May 2013
2 posts
6 tags
Author writing rooms
Unbound is about connecting authors with readers – but where are they sitting when they’re writing their books or talking with their supporters?
Some of our authors share where they write below. Do you work somewhere unusual? We’d love to know where your favourite places to get creative with words are.
Adrian Teal – THE GIN LANE GAZETTE
“I work in my studio, which I rent, as I like to be able to...
6 tags
You can write a novel - but can you write a tweet?
Image from Sorensiim
There’s a conveyor belt of content industries moving slowly towards a large crunching machine. The machine has ‘digital technology’ crudely stencilled on it, and as each industry goes through it, it comes out the other side almost unrecognisable: it started with music, then media. It’s hitting book publishing, and other industries, right now.
The ubiquity of information,...
April 2013
6 posts
What's your 'guilty pleasure' read?
Image by little-phoenix
Eating copious amounts of chocolate when we’re meant to be at the gym. Watching Made in Chelsea instead of that edifying new documentary on BBC4. Reading something juicy and commercial instead of the Booker-nominated books on our shelves…
We all have guilty pleasures – especially when it comes to reading books. But which novel would you admit to reading when...
7 tags
An interview with cover designer Mark Ecob
When Mark got in touch with us back in January 2012, we were over the moon. In 2010 he set up his own design studio after having been Art Director for Canongate. Mark’s designed covers for authors like Alexander McCall Smith, Marina Lewycka, Yann Martel, Sara Sheridan and David Nicholls to name but a few, but he was excited by Unbound’s philosophy and wondered if we might like to...
What are your favourite books?
Photo from Eowyn_89
Every so often one special book will call out to you like a ray of sunshine after a shower of rain and it will urge you to shout, ‘Yes! This is the one! This is the best book I’ve ever read!’
One person’s favourite book can be another’s nightmare – but it’s only through sharing our favourites that we’ll discover new gems.
Here’s what some Unbound authors picked as their...
1 tag
Who is your favourite author?
Photo by State Library of Victoria Collections
Charles Dickens. AA Milne. Jane Austen. Jamie Oliver…
With so many authors it’s difficult to name one absolute favourite – often our most beloved books aren’t written by our must-read author. But if you had to pick one, who would you choose?
Here are some of the Unbound authors’ favourite writers with a little reason why:
Lisa Gee –...
Unbound Live! at Hay Festival 2013
We’re delighted to announce that there will be two Unbound Lives at the Hay Festival of Literature this year.
Unbound Live 1 - Monday 27th May - 7pm, Digital Stage. £6. BOOK HERE.
Legendary writer and performer Salena Godden pitches her childhood memoir, Red Dwarf star Robert Llewellyn presents his science fiction sequel, novelist Charles Fernyhough asks whether neuroscience changes love,...
10 tags
A fly on the wall at an Unbound cover meeting
As you already know, we’re not like traditional publishers. But one of the lesser-known ways in which Unbound differs from other publishing houses is that we think it’s really important to have our authors more deeply involved in the cover design process. We always encourage them to meet with the designer; the book is their baby, after all.
The process starts with an initial meeting with the...
March 2013
4 posts
How Ade Teal crowdfunded The Gin Lane Gazette
We love THE GIN LANE GAZETTE - a beautifully illustrated compendium of the ‘best bits’ from a fictional newspaper of the latter 1700s.
Author Ade Teal successfully crowdfunded the project on Unbound. Here’s how he did it.
How did you start off telling people about your project? Twitter and email. Also did press releases to local press, and did a local radio interview. Went in...
Our favourite World Poetry Day haiku
Photo from tkw954 on Flickr
Thanks very much to everyone who sent us your World Poetry Day haikus! We had lots of fun reading them and even made up a few of our own. It was great to get involved in our small way and prove that you don’t have to be Wordsworth to enjoy writing poetry…
Our CEO Dan says it was a very close call, but after much deliberation we can announce that the winner...
World Poetry Day haiku competition
Today is World Poetry Day and like all publishers we love poetry. We’ve already published George Chopping’s brilliant first collection Smoking With Crohn’s and we’re hoping that renowned lady poet Salena Godden’s memoir Springfield Road, which is peppered with daydreams and poetic language, will be funded soon too.
To celebrate this ancient form of literary expression we want to see your best...
7 tags
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies,"...
There are more than a few self-confessed Game of Thrones addicts collecting around the water cooler here at Unbound HQ, and this week we’ve been thinking about what Jojen says in George R. R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons. We might have Jojen in common in the office, but there are plenty of other books dear to our hearts for special – and very personal – reasons.
