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Claim Your StoryGraph Author's Profile

StoryGraph was never designed to be a replica of Goodreads. It was built with a different purpose: to give readers richer analytics, more intuitive discovery based on mood and pace, and a machine learning recommendation system that operates independently of Amazon’s commercial priorities. By April 2025, the platform had attracted four million readers. It does not offer a formal author programme or dedicated author profiles, but that does not make it irrelevant for authors. It simply means authors need to understand how the platform works and position themselves within it strategically.

4M+

Signups

Four million user signups recorded as of April 2025, making StoryGraph the largest Goodreads alternative and a significant platform in its own right.

177

Countries

Giveaways can be run across up to 177 countries broader international reach than most comparable author promotion tools, and available to indie authors without publisher backing.

2019

Founded

Built by Nadia Odunayo Oxford graduate, software engineer, and founder initially as a personal side project. Now an independent, Black woman-owned platform with a

co-founder and dedicated development team.

the Platform

How StoryGraph Differs From Every Other Platform in Your Author Stack

StoryGraph's design philosophy is intentionally reader-first. It does not have author profiles, author dashboards, or a formal author programme. It describes itself as a book tracking and recommendation platform, not a social network or a marketing channel. Understanding this is the prerequisite for using it effectively as an author.

Analytics-First Discovery

StoryGraph's defining feature is data. Readers get detailed charts and graphs of their reading history by mood, pace, genre, format, month, and year. The recommendation engine is built on this data, which means it surfaces books based on genuine reader preference patterns, not popularity rankings or advertising spend. An author's metadata correctly tagged is the primary lever for being discovered here.

Mood and Pace as Discovery Axes

StoryGraph categorises books by mood (adventurous, dark, emotional, hopeful, mysterious, and others), pace (slow, medium, fast), and genre with considerably more granularity than Goodreads. These are not cosmetic labels they are the axes by which the recommendation engine filters books to readers. Ensuring your books are correctly tagged in these dimensions is a practical author responsibility on this platform.

Content Warnings as a Platform Feature

StoryGraph allows authors and users to add content warnings to books both author-approved and user-submitted. This is a deliberate feature, not an edge case, and it is valued by StoryGraph's readership. Authors who proactively maintain accurate, appropriate content warnings for their books are making a positive contribution to the reader experience on the platform.

Step by Step

Creating Your StoryGraph Author Facing Presence

Begin at app.thestorygraph.com/users/sign_up. StoryGraph does not have a separate author account type or an author-specific registration path. What you are building is a public author facing profile within a reader-oriented platform one that serves as your identity on StoryGraph and as the account through which you access giveaway tools.

Create your StoryGraph account

Go to app.thestorygraph.com/users/sign_up and complete the registration. StoryGraph's core features are free. There is a Plus paid tier offering advanced reading statistics, but it is not required for author presence or giveaway access.

Configure your account as an author-facing profile

Go to Manage Account in your settings. Set your username to your author name or pen name this will be your publicly visible identifier on the platform. Upload a professional headshot or author photograph as your profile image. Set your privacy to Public so readers can find your profile. Then add a short biography covering who you are and what you write, along with links to your website, newsletter, and social profiles. Keep the bio consistent with your Goodreads and Amazon Author Central profiles readers who find you across multiple platforms should see a coherent author identity.

Verify your books exist on StoryGraph

Use the platform's search to find your books by title and by author name. Check each book page carefully: author name spelling, cover image, edition formats (ebook, paperback, hardcover, audiobook), ISBN, page count, and genre/mood tags where visible. Make a note of any inaccuracies or missing editions before proceeding.

Correct book data editions and metadata

If your book exists but a specific edition or format is missing: open the book page, click Editions, then click Add Edition (top right) and complete the form with the missing edition's details. StoryGraph's team and volunteer librarians review and apply corrections. If there is an error you cannot correct yourself wrong author attribution, duplicate entries, incorrect cover submit a support ticket via the book page. StoryGraph's Contact Us page specifies that book information issues should be submitted this way, not via general email.

