We have always wanted to support more authors with brilliant books, yet struggled due to the fact that getting funding for such work is very difficult, and since the book publishing industry is dominated by a handful of large corporations. As an outsider, lived experience, non-profit organisation, we nonetheless persisted to get work published for over 5 years, on minimal funding – through the dedication of volunteers, generous donations and also through proceeds of book sales. We were aware of the crowdpublishing model for many years, including its iteration in the UK through Unbound, and knew that it could be made much more accessible and fairer to authors. Only in 2022, after the support of Big Issue Foundation and Peoples Postcode Lottery, were we finally able to launch Crowdbound.

All future books will be directed to this new avenue for getting published, although we will maintain the onus on supporting authors from the most disadvantaged backgrounds and ensure, in exceptional cases where crowdfunding isn’t possible for them, we will either manage campaigns on their behalf or dip into our limited reserves to get their books published without a campaign. We hope, in due course, to support a whole array of significant titles through Crowdbound, alongside pioneering projects that share our founding purposes of improving social inclusion and environmental sustainability. Thank you to everyone who has come with us on this exciting journey!