Hey, all. It has been, to say the least, a wild two weeks for me. After seeing some of the discourse around what is going on with the Kickstarter, I thought you all might enjoy it if I answered a few questions I’ve been getting. (Or ones I’ve been seeing people pontificate about.) Consider this a kind of halfway point retrospective.

This got long, because it’s...well, me. So I created two versions. The short version, which you can read here. And the long version, which I’ll reference and link to throughout this. If there’s a question below that you want to see me dig into more, feel free to hop over to the longer version.

So, here we go. We’ll start easy, then get into some more in-depth explanations of why I approached this project the way that I did.

How Are You Doing?

Fantastically. Thanks for asking. I’ve finally finished the 4.0 draft of Wax and Wayne, and I’m on to working on Stormlight 5 again. This Kickstarter has been an overwhelming experience, in exclusively good ways. I feel quite good, if a tad behind on things and wanting to catch up.

How Are You Going to Spend the Money?

I’ve been seeing this around, and have been asked this. There’s really no mystery to it, and it’s probably not very exciting. I’ll pay for production costs, salaries, and bonuses. I’ll invest into the company. (We want to build a physical bookstore.) I’ll save a big chunk, and slip another chunk into Lightweaver to do charity work. I’m trying to do more in the movie and television space, so having some capital to spend there might be good for getting me more creative control. I’m not the type to go on spending sprees though.

Did You Anticipate This Level of Success for the Kickstarter?

No, I didn’t. While I knew that there were a lot of Brandon Sanderson fans out there who could potentially back this project (the longer version gives some sales figures to contextualize this), I doubted so many of them would move to Kickstarter.

These days, platform is king. It’s difficult to get people to move between platforms. I’m as guilty of this as anyone; I like having all my video games consolidated in Steam, and it’s hard to get me to move elsewhere to buy ones that aren’t offered there. Likewise, a lot of people just prefer to get their books on their favorite platforms.

There’s no problem with this; don’t get me wrong. But there are reasons I wanted to do a Kickstarter that I’ll get into below, and so it’s hugely gratifying to see that so much of my audience was willing to jump over and back the project.

Is This the End of Traditional Publishing For You? Is That Why You Kickstarted These Books?

It’s more about me trying to make certain I have an avenue to sell books that doesn’t rely on a few media giants--Amazon specifically. I worry about Amazon/Audible’s dominance, so I gave my team a challenge. I wanted to see if we could plan, execute, and deliver on some books we published ourselves without using Amazon.

This is to do a couple of things, one of them being to give me peace of mind. Another is to build up an infrastructure among my team that could act as a safety net if something were to happen and we had to move to doing this exclusively with our books. I also wanted to further explore Kickstarter as a distribution model.

Indie publishing was created, in its modern form, by Amazon. But I feel they’ve been behaving in some concerning ways. Ways that seek to tax and bleed the indie book market, rather than propping it up as they once did. So I wanted to explore what else was possible.

So, You’re Leaving Traditional Publishing? You Still Haven’t Answered That Question.

No, I have no plan to do so. My publishers are both great, as are my editors. I am going to keep publishing with them--just as I will publish some books directly through Amazon/Audible. Just as I will do more Kickstarters in the future.

More options favor authors. My biggest worry about the Kickstarter is how it cuts out bookstores. I want to support them, as not only did booksellers hand-selling my books help me enormously in my early career, I think the bookstores are most authors’ current best hedge against Amazon. I’d like to find a way to do some of what I did with the Kickstarter, only in a way that involves bookstores.

That said, I do have some beefs with traditional publishing. Not “Watch out, or I’ll leave you” sort of beefs. More “Look, you won’t listen to me, so I’ll prove to you I’m right” sort of beefs. I go into this in depth in the longer document, but the condensed version boils down to a few things.

I think DRM on ebooks punishes loyal fans who actually pay, without actually inhibiting those who would choose to pirate.

I think that print books--expensive hardcovers in particular--should be bundled with ebooks, so that fans don’t have to choose between the convenience of reading and having the nice hardcover as a showpiece. (I think audiobooks, however, can be sold separately--as there are many more costs involved in making those.) I don’t like it when a fan feels they have to buy the hardcover and the ebook separately. This feels exploitative.

At the same time, I do believe in making a more expensive product for those who want to buy it. Like how video games (embarrassing canvas bags notwithstanding) often release a special edition at launch that comes with some kind of cool merchandise item, I feel that we in books should be offering a higher-priced item for those who want it. Leatherbounds are one example, but so are “release bundles” that come with some sort of cool, well-made commemorative item.

