Define Bounded Unbounded Risks

Alternapublishing « Genreville

As self-publishing becomes more widespread and both self-publishing and traditional publishing companies look for ways to stand out and attract authors, alternatives to both models are popping up. Here are three that have come my way recently:

PUBSLUSH (U.S.) starts with the Kickstarter crowdfunding model, itself an extremely popular way for authors to self-publish , and adds crowdsourced slush-reading. Authors submit excerpts and synopses, and readers browse through them and pledge support for the ones they like. A book is considered funded when 2000 people support it–a number higher than many small press print runs! Unbound (U.K.) has a similar system but with concepts rather than excerpts, so writers don’t even start writing until the book is funded. (I don’t see anything on their site about authors getting advance payments, though, so I’m not sure I see why an author would want to wait to start writing.) They only take proposals from agented and established authors, which will reduce the odds of an author being funded and then not delivering a book. Like PUBSLUSH, Unbound seems to define “funded” by the number of people who chip in rather than the amount pledged, though it’s not clear where the finish line is; as of this writing, a book listed as 60% funded still needs 844 supporters, while a book listed as 4% funded needs only 387. Lucky Bat Books (U.S.) falls most clearly under the subsidy publishing umbrella, as the author must both pass editorial muster and provide funding up front, but there are no royalties; the author gets 100% of the proceeds once the book is published and sold.

As with any such arrangement, it’s important to follow the money. Lucky Bat’s funding comes from taking a percentage of the initial fee. PUBSLUSH keeps a hefty 65 to 90% of proceeds on book sales and also acts as an agent if an editor from a “major publishing house” finds the manuscript on the site and makes an offer on it; presumably, like any agent, they get a cut of the deal. (This is yet another example of the agent/publisher line being blurred in possibly sketchy ways.) Unbound splits proceeds 50/50 with authors. Unbound users fund books by purchasing credits that expire if not used within 30 days, so presumably there’s some revenue from people who buy credits and end up not using them.

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