The StoryGraph – an app that allows you to monitor, fee, 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 lovely analytics, personalised suggestions, and a 1.2 million-member neighborhood, The StoryGraph is all the pieces Goodreads isn’t. We spoke with cofounders Nadia Odunayo and Rob Frelow to dig extra deeply into all the pieces we love about our new favourite e book app.
As a faithful reader and somebody who has been a member of the Goodreads neighborhood since 2013, I’ve discovered myself constantly pissed off with the app, particularly in recent times, for all the pieces that Goodreads doesn’t do and doesn’t supply. Apart from the truth that the app has barely up to date since its inception – making for an antiquated person 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 wish 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 concept for years, however after I lastly had time to work on the mission in earnest in the beginning of 2019, I had a lot enjoyable and knew… that I needed to by some means construct a enterprise within the books area.
Figuring out 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 value constructing.
I began incorporating their suggestions into the product I used to be engaged on, and frequently doing that over the previous few years is what has led to what The StoryGraph is at present.
Odunayo’s dive into buyer wants and desires manifests in each characteristic of The StoryGraph; there isn’t a single factor that hasn’t been thought by way of, and as a person, I respect a continued dedication to what readers are on the lookout for in a e book app. The StoryGraph is so clearly designed by somebody who’s a reader themselves, relatively than Goodreads, which hasn’t thought-about person expertise in what looks like a decade.
Along with taking its person desires into the app’s improvement, The StoryGraph additionally provides much-needed area to unbiased authors. Cofounder Rob Frelow:
If at present you’re taken with 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 an enormous metropolis, you’ll find that on The StoryGraph. You aren’t caught by your previous rankings or previous preferences. You received’t see any ‘promoted’ books, which indie authors can usually by no means afford. You will have full management.
That The StoryGraph not solely provides customers a completely autonomous expertise – but additionally makes room for unbiased authors relatively 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 person 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 really personalised expertise from which readers can truly profit.
A clear look and an abundance of options
The very first thing I seen after downloading The StoryGraph was how lovely it was. Easy and fashionable in its design aesthetic – and with out muddle or commercials – the app’s finest options stand out with vibrant, daring colours, making it straightforward to navigate. In an astute transfer by its founders, you’ll be able to import your Goodreads library into The StoryGraph; when you’ve imported your library, you then fill out a desire listing (selecting not solely particularly what you do prefer to learn, but additionally what you don’t), and from there, the app begins to work its magic.
With regard to its options, there’s nothing Odunayo and Frelow haven’t thought-about. Inside The StoryGraph, a person can:
- Charge, overview, and monitor books
- Interact in a “Buddy Learn” with somebody from their neighborhood
- Preserve 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 personalised analytics
Whereas a few of these options can be acquainted to Goodreads customers, The StoryGraph takes them one step additional, bettering the expertise for the reader by personalizing every characteristic and providing selections particular to an individual, relatively than suggestions for a complete neighborhood.
The StoryGraph’s standout characteristic is, simply, the statistics. Odunayo says of them:
We use the stats to inform you what kind of reader you might be. For instance: ‘You primarily learn books which can be adventurous, humorous, and hopeful. You usually select books which can be fast-paced and 300-499 pages lengthy.’ Customers love this because it provides them a brand new solution to describe the form of books they love and assist them uncover new favourite reads.
Whereas I’m admittedly a more moderen member of The StoryGraph neighborhood, I’ve already proven my very own analytics to everybody in my life who I do know will respect their nuance, as a result of the factor about being a reader is that this: We gravitate towards books which can be acquainted to us. That might imply studying your favourite creator’s latest e book (or doing a reread, one other characteristic of The StoryGraph) or, as is commonest, remaining inside particular genres or moods.
The great thing about these graphs is that in offering you with a visible audit of what you’ve learn, you at the moment are armed with the knowledge 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 the rest, and as I transfer into 2023, I can be placing a concentrate on poetry – one thing I’ve liked deeply all through my whole 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 purpose, 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 principally memoirs and true crime when, actually, I usually learn “fiction books which can be emotional, reflective, and darkish.”
Wrap-up
Whether or not you’re an insatiable reader, a generally reader, or an individual who reads one to 2 books a 12 months, The StoryGraph is an app that’s actually designed with you in thoughts. From its lovely, personalised 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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