Check the Interested in Beta Testing box

In your account settings, locate the option to be marked as interested in beta testing new features and to receive the product newsletter. This is the mechanism by which StoryGraph currently invites authors to participate in the Giveaways programme. Without this, you may not receive invitations when new giveaway rounds open. It also positions you to be informed of author facing features as they develop the platform's author tooling is actively growing.

Read your own books and engage authentically

StoryGraph's community is reader first and responds well to authors who participate genuinely as readers, not as marketers. Follow the reading challenge community, log your own reading, and engage with the platform as its users do. As the platform rolls out its author profile system through the giveaway programme, a history of authentic engagement on your account will serve you well. Authors who treat StoryGraph purely as a promotion vehicle will find less traction than those who meet the community where it is.

The Recommendation Engine

Why Metadata Is Your Primary Lever on StoryGraph

StoryGraph does not surface books through social proof, editorial selection, or advertising spend. Its recommendation engine matches books to readers based on what those readers have historically enjoyed categorised by mood, pace, genre, and reading behaviour. For authors, this means that how your book is tagged and categorised is a direct input into how often it appears to readers who would most enjoy it.

Mood Tags

StoryGraph classifies books by mood and uses those signals directly in its recommendation system. If your book’s mood profile is missing or inaccurate, it is less likely to reach readers whose preferences align with it.

Pace Tags

StoryGraph classifies books as slow, medium, or fast paced using community data. Readers can filter their TBR

And recommendations by pace, so strong reader engagement helps create an accurate pace signal for your book.

Half and Quarter Star Ratings

StoryGraph uses quarter star ratings, allowing more precise averages that help power its recommendation engine.

Books imported from Goodreads may show rounded ratings at first, but these become more refined as readers rate them directly on StoryGraph.

Content Warnings

StoryGraph uses two kinds of content warnings: author approved warnings, which carry the most authority, and user submitted warnings from the community. When authors add accurate warnings themselves, they help shape how their books are presented and make it easier for the right readers to find them while helping others avoid a negative reading experience.

The For You Giveaway Algorithm

When giveaways appear in the For You section, they are shown to readers whose preferences match the book’s genre, mood, and pace.

That means the same metadata shaping recommendations also shapes giveaway visibility. Books with clear, accurate metadata tend to perform better than those with vague or limited tagging.

Giveaways

StoryGraph's Primary Promotional Tool for Authors

The Stroy Graph with blacksun for Authors.png

StoryGraph's Giveaways feature launched in beta in September 2023 and remains the platform's primary formal promotional mechanism for authors. It is accessible to independent authors without publisher backing and available across up to 177 countries. The feature supports print, digital, and audiobook copies in a single giveaway at no additional cost per format.

Two Tiers

Standard Giveaways (expected full price: $99) are listed on the All Giveaways page and shown in the personalised For You section for readers whose preferences match the book. Premium Giveaways (expected full price: $499) add homepage cover feature placement generating 6–7 times more impressions on average plus the ability to send a custom message to non-winning entrants. During beta testing, both tiers have been available at roughly half price. Pricing should be confirmed with StoryGraph at the time of booking, as it continues to evolve.

What Giveaways Generate

Real-world giveaway data from indie authors running standard giveaways show results including 60–70k impressions, 5–8k giveaway page views, and 1–2.5k entries per month-long campaign. Crucially, StoryGraph does not automatically add the book to a reader's to-read list when they enter unlike Goodreads. This means the to-read pile additions generated by StoryGraph giveaways are intentional: readers who add the book have actively chosen to. One author running a standard giveaway saw 419 TBR adds for a book with zero prior presence on the platform.