Out of every book springs a whole...
December 2012
1 post
Anonymous asked: can i support this unbound book smart tart from the USA?
November 2012
12 posts
FlashFic WINNER! The Returned, by Julia Coleman
Children played here once. The remains of a coloured football lay like a spoiled soufflé in the corner by the wall among a pile of dark, sodden autumn leaves.
There was other debris too, the rusting wheel of a scooter emerging from the long grass onto the pathway – a death trap if you didn’t spot it – and an old fashioned doll. She was sat looking out from behind the window, and her...
At last, we are very excited to announce the winner of the Conversations with Spirits supernaturally-themed flashfic competition. It was an incredibly hard decision for the judging panel - the quality of ALL the entries was absolutely top notch, which was why we wanted to recognise Paul, Loris, Claire and Ian’s brilliant writing. We would love to invite the four of you to E O Higgins’...
FlashFic Runner-Up: The Organ Grinder, by Claire...
Jimmy was running. The sounds of the city, including the slapping of his booted feet on the slippery cobbles, were muffled by the fog, but the wail of the street organ was clear and sharp. It seemed to be coming from ahead even though he had taken to his heels in order to leave it behind. Was there a scampering of paws beside him? Was there the faint clink of a chain in the mist? Surely it was...
FlashFic Runner-Up: The Pyschic World of Marvin...
“Ladies and Gentlemen, please take your seats,” announced the assistant. “The moment has arrived to welcome the Master of the Spirit Plane, Psychic Troubadour and Occultist Extraordinaire, Mr Marvin Clay.”
A smattering of applause followed the announcement as the dozen people gathered in the small church hall found space around a circular, baize-covered table. As the doors clattered...
Join George Chopping at The Society Club, December...
The Society Club and Unbound welcomes poet George Chopping as he reads from his brilliant new collection; ‘Smoking with Crohn’s’.Join us in Soho on Saturday, December 1st 7pm – 9pm.
A few years ago George Chopping left a glittering career as a shelf filler for a major supermarket. Now he works in a cafe in Oxford. He was born in Torquay. John Hegley has called him “the cream of Devon...
FlashFic Highly Commended: Chain Me Not in Heaven,...
They said she was evil. They said that she’d go and burn in hell for what she done to them kids. All I can say is that when I saw her laid out on the slab in front of me, all cold and lifeless, I thought she the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. When old Barleykins left the room, I told her so as well, told her that I would have given anything to meet her, to look into her eyes and tell her...
FlashFic Highly Commended: The Night Before the...
The cold from the bare boards is numbing, and my spine is rigid against the door frame. I reach up and rattle the handle. Locked. On my knees in the dark I press my ear against the keyhole, straining for the sound of breathing.
“Are you there?”
“Yes.” At last.
“Will you open the door?” I’ve never begged for anything in my life.
“No.”
“Why not?” A pause. Shuffling.
“It isn’t up to me.”
“What...
FlashFic Competition: the results are in!
After lengthy debate, today we’re very pleased to announce the first of the FlashFic Competition results, which will be released in reverse order. The brief was to write 700 words on a supernatural theme, and the panel would like to HIGHLY COMMEND:
Loris Clements, for The Night Before the Morning After
and Paul Holbrook, for Chain Me Not In Heaven.
Congratulations from E O Higgins, Unbound...
Anonymous asked: I have recently bought a copy of ' The Gin Lane Gazette' by Adrian Teal. It was on 'pre-order' status and is now 'buy it now.' I haven't been given any notification as to when I will receive the book. Can you help?
Anonymous asked: What happens if a book is over 100 Per cent funded? Does the excess go to the author or to Unbound? Or does it go back to those at the end of the line of funders?
Dead Celebrities
Last week, to raise funds for the very talented E O Higgins’ Unbound Book Conversations With Spirits, we had a Hallowe’en seance with the world-renowned and extremely phantasmagorical medium Laars Head.
Before the evening of wonders began, all attendees were required to fill out a prayer card. These cards asked them which dead celebrity they would like to contact since, as Laars...
Anonymous asked: How longer after a book is fully funded will it be published?
October 2012
8 posts
Tamasin Day-Lewis' Hallowe'en Pumpkin Pie
The American way for this traditional Thanksgiving dish is sweeter than sweet, but, since for adoption purposes only we may pretend ownership at Hallow’een, I have cut the sugar by a half from the Kentucky sweet potato pie version. Naturally it should be made masked and caped in the kitchen.
