New Currents: Publisher Rocks The Boat

Jacanas new imprint Rock the Boat is based on a crowdfunding model in which authors and publishers share responsibility for the publication of South African memoir and biography.

Publishers across the world are constrained by the soaring costs of paper, together with a constricted market, which makes it increasingly difficult for them to accept manuscripts.

Booksellers, in the meantime, are focusing more on bestsellers and catering for books with a predictable market. Rock the Boat is a creative response to the challenge.

With the crowdfunding model, the book will be offered to the public using the authors and the publishers networks. Supporters can decide how much to offer, as with any crowdfunding. Benefits will be offered to contributors in the form of merchandise, artwork or even music-related material.

The first book to be published under the new imprint will be Signal to Noise, a memoir and a history of the recording studio Shifty Records, by Warrick Sony.