International Reach

Giveaways on StoryGraph can be opened to any combination of its supported 177 countries. For ebook giveaways using in-app delivery, international distribution carries no additional cost StoryGraph handles delivery of the EPUB file directly to winners within the app. Print giveaways require the author to handle shipping costs to winners, which makes international print giveaways expensive to run at scale.

The For You Algorithm in Giveaways

StoryGraph applies the same machine learning matching that powers its recommendation engine to giveaways. A reader whose preferences closely match your book's mood, pace, and genre profile will see your giveaway in their personalised For You section. This means your giveaway reach is qualitatively filtered: impressions are more likely to land in front of readers who would genuinely enjoy your book.

How to Access Giveaways

Giveaways are currently in beta. To be invited to participate, check the box for interested in beta testing new features in your account settings and sign up to StoryGraph's product newsletter. StoryGraph emails those on the list when new rounds open currently monthly. The giveaway page at app.thestorygraph.com/giveaways also has a link to register interest for authors and publishers. Completing your profile before signing up for a giveaway is advisable StoryGraph has indicated it converts profiles into author profiles as part of the giveaway onboarding process.

The Author Profile Connection

Completing a giveaway on StoryGraph currently serves as the mechanism through which accounts are converted to author profiles. StoryGraph does not have a standalone author profile claim process: the giveaway programme is, at the time of writing, the path through which author-specific account designation is assigned. This reflects the platform's current stage of development rather than a permanent policy author-facing features are actively in development.

Platform Context

What Drives StoryGraph's Readership
and Why Authors Should Understand It

StoryGraph's features are built for readers, not for authors. Understanding what those readers engage with clarifies where author presence creates value on this platform.

Reading Analytics — The Namesake Feature

StoryGraph's defining reader feature is detailed reading statistics: books and pages read by month and year, reading breakdown by mood, genre, pace, and format, rating distributions using quarter-star increments, most-read authors, language and translation tracking, and monthly wrap-up graphics optimised for social sharing. The Plus paid tier adds additional statistical depth. This is what the platform was designed around not social features, not author tools.

Book Clubs

StoryGraph launched Book Clubs in April 2024 as part of a broader community features expansion. Book clubs allow groups to read together within the platform. For authors, well-followed book clubs that choose their titles represent a qualitatively valuable form of engagement small group discussion of their work by motivated readers.

Buddy Reads

Readers can invite others to a buddy read for a specific title a lightweight, one-off co-reading experience without the formal structure of a book club. Buddy reads generate reading activity on specific titles, which is visible to the wider community.

Reading Challenges

StoryGraph supports both platform-wide reading challenges and user created custom challenges. Challenges can be filtered by genre, mood, pace, format, and other attributes. Books that fit challenge criteria naturally get added to more TBR lists during challenge periods an organic, metadata-driven visibility mechanism with no author action required beyond ensuring books are correctly categorised.

Importing from Goodreads

StoryGraph offers a Goodreads import that brings over currently reading, read, to read, and did not finish shelves, along with reviews and star ratings. This is the primary onboarding mechanism for most of its four million signups. Authors already visible on Goodreads will find their books entering the StoryGraph ecosystem through this migration pathway often before the author has done anything on the platform at all.

No Commenting on Reviews — By Design

StoryGraph does not allow readers to comment on each other's reviews. This is a deliberate design decision, not an oversight. The platform is actively working to prevent the harassment and pile-on dynamics that have made Goodreads reviews a source of controversy for many authors. Authors cannot respond to their own reviews on StoryGraph. The appropriate posture here is to accept this constraint it reflects a community that the platform is deliberately building.

work with blacksun

Across Goodreads, Amazon Author Central, BookBub, LibraryThing, Hardcover, and StoryGraph, discoverability is never one size fits all. Each platform has its own mechanics, its own expectations, and its own opportunities to get right. Bringing all six into alignment as one strong, accurate author presence takes consistent work behind the scenes. Blacksun handles that for authors who would rather spend their time writing books, not managing platforms.

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

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