Tuesday, July 19, 2011

First Unbound book reaches funding target

*Evil Machines by Terry Jones reaches its target*
* other author deadlines extended*
*new project and ABCtales partnership announced*
Unbound, the pioneering crowd-funding portal for book publishing, has today, Monday 18 July, announced the first project to reach its target level of pledges.  Evil Machines by Terry Jones will be a book of thirteen darkly funny fables that parody our relationship with technology. 

The idea for the book was pitched directly to readers through Unbound.co.uk.  The project has now reached the minimum level of funding needed for it to be published. All supporters will be acknowledged by name in the beautifully bound first edition and any subsequent trade editions published with partner Faber and Faber.

Author, actor, director and Python, Jones has already written about half the book and expects to finish the rest in time for publication in November 2011. Readers can continue to pre-order copies of the limited Unbound Edition hardback until it goes to print in October.

Terry Jones comments:
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being one of the first guinea pigs for this ground-breaking idea. The process has been rather different from my past experience of book publishing. I’ve even started keeping in touch with fans through Twitter!”

Since its launch at the end of May 2011, subscribers to Unbound have grown rapidly with over 10,000 new visitors to the site each week yielding over 3,000 pledges of between £10 and £250. With word of mouth still spreading, cofounders John Mitchinson, Justin Pollard and Dan Kieran have decided to extend the initial 50 day deadline for other debut projects that are still attracting pledges. They include pitches by authors Jonathan Meades, Tibor Fischer, Amy Jenkins and Elliot Rose.

Dan Kieran comments:
“We have been overwhelmed by the positive reception Unbound has had so far. We never expected things to be easy, but people have been very enthusiastic with their support for the project. This is new ground though, and we are still learning. Part of this process has been realising that the original 50 day limit we started with will not apply to all projects. Our strategy is to continue support a book as long as pledges keep coming in for it.”

The Unbounders have also announced a partnership with the online writing community ABCtales, launched eleven years ago by Tony Cook (co-founder of Red Pepper), John Bird (founder of the Big Issue) and Gordon Roddick (co-founder of the Body Shop). The agreement will see the first books by unpublished authors funded through Unbound.co.uk. The best work, chosen by members of the ABCtales website, will be promoted on Unbound alongside established authors - with exactly the same 50:50 profit share.

The first new project to go on Unbound.co.uk since the launch of the publishing portal was revealed last Thursday. Banks’s Game by Rupert Isaacson, author of the 2010 bestseller The Horse Boy,  is a pitch for an epic novel about the life of Elizabethan horse-whisperer and adventurer William Banks.

To view the pitches and pledge your support visit www.unbound.co.uk

No comments: