Ben Fox

Boulder

Founder and Journalist at Shepherd

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Articles

Sneak peak: How will we bring readers' to-be-read piles to life?

2 months ago | open.substack.com | Ben Fox

Join the rebellion and help me create the indie book platform readers and authors deserve! Three hurrahs for our 897 Founding Members who keep us independent and fund new features. Readers and authors can become Founding Members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow). It has been a wild couple of months at Shepherd! I am working like a madman to reorient everything as we build an app to bring readers to-be-read piles to life (plus light book tracking).
How is the Readers’ Favorite Reads event performing with the new referrals & partnership program?

Jan 10, 2025 | build.shepherd.com | Adrian McKinty |Michael Easter |Ben Fox

Join the rebellion and help me create the indie book platform readers and authors deserve! Three hurrahs for our 853 Founding Members who keep us independent and fund new features. Readers and authors can become Founding Members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming as we grow). I am super excited about 2025! I am knee-deep in feature planning and have a massive year-end update on the newsletters coming soon. I got a ton of rest over the holiday, read 10 books, and feel energized.
Hi Google, please stop đ© the bed: a desperate plea from the independent web.

Oct 28, 2024 | build.shepherd.com | Ben Fox

Join the rebellion and help me create the indie book platform readers and authors deserve! Three hurrahs for ourÂ 818 Founding Members who keep us independent and fund new features. Readers and authors can become Founding Members (both get special perks, and more perks are coming). Google is killing independent websites by burying them in the search results, even when we perfectly follow their guidelines.
Want to know Ben Fox's Top 3 Books of 2024?

Oct 14, 2024 | shepherd.com | Adrian McKinty |FX Holden |Leon McCarron |Ben Fox

Myfavorite read in 2024…This is one of the best detective series I’ve read since Bosch. There is something about Detective Sean Duffy that I find utterly fascinating. He has a personal sense of justice (like Bosch), and he has an intense desire to see it applied no matter the cost. And as a Catholic policeman in a Protestant system, the tension of being this one-man island is heavy. The entire series is set during "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland, which makes for an exciting backdrop.
Shepherd 3.0 - Like wandering the aisles of your favorite bookstore | Product Hunt

Apr 9, 2024 | producthunt.com | Ben Fox

Like wandering the aisles of your favorite bookstore. Shepherd has asked 10,000+ authors and experts for their favorite books around a topic, theme, and mood. Follow your curiosity through the bookshelves and discover amazing books to feed your curiosity. We are officially out of beta today!Build web apps 10x faster with Deno, JSX, TS & TailwindWe couldn't have built this without... About this launch in Shepherd 3.0 was hunted by Education, Comics & Graphic Novels, Books. Made by .
About us - Berliner Wasserbetriebe

Jan 11, 2024 | bwb.de | Ben Fox

As the largest water supply and wastewater drainage company in Germany, we not only supply the capital with the best drinking water and treat the wastewater, but likewise pay close attention to ecologically, economically and socially sustainable management of the water cycle.
š„³ The best books of 2023 is launched!

Nov 1, 2023 | open.substack.com | Ben Fox

Plus, we broke down the results by things likeā¦ By fiction, nonfiction, audiobooks, and book club books. Genres like mystery, thriller, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, historical fiction, history, business, true crime, horror, and more! Ages like baby, children, middle grade, teen, young adult, and adult. So far, we have received 1,372 submissions (more coming every day). 184 are in some state of author reviewing (or waiting for me to make changes for them).
Improving the books-like pages and misc fun :)

Jun 30, 2023 | build.shepherd.com | Ben Fox

I have a polished newsletter for authors here (it is focused on how we help authors + sharing data that helps them + business updates). Shepherd is like wandering around your favorite bookstore. We make exploring and discovering your next book magical (while helping authors get their books in front of the most likely readers). Please join us as a founding member and support our mission.
Switching from sprint to marathon pace...

Jun 16, 2023 | build.shepherd.com | Ben Fox

I have a polished newsletter for authors here (it is focused on how we help authors + sharing data that helps them + business updates). Shepherd is like wandering around your favorite bookstore. We make exploring and discovering your next book magical (while helping authors get their books in front of the most likely readers). Please join us as a founding member and support our mission. I am exhausted 🤪. I’ve been going at a hard sprint since November.
Sneak peek of web designs for the "best books of the year" and updated frontpage.

Jun 1, 2023 | build.shepherd.com | Ben Fox

Every two weeks, I share my notes on building Shepherd.com. Shepherd is like wandering around your favorite bookstore. We make exploring and discovering your next book magical (while helping authors get their books in front of the most likely readers). Please join us as a founding member to support our mission. This is a short one as I am taking my son camping later today, and I was on 75% vacation for the week of May 22nd while visiting my brother.