The Hardcover Blog

We're building Hardcover in public! You can follow our journey here on the blog, or subscribe to the newsletter to get every update.

Hardcover Report for February 2025

Last month we continued focusing on improving speed and performance by improving infrastructure.

Adam Fortuna

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 21:08:07 +00007 min read

Hardcover Report for January 2025

Progress on the migration and how we're wrapping up the year.

Adam Fortuna

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 15:18:48 +00008 min read

Hardcover Report for December 2024

Preparing for the major update month, the Year in Books, and more.

Adam Fortuna

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 20:10:59 +00008 min read

Hardcover Report for November 2024

Ste from Hardcover

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 01:00:00 +00005 min read

Hardcover Report for October 2024

For spooky season we're focusing on bugs, performance, API docs and the new dashboard/stats pages.

Adam Fortuna

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 16:44:02 +00008 min read

How We Survived 10k Requests a Second: Switching to Signed Asset URLs in an Emergency

A long day of debugging led to a better solution: Signed URLs.

Adam Fortuna

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 21:46:41 +000011 min read

Hardcover Report for August 2024

Set your edition for every book, reading journals, progress updates and more.

Adam Fortuna

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 17:24:55 +00008 min read

Hardcover Report for July 2024

Book progress, stats, hardcover live, open sourcing Hardcover and more.

Adam Fortuna

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 00:57:16 +00008 min read

Hardcover Report for June 2024

Huge growth, viral videos, Pride month and improved data across the site.

Adam Fortuna

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 17:50:11 +00009 min read

Automating Book Data! Librarian & Data Update Q2 2024

Massive updates to make things easier for librarians and populate even more data for books across Hardcover.

Adam Fortuna

Fri, 31 May 2024 19:09:24 +00003 min read

Hardcover Report for May 2024

Letterbooks, new navigation and preparation for open sourcing our codebase.

Adam Fortuna

Wed, 01 May 2024 18:46:55 +00009 min read

Introducing Letterbooks: Advanced Lists for Power Readers

A new way to find books on Hardcover.

Adam Fortuna

Wed, 01 May 2024 18:24:21 +00003 min read

Hardcover Report for April 2024

What's new on Hardcover, edit authors and series, navigation & dashboard plans, Letterbooks!

Adam Fortuna

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +00008 min read

Hardcover Report for March 2024

The State of Hardcover, income and expenses, Discord Linked Roles and updates on what we're doing next.

Adam Fortuna

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 19:08:33 +00009 min read

2024 State of Hardcover Survey Results

Adam Fortuna

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 23:21:22 +00006 min read

Hardcover Report for February 2024

Our monthly look at what's happening on Hardcover and what we've been up to.

Adam Fortuna

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 06:00:00 +000010 min read

How we Increased Search Traffic by 20x in 4 Months with the Next.js App Router

A technical look at how we optimized the performance of Hardcover over the last year.

Adam Fortuna

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 22:05:05 +000020 min read

Hardcover Report for January 2024

A look back at 2023, The Hardcover Year in Books, Hardcover Live and a look at what's next.

Adam Fortuna

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 22:12:18 +00009 min read

Announcing the Hardcover 2023 Year in Books! 🥳

A look back at the most popular books from the last year.

Adam Fortuna

Tue, 26 Dec 2023 19:50:32 +00005 min read

Hardcover Report for December 2023

2023 Year in Books, List updates and continuing work on Discussions.

Adam Fortuna

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 17:45:34 +00007 min read

Dragonsteel 2023 – SLC, Slugs & Liminal Spaces

Two days of Brandon Sanderson, the Cosmere and geeking out with other fans of fantasy.

Adam Fortuna

Fri, 24 Nov 2023 22:53:40 +000016 min read

Hardcover Report for November 2023

Lots of bug fixes and general improvements, as well as our plan for the next few months!

Adam Fortuna

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 20:14:02 +00009 min read

13 books for Halloween that you should read

Halloween book recommendations from Hardcover. This spooky season, curl up with a book, some pumpkin pie, or a latte, and let the Halloween stories send a shiver down your spine.

Daniel Prindii

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 15:17:56 +00003 min read

Hardcover Report for October 2023

October's updates: ProductHunt launch, new homepage, light mode fixes, privacy and app updates, and more.

Adam Fortuna

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 21:05:21 +000011 min read

How We Reduced a $1,000/month Imgix Bill to $1 using Google Cloud

Switching to a hosted service ended up reducing our image hosting costs to almost nothing.

Adam Fortuna

Sun, 17 Sep 2023 19:43:48 +00009 min read

Hardcover Report for September 2023

So many new updates this month!

Adam Fortuna

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 22:12:39 +00009 min read

Our Biggest Release Yet! Hardcover v2

A look into what we've been up to in the last few months.

