Roadside Mum #6 It is immoral to charge me for my own victimisation

[MurielSnark]

Yeah, I do wonder how much slack they had… but then I think quite a few people also backed out so perhaps it was largely eaten up by that plus the need for more work from unbound and this is the ultimate consequence. Either that or RSM overestimated how much money she had to offer and £250 was never going to be possible for more than a handful of writers.

Yes, except that they were only taking contributions on spec so they wouldn't have paid any contributors unless they'd committed to including them in the anthology. That was the bit I objected to.

I've done a little dive onto the site and looked at some numbers.

The project is already funded 115%. Unbound states that any amounts pledged over 100% will be split between the author and publisher -- not clear how that would work for an anthology.

Anyway, here's how much they've earned already from the different tiers of pledges:

1. Pay it forward (2 hard copies): 132 @£33 = £4356
2. Digital only: 109 @£10 = £1090
3. Paperback copy: 427 @£15 = £6405
4. Signed copy: 99 @£25 = £2475
5. Read with a friend (2 copies; one address): 26 @£28 = £728
6. Send one to your MP: 45 @£28 = £1260
7. Signed book + mug: 12 @£35 = £420
8. Signed book + Tote bag: 7 @£55 = £385
9. Signed book + art print: 1 @£60 = £60
10. Book club (5 copies): 3 @£70 = £210
11. Book club gold (5 copies + author chat): 6 @£120 = £720

Total: £18,109

Not bad going.

I estimate an anthology like this would be around 70,000 words. That works out at around 25 essays / chapters of around 2,500 words each, plus intro, index, acknowledgements etc.

So 25 contributors @£250 = £6260

That leaves roughly £12k for editing, proofing, typesetting, cover design, printing and marketing.

So basically Unbound is using crowdfunding to get the punters to share all the upfront costs of a book production, thereby limiting the risk that the publisher would normally take on a book. And they get the author to do a lot of marketing on social media which further reduces their spend.

I'm too tired to calculate the costs of each step of the production process but my gut tells me they're barely in profit but it's not looking too bad. This is all before they start selling the book commercially. (Whether or not any bookshop punters would actually buy a collection of poverty stories is another question but ....)

Anyway, I might have made some mistakes above but just thought it was interesting to look under the surface a bit.

 

[HotesTilaire]

View attachment 2220145

"My internal expectation for a cucumber"

IDK Louisa you spent upwards of £40 on gin and booze?! Go crazy and get some 89p cucumber to slice into it.

 

[Wooh]

What a strange lie, I mean life, she leads

 

[Wooh]

The government is taking its time to off Roadsidemum and others.

My dark search of Roadsidemum's twitter tells me that this was her prophecy on:

2023
May: 13
Feb: 2
Jan: 30, 27

2022
Nov: 17 (landlords in cahoots with government)
Aug: 20
July: 28, 25
May: 19
Apr: 2
Mar: 11
Jan: 30

You get the picture. Weirdly I think I've missed a key word in the search as I haven't found the full array of last winter's heating crisis, which was definitely a government policy to kill people.

My search was "roadsidemum kill", and I am amazed at the number of her tweets that are around killing black mould.

It didn't make me think. I just am glad I don't have to deal with black mould.

Look, all I'm saying is, your government isn't very good at its policies to kill people.

If I have the tone wrong here, please press report asap to remove this post

 

[Shimmering]

She makes “dynamic disability” look a lot like lying.

Omg thread title please

 

[alphaspagbol]

She has friends

 

[MurielSnark]

She has gone to bed (allegedly) after having a paddy about losing followers after her suicide mithering, and being fed up that she can’t go swimming because ME, innit. The Tweet I referred to was the one above about muting a person in some garbled manner. It’s barely coherent.

Those post-coital endorphins didn't last long, did they?

 

[traumatised sideboard]

May I just add how appalling the phrase 'hauling our thighs into the familiar denims' is? Are we 100% sure this isn't Jack?

 

[geneticsgirl]

Though the biggest thing holding back her kids will be them being her unpaid carers/skivvies.

 

[Shimmering]

Where was this anti-UPF energy when she was deliverooing McDonald's every day from scary foreign looking delivery drivers?

 

[Wooh]

Yeah that didn't happen (I mean, it does, but on that occasion no). What a coincidence that the kid was wearing what sounds like a full body sock (in summer) when creepo appears. Quite the storyteller.

I came home, some pervert's leering at me, mouth wide open!
Oh, woah. Hang on. It was my letterbox. A little zine was sticking out. I thought it was a pervert's tongue! Stand down your cabers, hold off on your hammers. And I urge you, in the name of our kinsfolk and old mate Robbie of Burns, adorn thy youth in ye rollnecks and ankle long skirts on a day of Celsius 20°, as is the Scottish custom!

 

[MurielSnark]

She's still going. Trigger warning for continued discussion of death. Also, my irony-meter just exploded. Bonus points for RSM admitting that she thinks Christianity is the only religion that believes in God.

View attachment 2471560View attachment 2471561View attachment 2471562View attachment 2471563

She's like that belligerent drunk regular who props up the bar and picks fights with anyone who passes by on their way to the loo.

 

[CabalofBolorneaise]

View attachment 2442988

Last time I checked brothels were illegal so of course she reported the advisor for telling her she should do illegal work, yes?

And all illegal enterprises would be asking the job centre to find them a receptionist naturally, next she’ll be saying big Dave the estates drug dealer was advertising for someone to manage his spreadsheets.

 

[Shimmering]

It must enrage her that we aren't intimidated into silence by her use of CAPS and PARAGRAPH BREAKS.

We will keep calling out the grift and the toxicity. We aren't customer service bots she can browbeat into submission.
---
By pure coincidence the cashapp beg pinned tweet is gone.
---

Book under production for how long now?

Stop frothing on twitter and finish it you melt.

 

[CabalofBolorneaise]

I got you, fam

View attachment 2484409
View attachment 2484413
View attachment 2484414

If you’re flying domestically and you don’t want to deal with other people carrying a wheelchair and are annoyed about the suitcase allowance just take a fucking train RSM. Yes it takes longer, yes there are changes but if you think you’ll be without your chair for “literally years” then the extra time taken via train surely pales in comparison.

 

[BlendedSlop]

Did he (she? they?) bring her a burger?

 

[HotesTilaire]

She makes “dynamic disability” look a lot like lying.

 

[nobotoxta]

I've just seen that thread. Nasty, patronising, look what a good writer and deep thinker I am bollocks.

Just awful

 

[frankychester]

Because there was never any intention to publish it. In my opinion (and I know I am repeating myself), it went:

RM - Hmm, this book crowdfunding lark could bring in some money.
<raises money>
RM - Hello Unbound, I'd like my £20k please
Unbound - lol no, write book first
RM - ...

Frankly it would have been less stressful to actually do it.

 

[FlashBoof]

Definitely another beg. Pip money spent then. So much for paying forward.

Her “working” () in the library on her phone thread is hardcore RSM. All the classics. It’s been a while! Are we SURE she isn’t Jack!
---

View attachment 2385576

Sorry - just have to add…who the actual fuck has not got internet banking? Even if you can’t pay with your phone (and my sister has a very basic and pretty old Samsung and can) you can log in and move/clear bank account money to credit card payment and free up balance. For someone with mobility issues that is perpetually online, I find it literally unbelievable that she has to resort to Twitter breadcrumbing.

The more I think about this, the more bullshitty it becomes. And the more transparent a “please send me cashapp money because I have no food” it becomes.