Reedsy Discovery — Discover and showcase the best new indie books

The Reedsy team is always killing it 👌 Landing looks great, and I can definitely see the value in what you're building. How would you say Reedsy Discovery is different from Product Hunt books? Cheers, and congrats on the launch!

Hey PH! Emmanuel from Reedsy here! 👋 There’s a world of stories out there (over a million books self-published every year), and Amazon’s automatic recommendation emails are not doing a great job at suggesting them. Traditional media like The NYTimes or The Guardian couldn’t care less about self-published books. We think that really sucks. Today we’re launching Discovery to solve just that, and help authors reach their target market (the same way Product Hunt helps startups find their early adopters). We were a team of 5 to work on this first version and would love to get your feedback 🙏 Emmanuel

This is awesome! I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview with a full walkthrough from @ricardofayet and wow is this polished, thoughtful, and a great experience for both authors and reviewers. Killer work on this Reedsy! No doubt this is going to make a big impact for self-published authors.

This is great! Excited for a new way to discover my next book. Do you have any plans to link it up with Goodreads? It'd be super cool if I could add books I'm interested in on Reedsy Discovery straight to my Goodreads "to-read" list, for example. :)

I am a big fan for Reedsy, I have used their service and edited and published 3 books in around a year. When they sent an email about their new service Reedsy Discovery, I submitted my latest book "Anchor System Thinking". Within days the book received an in depth review. I would love it if they add the feature to add all my published books, not just my latest. Independent authors would love this service, I also suggest to lower the price to 25$ and maybe add higher packages with more reviews and not just one. Also adding Audiobooks would be a killer service.

Pros:

Excellent reviewing service for indie authors.

Cons:

Should have a feature to add old books and not just pre-launch Price should be lower, maybe 25$

I am a big fan for Reedsy, I have used their service and edited and published 3 books in around a year. When they sent an email about their new service Reedsy Discovery, I submitted my latest book "Anchor System Thinking". Within days the book received an in depth review. I would love it if they add the feature to add all my published books, not just my latest. Independent authors would love this service, I also suggest to lower the price to 25$ and maybe add higher packages with more reviews and not just one.

This is really interesting team Reedsy Discovery Goodreads integration will be wonderful as well. I would like to see more non-fiction at Discovery in the future. :D

Hi - This is a cool idea. I just launched a new book about 4 months ago. It is doing Okay but I wish I could get more reviews. I only have about 10 now. Would it be a good idea to sing up for Discovery?

Amazing illustrations and highly usable website. All the best guys. The team has high attention to detail and i believe you will make this big. And, as an author can i limit how many users are going to review the book?

I hope you like the review you get, because if not--TOUGH! You have to live with your review, even if you are unhappy and it does nothing to help you out as a struggling author! They will NOT remove a review and it doesn't matter how unhappy you are! They care more about their amateur reviewers than their PAYING authors! They cleave to their beloved policies even if it means angering their customers! They will NOT help you out if you have a problem. Once you get a review, it's there forever! Even if you delete your book(s) and account, your review will stay on their site. Why? Who knows! I guess they care more about themselves and making their site look a little less empty than taking care of their customers. This is a BIG risk, people! Save your $50!

First off, this looks like such a excellent and exciting addition to an already great platform! I'm an artist & author and in May I will be launching to Kickstarter the physical editions of my illustrated novel. Would I be able to use Reedsy Discovery to later launch my ebook edition of my novel to the various self publishing platforms for the first time?

Awesome tool to build out my reading list!

Pros:

Great way to discover some less popular authors.

Cons:

Waiting for the platform to grow and have more authors to choose from.

This is the definition of catching the simpleton. If you're a new indie author, stay away from this service. You may think this will help you launch your book but they will just take your 50 bucks and call it a day. The first thing you should consider is--if you go for Reedsy, you need to go full ham. Take their editors, their formatters, their everything otherwise they will burn you down. That's dishonest, but I guess it's the business world. I didn't get one of their editors and preferred to get someone outside of their platform and they *do* have a box you gotta tick when asking for a review. They *do* want to know if your book was edited by one of them or not. Secondly, when you pay for the review, you don't even know who your reviewer is going to be. There is 0 transparency on that. You're hiring someone blindly. They just send you an e-mail telling you your book has been picked up. Last, the reviewer is not a professional. I wrote an adult, dark fantasy novel and I was assigned a young adult fantasy romance reader. Why? Because in their bio, the reviewer said they read fantasy and apparently, that's enough for Reedsy. I checked the reviewer's site and social media, and they're a legit nobody like you and me, with no credentials other than "I read a lot of books." Yeah, me too, that doesn't make me an editorial reviewer. The review in question was awful--biased, offensive for no reason, and you could tell the reviewer didn't read the book at all because no plot points were ever mentioned, no characters, nothing that would constitute an "editorial" review. They complained about a lack of trigger warnings when those warnings were in the description; they used sentences like "I was screaming" to describe their reading... Fun fact, the reviewer bashed me for using the passive voice to describe actions, when the passive voice is meant to put emphasis on the action and not on the subject performing the action. These guys don't know what they're talking about, and the Reedsy staff can't be bothered to acknowledge it. Their ToS means nothing because even if you get a reviewer who writes, "I don't know who can enjoy this book," they think it's professional enough. They will tell you the review belongs to the reviewer so they can't take it down, like on Goodreads or Amazon. But the difference is, on Goodreads you don't pay people to give you their professional opinion. It's a reader website. And on Amazon, you can report abuse but even if you got a bad review, the person probably purchased your book anyway. They're customers. Again, not professionals. And I don't know what this load of excuses is anyway; on BookLife you can decide whether you want your review to be public or not. It should also be noted that even if you are somewhat satisfied with your review, it's up to you if you want your book to be featured in their newsletter. You've got to have a lot of people upvoting your review so basically, you have to market inside of Reedsy--pay someone for a launch and do the launch yourself is what this is. I also think there is a privacy issue with this platform because even after I deleted my account, I keep receiving notifications from Reedsy Discovery as if my account was half-active still. I e-mailed them maybe three times to solve this issue. Do they care? Of course not. Imagine uploading your manuscripts on such websites.