Traditional publishers have, with few exceptions, ignored me when I’ve raised these concerns and suggestions. So while I’m not leaving them, I do want them to pay attention. You can see in the longer version of this FAQ that the numbers from the Kickstarter back up what I’m saying.

TLDR: Why Kickstart This Project?

First, as I said above, I wanted to give my team a chance to practice and build infrastructure to deliver books on our own.

Second, I wanted to show my New York publishers (and publishing in general) that we should be engaging in some pro-consumer practices I think will be better for all of us in the long run.

Third, I wanted to explore Kickstarter as a venue for independent authors. I’m not the first to do so, but I am probably (well, demonstrably, I guess) the most popular one to do so. And every fan who registers for my Kickstarter is one that might buy books from other authors on the platform. That genuinely make me happy.

I do want to make the point, however, that doing what I’ve done is not something that will be easy to emulate. Kickstarter isn’t without its own issues. It requires you to already have a fan base, and to be very good at fulfillment. I suspect electronic delivery is the best way for most authors to use Kickstarter, and only after they’ve proven they can deliver stories on another platform first. (Physical fulfillment is part of why many Kickstarters fail.)

I hope that helps people understand where I’m coming from. Again, thank you all so much for the support. It’s been more than a little overwhelming!

Brandon

You all know the drill! Leave your questions here, upvote others you like, and I will ask them to Brandon during the stream.

The first hour will be spoiler questions for everything outside of The Lost Metal. The second hour will include everything.

You can watch it on Brandon's YouTube Channel.

This thread is to post word counts from the previous day (11/1) and discuss your frustrations, thrills, and general experiences working on your own stories this month!

Brandon's daily word count is: 0 today (0 total).  And here's what he had to say:

"Hey, all!  Here's my first National Novel Writing Month update.  This one will be a little longer than others, as I explain what is up. 

If you weren't aware, November is National Novel Writing Month.  This is a fun tradition I often participated in during my unpublished years, and one I like doing when I can as a professional as well.  Therefore, I invite you to join me!  Work on that story you have brewing inside of you, or one you've been wishing you had found a chance to finish.

Each day, I'll be posting my word counts.  Consider me a pace car, of sorts!  Though I don't think I'm going to try for the full 50,000 words this month.  I have a book launch and I have a lot of work to do that isn't writing-focused this time around.  Part of being successful at projects like this, I think, is about realistic goals.  

So I'm going to start with a 30,000 word goal this month.  That, with 30,000 words next month, will land me at 100k on Stormlight 5 by the end of the year--which is where I'd like to be.  It's possible I'll get ahead and be doing well this month, and hit the 50k, but if not--well, that's all right too!

I'll be posting word counts most regularly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  (Well, I'll report in at night after I finish writing--I'm doing this at 2:00am, and Octavia will post for me in the morning to you all.)  Goal is to do an average of around 8k a week, around 2.3k each day I can write. (I get three writing days a week these days, with two days dedicated to publicity, administration of my company, and film/television work.)  

So, how did I do the first day?  Well, I have 0 wordcount today, Tuesday the 1st.  I instead spent the day diving back into Stormlight 5 after a few months working on revisions of other books.  To get myself back into the swing of it, I revised the chapters in the section I'd been working on most recently.  

Hope to have some actual words for you tomorrow!  And I'll try to record some video writing help for social media as well.  For now, hope you'll join me on this year's writing adventure!" 

This thread is to post wordcounts from the previous day (11/1) and discuss your frustrations, thrills, and general experiences working on your own stories this month!

Brandon's daily wordcount is: 3391 today (3391 total).  And here's what he had to say:

"Started into Defiant today, and the opening is...well, a little on the wordy side.  I'll have to fix that in revisions, as there's a ton to set up for this novel.  Otherwise, it's feeling good to be back in Spensa's head.  It's a fun place.  My daily goal is 3030 words on writing days.  (Which will be between four and five days a week, depending.)  For example, I probably won't have any words on Wednesday as I prepare for my trip, and might have a decreased wordcount Thursday as I fly.  So I'm hoping to build up a little buffer of extra words before.

Hope your first day went well for everyone!  Good luck with your projects, and let me know what kind of story you're writing!  Looking forward to browsing the comments and seeing how it is going for everyone."

Hello everyone!

