On October 10, Reedsy, the author-services marketplace, is debuting free online courses for authors, and we were given a sneak preview of the offering.
“After completing more than 1,000 publishing projects in about eighteen months,” CEO Emmanuel Nataf says, “we realized how much help authors needed through the process; and instead of repeating ourselves, we thought we’d build the best content possible to answer their questions and make publishing a book a bit less daunting.”
It’s called Reedsy Learning. In our early look, we were shown teasers of five courses—though Nataf says they’ll have double the courses by launch day. Each course consists of a daily email for ten days. Authors can sign up for a single course at a time.
The five courses we saw included:
- Facebook Ads for Authors
- Traditional Publishing 101
- Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing
- Book Marketing 101
- All You Need to Know about Amazon Algorithms
We tried signing up for the Amazon Algorithms course. It’s taught by Adam Houge, whose self-introduction is “I’m a six-figure author.” (If you click on the first link on the first lesson’s email, you’re taken to Houge’s site, where he asks you to sign up—he’d like your email address—for his free video course.)
Houge’s first lesson briefly describes the difference in the hourly and thirty-day rolling average algorithmic elements in Amazon sales rankings. He explains that later lessons will “convert your sales at a higher rate by focusing on certain aspects of your sales page and [having] a proper launch and post promotions.”
This leaves us looking forward not only to seeing what other Reedsy Learning courses are ahead but to learning who’s teaching them. Three of the first five courses are taught by Reedsy. Still to come, we’re told, is a course in worldbuilding by Andy Weir’s UK editor, Michael Rowley.
Bottom line: We appreciated an early look at what clearly is still being put together. We like the graphic design and crisp, clever icons for each course. We like the idea. The question is whether Reedsy can get industry experts to offer free courses without wooing users to their websites, where they attempt to monetize the exposure. And Reedsy, remember, would like your email address, too. Nothing is really free, is it? Eyes wide open.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
