This is a sad column to write. But perhaps not an unexpected one, given how little the company in question has featured in these articles in the past few years. A decade ago, when Unbound was still a relatively new venture, I was very excited to see one of its titles, Richard Kingsnorth’s The Wake, on the Booker Prize longlist and Goldsmiths Prize shortlist. Sadly, that was to be a high-water mark for the venture, which went into administration last week.
ALLi News Editor, Dan Holloway
A Crowdfunding Model with Promise
Unbound was established as a Kickstarter for books back in the days when crowdfunding was a relatively low-profile concept—and long before Brandon Sanderson started making headlines with the amounts he was raising. It wasn’t, strictly speaking, a self-publishing platform. At least, not at first. By which I mean that there was an element of gatekeeping. You pitched and had to have the idea you pitched accepted by the editorial team (which attracted some high-profile authors like Kingsnorth and Monty Python’s Terry Jones).
Unbound would then crowdfund the publication of the title, with the author participating in the crowdfunding exercise. If the title didn’t get the funds within a set time, the title never got published. If you did reach your target, there would be a print run. And the resulting books were really quite beautiful.
I am fairly sure that over the years, the gatekeeping diminished and the crowdfunding element grew in prominence. People would update you on the progress they’d made toward their target.
A Quiet Decline and Uncertain Future
But the profile feels as though it has lowered, which makes me not so surprised at last week’s announcement. On the positive side, a new company, Boundless Publications, has taken over the ongoing contracts and promises to make good on everything underway for both readers and authors.
There has been some concern and uncertainty in the author community, though, including from friends of mine with ongoing projects in the works. As so often, much of the frustration comes from the fact that a considerable amount of radio silence, broken only by “it’s all fine” statements, has preceded the announcement. This, I am afraid, is something I see far too much. And it’s how once-beloved firms that do genuinely good things for the literary community can lose trust. And when that goes, things tend not to improve.
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