[Publishing svcs] Reedsy

tddp1 · Jan 9, 2015

Hi Guys,

Here's a quick message to present you Reedsy! We are building a community of top publishing professionals (editors, illustrators and soon marketers) to work with authors: https://reedsy.com/

Reedsy is committed to enabling the future of high-quality indie-publishing.

It's free for authors to use and hundreds of authors have already created their personal profiles!

Reedsy is very curated: so far, 200 amazing publishing professionals selected among 3,000 applications. They are coming from the best publishing houses and have about 4,000 books in their portfolios. Here are some of them:

Some of our editors include:
Jane Friedman: https://reedsy.com/jane-friedman
Rebecca Heyman: https://reedsy.com/rebecca-heyman
Kiele Raymond: https://reedsy.com/kiele-raymond
Averill Buchanan: https://reedsy.com/averill-buchanan
Tom Flood: https://reedsy.com/tom-flood
Richard Sheehan: https://reedsy.com/richard-sheehan
John Hudspith: https://reedsy.com/john-hudspith
Dominick Montalto: https://reedsy.com/dominick-montalto
Harrison Demchick: https://reedsy.com/harrison-demchick

And amongst our designers are:
Emma Graves: https://reedsy.com/emma-graves
Mark Karis: https://reedsy.com/mark-karis
Kerri Resnick: https://reedsy.com/kerri-resnick
Alejandro Largo: https://reedsy.com/alejandro-largo
Nicole Caputo: https://reedsy.com/nicole-caputo
Kate Gaughran: https://reedsy.com/kate-gaughran
Daniel Cullen: https://reedsy.com/daniel-cullen
Mark Ecob: https://reedsy.com/mark-ecob

Any thoughts or comments are more than welcome!

CaoPaux · Jan 12, 2015

One dares hope the marketers coming soon will be savvier than the current one(s).

AlexisRadcliff · Jun 16, 2015

My Experiences Using Reedsy.com to Find an Editor

Hey folks! I just got done using Reedsy through a full cycle with an editor I found on there. I know a lot of you shop around for cover designers and editorial services, so I thought you might be interested to read a thorough review of the whole process.

Excerpt:

Reedsy excels at its core competencies: Making connections with a large group of qualified freelancers fast, easy, and relatively painless, providing good data about the skills and background of those freelancers, and handling payments in a way that's extremely convenient.

Those competencies are the real value provided by Reedsy's marketplace. I'm certain the other tools they're building will be interesting and well-designed, but right now I'm perfectly happy using Word's track changes feature to take feedback from my editor, Gmail for correspondence, and Scrivener to create files. The alternatives to those tools which Reedsy is building need to be better or more convenient than what I have now to make me want to switch, and that's a high bar to meet.

As much as I loved using their marketplace, the 22% real premium on contracted services is a little too high for me to go back and do it again under the current model. The 10% is a little easier to swallow, and better still if it's on the supplier side so it's baked in as part of the initial quote. Ideally, I'd want to pay Reedsy a flat fee for the introduction (a finder's fee of sorts) and only pay thereafter if I really like using their platform services. In any case, I think the site would be all-around more attractive to authors if the costs are kept on the editorial and design side, just like they would be for 3rd-party contractors on Amazon, Uber, or eBay, which would also make price-shopping comparisons onsite and offsite easier.

That said, if you don't mind paying the premium and highly value how streamlined their process is, I can't think of a better place to quickly find and reach out to a plethora of easy-to-reach freelancers with high-quality credentials. You can still find very reasonable prices on Reedsy for the services you want, and they have a team of talented and passionate people working hard on providing a great experience for authors and freelancers alike. I have nothing but respect for their efforts and wish them all the success in the world.

I'll be watching them closely in the coming months to see how their tools develop and how the pricing structure changes, because honestly I'm not looking forward to going back to the old way of finding freelancers to work with right now. I'd love to use them again, but only if the price was right.

You can read the whole article here, along with some comments I got when I reached out to their co-founder Ricardo Fayet: http://www.lexirad.com/reedsy-com-review-one-authors-experiences/

EMaree · Jun 12, 2017

This got a mention in an e-mail to Janet Reid's blog recently so I decided to register and check it out... and yikes, folks, if you love your tidy inbox don't bother. Their entire marketing plan is just aggressive mailing to all registered users. You will get e-mails every single day until you unsubscribe.

More importantly, the range of available editors is rubbish. I keep a list of reputable editors and hoped to find some of them on here. I found none of them. Not a single familiar face.

The UI for finding an editor is also really poor: no prices visible, no clear listing of editing types available or per-word rates. The UI is too busy trying to push you towards putting a book on their showcase to bother making the editing options clear.

