like). When readers find books that truly resonate, it encourages more reading and creates a better world.
  3. ✨ Create fun and unique ways for readers to explore books. While instilling everything we create with a sense of wonder and curiosity.

These goals guide every decision we make.

What is our membership goal?

Reach 1,500 Founding Members!

As of April 2nd, 2025, we are at 893 Founding Members 🥳.

Reaching 1,500 Founding Members would fully cover the costs of our two part-time developers and one part-time designer (I work for free). Your support means the world to me and will ensure we keep improving and growing the platform for readers like you.

Thanks, Ben Fox

Why should I support Shepherd?

Invest in an independent book platform.

Your support keeps us independent, and 100% of your membership goes toward building new features and improving the ones you already love. I promise always to keep Shepherd independent and built for readers by readers.

We can’t build Shepherd without your support!

Want to bring your TBR pile to life? I do!

week computer GIF

We want to be the platform super readers use to explore and bring their TBR pile to life.

How will we do that?

  • I want to make it easy to sort out your TBR pile by genre, topic, theme, trope, mood, age group, author, and more. I want to bring your big pile of possible reads to life!
  • I want to make it easy to do things like "show me all the science fiction books in my TBR list that readers loved for the characters” or other Book DNA elements. I have a lot of personalization planned to help you zero in on books you will love (not just like).

And once you read a book...

  • 🧬 I want to make it easy for you to rate the book using our Book DNA format. This delivers 100x better book recommendations by matching you with readers who share your Book DNA.
  • 🤯 If a book blows your mind, I want to make it fun for you to give the book and author an award! I want to celebrate the books that mean the most to me, and I can't wait to show you what I have in mind here...
  • 🖼️ As we launch more of this, we will expand our focus to create the most beautiful pages for readers who want to celebrate the books they love.

I'll share more on our roadmap here 😉!

Help shape our roadmap + early access to everything.

Founding Readers can email me at any time to suggest features and give feedback. I also send them a monthly email where I share what I am working on, gather feedback, and hold live Zoom events.

Become a Founding Reader 🥰

Or, via Paypal: $25 a year, $50 a year, or $250 a year.

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 readers like you. 

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 but mighty team that runs the day-to-day operations.
  • 50% - The cost of our two fantastic part-time developers and one part-time designer.

How are you funded?

Shepherd is primarily funded by readers and authors as part of our members program.

In addition, we get a small amount of affiliate revenue from bookstore links on the website, which helps us pay for the servers and software. I just took down the display ads on the website and will launch book ads soon to help cover our server costs.

Do you have questions?

Feel free to email me any questions you have! Here are answers to some of the most common questions I get:

I also write a Substack post every 2 to 3 weeks with an update on the behind-the-scenes process of building Shepherd.

Is it easy to cancel (for whatever reason)?

Yes!

I hate when it is hard to cancel a subscription. So, I made it super easy to cancel your membership. You can cancel by:

  • Log in to our billing panel here and click cancel (if you paid via credit card or bank transfer).
  • Or login to Paypal to cancel there.

Eventually, I hope to build the billing system into the user accounts on Shepherd, but I don't have the resources to do that yet.