Adam Fortuna

Fri, 25 Aug 2023 00:08:41 +00006 min read

An interview with Britt Joiner and her new book about Trello

Daniel Prindii

Fri, 18 Aug 2023 12:31:25 +00004 min read

Hardcover Report for August 2023

Preparing for our next big release, updates to the book page, new search much more.

Adam Fortuna

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 21:40:18 +00008 min read

8 Podcast Recommendations for Book Lovers

Daniel Prindii

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 08:19:14 +00002 min read

Hardcover Report for July 2023

We're preparing for a major launch in the coming weeks! Here's what to expect.

Adam Fortuna

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 12:00:00 +00008 min read

Hardcover Report for June 2023

Our monthly recap of popular reads, upcoming book releases, featured prompts, community spotlights and product updates.

Adam Fortuna

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +00005 min read

Hardcover Quarterly Plans for mid-2023

Edit books, select editions, site improvements, book page, search improvements and more.

Adam Fortuna

Wed, 17 May 2023 12:00:00 +00006 min read

Want to be a Hardcover Librarian?

We're looking for the first few librarians to join! Are you up for it?

Adam Fortuna

Wed, 10 May 2023 19:49:17 +00004 min read

Building Hardcover: on “good enough” qualitative user personas

Hardcover is self-funded with a small user base, so we don't have swathes of quantitative data at our disposal. But we still need a shared understanding of the needs, expectations, and behaviors of the readers we’re building for. We still need user personas.

Lily Bradic

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 18:23:15 +00006 min read

Ask Jules: Your OpenAI Powered Librarian

Jules is here to help you find your next book and answer any book related questions you have.

Adam Fortuna

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 17:43:00 +00002 min read

Making the Most of Stats

How to highlight your book favorites by making the most of your public stats page.

Adam Fortuna

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 22:47:32 +00004 min read

Leaving Twitter?

Thinking about making the move away from Twitter? We're a much different social network, but here's what we're focused on now and into the future.

Adam Fortuna

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 23:40:26 +00001 min read

The Hardcover Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Discovery Flowchart of the 2010s

We lovingly created this infographic to help you find the science fiction or fantasy book from the past decade that's right for you.

Adam Fortuna

Tue, 26 Jul 2022 17:31:04 +00004 min read

Goodreads vs. Hardcover: Which is Right for You?

A feature by feature comparison of Hardcover and Goodreads with screenshots.

Adam Fortuna

Sat, 09 Jul 2022 18:32:27 +000014 min read

Introducing Airlists: Airtable for Your Books

Airlists are more than just lists: they're a tool for you to use to find or share that perfect book from.

Adam Fortuna

Sat, 02 Jul 2022 22:40:18 +00005 min read

7 Ways You Can Use Match Percentage To Find Amazing Books Today

Match percentage is a score from 1% to 100% for how much we believe you'll enjoy a book.

Adam Fortuna

Thu, 12 May 2022 23:25:20 +00006 min read

$9,207 Spent, 400 Users: 8 Lessons From Hardcovers First Year

What a year! Here's a look at everything we learned during the first year building Hardcover.

Adam Fortuna

Sun, 01 May 2022 06:00:00 +000024 min read

Books vs Editions: How We’re Organizing Data Around Readers First

A look into how we're organizing book data at the book and edition level with users first.

Adam Fortuna

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 17:46:22 +00006 min read

Sticker Contest & Beta Release!

Want some nifty stickers? We got you covered.

Adam Fortuna

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 08:25:04 +00002 min read

Next Stop: Beta Release!

It's finally happening - our beta release is just around the corner.

Adam Fortuna

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 17:19:04 +00003 min read

13 Reasons Why We’re Building a Better Goodreads

Taking on Goodreads and Amazon isn't something we take lightly. Here are some of the reasons why we believe it's important.

Adam Fortuna

Sat, 29 Jan 2022 23:36:45 +000014 min read

Introducing Prompts

Prompts are polls. They're a new way to ask a question where readers can answer to find the best books.

Adam Fortuna

Mon, 17 Jan 2022 17:18:21 +00003 min read

Is Hardcover a Social Network?

After a bunch of discussions with users we have an idea on what the social side of Hardcover will be. Want a sneak peak?

Adam Fortuna

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 20:04:33 +00003 min read

5 Spooky Books to Read This Halloween

Check out 5 Spooky Books to Read This Halloween!

Adam Fortuna

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 18:02:52 +00001 min read

Hardcover Internal MVP Released!

We're working out the bugs and getting ready for a public release! Join our mailing list to be notified first.

Adam Fortuna

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 22:49:05 +00003 min read

Finding Good Books Shouldn’t Be a Slog through the Amazon

Our manifesto.

Adam Fortuna

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 23:09:31 +00001 min read

What’s in a Reading Goal?

