# New Site for Book Promotion...With Analytics...



## D.J. Gelner (Jul 8, 2013)

Hi Everyone,

I'm D.J., and I've indie published 5 books (6 if you count a box set) on a bunch of different sites. I've always enjoyed lurking here at K-Boards (you all have _tons_ of great info for newbies!), but never really had occasion to post until now.

At any rate, though there are plenty of "I'll list your book for $30" scam-sites out there, I never really came across a site that will allow readers to browse through books like they might at a bookstore, not with virtual shelves or anything like that, but both boiling it down to the essentials, of "hunting" for that book in the wild, and adding some fun and interesting wrinkles to attract readers. In short, I wanted to make finding new gems of books fun again.

Additionally, I was frustrated at the limited array of analytics available to authors. Sure, we get sales data, but I didn't know what was driving folks away from my book pages. Was it the cover? The blurb? Something else that was driving folks away?

So, my business partner and I decided to make such a site. It's called *"Hunt to Read."* Essentially, you can list your book on the site, and have access to all kinds of analytics about how many folks are clicking on the cover, expanding the blurb, and clicking through to various retailers. In turn, you can use these analytics to see whether people never click through your cover on the main page (hence your cover needs work), or if your blurb needs work, etc. My buddy is an analytical programming whiz, so he's already created a pretty robust platform, with more analytics to come by the end of the year.

Listing a book will always be free; we'll make our money through ads, affiliate links, and (eventually) premium memberships that will include access to analytics, as well as a lot of other perks for our premium member authors. Right now, we need books so that we have them when we start marketing to readers en masse, so we're offering six free months of access to our analytics to early adopters who list their books before we start offering memberships. No obligation, we don't take your credit card info, nothing of the sort.

We have a bunch of cool new improvements in store for the site to drive traffic and more perks for authors down the road, but like I said, before we implement any of that, we need more book listings so that readers have a robust selection to browse down the road.

And of course, we're constantly updating the site with new features. We recently added the filter that allows folks to browse by genre and retailer, and plan on implementing price info, etc. in the near future.

Thanks--and always happy to address questions, concerns, or receive feedback.

Sincerely,

D.J. Gelner
Chief Executive Officer
Hunt to Read
http://www.hunttoread.com


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## jenminkman (Mar 2, 2013)

How many books are currently in the system? I clicked the HUNT button to have a look and apply the filter, but when I do, only one book cover shows up... am I supposed to click on it or skip to the next book if the cover doesn't interest me? (and if so, how do I do that? I don't see any arrows...)
Nice idea, by the way!


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## D.J. Gelner (Jul 8, 2013)

Hi Jen,

Thanks! We think it fills a niche that some other sites have neglected...

We've only been adding books for a little less than two weeks, so some of the genres (and retailers) aren't terribly populated yet. We have about 150 books thus far, and we add more every day. The main hunt (without the filter) should show you how it will function within genres as we add more books; there should be little right and left arrows on either side of the cover that go from transparent-ish to solid as you mouse over them. The idea is that you keep "hunting" until you find a book that intrigues you, then click through, take a look at the cover and blurb, and click through to the retailers from there. We have a few ideas that we're working on for release two to give incentives to people to rate and leave comments, but for now, it's just book-lovers that hear about it through the grapevine.

Feel free to check it out, list a book or two, and let us know what you think; at this point, not only do we appreciate feedback, but a lot of the tweaks to the site that have been suggested by early adopters have already been implemented "on the fly." We think of writers/publishers and readers as our partners in this endeavor; after all, if we can't provide value to those folks, why even have a site, you know?

Thanks again, Jen, and hope to hear more from you!

Sincerely,

D.J. Gelner
Chief Executive Officer
Hunt to Read
http://www.hunttoread.com


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## jimkukral (Oct 31, 2011)

Neat idea good luck with it. Anything that helps authors find readers is a good thing!


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## melco99 (Jun 18, 2013)

I'm having no luck logging in. I've gone through several password resets and it still says my password is wrong. It is a bit buggy. Hope the rest of the site is better.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

I added some books (the process went fine, very easy), but then I was apparently logged out, and I can't find where to log in again. You have "sign up" all over the place but no option for signing in (that I can see...if it's there, maybe it needs to be more obvious).


