I hope there isn't a second author tangled up in the Unbound/Boundless saga who had 8000+ books go missing. The more I pull on the thread of my underreported book sales, the angrier I am. A tiny thread:
Replies
You honestly deserve to be allowed to throw hammers at em, ngl.
aug 5, 2025, 7:37 pm • 48 0 • view
My client is seeking damages of 5 million dollars, or 45 consecutive and uninterrupted minutes in a backroom with the defendant and several sand filled socks.
aug 5, 2025, 7:49 pm • 120 1 • view
Haha, exactly! I'd approve those terms.
aug 5, 2025, 7:59 pm • 6 0 • view
aug 6, 2025, 12:00 am • 7 0 • view
If the room is small enough, you probably don't need that long. Five minutes should be OK, and you can even play "Five Minutes Alone" by Pantera as they walk down the hallway into the closet.
aug 5, 2025, 8:37 pm • 2 0 • view
You might not NEED 45 minutes. But you probably WANT 45 minutes.
aug 5, 2025, 10:37 pm • 6 0 • view
yeah, but the phrase "beating a dead horse" comes to mind
aug 6, 2025, 1:35 pm • 0 0 • view
Unbound was a crowdfunding publisher. The deal was, the "100%" goal for your crowdfund covered all publishing costs of the book, got copies to your supporters, and got bookstore distribution. Every dollar above that was then split 50/50 with Unbound.
aug 5, 2025, 7:22 pm • 207 10 • view
It was a good deal for anyone with a devoted following, since you could 200% or 300% the crowdfund and make good money right away because you'd get almost 50% of every crowdfund dollar past the first 100%.
aug 5, 2025, 7:25 pm • 179 5 • view
And then the bookstore royalty was well above average because, again, you're getting 50% of every dollar Unbound earned on your book sales. But you also split future costs, so a reprint means that suddenly you're getting no royalties this reporting period because you funded half the reprint cost.
aug 5, 2025, 7:27 pm • 171 6 • view
This worked out great for me on the original Field Guide. I don't remember the number, but we did close to 400% of the target. Less so on Greetings From Effin' Birds, the book whose sales seem to have been vastly under-accounted.
aug 5, 2025, 7:28 pm • 177 5 • view
On Greetings, I did around 300% of goal, but then got paid out $0 because Unbound greatly increased the print run due to anticipated book store demand, and 50% of that print cost came from my earnings.
aug 5, 2025, 7:30 pm • 155 4 • view
And then the book reportedly tanked in stores, so their extra 10k copies that they printed at my expense were suddenly an albatross. No books moving, no money coming in. Except during bankruptcy they only have 1000 copies to give to me.
aug 5, 2025, 7:31 pm • 199 8 • view
So, there are two choices: 1. the book tanked, but they didn't do the second print run and stole my money from the crowdfund; 2. the book sold fine, but they didn't report the sales to me and stole my royalties.
aug 5, 2025, 7:34 pm • 290 21 • view
Either way, they stole my money. (A kind person with access to shipping & warehouse data on the movements of my books has sent me screenshots that appear to show that it is number 2.)
aug 5, 2025, 7:36 pm • 313 17 • view
Those fucks.
aug 5, 2025, 7:53 pm • 1 0 • view
Kudos to all the other authors who stood up and were heard at the debtholders meeting, and who took back their rights and have otherwise made it impossible for Boundless to move forwards. The Unbound/Boundless board of directors do not deserve a second chance.
aug 5, 2025, 7:45 pm • 234 12 • view
Lastly: Unbound and Boundless are gone. Penguin Random House have picked up worldwide rights to the existing books and a new one for next fall. (It was finished, but I wasn't moving forwards with Unbound while they were behind on payments.) Buy whatever is out there in stores without guilt.
aug 5, 2025, 7:51 pm • 272 17 • view
It's not as if bookshops don't keep records and this shenanigans can't be checked. What did they think was going to happen? Shipping from North America is horribly slow and expensive, but I'm doing what I can to help support you.