Don't waste your time with this, imo. There's so many great editors out there with individual websites, clear rates and testimonials. This site provides no value and is only trying to make a commission out of its users.

bonnyronnie · Jun 22, 2018

Does anyone have experience with the site Reedsy?

I'm trying to find an editor for my completed manuscript, and Reedsy was recommended to me. It mostly has freelance editors listed on the site, which, I'm fine with-- as long as they have experience editing with a publishing house. I think I've found an editor I'd like to work with, but my inexperience/ignorance is keeping me from accepting the contract.

Do any of you have suggestions on how to get an editor (the traditional publishing way, I guess?) How to vet an editor? And, if you do, do you have any suggestions for legit sites/forums/etc where to find editors and agents to work with?

(Also, I am not interested in self-publishing, just FYI.)

- - - Updated - - -

Also also, I'd sincerely appreciate any tips/tricks y'all have found throughout your own publishing journeys, re: IP, editing contracts, etc.

Please!!

AW Admin · Jun 22, 2018

If you're planning to have your book published by a trade publisher, rather than self-publishing, I'd suggest hold off on paying an editor.

Your publisher will have editors; it's their job to edit your ms. and you don't pay them; it's the publisher's responsibility to do that.

Moreover, that editor will know what the publisher's editorial preference and "house style" are; you could be making more work for them.

I'd hold off. I'd find some beta readers and consider posting a sample in Share Your Work, when you have 50 posts, where people will read and respond to your excerpt, for free.

There are some publishing FAQs here. You can learn a lot just by reading AW for a while; lots of editors, writers etc. here with a lot of experience.

Gillhoughly · Jun 22, 2018

to AW!

Seconding Admin's advice. A writer's worst enemy is impatience. I know you worked hard on your book, harder than on anything else you've ever done before and you want to get it up to the next level, but stop and take a breath or it will cost you.

Shelve the book for a month. Don't open the file, but read stuff here on AW, trib to the community--your opinion matters here--read books, and work on a new project. The idea is to give your brain a complete rest from the book. You need a little distance to gain perspective.

After all that, and by then you might have the 50 posts needed to try Share Your Work, take a fresh look at the book. I guarantee you will find stuff to tweak, fix, and delete!

It is simply too soon to even think about finding an editor. Get to the 808 section of the library and read all the how-to books on writing if you haven't already.

Here is a great article with book titles to check out, including ones on editing. The more you know the better, especially on the business side of the craft! Writers are small business people, and at this point you have to learn the ropes before flinging open the shop doors.

You are in the best place to learn. AW is like having 7000 friends watching your back!

https://accrispin.blogspot.com/2007/05/victoria-strauss-learning-ropes.html

If your library does not have these books, they can get them via Inter-Library Loan.

desdenova · Dec 7, 2020

Reedsy writing prompts

So this is not technically a publisher, but I've been wanting to post something about this *somewhere* and since it's a warning for writers, I figured this would be the most fitting place...

I'm sure many of you know of Reedsy, it's an interesting site with a lot of valuable services for writers and publishers.

They also include a "writing contest" with writing prompts that I thought was interesting. It's free to enter and the winner gets $50. Not a huge amount, but they run it every week, so not so bad.

https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/

I wrote a short story for this back in September but then, just before submitting it, I read their terms of service.

That was like a cold shower.

They're posted here:

https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/terms/

In particular, I'd like to draw your attention to these two extracts from Article #3:

"Each entrant retains the copyright to their entry but grants, represents, and warrants a non-exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, publish, and otherwise use the entry on any platforms, in accordance with these Terms of Use, and as otherwise necessary to fulfill the delivery of the prize and facilitation of the Contest."

And, a little further down:

"By submitting an entry, you agree that Reedsy may at its sole discretion edit, adapt, abridge, or translate the entry for the purposes listed in these terms and conditions."

I felt those terms were highly abusive. I emailed their staff about it and was given some dismissive responses that were far from satisfying.

I just find this unacceptable, all the moreso from a site that is *supposed* to help writers.

A lot of folks submit stories there every week, and it makes me wonder how many of them have actually read those terms.

So there you have it.

Just thought it'd be important to let folks know about this.

PS. ALWAYS read the terms of service before you publish something online. Even if you're willing to do it for free... the "perpetual" thing, for instance, would not be a good thing in ANY case.

[Publishing svcs] Reedsy

tddp1

CaoPaux

Mostly Harmless

AlexisRadcliff

Writes About Writing

EMaree

a demon for tea

bonnyronnie

AW Admin

Gillhoughly

Grumpy writer and editor

desdenova