Shortcrust pastry made with 180g flour and 90g unsalted butter baked blind
675g or so red onion...
Unbound Live to debut in Oxford
Monday November 26th The Jam Factory, Oxford
A LITERARY DRAGONS’ DEN Our first time in the city of dreaming spires – with an amazing line-up! BOOK HERE
Robert Llewellyn reads from the sequel to his sci-fi novel, News from Gardenia.
Katy Brand reads from Brenda Monk is Funny.
George Chopping, local hero, reads from Smoking with Crohn’s.
Jessica Jones presents The Elegant Art of...
Hallowe'en Seance, Soho, London
Tuesday, 30th October, 6:30pm Blacks Club, Soho, London
HALLOWE’EN SEANCE
We are excited to announce that E O Higgins has invited world-renowned* psychic medium Laars Head to lead us all in a Hallowe’en group seance at Black’s Club in Soho, so come and join us on a journey into the shadowy underworld of the phantasmagorical on 30th October.
Those brave enough will be able to...
Unbound Live Returns! London
Monday October 22nd The Tabernacle, London W11
Following last year’s sell-out gig, we return to The Tabernacle in Notting Hill for another evening of riotous literary entertainment as 10 authors go head-to-head pitching ideas for books they want to write directly to you, the audience. BOOK HERE
Robert Llewellyn, star of Red Dwarf and Scrapheap Challenge gives us a peek from the sequel to his...
Unbound Live Returns! Manchester
Wednesday, 17th October 7:30pm Manchester Literary Festival
ROBERT LLEWELLYN, KATY BRAND, SHAUN USHER & GEORGE CHOPPING
Robert Llewellyn has just returned as Kryten in the new series of Red Dwarf (on Dave). He is joined by the comedian and now novelist Katy Brand; Shaun Usher, curator of the 4-million+ hits a month website, Letters of Note, and George Chopping, performance poet and now...
Tamasin Day-Lewis On…
We caught up with the fantastic Tamasin Day-Lewis to find out where she stands on cookery TV shows, what she thinks of traditional publishing houses, and, of course, more about about Smart Tart.
On creating Smart Tart…
It’s always about timing. It’s been 12 years since The Art of the Tart and there’s a new generation of Tart Fanciers. It was and is always the book that people come and talk...
The Story of a Man - JF Derry's Unbound journey so...
Here is an explanation of Unbound and their exciting crowd-sourced publishing process, from the point of view of, well, me - the author.
Stage 1: The Proposal
As you may know by now, Unbound is a pretty new and neat idea in modern publishing, but the subscription model upon which it is based actually extends back beyond the great works of Dickens and Carroll. When they started up, Unbound made...
Anonymous asked: Unlike Kickstarter, it's not easy to see from the site how much money a book needs to raise in order to be considered fully-funded--what is that amount? Or does it vary from book to book? Is that accessible somewhere on the site? How large a print run do you typically do?
September 2012
6 posts
To pledge, or not to pledge, that is the question.
The second of what continues to be pretty sporadic blog posts giving you an insight into the world of the Unbounders. Here’s our own Caitlin Harvey on why you should pledge:
How different is buying a book from pledging for one?
A friend asked me recently if persuading people to support a book that doesn’t exist yet on Unbound is harder than getting them to buy a book that does. This got me...
An interview with Kevin Parr, author of The Twitch
Ted Banger will do whatever it takes to win the annual bird race … but what will author Kevin Parr do to get his book funded? We caught up with Kevin to ask him about his inspiration, his writing habits, what it’s like to try to crowdfund a book, and how he’d murder someone…
The Twitch is about a man who will go to extreme measures to win a bird-watching competition –...
Anonymous asked: How far off is Mark Currys book off being ready for publishing
What it's like to intern at Unbound
By Alexander Edgerton
My work experience at Unbound got off to a not-so-auspicious start when my colleague and I showed up on a day when none of the Unbounders were due to be coming into their HQ in Shoreditch (although thankfully we’d avoided the humiliation of them seeing us embarrassingly overdressed in suits). However, after this slight hiccup, we were greeted the next day by CEO Dan Kieran...
Anonymous asked: Hi Unbound, I have and love my copy of Meades but would also like to get the e-version... how go i go about that?
The GIN LANE GAZETTE: from concept to crowdfunded
The GIN LANE GAZETTE is a bawdy, journalistic romp through the second-half of the 1700s. It’s a compendium of scandalous true stories from a fictional eighteenth-century newspaper, and the idea for the book came to me via a very circuitous route.
