Why did you create Unbound Firsts?Updated 2 years ago

There were a lot of factors that led to the creation of Unbound Firsts: we recognise the barriers that writers of colour experience in the industry, particularly Black writers. We also came across a study that revealed the disparity of support that white campaigners and Black campaigners received while launching the same project on Kickstarter, with the Black campaigner receiving significantly less.

An internal review of our own lists highlighted a lack of author diversity, particularly in regards to writers of colour.

While we are proud of the books that we publish, we recognise that we need to actively create opportunities for writers of colour by recognising the specific barriers they experience.

Every year, writers can apply to have their manuscript published under Unbound Firsts via an open call which runs from October to the end of November. From this we select two manuscripts to be published. Readers who subscribe to the imprint will have their names printed in the back of both books and we aim to deliver their copies to them before they hit bookshops.

Under this imprint we have three cohesive aims. We want to:

- platform talented writers of colour

- remove crowdfunding obstacles for writers of colour

- increase reading opportunities for readers of colour.