It allows for people to make a name for themselves reviewing books and can show you what book is best suited to your tastes. Amazing addition to the platform.

Pros:

This is so cool!! Fresh books from all the reedsy authors and more! This company is on a fast track to dominating the literary world.

Cons:

It's early days, looking forward to seeing how many authors go on to submit their books.

Reviewers should be sufficiently fluent in English to understand figures of speech, play on words, hyperbole, metaphors, etc., when reviewing fiction books that use those mechanisms. My reviewer wrote, “Since I'm a non-native English speaker, I had to look up several words to understand what they meant.” The book is only middle-grade level. The reviewer didn't even understand the title because she was apparently reading it literally. I can go on. Now, mistakes happen. So, I simply asked the review be removed. I did not ask for a refund. The staff at Reedsy refused and have not been pleasant. As alternatives, I recommend BookSprout, Library of Things, and Midwest Book Review if you want thoughtful reviews and a pleasant experience. Don't pay Reedsy $50 to get insulted--that's my motto.

I've been in the publishing industry for more than a decade, and Reedsy is truly innovating in this space. I can't wait to see how this impacts self-published authors.

With visibility being the toughest challenge for authors, Reedsy Discovery offers authors a needed service in an easy to use package.

Pros:

Reedsy is giving authors a clear space for discovery!

Cons:

It would help for the opportunity to choose more than one reviewer to balance out shared reviews.

@emmanuelnataf @mattjohncobb @ricardofayet @ferrolho @tiagobabo This sounds like a product that definitely fills a gap in the market. I'm a children's picture book author (ages 4-8) and I'm curious if there's a niche of reviewers or other services that fit my genre. Thanks!

I signed up for Reedsy Discovery as soon as I saw the e-mail this morning. Sign-up and submission were straight forward and simple.

Pros:

It's great to see Reedsy expanding their services. Reviews are very important for book launches.

Cons:

Author bio is too short. The only thing which was odd is that my book won't appear for a couple of weeks.

I have never attacked an editorial review of my work until now. Reedsy's lack of reviewer vetting is to blame. Since Reedsy refuses to act in the best interest of their clients, they leave me with no other option but to post this response. Let me level set with a bit of history. My most recent reviewer did not like my first book either. As an editorial review, her review of the first novel seemed harsh. So much so that I viewed it as a consumer review, not a professional editorial review. Other reviews for the novel were solid, and it was a top-10 seller in Time Travel Sci-Fi on Amazon. When I posted my next novel to Reedsy Discovery, the same reviewer *immediately* picked it up. This seemed odd considering the prior encounter. How many times do you want to read a book from an author you rated average? So, I questioned the "support" group, which is just a lady named Felicia. She said it wasn't uncommon for a reviewer to pick up another book from an author they liked. I highlighted they did not like my first book, having given it three stars, and rightfully wondered why the interest in picking up my second? I told her I would prefer another reviewer. No response or mitigation. A month later, the two-star review emerged about six weeks before the new novel launch date. I expressed my displeasure at the predictable outcome and requested removal of the review. Of course, Reedsy declined from their mighty perch and refused to admit any errors—unacceptable and why I will not be using the service again. However, the reasons we have arrived here are laughable when considering the reviewer's qualifications and the background development leading to this novel. First, this reviewer is not qualified to write editorial reviews. She is a heavy equipment operator from Canada and an artist on the side who has never published a novel. This is from her old website bio: "Who am I? Well, my name is ____, and I spend my days working towards my Heavy Equipment Technician ticket." She also teaches leather sewing and does some illustrations for clients and wants to start a robotics company? I appreciate anyone exploring multiple roles and their creative side, but this flies in the face of reason. They claim to vet reviewers… this is a joke. Second, this novel has a long history and wasn't a first draft slapped together in a month. It started as a screenplay that I workshopped extensively with multiple producers in Atlanta and Los Angeles. I converted it to a novel with the help of a developmental editor. My father—a retired career USMC avionics chief—reviewed the operations components. He speaks plainly and reads military espionage regularly. He would have never advised me to publish if "observational oversights" existed. It seems this artist with 14 Twitter followers really found gaps the old Marine missed. It is an insult to me and my family's extensive history of military service. As a closing statement, my NetGalley reviews for this novel are at four stars. I know it will rate about four stars across the board. It is commercial fiction meant to be a fast, fun, eye-popping read. I don't pretend I'm the best writer in the world. However, the reviewer has sadly gone the consumer review route and not fulfilled her duties as an editorial reviewer. She doesn't like my writing style and took issue with perceived gaps and decided on a rating. That's fine for a consumer, but Reedsy needs to quality check their editorial reviewers instead of just taking my money. This was an offensive experience from start to finish and I hope no other author gets subjected to it. Fortunately, I think that is the case, since this reviewer states on her website she won't be writing book reviews any longer. Regrettably, I got to experience two of them.