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Establish Your Hardcover Author Presence

Hardcover, launched in 2021, is an independent, ad free alternative to Goodreads. With a growing community of engaged readers, self selecting reader base makes it a platform where establishing an author presence early can still have real impact.

Goodreads For author

2021

Founded

Launched as a bootstrapped, independently funded Goodreads alternative with no advertising, no external investment, and a public development roadmap.

Ad-Free

By Principle

Hardcover is funded by a voluntary Supporter subscription tier rather than advertising the same model that originally made LibraryThing and early Goodreads compelling to serious readers.

Open

In Public

Hardcover publishes monthly development reports, a public feature roadmap, and actively solicits community input on the direction of the platform readers who care about this are disproportionately its users.

Why It Matters

Hardcover may not match Goodreads in scale, BookBub in reach, or LibraryThing in depth. What it offers instead is momentum: an engaged, platform aware readership actively seeking authors to follow there.

Early Adopter Visibility

Early presence matters. Authors who establish themselves on Hardcover now can benefit from visibility that is far harder to secure after a platform reaches scale.

A Goodreads Exodus Audience

Hardcover was built for readers looking beyond Goodreads. These are platform aware, community active readers who often discover indie authors early and recommend them enthusiastically.

Metadata Control via Librarian Access

With Hardcover’s Librarian system, verified users can update author, book, edition, and series information directly. That allows authors to correct metadata and cover images without waiting on platform support.

Step by Step

Begin at Hardcover Unlike Goodreads, Hardcover does not separate authors into a distinct account class. Your presence is built through a standard member account, with the option to apply for Librarian status if you want direct control over your metadata.

01

Create a Hardcover member account

Go to Hardcover and select Join. Create your account with an email address and password. The platform’s core functionality is free; the optional Supporter tier adds extra analytics and early-access features, but it is not necessary to establish or maintain your author presence.

02

Complete your member profile

After logging in, go directly to your profile and build it with care. Upload a clear profile image, write a short professional biography, and include your website and relevant social links. On Hardcover, this page is your visible author presence, so it should look deliberate rather than unfinished.

03

Import your library and verify your books

Hardcover supports direct import from Goodreads and StoryGraph, which makes it easy to populate your account quickly if you already use those platforms. After that, search for your own books and audit the listings with precision. Check the covers, descriptions, series sequencing, edition data, and overall metadata, and note any inaccuracies before proceeding.

04

Apply for Librarian status

For authors, Librarian status is the gateway to fixing and completing your data on Hardcover. Submit the Application form join the Discord, and state plainly that you are applying to manage your own books and author records.

05

Correct and complete your author and book data

After approval, you can update your author profile and book data yourself. Focus first on your photo, bio, clean edition records, correct series sequencing, and duplicate titles that need attention.

06

Connect with the community

On Hardcover, Discord is not a side channel it is the community hub. Reader discussion, librarian activity, and team contact all happen there. The strongest presence comes from genuine participation, reading, reviewing, following, and engaging without forcing it.

The Librarian System

Understanding Hardcover's Most Important Tool for Authors

The strength of Hardcover’s database comes from its community, not a distant platform process. Librarians are trusted editors who help maintain the accuracy and quality of the records readers rely on. For authors who want a more direct hand in how their books are presented, Librarian status is the most powerful position to hold.

What Librarians Can Edit

Librarians can shape almost every core layer of a Hardcover record from covers, descriptions, dates, and series order to genres and author details. They can also flag duplicates, separate bad merges, and publish newly added books directly into search without delay.

The Application Process

Librarian applications begin through Hardcover’s official form and move into Discord, where the team reviews applicants directly. Approval is selective rather than automatic, and authors should state clearly that they are applying to manage their own work.

Tiered Editing Permissions

Not every edit moves at the same speed. Hardcover uses an impact based system, smaller records can often be updated immediately, while changes to more visible titles are reviewed before they go live.

An Important Caveat

At times, Hardcover places new Librarian applications on hold while refining onboarding. If that happens, the platform’s support page and Discord community become the clearest channels for updates and interim correction requests.

Platform Features

Why That Matters for Authors

To understand what resonates on Hardcover, you first have to understand what the platform was built to value. These are not generic social features copied from elsewhere. They are deliberate choices shaped by a smaller team with a distinct view of what reading software should be.

Retailer link integration: Hardcover now connects directly with BookBub's retailer links (added late 2024), giving authors improved visibility between the two platforms.

Match Percentage Recommendations:

Hardcover uses a match-based recommendation model that scores how closely a book fits an individual reader’s preferences. That creates a more targeted path to discovery and makes clean, accurate metadata far more important than many authors realise.
Per-Book Privacy Controls:

Hardcover allows readers to choose the visibility of each book individually: public, friends only, or private. That level of control creates a more intentional kind of participation, shaped less by performance and more by real reading behaviour.

Reading Status and Progress Tracking:

Hardcover’s tracking system is built with more precision than a basic shelf model. Readers can log status, follow progress, and track specific editions, giving format level reading behaviour more visibility when that data is available.
Lists and Curated Collections:

Hardcover’s Lists create lasting discovery, not just momentary attention. When readers place your book inside strong themed collections, they open a second route through which new readers can keep finding it.

Goodreads and StoryGraph Import:

Hardcover is designed as a migration point for Goodreads and StoryGraph readers. As they bring their libraries across, your books can surface there without any extra push which makes accurate Hardcover data worth maintaining.
Building in Public:

Hardcover’s public build culture gives the platform a different kind of energy. The readers paying attention to its updates and live development are often the ones most invested in what appears there, making them especially worth understanding.

Work with Blacksun

Goodreads. Amazon Author Central. BookBub. LibraryThing. Hardcover. StoryGraph. Each platform runs on its own logic, reaches a different kind of reader, and rewards a different kind of precision. To build them properly and keep them working in your favour takes time, care, and a level of attention most authors simply cannot spare while doing the real work of writing. That is where Blacksun comes in. We work with authors who want their presence handled properly, professionally, and to a higher standard.

We would love to hear about your book, get in touch and tell us about your goals.

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