Independent book scoring for booksellers, book clubs, and community reads committees —free, always

Not Just the Loudest Reader in the Room.

Score your shortlist independently, before anyone sees anyone else's picks. Free, always.

Start your first selection round See how it works

What is Staff-Picks.org?

A private link, a shortlist, a score — from everyone

Staff-Picks.org gives every member of your staff or committee a private link where they score each book on your shortlist — independently, before seeing anyone else's scores. Literary quality, readability, discussability, genre diversity — whatever criteria matter to your group.

When everyone has submitted, the scores are revealed together. The book that rises to the top is the one that genuinely reflected the whole group's judgment — not just whoever spoke first.

The problem

The loudest reader picks the book

Every bookseller knows how staff picks actually get decided. Someone reads a book and loves it. They mention it in the staff meeting. Everyone nods. It goes on the wall.

Every book club knows how the next selection actually gets chosen. The most enthusiastic member pitches their book. The others don't feel strongly enough to push back. The group reads it. Half of them weren't that excited going in.

Those processes produce a selection. They don't produce a selection that reflects what everyone actually thought — independently, before the room shaped their view.

There's a better way. And it takes four minutes.

Score independently, reveal together — the picks on your wall end up reflecting your whole staff, not whoever spoke first in the meeting.

How it works

Independent first, revealed together

1 Set up your selection round: Add your shortlisted books, your scoring criteria, and your committee members or staff. Each person gets a private link — no account needed, no app to download.
2 Everyone scores independently: Each member scores each book on your criteria — privately, before seeing anyone else's scores. No anchoring, no pressure, no one person's enthusiasm shaping the group.
3 The group sees the results together: When everyone has submitted, the scores are revealed. The book that genuinely resonated with your whole staff or committee rises to the top. Your picks reflect your collective editorial judgment.

Who this is for

Built for anyone choosing books as a group

If your group picks books together — and today that means a meeting where whoever pitches hardest wins — Staff-Picks.org was built for you.

Independent booksellers: Running a staff picks wall or shelf-talker program where the picks should represent the whole staff's taste, not just whoever spoke up first in the meeting.
Book clubs: Choosing the next read from a shortlist, without letting the most enthusiastic member's pitch decide it for everyone else before the vote even happens.
Community reads and one-book-one-city committees: Selecting a title on behalf of a library system or community, where the choice needs to reflect the committee's collective judgment — and be easy to explain afterward.
Library and school selection committees: Scoring a shortlist against shared criteria — literary quality, readability, discussability, genre diversity — before the group discusses anything.

Why groups choose Staff-Picks.org

Not a poll. Not a meeting. A better way to decide together.

It removes the anchor.: Once one person says what they loved, everyone else's opinion bends toward it. Scoring independently, before anyone sees anyone else's picks, removes that anchor entirely.
It surfaces the quiet opinions.: The staff member who never speaks up in the meeting scores the same way as the one who always does. Every score counts equally, whether or not you said it out loud.
It uses your criteria, not a gut feeling.: Literary quality, readability, discussability, genre diversity — whatever matters to your group, scored consistently across every book on the shortlist.
It's fast.: No meeting to schedule, no discussion to moderate before a decision. Everyone scores on their own time, from a private link, in about four minutes.
It's easy to explain afterward.: When someone asks why a book made the list, the answer is the group's collective scores — not 'someone really pushed for it.'
It costs nothing to start.: Staff-Picks.org is free, and it always will be. No trial, no tier to upgrade into, no card required.

A bookseller or library committee chair who has ever finished a selection meeting and thought privately "I'm not sure that reflected what everyone actually thought" — and for whom the alternative is free and takes four minutes — would be weird not to try it.

Get in touch

Questions about Staff-Picks.org, or ready to run your first selection round? Email us directly — tell us a little about your bookstore, book club, or committee, and we'll get you set up.

Start Your First Selection Round →dan@jaapplications.com

Free, always. There is nothing to sign up for before you write to us.