Reedsy is a marketplace that connects authors with professional editors, cover designers, formatters, and book marketers. Reedsy Learning is its free educational arm — a library of structured ten-day email courses designed to give authors practical, professional-grade instruction on every aspect of the publishing journey, from first draft to launch and beyond.

The format is intentional and clever. Rather than overwhelming authors with hours of video content, each course delivers one focused lesson per day for ten days — a short, digestible chunk of instruction that arrives in your inbox each morning. Many authors report finishing Reedsy courses they would have abandoned as a video course, simply because the daily email format is easier to manage alongside a busy writing and working schedule.

All courses are taught by professionals drawn from Reedsy's marketplace — experienced editors, former publishing house staff, successful indie authors, and genre specialists. This gives the instruction a quality floor that most free resources can't match.

The Writing Craft Courses

How to Write a Novel

The flagship course is also available in a premium paid version led by author and ghostwriter Tom Bromley, with daily video lessons and live masterclasses. The free version covers the foundational craft of novel writing — structure, character, scene construction, and revision — across ten lessons. It is appropriate for writers at any stage.

Writing Fantasy with Ben Galley

Bestselling fantasy author Ben Galley teaches this genre-specific course covering worldbuilding, magic systems, pacing, and the conventions of commercial fantasy. It is particularly useful for authors new to the genre who want to understand what readers expect.

How to Write a Short Story

Literary editor Laura Mae Isaacman teaches the art of the short story — a distinct craft that differs from novel writing in important ways. For authors who want to build their reader base through short fiction publications, this course is an efficient introduction.

Writing Non-Fiction

A separate nonfiction writing course covers structure, research, authority-building, and the differences between how fiction and nonfiction authors approach their manuscripts. This is a solid first step for authors transitioning from fiction to nonfiction or writing their first nonfiction title.

💡 NOTE:  Reedsy's premium course — How to Write a Novel with Tom Bromley — is a paid upgrade that includes daily video lessons, weekly live masterclasses, and a vibrant writing community. It is priced separately. The free email courses are distinct from this premium offering.

The Publishing Courses

Reedsy offers several publishing-specific courses covering the practical mechanics of getting a book to market.

Self-Publishing 101

A complete introduction to the self-publishing process — from manuscript formatting and cover design to uploading to KDP and distribution through Draft2Digital. This is the right starting point for authors preparing their first title.

How to Format Your Book

Covers the technical side of preparing a manuscript for both ebook and print — margins, fonts, scene breaks, front and back matter, and the differences between ebook and print formatting requirements.

The Marketing Courses

The marketing course library is where Reedsy Learning genuinely distinguishes itself from other free resources. Ricardo Fayet, Reedsy co-founder and author of How to Market a Book, leads several of these courses, lending them a depth and authority rarely found in free content.

Book Marketing 101

The foundational marketing course covers the reader journey, author branding, mailing lists, and the difference between launch strategy and long-term backlist marketing. This is the recommended starting point for authors new to marketing.

Understanding the Amazon Algorithm

Covers how Amazon's recommendation engine works, how to optimize metadata for discoverability, and how to interpret your sales data in the context of the Kindle chart system. This course pairs well with the Kindlepreneur keyword tools.

Facebook Ads for Authors

A free introduction to Facebook advertising — covering ad types, audience targeting, pixel setup, and the basics of list-building campaigns. Note that this course predates the 2024 Meta advertising interface changes; verify current platform UI against the course instructions.

Amazon Ads for Authors

Reedsy's Amazon Ads course covers Sponsored Products fundamentals. It is a useful complement to Bryan Cohen's Challenge for authors who want a second perspective on the same platform.

Building Your Author Mailing List

Covers reader magnets, landing pages, lead capture, and the mechanics of turning website visitors into email subscribers. Pairs perfectly with the ScribeCount Email module.

Book PR and Media Outreach

How to formulate a PR story for your book and pitch it to mainstream media. Unusual in the indie author education space — most courses focus on paid ads; this one teaches earned media.

Blogging for Authors

A practical guide to building an author blog that drives traffic and builds readership over time.

How to Use Reedsy Learning Effectively

The ten-day email format is designed for consistency, but you are not locked into a ten-day window. All lessons arrive via email and can be read at your own pace. The only limit is your own inbox management.

My recommended approach: take one course at a time rather than enrolling in multiple simultaneously. The value comes from applying what you learn between lessons, and that application requires focus. Start with Book Marketing 101 or Understanding the Amazon Algorithm if you are already publishing. Start with How to Write a Novel or Self-Publishing 101 if you are earlier in your journey.

• Enroll at reedsy.com/learning/courses — free, no credit card required

• One course at a time for best results

• Save lessons to a dedicated email folder for later reference

• Take notes — the lessons are concise and dense with practical tips

• Pair marketing courses with actual platform action to maximize retention

Tracking Your Results with ScribeCount

📊  Every course teaches strategies. ScribeCount shows you whether those strategies are working — in real numbers, across every platform you publish on.

Reedsy's marketing courses teach you the strategies. ScribeCount's Author OS gives you the data layer to measure whether those strategies are working. After completing the Amazon Algorithm course, use ScribeCount's Sales Dashboard to watch how metadata changes affect your daily sales curves. After the mailing list course, track subscriber growth and email-to-sales attribution inside ScribeCount Email. After the Facebook Ads course, monitor ROAS in ScribeCount's Ads & ROAS panel. Every Reedsy lesson has a ScribeCount counterpart that turns the theory into verified results.

Final Verdict

Reedsy Learning is the best free multi-course platform available to indie authors. The email format makes it accessible, the instructors are credible, and the breadth of the library means there is a course for wherever you are in your journey. The one honest caveat: these courses were not built for the AI era, and some of the platform-specific instruction (Meta Ads UI, in particular) may need cross-referencing with more current sources. But as foundational education? Reedsy Learning is unmatched at the free price point.

✅  Bottom Line: Fifteen-plus free courses from publishing professionals. The most comprehensive free education library for indie authors — start here before paying for anything else.

About the Author

Hello, I'm Randall Wood. When I'm not pounding the keyboard or entertaining my giant dog, I like to build tools for my fellow indie authors. In these articles, you'll find lessons learned over sixteen years spent in the indie author world. I share it all here to help you get one step closer to where you want to be.

More at randallwoodauthor.com