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Reedsy

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki


Reedsy
File:The Reedsy Marketplace.jpg
Type of businessPrivately held company
Type of site
Self publishing services
Available inEnglish
FoundedSummer 2014
HeadquartersLondon, U.K.
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)Emmanuel Nataf
Ricardo Fayet
Vincent Durand
Matt Cobb[1]
ServicesReedsy Marketplace (marketing and sales)
Discovery (author promotion)
Book Editor (manuscript preparation)
Reedsy Learning
Employees20-25 (2020)[2]
Websitereedsy.com
Current statusActive

Reedsy is a British startup online author services firm based in London providing an outlet for authors and publishing freelancers in the self publishing industry.[3][4][5][6][7] It serves primarily as a clearing house for established authors,[8] but also offers services for would-be authors.

The firm is headquartered in London,[9] but operates officeless with staff in different locations, and conducts business via cloud computing.[10][11] In 2019 the firm had a staff of 25, and had 150,000 authors in its community and 1,500 freelancers, including editors, designers, marketers, and ghostwriters.[12]

Vetting professional freelancers[edit]

A chief task of the firm is to vet the credentials of publishing industry professional freelancers.[13][14] These freelancers are not salaried employees but rather they work on a project basis with authors. Reedsy vets story editors, cover designers, ghost writers,[15] marketing strategists and other freelancers, by verifying their previous work experience for mainstream publishers as well as examining their overall track record in the publishing industry.[16][17][18] Further, they monitor the interactions between freelancers and their author clients. While the firm gets applications from many freelancers, they only accept a few, and they allow "only the publishing world's elite" to list with their service, according to a report in Fast Company magazine.[19] According to co-founder Emmanuel Nataf, from 2014 to 2015, Reedsy initially received over 7000 applications from professionals in the publishing industry, and selected 300 designers, editors and marketers between 2014 and 2015.[20] According to one estimate, 95% of Reedsy's freelancers worked in the past for one of the Big Five publishers.[21][22] For example, when the established publishing house Macmillan laid off three senior executives in April 2020, two of them began freelancing with Reedsy soon thereafter.[23] But the process works both ways; some professional freelancers at Reedsy have returned to work in the world of corporate publishing.[24] Reedsy freelancers have worked with top writers such as Ken Follett, Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, Stephen King and Jodi Picoult.[20] In addition to vetting freelancers, the firm verifies the credentials of writing contests to help writers avoid wasting time with fake contests and prizes.[25] Reedsy keeps track of writing contests, updating its lists frequently, and provides writers with details such as the prize amounts, entry fees, and deadlines.[26]

Educational services[edit]

Reedsy offers tools and services of an educational nature to assist authors. The courses are primarily targeted toward writers new to publishing.[27] There are training courses to help authors navigate the self-publishing process.[28][29][30] There are detailed explanations of how to do a book proposal.[31] Reedsy's Learning series approach is not to use a whiteboard or podcasts or a textbook, but rather to offer serialized short courses, each about five minutes in length, delivered to a writer's email inbox every day for ten days.[27] Some courses offered are Self-publishing 101, Book Marketing 101, Facebook Ads for Authors and All you Need to Know About Amazon Algorithms.[27] The firm host webinars to help authors with such issues as improving a story's pacing.[32] The platform offers 30+ free online courses to help authors with book development.[30][17]

Tools[edit]

Reedsy offers online software tools to help authors convert their manuscripts to files suitable for publishing purposes. Reedsy's free Book Editor is an online word processor geared to publishing.[33][34][35][30] Writers can write their book using this software; when finished, it is easy to export the completed manuscript to a proper format for publishing such as PDF, ePub, or Mobi.[33][36][16][30] The software permits collaboration at every step of the writing process,[37] and it formats the writer's manuscript in publishable format while writing in real-time.[36] Since 2015, writer Jen Glantz has written five books using Reedsy's software to edit and format her books.[38]

An original Reedsy online tool is its Plot Generator: the user chooses a genre, such as drama or fantasy or mystery or romance of science fiction, then the tool automatically generates ideas for a protagonist, secondary character, plot and even a plot twist; if a user likes a particular idea, he or she can keep it while shuffling the remaining combinations around, as a creative way to generate ideas.[39]

