bookclub

build your digital bookshelf

13 followers

build your digital bookshelf

13 followers

Note and writing apps

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Email marketing

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Social & Community

The first app built for book clubs and collectively curated by book clubs.For the first time ever, you and your club members can build a shared, private bookshelf that puts meeting details, RVSPs, discussion questions, book info, book club ratings and Amazon & iBooks links for your books at your fingertips--and sends automatic, customizable book club reminder emails to your members

Launch tags:Tech•Books

Launch Team

Zendesk for StartupsUp to 2 years free for startups + AI Agents & Copilot

Promoted

First Round

YAY. Congrats on the launch guys!! Excited to see a Goodreads competitor finally emergeee Few initial thoughts: 1. I would love the ability to import my library from a CSV! (like most people...probably from Goodreads) 2. The view I get is "my library". How are you guys thinking social will play into this? 3. Organization: love the shelves by stars, will there be options to choose how we can organize books? Goodreads uses bookshelves, but there are definitely cooler ways to do it. I've always thought it could be cool to create collections of books you've read as a response to prompts that are relatable to life. could be serious or even funny... - on the serious side for ex: "What books would you recommend to someone struggling with decisions about the future" - or get way more playful with it: "A 19 year old girl is stuck in a bus with her sorority sisters after going through a bad breakup and really just wants to be entertained but also understood" 😂 4. Any plan for sharing quotes or favorite takeaway messages?

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8yr ago

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Maker

@grlalx thanks for the feedback and appreciate the support! I'll do my best to answer your Q's but this is still very much a WIP. 1 - Agreed! This is a popular request : ) 2 - We are definitely still figuring it out. A few ideas: - "clubs/communities" - find people reading things you read - feed 3 - Agreed. Originally, we thought of our product as a "book list creator." We see that as a potential next step (around different types of list you can create." 4 - For now, we are focused on "what you read" but perhaps soon! Thanks for the questions/tips :)

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8yr ago

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Maker

Hi PH 👋We're really excited to be launching "bookclub profiles" today 📚 Profiles are simple and seamless. Check out mine: http://www.bookclub.cool/@jordan... This is just the first page of a long roadmap we have ahead (stats, communities, feeds, etc.) but we would love to hear what you think about "square one." 1 - Would be awesome if you could create an account and comment/share it! We'll be featuring/sharing profiles across social. (@joinbookclub) 2 - What do you want to see next? In tackling such an obvious opportunity, we are overwhelmed with ideas. Infinite things to build. What do you see as the most important next step in building out bookclub? Thanks for the support! 😻 (as a small disclaimer, we earn revenue as partners of the Amazon Affiliate Program). Whose profile would you like to see? Tag them on twitter/social!

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8yr ago

Citationsy

@jrdngonen Hi there! I have some quick feedback: I wish I could choose a specific edition of the book, like on GoodReads, to make it actually match my bookshelf.

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8yr ago

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Maker

@cenk Ah, good point! Right now we are using the Amazon Product API to query. Will look into making more refined. Thanks!

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8yr ago

Cruise.me

@cenk @jrdngonen Maybe add a thumbnail next to the dropdown list that appears when you type. Had a similar issue. Also, If you select a book, and it's the wrong one or edition, it would be nice to initiate a new search from the pop up modal versus closing and clicking +add book again.

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8yr ago

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Maker

@cenk @stephenchip Good fix! Definitely looking into :)

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8yr ago

Magnet

Maker

@cenk @jrdngonen @stephenchip Thanks for the feedback, Stephen! Quickly implemented a "back to search" button and will definitely look into thumbnails as well.

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8yr ago

Sstories

Are there any shelves like "read", "currently reading" and "to-read"? They are really useful. Overall looks like just too raw product to be on Product Hunt so far. The results of the search aren't user-friendly. If you click on one item from the list there is no way to go back to the results of the search.

