Reedsy Review (2023) - Everything You Need to Know

As a self-published author, you typically don’t have the backing of a publishing house.

You’re responsible for your editing, publishing, and distribution while making sure your book reaches your target audience.

Reedsy is an exclusive marketplace for indie authors like you who are looking for services they might need to publish their books and generate steady sales from them.

Here, I will discuss what benefits you can avail yourself of from Reedsy and how to use the platform.

What is Reedsy?

Ever heard of Fiverr or Upwork?

Reedsy is a U.K.-based third-party freelancing platform similar to Upwork.

But unlike the latter, Reedsy connects authors with only those freelancers who offer services exclusively in the book publishing area.

Suppose you need help with building your author’s image. You can hire a web developer from Reedsy to design an author site for you. Similarly, you can collaborate with an editor to polish your manuscript.

Whether it is the front cover designer you want to engage with a publicist to gain exposure, you’ll pretty much find everything on Reedsy. The company essentially provides you with a platform to subcontract services that a traditional publishing house would typically offer—and probably more.

The Platform and Services

Reedsy has a fairly simple interface and a neat dashboard. On the main panel, there are two tabs you’d usually use.

My Books
Marketplace

The books tab offers a storage facility to upload your manuscript.

It allows you to import your raw manuscript and start writing directly on the platform. You can edit, track, and timeline your work. Additionally, you have the option to protect your content while working with a collaborator (freelancer).

Reedsy also has a good shelving feature. Whatever developmental stage your book is in will be stored under such a tag.

The Marketplace, on the other hand, displays independent services you can acquire.

Reedsy offers eight key services, including but not limited to editing, designing, marketing, ghostwriting, and book reviews.

I am going to brief each category to give you a general idea of what benefits you can avail should you decide to go for any of them.

1. Book Editing

Editing is one of Reedsy’s flagship products. The platform offers four types of editing services to self-publishing authors.

Editorial Assessment
Copy Editing
Development Editing
Proofreading

The editorial assessment expert provides a bird’s eye view of your book to let you know if your manuscript is in need of development editing. The development editor examines your book structure and identifies any plot holes, character development, or narration that require revisiting.

The copy editor (which usually acts as a line editor as well) fixes your sentence structure. Lastly, the proofreader combs your manuscript finely to weed out grammatical errors.

Regardless of your writing expertise, you’ll need all four services at some point to turn your raw manuscript into a finished product. Reedsy merely makes it convenient for you to get it all in one place.

Recently, Reedsy also added “Query Letter” services for those seeking a publishing house. Explore the category to learn more.

2. Book Design

Reedsy Design category offers specific skillsets you’d need to improve your book’s visual appeal.

Some of those services include—

Book cover design.
Layouts.
Illustration.
Typography

Book cover matters a lot regarding your sales ratio.

It alone can get you 52% exposure to your target market. That means a striking design could help you generate more sales.

Other design services are equally important.

A book layout involves formatting your manuscript to set you apart from an amateur writer. The typographer improves readability and arranges your text to make it appear pleasant to the eye. An illustrator is an indispensable partner for a children’s book writer.

Reedsy provides you access to the top-notch experts to design a professional book.

3. Book Publicity

Reedsy offers separate categories for publicity and marketing, and there is a reason for it.

While a marketer focuses on book promotion, a publicist brings attention to both the book and the author.

Let’s talk about what a publicist can do for you.

A publicist pursues both unconventional and traditional methods to give you maximum coverage.

They reach out to well-known bloggers for book reviews and virtual guest interviews. Additionally, they pitch your story to the print media, digital magazines, and niche channels through referrals.

To summarize, here are two types of services you can get from a publicist.

Blog tour
Press coverage

While you can, of course, perform the above two yourself, the publicist has the right amount of social network and PR experience to pull it off successfully.

4. Book Marketing

Marketing is a long-term process that demands a chunk of your attention. Reedsy provides you the opportunity to hire a marketer to spare you time for your next book.

Here are some key services you can acquire from a marketer.

Book launch marketing plan
Advertising
Blurb Writing

A professional marketer maps out a game plan for your book launch.

Since an expert is well-versed in book marketing, they’ll know what techniques to apply to boost your reach and what channels to choose to generate qualified leads.

An advertiser drafts digital ads to attract your target market, while a copywriter focuses on attractive blurbs to convert prospects into customers.

There are, of course, more services a marketer offers. The above is merely the condescended version of the category. But don’t worry; Reedsy has a filter action to help you discover the available options.

5. Ghostwriting

A ghostwriter is a professional writer who works for another writer. Many authors acquire the services of ghostwriters in the case they’re either unable to finish the book, struggle with writer’s block, or have mediocre narrative skills.

