Hi everyone.
We've hit 101 supporters! Number 99 was me, weirdly, as I tried to buy a book on my mother's behalf but, well, did it as myself. I managed to make sure her name will be in the front of the book, but it's a bit weird seeing myself as my own supporter! Ah well.
In the works is a new video to replace my ugly mug on the landing page. I'll keep you posted on that! You may also have noticed that I've added a couple of new reward levels, so if you fancy an upgrade, you could get a personalised short story written by me just for you, or even compile a playlist for my radio show. For anyone who doesn't know, it's a community radio station in Kenilworth where I volunteer for a couple of hours a week. Cobley's Classic Rock and Prog Show is on Wednesday nights from 7pm-9pm on RadioAbbey.com. Enough of a plug for that - that's not why you're here.
I thought I'd expand a bit on what this is all about - I may be preaching to the converted as you're all supporting the project, but sometimes there's some misunderstanding about the nature of this sort of crowdfunding.
Unbound provides the opportunity to publish the story you want to tell, rather than have it shaped by the traditional publisher’s view of “what the market wants”. Where most publishers seem increasingly risk averse, Unbound is offering a new way to manage the inherent risk that comes with creativity, passion and innovation.
Self-publishing means you, as the writer, organise everything yourself. Vanity publishing means you pay everything yourself. For Unbound, you organise nothing and pay nothing.
It's an 18th-century subscription model, reinvented for the 21st century. Dr Johnson’s Dictionary was funded this way. Beethoven essentially crowdfunded his Op.1 Piano Trios and later his Missa Solemnis. Dickens got most of his work published this way too. If it's good enough for Johnson, Beethoven and Dickens, it's got to be a good model!
Instead of a "normal" publisher saying "oh, there's no market for that", they are essentially saying "if you can prove to us there's a market and raise the costs from that market, then we publish".
So, that’s what this campaign is about. It’s more about building a readership than the money, so it’s different from Kickstarter in that respect. None of the money from pre-orders comes to me personally initially – it goes to cover the costs of professional editing, publishing, design, launch and so on. I get money from the profits of sales, and it’s a much better rate than other publishers.
Sure, there's some delayed gratification here. With Amazon you pay for a book and it gets delivered to you. With Unbound you pay for a book and it also gets delivered to you - it just takes longer. The best thing is that you get to follow the book's progress and chat to the author and get your name in the back as a patron and, as it progresses, access to exclusive insights, extra content, and even competitions! It's inclusive publishing – we’re in this together. That gives me a huge responsibility to deliver on my promise and to create the best book I possibly can. Those of you who have been following my writing career and / or know me personally know how big a deal this is, and I’m determined to make it worth your while.
So, thanks again and watch this space for much more interesting updates!
Jason