You may have heard a couple of days ago that Unbound have announced they’re going into administration. While it is heartbreaking on the surface to find out a publishing company such as Unbound is going under, reading into the situation further makes everything so much more horrifying and disappointing.
For those not in the know, Unbound launched in 2011 with a simple premise; writers could pitch ideas online to readers and if their ideas were funded, Unbound would publish the books. It’s essentially Kickstarter, but for books. I’ve had some experiences with the platform, as I was due to be part of a mental health anthology that was being crowdfunded on Unbound a few years back. I also have friends who have written for Unbound books, such as my friend Quinn Clark, who contributed to No One Talks About This Stuff edited by Kat Brown (an anthology book sharing thoughts and experiences about almost parenthood and is a gut-wrenchingly beautiful read) and Dr Alfredo Carpineti, who successfully crowdfunded his book Invisible Rainbows, a journey into modern astronomy.
When I discovered that Unbound had gone into administration, I was initially saddened by the news, but when I realised what had been going on behind the scenes, it became frustration and disappointment.
While Unbound have been bought out by a different company and are changing over to Boundless, this is in the wake of several authors claiming that they haven’t been paid by the platform in well over a year and others sharing their experiences of horrible management during their time with Unbound.
Several books that were being crowdfunded by the platform right up until administration day have been halted and my heart breaks for the authors whose work is being directly affected by all of this. Many authors have said they won’t get their money back, and several backers have also said refunds won’t be coming their way for books they’ve chosen to support either. And those who have worked with Unbound have also spoken about the poor treatment they’ve received post publishing; Kat Brown, the editor of No One Talks About This Stuff has spoken at length at how let down she was felt with the Unbound team due to the lack of support and general dismissal. One particular point sticks out to me; the then CEO of Unbound Wil Harris telling Brown that only sales from Amazon matter for books. This was in response to the fact that her book was not available to be purchased on launch day except for Amazon.
Towards the end of last year and early this year, I was considering crowdfunding a project of my own with Unbound. It’s a story I’ve wanted to tell regarding my experience with Dermatillomania and although I had researched into what the process would entail, I didn’t pursue anything further. With the news of Unbound’s demise and their appalling treatment of authors who just wanted to share their stories with the world, I am so lucky that this was just something on the backburner for me.
With Unbound subsequently being taken over by Boundless and the company completely ignoring all the authors requesting their money and rights back for their work, it’s another day of disappointing author news. The premise is a brilliant one; but the execution has been devastating and left so many innocent authors in the dark.
Going forward, I won’t be supporting anything Boundless does and I would encourage everyone else (author or reader) to do the same. And please show your support for all the authors who have been affected.
