A new paradigm? Crowdsourcing and the social benefits of community publishing.

Kiernan, Anna (2015) A new paradigm? Crowdsourcing and the social benefits of community publishing. In: UNSPECIFIED.

Abstract / Summary

Crowdsourcing is changing the publishing landscape. Unbound, publisher of Paul Kingsnorth’s Booker longlisted novel The Wake (2014), describes itself as: ‘A new way to connect authors and readers. Authors present a pitch, you pledge, and when the goal is reached the book is written.1 According to Professor Gillian Rudd: ‘Unbound’s crowdfunding basis challenges the assertion that e-readers are killing paper books.... Could Unbound free both writers and readers?’2

Much has been written about the historical importance and recent significance of reading communities, particularly in the context of social mobility and gender (eg Hartley, Kiernan, Fuller, Radway, Squires, Rehberg: 2011)3. However, community publishing as a ‘third way’ in terms of rethinking the emergent tension between print and digital has yet to be comprehensively explored.

This paper will present the findings of a community Kickstarter publishing campaign. The project team consists of a professional designer, proofreader, co-writer and co-founder (me), project manager, and illustrator, as well as Jess, the chef. All of the team (apart from Jess) are mothers at a primary school in Cornwall, which has responded to the 2014 government requirement that all infants be provided with free school meals, by serving food that is locally sourced, allotment grown and inspired by chefs such as Ottolenghi. This paper will track a live crowdsourcing project in the wider context of an industry in flux. (258 words)

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