Author promotion services[edit]

A continuing struggle for indie authors is how to promote their self-published books.[40] There have been many book public relations sites and marketing firms that often don't deliver as they promise.[40] Initially, to help authors promote their self-published works, Reedsy offered suggestions from professional book marketers in the form of blog posts, emails, Learning Courses, and live web content that the firm dubbed Reedsy Live Sessions.[41]

Reedsy's Discovery platform became available to authors in 2019.[42][41][42] It offers users a web page to help them promote their books on the site.[43][30] It is Reedsy's alternative to Goodreads.[42] The intent is to offer affordability and credibility to authors' marketing efforts.[40] The sales page for promoted books includes a "buy button".[40] Vetted reviewers can download a free copy and write a review.[40] For $50, writers can submit their soon-to-be-published works to elicit reviews and hype about a month before their book launch day.[42][41] The service depends on computer algorithms as well as human curation to select which books to emphasize on their site.[41] For an author, publicity from the site could lead to greater exposure and the possibility of getting favorable reviews of their books.[41]

The Reedsy Marketplace[edit]

Users interface with the Reedsy site by browsing through freelancer profiles.[17] Typically an author can request free quotes from freelancers, and if an official collaboration agreement is made, Reedsy reveals contact information to connect them.[17] A tentative contract, reached by both parties, specifies how much the author will pay the freelancer, and what work will be performed. Reedsy takes a 20% cut of each contract, 10% from the author, 10% from the freelancer.[44] The firm offers a satisfaction guarantee, so conceivably a dissatisfied customer could request another freelancer if the initial effort was deemed unsatisfactory.[17] Subsequent collaboration between the author and the freelancer, such as editing and formatting, can be handled entirely through Reedsy's website.[45]

Some authors who have entered and won a Reedsy writing contest can use that to jumpstart a career as a writer; for example, Joshua Insole won the writing contest twice and is now working as a writer full-time.[46] Some writers start up their own presses; for example, Theresa Batalogianis began Cnoc Máirtín Press and hired freelancers to help with copyediting and graphic art.[47] In some cases, authors, working with traditional publishing houses, have grown frustrated with a lack of marketing support; for example, Greg White complained when his publisher forgot to ship copies of his book to his launch party, so White went to a Reedsy freelancer to help him redesign his book.[48]

Competitors[edit]

Reedsy's primary direct competitor in the self-publishing services field is New York-based Bibliocrunch, which offers similar services.[22][49] An indirect competitor is the emerging Internet juggernaut Wattpad which is a global storytelling social platform, which uses reader feedback to hone stories which then get developed into books and movies; instead of linking up authors and freelance professionals to craft books, as Reedsy does, Wattpad develops stories with reader feedback in the online community, and highly rated stories, which attract much attention from readers, can then be picked up by large publishers such as Macmillan.[50]

History[edit]

File:Emmanuel Nataf and Ricardo Fayet.jpg
Co-founders Emmanuel Nataf and Ricardo Fayet.

Co-founder Emmanuel Nataf was a business student at the Rouen Business School, and he moonlighted as a management consultant.[20] While reading his Kindle, he saw an opportunity to use technology to help publishing professionals work as freelancers while helping fledgling authors navigate the self-publishing world.[20] He wanted authors to have the same level of quality that writers get from their affiliations with traditional publishing houses.[20] He credited Amazon for disrupting the publishing industry, and enabling firms like Reedsy to exist.[20]

In 2014 Nataf partnered with Ricardo Fayet and Vincent Durand and Matthew Cobb to start the company in London. The fledgling firm received funding from Seedcamp,[9] with an initial funding of $1.25 million.[12] Self publishing was expanding at a rapid pace, and yet it was difficult for authors to find qualified assistants to help them get their books in good shape, as well as learn what to do; so the firm became an online platform to not only connect authors with freelancers but to help authors learn about self publishing, and to help them promote their self-published books.[30] The firm expanded; in 2016, the Reedsy community included approximately 20,000 authors and 500 freelancers.[51] By December 2016, Reedsy had shepherded 1,300 books into the world.[52] In 2019, there were approximately 150,000 authors in the community and 1,500 freelancers.[12] During its first five-year period, according to Reedsy, authors seeking marketing guidance from Reedsy have numbered in the tens of thousands.[41] The firm has experienced rapid growth.[8] Self-publishing has become respectable; as one writer put it:

Five years ago, self-publishing was a scar. Now it’s a tattoo.

