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Chantal's avatar

Ah, Tom. This was a delight, even though everything about it still infuriates me. Well, not Jim the horse of course, he could never infuriate me. But the Unbound situation very much so. I'm still in correspondence with them and Opus. They replied to me today (yes, a Sunday) in a very condescending way, but nobody, so far, has said anything about the refund. So, I've only heard that from you (through this video and the piece you wrote earlier), not through ex-Unbound. Well, unless I've not completely understood the administration notice that I was sent by Opus, which was 26 pages of Legalese that I had a hard time understanding. Opus have told me that they, as officers of the High Court, are very sensitive to offensive language (I used the word 'insane' when referring to a whole list of things that went wrong in their and Unbound's communication, 'insane' of course being an extremely, traumatisingly offensive word), so I hope they will be able to overcome you using 'fucking' twice. As you know, I have all your books (bar the one on golf, I do apologise) and I did indeed pledge for Everything will swallow you, but I will absolutely (re)buy it when you have further news. Even though the publishing world is difficult and often unfair for authors, and the freedom of self-publishing or something like Unbound is very appealing, there's also something to be said for established publishers who are doing well and are therefore more likely to pay their writers. I'm curious to see what you'll end up choosing and I SO hope that choice will feel good. Many of us will be there, whatever choice you make. Very pleased to be treated to 30 minutes of your voice, understated humour and honesty. Thank you.

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Elizabeth Beggins's avatar

Glad you were able to wrangle the books back, Tom. That is a LOT of books to make room for, especially with Jim taking up so much space of his own. My husband's name is Jim. He also takes up rooms of his own, mostly with too many books. Can you even imagine such a thing!?

Thanks for the roundup of previous posts. As a new subscriber, I look forward to digging in.

Meanwhile, Jim might appreciate this, if he's not seen it already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhkZMxgPxXU

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Hilary's avatar

Hi Tom. Have you tried David's Bookshop in Letchworth Garden City? Lovely independent shop (with an independent record shop too. And a cafe. Sells board games, and oodles of secondhand books too. A gem. )

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Olynpuss's avatar

My strange but beautiful tree by my gate. Isn’t it astounding?

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Olynpuss's avatar

I

It’s always different; cut back, leafless but always beautiful.

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Fran Harrison's avatar

I checked, and realised I had one missing in the full set! Have messaged via your website.

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Tom Cox's avatar

Cheers Fran. Have just replied!

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Fran Harrison's avatar

Please thank your frog overlords for the outrageously fast delivery. I'll be hopping and jumping into 1983 just as soon as I've finished my current read, 188 Words for Rain. Recommended.

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David Wiggin's avatar

My 4 books of Tom are well traveled and now safely on the coffee table. From SW England, Wibsey, Manchester, Basel and finally Untersiggenthal. Page 44 of Witches’ Knickers.

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Francisco J. Bernal's avatar

I'll be busy this weekend. Thank you, Tom 🥳

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Claire Mitchell's avatar

Hi Tom - do try Chorlton Bookshop, a lovely long-standing and beloved independent local bookshop in Chorlton, south Manchester, close to where I live. They sell lots of wonderful fiction, as well as a lot of fab nature writing, and I’m sure they’d love to help. X

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Tom Cox's avatar

Thank you! I’ll give them a try.

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Westie's Wanders's avatar

I was going to suggest Chorlton. Also Urmston Bookshop in South Manchester too.

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Tom Cox's avatar

Thank you! A few people have mentioned Chortlon. It must be good!

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Joanne Moss's avatar

Hi Tom, hope this is ok but I just forwarded your post to my local bookshop with a note. I don’t think they stock you currently so hopefully can take some off your hands (Linghams in Heswall). Also hoping your cats have better manners than my cat Neil (nickname ‘Big Butt’) or you will be spending your days picking books off the floor - eek!

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Tom Cox's avatar

Definitely ok, Joanne! Thank you very much. And yes there was a small bookvalanche courtesy of Roscoe last night.

