Booker Prize names crowdfunded Wake to long list

LONDON — A debut novel that was “crowdfunded” by members of the public has made it on to the long list for the Man Booker Prize.

The Wake by Paul Kings north is set in 1066 and written in what the author calls “shadow tongue,” a mix of modern and Anglo-Saxon English.

Believing that the language would turn off mainstream publishers, Kingsnorth turned to Unbound, a relative newcomer on the literary scene. It offers authors the chance to advertise their ideas on its website and solicit money from readers, in sums from about $10 to $600.

When the required total is reached —around $28,000 in the case of The Wake — Unbound uses the money to publish, market and distribute the book. The profits are then split 50/50 with the author.

The donors are listed in The Wake and those who pledged larger sums received additional rewards such as a limited edition made of handstitched goatskin and an author’s tour of the Battle of Hastings site with a picnic. Kingsnorth, 41, said he was amazed to be on the long list, a more challenging proposition this year because the prize is open to U.S. and non-Commonwealth writers for the first time. The Wake edged out hotly tipped novels including Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winner The Goldfinch and Ian McEwan’s soonto-be-released The Children Act.

“I knew that the book had been entered but it was never something I was actually thinking seriously about,” he said from his home in Ireland. “The Wake is a very strange book because it’s written in its own tongue. I was fully expecting when I wrote it not to be able to get it published, and I thought I would have to self-publish it.

“What’s exciting is that the book is a collaboration between me and the publisher and those 400 people who had enough faith in it to pledge before they had even read it. That makes it something quite special for me and something quite new in terms of publishing.”

Kingsnorth is a former editor of Oxford University’s student magazine, Cherwell, and an environmental activist. The short list will be announced on Sept 9.