Interview with Jessica Bennett of Grub Street Reads

I would like to welcome Jessica Bennett of Grub Street Reads and thank her so much for taking the time to do this interview with me. As you all know book reviews are a huge part of Rita Reviews, in fact, they are what got this little blog started. Jessica and Leslie Ramey have a unique business that relates directly to books.

Q. So you’re starting a new business that you think is going to have a big impact on the self-publishing/indie-publishing world. What is it and what does it do?

First of all, I just want to thank you so much for hosting me on Rita Reviews. My business partner, Leslie Ramey, and I are fans of the blog, and we’re both excited to share information about our business, Grub Streets Reads, with you and your readers.

In a nutshell, Grub Street Reads seeks to encourage higher readership of self-published and indie authors by providing a quality standard for self-published and independently-published novels. The Grub Street Reads endorsement seal is given to those books that pass an evaluation process based on the fundamental qualities of good storytelling.

We believe that the indie book market needs standards and that spotlighting the best indie books on the market with our endorsement is a good thing for authors, readers and the reputation of the indie market.

Grub Street Reads officially launches July 9th, and we can’t wait to see the impact we can have among indie authors and readers.

Q. How did you and Leslie meet, and how did you come up with the idea behind GSR?

Leslie and I are both voracious readers and writers. We actually met at a writers critique group here in San Diego where we both live.

She and I began to work  together on a regular basis. We both researched the current publishing market and decided to self-publish. It was a really exciting time, but also scary. Self-publishing means that you’re on your own, especially when it comes to marketing your book.

As we were looking for ways to market our work, and were surprised to see that no one was doing it, even though the need was clear.

Leslie and I spent a lot of time discussing the idea. This included much lip chewing, brain storming, and maybe a few tequila shots, but eventually we decided that if no one was going to step up to the plate, we would. A year – and much, much, much work – later, we’re fit to burst with pride over Grub Street Reads.

Q. I gotta ask, what are your endorsement standards and how can you possibly be objective when evaluating a creative endeavor like a book?

 

Leslie and I spent a lot of time determining what our endorsement criteria was going to be. You’re right, it is absolutely impossible to be completely objective when it comes to reading and evaluating a book, though we try to get as close as possible.

 Leslie and I believe that there are certain key components that every good story shares regardless of genre or plot specifics. These are things like a clear beginning, middle and end, well-developed characters, an exciting and seamless plot, believable dialogue and few (if any) grammatical errors. When we evaluate a manuscript, we’re looking for these components. If they’re all there, we provide the book with a Grub Street Reads endorsement.

 In this way, we believe that our evaluation standards are fair and as objective as possible (I use the term ‘objectiveish’). We try to be very open about our evaluation process and review criteria and offer a detailed explanation of both on our website.

 

Q. You don’t do these evaluation for free, right? How much do they cost?

Unfortunately our evaluations aren’t free, but we try to keep the prices as low as possible. As I mentioned above, we’re self-published authors ourselves, and we’re not looking to bilk our fellow writers.

Our pricing structure is based on the length of the manuscript and starts at $20.00 for manuscripts 40,000 words or lower. The cost of the evaluation helps compensate our evaluators for the time they take to review each manuscript. Some of the money also goes towards our efforts to support and publicize our endorsed authors.

One thing I also want to make absolutely clear  is that authors cannot buy a Grub Street Reads endorsement. What we sell is the evaluation, which may lead to an endorsement if a manuscript meets our endorsement criteria.

Q. How do readers benefit from Grub Street Reads?

We created GSR to support indie authors and readers. Here’s the situation: there’s a flood of indie books hitting the market. Some of them are great. A lot of them…not so much. Readers have more reading choices than ever, but it can be overwhelming, especially when there aren’t a lot of ways to determine quality (a lot of reader reviews come from the author’s friends and family)

Readers, in turn, are getting burned by low quality indie books. The Grub Street Reads seal is a way for readers to easily distinguish those books that have passed a third-party quality evaluation. We hope that, in time, readers will come to equate our seal with a well-written book.

Q. I know GSR hasn’t officially launched, but you’ve been in beta testing for some time, correct? What has been the response so far?

The Grub Street Reads website is currently live in beta, and we’ve been thrilled with the response so far. If you visit our site, you’ll notice that we already have quite a few books in our endorsed library.

We recently did a beta promotion to introduce ourselves to authors, and the response has blown us away. Authors are eager to try our system, and many have confided that they’ve been waiting for a service like Grub Street Reads. Sending out endorsement emails is an absolute thrill, especially because authors get really excited as well.

That’s not to say that everything’s been hunky dory. We’ve already encountered some skeptics that accuse us of being predators or of charging too much for our service. We expect more of this when our company goes live. We’re prepared to address all the concerns of the skeptics by being as honest and open about our service as possible.

Grub Street Reads is a labor of love (a well-thought-out and thoroughly-tested labor of love), and we believe that our good intentions will shine through when authors and readers learn what we’re all about.

Q. What’s your favorite part about running this business?

This whole experience has amazing. I really believe what we’re doing is going to have a positive impact on authors and readers and help legitimize the indie book market. I love that we get to support talented authors and help them find readers. I’m also thrilled to give readers a way to discover great new authors.

My favorite part of running the business is definitely sending out endorsement emails to authors and receiving their responses. Many authors are incredibly excited to get some positive reinforcement for their novels and to put our seal on their cover.

Q. What’s your least favorite part about running this business?

It’s difficult to send out the communications letting an author know that we will not be endorsing their submission, because we know that every book is someone’s baby. An author may have spent months, even years, writing their book. To have to tell that author that their novel didn’t meet our standards is painful.

As self-published authors, Leslie and I are very aware of how much goes into writing a book. It’s not just time and words on a page; it’s soul; it’s love. We approach every submission with respect, and we celebrate all authors, even the ones we don’t endorse. That’s one reason why we decided early on to give every author their completed evaluation sheet so they could see exactly what criteria they didn’t meet. We want them to edit, re-submit and to eventually earn our endorsement.

Q. Where do you see GSR in five years? What about ten years?

Our primary goal is to become THE  quality standard in the indie book market. In five years, I’d like Grub Street Reads to be an integral part of an indie author’s publishing process. Just like an author would have their manuscript professionally copyedited and hire a designer to create a great cover to give them the best possible advantage once their book reaches the market, they would also submit their manuscript to GSR to try and earn our endorsement. The author will believe in the ability of the GSR seal to increase book sales and grow readership.

In five years, I also expect that many readers will come directly to the Grub Street Reads Endorsed Library to find their next great book. I expect them to see a Grub Street Reads seal on a book’s cover and immediately expect quality underneath.

In ten years…well, if Amazon should want to give us a ring and make an offer, Leslie and I will definitely take that call.

Q. That’s all the questions I have. Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Thanks for letting me stop by your place to chat! It’s been a pleasure. There are a few things I’d like to add: Grub Street Reads officially launches July 9th, but our beta site is up, and we already have a growing list of endorsed indie books in the GSR library.  We invite readers of Rita Reviews to check out our site, view/mock our kooky video and read more about our endorsement process and criteria. We’re also offering a 25% discount for all manuscripts submitted before our official launch, so hurry up and hustle over.

Thanks so much for your time!