StoryGraph for Authors

 

StoryGraph has some great opportunities for authors to connect with readers through community, giveaways, and challenges.

Their Giveaway program is still in beta. If you want to join their program, you need to sign up through a Google form. There are two levels—Standard and Premium. Standard allows giveaways in digital, prints, and audio formats, with up to 250 prizes. It also puts your contest on their Giveaway page, adds it to any reader’s “For You” page that has similar keywords, and gives you a dashboard to follow your progress. They include a link for sharing on social media. With Premium, you get everything above and a front-page advertising for the contest on the Home and Book page. Standard is $99 per giveaway and Premium is $499. If you catch a beta run, you can get a 50% discount.

Buddy Reads through the Community page allows you to read the same book with other readers. It’s a virtual book club! The app does not show who follows you, only who you follow. To begin a buddy read, follow your friends/fans through the community page. Add their email or username to find them.

Once you have a list, go to the book page of the title you plan to read. Click “start a buddy read.” Add a description such as “beta readers unite,” or “perusing my latest book together.” Add the names of the readers to be in the buddy read. The app also suggests readers. (As an author, I wouldn’t use this unless it was someone I thought would REALLY like to read my choice.) Be sure your readers have set their Preferences to allow other people to invite them to buddy read. (You can limit invites to those who follow you and/or friends. That way you won’t get random requests.)

Once invites have been sent and accepted, click on Buddy Reads to follow along. Each user can select the book to put it on their Currently Reading shelf. Then, as they read, they can click on the book again and add progress. The Buddy Read page has space for comments and discussion. There is also a space for ratings and reviews. It ends once the entire group finishes the book.

Another great connection opportunity is Challenges. StoryGraph has several challenges already uploaded. I found my PopSugar and the 52 Book Club challenges already set up for 2023. You can add a yearly reading goal for yourself as well. To find a list, click on the Browse button. There are many challenges listed, but you can also create your own.

Click on the Create New button. Give it a title and dates for the beginning and end. Enter the prompts for the challenge. You can even add Bonus prompts to challenge readers. The options are not required to finish the challenge. You can add specific books or generic prompts. Click Add Another to fill out the list. When finished, click the box to make it live. You can also make the challenge public. Add a category and keywords to find readers. Or send a note out on social media to invite fans to join you.

StoryGraph is an interesting alternative to Goodreads. Check it out and see if the app is for you. (If you do, I’m ginnyfrost on the app.)

 

 

How To StoryGraph

StoryGraph is an easy app to navigate. Once you set up your initial email for the account, you can get started building your bookshelves. They will ask some questions about your preferences. This will help the suggestions/recommendations on the Home page.

Start with your profile. Click on the person icon at the top of the screen and select the profile. The next screen will give you options to personalize your presence on the app. I’ve tinkered with the app a bit, so I had some info already added. My profile shows Currently Reading, Recently Reading, Reading Preferences, and To-Be-Read pile. As you add tags and challenges, they will be listed below.

Click on Reading Preferences and add info about books you like to read, books you’ve read, and what you don’t want to read. You can edit this data at any time. The info helps the app recommend books for you. It also shows the type of reader you are. Apparently, I like medium-paced books of about 350-400 pages. (The app only thinks that because I have added all my cozy mystery reads yet.)

Let’s add some books to your lists. Click on the “search all books” button at the top. Type in the name of any book and hit enter. Scroll through the list. Hit the “to read” button on any good prospects. Click on the down arrow for more options: Read, Currently Reading, and Did Not Finish. You can also add tags to books such as “Mom’s favorite” or “Sue hated this one.”

If you click on the book, you get a world of information. Of course, the author and title are there. But also, they have the pub date, number of pages, genre, and some descriptors. You can see right away if a book will hit your sweet spots. On the right are some trigger warnings generated by readers. Perfect if there’s something specific you need to be aware of. Below that are tags readers used to review the item such as “lighthearted,” “emotional,” or “challenging.” Readers can also put in pacing (how fast they read it) and answers to questions about the book. Last is the star review. (I think it’s great to bury that stat and let readers browse the other data first.) This page also can show similar reads, let you start a buddy read, and add missing information.

Once you’ve added some (read, to read, etc.) and set your preferences, your home page will have your to-be-read book covers and a list of recommended reads. You can click on any of the covers and learn about the books, change the category you assigned them, or browse. The large covers on the to-reads and recommendations are great. No one judges a book by its cover. Snort, yes, we do. It’s nice to view them large and readable.