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## melco99 (Jun 18, 2013)

ChristinePope said:


> I added some books (the process went fine, very easy), but then I was apparently logged out, and I can't find where to log in again. You have "sign up" all over the place but no option for signing in (that I can see...if it's there, maybe it needs to be more obvious).


The signing in is over on the top right, but as I say logging in is problematic, as the database running the login doesn't appear to be configured properly.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

Wow...waaaaay over on the right, separated from everything else. They might want to tweak that a little (maybe it just looks really far away on this computer because I have a 27-inch screen).

Anyway, I was able to log back in without a problem.


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## Willo (May 10, 2013)

Thank you for creating a resource for authors and readers that can add real value to the purchasing experience, and good luck!


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

I listed three books.  

Thanks for doing this!


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## ericbt (Nov 7, 2010)

Thanks for this! I listed all 7 of my books. A couple notes... It would have been a little simpler if you would allow more than 13 characters for the ISBN. All of the places my ISBN number appears has a dash after the first 3 digits so when I copy and paste to your form, it drops the last digit so I have to not only remove the dash, but add that last digit back in. Not a huge deal, but extra steps that wouldn't be necessary if it allowed one more character. There also seems to be a timeout on the page (or maybe the site) that made me enter the data twice on 2 of the books because it timed out before I clicked Next Step. (It took a few minutes to resize the cover pic.)
Thanks again!


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## D.J. Gelner (Jul 8, 2013)

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the warm wishes and great feedback! Trust me, even seemingly little things like the locations of buttons and links can make a huge difference in the user experience, so we appreciate you pointing out anything you notice.

In order of posts:

*Jim:* Thanks! We certainly think so, and we have some cool ideas to facilitate constructive author/reader interaction coming in the future.

*Mel:* Terribly sorry to hear that you're having trouble logging in. If you could drop us an email at contact (at) hunttoread (dot) com with what OS and browser you're using, our tech team can take a look and try to isolate the problem. I apologize sincerely for the inconvenience.

*Christine:* Interesting--didn't think of that necessarily since I'm working on a 13" laptop! Our CTO assures me that adding a Log In button along with the other buttons on the home page shouldn't be an issue--thanks for bringing it to our attention!

*Willo:* Thanks! That's certainly what we're shooting for--adding value to both sides of the purchasing equation. I think you'll be _really_ impressed once we get some of the cooler features off the ground; we're certainly thinking outside-the-box on all kinds of fun stuff to implement!

*Cherise:* Thank _you_! Explore the site, look at the analytics, and please let us know what you think once you have a decent feel for it.

*Ericbt:* No problem--thank you! Thanks for the excellent feedback; I passed the ISBN and the time-out issue on to our CTO for consideration (add an extra space on the ISBN, but still require eliminations of the hyphens, and lengthen the login time out)--I assume we'll be able to implement the changes in the future, but we've got a ton of balls in the air right now, so not sure on the timeline. Anything to make the experience easier on both writers and readers! Please let us know what you think once you get some analytic data and have a chance to play around with things a bit.

Thanks everyone--appreciate all of the excellent feedback. Look forward to hearing more of it in the future, and by all means, if you know other authors and publishers who might be interested in listing books, feel free to spread the word; we'd love to have them on the site, and would love to hear what everyone thinks as they start to see some data. Thanks again!

Sincerely,

D.J. Gelner
Chief Executive Officer
Hunt to Read
http://www.hunttoread.com


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## Michael Murray (Oct 31, 2011)

DJGelner said:


> Thanks--and always happy to address questions, concerns, or receive feedback.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> ...


Interesting idea, D.J. - analytics are good. I posted my book. The analytics look pretty useful.


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## D.J. Gelner (Jul 8, 2013)

Hi Michael,

Thanks! Yeah, we're very excited to see what people do with the data once we _really_ start to get some traffic. We have a number of ideas, but the organic things that people come up with on their own are usually the most elegant uses of whatever tools and tech are provided.