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Linda Louise “Tosca” Hueston's avatar

What a beautiful post and also a bit sad for you Tom. Im delighted to purchase three of your books at the full market value of these treasures. I just love the Substack videos from you and Patti Smith. They are deep visits with the artist and unprecedented in my experience. And after a Canadian Spring blizzard like we have just had in Northern Alberta - 40 + centimetres or 5 ft of snow then Hola ! I will just forget about it and disappear into one of Toms books for the next ten days. 😊

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Samantha Stevens's avatar

Can I get your books shipped to the US?

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Tom Cox's avatar

Very happy to send if you are ok with the postage costs, Samantha! Please drop me an email at hello@tom-cox.com

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Samantha Stevens's avatar

On it.

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Laura's avatar

So sorry to hear about the latest developments with the maddening Unbound situation, Tom – as a former publishing worker and still publishing-adjacent freelancer I've been following the whole saga with dismay. I always thought the target crowdfunding totals Unbound set seemed massively inflated – production costs for a non-illustrated book are really not in the tens of thousands, even with high paper quality and a lovely cover, unless the print run is very large, like Sally Rooney levels. I was pretty shocked to find out from your posts that they didn't even pay an author advance out of the hefty sum of money raised, and they seemed to leave the marketing mostly to their authors too. Do you know whether they factored staff salaries into the total/did they give you a detailed breakdown of what it was meant to cover?

I actually just did a bit of poking around on Companies House, and interestingly Archna Sharma seems to have resigned as a director of Boundless... eight days after being appointed (https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/o6zbvUGw63ZQM2Ql2oWWl7HmJc8/appointments). I do wonder if Boundless will actually go ahead with publishing at all given all the backlash, and hope at the very least they pay you what they owe you asap. Whatever happens, you've clearly made the right choice in getting shot of them! Hope your books find a great new home that gives you, Jim the horse and the whole menagerie the stability you deserve.

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Jan Hicks's avatar

This is just priceless, Laura - this makes me think that Sharma, as CEO of Neem Tree Press, was bought/brought on board in September to provide a veneer of confidence while the ailing Unbound was looking for investment. Her resignation is only 2 days after Unbound entered administration, too. She's an ex-investment banker. I imagine she cut herself a good deal. It makes sense of John Mitchinson being named as the sole shareholder in Boundless and the person who bought the monetisable assets of Unbound in the pre-pack for a bargain £50,000, 50% up front, 50% on the never-never, in the letter from the administartor. So shady.

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SuddenlyJamie's avatar

I am happy to listen to you and your lovely orange horse, Jim, waffle on whenever you like. Will head over to your site to order copies of the books I’m missing. Hooray!

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Sally Hawley Chesser's avatar

Oh, ok I will go to the website- I typed too soon! haha

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Vila Mundi ❄️'s avatar

I'm so glad you got your books 📚 back. An old friend of mine found out Weiser had pulped his books.

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Rebecca Kershaw's avatar

I have all your books - very kindly signed by you in Newark last year - and had pledged for EWSY. I will definitely buy a copy when it's published but would really like to get my money back from Unbound in the meantime🤞

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Tom Cox's avatar

Thanks Rebecca. Some people have had some luck getting the money back via PayPal or their credit card company so could be worth a try if you paid that way…

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Chantal's avatar

Tom, I wonder if it might be a good idea to restack Jan's reply with the how-to with regards to Opus' e-mail? I genuinely think many people will have deleted it as spam, because the text didn't mention Unbound, you or your book. And even if they did read it, they might not have understood that it also applies to them and/or what to do.

(maybe you already did and I missed in, apologies if that's the case, still getting used to Substack)

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Tom Cox's avatar

Hi Chantal. Yes, I restacked Jan’s v useful comments but might try to put something elsewhere about it when I get a moment. Things are a bit frantic right now!

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Rebecca Kershaw's avatar

Thanks Tom. I'll try that.