aug 5, 2025, 7:40 pm • 7 0 • view
Oh! Also, Andrews McMeel do have worldwide rights for calendars — 2026 should be available to order everywhere, and I definitely get paid for those.
aug 5, 2025, 7:47 pm • 13 0 • view
Well, that's just it. Many of the decisions that appear to have led to their demise show a lack of thinking.
aug 5, 2025, 7:41 pm • 14 0 • view
One of the things that I have discovered in all of this is that their reprinting decisions were frankly insane.
aug 5, 2025, 7:38 pm • 13 0 • view
This is probably because this is an old publisher's wheeze, to stick authors with the "cost" of additional production that may be real, may be partial, may be fake, and use it as a way to get authors to buy more wholesale books
aug 5, 2025, 7:45 pm • 10 0 • view
This whole situation, in fact, is number 2. 😢
aug 5, 2025, 7:46 pm • 6 0 • view
How is all of this not criminal fraud? In the UK, I presume.
aug 6, 2025, 2:38 am • 0 0 • view
It feels like these people should go to prison, and if they don’t, the system really isn’t working.
aug 5, 2025, 8:01 pm • 4 0 • view
Sounds like you could write an undergraduate textbook chapter on business fraud with these folks
aug 5, 2025, 7:44 pm • 3 0 • view
Shameful behaviour by Unbound either way.
aug 5, 2025, 7:38 pm • 3 0 • view
Yeah, both answers are bad
aug 5, 2025, 7:38 pm • 1 0 • view
My guess is that they were in the middle. They urgently needed a lot of cash to make up for some internal failure (or outright embezzlement). They decided to inflate some print runs for upcoming work and also to postpone the actual physical printing, which left them with a limited time cash buffer.
aug 5, 2025, 7:48 pm • 4 0 • view
When it turned out that the extra cash wasn’t enough, though, they were left with underpaid writers, unprinted books, *and* the issues that started it all. Basically the classic situation with a gambler going to a pawn shop or loan shark, certain they’ll make back more than enough to cover it all.
aug 5, 2025, 7:48 pm • 5 0 • view
You're close to some of the truth: they felt that they had a big investment coming, needed money to launch something splashy and didn't want to wait, so they used the money held in the author's royalty escrow accounts, expecting to pay it back. The investment never came and the splashy thing failed.
aug 5, 2025, 7:59 pm • 8 0 • view
What a criminal clusterfuck.
aug 5, 2025, 7:35 pm • 2 0 • view
if you're not nodding your head and recalling the Manutius Press wheeze from _Foucault's Pendulum_ here, you didn't read it.
aug 5, 2025, 7:42 pm • 2 0 • view
Did they increase the print run unilaterally or was this a joint decision?
aug 6, 2025, 5:13 pm • 0 0 • view
Why?
aug 6, 2025, 5:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Because it's extra fucked up if they were taking your money to invest in a bigger print run without consulting with you on the decision.
aug 6, 2025, 6:36 pm • 0 0 • view
Is it your experience that publishers consult with authors on the size of the print run? I have never experienced that.
aug 6, 2025, 7:34 pm • 0 0 • view
No, but this is also the first I have heard of a publisher withholding payment otherwise due to an author to cover the cost of an expanded/additional print run.
aug 6, 2025, 7:53 pm • 0 0 • view
Christ
aug 5, 2025, 7:30 pm • 1 0 • view
Something for @drcarpineti.bsky.social to also be wary of?
aug 5, 2025, 8:41 pm • 1 0 • view
Oh my was not published yet…
aug 6, 2025, 5:40 am • 1 0 • view
aug 5, 2025, 7:50 pm • 19 4 • view
This is like the third instance in the last few months I've heard of this sort of thing where different companies have screwed independent creators and gone bankrupt after not paying out. It is nuts
aug 5, 2025, 8:02 pm • 7 0 • view
this feels like it's careening out of civil territory straight into outright criminal fraud
aug 5, 2025, 8:30 pm • 5 0 • view