By all means, please let me know what you think of the analytics once you have a few more data points; we're always looking for more ways that we can help authors out. Thanks again!

Sincerely,

D.J. Gelner
Chief Executive Officer
Hunt to Read
http://www.hunttoread.com


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## Mart (Oct 13, 2012)

Just posted both of my books. I'm always down to help out a fellow St. Louisan (I'm from St. Charles, actually--close enough  ). Best of luck with this venture!


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## Guest (Jul 9, 2013)

> Welcome New Authors & Publishers! Now offering free 6 month analytics for a limited time only.


This would lead one to assume that after 6 months, you will want money.


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## MsTee (Jul 30, 2012)

Great site, here's hoping it succeeds in its endeavours. A few things:

1. Your main div/section showcasing the books on your front page is not properly aligned. I think you're trying to make it centered, but it's not doing so for me (I've got a 1368px width width screen here). Your current div alignment will only be centered for smaller screen resolutions (800 - 900px width).

2. NEVER make your visitors work too hard to find out what to do, what to see and where to go. On the 'Hunt' page, you initially hide the filter. Not good. You need to make that obvious right off the bat because from my own experiences, what you think is obvious to YOU isn't always obvious to your users. As well, if your filter is going to be your strong point for finding books, you need to make it prominent.

3. JavaScript - the less you use it, the better. I hate telling/being told by other developers that because I love JS and jQuery to death, but you want to make sure your site is useable by as many people as possible. While the technology is advancing, there are some accessibility devices (screen readers) that still can't handle JS. Use JS to 'improve the experience' of your site, not as an integral part of it. As well, don't make me have to click a 'Show More' button on the description page when I shouldn't have to. We're already on the main page of the book, let me see everything, please. Don't hide the filter options behind a nifty 'slideToggle' feature, either.

4. Be very careful with those social links at the top of the page. It gives your site a bloggish feel. If you don't mind that, fine. But it gives the impression of a non-Wordpress/Blogger feel when the social links are in the footer where you've already got them.

I hope I haven't sounded harsh. In any case, these are just suggestions. Take 'em or leave 'em.


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## Guest (Jul 9, 2013)

You might want to also look at what keywords you have selected for your site. When I went to the "hunt" link to look at the set up, I saw four ads all for self-publishing services. Keywords like "self publishing" and "indie"  are NOT going to attract READERS. They will attract self publishers. You don't want to end up with nothing more than a glorified FFA site where only people selling stuff visit it. 

Honestly, from the FAQ's section I would get rid of the whole "How do I know this isn't a scam" vibe. I've never seen a scam site that did NOT claim it was not a scam. And the most successful sites don't try to convince you that they are legitimate. Rule one of identifying a scammer is often how vehemently the scammer claims to NOT be a scammer. You are actually sending the wrong message with this line of promotion. Truth is, if you are not going to answer the questions straightforward in your FAQ, get rid of the FAQ. It's really annoying to read an FAQ that essentially says "Just trust us. We're awesome." Which is all your FAQ does.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I've added a book.
The idea of the analytics is great. I would not mind paying for a site like this _if it results in sales_. A 6-month trial seems fair.

However, as someone mentioned, it still looks a little bloggy and there are ads sprinkled everywhere. Because of that, it feels more like the authors are providing your content to drive clicks to those ads. 
It's a fair deal for promo sites to collect affiliate shares but then also run ads AND charge authors for listings (eventually) seems a little bit grabby (unless you have tens of thousands of visitors - that changes everything  )

Suggestion: Is it possible to add more sub-categories. Many of us would fit into more than one.


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## Stuffeshead (Jan 19, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> This would lead one to assume that after 6 months, you will want money.


And Her Pithiness enters the discussion... LOL!

I've always thought Sith Lords (and Ladies) were pithy in addition to being Sithy. You just proved it!

Stuffeshead


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## Guest (Jul 9, 2013)

Stuffeshead said:


> And Her Pithiness enters the discussion... LOL!
> 
> I've always thought Sith Lords (and Ladies) were pithy in addition to being Sithy. You just proved it!
> 
> Stuffeshead


*bows* It is my goal to entertain.


