Brandon Sanderson's Kickstarter is kicking much A$$

I saw this thing go live on Facebook two nights ago, because I live in Utah, and Brandon Sanderson is a friend of my co-worker who watches movies at his house. I've never met the guy, but he's going down in history as having produced the largest Kickstarter ever seen since the company's founding. As far as authors go, these are like J.K. Rowling numbers he's generating from books he wrote during covid. He's obviously got a legion of fans who support him. A few years ago I watched a kickstarter for a book that he'd already written and published (and which was widely available...this was for a special edition) top 7 million dollars. With 28 days to go this one is sitting at 19.25 million or something like that...but honestly, the numbers change about every second on this thing.

To give you some context, I regularly watch very successful authors put out books on Kickstarter (and sometimes I buy them) that generate about $300,000 per Kickstarter. So, I figure that's maybe in the neighborhood of take home pay of around $150K after all is said and done. That's not bad at all, and they are obviously living well. It's more than I make. Seeing something like what Brandon Sanderson has done is outside the norm by a huugge margin. But it is fun to watch the numbers change, even if I don't necessarily read or like his literature. And that isn't a critique at all. I'm also not a fan of Adele (the singer) who has legions of fans, many of whom are gay and are flabbergasted and browbeat me over and over for not listening to her music. I always take the stance, "Just because it doesn't resonate with me doesn't mean it can't be a beautiful experience for you. You do you, and I celebrate your joy."

The Sanderson Kickstarter is also a little weird. The comments are filled with "super backers," whom (I think) have poured in $500 or more. The average donation on this Kickstarter seems to be around the $250-$300 range, which seems excessive to me for like four books and some stickers with some foil bookmarks. But the super backers seem to be acting like some kind of cultish army trying to get people to buy in more, even if they don't get any kickback from this. So, it's just really strange. I chalk it up to another thing that I don't understand, kinda like the cultish appeal of those Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer. Even weirder is when you spot (in the comments) things like, "This is one of those rare times when I say 'LET'S GO BRANDON!' and I'm actually rooting for someone." I suppose that's a telltale sign of the audience, I guess. It kinda reminds me of stuff I've read about "The Villages" which is some retirement community in Florida in which the residents are like 2 to 1 pro-Trump and really aggressive with their golf carts and their pickleball, and they have tons of money to spend on things they are passionate about like alcohol, fitness equipment, and boob jobs.

I also like to play mental games on the logistics of this self-publishing venture. For example, where does one get 300,000 books printed? That seems like a lot. How many trees is that? Also...where does one receive 300,000 books? Do they get backed into a warehouse? Do they come in multiple semi's? Additionally, who ships all of these to the backers? Who packages all the stickers and bookmarks and what all else...maybe socks or beanies with Sanderson's mug on them into swag bags? Are these people going to get paid or is it an unpaid internship or an opportunity to "work for the exposure?" I do live in Utah...so exploitation gets branded in all kinds of ways by the ruling class here. Sorry, did I say "exploitation?" I meant "job creation." I wouldn't be a Utahn if I didn't use the lingo (sly wink).

In any event, money is money. Sanderson is proving himself to be the next J.K. Rowling. I'm kinda hoping his Kickstarter hits $100 million for no reason at all other than spectacle. For what it's worth, I think it has an excellent chance of doing so with 28 days remaining. Don't you think that's just crazy? That a Kickstarter for fantasy books could hit $100 million, and he hasn't even disclosed what the books are about (they are secret projects). I'm like...whaaattt? Every Kickstarter I've ever participated in was one where I knew exactly what I was getting. With these...ya just gotta have faith. It's a business model that I just can't explain. Maybe he'll make NFT's of them next. I mean...it's gotta be worth some money, right?

I'm off all of next week from blogging to take care of a bunch of things. I'll be back on Monday, March 14th, so see you all then.

Brandon Sanderson just finished a kickstarter for a ten-year-old book that almost hit $7 million in funding.

