Hardcover Report for July 2024
By Adam Fortuna
After a very busy May, June has felt like a (mostly relaxing) return to the usual. While we didn’t experience another “viral” moment this month as Hardcover did in May, we saw a steady flow of new readers and many people joining to play with the Hardcover API.
If you haven’t heard about the API, we’ve designed Hardcover from the very start to use the same API (programming interface) on the website that developers can use to build on top of Hardcover. You can read details and get your API token from your Settings > API page.
You might wonder why this is important if you’re not a developer. Well, let me share a quick story about Twitter.
In the early days of Twitter, the only way to post was on the website. Eventually, they invented OAuth (thanks to Leah Culver, Blaine Cook, and Chris Messina), and then suddenly, people could build on top of the Twitter API.
This caused a Cambrian explosion of apps using the Twitter API. Developers could use it to post, create Twitter clients, and build tools to manage Twitter accounts.
Side note: Back in ’09, I worked on an app at a startup called Sponsored Tweets, where advertisers could pay celebrities to write a Tweet with a link. It was amazing that some celebrities (in the days before “influencers”) were making $20k for 140 characters. 🤯
We think we can create something similar in the Book space. Developers building book-related apps and websites need good book data, but they also need a central place to store all of a reader’s book knowledge—their “library in the cloud.” That’s our goal.
We’re excited to make Hardcover for the community. Between providing a public API (which you can use today) and later open-sourcing the entire codebase (more on that later), we’re doing what we can to make it a community project, not a company.
I took a week off in June to show my family around Salt Lake City – which went well! No one had ever been to Utah before, and I think everyone left with some good memories.
Aside from that, we mostly tried to stay away from the 100-degree heat 😅. My wife, a friend of ours, and I checked out the new H-Mart, a massive Korean grocery store in town that impressed us all. It had a bunch of Korean foods we loved that weren’t available anywhere else (Sundae sausage being a favorite).
I’ve been chipping away at various Hardcover bugs and features. Lately, I’ve been slightly obsessed with Chappell Roan (check out her NPR Tiny Desk Concert, Pink Pony Club or HOT TO GO! if you haven’t). Listening to good music while coding for hours is one of my favorite things. 🧘
What’s Next on Hardcover?
After many data improvements in May, most of this month’s work took place on the design and planning side. Taking a week off can do that. 😅
New Currently Reading Book Page
One of the app’s most buggy parts has been progress tracking. Previously, we allowed readers to track a book’s progress without knowing the exact edition. That was easier, but it meant that we never knew exactly how long the book was!
In the latest update, which we’re releasing this week, we’ve completely restructured this process to require an edition with a length—either in page count or audio duration.
It isn’t very pleasant when you want to track progress on a book, but we don’t have the edition you’re looking for. 😭 Our approach to fixing this is to make it super simple to add a missing edition. You can do so from this page in a modal without leaving the Currently Reading Page. All you need to do is let us know the number of pages or length.
This is 90% done, but I didn’t make it for this newsletter’s release. 😭 You can also update progress from the Book Button, which will need a few updates before this goes out. I might try to sneak one other feature into this release too, but that’s still hush-hush. 🤫
🔴 Hardcover Live
Earlier this year, we launched the new Hardcover Live, our weekly live show where we build Hardcover in public.
In June, we recorded and released two more episodes, which can be watched on YouTube or downloaded through your podcast player of choice.
Tune in each Wednesday at noon PST to watch us build Hardcover Live! This month, we’re also planning to have an author and an influencer on the show! We’ll send out an email once we have the details set.
What’s Next on Hardcover?
Many things we wanted done in June were pushed back to July. 😅
This month, I realized that if we want to make major progress on these, I’ll need to delegate more work to the rest of the Hardcover team. We’ve started doing that, alternating who answers emails and responds on Discord to give me more time to focus on some of these projects.
👩💻 Open Sourcing the Codebase
We have a few more tasks needed to make the codebase public before we flip the switch! I’m excited that we’re close, but the last five are a little tricky:
- Make sure we’re 100% in compliance with all external data providers. This is tricky since we save so much book data from many sources, each with its own retention rules.
- Decide on a software license. We’re working with a lawyer on this one to get it right.
- Create a Hardcover Importer. We have an exporter, but we need a way for people who work on the app locally to get their data from Hardcover to their local computers.
- Rotate all API tokens and confirm the app works with minimum external dependencies.
- Dockerize WordPress.
I optimistically wanted to do this by the end of July, but now I think it might be pushed back a further.
🖼️ Set Edition & Cover for Book In Your Library (Development)
This is the #1 most requested feature on Hardcover today, and we’re working on a solution! This will allow you to set which cover and edition title you see in your library and your lists.
We plan to use some of the same functionality to set editions we use to update progress for this.
📚 List Filtering (Development)
The first phase of LetterBooks allows for ordering and view options for lists of books. It’s a huge improvement, but more than that, it’s a complete rewrite of the code used to display a list of books.
