Definition
StoryGraph is a book tracking and recommendation platform founded by Nadia Odunayo as an alternative to Goodreads. What sets it apart is its focus on granular content data: instead of just star ratings, StoryGraph categorizes books by mood (dark, hopeful, lighthearted), pace (fast, medium, slow), and specific content elements. It generates visual charts showing the emotional arc of a book and uses community-sourced data to power its recommendation engine. Readers can import their data from Goodreads, making the switch relatively painless.
Why It Matters
As a writer, StoryGraph gives you a window into how readers actually experience books in your genre. You can see whether readers found a thriller fast-paced or slow, whether a literary novel felt hopeful or bleak, and what content warnings readers flagged. This is incredibly useful market research when you are trying to understand reader expectations. If your fantasy novel's comp titles all chart as 'adventurous, fast-paced, and lighthearted,' but yours is 'dark, slow, and reflective,' you have important information about how to position your book.
Types of StoryGraph
Common Mistakes
Goodreads is primarily social, built around reviews and community discussion. StoryGraph is more analytical, built around understanding what kinds of books work for you. Many serious readers use both for different reasons.
StoryGraph's mood and pace charts are free market research. Before you pitch your book, look up your comp titles and see how readers actually describe the reading experience. This helps you write more accurate query letters and set realistic reader expectations.
Spend time exploring how your genre's top titles are categorized. Understanding that readers of cozy mystery expect 'lighthearted and fast' while literary fiction readers tolerate 'slow and reflective' helps you calibrate your own pacing and tone choices.
Try It Yourself
Look up three books you have read recently on StoryGraph and study their mood, pace, and content charts. Then think about the book you are currently writing or planning. Write a paragraph describing its ideal StoryGraph profile: what moods would readers tag it with, what pace would they report, and what content elements would they flag? Compare your intended profile to the actual profiles of your comp titles and note any mismatches worth addressing.
See Your Pacing Before Readers Do
Novelium's pacing analysis shows you where your manuscript speeds up and slows down, so you can calibrate your story's rhythm before it ever reaches a reader's StoryGraph chart.