A new platform to help writers and publishing professionals come together to create beautiful books
Back in 2014, Mr Emmanuel Nataf could see that while it had become very simple to distribute a book via the Kindle Store, self-publishing a high-quality product that had a chance to compete with titles published by larger publishers remained a real challenge. “We could sense that the self-publishing market was growing massively and was becoming the best option for authors looking for better royalties and more creative freedom. In fact, according to Bowker, the market went from 500 000 self-published books in 2013 to 1.2 million books in 2017.” As the number of self-published books climbed, the freelance economy started to gather pace. More and more publishing professionals were available to provide their services as freelancers. “With these two trends happening concomitantly, we felt like there was a real opportunity to build a freelance marketplace for the book publishing industry,” so Nataf set up the Reedsy project, with help from the European Union, to create a platform to bring writers and industry professionals together. The Reedsy ecosystem comprises of their marketplace, a learning platform with over 30 free publishing courses, a book production tool and a number of additional tools authors can use throughout their publishing journey including writing prompts. More recently, Reedsy also launched Reedsy Discovery, a marketing platform for authors looking to reach their audience. The platform is generating a lot of interest, already over 150 000 people have registered. “We are really looking to offer writers a whole range of expert services to ensure they can publish their book successfully.” Nataf, Reedsy’s CEO, credits the diverse skill-set of the co-founding team, with their expertise in business-to-business and engineering, for the platform’s success. As of November 2018, Reedsy gets about 300 000 unique visits a month on its site, two-thirds of which comes from Google search queries. “Since we found out that content was a real growth driver for us, we've been doubling down on it and grew the team accordingly. We're now the second largest site in the writing/self-publishing niche.” So what is next for the Reedsy team? Nataf says he is proud that Reedsy is not just a fast-growing business making money, but also a business that helps more people bring their ideas into the world through their books. “To further that, we are setting out to build a powerful engine for authors to increase their audience and for readers to discover the indie world,” which, Nataf feels, it is still being ignored by mainstream publications. “Our objective is to grow Reedsy Discovery to a community of millions of readers, and that is our next big challenge!”
Keywords
Reedsy, self-publishing, writing, publishing professionals, ebooks