Brandon Sanderson through his company Dragonsteel Entertainment just finished a Kickstarter for a ten-year old book that nearly hit $7 million. Let me reiterate that...this book has been out for ten fricken years...available in hardback and paperback and audiobook, etc. from the big publisher known as Tor. It's as common as dirt to find online and despite ALL OF THAT, it is making MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. And I assume (now) that the rights have probably gone back to Mr. Sanderson for him to do with as he please. The book? The Way of Kings. Anyway, if they haven't gone back to him, maybe there's some kind of catch whereas he's allowed to just sell copies of vanity special editions, or something like that, and keep all the profit. Maybe the publisher was like...eh...there's no money in the vanity stroking business of leatherbound, beautiful, illustrated editions. That's a fools game! If that's what they thought, they are looking pretty silly right about now.

Sure...there's going to be overhead with Sanderson's company Dragonsteel Entertainment. Maybe a few hundred thousand in overhead. Possibly the cost of a middle class home in Salt Lake City ($500,000) in overhead (which is chump change to a lot of the ritzy crowd that calls this place home). But definitely not $7 million. This Kickstarter goldmine was unbelievable. Kudos to Brandon who should be laughing all the way to the bank. I mean...damn.

And it should terrify traditional publishers. Kickstarter is launching bankable authors into the stratosphere as far as the money they can reap from their intellectual property. But of course...that's the key, right? The word "bankable" is kind of a catch-22. However, if you've got your name out there in lights already for one reason or another, there is no way in hell that I think you should ever go with a publishing house. Kickstarter is the way to go...period. I've been watching Michael J. Sullivan's Kickstarters and have been blown away with the numbers those Kickstarters have been creating. But Sanderson's $7 million on a ten year old book? WOW!!!

Anyway, I just thought I'd share my thoughts. I think traditional publishers are going to be taking on a lot of unknowns (remember the days when mid-list writers were looked down upon?) to pay the bills in the future. All the big names can just say "FU" to them and go their own way, and they can do so in their Bentleys and their Rolls Royces. The mid-list will become the "only list" willing to sign with a publisher. Oh how times are a changing.

Thoughts on writing science-fiction and fantasy

I read an article on the science-fiction blog io9 about this autistic savant who spent 20 years creating a fictional city called Urville. Here are some pictures that he drew (go and see the rest at this link if you are interested in the full story). In a nutshell, he envisioned everything including its own fictional history and how it was impacted by events in humanity's real timeline.

I started to think of how many stories there must be to a place like this, and I wonder if this person will ever get around to writing fiction about it or about the lives of the people who populate it. I think that world-building can be taken to an extreme. I'm sure for the guy that made this city, it felt real to him. For me, world-building is the funnest part of fiction, and it's where I start with my stories. But there are definitely other approaches.

Brandon Sanderson seems to focus a lot of attention on unique magic systems for fantasy. For myself, I dislike unique magic systems. They seem to slap me in the face as the author is trying as hard as he can to be "clever", and I hate it when an author tries to be "clever."  I think to myself that maybe they'd like it if everyone they met looked at them and said..."Oh you're such a clever writer...look at you being clever" and then just pinched their cheeks.

To use a writing analogy...I liken it to using some other word as opposed to "said".  The word "said" is fine, don't get rid of it, I like it. But sometimes you get authors who have characters who are "retorting" and "cajoling" and "exclaiming" and "replying" and all that jazz.  Just give me plain old "said". I take the same view with "magic". Just give me plain old sorcery with spell books and fireballs that form the backbone of the genre. Don't use a wyvern...just give me a damned dragon. Stop trying to be "different". J.K. Rowling just used wands and spell books. Look at how that worked out.

The fantasy and science-fiction that I have studied that makes an impact on me has taken the clever route on the world-building. Ringworld by Larry Niven is one example. The world in the Rose and the Prophet by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is another. A third is David Eddings' Belgariad. And a fourth is George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire". All of them have amazing worlds. Sure, Eddings had a unique magic system but I liked his world more than the magic system and it really wasn't all that clever. It was just like psionics in Dungeons and Dragons.