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## Stuffeshead (Jan 19, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> *bows* It is my goal to entertain.


Mission Accomplished, M'Lady.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

DJ,

Welcome to KBoards! [br][br]You're welcome to promote your business and website here in the Writers' Café, but we ask that the same basic rules be followed as we have for authors in the Book Bazaar: you may have one thread about your service and must post to it rather than start a new thread each time. New threads about the service will be removed. Please bookmark this thread so that you can find it again to post to. And, you may not make back-to-back posts to the thread within seven days. If someone responds (such as this post), you may reply but otherwise must wait seven days, thanks![br]
You'll want to add your title, website name and link to your forum profile signature. (Go to Profile in the top blue menu bar, click on Forum Profile Information on the left, and add it to the signature box.) Our forum etiquette is to not have it in the body of posts.  [br]Also, active members (10 or more posts on our forum, active in the last 60 days) may have a listing in the Yellow Pages for Authors. [br][br]Betsy [br]KBoards Moderator


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## Accord64 (Mar 12, 2012)

I ran across this site after reading a topic DJ started in another forum. After looking it over, I was skeptical. I thought there were a lot of troubling weaknesses in the way the site was set up, but I liked the idea of accessing analytics. After dialoging with DJ a bit, I thought I'd give it a try. It's free (at this point) and there's no obligation.

Since then I've been impressed with the way DJ (and crew) have been open to feedback, and they have made a number of key changes that have improved the site. I think there's still progress that needs to be made, but they seem to be heading in the right direction.

I'll be honest that I'm still a bit skeptical if this endeavor will be able to gain enough traction to become a significant player in book promotion. I hope it does, but time will tell. To me, it's a ground-floor opportunity that could lead to some nice exposure and information.


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## D.J. Gelner (Jul 8, 2013)

Hi Everyone,

Loving all of the feedback; even if you think you're being "harsh," by all means, we'd rather know up front than not! Again, I'll address everyone in order:

*AmyMart:* Hey, no kidding? Small world! I won't ask TUSLQ ("The Usual St. Louis Question"); instead, I'll just say that thankfully it seems like the rain is gone for a while, replaced by the usual, soul-crushing heat and humidity of July! Thanks so much for joining us, and absolutely let us know if we can improve anything.

*Bards and Sages:* Actually, before six months from now, we plan on introducing Premium Memberships, which will include analytics, promotional tools, and promotional opportunities. However, everyone always has the opportunity of keeping books in the "free tier"; it's up to us to convince you that the premium membership is worth it down the road--we don't take credit cards or anything, so the decision on your part will have to be proactive when the time comes.

To these ends, we have some great ideas that we're working on, but ultimately it's up to _you_, the author, to decide whether the premium membership is worth it or not. Certainly appreciate where you're coming from, though; it's all about providing value on our end to make it worth your while.

As far as the ads go, right now most of our marketing (including blog posts on the HTR blog) is geared toward writers because that's who we're currently marketing to. Once we implement all of the improvements in the works on the reader interface side, and focus our blog posts (which is where most of the ad content is derived, I think) on the reader experience, they will change. Believe me, no one _hates_ those "publish your book with us for a fee" ads more than me, and down the road we hope to work directly with advertisers, but when dealing with Google, they don't give you much wiggle room on what ads to accept/not to accept.

Your point about the FAQ is noted; actually, I added that part about the "not being a scam" after some folks on another forum expressed some reservations about it. I can see where that might hinder more than help; thanks for pointing it (and the other items) out!

*Quiss:* Thanks for listing a book on HTR! All we're trying to do is show that we can provide real value to authors. I have to stress that in the first couple of months, we'll need your patience. We're still very much in the "promote to authors" phase while we improve the reader interface. The default Google ads help us pay our tech costs while we continue to grow and improve.

