Here is a UK-based publishing opportunity that embodies the hybrid publishing ideology we’ll be seeing much more of! Take a look at what Unbound is doing.
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The Unbound model is very straightforward: The author pitches an idea and if enough readers support it, the book goes ahead. Unbound is both a funding platform and a publisher, fulfilling all the normal publishing functions but also splitting a book’s net profit 50/50 with the author. As their website explains:
First, the author pitches an idea
Unbound allows you to listen to authors’ ideas for what they’d like to write before they even start. If you like their idea, you can pledge to support it. If we hit the target number of supporters, the author can go ahead and start writing.
If you like it you can make a pledge
There are several levels of support, each with different rewards. The higher your pledge, the greater the rewards you’ll receive, from your name in the back of the book to lunch with the author.
From there, you stay up to date
As soon as you make a pledge to support an Unbound project you gain access to the author’s private area, or ‘shed’. Here you can get updates on the book’s progress.
And then you get the book
After the book is written, designed, edited and printed, we send it to you, either as an ebook or a limited edition hardback or paperback.
For the first time, you will be able to hold in your hands a book that wouldn’t have existed without you.
Visit the Unbound site at http://unbound.co.uk/.
John Edward Lawson 