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.

I'm in awe of Michael J. Sullivan's book production team.

This cover art is pretty darn amazing. It's like all the covers in this series.

I'm in awe of Michael J. Sullivan's book production team. If you don't know, Michael J. Sullivan is a highly successful fantasy author that writes good books. I'm a fan. I've read all of his Royce and Hadrian buddy stories, and lately his efforts have been on piecing together the epic tale of the Legend of the First Empire. It starts with the Age of Myth. I'm currently about to read Age of Legend, which is the fourth book in the series (I think there are two more after that). They are all about six-hundred or so pages, tightly written, and essentially perfect with no visible spelling or punctuation errors that I can see anywhere. And they are actually higher quality print books than you can usually buy from the major publishers.

Sullivan was traditionally published by one of the Big Six, and I think he parted ways with them because he makes more money by doing so. That's not to say that anyone could do this. Rather, what I'm saying is that he (specifically) does this extremely well. I always participate in his kickstarters and I haven't seen one that ran for less than a month that didn't go over $100,000 in backers, which is kind of incredible. They also hit The New York Times bestsellers, etc. All the usual stuff you'd expect from a major publisher. Only, it's just him, his wife, and some employees that are essentially friends doing all the work.

The print in these books is incredible. The paper is super high quality, the cover art is stunning, the book jackets are the best in the business, and there's even foil imprints on covers behind the book jackets as well as the fancy curlicues you see at the top of chapter heads. It's kind of ridiculous. I never thought such a small operation could produce products like these. He signs all of them, and you get all the nitty gritty details in their email blasts.

For example, his wife (who does a ton of the kickstarter stuff) sets up the kickstarters in the most professional way I can imagine. They have totes you can buy and other add ons. They have an actual composer writing original music for the series, and it's basically the same quality as you'd get from Alan Silvestri or some other film composer. Imagine having someone compose music for your books...I can't even think of how I'd go about finding someone to do that. They've got voice actors to do the audiobooks. I haven't listened to any, but if it's like anything else he's doing then it's the best in the business.

In one of the email blasts, his wife talked about how they dealt with Covid and how she lived out of a trailer in their front yard for fourteen days. And then to do the book signings they rent out an actual warehouse where the books are brought in by forklift so that Michael can start signing them, and then they have a table set up to package and put shipping labels on things. It's basically an assembly line similar to what I imagine car manufacturers have over in Detroit.

But again...it's like a super small operation...like three to four people with a couple of extras here and there.

On top of that, Michael Sullivan can apparently write a book in the same time that it takes me to use the restroom in the morning. Which also blows my mind. Each of the last three books in the Legends of the First Empire (again these are big books mind you) has had a kickstarter pick up within like a month of the last one ending. Seriously. My mind just cannot comprehend how prolific and fast this man is with writing his books.

If you get a chance, I recommend them highly. Quantity in this case is not indicative of quality, as the books and stories are amazing. 

I don't think running a big-time successful kickstarter can be done by just one person.

I recently started buying into Kickstarters that are both done by authors and by small businesses. I have various reasons for doing this. First, I'm able to get product before it hits the shelves (and much of the time there's a discount and perks), and second, it feels like I'm a valued part of the process by contributing money early to a project. Out of the Kickstarters that I have chosen to give my money to, I've witnessed work being done behind the scenes that quite frankly leaves me breathless. For example, look at the videos. Many of them are high quality, involve scripting, and must convey a large amount of information. On top of that, there's putting together the pledge manager, and communicating with all of the people who chip-in on a project. That's why I think any really decent Kickstarter is going to be the result of a team of people working together. In other words, like many things in life, it takes a village.

If you don't know, Kickstarter has been around for a while. It's a crowd-sourced fund-raising platform that's much different from "GoFundMe," which (quite frankly) doesn't seem to demand any skill since it is just a platform where people go to beg for money. You need money for your healthcare bills? That's GoFundMe and not Kickstarter. Kickstarter is where professionals go who want to raise money for projects that they intend to fulfill. And I've been extremely pleased with the things I've chosen to back (some of which topped a million dollars in Kickstarter funds). While participating in these Kickstarters, I've also analyzed what exactly they are doing, and I've decided to break it down in a post because I find the whole thing fascinating.

First off, these really successful Kickstarters have a great landing page. The landing page already has carefully edited videos for you to watch with details regarding the product usually in prototype form. It tells about the campaign and the different reward levels. In the case of one author (who self-publishes) and runs AMAZING Kickstarters, he already has the book completely finished and in the hands of beta and maybe gamma readers before they even start a kickstarter campaign. I find that to be impressive.

Second, they have stretch goals, which are no small feat. Maybe the goal for the entire Kickstarter to be funded is modest, which seems to be the way most people are going with these things so that they can say the project is funded and begin work on manufacturing said product. But with a modest goal attained early in the process, how then do these Kickstarter operators get people to contribute more money? Well, it's through stretch goals: if we hit this target, then this product gets unlocked. And so on and so forth. The thing is, you've got to have that product ready to be shown and demonstrated and in most cases, you'll want a nice description of it and even a picture so that people can check it out. And the more stretch goals you have, the more marketing potential there is in these things.

Third, social media appears to play a really important role. In the Kickstarters I've been observing, there are already carefully curated Facebook fan pages and YouTube channels where people who are interested in just this product can go and talk about the product with other people. The best Kickstarters are ones that have a community that already participates and shares ideas on a particular thing (and uses said product) who can then talk about the new and different ideas that a company has come up with for their current Kickstarter.

Fourth, FOMO (the Fear of Missing Out) is a big driver of Kickstarters. Basically, what I'm saying is that it's important for the consumer to realize how good a deal a Kickstarter actually is. It helps to have people lament that they missed a Kickstarter publicly online (a Facebook group works perfect for this) or to point to the aftermarket sales of the product on ebay and say, "Look at how much markup there is in this stuff? Do you really want to run the chance of missing out on such a great deal?"

Anyway, it's been really interesting to kind of study all of these things as I've been buying into Kickstarters. I don't think a single person could actually run a good one. There's just too much work to do, and it requires skill sets from people in social media, video editing, writing, and marketing. But if a team of people can somehow get together behind something, I've seen some really remarkable stuff come out of these things.

What about you? Have you ever contributed to a Kickstarter? If yes, what for?