My Scribophile Friend's Unbound Campaign - Ashael Rising

Ashael is smart, tough, curious, and she has her whole life ahead of her. You will love her, which is why I'm telling you about the Unbound campaign to publish her story, Ashael Rising. 

I know a lot of you are self published authors like me, so you appreciate what Shona Kinsella is trying to do through Unbound. Shona and the other members of my Ubergroup team on Scribophile are a big part of my writing process. Like all other virtual groups, this online writing group allows me to collaborate with writers all over the U.S. and all over he world. 

I'm on my second read of Ashael's story, and I can attest to the work Shona has put into developing this character, building her world, expanding the premise, and rounding out the character arc.  

Unbound seems like a great way to publish a novel. Until Shona's opportunity to launch a campaign, I'd never heard of Unbound, but, apparently, their first successful campaign was in 2011 with Terry Jones and Evil Machines.





If you want to learn more about Unbound, here are a couple of articles I found about the company:

Unbound's Crowd-Financed, Spine-Tingling Effort To Reinvent Book Publishing

Crowdfunding the Next Big Thing in Publishing?

And The Independent Publishing Magazine - +Mick Rooney - wrote a review of Unbound, in which it listed the company's pros and cons:

PROS

• Full trade distribution (with 3rd party sales team)
• Proven track record of selling books
• Transparent terms of contract
• In-built reader eco-system
• Publisher also sells books from its website
• Higher rate of royalties (50% net) than other publishers
• Open submission process — literary agent representation not required
• Any submitted book or idea for one will be considered and afforded a response

CONS

• No advance on royalties
• High crowdfunding target
• Author likely requires established/sizeable fan base to reach target
• Book cannot be previously self-published
• May not suit a book series
• The publisher is reliant on an author’s fan base to support Unbound’s subscriber eco-system before publication
• Low publisher output — just 54 books in 3 and half years (or about 1 title every 5 weeks)