This feature isn’t ready just yet, but we’re getting there! It’ll show up on the left side on large screens or in a drawer on mobile.
We’re planning on creating filters for the following:
- Author
- Author gender (multiple select: any/male/female/other)
- Author BIPOC (multiple select: Yes/no)
- Language
- Owned?
- Page count (within a range)
- Publish year (within a range)
- Readers Count (within a range)
- Tags (Genre, content warnings, moods)
- Your tags (Genre, content warnings, moods, tags)
- Your status (none, want to read, read, etc)
- Compilation (yes/no/both)
- Book title (text)
- Match Percentage (within a range) – Supporters only
Is there another field you think would be great to filter by? Let us know! Once we get Filtering to a good place, we’ll start on Bulk Edit Mode.
📊 Dashboard & Stats (Design)
Stats are one of the oldest features on Hardcover from December ’22. We’ve been redesigning this page on Hardcover Live lately.
We’ve been brainstorming what stats will include, which already looks like existing. Is there a dream stat or graph of your book data you’d love to see? Let us know!
🎲 Book Crossword Puzzles
These are super close! As someone who plays Wordle and Connections every day, I can’t wait to play a Crossword puzzle for a book after I finish it.
Not all books will have a Crossword puzzle, but we plan to work with the community to create some for the most popular ones.
Behind the Scenes at Hardcover
After growing by more than 50% in a month in May, we’ve had much more modest growth in June of 25 to 40 new members a day (welcome!).
I expected our supporters’ numbers to dip significantly this month – as often happens, there is a large inflow of new members. Our supporter’s number ended up staying mostly stable (technically down one).
👉 Check out our income and expenses page to see how much we’ve earned and spent every month since Hardcover started.
Bookfluencer Focus
This month’s Bookfluencer Focus is on Ella Lippelman, @elephantt00, on TikTok, and @ella on Hardcover, who posted a great video talking about Things about my book tracking app that just make sense.
Hardcover is still super new, with very few mentions on social media. We truly appreciate any mentions or comments you make about Hardcover.
Have you posted about Hardcover somewhere? Let us know, and maybe we’ll feature you next month!
Featured Prompt for July 2024
July’s Prompt comes from Ross Hardy from the Hardy’s Books YouTube Channel.
In honour of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, what are the best dieselpunk and/or post-apocalyptic books?
We’ve been truly blessed to have such a strong prequel to one of the greatest post-apocalyptic action films of all time, Mad Max: Fury Road. With that in mind, what are some books that evoke similar vibes in their worldbuilding as the petrol-stained Australian wasteland of Mad Max?
Mad Max DNA:
– Post-apocalyptic, underpopulated world
– Scavenger industry, resource scarcity
– Ostentatious displays of personality—camp humour
– Warring factions
– Heart—rare but impactful displays of humanity in the midst of a depraved society
What books come to mind for you? Let us know by upvoting a book or adding your own!
June’s Prompt
Last month’s feature prompt was What are the must-read LGBTQ fantasy books? Right now, Gideon the Ninth is in the top spot. A genre-bending science fiction, fantasy, and horror-ish series that is also #4 in What are your favorite dark fantasy books?
Most Read Books for June 2024
We saw some shakeups this month!
- All Systems Red by Martha Wells (#1 of 7 in The Murderbot Diaries)
- Yellowface by R.F Kuang
- This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
- Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
- Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
We have two books from 2023 (Yellowface and Bookshops), joined with books released years ago. I suspect people enjoy their summer reading and choosing books they’ve heard lots of good feedback on.
The Murderbot series is being adapted into a series coming to Apple TV+ starring Alexander Skarsgård. Filming started in March 2024, but the series will probably be released in 2025.
Most Saved Books To Be Released in July 2024
The most anticipated books for July focus on two genres: suspense and romance. OK, I just copied this line from last month, but it’s true this month, too! 😂
- The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (#5 in The Inheritance Games) (49 saves)
- I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones (44 saves)
- Reckless by Lauren Roberts (#2 in The Powerless Trilogy) (42 saves)
- The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst (32 saves)
- Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi (30 saves)
Jennifer Lynn Barnes has released a new book in The Inheritance Games series each year since 2020 – building up a loyal audience since The Inheritance Games #1. The Hardcover reviews describe it as YA Knives Out – which sounds like a ton of fun (the first one is on my want-to-read list! I’ll catch up someday 😂).
Masquerade is based on the myth of Persephone but set in 15th-century West Africa. It follows Òdòdó as conflict and adventure whisk her away from home, and she must work within politics, religion, and society to survive and thrive. (I’m trying not to give spoilers here. With a 93% match percentage for me, I’m excited to read this one.)
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Join the over 1,000 others to chat about books, hear about product updates, and be part of the community.
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We appreciate you reading this and hope you have an amazing month. Talk to you soon. ♥️