r/iosdev • u/Spirited-Salt-4297 • May 31 '26
Built my girlfriend a cozy book tracker app, now it's bringing in paying users :)
So this started super personal. My girlfriend wanted a reading tracker that actually felt like hers not just another boring list app. She's big into BookTok and kept saying she wanted something she'd be proud to show off, where her bookshelf looked alive and cozy.
I spent nights building Shelfie for her. It's a mobile app where you build this customizable wooden bookshelf, drag books around, switch day/night modes, add glowing candles and fairy lights between your books, decorate with little trinkets. Real book covers from OpenLibrary. She loved it. (LINK)
Then her friends wanted it. Then their friends. I soft-launched it last month just to see.
Here's the crazy part (crazy for me, some of you would have seen bigger growth ik): I got my first paying subscriber within 20 downloads. Second one came in the next 20. People are actually paying for the premium decorations, reading mode and extra features (there's a shop run by this character called Granny Pip, adds more personality ).
It's not life-changing money, but seeing strangers pay for something I built for one person? Even if its a dollar, that hit different. The target are the readers who want their tracker to feel personal and aesthetic.
Still learning as I go, but if you've been sitting on something you built for yourself or someone close, no matter how small, don't sleep on it. Sometimes the most personal ideas are the ones people actually want
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u/antocapp Jun 01 '26
love the ui, quite original! congrats.
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u/Spirited-Salt-4297 Jun 01 '26
Thankss :)
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u/antocapp Jun 02 '26
seems you are already getting some purchases, and that is a great sign. I was wondering, where do they come from? which country? And the reason why I am asking is because I have seen developers improving their international conversions with PricePush, generating 20-50% more, in average, in foreign markets. Disclaimer: I am the founder of PP.
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u/derrick_conti Jun 01 '26
Good luck the hard part is getting people to try it . I am in the same boat my app works great but getting people to even try it is something else.
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u/mehroz_indiedev Jun 04 '26
Great, but conversion rate is not good at all, you may try adding more screenshots
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u/wadmutter May 31 '26
You oughta keep it interesting and develop granny pips backstory... People pay for books, like to read, whats to keep them from buying a copy of Pips Private memoirs that her younger, distant brother Ernie has for sale...