Founded by three writers, Dan Kieran, John Mitchinson and Justin Pollard, Unbound books is trailblazing a new way of getting books to readers. The trio had already headed down the traditional route to publication – publishers, bookshops, marketing departments – and felt that there was too much distance between author and audience, so they set about bridging the gap. Crowd-funding, they decided, was the way forward. Caitlin Harvey, Unbound’s community co-ordinator, explains: “An author comes up with an idea and if we think it has legs, then we film a pitch video, calculate the
amount we need to raise to publish the book and then put it live on the Unbound site. If we get enough people to pledge for the book in advance, we publish it and send all the supporters the ebook, a limited first edition and any other rewards included with their pledge level.” They’ll consider everything as long as it’s well written, and once you sign up to an idea you get access to the authors’ shed, an online space where writers share their techniques, showcase their work, ask for readers’ opinions and talk about all things book related. Brilliant.