Need to team up with other readers? Click on the community tab and search by username or email to find friends and family. Once you choose some other readers, you can peruse what they are reading or have read. You can also set up a buddy challenge. (More on that next week).

Checking your progress is easy. Click on the Stats tab. The app will show how many books you’ve read. It also gives the number of pages, mood, genre, pace, and more. You can get specific about your reading with these stats. You can also add or join challenges. More on that next week.

There’s more to StoryGraph, and not just for authors. Next week, I’ll discuss buddy reads, challenges, and more.

 

StoryGraph

StoryGraph is a book-tracking app available on all platforms. It has a web-based site that will sync with your mobile device. This program is similar to Goodreads, but not owned by a huge online store.

With StoryGraph, you can catalog, track, and get recommendations for books. Like Goodreads, you can have a list of books you wish to read, currently are reading, and want to read. You can also create a goal.

The app does not focus on the “social” aspect that Goodreads has. Your main screen has your books—reading, TBR, suggestions. It has titles that are popular on the app this week. Last, it has author giveaways. (This is in beta and may change.)

The app also collects stats to view the number of books, pages, genre, format, and ratings (how many stars you give a book.)

Most of the site is free. If you choose to do the paid premium option ($5 a month), you can additionally get better recommendations, receive priority support, and have a voice in deciding what new direction the software will explore. They also note you will be supporting a non-Amazon book-sharing app. (But I won’t say anything about that one. LOL)

Next week, we will create an account and fill in the categories. And we’ll do it in time for a new 2023 reading goal. (Psst, those who follow my reading blog, I’m changing things up. PopSugar and I are done for now. I figured if I’m changed challenges, I might as well change challenge-trackers.)

CounterSocial

I want to apologize about last week’s post. Apparently, on Wednesday, Hive Social shut down its servers. We aren’t the only ones looking for an alternative to Twitter. Based on the number of reads on my Twitter blog entry, people are looking everywhere.

I searched for more alternatives, but Post. is in beta and has a waitlist. Since I hadn’t heard much about the app (except that newshound hubby loves it), it might not be great for authors for marketing.

I came across CounterSocial and found it fun and different.

Check it out.

CounterSocial is a social media app that purports no ads, trolls, or fake news. In fact, on their first screen, you can scroll down to view the protections to keep you safe from nonsense. There’s a Deepfake detector, Botsentienel integration (to keep out “foreign influence operations”), identity breach alerts, and fact-layer integration (to detect political bias). Why bring this up? Because the foundation of the app is to prevent the pitfalls of other social media apps. The software designer wanted to cut through and eliminate some of the traps of apps like Twitter.

CounterSocial is easy to sign up for. Create a username and enter an email and password. Once you verify your email, the CounterSocial screen will appear. It looks like TweetDeck with columns of topics and users. My account started with a notification column, one for friends, and one called Community Firehouse. There are also news feeds around the columns. Mine had MSNBC across the top with a video box at the bottom left. Channels included CBS, ABC, BBC, Weather, Al Jazeera, and Bloomberg.

Adding content is similar to Twitter. Users have 500 characters to create a post. Options include emojis, media, polls, and a sanitizer (I’m totally looking into that one). New account posts start fully public. I wrote a “I’m new” post and received many welcoming responses. Responding to other people’s posts is also similar, with a star for like, reply, and repost. On the right, you see the lists of your current columns, plus some other options. You can change your settings, log out, see blocks, mutes, etc. Add to your follow list by using the search option on the first left column under the Sentiment monitor. Put in either a name, topic, or hashtag to find people and conversations.

Under your name on the left column is an option to change your profile. This will let you change the settings on your account. You can add pictures, bio, and preferred hashtags. Under Preferences, you can change your account to private or followers only. It also has a handy feature here called Ostrich mode. With this mode, you can tone down your screen to remove some distractors. The news will disappear as well as the graphs about the site. Under Followers, there is a list of followers and those you follow.

In the right corner, the page appears folded over. Click the fold to go to CounterRealms. This is another virtual space where users can create rooms for social interaction. You can join a random room or create your own. It’s a 3D virtual space. Create an avatar and explore the virtual space, chat with others, and share. Navigation can be done with either the WADS keys (like ancient video games LOL), or you can use VR goggles. To create your own room, you must upgrade to a $5-a-month paid account.

This app is a user-funded. It relies on users to help support it with donations and monthly fees. On the of the main screen is a chart of money needed to maintain the site for the month.

I hope some of these alternatives will work for our authors. I think Twitter will continue to change going forward. Best practice is to use an app that actually sells your books.