When the Dream Becomes a Disaster: How a Crowdfunded Publisher Left Authors in Limbo

Image courtesy of The Post.

Publishing a book is supposed to be a celebration — the culmination of years of hard work, heartache, and hope. But for many authors who signed with crowdfunding publisher Unbound, that dream has curdled into a nightmare, according to Independent.

On March 22, 2025, Unbound officially went into administration after months of mounting concerns about unpaid royalties and missing book deliveries. The company had once been a darling of indie publishing, known for backing niche voices and attracting high-profile contributors like Terry Jones and Jackie Morris. But behind the scenes, authors say, the business was unraveling.

Kat Brown, a journalist and editor, is among the many now left unpaid and disillusioned. Her book, No One Talks About This Stuff, a moving anthology on infertility grief, was published by Unbound in 2024 after raising over £20,000 from more than 700 backers. What should’ve been a triumph quickly turned sour.

“I trusted them,” Brown says. “I shouldn’t have.”

Despite months of personal promotion, social media engagement, and planning a launch event — all out of her own pocket — Brown was told six minutes before her book party began that Unbound wouldn’t be supplying any physical copies. The event went on, with one junior Unbound staffer delivering a speech about a book she hadn’t read.

Then came a guest appearance on Woman’s Hour, hosted by Emma Barnett. Though it was a major opportunity to highlight the anthology, the book wasn’t available in stores — only on Amazon. And that, Brown notes bitterly, was never the plan. She had deliberately chosen Unbound to avoid the self-publishing route.

Authors who worked with Unbound say they were sold a vision of empowered publishing — community-funded, quality-edited, and ethically produced. What they received was the worst of both worlds: the cost and labor of self-publishing, but none of the transparency or autonomy.

While a new company, Boundless IP Limited, has promised to honor monies owed, many authors remain skeptical. Legal ownership may change hands, but the reputational damage is done — and the heartbreak is real.

For writers like Brown, whose work represents deeply personal, emotionally raw experiences, the fallout is even more painful. No One Talks About This Stuff was never about making money; it was about making space. A space for people grieving silently, feeling unseen.

Now, the book may disappear — not because the story didn’t matter, but because the people entrusted to share it failed.

“I felt ashamed of not being able to have children,” Brown shares. “Making this book was my way of creating something good out of a rotten situation. My experience with Unbound has resurrected those shameful feelings — and compounded them into something even more devastating.”

In a publishing world where authors already shoulder so much, the collapse of Unbound is a harsh reminder: dreams deserve more than promises. They deserve protection.