Welcome to the site roadmap, where we keep you updated on what has been accomplished so far at Book Notification, what ongoing work there is, what features we are currently working on, and what we have planned for the future.

Book Notification alpha launched on June 27th, 2022 then beta launched on January 1st, 2023 then officially on June 27th, 2023.

We are continually working on new features of the site, with our goal of making this the ultimate readers paradise.

ANYTHING we can do, big or small, to make your reading and website experience better, don’t hesitate to let us know. We are open to anything as we want this to be the perfect site for each and every one of you.

Last Updated: June 3rd, 2025.

Ongoing Jobs:

Continuous jobs that make up our day to day.

Auditing and Adding Authors: We currently still have a large backlog of authors which we are auditing and adding to the website. This takes up the majority of the work by the database team. Other websites have messy lists not organized into series, or books listed on an authors page by multiple people who happen to share the same name, or don’t notify you of alternate titles which books have. Our database team audits every author, getting the series perfect, checking the chronology, looking for alternate titles, verifying that the correct books are listed on each authors page. It is a lot of work but it’s our highest priority – providing the most accurate book lists online.

For a reference point – this backlog should be complete when are at the 100,000 author mark. We have a live counter on the homepage so you can keep track!

Content: Creating fun content for readers, and letting our staff’s creativity thrive! Whether it is videos on social media or blog content, we’ve got lots of book-related entertainment options for you.

Informative Content Enhancements: Our content team are hard at work adding informative content to all book series in the way of series descriptions. A big task with over 170,000 series on the site but will make it very helpful for readers when looking to start a new series. Also adding additional biographical data to authors, details of awards won by authors and more.

Upcoming Features:

Features we are currently working on and should be launched within the next couple of months.

My Library Revamp: Design will remain the same, however there will be some big changes for better performance, plus some minor improvements based on user requests.

Author Notes: You can currently create notes about books and we’ll be adding the ability to make notes on authors, as well as a general notepad area.

Book Clubs: Similar to our awards pages, you will soon be able to see lists of books picked by book clubs such as Reese Witherspoon’s, and track which books you have read from that selection.

Series Search: Currently we have the ability to search by author and by book title, and soon by series.

Recommendations Newsletter: A weekly mailing recommending different books in various genres.

Future Work

Just some of the many features and updates we have planned for down the road.

User Homepage: Users will eventually have their own custom homepage which will be full of lots of helpful information related to your reading lists and data.

Book Pages: Individual book pages will include specific information about the book, reviews, awards won and much more. There is a lot to this such as building a review approval system, putting systems in place to prevent manipulation, plus gathering book covers and providing information about the books.

Social Network: Want to invite friends to Book Notification, and see what they’re reading and rating? We will eventually have all of that in place as we understand that many people still like to use Goodreads due to the social ability, and we hope to mimic that. Ability to create digital book clubs with friends etc as well. Basically a big social network (which you can opt-out of so don’t worry about that).

Dark Mode: A big job but in the works.

Recommendations: This won’t be soon, but we promise it will be worth the wait. Personalized book and series recommendations. Yes, there are various websites out there which already offer that functionality but we’ve never found one that we have felt does a great job. A lot of generic results. Our aim is to have the best recommendation engine ever made, to the point that you will soon be cursing us for introducing you to so many new books.

Add Custom Books To Your Library: We don’t list omnibus books as we have the books listed separately. We also don’t primarily list “how to” manuals or activity books or similar. However we will offer the option for you to add this sort of thing to your library if you are using your library as your personal collection.

Different Email Notifications: Currently, we send the one weekly book notification e-mail with all the updates. Eventually, we will offer the options of receiving notice the day before a book is released, the day it is released, and also when it is added to our database.

An App: The website is designed to work as best as possible on mobile phones and tablets, but we know people love their apps! It’s something we are looking into.

Genre Tagging: Want to be able to search just sci-fi authors, series, or books? Yep us too! This is still in its early stages but tied into the above two, we want you to be able to search for new books based on genre.

Hide Average Rating: Don’t want to see a book’s average rating? We get it. It’s on the list as an option.