— Author Greg White in 2016.[48]

Reedsy has been active in promoting itself within the publishing industry. For instance, it publishes best-of lists, such as its "115 best books of all time" list.[53] It recently published its Top Ten list of Christmas stories.[54] In some respects, the firm is assuming the role of a major player in the publishing world, by recognizing literary magazines such as Bard College's magazine entitled Conjunctions.[55] The firm donates a share of its profits to Room to Read, which is a nonprofit organization that provides girls in Africa and Asia with access to education.

In the last two decades, despite the explosive growth in self publishing,[8] there has been a precipitous drop in income for writers in general; a survey in 2019 by the Authors Guild found that income for American authors from 2009 to 2017 dropped 42%.[56] While income for self-published authors doubled since 2013, their income levels were 58% lower than those of traditionally published authors.[56]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ "We are Reedsy! | Reedsy". Reedsy. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Meet our team". Reedsy. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Reedsy Releases Report on Freelancers in Book Publishing". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
  4. ↑ Dillet, Romain. "Reedsy now lets you print your book on Blurb in no time". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
  5. ↑ Baddeley, Anna (2015-05-18). "Reedsy could offer self-published authors a professional edge". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
  6. ↑ Shaw, Dougal (2016-02-09). "Is self-publishing coming of age in the digital world?". BBC News. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  7. ↑ Dillet, Romain (2020-03-18). "Manage remote teams with a transparent culture". Tech Crunch magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Birmingham, John (2017-07-17). "Cover Story: The Quiet Catastrophe, Then Reinvention Of Book Publishing". Which-50 magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Dillet, Romain. "Reedsy Launches Its Marketplace For Indie Authors To Unbundle Traditional Publishing Houses". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
  10. ↑ Bennett, Madeline (2017-11-09). "How collaborative tools and cloud computing help firms' success". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
  11. ↑ Everett, Cath (2017-08-23). "Could an organisation work on a completely remote basis?". Personnel Today. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Pofeldt, Elaine (2019-03-04). "New Platform Connects Self-Published Authors With Readers". Forbes magazine. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
  13. ↑ Landry, Steve (2021-02-24). "A Complete Guide To Self-Publishing A Book On A Budget". Nerds Magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  14. ↑ KRISTOF, KATHY (2020-03-27). "Here are remote jobs that could keep you working through the coronavirus era". Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  15. ↑ Max, Tucker (2016-09-09). "The Entrepreneur's Complete Guide to Ghostwriting". Entrepreneur magazine. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Dillet, Romain. "Reedsy Launches Book Editor To Seamlessly Turn Your Draft Into A Book". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 Sanchez, Dana (February 11, 2021). "7 Self-Publishing Book Resources For Aspiring Authors". Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  18. ↑ Clawson, Trevor (2019-08-28). "Brought To Book - Can Platform Tech Help Us All To Tell Our Life Stories?". Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  19. ↑ Reader, Ruth (2017-09-19). "You Can't Gig With Us: Why The Freelance Economy Is Getting More Cliquey". Fast Company magazine. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 Flatt, Molly (2015-10-29). "BookTech Showcase: Reedsy". The Bookseller magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  21. ↑ Anderson, Porter (2017-08-18). "What Are Book Cover Designers and Editors Earning? The Freelance Reality". Publishing Perspectives magazine. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Funkhouser, Tori (2016-02-02). "How publishing startups use tech tactics to thrive in the digital era". Tech Republic magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  23. ↑ "Layoffs at Macmillan and Tor". Locus magazine. 2020-04-20. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  24. ↑ Staff Writer (2020-12-01). "Children's Job Moves: November 2020". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  25. ↑ "Search for writing contests in your genre". Reedsy. January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  26. ↑ Martin, Audrey (2020-07-18). "5 Creative Ways For Aspiring Authors To Build A Fan Base". Study Breaks magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Kozlowski, Michael (2016-10-13). "Reedsy Learning is a series of online courses for indie authors". Good E Reader magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  28. ↑ Chhabra, Esha. "London Startup Uses Technology To Open Up The World Of Book Publishing". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