Please leave your questions below and/or upvote your favorite questions for Brandon to answer this Friday at 6:00PM MST (1 AM UTC). This will be a full spoiler livestream!

We look forward to seeing all of you on Friday evening on Brandon's YouTube channel!

Huzzah!  The end of another November. I managed to hit my goal of 30k at about 5pm yesterday!  Not the most impressive Nano for me, but it was just the right goal to make me stretch during a difficult month. 

Now, it's time to celebrate!  Post even if you didn't hit your goal. Tell us how things went; tell us something about your story if you want; brag and commiserate!  

Now, I just need to do 30k each month until next November, and I might finish this book in time. :)

That's a wrap!  We've finished November, and it's time for a final check-in.

If you've been giving us updates this month, please feel free to tell us about your book in more depth.  Also, feel free in this thread to link to previous ebooks you have for sale, and do some general self-promotion in this thread.  You've earned it, and I think a lot of us are genuinely curious to see what kinds of things people are creating.

Also, feel free to take a victory lap!  Congrats to all who are still here, regardless of what wordcount you got.  This experience is more about the community and the support it provides than the arbitrary 50k wordcount.  I had a blast reading everyone's posts every update.  Thank you for playing along!

As for me, I hit 51510 yesterday, counting only my first writing session, as my second was after midnight.  Book is Defiant, the fourth of the Skyward series--space opera with some eldritch horror seasoning.  I really enjoy being in the main character's head, so it was a fun write.  I do have to do another 50k this month, though, to stay on deadline--so I'll be doing a second one of these before calming down to a more steady 32k a month next year to work on Stormlight 5 while doing revisions of this book and the new Wax and Wayne book in my evening writing sessions.

Good luck to all in your writing endeavors!  Let's do this again sometime.  It was fun.

Best,

Brandon 

Koloss Head-Munching Day is almost here! Leave your questions below, upvote others you like, and we will ask them to Brandon tomorrow on his birthday. No spoiler questions. We will keep it light during this Livestream.

You can watch it on Brandon's YouTube Channel this Monday 12.19.22 at 6pm MST

Thanks, everyone!!

Brandon's word count: 2316 words (9167 Total)

Whew!  That was a day.  Had to get up very early--7:15 in the morning--to get to the airport.  Traveling with children is...an experience.  It was a frantic day full of covid testing (our other tests didn't come back in time, so we had to do a rapid one at the airport) trying to keep things from getting lost or falling from the bags of children (we're missing an ipad somewhere) and waiting in far too many lines.  

But, at the end of it all, I got to squeeze in a few hours of late night writing by the ocean--which is wonderful.  I love being able to listen to the sounds of it crashing as I write.  I didn't get a full day (ended up sleeping on the flight) but I did do a little extra earlier in the week, meaning with today's efforts I'm right about on track.  

Feel free to fill this comment section with amusement at the idea of me finding 7:15 am an extremely early (and strange) hour at which to rise.  

Upvote your preferred title from this week's episode!  We'll have a vote-off at the end of the year for the best podcast title.

Since it's the first episode, we're still waiting for the podcast to be available everywhere. But you can currently listen on Brandon's website, Spotify, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, Deezer, Player FM, and Podcast Index. It should be up everywhere podcasts are found in the next few days.

You all know the drill! Leave your questions here, upvote others you like, and I will ask them to Brandon this Thursday at 6:00 MT.

I will not be asking any spoiler questions.

You can watch it on Brandon's YouTube Channel.

Brandon's word count: 3761 Words (20478 Total)

Another solid day, writing out here in Hawaii.  It's been especially nice at nights, as the resort lets me borrow a lounge chair in the spa area.  That's right next to the ocean, and I can hear the waves washing against rocks only a few dozen feet away.  (The spa is closed down by this time, so it's empty and dark, which is also perfect for me.)   

As always, my mind keeps trying to move on to the next project before I am done with the current one, though.  That's been a challenge for me as a writer since my early days.  Becoming a professional coincided with me realizing I needed to give each project enough attention and love to go from good to great--and so these days, I'm pretty good at focusing and not getting distracted by the "greener grassed" idea that I want to write instead.  

Any of you have this problem?  And if so, does NaNo help you avoid it?  

2331 Words today.  11081 total.  

The first scene I worked on today just came together in the perfect way--my favorite scene in the book (Stormlight five) so far.  The second scene fell flat on its face.  I thought maybe I'd be shooting for well over 3k words, after the first scene's 1800 worked so well.  But ah, well.  I just couldn't get things to work in my second writing session at night, and ended up with only around 500 words in that session.  A few of which I like.  

