Ran

And now hundreds of more orders via BackerKit. This is really crazy. It's hard to measure the profit for all this, but I'll give it a go just because I'm curious. Given that he's doing some additional items to include for backers beyond what was announced (pin set) plus stuff like backing a mess of publishing Kickstarters and covering import and duty fees. But a back-of-the-envelop calculation on just the swag boxes, adding in the additional factor of Kickstarter's cut (5%) and processing fees (3%+0.20 per pledge) is that at a 20% profit margin per box it's $2.3 million and at 60% profit margin it's $6.75 million. And again, that's just the swag box part. The premium hardcovers doubtless have the lowest profit margin, the e-books and audiobooks the highest. Supposing a typical profit margin of 70% for the e-books (has to be higher, really, because he's cutting out middle-men), factoring in most fees, that's $4.7 million in profit. For audiobooks, Google tells me you can expect to pay $1,000-$4,000 per 10 finished hours of audio narration. Lets assume the high-end, and say each book runs 13 hours audio (his Alloy of Law is ~330 pages, and in audio runs just short of 11 hours, whereas Sanderson reports on average the books are 400 pages each), so $21,000 for the audiobooks. Adding all the orders together, deducting fees and the production cost, that's $1.46 million... lets assume other factors I'm not thinking of make that $1 million. As to the premium hardcovers, Google suggests that people Kickstarting books tend to get around at 33% profit margin. So... about $4.5 million. All told, $10.2 million in those items, give or take, plus $2.3-$6.75 million. I didn't factor BackerKit's campaign fee, which has a handy calculator which suggests that they'll charge $500k for their role. So consevatively, $11.8 million in profit for Sanderson. How much does backing all publishing kickstarters cost you? $300k? $11.5 million, and all delivered now rather than over years. And then there's future revenue from when he puts them up for sale directly.. Well done by him.

BAFTA nominations out, and Foundation has one. Costume design? No. VFX? You'd think, but nope. Instead, it's Best Supporting . . . Actress, for Leah Harvey as Salvor Hardin.

I'm guessing someone in the group was a Tolkien fan and knew the origins of Eärendil..

Xena way over Hercules even early in its run. Fraiser tppped the ratings just as Cheers did, and it's not "bigger" purely because it came later as the viewing landscape became increasingly fragmented. NCIS over JAG. Happy Days was way bigger than Love, American Style. I'm sure there are others. That said, there are a lot more spinoffs that are forgettable compared to their originals than there are those that achieved parity or surpassed their sources.

This came out on Netflix today, which I missed the trailer for a week ago. Thermae Romae Novae is based on a manga by Mari Yamazki, about Lucius, designer of Roman baths who ends up creating innovations from occasionally being transported to modern Japan and picking up ideas from modern toiletry and bath developments. (Yes, it's one of those really specific, hard-to-believe-it-exists sorts of manga!) Just watched the first episode, slow start but the architectural detail was impressive, and at the end Ms. Yamazaki has a brief 3 minute segment that will accompany all the episodes, having her travel around Japan giving Westerners a look into Japanese onsen (hot spring bathhouses). The first segment is about a very specific tradition for cooling down the especially-hot spring waters at the Kustaso onsen. Really fascinating. (I think awhile back someone posted a trailer from the live action adaption(s) of the same manga -- amazing.)

Sad news. Strangely, a couple of days ago I was watching Dave Grohl's eulogy for Lemmy for some reason or other, and how tough it was for him. 50 is way, way too young.

Guy Gavriel Kay's The Summer Tree is at $1.99 over at Amazon. His first novel, and there are those who can't stand it and those who love it, but if you've enjoyed his later works, do give it a try.

Yes, probably so, though I admit to not understanding exactly how that will work. I've not asked George about it as of yet. More generally, I think those watching the interview will understand how the Spanish fan who tried to give a translation really failed to convey that a lot was opinion. And in some places they chose technically okay translations (assuming difficulty with English) but they give a wildly different meaning than what was intended. For example, "we don't care about HotD" and the implication that it's because they're going to make up a lot of stuff, whereas what we actually said is that we've a lot less expectations for HotD because it's a much more sketched out story (like a menu for a great meal rather than the meal itself) and there's a lot of different ways to skin the proverbial cat in regards to decisions they're going to ahve to make like how to deal with multiple versions of events, motivations of characters which can only be inferred, etc. The Dance that we have is great for what it is, fake history, but the show will have to fill in a lot of stuff, magnitudes more than what GoT had to do, and that means it will be very firmly its own thing rather than something that can be directly compared to its source material. I'm hopeful it's a great show. If it's mediocre, well, so be it -- I can't say, "Well, if they just did it how George did it, it'd have worked a lot better", when there is no "how George did it", unlike with ASoIaF.