  29. ↑ Reid, Calvin. "Reedsy Debuts Skills Market, Plans Curated Imprint". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 30.5 Staff writer (2019). "A new platform to help writers and publishing professionals come together to create beautiful books". European Commission -- Cordis. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
  31. ↑ Wong, Kristin (2018-12-10). "How to Finally Write Your Nonfiction Book: No, it will not be easy. Yes, it will be rewarding (Eventually.)". The New York Times. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  32. ↑ Bierhaus, Anna (2021-01-06). "Pacing: How To Write An Addictive Page-Turne". KPBS. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 NANOU, ELECTRA (2020-12-09). "How to Use the Reedsy Book Editor to Write and Publish Your Book: Apart from a space to type out your narrative, you get tools that transform it according to publishing industry standards". Make Use Of magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  34. ↑ Reid, Calvin (2016-02-26). "Reedsy Grows, Launches Online Book Editor Tool". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  35. ↑ Nelson, Olivia (2019-05-06). "The Best Software for Writers 2019". University Magazine. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Agarwal, Nitin (2020-02-10). "Nine tools every aspiring writer needs to have in 2020". PC Tablet magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  37. ↑ Dilworth, Dianna (2016-02-16). "Reedsy Debuts Digital Book Editing Tool". Galley Cat magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  38. ↑ Glantz, Jen. "I've made thousands of dollars a month in passive income for the past 5 years: Here's how". CNBC. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  39. ↑ Rowan, Lisa (2019-11-02). "Where To Get Ideas For Your NaNoWriMo Project". Lifehacker Australia magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 40.2 40.3 40.4 Pilkington, Mercy (2019-03-04). "Reedsy Launches Book Discovery Platform for Indie Authors". Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 41.2 41.3 41.4 41.5 Flatt, Molly (2019-03-06). "The inside story behind Reedsy's new Discovery platform". The Bookseller magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 42.2 42.3 NANOU, ELECTRA (2020-11-15). "How to Make the Most of Reedsy Discovery as an Author: Learn how to attract more readers and promote your books with Reedsy Discovery". Make Use Of magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  43. ↑ Dillet, Romain. "Reedsy Launches Behance-Like Profiles To Let Authors Showcase Their Books". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  44. ↑ "How Much Does It Cost". Reedsy. August 2019. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
  45. ↑ Inghum, Edmund (2015-09-21). "It's Time To Rethink How We Create And Publish Books: Reedsy Founder Explains How". Forbes magazine. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  46. ↑ Crawford, Ross (2020-07-29). "Redditch writer Joshua aims to set pulses racing with first book". Redditch Standard. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  47. ↑ Brighton, Prudence (2019-12-25). "Lowell's Acre in the '70s sets tone for new book". The Lowell Sun. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 Angel, Karen (2016-05-26). "It's a Writer's Market: Digital platforms have emerged to serve midlist authors". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  49. ↑ Funkhouser, Tori (2016-02-02). "How publishing startups use tech tactics to thrive in the digital era". Tech Republic. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  50. ↑ Rowe, Adam (2019-06-24). "Wattpad Just Launched A New Publishing Division, Wattpad Books". Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  51. ↑ Pofeldt, Elaine. "This Startup Aims To Take The Pain Out Of DIY Publishing". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
  52. ↑ ALSEVER, JENNIFER (2016-12-30). "The Kindle Effect". Fortune magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  53. ↑ "The 115 Best Books of All Time According to Reedsy". Book Trib magazine. 2020-06-12. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  54. ↑ Gaul, Alma (2020-12-20). "10 top Christmas stories". Quad City Times. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  55. ↑ Primoff, Mark (2021-02-08). "Bard College's Award-Winning Literary Magazine Conjunctions Celebrates the Launch of Its Latest Issue with a Zoom Reading and Performance by Contributors on February 26". Bard News. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  56. ↑ 56.0 56.1 Staff Writer (2019-01-08). "Authors Guild Survey Shows Drastic 42 Percent Decline in Authors Earnings in Last Decade". Businesswire. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
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This article "Reedsy" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Reedsy. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.


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