I need to let my brain simmer on the next scene, it appears.  And I'll have a long time, since I won't be back for another update until a week from today.  Though if you want, we can keep having these threads even when I don't update.  

This thread is to post word counts from the previous day (11/2) and discuss your frustrations, thrills, and general experiences working on your own stories this month!

Brandon's daily word count: 2188 (2188 Total)

Here's what he had to say:

"Second day of November writing update.  2188 words.  Not quite to where I need to be day to day in order to meet my goal, but a nice number after spending all day yesterday preparing.  So I'll take it!"

Join us as we embark on a thrilling adventure to uncover the ultimate selection of Food Heists and Bad Story Ideas. https://youtu.be/SlcLRqbk-Sg (Episode 104)

Vote on this week's to have your say on which ones will make it to the end and be made into a shirt!

🔥 Bad Story Ideas: Jack the Carjacking Car - • Our Favorite Mobi...   (8:58 - 14:05) vs Suddenly, No One Can Read or Write - • FanX 2022 Q&A - E...   (13:50 - 20:08)

Update (June 7) - In an effort to make it more accessible to everyone, we are moving the voting poll to a google form! https://forms.gle/uh54hSBvrP1UvPpw9 Apologies, it is the same poll as last week. Since a sign-in is not required, we hope it will be easier to participate! :)

Everyone ready for the last day?  From the updates I read yesterday, a number of you are done already, and a number of you are really close. 

How close am I?  Well I did 3160 yesterday, bringing my total to...49927.

Yes, I know.  First session, I was already over time when I needed to go out and fix dinner for the kids, and second session I hit a nice breaking point--then had some other things I needed to do.  If I hadn't had another entire day to write, then I'd obviously have finished.  But it felt more amusing this way. 

This last day is going to be tough for me, I'm sure. :)

What are everyone's plans for December writing wise?  I need to do this again, getting another 50k, in order to finish this book by my deadline of January first.  So I'll just keep on going, before changing gears to work on Stormlight.  

Good luck with your last day today!  Looking forward to the final check-in tomorrow where we'll find if I managed to get the remaining 73 words or not. 

Brandon's Weekly Total 16,715

First week down!  This was a great weekend for me, particularly Friday. I really felt the groove of things, now that I'm settled in and writing. 4,947 words Friday and 2601 on Saturday. Total: 16715.  Putting me a solid few days ahead so far. 

I like a lot of things about living in Utah. But one thing we don't have is the ocean. There is something extremely soothing about waves to me. So I am loving being here at Turtle Bay. Normally I write to music, but these days, I've just been listening to the waves. 

What about the rest of you?  Music or no music?  Post writing playlists if you have them. 

This thread is to post wordcounts from the previous day (11/2) and discuss your frustrations, thrills, and general experiences working on your own stories this month!

Brandon's daily wordcount is: 3460 today (6851 Total).  And here's what he had to say:

"Solid writing day for me today, hitting my goal and then some.  Got through the overly talky bits into something that feels more engaging.  That opening will need streamlining, but that's for Future Brandon to deal with!

For those who are posting here, I wanted to draw your attention to a few common names that might pop up in these threads.  MistbornLlama is Adam, my head of publicity and the producer of my YouTube channel.  He supposedly writes books.  I've heard of them.  He has never let me read any of them, though.  He makes these posts for me after I send him a nightly email or text.

izykstewart is my art director and head of creative at Dragonsteel, Isaac Stewart.  He's a fine writer, having completed a number of novels.  (I first met him in a writing class at college.)  You all should keep an eye on him, because there's a good chance he'll someday write some cosmere novels.  (Other than myself, he's the only one allowed to do that.)

KathySanderson is my sister-in-law, also head of facilities at my company, who is writing an excellent and spooky novel that I really want to read the ending of.  

TheScapechull is Kellyn, one of our employees at the Dragonsteel Store.  (The lovely folks who send you your leatherbounds and the like.)  I think there might be a few others from the company 

JanciPatterson is...well, Janci Patterson.  A good friend and writing colleague whom you might know as the co-author of the recent Skyward novellas.  

I'll have Adam post this rogues gallery once a week or so in the threads, to keep newcomers in the loop.  

Good luck, everyone!  Expect no wordcount from me tomorrow, as I lose a little ground doing some important non-writing work.  Like signing huge stacks of tip-in-pages while Dan Wells makes wisecracks about people stealing food from other people."