Games: As someone who is hooked on the likes of NYT Connections and Wordle, I really want some book inspired games on here. I wish I could prioritize this but it will be live some day.

Reading Challenges / Streaks: We know a lot of people are fans of reading challenges. We want to have one of the coolest, most comprehensive reading challenge sections you’ve ever seen. This will be a big job but if you are into reading challenges, you’ll love it!

Wishlists: The ability to create a list of books which you want and then share it with family/friends.

Audiobooks: We have a lot of cool ideas for audiobook readers such as detailed listings by the narrator, option to highlight books that have an audiobook version, separate reviews just for the audiobook, and more. Don’t worry I listen just as much as I read, so I’m pretty stoked about what we have in store.

Anthologies: We have some cool ideas involving anthologies. Right now if someone has a story within an anthology, or are the editor of an anthology, then that anthology will be listed within their list of books. However we want to do so much more with this, such as specifying if they are the author, then also listing the actual title of the story they have written within that anthology. This is going to be a massive process and is very low priority as we never really get requests related to this – but just wanted everyone to know it’s on the list!

Think that’s a lot? That’s just scratching the surface! If you want a book metaphor for this – the above is just the first five chapters in The Stand! We’ll update this page as the site progresses.

Site Completions / History:

Below is a list of notable changes and features to the site. This only lists the big stuff, not the millions of little things we are doing every day!

