I’m not 100% certain when Reedsy added collaboration to the book editor. Either I didn’t pay attention to the email or they just slipped it in. Regardless, being able to collaborate was one of the things I thought the writing app was missing.
Now, you can provide access to other Reedsy users to help you write, edit, and comment on your manuscript. However, you’ll want to be careful. The wrong person could ultimately destroy your work.
That’s the risk you take when using any platform that supports such a feature, though. At least in Reedsy, you don’t have to worry about AI flagging your text and locking the file (Google Docs).
How to Set Up Collaborations on Reedsy
To set up a collaboration in Reedsy, those you invite must have their own free Reedsy account. Once they accept, they’ll have access to your manuscript.
Step 1: Manage Your Manuscript
Hover over the manuscript you want to use for collaborations. Then, click the “Manage” button.
Step 2: Open the Access Tab
On the top of the management screen, click the “Access” option. This will take you to the screen where you can invite and revoke user access.
Step 3: Add Collaborators to Invite
You can invite as many people as you’d like to help you work on the manuscript. Remember, each needs to have his or her own Reedsy account for the collaboration.
Enter the individual’s email address for the free Reedsy account and click the “Add” button.
Step 4: Send the Invites
Once you have added your list of collaborators, click the “Invite” button at the bottom.
If the person does not have a free Reedsy account, they will be requested to make one for the collaboration. Otherwise, the individual will not be able to access the manuscript.
Once the person has accepted the invites, the collaborator will have access to make changes.
When someone accepts the invite, an icon will appear in the top right-hand corner of the manuscript. This is to signify that there are multiple users accessing the project.
NOTE: Anyone you invite will have access to write, edit, comment, and export your book. It is vital that you have a level of trust and create your own backups regularly in the event something goes awry.
Revoking Access to Your Manuscript
If for any reason you need to remove someone’s access to your manuscript, you can easily revoke the invitation.
From the Access screen, scroll to the Manage Access section and click the three-dot option on the right of the individual’s name. Then, click “Revoke.”
The person will no longer be able to access your Reedsy manuscript.
Trusting Your Collaborators
It takes a lot of trust to give someone access to your manuscript. In Reedsy, the collaborator will have access to making changes as well as backing up the file. This means someone can completely ruin or even steal your work.
It’s always best to protect yourself as well as your intellectual property.
Have Confidence in Your Collaborators
Before you let anyone near your manuscript, you need confidence he or she isn’t going to just make changes willy-nilly. Well, aside from those who are actually helping you write the story.
Whether it’s contracted assistance or a friendly edit, make sure you set boundaries of what’s appropriate.
Don’t Collaborate with Beta Readers
Having beta readers can help you reshape the story in superb ways. And some authors will offer beta reading as a perk for monthly support. However, you don’t want to give them the ability to make changes to your story.
This is especially true if one or two of those beta readers want to make sweeping changes that alter characters or plots.
Create Regular Backups Yourself
It’s always best to create a backup of your story, even if you’re not collaborating. Accidents happen, or perhaps you want to move the manuscript to another service.
In the event someone butchers your story, though, a backup could mean the difference between rewriting the entire book or just copying it back into Reedsy.
Why Collaboration Is a Key Feature for Me
Not everyone likes working with others. There’s nothing wrong with that. However, I found others to be quite helpful in a variety of settings, especially when it comes to character development and the flow of the story.
Now that Reedsy allows for collaboration, it opens a massive door for me. Not to mention that it’ll save me time from having to copy and paste text from Reedsy to Google Docs and then back again.
Comments from Colleagues
I have a couple of friends whom I can trust to leave comments without changing the words. Essentially, they’ll highlight areas of the text that either don’t sound right or perhaps the use of a certain word.
Sometimes, a synonym makes more sense.
With the collaboration feature, colleagues can go in and easily add comments in the Reedsy writing app, which will appear almost immediately on my end. This function alone is a massive time saver.
Making Edits Easy
No one writes a perfect first draft. Sometimes, you’ll use words incorrectly or gloss over the simplest errors. Instead of highlighting a single word that needs changing, I can have a person fix the word while reading the manuscript.
For example, what if I use “your” instead of “you’re?” The collaborator can just make the change without highlighting it for me. It would take less time overall while giving me less to work on during the editing process.
Since Grammarly works great in the Reedsy writing app, apostrophe mistakes are not as common. However, I’ve used terms that didn’t quite fit or a word that didn’t make sense that Grammarly didn’t catch.
It’s always best to have another pair of human eyes reading the first draft. Hence why so many people hire editors to streamline the book.
Writing the Book
Although I haven’t collaborated with another author to write a book as of yet, it does pique my interest. It’s nice to know that when that time comes, it’ll be quite easy to collaborate within the Reedsy book editor without much fuss.
I can also see the value of the feature from a ghostwriter’s perspective. I’ve been asked a few times to ghostwrite a book for potential clients, and the collaboration feature would streamline that process. Sure, we could use Google Docs, but with the platform flagging certain types of content, it’s not as reliable.
In any event, I’m looking forward to future books with other authors. I feel it would probably give me an opportunity for some blog and video content.
How Often Do You Collaborate with Others?
Collaborating with others isn’t for everyone. Some authors just want to work on their own to write their stories. But you can’t deny how helpful it is to have someone assist in editing the manuscript. Even if it’s just a close friend helping polish up the first draft before sending it to a professional editor, a collab can make a world of difference.
I’ve had people help me put together every book I’ve written. Before, it was a matter of saving notes from the beta reading link. Now that Reedsy added collaboration, it saves us a great deal of time.
How interested are you in collaborating with another author?
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