And then there are those that say that development of character and romance is the most important. My only problem with this is that some people go overboard on character development to where the story is their reactions to what other people are saying and doing and it goes on for hundreds of pages with nothing happening.

When you set out to tell a fantasy story, is your first step to envision the character first? Or do you build the world first? or do you come up with a magic-system first? Or do you do something different from these three things that I haven't touched on in this post?

Let me introduce you to author Joseph Vasicek

For Columbus Day, author Joseph Vasicek (find his blog here) gracefully accepted an invitation for a guest post. He's a talented young writer and he's here to talk about a very special creative writing class that he took while attending Brigham Young University.

For this guest post, Michael wanted me to share a little bit about Brandon Sanderson's writing class at BYU and what kind of a teacher he is.  In case you didn't know, Brandon teaches a class (English 318R) at BYU every winter, which is usually packed so full that there's barely enough floor space to fit everyone in.  I was fortunate to be a part of that class in 2008 and 2009, and Brandon became something of a mentor to me as I decided I wanted to pursue a career as a writer.

One of the first things that struck me about Brandon is that he's a down-to-earth nice guy.  It's easy to think of big name authors as these godlike beings, and to put them on a pedestal so high that they’re almost inaccessible.  That’s not true of Brandon; he’s one of the most easy-going and approachable people I know.  If you’ve ever met him at a signing or a convention, you probably know what I’m talking about.

It’s not just his personality, though.  Probably the most important lesson he ever taught me was to think of readers as patrons, not just consumers.  In this day and age, it’s possible to read just about any book for free.  The people who buy your books aren’t just buying a product; they’re choosing to support you as an artist because they enjoy your work.  If you can keep that in mind, you can grow a base of loyal fans because you’ll always value them--and that’s exactly what he’s done.

Brandon excels at being good not just to his fans, but to his students as well.  Even though it was difficult, he did his best to give all of us one-on-one advice, both inside and outside of class.  He never pulled any punches, either--I remember getting roasted for some of the flaws in the earlier drafts of my novels--but his criticism was always constructive, because he taught us that if we put in our time, any of us could make a living as a writer.

Very cool artwork

That was the main focus of the class, and that’s what I took the most from it.  It’s largely because of his influence and encouragement that I decided to pursue writing as a full-time career.  The two novels I have up right now as indie published ebooks, Genesis Earth and Bringing Stella Home, were both written while I was in his class, and the best compliment I received from him was when he signed my copy of Elantris: “For Joe--who is HARDCORE!  Keep writing!”

I’ve definitely kept writing since then, and now that ebooks have opened a lot of new doors for writers, I’ve gotten involved with publishing as well.  My latest release, Bringing Stella Home, is a science fiction novel about a young interstellar merchanter’s son, James McCoy, whose homeworld has been conquered by a horde of brutal starfaring warriors.  He’s determined to rescue his brother and sister, but what he doesn’t know is that his sister has become a concubine to his homeworld’s new overlord, and his brother has been brainwashed and made an elite shock trooper in the barbarian army. 

The cover on this reminds me
of some Anime comics which
is very cool :))

To kick things off, I’m giving out a free copy this next week of a novella based on the full length novel: it’s titled Sholpan, and it follows Stella McCoy’s storyline through the first half of the novel as she navigates the dangerous world of harem politics while trying to escape.  You can download it by visiting the ebook’s Smashwords page, selecting your preferred format, and inputting the following coupon code: VH77F (not caps sensitive). 

You can find me at my writing blog, One Thousand and One Parsecs, or follow me on Twitter (@onelowerlight).  I’m kind of like Michael in that I pretty much blog about anything, but since my main focus is on writing, I usually end up coming back to that.  I also review books and feature other writers as guest bloggers from time to time.