Ninefingers

r/books taking Rothfuss to task for not following through on the sample chapter release

The only issue I have with the painted into a corner theory is that I just can't imagine what corner he could possibly be painted into. There's just so much blank canvas. The only things we know he has to do are kill a king, start a war, and become an emo barkeep. Everything else can be worked around. I think it's far more likely that: 1. He got kinda rich and kinda famous 2. This provided him the opportunities to do all kinds of cool shit 3. He had a couple kids 4. His personal life fell apart 5. Depression/Anxiety/ADHD 6. Book three took a back seat priority wise to 2/3/4, and 5 provided him justification for this prioritization 7. Several years went by without any meaningful amount of writing

Yeah, absolutely the latter. He said they were "good to go" and that there was no more writing to do in an interview back in 2007. Five years later he tried to retcon that statement with: He then admitted that: TL;DR: It's fairly clear that he told what he thought was a white lie when he said they were done because he was sure he could finish. Not so much.

An update of sorts on the sample chapter: Question Response

WMF, after he saved the 2 girls from the band of fake Ruh rapists. One of them says she hates men and Kvothe gives her the not all men treatment.

I've always liked the theory that he had the whole thing planned out, but 40+ year old him hates the plan that 18 year old him put together. My guess is that there are major structural elements in book 3 he just doesn't want anymore. I think you can even see this in the earlier books, like I suspect that prolonged training scene with sexually liberal female ninjas seemed way cooler to him when he was 18, and, I bet he'd pay large sums of money to erase the ultra cringey 'not all men' scene.

Falling out is probably too strong, but if memory serves there was a time half a dozen years ago or so where he was working on another novella (Laniel Young-Again) and his publisher put the brakes on it until book 3 was complete. Perhaps the motivation here is to be less handcuffed by his publisher for smaller pieces of work.

So, no news yet on the sample chapter but there is an announcement for a kickstarter for the first publication of Pat's own publishing imprint. He did have the good grace to acknowledge his difficulty in fulfilling obligations:

Sure, but at this point I suspect it's a "nice to have" for George more than any sort of behavior changing factor. He has all the prestige an author could ever hope to have, so I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that he's much more in the "what do I want to do" camp rather than the "what do I need to do" one. (Which is great! He's certainly earned that right.)

I guess, but does George really care about sales at this point? Or put another way, I don't believe that "If I release at time X it will be better for sales" is a motivating/important thing for George.

FWIW, The promise was not to just release a chapter, but to assemble an "epic crew" to read it. I suspect this includes the usual suspects of other authors and minor geek celebrities that he plays D&D with and collaborates on fundraisers. I think the bet/promise was made in December, and when pushed for a time he spit out February. Further, I think it's reasonable to assume that he made all of these promises without asking any of these people. It wouldn't surprise me if their schedules aren't helping things, and so February wasn't really a reasonable expectation to set. Of course, he did set it. And once you've rung that bell, I think there's a moral obligation to hit it, or at the very least keep people updated seeing as you asked them to give you money for this. Perhaps he's updating on Twitch - I don't watch his twitch streams so I can't be sure. My suspicion is that it's radio silence though - if there were meaningful updates they'd be showing up on Reddit among other places.

I have very similar questions. I'm best described as a very casual fan at this point, but I would love to understand this. Do you have a link to when/where he said this? My memory of the communication is very similar to yours, but when I went looking I couldn't find it. cheers

That would sure be nice, but it's been multiple years since he said he thought he could get it done in three months.

Update: The February target date for release has come and gone, and there's "no news". Maybe next year's worldbuilders will have a "and I'll actually release the chapter this time" stretch goal.

Yeah, he does an annual update on TV and film rights. Most recently(LINK): Mistborn I’m still developing (in a hands on way) a Mistborn feature film. I’ve written a treatment, some actual scenes, etc. I can’t tell you much about it other than that I feel very good about the motion on this for the first time ever, as I have some really excellent partners on the project. The Stormlight Archive Likewise, I’ve been working very hands-on in creating the Stormlight Archive as a premium cable television show. This is with Dan Mintz and DMG, who has had the rights forever. I’ve enjoyed my time working with him, and have enjoyed his thoughts as a partner. I think this will happen someday, though I’m not sure when and with whom.

Didn't even consider this but it makes perfect sense.

Seems like the main advantage for Sanderson is that he gets to pay fee for service for many of the things needed instead of the "hand the publisher a massive percentage" package deal.

8 hours to go. Looks like it's going to hit $40M Unreal. EDIT: final tally was $41,754,143

Well, since this is a fantasy book message board it's very appropriate to point out they're like carrots but more so, and really are the all-star of a proper beef stew. Like, stew that would make L.E. Modesitt proud. That's how good. Try it, you won't be disappointed.

My kid wants the Hoid lootbox. Real bad. Having to spend $400 to get it makes it a no-go, however. Too bad there's not a "buy just the thing you want" option.

But why go to the bank and get a loan when people will just give you the money up front?

I'm surprised to see the number of people taking the plunge on the swagboxes. $40 for four e-books seems very fair and reasonable. But $50(including shipping) for a swagbox, sight unseen? And you have to buy 8? Seems pretty steep.

Are there six planned books for Sword of Shadows then? Seeing this thread had me contemplating a reread, but if there are to be six I may hold off.

It was connected to the wager he made with the fandom about them giving a certain amount of money to his charity and him releasing a couple parts of book 3. (Prologue, and a sample chapter)

One of the biggest Rothfuss knee-slappers of all time came in a recent blog where he's describing himself(emphasis mine): I rarely actually laugh out loud when reading on the internet, but this one got me. I struggle to imagine having the chutzpah to describe myself as always keeping my word when I'm famous for one of the largest authorial broken promises in memory.