p-Books (No, Not 'Print'): The Next Big Thing in Publishing?

The traditional publishing model has been broken for some time.

There are many reasons to believe that and they vary by one's perspective: readers complain that many 'good' ideas never make it to the shelves because large publishers do not believe them financially or editorially viable enough to produce and promote; authors complain that their share of revenue is typically only 5% - 10% of the retail book price; publishers complain that they cannot make enough margin because big retailers typically take 30% - 75% of the book's cover price; retailers complain because the difficulty of accurately projecting sales levels and the cost of carrying inventory makes it prohibitive to do anything other than sell on a consignment basis.

Many attempts have been made to fix the industry.

Self-publishing has been around for some time. It predates the Internet but services such as Lulu have provided authors with greater speed to market, high quality production and much better economies than before. Online bookselling seems to have been around forever. Brands like Amazon (www.amazon.com) are now almost the generic name for the category. Authors - the well-known and the less so - are collaborating with each other to write and publish books via services like Authors Now!. And of course, e-Books, not so long ago a seemingly good idea unable to gain momentum, have now become almost ubiquitous; this summer Amazon e-Book sales began to outpace hard copy sales by a substantial margin.

These ideas, along with others that have not withstood the test of time, have brought substantial positive change as well as challenge. For example, in theory, authors can publish themselves to a worldwide audience and reap all the financial rewards (see J.K. Rowling's Pottermore) but in practice, very few are able to do it such that the effort is financially rewarding. Readers can now buy and read almost any book on any screen device at much lower prices than before but the book industry is losing some contributing corporate players - and jobs. Witness the recent collapse of Borders in the USA. All is not perfect - nor even well - for many stakeholders.

Enter a new publishing model.

Unbound Books, a UK startup founded by several established industry personalities, has begun crowd-sourcing books.

Inspired by the success of Kickstarter, Unbound enables authors to pitch their ideas directly to readers instead of editors. If enough readers support it within a set number of days, Unbound will publish the book using freelance editorial, production and promotion expertise. If not, readers get their money back. Readers can pledge their support in different denominations. At the first level, they’ll receive an e-Book edition of the book if it is published. Middle levels offer signed, deluxe print copies. At the highest level, readers get invitations to the launch party, lunch with the author, two signed first editions of the book and two e-Book editions. All supporters get their names printed in the back of the book and access to the author’s 'shed,' where they can read updates about the book’s progress, draft chapters and other extras. Unbound shares revenue 50/50 with its authors.

Unbound is only several months old at this point so its long term viability remains to be seen. However, we like the concept because it incorporates a principle we believe in. It essentially attempts to found a product based upon the interests and preferences of the people who will eventually experience it, then engage those people in its design and development and reward them with participation in its success. It's an idea that works in other industries and categories but which the traditional publishing industry has never seemed to grasp.

Has the age of the People Book begun?