Additionally, we see HTR as more than a promotional site; eventually it will be a powerful marketing site, A/B testing ground, and (more than anything) a strong community of people who use the tools we provide in unique new ways. Of course, it's certainly also our goal to eventually get "tens of thousands" of readers visiting the site to make all of that happen , and we think we can do it. As I wrote to Bards and Sages above, we absolutely have to prove that the value is there, and commensurate with our eventual fee structure. For now, I encourage you to let us know what features would be more valuable from your perspective: any advanced analytics? Any data we can provide that isn't currently on the dashboard? I'm confident that we can drive the traffic to the site over the next several months, but when that happens, what features would you like to see implemented that could help you sell more books _in addition_ to the traffic boost?

*MsTee:* Thanks for the kind words and your detailed responses! In order:

1. I will pass this along to our tech team.

2. Interesting point about not hiding the filter up front; you're right that (at the moment) it's the strong point of the book discovery process for readers, so we should make it more prominent. I'll see what the tech team can do about that.

3. I'll pass what you say about JavaScript along to the tech team. I will say that there's a good reason for us hiding the description; one of the analytics is how many people expanded the blurb. If someone is interested enough to expand the blurb, but doesn't click through to a retailer, the inference you can draw is that the blurb isn't all that it could be. Essentially, we need to make the readers work a little bit to provide the nuanced data that retailers don't. We realize this increases the burden on readers, but we have a plan to address that, which should be up-and-running on the site in a couple of weeks.

4. Good to know--again, these little details add up to a much better user experience--thanks!

Your feedback didn't seem harsh at all; in fact, we're quite grateful for all of it. While I can't promise that all of the tech feedback will be implemented immediately, we will consider it and implement what we can in light of where we're headed with the site.

*Betsy:* Thanks for the warm welcome! I apologize for being a bit of a "rube" when it came to site etiquette in those first several posts; I believe I've altered my signature to meet site standards.

Duly noted about bumping rules, multiple threads, etc.; it's all I can do to keep up with the comments on this one, so shouldn't be a problem.

Also, thanks so much for all of the info about the wonderful resources on this forum! Like I said in one of my earlier posts, I've lurked a number of times, but never really posted until now. You folks have a great site here--I just want to be a good guest and respect your rules!

*Accord64:* Thanks for pointing me this way; after our initial discussion, I'm glad you think we're heading in the right direction. I really, _really_ wish I could tell you about some of the improvements we have in the works for the reader interface, but I guess you'll just have to wait a couple of weeks to see for yourself!  In the meantime, appreciate your cautious optimism, and certainly appreciate you directing us over to KBoards.

Again, thank you all so much for your thoughtful responses and feedback. Especially to those of you who have already listed books on HTR, we really appreciate the opportunity to create something special _with_ you, something that can help you sell books in numerous ways, and something that can help readers find books that they might otherwise not. By all means, please keep the thoughts, constructive criticisms, and even skepticism coming; it helps us learn how we can better address authors' needs, and makes the site (and value we provide) all the better for it.

Sincerely,

D.J.


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## Guest (Jul 9, 2013)

You might want to consider using Project Wonderful, which would give you a lot of control over the types of ads that appear on your site. As traffic increases, the value of your ad boxes will go up. I know a few folks who do better with PW than they ever did with Google ads and they have more control over what appears on their site.


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## MsTee (Jul 30, 2012)

MsTee said:


> 1. Your main div/section showcasing the books on your front page is not properly aligned. I think you're trying to make it centered, but it's not doing so for me (I've got a 1368px width width screen here). Your current div alignment will only be centered for smaller screen resolutions (800 - 900px width).


^^^ The above might have to be disregarded. I decided to disable AdBlock temporarily for your site and I see that you've reserved either sides of your main div for adverts. Prior to disabling AdB, it just looked like irregular blank spaces for me. Anyway, again, best of luck to you.


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## D.J. Gelner (Jul 8, 2013)

Hi Everyone,

We updated the site last night. Included in this round of updates:

-Added an extra space to the ISBN field so that if folks cut and paste ISBNs from merchant sites, they can do so and delete the hyphen.
-The Hunt filter now shows by default.
-Added a "Login" button to the row of buttons in the middle of the home page.
-Made minor changes to the FAQ
-Updated the headers of some pages to improve viewing on smaller displays.
-Added "Back to my items" link on analytics page for ease of navigation.
-Lengthened the login timeout to 30 minutes.