July 1st, 2022: Alpha Launch with 9000 authors.
January 1st, 2023: Beta Launch with 11,000 authors.
January 7th, 2023: Personalized Book Calendar on Sidebar.
January 9th, 2023: 12,000 authors!
January 16th, 2023: Started the email newsletter with site updates.
January 23rd, 2023: Weekly book notifications begin.
February 12th, 2023: 13,000 authors!
February 21st, 2023: 14,000 authors!
February 27th, 2023: 15,000 authors!
March 1st, 2023: “My Library” section completed.
March 6th, 2023: Author list now vertical instead of horizontal.
March 13th, 2023: 16,000 authors!
March 14th, 2023: Multi-author series only displays current author (option to expand).
March 24th, 2023: 17,000 authors!
April 8th, 2023: Set dates when you read a book.
April 10th, 2023: 18,000 authors!
April 12th, 2023: Middle Initials database fix implemented.
April 14th, 2023: Launched the Awards section. Will add one per week.
April 23rd, 2023: 19,000 authors!
April 24th, 2023: Cleared the “New Author Requests” Backlog.
April 29th, 2023: Default bookstores added in settings.
April 30th, 2023: First non-Amazon option added (Bookshop.org) to purchase from. Will be adding many more to shopping options as time permits.
May 8th, 2023: 20,000 authors!
May 9th, 2023: Track date books read. Anthologies hidden by default.
May 16th, 2023: Table of contents for all author listings added.
May 20th, 2023: 21,000 authors!
May 25th, 2023: Can change display name & profile picture on settings page.
June 6th, 2023: User & Average Ratings now display on authors page.
June 7th, 2023: Complete overhaul of the F.A.Q..
June 14th, 2023: 22,000 authors!
June 23rd, 2023: 23,000 authors!
July 19th, 2023: 24,000 Authors!
July 29th, 2023: “Last Name, First Name” in search now brings up author.
July 30th, 2023: List of books you have read in 2023 now under the “Reading Challenges” tab.
July 31st, 2023: 25,000 Authors!
August 17th, 2023: 26,000 Authors!
August 20th, 2023: Started weekly “Books Releasing This Week” posts.
August 24th, 2023: 27,000 authors!
August 28th, 2023: Series and series # added to weekly book notification e-mails.
September 10th, 2023: Authors with same name – unique identifier in search added.
September 15th, 2023: 28,000 authors!
September 20th, 2023: Information pop-up if book only available on authors website or mailing list.
September 23rd, 2023: Calendar page update – displays as list as well.
September 27th, 2023: 29,000 authors!
September 30th, 2023: “Back To Top” function added on each page.
October 3rd, 2023: Revamp of road map – removed all completed items.
October 6th, 2023: Added the very exciting “What’s Next” Feature.
October 8th, 2023: UID implemented to differentiate authors with same or similar name.
October 10th, 2023: 30,000 authors!
October 13th, 2023: Big overhaul of navigational system for better UX.
October 15th, 2023: Ability for us to write a description of a book series added.
October 20th, 2023: 31,000 authors!
October 27th, 2023: “Book Search” added to author pages.
October 29th, 2023: Disable auto follow authors, disable book manage popup added to settings.
October 30th, 2023: 32,000 authors!
November 13th, 2023: “All Caught Up” added to What’s Next section. Publication dates also added.
November 14th, 2023: 33,000 authors!
December 2nd, 2023: 34,000 authors!
December 23rd, 2023: 35,000 authors!
December 24th, 2023: Author Insights section added to author pages.
January 2nd, 2024: Book tagging added.
January 8th, 2024: 36,000 authors!
January 21st, 2024: 37,000 authors!
January 27th, 2024: Added: Audiobook feature toggle, page count, audiobook hours count, time to read a book, date starting reading.
February 5th, 2024:38,000 authors!
February 18th, 2024: 39,000 authors!
February 24th, 2024: “Pick a Random Book To Read”, enhancements to author insights.
March 10th, 2024: 40,000 authors.
March 17th, 2024: Book Search Launched.
March 26th, 2024: 41,000 authors.
April 1st, 2024: Started Daily New Book Releases posts, which you can see on our Facebook, Twitter, and Subreddit.
April 11th, 2024: 42,000 authors.
April 18th, 2024: Started Booktalks.
April 27th, 2024: Author content enhancement and author book stats. Details in April Newsletter.
April 29th, 2024: 43,000 authors!
May 8th, 2024: 44,000 authors!
May 15th, 2024: 45,000 authors!
May 24th, 2024: 46,000 authors!
May 25th, 2024: User statistics added! (Phase 1)
June 2nd, 2024: 47,000 authors!
June 15th, 2024:. 48,000 authors!
June 22nd, 2024: “Still To Read” Data Added.
June 29th, 2024: 49,000 authors!
June 30th, 2024: “Quick Follow” added.
July 11th, 2024: 50,000 authors!
July 21st, 2024: 51,000 authors!
July 28th, 2024: ARC Review Filter added.
August 1st, 2024: 52,000 authors!
August 15th, 2024: 53,000 authors!
August 29th, 2024: 54,000 authors!
August 31st, 2024: Dealing with “The 1970 Problem”
September 5th. 2024: 55,000 authors!
September 12th, 2024: 56,000 authors!
September 29th, 2024: “Currently Reading” Added
October 1st, 2024: 57,000 authors!
October 5th, 2024: First Ask A Librarian launched.
October 18th, 2024: 58,000 authors!
October 26th, 2024: Ability to track re-reads.
October 30th, 2024: 59,000 authors!
November 12th, 2024: 60,000 authors! We’ll start only listing them here at the 5 or 0 landmarks.
November 30th. 2024: Users can export their data.
December 12th, 2024: Re-designed all hub pages such as /news/ and /blog/.
December 29th, 2024: Launched Reader’s Roulette and the Book Release Calendar.
January 13th, 2025: Launched the Book Notification Podcast.
January 15th, 2025: 65,000 authors!
January 18th, 2025: A large backend revamp began, which was wrapped up in March 2025.
March 2nd, 2025: 70,000 authors.
March 31st, 2025: “Select All” Feature added. Launched the Page Turners Club.
April 15th, 2025: Change e-mail & password in profile. Apple login. Tuesday newsletter update with customizations based on authors you follow.
May 6th, 2025: 75,000 authors.
May 7th, 2025: I Care About Books Podcast launched.
May 10th, 2025: Export new book releases to Apple, Google and other calendars.
May 20th, 2025: Custom Printing.

Feature Requests:

We appreciate any and all feedback. Any suggestions, ideas, etc for the site or anything we can do to make your reading life easier which isn’t listed above? Let us know. You can e-mail hello@booknotification.com or fill in the contact form below.