Reedsy primarily provides two ghostwriting services to authors.

Book ghostwriting
Book proposal

A book ghostwriter typically takes a rough sketch of your story and turns it into a novel or short story. A book proposal writer comes in handy when you’re planning to pitch your book to a publisher. The experts are familiar with what your publisher will want and draft the proposal accordingly.

Reedsy hand-picks ghostwriters to make sure the person you hire is 100% comfortable with it.

6. Book Translation

Besides editing and ghostwriting, Reedsy also offers book translation services.

For a writer that targets a local audience, book translation probably won’t matter. However, tons of authors need such services to expand their customer base. The Da Vinci Code and kite runner are good examples.

Anyway, the translation services you can get from Reedsy are;

Book translation
Translation assessments

The book translation is pretty much self-explanatory. You hire a native speaker to convert the manuscript in their language. Reedsy hosts Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, and French translators.

The translation assessment services involve proofreading your translated manuscript.

Sometimes, what one implies in one language typically turns out to be completely different in another. The proofreader identifies the glitches, discusses them with the author, and fixes the errors.

This service is well-suited for authors who have had their peers translate the book for them.

7. Website Designing

Site design may seem like an odd category to put in the book niche, but you’d be surprised how much impact your site visuals leave on your audience’s mind.

A website is your point of contact. It’s where you share upcoming news and engage your readers with blog posts.

Reedsy hosts professional web designers that can help you customize your site to resonate with your genre.

If you already have a site running, a designer can revamp it to your requirements. You can also ask them to optimize it from a marketing perspective. Most of the listed designers have developing skills to help improve the technical side of your site.

8. Book Review

The last category isn’t technically a service provided by freelancers. Rather, it’s an in-house promotional product called Reedsy Discovery to help authors gain exposure and reviews.

Reedsy Discovery is a separate platform that, in a manner of speaking, holds a critique committee—or, you could say, book lovers’ group.

They read your story, write their opinion and receive financial appreciation from readers. You, in turn, gain honest feedback and promotion.

Discover offers additional services as well, but the review section is the primary reason authors choose Reedsy Discovery.

To access the platform, you have to submit your book for $50 to get it reviewed by selected members and earn your book a position in the discovery feed.

Free Tools Offered by Reedsy

Reedsy provides ten free tools to brainstorm ideas, independently search promotional channels, and help you polish your writing. I am going to share three tools that I found most useful.

1. Book Promotion Sites

This is a promotional sites research tool that discovers the channels you can use to advertise your book. The tool delivers a list of both paid and free sites with filter options to customize your search results to be suited to your budget.

Since the Reedsy vetting process is exceptional, you can comfortably pursue the sites the tool generates.

2. Book Title Generator

Coming up with a book title idea is a mind-numbing job. You not only have to think up an original name, which is a challenge in itself, but you have to make sure it’s interesting enough to grab attention.

While Reedsy Book Title Generator won’t provide you with available titles for use, it will help you get inspiration for your book name.

The tool store over 10,000 titles and generates names based on your selected genre.

Give it a try.

3. Literary Magazines

Reedsy extends a research tool to unearth literary magazines that accept guest work.

The tool considers your writing niche and delivers magazines that match your criteria.

You’ll receive information on how much they charge for publication, their average traffic volume, and the geographical location of their audience. It will help you decide which magazine would provide maximum exposure.

Remember. One of the best ways to reach a new market is to get your story published in a literary magazine. It’s also a good opportunity for emerging authors who are seeking venues to gain visibility.

How to use the platform?

Reedsy works similarly to any freelance platform. It allows you to create a free account and expect a 10% commission fee from you on every project.

So, unless you have hired a freelancer and paid transaction, you can avail yourself of Reedsy services for free.

To create an account, follow the below steps.

Pick an author account. (I am assuming you’re an author)

The dashboard will appear on your screen.

Upload your book in the “My Books” section.

Once you’ve imported the book, explore the marketplace and start hiring. That’s it.

Takeaway

Reedsy might be a comparatively expensive freelancing platform, but it removes the risk of poor service by setting up a well-structured vetting procedure.

Unlike author accounts, freelancers go through a certain procedure to get accepted. Reedsy staff asks for specific information, requests, a video meeting, and upon satisfaction, they provide freelancers access to the account.

The vetting procedure is a win-win situation for both freelancers and authors. It makes sure the writer receives the best work, and freelancers can charge the amount worth their services.

That is the reason over 1 million authors are registered on the platform, despite the steep prices.

If you can spare a decent budget for your book, go for Reedsy. Good luck!