6 Tips to Get the Most out of Reedsy's Marketplace: A Guide for Freelancers

At Reedsy, we recently reached a milestone. Over 1,500,000 authors have signed up to our Marketplace, where they can find some 3,500 skilled professionals waiting to help them achieve their publishing dreams. Due to our rigorous screening process, our freelancers all boast impressive CVs with extensive publishing experience, and are often getting more requests from authors than they can accept. But many freelancers could get even more out of their Marketplace profiles with just a few simple tweaks.

To help our freelancers increase their visibility and gain more work that fit their skill sets and specialties, my team recently hosted a webinar where our Head of Operations, Prathima Appaji and Head of Content Martin Cavannagh , broke down the data and trends we’re seeing on what sets the best profiles apart.?

Here are some of the key takeaways:

1. Profiles should be short and to the point

For a freelancer, the purpose of a profile is to highlight their work experience, the type of services they offer, and the genres they specialize in. The best profiles on our Marketplace front-load this information by adding it directly to their short description, which is the first thing authors see. It might say something like “Certified copy editor specializing in epic fantasy and dystopian fiction.” This lets authors know immediately if they might be a good match for their project.

The rest of the freelancer’s profile should give enough detail to paint a clear picture of their skills, experience, and style, but not so much as to overwhelm. Keeping it short and to the point ensures they get their key points across and — most importantly — means that authors can get to the portfolio at the bottom of the profile quickly.?

2. Narrowing down genres can give a competitive edge

Before the portfolio, freelancers need to specify what services, languages, and genres they specialize in, choosing from an extensive list of helpful tags. For genres, they can pick up to 8 discrete ones, but we highly encourage freelancers to be selective: it’s better to pick just a few that you truly specialize in than to try and catch ‘em all.?

Freelancers sometimes think that it’s better to pick general genre tags such as ‘fantasy’ or ‘children’s,’ but the truth is that picking sub-genres makes them much more discoverable on the marketplace. That’s because if you choose ‘picture books’ instead of the more general parent genre ‘children’s,’ you’ll appear in searches for both, whereas if you pick ‘children’s,’ you won’t appear in searches for ‘picture books’ at all. So specificity really pays off in terms of getting more relevant projects, and increased visibility.

3. The work experience section needs to be relevant to authors

Many freelancers fall into the trap of treating their work experience section as a CV, listing their responsibilities and skills in a way that would appeal to a recruiter, and not necessarily an author. Our data shows that authors are more likely to contact a freelancers who gives concrete examples of titles they’ve worked on, authors they‘ve worked with, and specific achievements (selling X amount of copies, getting on a bestseller list, etc) — rather than freelancers who list the responsibilities and tasks they performed at their past place of employment.

Unfortunately, many freelancers also forget to highlight what they’ve achieved during their time as freelancers. This is a huge missed opportunity because it makes it seem like they haven’t done anything since leaving traditional publishing — which I know from experience is far from the truth. And since authors are hiring freelancers, this is perhaps the most important part, as it provides insight into what they can get from an independent professional.

4. A well-curated portfolio creates legitimacy

The portfolio is where freelancers can link out to titles that they’ve worked on and in large parts confirms whether a freelancer is the real deal. Without exaggerating, it’s probably the real star of the show. As such, it should complement the rest of the profile and include one or two clear examples of what a freelancer specializes in: if a freelancer has stated that they specialize in ‘epic fantasy’ and ‘dystopian’ fiction, their portfolio should be focused on those two sub-genres only.

Here, quality trumps quantity: including too many titles in the portfolio or several books by the same author can look clumsy and unprofessional. A well-curated and up-to-date portfolio (with the most relevant titles at the top), on the other hand, shows that the freelancer is aware of their strengths and will deliver top quality services. Carefully curating the portfolio will also help authors understand what sort of projects a freelancer enjoys working on, and encourage more relevant submissions.

5. The overall presentation should be friendly and professional

Stylistically, we recommend using first person instead of third in the profile because it makes freelancers seem friendlier and more approachable. It’s also good to inject a bit of personality, since many authors may be nervous first-timers who have never worked with a publishing professional before. Showing that you’re human can reassure them that there’s nothing to fear.?

Of course, the profile should be free of spelling, grammar, and formatting issues to assure authors that they’re hiring a consummate professional.

6. There’s no need to please everyone

Lastly, I want to stress that one of the biggest mistakes that freelancers make is trying to make their profile as widely appealing as possible for fear of losing out on clients. But most of our authors — who are spending a considerable amount of time and money on turning their publishing dreams into reality — are not just looking for someone who is capable; they’re looking for someone who is very specifically matched to their project.

Our most successful freelancers gently but firmly let authors know what they specialize in and why they should hire them. Authors feel reassured that they’ll get a premium service, and, in return, freelancers get to work on projects that truly fit their skill set and inspire them, without sacrificing their bottom line.

These are some of the key takeaways from our webinar on profile optimization. If you want to learn more about this topic, you can find the full transcript and replay here .

And if you’re a freelancing publishing professional but not on Reedsy yet, go ahead and join our community .

P.S. Keep an eye out for our new and improved marketplace, which we are in the process of launching! ??