#crowdfunding #unbound @bobbyllew
Robert Llewellyn is a comedian, actor, writer and
TV presenter known worldwide for shows such as Red Dwarf, Carpool and Scrapheap
Challenge. His latest book, News from the
Clouds, is being funded on Unbound. He told StoryWorld all about it.
Hi Robert! Tell me about your project.
In 2009 I started writing a book set 200 years in
the future in a society that had finally moved beyond fire. The overarching
idea was to imagine a technologically advanced but sustainable society and
economy where they don't burn anything to do anything else. This was inspired
by many things but the two main ones were; Re-reading William Morris' 'News
from Nowhere' published in 1890 and set in 1980, and the developments I was
seeing in renewable energy generation, storage and use. I drive an electric car
that is part powered by solar panels and this fact alone inspired me to imagine
how far this technology could take us.
'News from the Squares' continues the story in an alternate
dimension 200 years in the future in a complex and economically thriving world
governed entirely by women. The thinking behind this was simple; men have
dominated society for the past 3-4,000 years and we have achieved some truly
remarkable advances in that time. We've also made a right mess in the process.
Trying to imagine what would happen if women slowly took over and ran things
was at once challenging and liberating and the feedback from both men and women
about this book has been very rewarding.
The final book in the trilogy, 'News from the
Clouds' creates a world where current generations take no heed of the
increasingly dire warnings we are hearing from 98% of the scientific community.
It describes a world where extreme weather has become the norm, but instead, as
in all the books, of being a dystopian nightmare of horror and carnage, it
depicts a place where human beings are finding ways of surviving and prospering
under very extreme conditions.
How’s the campaign going?
The first two books, 'News from Gardenia' and 'News
from the Squares' were both funded very quickly, in under a month. The final
book, 'News from the Clouds' is taking a lot longer but I'm happy to say it's
getting there.
You’ve used Unbound before. Why did you choose to
use crowdfunding?
I originally wanted to publish 'News from Gardenia'
myself but realised fairly quickly that I'd need quite a lot of help to do
that. Meeting the folks from Unbound made that possibility a lot less
stressful. It's not self publishing and certainly not vanity publishing, my
books are distributed by MacMillan which is a very old school publisher,
however I've found the direct contact with readers very fulfilling. I've met
loads of people who've supported and indeed read the books and the feedback is
fantastic.
Before working with Unbound I had published
numerous books with traditional publishers. I loved the creative experience,
the editing etc. but often felt cast adrift once the book was out. The
experience with Unbound is far more hands on. I know how many we've printed,
how many we've sold and I'm very committed to publicising and pushing the
books.
What is your target and deadline?
The idea is to raise enough to do the editing,
first print run, e-book and audiobook versions so that when the book hits the
shelves it's not running at a massive loss as is the case with traditional
publishing. The writer shares any profits on a 50-50 basis with Unbound which
is unheard of with any other publisher. As for a time deadline, I've nearly
finished the first draft of 'News from the Clouds' but there's still
a lot of work to do on it. I know I will re-write again and again. The deadline
is more of a dead mist, it's all got to be finished... soon...ish
Where can people find
you?:
News from the Clouds on Unbound: http://unbound.co.uk/books/news-from-the-clouds
News from Gardenia on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1hUI8vu
News from the Squares on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1gAycrP
@bobbyllew on Twitter
http://llewblog.squarespace.com
is my blog
Thanks Robert! Click on the links above to make News from the Clouds a success.
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