As far as specific feedback is concerned:

*Bards and Sages:* Thanks for the heads up about Project Wonderful. We are looking into using them; I've also been told that there is a way to filter Google Ads to some degree, so I'm working on that solution in the interim. I certainly don't want to drive any more traffic to those "pay to publish" sites.

*MsTee:* Ah, that explains it. Thanks so much for clarifying, as well as the warm wishes!

As you can see, at Hunt to Read, we take pride in quickly solving the problems with the site that you have identified, and providing the highest level of customer service possible: in short, "we're listening!" Your feedback has been incredibly valuable already, and has already improved the site quite a bit, so I encourage those of you who have already listed books or who might drop by for the first time to continue providing constructive criticism, comments, and other ways to improve the user experience. We will do our best to quickly address them as they come in.

Thanks everyone, and happy hunting!

Sincerely,

D.J.


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## Guest (Jul 10, 2013)

You need an adult filter. I signed in and was greeting with a graphic book cover promoting a book on sister-brother incest. Actually, it isn't even a book cover. It is just a picture of two almost completely naked people with no title or author name. 

I'm not saying don't offer erotica listings, but you are going to have significant problems because your site will not be safe for work.


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## EmilyG (Jan 31, 2010)

Here are my usability comments (I design and develop web applications).

When I filter, there is no indication of how many books are in the list.

There is no indication where in the list of books I am.

The list is random. For example when I filtered on historical fiction the books were listed as: B1 B2 B3 B1 B4 B2 B2 B2 B5  When I got to book B1 the second time, I thought I had been through them all. I also thought I was at the end when I got B2 three times in a row. 

When you look at the book details and "Go Back", you are taken to a random book cover not the one you were looking at. It is discombobulating. 

Some of the book covers are huge - two I saw were 1.2MB and 1.4MB. Those can be scaled way down. 

I don't think people are going to have the patience to click though book covers one at a time. Especially since it is random and there is no way to know if you have seen them all. 

I know you are trying something different but there is a reason why all major online marketplaces have grids of products.


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## Midnight Whimsy (Jun 25, 2013)

EmilyG said:


> Here are my usability comments (I design and develop web applications).
> 
> When I filter, there is no indication of how many books are in the list.
> 
> ...


I really like the idea of being able to click through one cover at a time -- but I want to be able to click _much _faster. Some covers are very slow to load (and I'm not working off a slow connection), probably the large files Emily mentioned. I also agree with Emily's comment about list usability. Think Netflix lists instead, just one cover at a time. It would also be really cool to have a side panel with basic info about the book (Netflix style), like the genre, length (novel, novella, short story), and a couple lines about the premise.

Good luck with the site!

M.W


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## EmilyG (Jan 31, 2010)

Midnight Whimsy said:


> I really like the idea of being able to click through one cover at a time -- but I want to be able to click _much _faster.




Being able to page through covers faster would help but you have to think about scalability. What works well with 5-10 books will get unwieldy when there is 100 or more books.

What if I want to find a specific title say Book1? If I look at the Book1's details and "go back", the list of books is re-randomized. If I then decide to purchase Book1, I will have to click through the books until I find it. Even if the titles were alphabetized or in some order, it will be easier to find on Amazon.

Is there any way to tell what is new since the last time I looked though the books? I would not click through 100 books on the off chance of finding one I had not seen before.

I think the site has promise but it needs to be easy to use or people won't use it.


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## Guest (Jul 10, 2013)

Midnight Whimsy said:


> I really like the idea of being able to click through one cover at a time --


Speaking of covers, please forgive the threadjacking here but I'm a cover junkie and look at signatures 

The cover for Ninja Girl...is the figure holding two katanas or is she holding the saya like a club? The pose looks off to me for some reason.


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## D.J. Gelner (Jul 8, 2013)

Hi Everyone,

More great feedback all around! I'll address each person in order:

*Bards and Sages:* Indeed we do. We hoped not to have to, since we're both rather anti-censorship, but there's a point where we simply can't have a site that's considered "Not Safe For Work" based on the content that's been added. We're working on a filter that we think is still in the spirit of the site that will be implemented over the next mini-release or two. Thanks for alerting us.

*EmilyG:* Thanks for the developer's perspective! I don't want to get too "inside baseball" with our release schedule, but the benchmarks we're targeting for the official "Release Two" have to do with improving the reader interface. Among these are so-called "tracking" of the hunt (so that books don't appear multiple times in the same Hunt), view multiple covers at once, and a number of other features that should help make it a more "reader-friendly" site. As we make the filter more flexible to increase the number of books a reader can view at a time, we have some cool new ideas for analytics that we can implement based on that data.

As far as the cover sizes go, we're working on loading them more quickly for releases 2 and 3.

Additionally, saving lists, favorites, etc. is all a part of releases 2-3; we want people to be able to come back and find books they like! So along with the "tracked" hunt, a lot of these improvements are already in the works--we ask for your patience as we develop them.

Re: new additions: that's certainly an interesting concept. I know I hate when Netflix has the "same old junk" all of the time with no way to discard stuff that you're truly not interested in. Thinking about it a little, I think this problem will be solved in the next couple of releases inadvertently, but I'll pass it along to the tech team to try to make sure that functionality is explicitly included.

*M.W.:* Thanks! We experimented with an info "window" before the first release with a little bit of the stuff you wrote about, but I pushed to get rid of it because I thought that the analytic a writer gets from someone clicking through just based on the cover is more valuable; i.e. if a short blurb and whatnot is there, did the reader click through because of the cover, or the additional info? With just the cover, it's clear that it's because of the cover. Besides, a good cover should already convey some information about genre and premise, right ?

Where I _absolutely_ agree with you is length; if someone's browsing through a bookstore, they can definitely see how thick a book is right away. I'll pass this along to the tech team--we'll discuss and implement as we can. Thanks!

I think I answered your Netflix list question with the "tracked hunt" information above in response to Emily; let me know if I didn't and I'll be happy to talk through it some more.

Thanks again, everyone--this is great feedback. Even though we're already working on some of the improvements, it confirms that our heads are in the proper places, and we're on the right track. By all means, please continue to let us know areas for improvements, or any problems you come across. Thanks again!

Sincerely,

D.J.


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## Guest (Jul 10, 2013)

Thank you for taking feedback in the spirit it is intended.  

I've actually done a lot of beta testing over the years for various sites, so I understand it can take a while to get it right.


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## D.J. Gelner (Jul 8, 2013)

No problem, Julie--absolutely appreciate it! A lot of times it's the little things that add up to make the site a lot better...not that the adult filter is necessarily "little," but I'm sure you know what I mean.  

The tech team keeps plugging away--should have more minor updates either later today or tomorrow. Included in there is something that should help us reduce the load times of the covers down the road, which should alleviate some concerns.

Thanks for your patience, everyone, and keep the feedback coming! You are helping to make the site all that it can be, and for that, we are extremely grateful. It's on us now to fully realize all of the tweaks and improvements you have envisioned. Thanks again!

Sincerely,

D.J.


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## D.J. Gelner (Jul 8, 2013)

Hi Everyone,

Apologize for the recent radio silence; we were hard at work at finishing off Hunt to Read: Release 2.

We implemented a lot of your feedback in this release, along with a number of our own cool new ideas. I think a lot of folks will be pleased at the result.

In this release, we made the following improvements:

-*The HTR Points System*: Readers (and Authors/Publishers) can now earn HTR Points for a variety of actions, from rating covers, blurbs, and book presentation to writing insightful comments that are upvoted. When you earn enough points, you'll be able to unlock special privileges, and (eventually) earn free books (!) and even make some cash (!!).

(Note: No one will ever force you to put your books in the free library--I will have more on that at a later date closer to implementation).

For now, the perks are somewhat tame, but all points you earn from here on out will be maintained going forward. We threw in an early adopter points bonus as a thank you to those of you who get accounts here at the start.

