Episode 27
In this show I interview Emmanuel Nataf, CEO and Co-founder of Reedsy, an online marketplace for finding publishing professionals such as editors and graphic designers and illustrators. This company has recently won the Booksellers’ BookTech Company of the Year award at the prestigious FutureBook conference.
What exactly is Reedsy and why did you decide to start it?
Emmanuel saw the changes happening in the publishing industry with the arrival of eBooks and also the appearance of many former publishing industry professionals turning freelancing and envisaged creating a marketplace to match those two together.
How do you control the quality of the professionals you allow to advertise on Reedsy?
Reedsy has many more applications to join their process as professionals than they accept. The aim is to look for relevant experience, ideally in traditional publishing to ensure all the professionals are qualified and experienced enough to provide an exceptional service.
How much do you charge if someone uses Reedsy to find a professional?
Reedsy take a 10% cut on each side of the transaction – e.g they add £100 to a £1000 fee agreed with a professional who will be paid £900.
What can someone do if they are unhappy with a service they find via Reedsy?
They offer a 100% guarantee. So far they’ve had very few issues and in the one case they did have they offered a full refund.
What new features are you working on?
Reedsy are introducing the Reedsy Book Editor – a tool to allow authors to create a high-quality eBook and Paperback direct from their editor with a few clicks. I confirmed with Emmanuel that this would be freely available. They are hoping to have it ready by January 2016.
Beyond this, Emmanuel sees that the general expectation of quality in self-publishers has increased dramatically since Reedsy was founded. They are planning to open-source the data about editing and other costs to provide greater transparency to the industry.
You can find out about Reedsy at https://reedsy.com. You can see a sneak peak of their new writing software in the video below:
If you liked this interview then you might like my interview with Andy Bromley from Ingram Spark or my show on editing.