I had written and illustrated historical spreads for the QI Annuals, and the Head of Research, John Mitchinson (who is also a co-founder of Unbound),...
August 2012
1 post
Anonymous asked: Hello there. I am the literary editor of The Tablet and would like to arrange for a review copy of Jonathan Meades' forthcoming book, Museum Without Walls, to be sent to our reviewer. Do you have a publicity officer I could contact? Sorry if there's a different process for dealing with press enquiries that I have missed. Every good wish with Unbound. Brendan Walsh.
July 2012
3 posts
4 tags
The art of the copy editor
We decided we’d like to talk a bit more about the processes of book publishing, to show you the precision clockwork-like processes of how we turn pledges into books. So, in the first of what promises to be a pretty sporadic set of blog posts, here’s Isobel Frankish of this parish on the art of the copy edit:
A general assumption sometimes appears to dictate that all copy-editing...
Jonathan Meades - Museum Without Walls update
Dear Friends of Meades,
We are extremely happy to announce that after a mammoth edit, and unforeseen delays during the production process and a queue at the printers, the 464pp piece of brilliance that is Museum Without Walls is finally printing and will be despatched to Unbound subscribers from July 30th.
For those who have pledged at, or above the ‘signed’ level, please could you...
14 tags
Free Unbound Live Event in Birmingham!
Join us for Unbound Live at the Birmingham Library Theatre from 7pm on 10th July.
Pitching/performing will be George Chopping, Stevyn Colgan, Robert Llewellyn and Adrian Teal.
“The authors will be going head-to-head pitching to raise funding for their book ideas, in a cross between an election hustings and a literary Dragons’ Den. Listen to the pitches, the extracts, the carefully framed...
June 2012
13 posts
15 tags
The origins of the Unbound book, "26 Treasures",...
John Simmons, of “26 Treasures” (a book that has now been fully funded and is on its way to publication by Unbound - click here to find out more about how that worked) has written a guest blog over at the bookstore Foyles’ website on how the book came to be:
The 26 Treasures project began with an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2010 and then spread to...
6 tags
Unbound's Third Live Event Live 3 (Stevyn Colgan's...
Unbound author, Stevyn Colgan (whose book, Constable Colgan’s Connectoscope is being crowd-funded for publication - find out more about how that works here), has written a great round-up of Unbound Live no.3…
Unbound Live 3
Le Baron at The Embassy Mayfair in London was the venue last night for Unbound Live 3; an evening of readings, talks and general tomfoolery by a bunch of...
8 tags
Jessica Jones shares her Survival Guide on...
Who better to write a guide for keeping it together that the author of the memoir The Elegant Art of Falling Apart. Luckily for us Jessica Jones put herself back together and shares with us her tips for staying sane. Follow Jessica’s guide and stay sane.
‘After decades of in-depth research and field-testing (read: cancer; addiction; car-crash relationships; financial disasters and occasional...
6 tags
Unbound Flash Fiction Prize: Special Mention...
The Cherry Tree in my Sister’s Room
Sophie cried when they chopped the tree down. She hadn’t realised what it meant.
She looked out the window at the tarmac where petals used to make confetti. The Neruda she was reading was face down on the window ledge, the spine split. Men in yellow jackets were chopping down the tree in the school grounds at the back of our house. Their saws buzzed through...
8 tags
Unbound Flash Fiction Prize: Special Mention (Mike...
Sit with me a little
Sit with me a little, and listen with me.
I will fill you with sorrow, will dark you,
un hinge you, un understand you,
demolish you.
Together we can watch as the world
disintegrates, breaks up, dies.
We can hear the screaming.
Can you hear the screaming?
How does it sound to you?
Is it loud or is it drowned out?
There is a little clump of dandelions out there
in my garden. ...
7 tags
Unbound Flash Fiction Prize: Special Mention (Marc...
Just Aphasia I’m Going Through
The Doctor points out the bubble-like alien parasiting my brain. Looked like an embryo was growing there. A second me. Swiping a second-hand consciousness. Paying me neither rent nor mind. Yet taxing me a tithe of my cells. The bare faced cheek of it. Tithe not shaved in a month now. To my delugeded pain receptors, the razor felt like it was scooping out the...
12 tags
Unbound Flash Fiction Prize: 3rd Place (Bernise...
That Tearing
By Bernise Marie D. Carolino
Let’s read a story you say with the book open on your lap as you sit me down next to you and we turn the pages and as we are reading we are also writing the story as we go along and as the papers rustle they echo strangely in this empty room and it is all a lie because the book is on the table and my hands are on the pages and they are all mixed up...
