Reedsy Discovery - Discover and showcase the best new indie books

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

Seems like a fabulous product. How are the reviewers selected?

Already a respected brand in the book world known for its indie authors services, Reedsy builds on its success with ReedsyDiscovery, giving self-publishers a decent chance at much needed attention. As one of those indies myself, landing a solid review on ReedsyDiscovery has given my book valuable exposure to a huge new audience.

Pros:

Offers helpful encouragement along the way for low cost. You feel cared-for, not just another author in the queue with so many others.

Cons:

None at the moment. They seem to be doing it right.

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.

This looks great! Will you allow books that have already launched onto Discovery too?

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. :)