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Jan Hicks's avatar

Rebecca, have you had the email from Opus with the Letter to Creditors attached? I received mine on 18 March. Within the 26 page document explaining the Administration there is a Proof of Debt form. You can submit that by email to unbound@opusllp.com or by post along with copies of your confirmation email from Unbound and of the payment transaction (my payment was via PayPal so I printed out the transaction record). I had a very polite email from Opus today confirming that my claim is now lodged in the Administration, so perhaps I will see some of my money. I'm not holding my breath though!

Unfortunately, because I pledged for EWSY more than 180 days ago (more than 400 days ago, in fact), PayPal closed my case for a refund immediately as 180 days is the limit for buyer protection with them. If you paid by card, your bank might honour a recharge request.

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Chantal's avatar

I received that too and I fully understand that communication like that is usually in Legalese and I'm also (sort of) smart enough to understand it, even though it takes me a bit longer not being a native speaker. However, that doesn't apply to everybody. Not everybody understands what that e-mail was about (especially since the purchase was so long ago and the name Unbound was mentioned in the text), even fewer people will have downloaded and read the 26 pages and even fewer people still will have understood what to do. It's a bit of a high threshold for many people. I know it's standard procedure for Opus and other such companies, but at the same time I think it's very disappointing. Also, because it's a pledge made through my Unbound account, I didn't keep the confirmation e-mail because I could log in at any time to check my purchase. I've paid by PayPal, which luckily provides full details of the purchase (i.e. seller, writer and title), so here's hoping that's enough. But even if it is, I have a feeling the customers who pledged won't be at the top of the priority list. Ugh. Oh well. At least I'm grateful that it's an amount that won't be in the way of me buying groceries and that I can afford to re-buy it when it comes out elsewhere. I feel much worse about the many authors who are struggling with their rent etc. because of this, and about one of the founders happily talking about being excited about the new company...

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Jan Hicks's avatar

A PS to my previous comment: the Unbound.com website is live again and you can log into your account and see all your pledge activity, including the cancelled EWSY.

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Chantal's avatar

Wait - what? Ugh, sorry for not doing my homework. I have literally checked almost every day for the past few weeks and the one day I don't check, it's up again... hahaha. Wow. Thanks for telling me.

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Jan Hicks's avatar

I agree, Chantal. That's why I've tried on here to highlight the Proof of Debt form buried in the 26-page document. As far as I can tell, it's not a requirement of the form to send proof, but anything you can send will help. My understanding is that Opus has access to the platform that our Unbound accounts are on, even though we don't - this is how they know who to email. They'll be able to see what each person has pledged for and which projects aren't being transferred to Boundless and therefore which pledges become a debt to be repaid by the Administrators, if funds permit that. You're also correct that customers like us are bottom of the list. Top of the list are the creditors whose debts are classed as preferential under the UK Insolvency Act (1986). First on the list is usually unpaid wages and PAYE tax and national insurance deductions from salary owed to HMRC on behalf of employees, along with pension contributions deducted from salary. Then it's likely to be VAT owed to HMRC, which is a secondary preferential debt. If there's any money left, then non-preferential and unsecured debts like ours might get paid. It's highly unlikely we'll get our money back, but I'm bloody minded and think it's important to send in the form so that the entirety of Unbound's debt is recorded within the Administration. ☺️

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Chantal's avatar

Ah yes, it's the same priority list as in the Netherlands, with the exception that utility companies are also higher on the list than regular customers. Yes, I am the same, and I've been e-mailing with Opus and Unbound, giving rather honest feedback about how they're handling this. And I also have a touch of ocd, so I also think Unbound's debt should be on file as close to reality as it can be. But, like you, it's more the principle of it and the ocd that makes me do it, not the hope that I will actually get the money back. Sad, though.

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Rebecca Kershaw's avatar

Thank you. I will check my emails. Sadly I think I paid via PayPal. I've got pledges in for two books and am not hopeful of receiving refunds for either which I can ill afford 😟

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Jan Hicks's avatar

The email I received had the subject "United Authors Publishing Limited communication from Opus". I've just checked and the letter is a link within the email rather than an attachment.

I hope you can get your money back. It's been a lesson for me not to use PayPal so unthinkingly in future - it adds an extra layer of frustration in situations like this.

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