Hardcover Report for November 2024
Surprise! Adam is on vacation so you’re getting the November report from me, Ste! In case you don’t know me, I’m on the design side of Hardcover.
Since autumn is THE season to get into a thoughtful, introspective mood, I’ve been thinking about what the most challenging thing is when building a startup like we’ve been doing for the past 3 years.
Paul Graham famously said, “startups don’t die from running out of money, but rather from founders running out of energy”. I moved with my family to Paris from London about three months ago. That took a lot of energy (and changing my diet to mostly baguettes). Yet through all this, the team and I continued working on Hardcover at the same pace. Why? I think it’s because working on it was always more rewarding than the huge effort that it takes.
I’ve found that Paris has a lot of bookshops and libraries, so I’ve been busy leaving some of our custom bookmarks.
That always happens with me trying to explain what Hardcover is in my semi-broken French to the booksellers. I ordered myself a Hardcover cap last week, so that gave me a confidence boost.
But the challenge still remains! This brings me to the other thing I think is important: Clarity.
I’m a big fan of the Farnham St. blog. Each week they send these very useful snippets related to how to structure your thoughts better. This month Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish is the book I really want to read. They also have this neat series on the Great Mental Models:
These three years I’ve been working on Hardcover were a continuous journey to explain it better. We often have a feeling of what we want to achieve. We have lots of feedback from you and all the readers on Discord, which helps a ton.
Our job as founders is to take all that info and articulate it in a way that clearly answers one question: why do you need us? Hardcover has been a continuous journey to find a better answer to that question. Instead of answering that question on this occasion, I’m curious what you think the answer is.
What’s New On Hardcover?
We are in the middle of a huge code migration to Inertia JS. That’s about 25% done. This will hopefully solve most of the errors you get while browsing. Adam has written more about this in last month’s newsletter, for the code-curious.
New Releases on Hardcover!
There’s a new page on Hardcover – Upcoming releases! You can see all the books that are due to be released, as well as recent releases.
For now this is a Lab feature that you can access via the Discover menu or Explore on mobile. Let us know if you found your next read in there!
Coming soon – new Stats
The new and long-awaited version of Stats is getting closer! Right now we’ve wrapped up with most of the UI and the next step will be to hook it up to real data.
We have spent a lot of time making sure these are going to give you the best insight into your reading. Stats are tricky. Reading is about stories and ideas, not numbers.
So we wanted these to give you more than just some figures. For selected stats, we are thinking of introducing Insights. These will tell you more about your reading and also help you make sense of the data:
🎙️ Hardcover Live
In our last Hardcover live we talked about Stats and plans for this quarter. You can see that episode here.
Tune in each Wednesday at noon PST to watch us build Hardcover Live. We don’t yet have any guests scheduled for November. Are you an author or a book influencer interested in being on the show? Let us know!
Other updates
- The contributor form for artwork and cover placeholders is now live over here. If you’re an artist who wants to contribute we encourage you to get in touch!
- Emma from our Discord community shared an API reference which you can read about here (thanks Emma!)
- @oxyJinn uploaded a script that takes in a CSV and adds the books to your Want to read list over here
What’s Next on Hardcover?
- November’s focus is the Inertia migration so we can make Stats and the Dashboard load seamlessly with all the data
- Starting to prepare the Year in Books 2024
- Making the Dashboard UI – if you’re on Discord we’re going to share work in progress for feedback so keep an eye out 👀
Behind the Scenes
This month we hit 19,000 readers!
…and 184 Supporters!
It’s been a big month for sign-ups. We are very close to getting to the point where we can cover Hardcover costs! That is a huge milestone for us. So if you’ve been thinking about becoming a Supporter, now is the time to do it!
Featured Prompt for November 2024
A good twist in any book is when your perception of a character changes.
This month’s Prompt comes from @JustCakie:
What book had you eventually rooting for a character you initially despised?
Have you ever found yourself unexpectedly cheering for a character you initially couldn’t stand? Whether they started as an arrogant villain, a selfish anti-hero, or just someone totally normal who rubbed you the wrong way. What book surprised you by turning a disliked character into someone you rooted for?
Will you end up rooting for these characters too? Check it out and tell us what you’ve picked from that list!
Last month’s prompt was: What is the scariest horror book you have ever read? After 44 answers, the top book is Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.
Most Read Books for September 2024
We seem to have another Brandon Sanderson-leaning month, with the top two books from him. Others are Hardcover-classics as well:
| Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson |
| The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson |
| The Midnight Library by Matt Haig |
| Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin |
| Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir |
| At #6 you have a more seasonally themed one – A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny. This one has spooky vibes written all over it. |
Most Saved Books upcoming in November 2024
| The Songbird & the Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent (fantasy,41 saves) |
| Where the Library Hides by Isabel Ibañez (young adult fiction, 30 saves) |
| Games Untold By Jennifer Lynn Barnes (young adult, fantasy, 9 saves) |
| Rani Choudhury Must Die By Adiba Jaigirdar (young adult, lgbtq, 9 saves) |
| She’s Always Hungry By Eliza Clark (fiction, 9 saves) |
The top 5 is, as traditionally on Hardcover, a mix of fantasy and romance! There are plenty more releases on the Upcoming Books page for you to check out!
Join us on Discord
The Hardcover Community isn’t just on the website – we’re also on Discord! If you’re not an expert in Discord, don’t worry – neither are we.
Join the over 1,000 others to chat about books, hear about product updates, and be part of the community.
Join the Hardcover Discord
Want to Support Hardcover?
As a fledgling startup, we can use all the help we can get, whether that’s becoming a Supporter, sharing Hardcover with a friend, or just following along.
We appreciate you reading this and hope you have an amazing month. Talk to you soon. ♥️
Thanks,
Ste, Adam & the Hardcover Team