Launching our Reedsy Project Protection

Establishing a safe place for authors and publishers

Our goal with Reedsy since the very beginning has been to create a safe place for authors and publishers to work seamlessly with the best publishing talent. We envisioned a place where they could be certain that every single collaboration would be a success.

Although our careful curation process has helped bring about this reality, we wanted to make it more official. That’s why we just released our Reedsy Project Protection policy, contained within our Terms of Use. Here is an excerpt:

Reedsy Project Protection

Clients and Service Providers can refer any alleged breach of a Service Contract (including cancellation outside the Free Cancellation Period set out in the Mandatory Terms) (Complaint) to Reedsy for review and determination in good faith via the Report section of their collaboration, or the “Help” button or by emailing service@reedsy.com (a Complaint Report).

Complaint Reports must be made within 7 days of the applicable incident and contain:

1. a summary of the Complaint and Project for review;
2. any applicable supporting documentation or messages sent via Reedsy for review. For the avoidance of doubt, we cannot consider or review documents or material not sent via Reedsy.

Following receipt of all requested information relating to a Complaint Report, we will, within 14 days:

• acknowledge receipt of the Complaint Report and confirm if it is a matter appropriate for Project Protection;
• if we do so confirm, assign a member of the Reedsy support team we determine has an appropriate level of expertise and impartiality to both the Client and Service Provider, to review the Complaint Report (and where appropriate the quality of the Services) and act in good faith to determine whether the Services or conduct of either party has breached the terms of the Service Contract; and
• issue a decision (Decision) in our sole discretion as to whether:
  • any percentage of the Service Fee must be:
    • refunded to the Client from amounts already paid; or
    • deducted from the remaining installments of the Service Fee still to pay; and/or
  • either the Client or Service Provider Reedsy account should be suspended or terminated for breaching the Terms of Use.

Furthermore, both clients (authors, publishers) and service providers (editors, designers, marketers, ghostwriters, etc.) are bound by the Mandatory Terms of their Service Contracts on Reedsy. These relate to the client materials, IP rights, payments, warranties, cancellation periods, confidentiality and data protection. More about it in section 5. of our Terms of Use.

A unique value proposition

Of course, we're not the only services company in the publishing industry to offer similar protection and guarantees on projects. A lot of places will claim they have "satisfaction" or "money-back guarantees". What is really powerful about ours, though, is that it applies to a marketplace — a network of very different individuals. Whoever the author or publisher chooses to work with on Reedsy, we protect their project. You don’t just get safety, you get safety and choice.

Why is choice important? If you’re an author, we believe that one of the most crucial steps in your career is finding the right editor. We encourage authors to contact more than one editor on our marketplace, because doing so increases your chances of finding someone with a communication style you understand, someone you really connect with.

If you’re a publisher, you will have to work on different books, from different authors, and often across different genres. Because of this, you will likely need different professionals and skill-sets to meet the editorial needs across your list. Reedsy provides you with a wide range of accessible talent and “insures” your collaboration with every single one of them.

Now that you know why we’re doing this, let’s explain why we can.

It’s all about curation

We have had over 1,500 collaborations on the Reedsy platform so far, and only in 1% of the cases have we had to step in and mediate, or issue a refund as a third party.

There is a very simple reason for that: we put in a lot of work to vet every single professional who applies to our marketplace, and only accept around 2% of applicants. Moreover, once they’re “in”, we monitor their response rates and activity on the marketplace to make sure they keep up to our standards of responsiveness and professionalism.

It’s actually very easy for us to tell you “you won’t be disappointed” and put our money where our mouth is, because we know our professionals. We’ve hand-picked them ourselves, we know they do a good job.

Let us prove it to you. And as always, let us know in the comments if you have any questions.