Attention @unboundsocials.bsky.social - Can you guess how many of your unpaid former authors can afford to visit a coffee shop today?

I'm just replying here to tag @unboundsocials.bsky.social , to make sure anyone looking for their feed gets to read these posts.

@unboundsocials.bsky.social managed to utterly betray both their authors *and* their readers simultaneously. I can't imagine their reputation with the wider publishing industry investors is too great either. And why would anyone now trust @unboundsocials.bsky.social with their writing career?

I've had deeply sad emails from three of the authors whose books I supported, who are not only struggling financially because of Unbound walking away from their obligations, but who also fear that their reputation with their (also out-of-pocket) readers has also been critically damaged.

“Ooh, the crowdfunder failed! That means the old ways are still the best!” lmao get real Bookseller, it wasn’t the crowdfunding that caused Unbound to fail

And to clarify, the SoA didn’t help the authors in our group who were ALREADY SoA members and asked for assistance either—so obviously yes join your union early, but also make sure it IS an actual union who can fight for you (like the WGA in America) and not just a ladies’ tea party in disguise

... and getting any sort of comment - let alone words of conciliation - from the company seems impossible. (The administrators are similarly taciturn.) Its incredibly disappointing for me as an erstwhile supporter of the business, and galling to see them continue trading as if nothing happened.

... which means that erstwhile customers who will no longer receive the books they paid for have to wait for the administrator to decide if we will ever see our money again. There is understandably a lot of ill feeling towards Unbound and its owners amongst both authors and ex-customers/pledgers..

They can do this because, after entering administration, Unbound was sold in a 'pre pack' sale, and bought by... (drum roll)... Boundless IP Ltd, a company established by Unbound’s co-founder, John Mitchinson, alongside CEO Archna Sharma. It's a phoenix company...

I'd be reluctant to consider buying another Unbound book until I know for sure that all past authors have been paid. This 'Unbound' is a phoenix company, so can (quite legally) shrug off the liabilities to both authors and customers that were incurred by the previous 'Unbound'.

That's a big price drop, so out of interest, does all of the £1.99 go to the authors? And have all of the authors of these discounted books now been paid up-to-date by Unbound?
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m... If not, then buying these books would really be adding insult to injury...

I don't understand the model here. It made sense to print supporters names when books were genuinely crowdfunded, but what's the attraction of doing so when the book's already sold 200k copies? Pre-ordering is hardly the same as crowdfunding an author's project.

I've not got anything particularly practical to add, but just wanted to write a reply where I could tag @unboundsocials.bsky.social properly, so anyone searching for their account on Bluesky might happen upon this thread and learn about their odious conduct.

And I suppose we all accept some risk when we join a crowdfunded project, but I'm angry at @unboundsocials.bsky.social for continuing to advertise new projects and take our money last year when they clearly knew the game was up - judging by the experience relayed by @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social .

I am another of those who supported your book - along with several others titles that have been cancelled by @Unbound . In total, that's £80 of purchases lost (paid via Paypal, who won't refund transactions past 180 days.) There's no recrimination towards you Mat; That's reserved for Unbound...