Finally, a formidable response to Amazon-owned Goodreads: Introducing The StoryGraph

The StoryGraph – an app that allows you to monitor, charge, and overview the books you’ve learn amongst many, many different issues – is one thing each e book lover ought to have of their app library. Full with stunning analytics, customized suggestions, and a 1.2 million-member group, The StoryGraph is every part Goodreads isn’t. We spoke with cofounders Nadia Odunayo and Rob Frelow to dig extra deeply into every part we love about our new favourite e book app.

As a loyal reader and somebody who has been a member of the Goodreads group since 2013, I’ve discovered myself constantly annoyed with the app, particularly in recent times, for every part that Goodreads doesn’t do and doesn’t provide. Other than the truth that the app has barely up to date since its inception – making for an antiquated consumer expertise – there are palpable misses that will assist me to raised perceive what sort of reader I’m and, maybe, what sort of reader I need to be. It’s inside this area that The StoryGraph shines.

Designed for readers, by readers

Nadia Odunayo, founding father of The StoryGraph, started engaged on the app in 2019:

I’d had the thought for years, however once I lastly had time to work on the venture in earnest originally of 2019, I had a lot enjoyable and knew… that I wished to someway construct a enterprise within the books area.

Understanding that any profitable product depends on buyer analysis, I began speaking to readers and studying all about their ache factors with e book apps, making an attempt to see if there was room for one thing price constructing.

I began incorporating their suggestions into the product I used to be engaged on, and regularly doing that over the previous couple of years is what has led to what The StoryGraph is in the present day.

Odunayo’s dive into buyer wants and needs manifests in each function of The StoryGraph; there isn’t a single factor that hasn’t been thought by means of, and as a consumer, I recognize a continued dedication to what readers are in search of in a e book app. The StoryGraph is so clearly designed by somebody who’s a reader themselves, moderately than Goodreads, which hasn’t thought of consumer expertise in what seems like a decade.

Along with taking its consumer needs into the app’s improvement, The StoryGraph additionally offers much-needed area to unbiased authors. Cofounder Rob Frelow:

If in the present day you’re inquisitive about a darkish homicide thriller set deep within the woods that includes a kidnapping, and tomorrow you’re within the temper for an emotional however humorous romantic comedy set in a giant metropolis, yow will discover that on The StoryGraph. You aren’t caught by your outdated rankings or previous preferences. You gained’t see any ‘promoted’ books, which indie authors can sometimes by no means afford. You’ve gotten full management.

That The StoryGraph not solely offers customers a completely autonomous expertise – but in addition makes room for unbiased authors moderately than selling books by family names – is the digital equal of strolling right into a Barnes and Noble versus your native bookstore.

The fact is that Goodreads dominates the e book app market because of Amazon’s $150 million greenback acquisition again in 2013, and what that has meant is that it merely hasn’t needed to innovate or enhance its consumer expertise as a result of it’s owned by the most important on-line retailer on the planet. The StoryGraph, then again, has taken the time and the suggestions from its customers to create a very customized expertise from which readers can truly profit.

A clear look and an abundance of options

The very first thing I observed after downloading The StoryGraph was how stunning it was. Easy and fashionable in its design aesthetic – and with out muddle or ads – the app’s greatest options stand out with vivid, daring colours, making it simple to navigate. In an astute transfer by its founders, you possibly can import your Goodreads library into The StoryGraph; when you’ve imported your library, you then fill out a choice checklist (selecting not solely particularly what you do wish to learn, but in addition what you don’t), and from there, the app begins to work its magic.

With reference to its options, there may be nothing Odunayo and Frelow haven’t thought of. Inside The StoryGraph, a consumer can:

• Price, overview, and monitor books
• Interact in a “Buddy Learn” with somebody from their group
• Maintain a studying journal
• Enter e book giveaways
• Arrange studying targets by the variety of books, pages, or hours
• Browse e book suggestions by temper, tempo, kind, or web page quantity
• View customized analytics

Whereas a few of these options shall be acquainted to Goodreads customers, The StoryGraph takes them one step additional, enhancing the expertise for the reader by personalizing every function and providing selections particular to an individual, moderately than suggestions for a complete group.

The StoryGraph’s standout function is, simply, the statistics. Odunayo says of them:

We use the stats to let you know what kind of reader you might be. For instance: ‘You primarily learn books which might be adventurous, humorous, and hopeful. You sometimes select books which might be fast-paced and 300-499 pages lengthy.’ Customers love this because it offers them a brand new approach to describe the sort of books they love and assist them uncover new favourite reads.

Whereas I’m admittedly a more moderen member of The StoryGraph group, I’ve already proven my very own analytics to everybody in my life who I do know will recognize their nuance, as a result of the factor about being a reader is that this: We gravitate towards books which might be acquainted to us. That would imply studying your favourite creator’s latest e book (or doing a reread, one other function of The StoryGraph) or, as is most typical, remaining inside particular genres or moods.

The fantastic thing about these graphs is that in offering you with a visible audit of what you’ve learn, you are actually armed with the data wanted to make completely different selections and/or to develop as a reader must you select to take action. I had no concept that I learn extra up to date or historic books than anything, and as I transfer into 2023, I shall be placing a concentrate on poetry – one thing I’ve liked deeply all through my complete life, however don’t learn almost sufficient as stand-alone collections – and sociology – one thing that has at all times me, however for no matter cause, additionally one thing I apparently are likely to keep away from.

With out the info that The StoryGraph offers, I wouldn’t know precisely the kind of reader I’m and would as an alternative work beneath the belief that I learn largely memoirs and true crime when, actually, I sometimes learn “fiction books which might be emotional, reflective, and darkish.”

Wrap-up

Whether or not you’re an insatiable reader, a typically reader, or an individual who reads one to 2 books a yr, The StoryGraph is an app that’s really designed with you in thoughts. From its stunning, customized analytics to its extremely particular e book suggestions, that is an app that each reader will love.

Take a look at The StoryGraph on Instagram right here, Twitter here, and desktop right here.

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