He's now posted it:

It was conducted by Maglor. I believe that after all this attention he’ll be posting the undubbed version on his own channel in the next few days.

The person who posted it has not done a great job of translating. Moreover, yes, much of what we discussed were our own theories, opinions, and views -- a detail the person really failed to convey. Same thing happened with an AMA we did on Reddit years ago. We started sharing opinions and people got in a tizzy about it thinking they were spoilers until we clarified that of course they're our opinions.

It will eat into profits, but I'm pretty sure they've calculated that even on international sales some profit will remain.

@baxus But as noted, Sanderson is covering the customs and duties fees. So you should get no additional fees beyond the price of the books + $35 international shipping.

Yeah, it used to be terrific to get books from the US a decade ago, but now it comes with a hefty cost in general here in Sweden. The worst is that the shipping cost gets included in the tally for customs and duties, so a book that cost's $40 becomes a book that costs $95+. Their paying the customs and duties is a big deal, all considered -- it's not a cheap thing.

I do think you read them in published order. I think an aspect of A Brightness Long Ago that really works well is that the resonances it has with Children of Earth and Sky enhance both stories, but I'm not sure if those resonances will be felt as strongly if you flip them around.

It's certainly about the conflicts taking place around and on the Mediterranean Middle Sea, and does feature intrigues and assassinations, and there's even a military campaign (but you only see a sliver of it). This particular book feels very firmly like something Dunnett might have written featuring Niccolò. One of the main characters is very loosely inspired by Samuel Pallache. ETA: Re: Children of Earth and Sky, there's a significant character in this book that appears in that book, and another one that appears indirectly (well, actually, there's two). There's also a passing reference to a family from Children (which turns out to be a bit of retconning, when I re-read bits of Children). Also, a couple of nice callbacks to the Sarantine Mosaic and a few explicit ones to The Lions of Al-Rassan. It is the most referential book he's written, I think.

On the heels of that, I saw that Riot made a big investment in Fortiche, though still a non-controlling stake. Two of their executives joined Fortiche's board. Very well-deserved.

Another victim of the rampant steroid abuse in wrestling, especially in the early part of his era (mid-80s) when he was partnered with Curt Hennig in the AWA. Looking at those old photos, he was just massive, and actually shed some of that musculature in the 90s when he was going by Razor Ramon (the era I mainly know him from). He brought a lot of wrestling fans joy over the years, even if it was just to scream and hiss at him when he was a heel. Rest in peace.

Paging @Lord of Oop North @Fragile Bird and other Canucks who might be interested!

Oh, us. You may have noticed that George also credits Raya -- that's because she was the primary contact on this book, and the next. To be clear, the idea behind these books from the publisher in part is that they require very minimal involvement from George. This is not TWoIaF, where we knew all along George would have some level of participation. That is very kind!

Very sad news today. William Hurt was the kind of performer who the camera was drawn to, not just because of his leading man good looks but there was something about his presence in a scene that commanded attention. He gave the world many fine performances; to name just a few: Kiss of the Spider Woman, Broadcast News, The Accidental Tourist, A History of Violence, The Big Chill. He'll be missed.

There's material for Aegon IV and Aerys II that was very condensed for TWoIaF and not used for F&B, but that would be only a fraction of the couple hundred pages GRRM refers to.

@Black of Hair and Heart Interesting thoughts, but afraid I can't comment on any of it!

Thanks to the very good graces of GGK himself (he has been aware of our love of his work for years, and seemed uncertain as to why we weren't on his publisher's radar for ARCs and the like), Linda and I have gotten the chance to read All the Seas of the World. It goes without saying, if you like his work, you'll like this. And, more specifically, if you like A Brightness Long Ago, this book is very intertwined with it -- a lot of characters from that appear or are referenced in this one.

It's been translated in 20-odd languages. The latest translation rights sale was actually just this month, for a Thai edition.