An Interview With Reedsy Co-Founder Ricardo Fayet

Ricardo Fayet and his business partner Emmanuel Nataf launched Reedsy, a curated network of book services for independent authors, in 2014.

SPR caught up with Ricardo for a chat about Reedsy and the exciting opportunites the site offers for self-publishers.

Can you tell us what Reedsy is, in a nutshell?
Reedsy is a curated network of top publishing professionals. We have created a beautiful place for editors, designers, and soon publicists to have an exhaustive profile and showcase their activity and portfolio. Authors can browse this network to find their perfect publishing professionals according to their genre and personal requirements.

On top of our curation (only 250 profiles showcased out of over 4,000 applications), we have also leveraged powerful digital technologies in order to streamline the quoting, contracting and editing workflows through simple collaboration tools.

So in a word, Reedsy is the best system whereby authors can find and collaborate with freelancers!

Ricardo Fayet

How does Reedsy help self-publishers?

Finding the right editor can be a long and daunting process. Joanna Penn, for example, had to go through 5 different editors before finding one that really clicked. We have created a better system – one which enables authors to find their most suitable freelancer quicker, whilst also protecting them from the many amateur editors/designers out there.

We also have a very active blog filled with invaluable marketing insights for authors, to help them adopt the right mindsetwhen approaching the marketing and promotion of their books.

And finally, we’ve got a great thing coming in March: author profiles! I can’t say much more at the moment, but they will act as simple, beautifully designed author websites, with all the functionalities you can dream of and more!

Why is the site not open? You have to register to see all the content and get access, right?

I understand the appeal of having a completely open site. But if we want freelancers and authors to have profiles on Reedsy, they need to sign up at some point…

We have created a nice-looking landing page that explains exactly what we’re all about and what to expect on the marketplace. We even link to some public freelancer profiles to give authors a good idea of what they can find on Reedsy.

Reedsy Website

What are the unique selling points for authors who use Reedsy?

First, the quality of our curation. We have some of the very best book designers on earth, including Stephen King’s and Hugh Howey’s. We also have a very wide range of brilliant editors. And again, you won’t find one freelancer on our marketplace who isn’t experienced, talented, or has an incomplete profile. That’s our guarantee.

Moreover, Reedsy is the only publishing system created with fully flexible digital technologies. No other system enables authors to intuitively control and manage their workflow, manuscripts, finances and collaborations in one location. Linking these technologies (with many more on the way!) to a marketplace of top publishing professionals is truly unique.

You’re rolling out some exciting products. Can you tell us what’s happening with Reedsy next?

Well, we can’t say too much! But we are especially excited about author profiles and we are also hard at work at the first collaborative ebook editor which will include cloud-based manuscript versioning, track-changes, backups and centralized queries, further enhancing the author-freelancer collaboration. Digital technologies will transform what is currently a laborious, time-consuming process for indie authors into an efficient, intuitive and much more enjoyable experience!

What do you see for self-publishers in the future?

I see the ‘self’ part of ‘self-publishers’ disappearing from our current usage of that term. You don’t ‘self-blog’ do you? You just blog! The technology is available, and with great content it is possible to make beautiful, valuable and wonderful blogs that enrich the lives of millions of people. In the future, authors will just ‘publish’ – whether they decide to get the help/money of a traditional publisher or decide to retain full control over the creative process and the royalties.

In a word, I see authors being at the center of the publishing process, whatever that one is. Not publishers, not agents, but authors.

Click here to find out more about Reedsy