Authors Pitch Book Ideas To Fans Online

A new website allows authors to pitch book ideas directly to the public, in the hope they will get sponsorship to write them.

Unbound is a cross between a literary Dragon's Den and the X-Factor.

Writers upload a video explaining what they want to write and why and then anyone can invest.

Ten pounds gets your name in the back of a book, £250 lunch with the author.

Dan Kieran, co-founder of Unbound, told Sky News: "Unless you are an established writer, a celebrity, or have a TV tie inm it's very hard to get any space in the book shop.

"The whole point of Unbound is we are trying to innovate the publishing process."

Investors do not share the profits, just the glory of perhaps spotting the next Stieg Larsson. How much authors need to raise and over how long, depends on each book.

Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame, is the first writer to get his book, Evil Machines, published through the crowd-funding website.

"I loved the idea of authors pitching a book they'd love to write and readers saying yes I like the sound of that. Split profits 50/50 with you," he told Sky News.

In a traditional publishing deal, after printing and marketing costs and a cut for the publisher and retailer, writers can earn as little as 10p a book.

The next book to be published is Crushed Mexican Spiders by Booker Prize nominee Tibor Fischer, and best-selling author Kate Mosse has funding to write about the history of Chichester Theatre - a personal passion.

Want-to-be writers are not all famous. Other requests come from an unknown school teacher, a music photographer, and a poet called George.

Although it sounds revolutionary, schemes like this have been around since Charles Dickens' time.

His work was often funded by "subscriptions".

The rise of Ebooks and cut-price on-line shops means that everyone is looking for new ways to make writing pay. Even JK Rowling set up the Pottermore website so she could exclusively sell digital Harry Potter books.

But some experts think crowd-publishing will never be mainstream.

"I don't think it is the future of publishing. I think it adds a new dimension and gets people involved at earlier stage in exciting way," said literary journalist Robert Collins.