U.K. crowdfunding publisher Unbound, once heralded by some as the future of publishing, turned out to be an unmitigated disaster when it filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Prior to its being sold in March for just £50,000 ($64,000), it lost £30.4 million ($39 million) for its shareholders and owed an estimated £2.4 million ($3.1 million) to creditors, according to a new bankruptcy administrator’s report seen by Print Week.

As of Friday afternoon, a PR representative for administrators said that the figure of £30.4 million lost for shareholders is being revised to £9.05 million ($11.9 million), and new paperwork will be submitted on Monday.

The company was sold to Boundless Publishing Group—led by former Unbound CEO Archna Sharma and cofounder John Mitchinson—through a pre-pack administration, where the sale was negotiated before formally entering administration. Administrators expect to recover £200,000 ($256,000) from outstanding invoices, but with a £134,000 ($172,000) administration bill, unsecured creditors won't receive any money back.

The collapse of the publishing house hit multiple groups hard, including the 238 authors and agents who were owed £657,000 ($843,000), the nearly 8,000 website customers who pre-ordered books were owed £391,000 ($502,000), and the other trade creditors who were owed £829,000 ($1.06 million). Unbound prioritized paying printers, leaving just £75,000 ($96,000) due to suppliers.

Unbound had operated at a loss since it was founded in 2012. Despite financial troubles, Unbound had some notable successes, including Cain's Jawbone, a 1934 puzzle mystery that went viral on TikTok in 2021. The book sold over half a million copies, generating an estimated £3 million ($3.8 million) in gross revenue, briefly propelling the company into profitability.

Sharma, a former investment bank managing director who joined as CEO in January 2025 to stabilize the company, secured £840,000 ($1.08 million) in new investor commitments for Boundless. "Everyone in the company knows we will be managing judiciously for cash, regardless of the size of our fund raise," Sharma wrote to the company's valuer. "We will post daily cash balances to our general Slack channel to heighten sensitivity to operational efficiencies."

All 18 Unbound staff transferred to Boundless, which now runs a website where customers can order previously published titles.

This article was updated with new information.