We were lucky to catch up with Kathryn Dodson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kathryn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I have been a lifelong reader and a part of the writing community for many years, as a writer and a book coach (I help others with their novels). As a reader, I’ve found that many traditionally published books had started to disappoint me. They seemed formulaic, poorly edited, or just not that interesting. I also found some self-published books to be fascinating, wonderful reads, while others had clearly been published without proper editing.

Traditionally, an author needs to get an agent who then sells a book to a publisher. There are many gatekeepers in this system that should keep truly bad books from being published. A publisher is a business, and like any other business, their goal is to maximize profits. They do best when a book will appeal to as large an audience as possible.

I initially formed the Good Book Collective to help indie authors (those who self-publish) understand whether their books had appeal by having readers as the gatekeepers. Readers get to read and rate novels on a one to ten scale. They also can provide anonymous feedback to the authors. This lets writers know if their book is ready to publish, gives readers access to novels in genres they pick, and provides a source of reader-curated, self-published books. In a way, I think of the traditional publishing houses as similar to Walmart, while the Good Book Collective more of an Etsy for books.

I have since expanded the offerings of the Good Book Collective to both indie and traditionally published authors and have added services such as letting readers choose their favorite between two potential book covers. Right now we are limited to readers and writers in the women’s fiction and romance genres.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I majored in creative writing in college, however, that was back in the 1980s, when the pressure was on to get a “real” job, not a creative one upon graduation. I ended up getting an MBA and had a long career managing nonprofits and working for cities. While I have read voraciously all my life, it wasn’t until I retired early at fifty, that my literary desires set me on a new path.

I began writing novels, and then became a book coach – someone who helps others write and publish their novels. Along the way I saw how quickly publishing was changing, Just when traditional publishers were merging and downsizing staff, Amazon and other sources made indie publishing much more viable.

However, readers don’t always trust the quality of self-published books, and indie authors don’t have gatekeepers to ensure a manuscript is ready to become a published novel. I created the Good Book Collective to fill this gap.

First, I recruited over 100 readers, who specifically like to read in the genres of women’s fiction and romance. They get to read unpublished books for free and are asked to rate and provide feedback on these novels. The readers seem to enjoy not just reading the novels, but having an influence on the books that get published. I often get emails from readers asking when the next books are coming.

For writers, the feedback has been incredible. We had one author change the title of her book because she realized readers didn’t understand the title the way she’d originally intended. Other writers have let me know that they were given essential feedback through the Good Book Collective that made their novels better.

Here are a couple of quotes from Good Book Collective authors: 1) What a helpful resource! I submitted the first pages of the novel I thought was ready to go, and found that several of the readers had highlighted the same easy-to-fix issue. The feedback arrived just before I signed a contract for the book, so I was very grateful! Gabi Coatsworth 2) Since this is my debut novel, I needed to know if I was on the right track. I am now inspired to move forward. The value of this program far exceeded its cost. Thank you to The Good Book Collective for this opportunity and to the readers for their insight and time. Stephanie Claypool.

To both allow readers more opportunities to participate and to give authors a wider variety of feedback we’ve recently added products that allow readers to choose their favorite covers, rank up to five hooks (one line book descriptions), and give feedback on descriptions and the first five pages.

I am proud that we’ve found a method whereby actual readers can give authors feedback that will make their books better instead of ceding the gatekeeping entirely to agents and editors at often very large corporations. While we are still growing under the current model, I see us eventually expanding into other genres, such as science fiction, mystery, thrillers, etc. Giving readers input on what a good book is before publication changes the industry, and hopefully results in better books.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I originally conceived of the Good Book Collective as a place where readers and indie publishers came together to give readers influence over book choices and to help writers gain feedback before they published. However, I found that even traditionally published authors wanted this type of reader feedback. Because of that, I changed the business so that we now accept submissions from authors who plan to traditionally publish. This makes sense, especially as the publishing industry is changing so quickly. In addition to the big five traditional publishers and indie publishers, there are smaller traditional publishers and hybrid publishers, which make for a richer publishing marketplace. Having readers be part of this across the spectrum of publishing has made the Good Book Collective’s more effective.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

The Good Book Collective is the story of a side hustle becoming a different side hustle becoming this this business. After I retired from decades as a corporate and city manager, I went back to my first love of writing novels. In part to improve my own writing, I took a rigorous book coach certification program and learned to help other writers bring their books into the world. I built a successful book coaching business with clients who both traditionally and indie published. I learned how all authors struggle to bring their books to market. As an avid reader myself, I wondered why readers didn’t have a significant role in this process, especially given how technology could make this relatively easy.

My first goal was to make sure readers wanted to do this. I set a goal of fifty readers and quickly signed up over 100 readers. Next we invited authors to submit their manuscript. Adding more products has increased participation in the program.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.goodbookcollective.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodbookcollect/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodBookCollective
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathydodson/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/goodbookcollectivef

Image Credits
I have the rights to all images.