Launched at Hay Festival, Sunday 29 May 2011
“An idea whose has time has come.” Philip Pullman
Unbound, a revolutionary new approach to publishing has been revealed at the Hay Festival today (Sunday 29 May 2011). Well known authors including Terry Jones and Gavin Pretor-Pinney have signed up to the project in the Unbound Pledging Shed.
The brainchild of three writers (QI’s John Mitchinson and Justin Pollard and Crap Towns author and former Deputy Editor of The Idler, Dan Kieran), Unbound allows authors to write the books that they want and readers to choose what gets published.
Using the Unbound.co.uk publishing platform, authors can now pitch their book ideas directly to their readers. Readers choose the ideas that they like on the website and pledge their support. When an idea has enough supporters, the book is written and supporters receive a clothbound limited Unbound First Edition with their name in it. Supporters are kept up to date throughout the creative process via the author’s private area or ‘shed’, where they can read the author’s blog, watch interviews and meet other supporters and the author themselves.
A number of high profile authors looking to set their books free have already pitched their Unbound ideas at Hay: Monty Python, writer and performer Terry Jones has proposed a “darkly funny set of linked tales about vengeful phones and hoovers”; cloud-guru Gavin Pretor-Pinney wants to take us inside clouds with the help of award-winning digital publisher Touch Press; and This Life writer Amy Jenkins will write her first new book in 10 years. Other Unbound authors include Booker-shortlisted novelist Tibor Fischer, bestselling author of The Horse Boy, Rupert Isaacson, and maverick cultural historian and film maker, Jonathan Meades.
Supporters to Unbound can chose the level of support that they wish to pledge, from £10 to funding the whole book. Rewards range from e-book downloads and personally dedicated Unbound First Edition, to invites to the book launch party and lunch with the author. Those who recommend projects to friends will receive credits to spend elsewhere on the site. Authors receive 50% of all profits from Unbound books.
John Mitchinson, Dan Kieran and Justin Pollard from Unbound comment:
“There are lots of great books that we’re not getting the opportunity to read. Unbound democratises the book commissioning process by enabling authors and readers to make the decisions about what does or doesn’t get published.”
Unbound has the support of Faber & Faber, who will sell and distribute trade editions of selected titles under an Unbound imprint. Any subsequent success of these trade editions is likely to add to the limited first edition’s value.
Stephen Page, Publisher and Chief Executive Faber and Faber Ltd comments:
"We're delighted to be partnering with Unbound. This is an age of great opportunity for writers, and at Faber we are always looking for imaginative ways of partnering with authors. Unbound offers a new, rich means for writers to connect with their readers and we're excited to be involved."
More Unbound writers will be revealed throughout the week at Hay. Readers can visit the Unbound Pledging Shed to meet authors, watch their pitches and pledge support for their new book ideas.
The Unbound Pledging Shed is housed on site at Hay in a custom-made 3rdSpace garden room by designers & fabricators Sawhorse Limited (www.3rdSpace.co.uk). It was made possible by Alex Johnson of Shedworking (www.shedworking.co.uk).
Visit www.unbound.co.uk to watch the pitches and to make a pledge.
And piece from The Telegraph.
Unbound Editions - more details
Unbound First Editions use high quality 80g woven paper, folded, sewn and cloth bound with a gold/silver blocked cover and spine with a sewn-in bookmark ribbon.
Reader levels
£10 DIGITAL
* e-book edition, access to the author's shed and your name in the back of the book
£20 HARDBACK
* 1st edition hardback (including free UK
* e-book edition, access to the author's shed and your name in the back of the book
£50 SIGNED
* signed & personally dedicated 1st edition hardback (including free UK
* e-book edition, access to the author's shed and your name in the back of the book
£75 GOODIE BAG
* Goodie bag - author selected treats, including signed project poster
* signed & personally dedicated 1st edition hardback (including free UK
* e-book edition, access to the author's shed and your name in the back of the book
£150 LAUNCH PARTY
* 2 invites to the launch party
* 2 signed & personally dedicated 1st editions (including free UK
* 2 Goodie bags
* 2 e-book editions, access to the author's shed and your name in the back of the book
£250 LUNCH
* 2 invites to the launch party and lunch with the author and founders of Unbound at a restaurant of the author's choice
* 2 goodie bags
* 2 signed & personally dedicated 1st editions (including free UK
* 2 e-book editions, access to the author's shed and your name in the back of the book
£POA MAKE IT HAPPEN
* Frontispiece dedication and tailored package of benefits
The founders
Dan is an author and web publisher, with substantial experience in using the web to promote books. He has written/edited 9 books including viral Internet phenomenon Crap Towns, which sold 180,000 copies. As well as Crap Towns, Dan has written/edited nine books including I Fought The Law (2007), Planes Trains and Automobiles (2009), Three Men In A Float (2008) and the award-winning How Very Interesting – Peter Cook’s Universe and all that surrounds it (2006). Dan is a contributing editor to the Idler and writes for the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Observer and The Times. He previously ran his own web design company and lectures on creativity, ideas, political activism and creative writing.
Justin Pollard, 43, Co-founder
Justin is the founder of Visual Artefact, the world’s leading historical consultancy for visual media. He has worked as a script consultant on numerous feature films including Elizabeth and The Golden Age, Atonement, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Agora, Alice in Wonderland and Pirates of the Caribbean 4. He is also the historical consultant on all four series of the BBC/ Showtime hit series The Tudors. Justin is Associate producer and scriptwriter for QI and author of nine books including Amazon bestsellers The Interesting Bits – The History You Might Have Missed (2007), Secret Britain (2009) and Boffinology (2010). His serious history titles include Alfred the Great (2005), Seven Ages of Britain (2003) and Wonders of the Ancient World (2009). He writes monthly columns for History Today and BBC History Magazine and has twice been nominated Columnist of the Year by the Press Gazette and PPA. With 11,000 followers, he is the most followed Twitterer in Dorset .
John has spent over twenty years in the book industry, as a bookseller, publisher and best-selling author. He was the first Marketing Director of Waterstone’s, Managing Director of the Harvill Press, Group Marketing Director of the Orion Group, and Managing Director of illustrated/reference publisher, Cassell & Co. During that time he published a diverse list of authors from Pulitzer winner Richard Ford, to Michael Palin, Trinny & Susannah and The Beatles. He is the co-founder and research director of Quite Interesting Ltd, best known for the award-winning BBC TV show. With John Lloyd, he co-writes the QI series of books, including The Book of General Ignorance (2006), which has sold over 1.5 million copies and been translated into 29 languages. John writes a weekly QI column in the Daily Telegraph and is a Vice-President of the Telegraph Hay Festival, chairman of the London International Centre for Storytelling and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
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