We're really excited about all of the ideas we have planned for the points system in the coming weeks, but we're always interested in more ways to use points, no matter how "out there" they may initially seem. If you have an idea on more perks for points, by all means, we'd love to hear it.

-*Improved Hunt Interface*: My Co-Founder and CTO, Rick Tucker, and his tech team deserve a huge amount of credit on this one; Rick really made improving the hunt interface his obsession for Release 2. The results (I think) are fantastic:

-_A Tracked Hunt_: No more annoying repeats!

-_The Cover Header Bar_: This is a really cool feature--as you click through books, previous covers appear in the scrollable header bar. Click past a book but change your mind and want to click through it four books down the road? Just select it from the header bar. I LOVE this feature--I think it really adds a lot to the hunt.

-_Bookmarks_: You can now bookmark a book for later reference. Used as a "favorite" button of sorts.

-_Re-shuffle at the end_: When you reach the end of a filtered hunt, you can reshuffle that hunt and go through it again, scroll the header bar and look for books that way, or re-filter and start a new hunt.

-_Book Detail Pages Open in New Tabs_: Very curious to get feedback on this one: when you drill down into a book detail page, it opens in a new window, preserving the hunt that you have chosen in the old one. Given our early testing, this seems to be a bit of a personal preference issue--I'd really appreciate it if you'd give me an honest "yea/nay" on the open a book in a new tab feature.

*User Account Pages*: We made User Account pages more robust. Now you can add a custom photo, add a link to your external website, and write a little more about yourself. If you've listed books on the site, we've added a "More From This User" on every book page, which will take readers to your account page with links to the other books you have listed and your website, thus increasing the possibility that folks will discover more of your work. Again, we have much more for User Pages planned in the future, but this is a big incremental improvement over the initial build.

*Adult Filter*: We implemented a default Adult Filter--though we remain very proud of our growing selection of Erotica titles, having those appear in the default hunt and on the home page decreases the user base of people at work and minors who can access the site. Those who want to hunt specifically for Erotica may still do so, or users can disable the filter under their Account settings.

We did update the TOS to note this change--please feel free to read the TOS for yourself.

*Tech Updates*: There were a lot of smaller site architecture changes in this release, including:

-Optimized the menu bar for larger displays
-Updated Reader/Writer/Publisher FAQs with info about the points system
-Books should load faster
-Paginated some lists for heavy users
-Added more links in intuitive places so that site navigation should be easier

*Marketing*: The hunt is now at a level where we feel comfortable expanding our marketing efforts to include targeted groups of readers. This addition to our strategy should start showing itself in your analytics in the coming weeks.

Thanks to all of you who have already listed books, and a reminder that you still get 6 free months of our analytics if you list a book now (listing a book has been, is, and always will be free). Just click the link in my sig to get started.

And of course, if you have any questions, concerns, or comments, by all means, don't be shy! We'd love to hear from you in a response to the thread.

Thanks everyone, and Happy Hunting!

Sincerely,

D.J. Gelner
Co-founder and CEO
Hunt to Read


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## D.J. Gelner (Jul 8, 2013)

Hi Everyone,

We're hard at work on Release 3 of Hunt to Read, which should help us make another "leap" toward getting our authors their 1,000 true fans.

For now, one feature we've been running on the Hunt to Read blog that's getting a lot of traction is the Author Spotlight series. A number of the folks who have done it thus far have either seen an increase in analytic activity on their author pages, or have made a few sales as a direct result of being featured in the series, since we lead readers to purchasing links on all of the ebook retailers.

The guidelines are listed here: http://blog.hunttoread.com/p/author-spotlight.html

Essentially, email [email protected] with:

1) Your HTR Username
2) Book(s) you want featured
3) 3-5 cool facts about yourself (we use them to make up the interview Qs)
4) Subject line "Author Spotlight"

Again, it's always free to join and list books on Hunt to Read, and the Author Spotlight program is on a first-come, first-serve basis.

I'll be back when the next update is ready--I think you all will enjoy it! 

For now, though, Happy Hunting!

-D.J.


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