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 Hi everyone. Welcome to the June 2025 Recap! [Read Online]
It was a very productive month at Book Notification, as the database team passed the 80,000 mark for authors audited and added to the site. While there are essentially an infinite number of authors, we’re confident that the 100,000 mark is when we can consider the “backlog” complete, and are looking forward to getting there later this year.
We also launched our Weekly Picks Newsletter, featuring 12 book recommendations each week hand-picked by the Book Notification staff. You can see the first three issues here, and if you’re not already getting it in your inbox every Friday, click here to change that.
Care, Angela the librarian and I also recorded the second episode of our Book Club Podcast: I Care About Books. We discussed The Women by Kristin Hannah, and picked out the next book to read, which is Erasure by Percival Everett. That book is currently his most popular book on Book Notification, although James will likely surpass that soon.
The highlight of my reading month was starting the Prey series by John Sandford. It’s a series I’ve always wanted to get going, partly because I enjoy reading the evolution and advancement of book series like that over multiple decades.
I happened to be speaking to one reader earlier in the month, who said they binged the series over the course of many years as they relied exclusively on the library. I use the library for all my audiobooks and liked the idea of relying on the library availability for a big series like that. I was a bit unsure how narration would be in the early 90s, however the very next e-mail had someone mention that they had also binged the entire Prey series, via audio, and that the “narration was brilliant”.
That felt like a sign, and I’ve listened to the first two books in the series so far. The nice weather certainly helps, but my step count has gone way up this month due to long evening walks purely to listen to the books!
Two highly requested features were added to Book Notification this month – more on that below. We’re doing a few design tweaks at the moment which should be complete by mid-July. Nothing too drastic; just some small changes to enhance the experience like rearranging elements or reducing unnecessary white space to minimize scrolling. This month’s contest is asking you what you’d like to see on the site so be sure to read more about that, at the bottom of the newsletter.
If you aren’t a member yet and want an ad-free experience on Book Notification, as well as supporting all of the hard work, be sure to join the Page Turners Club. And a big thank you to everyone who signed up last month. Your support and trust mean the world to us. Seeing so many people sign up to support us or donate directly to the site has been incredible. Thank You.
Until the next chapter,
Graeme
Book Notification Founder
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Site Improvements & Updates
Author Notes: You can now make any notes about an author, and track them in a centralized area along with your book notes and a general-use notepad. On any author page click the note icon:
Enter your note, and then you can see it in the my notes area. As I have Book Notification on my phone constantly, I use the general notes area for my grocery list!
Series Search: We have now added the ability to search for a particular book series on the site, in addition to being able to search by author and by book title. Please note: this was launched a few hours ago and is still considered in “Beta” testing status. If you encounter any issues, let us know! To use the series search, just hover over the icon on the left of search where you can choose which search you’d like to use:
Minor Updates: We’re always incorporating minor fixes or improvements based on reader feedback. Never hesitate to reach out, no matter how minor something may seem. We want to ensure you have the best experience while using Book Notification. For example, a reader wrote in highlighting that under their followed authors list, if they haven’t actually read a book by an author yet, the “Still To Read” list said “0”. It wasn’t a major issue, but it still needed to be fixed, and now it is. Our development team are always working on bigger projects that require a lot of time and work – so they always jump at the chance to tackle some of the smaller items for a break.
New Content Added
In addition to adding authors, we post a lot of book news and book-related content to Book Notification each month. Here are the highlights since the last newsletter:
Monthly Contest
Last month, we held a contest where each comment you made on an author’s page earned you one entry into the prize draw for 1 of 10 $25 USD Gift Cards. Thank you to everyone who entered.
Here are the winners this month:
- @lindaluvsbooks
- Amy C.
- CoffeeLadyM
- Denis M
- DianaB
- Pam B.
- stalsma
- Steven Lowe
- waterbug72
- Wendy J.
This month we are doing something different; we want your feedback. Book Notification has come a long way since our beta launch in January 2023, with so many great features added, and we still have so much planned for the site. We’re looking at what we want to focus on for the rest of 2025, and that’s where you come in.
What is Book Notification missing that you would want to see? What improvements can we do on the site to enhance your experience?
And remember – it doesn’t matter if it’s a major feature that you think will take a lot of work, or just a minor improvement. We’re open to all ideas, big or small! Our goal is to be the ultimate book website for every reader out there, so all of your feedback helps.
We will give away ten $25 USD gift cards to random people who have e-mailed a suggestion. Your email will gain you an entry (or ‘ticket’) into the draw. Members of the Page Turners Club will get an additional entry into the contest.
Thanks to everyone for your support. It’s genuinely appreciated.
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