The Cause and Effect of Brandon Sanderson's Announcement for Indies

 News Article Written by Katie Salidas 

Brandon Sanderson, one of the best-selling American science fiction and fantasy authors revealed four brand new novels that he produced in secret over the past two years and decided to fund independently through Kickstarter. Sanderson is known for finishing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series as well as his own extensive series.

Sanderson’s Kickstarter project reached its goal of one million dollars within 35 minutes of going live and it currently sits at $26.9 million dollars ten days later. Dubbed “2023 The Year of Sanderson,” the project includes four previously unannounced “secret novels” and a 12-month subscription option to receive exclusive merch the two months between each book release.

The reaction to the overwhelming success of Brandon Sanderson's Kickstarter campaign has been a mixed bag, from not only casual audiences but even writers in the same field as Sanderson.

 For those who are critical of Brandon Sanderson's success on Kickstarter, the most glaring reason is that his popularity and success in the industry are somewhat counterintuitive to what Kickstarter is normally used for. More often than not, the outlet is used for lesser-known creatives in need of crowdfunding for their creative projects who otherwise would not have the sources or means to fund it. In Sanderson's case, he is still linked to his current publisher Tor and theoretically could have still released these new secret projects through his publisher. He simply chose not to.

 While his reason for not going through his publisher this time can be considered noble on the surface, this is still an immensely successful writer who doesn't necessarily need a Kickstarter.

It’s important to note that not only does Brandon Sanderson have a massive fan following, he has done at least one multi-million Kickstarter in the past. On the surface it seems as though Brandon Sanderson's main intention with this campaign was to simply give directly to his fans, putting his works instantly into their hands without a middle man publisher. Backers not only get the works themselves but additional perks and goodies in special limited edition gift boxes as well. It becomes hard to criticize the author too heavily when weighing out how the cost of perks and swag bags will likely cost Sanderson more than the books themselves. He is likely to be making less of a profit than you think. That roughly $26 million won’t go as far as an old-fashioned advance, since Sanderson has to print, warehouse, and ship the books, swag boxes and special collector’s editions.

 It is, of course, a vast pile of money, but it’s not unprecedented: Dell paid Ken Follett about the same amount for two books all the way back in 1990 while Penguin paid a reputed $50 million advance for Follet’s Century trilogy in 2008. For that, Follett didn’t have to do anything but write.

There are many justifiably upset that this success on Kickstarter would not be afforded to most women writers, let alone writers of color.

Let’s not forget In 2015, author Stacey Jay took to Kickstarter to get her a sequel to her YA fantasy novel published but was driven into hiding when people said she was asking for too much ($10,500). This biggest point of criticism was that 66% of the money would cover the cost of living expenses for her and her family for three months so she could write the book.

 Most other authors are not going to launch a Kickstarter like this, even with four complete new books, and net $15 million — the vast majority of authors would be happy with far less.

Katee Robert’s recent Kickstarter for hardcover book editions of her Wicked Villains books and swag boxes—had a goal of $20,000; she raised more than $173,000.

Many are wondering what this means for publishing at large if a popular author can just bypass traditional publishing with such astronomic success. Some writers and readers have pointed to this moment as a sign of the future of publishing or what publishing should be.

Why this is not the future of publishing

Let’s be clear. This only happened because Sanderson is a big name with a famously devoted fanbase. Brandon Sanderson didn’t wake up with the ability to raise this kind of money from fans. It happened over a long period of time, and many books, including one series that brought in another huge fandom. After the passing of Wheel of Time writer Robert Jordan, Tor Books and Jordan’s widow chose Sanderson to continue the popular series.

While we would be remiss in our duty if we didn’t mention the incredible amount of privilege Sanderson holds as a white male in a historically white genre, we do need to address the other side of the coin. Not every established author is willing or has the time and money to dump into producing gift bags for readers or producing these books on fancier paper or warehousing all the materials without the security of a publisher's backing. Brandon Sanderson knows how to do the fulfillment and how to estimate costs. Sanderson has his own company, Dragonsteel Entertainment, which employs 30 people “including a marketing director, concept artist, continuity editor and human resources director,” and has its own warehouse.

This Kickstarter Sanderson brought to the table is simply a perfect storm, and we wish him well with it. 

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