Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

Question for the group: What do authors wish existed for readers to discover their books? And what do readers actually want in a book tracking app?

I'm building an app where you can scan full shelves of books (like at a bookstore or library) to instantly get details and add them to your list. Privacy-first, no ads, no tracking. Trying to understand what would genuinely help people find books they'll love, especially from authors who aren't always surfaced by algorithms.

For authors - how do you wish readers could discover your work in physical stores?
For readers - what's frustrating about current discovery tools?

Mike wrote: "Question for the group: What do authors wish existed for readers to discover their books? And what do readers actually want in a book tracking app?

I'm building an app where you can scan full shel..."

Hi Mike :)

Thank you for your endeavours- I wish you great success with your app! Many of really good authors are not at all skilled at marketing and self promotion, so if your app would allow them to become discoverable, that would be a fantastic result!

One idea might be for every author to select the most catching paragraph from their book, and see if this will make some readers curious enough to click onto full book's description :)

Good luck :)

Jasmine

P.S. Feel free to contact me directly if I could be of any more help; I will request your friendship in a moment to enable easy messaging.

Thank you so much, Jasmine! That's a great idea - figuring out a way to get more eyes on lesser known authors. I will put it on my list to research and will reach out directly!