We're trying something different on Hardcover: allow readers to create multiple goals to spark motivation.

Adam Fortuna

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 15:10:05 +00004 min read

Your Book Stats: What Are They For?

Showing the right information about your reading habits can inspire more reading and help you find books you'll love even more.

Adam Fortuna

Sun, 25 Jul 2021 19:43:54 +00006 min read

List and Shelves and Organization, Oh My!

Book organization is a core piece of any book tracking application. This enables easily seeing books organized in a bunch of different ways. Here's a look at some of the ways we're tackling this at Hardcover.

Adam Fortuna

Sun, 11 Jul 2021 21:37:13 +00006 min read

Hardcover Update #2 – What’s Different About Hardcover?

This is an email that went out to the Hardcover email list on June 20, 2021. Join the list to get these when they're sent.

Adam Fortuna

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 12:00:00 +00003 min read

The Perfect Startup Tech Stack?

Every developer has a tech stack they consider to be the best. Mine has changed over time – and is changing again for Hardcover.

Adam Fortuna

Sat, 19 Jun 2021 23:59:45 +000010 min read

The Startup Blog

I've always loved reading blogs and other stories that document a companies founding. We're going to be doing just chat – sharing what we learn and our progress along the way.

Adam Fortuna

Sun, 06 Jun 2021 15:41:32 +00003 min read

We have a name: Hardcover!

Our list of potential names was... interesting.

Adam Fortuna

Tue, 11 May 2021 14:52:00 +00002 min read

Untitled Book Site Kickoff Meeting

It's official - we have a group working together on this project! Here's a look at how we're kicking things off.

Adam Fortuna

Sat, 01 May 2021 14:51:00 +00001 min read

I’m Building a Goodreads Competitor out of Spite

It started as a Tweet, moved over to a brainstorm and now it's actually happening.

Adam Fortuna

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 20:23:00 +00002 min read

Community

Readers & Supporters

Join Our Discord

Follow Along

Blog Hardcover Live About Hardcover Request a feature

We're an Open Book

Frequently Asked Questions Contact Support Roadmap Our Policies

The Hardcover Blog

Blog Posts

Hardcover Report for February 2025

Hardcover Report for January 2025

Hardcover Report for December 2024

Hardcover Report for November 2024

Hardcover Report for October 2024

How We Survived 10k Requests a Second: Switching to Signed Asset URLs in an Emergency

Hardcover Report for August 2024

Hardcover Report for July 2024

Hardcover Report for June 2024

Automating Book Data! Librarian & Data Update Q2 2024

Hardcover Report for May 2024

Introducing Letterbooks: Advanced Lists for Power Readers

Hardcover Report for April 2024

Hardcover Report for March 2024

2024 State of Hardcover Survey Results

Hardcover Report for February 2024

How we Increased Search Traffic by 20x in 4 Months with the Next.js App Router

Hardcover Report for January 2024

Announcing the Hardcover 2023 Year in Books! 🥳

Hardcover Report for December 2023

Dragonsteel 2023 – SLC, Slugs & Liminal Spaces

Hardcover Report for November 2023

13 books for Halloween that you should read

Hardcover Report for October 2023

How We Reduced a $1,000/month Imgix Bill to $1 using Google Cloud

Hardcover Report for September 2023

Our Biggest Release Yet! Hardcover v2

An interview with Britt Joiner and her new book about Trello

Hardcover Report for August 2023

8 Podcast Recommendations for Book Lovers

Hardcover Report for July 2023

Hardcover Report for June 2023

Hardcover Quarterly Plans for mid-2023

Want to be a Hardcover Librarian?

Building Hardcover: on “good enough” qualitative user personas

Ask Jules: Your OpenAI Powered Librarian

Making the Most of Stats

Leaving Twitter?

The Hardcover Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Discovery Flowchart of the 2010s

Goodreads vs. Hardcover: Which is Right for You?

Introducing Airlists: Airtable for Your Books

7 Ways You Can Use Match Percentage To Find Amazing Books Today

$9,207 Spent, 400 Users: 8 Lessons From Hardcovers First Year

Books vs Editions: How We’re Organizing Data Around Readers First

Sticker Contest & Beta Release!

Next Stop: Beta Release!

13 Reasons Why We’re Building a Better Goodreads

Introducing Prompts

Is Hardcover a Social Network?

5 Spooky Books to Read This Halloween

Hardcover Internal MVP Released!

Finding Good Books Shouldn’t Be a Slog through the Amazon

What’s in a Reading Goal?

Your Book Stats: What Are They For?

List and Shelves and Organization, Oh My!

Hardcover Update #2 – What’s Different About Hardcover?

The Perfect Startup Tech Stack?

The Startup Blog

We have a name: Hardcover!

Untitled Book Site Kickoff Meeting

I’m Building a Goodreads Competitor out of Spite

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