re: News from Brandon Sanderson regarding his writing addiction

I know he did a similar campaign for “The way of Kings Prime”, which was essentially his first pass at The Way of Kings from early in his career. Those cost I think went to publishing and obviously to his pockets in some regard.

For this I would imagine it will go into production cost (books physical and audio) and the merchandise boxes.

Then whatever percentage to his staff to do all this before his profit.

The Kickstarter has now become the #1 Kickstarter of all time, raising over $20 million with 27 days to go.

I’ve claimed on here he has to have a team of writers to keep that pace. The pace is astounding but his biggest accomplishment is upholding the quality of story telling. It’s unbelievable.

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Why does he need Kickstarter?

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These 4 books are being published (ebook, audiobook and hardcover) by his company, Dragonsteel Books, and not through traditional publishing houses. The Kickstarter is so they know exactly how many hardcovers they will need for the initial prinitng. His company did its first Kickstarter a couple years ago when they published a leatherbound edition for one of his books. That raised over $7M and is the second biggest publishing Kickstarter.

One of the reasons Sanderson created his company is so he can have some control over his success. Many years ago Amazon was in contract dispute with his publisher. When that happened, Amazon stopped selling his books which reduced his monthly income by 80% and he took that to heart.

What alot of people don't pick up on is Sanderson's vision in all of this. Sure there are other authors who have the popularity that could raise similar or even more on Kickstarter. The problem is they wouldn't be able to deliver successfully without some serious investment and time.

Dragonsteel is basically a mid sized publishing company (with editors, artists etc) including merchandising and fulfillment that is dedicated to Sanderson. He's built it up over 10+ years and has ~30 employees that he pays for out of his own pocket. No other author (in any genre) has anything similar like this and be able to self publish at the same scale. He's been using Dragonsteel for years to publish his smaller books, special leatherbound editions and create/sell merchandise.

CBS just did a good interview with him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvFNy4sVXM0

I've somehow managed to never read any of Sanderson's books (other than the WoT ones he finished) but I've been wanting another good fantasy series to dig into lately.

So if I'm understanding you guys / the various charts I should read them in this order?

Mistborn Trilogy 1 (final empire)
Elantris + short stories (hope / soul)
Warbreaker
Mistborn Trilogy 2 (alloy of law)
Stormlight (way of kings)

that sound about right or no?

That’s fine. I recommended era 2 after era 1 and Mistborn secret history after era 2 but that format works too. That actually might be better because book 4 that finishes era two launches this November.

There's Always Another Secret...

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03.30.2022
9:00 AM MDT

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What is he up to now?



ETA: It's Stormlight 5's prologue

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Mind melted quite a bit listening to it. Holy balls.

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I'm nearing the end of Oathbringer now.

I’ve never read him either. My wife is a big fan. She was first exposed to him in WOT.

And I’m about to be, Bc I’m on book 11 of WOT now.

I heard about the slog but tbh never really noticed it. I’ve enjoyed all of the books. Winters Heart might’ve been my favorite even. Also seemed that Robert Jordan’s prose improved as time went on.