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8yr ago

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Maker

@cherrywins Hey! Thanks for the feedback. Re: sentiment around "rawness" - I think, in many ways, this is definitely a raw product in the sense that it is the "base layer" (assumption layer) around what we are aiming to do. With this launch, we were hoping to test our core assumptions around product before investing heavily in UX and more features. 1 - We're experimenting with "shelves" currently. Definitely a good idea and will explore. 2 - We have got a lot more in the pipeline around improving the UX / publishing experience. Will definitely keep you in the loop and once again appreciate the feedback.

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8yr ago

@cherrywins I agree that it's still raw, but my conclusion here is that Goodreads is so bad but so bad (even though it's practically the only option in the market) that people are willing to upvote bookclub to the stars just to see it thrive.

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8yr ago

Sstories

@aviggiano honestly, I don't think that Goodreads is so bad. What don't you like about it? I agree that there should be several options on the market, but it takes a long time to be at least on the same level with Goodreads. It is not just a product, it is a community.

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8yr ago

@cherrywins The UX is what bothers me the most. The website is slow, and the mobile app doesn't have most of the features of the website, being just a webview in some times. Also, the design feels too old, and the social network features are not very immersive. I feel that it could be much better. And also I agree that the community is bigger than the product, that's why it's not that easy to find a replacement.

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8yr ago

Pagedone

This looks cool project. Is there any option to share list with public? And are there any public list to see first before signup?

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8yr ago

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Maker

@evivz hey! Here is a sample profile from @csallen http://www.bookclub.cool/@csallen Soon, we will have a feed of profiles for you to discover people on!

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8yr ago

Thank you for doing this! Goodreads UI/UX is terrible, but that was practically the only way to track TO-READ/READING/READ books. Btw, do you support Amazon login? So that my purchased books can be automatically synched.

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8yr ago

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Maker

@aviggiano hey! really appreciate the support :) re: amazon login, good idea! will definitely look into

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8yr ago

I'm a huge Goodreads user so it's cool to see an alternative out there, especially one that looks clean and pretty. I have three main uses for Goodreads: 1. Track what I read 2. Track books I want to read 3. Seeing what my 'friends' are reading so I can discuss, check their reviews, or add to a to read list Clearly 1 is covered, but any plans to cover 2 and 3?

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8yr ago

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Maker

@lfroment hey hey! thanks for the support :) 1 - Yup. As you mentioned, we're close to getting the baseline of this covered. (still can definitely be improved). 2 - Wish list maker (simply click "add to wish list" on books you see) 3 - A few plans for this (not sure exactly which direction yet). We're thinking of a simple discovery page, communities you can join, and a few other ideas. Curious if you have thoughts here!

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8yr ago

Great design and that, but missing a lot of features that makes GoodReads useful. Seems like the primary focus at the moment is Amazon commission.

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8yr ago

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Maker

@productpearson hey! thanks for the feedback. We are definitely shipping the v1 of this product to get as much feedback as possible early on. We also wanted to test our revenue model (and see if it aligned well with users). What features do you think we should work on next? What are most useful?

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8yr ago

@jrdngonen It's defo the best monetisation method, it's just it took me about 3 seconds before I got the big "Buy on amazon" button, which made it feel like it was the primary focus over other features, that's all. but I totally understand it's v1. I think the shelves are the key one, to mark what I am currently reading, what I want to read in the future and what I've already read. Gamifying it would be my choice, challenges for how many words you can read (if an API can share word counts in books for example), or maybe page counts. Monthly challenge to read not just a certain amount of books, but pages etc. People do the challenges on Goodreads but read short ebooks etc to meet the target, whereas page count challenges would actually be much harder and "challenging!". The risk you have with this platform is people will come on once in a while to add their bookshelves, and then off they go. Adding some challenges, games, awards of some kind etc, would keep people coming back every single day to update their stats. Just my 2 cents.

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8yr ago

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Maker

@productpearson Appreciate the thoughts! Agree with the sentiment :) Will definitely keep in mind.

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8yr ago

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