Brandon Sanderson's Towers of Cash

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

@Rhom

@Argonath Diver

I graduated from Undergrad in 1993.  It was fairly basic when I attended.  It was a big deal when we got a soft serve Ice cream machine.

I graduated undergrad in 2000.  About two years ago, I attended a campus visit to my alma mater with my stepdaughter.  The food options at the campus cafeteria were mind boggling!!!!!

[Ormond]

1 hour ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

@Rhom

@Argonath Diver

I graduated from Undergrad in 1993.  It was fairly basic when I attended.  It was a big deal when we got a soft serve Ice cream machine.

I graduated from Undergrad in 1973. I first ate parsnips, grits, and okra at the Duke University cafeteria. I discovered I like parsnips -- we never had them at home since my father hated them, but I think they are occasionally a nice switch from carrots. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

15 hours ago, Ormond said:

I graduated from Undergrad in 1973. I first ate parsnips, grits, and okra at the Duke University cafeteria. I discovered I like parsnips -- we never had them at home since my father hated them, but I think they are occasionally a nice switch from carrots. 

I actually like mashed Rutabagas from time to time.  My MIL who grew up in rural Horry County SC introduced me to them.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Ser Scot A Ellison

[baxus]

This must be the weirdest thread derail I've seen on this message board over the years.  

[Rhom]

7 hours ago, baxus said:

This must be the weirdest thread derail I've seen on this message board over the years.  

Suppose we could talk about Kaladin's latest brush with clinical depression instead and how he will use it to meet the fifth ideal of the Knights Radiant...

Nah.  I want to hear more about Parsnips vs Carrots.

[SpaceChampion]

Parnips are just carrots in a different part of the multiverse.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

15 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

Parnips are just carrots in a different part of the multiverse.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had parsnips.

[Ninefingers]

20 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I’m not sure I’ve ever had parsnips.

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. 

Edited March 25, 2022 by Ninefingers

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 hour ago, Ninefingers said:

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. 

I… looooooooove… beef stew.  I’ll have to try that.  

[Lord of Oop North]

On 3/25/2022 at 10:38 AM, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I’m not sure I’ve ever had parsnips.

They are a nice switch from carrots.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

19 minutes ago, Lord of Oop North said:

They are a nice switch from carrots.

I think I may have to prepare beef stew with parsnips tomorrow.  

[HoodedCrow]

Neeps( parsnips):)

[Maltaran]

I thought neeps were turnips

[HoodedCrow]

I think that you may be right @maltaran  

[Ninefingers]

8 hours to go. 

Looks like it's going to hit $40M

Unreal. 

 

EDIT: final tally was $41,754,143

Edited April 1, 2022 by Ninefingers

[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.

[Zorral]

On 3/26/2022 at 5:48 PM, Maltaran said:

I thought neeps were turnips

https://www.goodto.com/food/food-news/what-are-neeps-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-traditional-burns-night-supper-dish-645701

 

[SpaceChampion]

One thing annoying about Kickstarter is throughout the campaign I can see what the backed amount is in Canadian dollars, and hover over it to see it in American dollars, but now that the campaign is over the Canadian dollar amount isn't there.  It was something over $50 million Canadian last time I checked before it closed.

I wouldn't be surprised if throughout the fulfillment period they back additional publishing campaigns.  If I had something to kickstart starting tomorrow or later I'd include a Sanderson tier to fund the whole thing, just to see if he bites.

The thing about using kickstarter funds to back other kickstarters is that Kickstarter the company is double-dipping on fees.

Edited April 1, 2022 by SpaceChampion

[Garlan the Gallant]

On 4/1/2022 at 8:50 AM, Ran said:

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.

That’s a lot of “finger in the wind” assumptions. There’s also things like taxes, shipping fees, storage fees, postage, payroll for staff, freight fees, and a ton of other expenses as well that we don’t have insight into. They aren’t going to have insight into the profit margin until they file their extension tax returns for 2024.

[Ran]

32 minutes ago, Garlan the Gallant said:

That’s a lot of “finger in the wind” assumptions. There’s also things like taxes, shipping fees, storage fees, postage, payroll for staff, freight fees, and a ton of other expenses as well that we don’t have insight into.

Sure. Those things are baked into the calculation, as I noted what profit margins people who actually produce subscription boxes or self-published books report.

This is a pretty detailed of one book campaign. Here is a discussion of subscription boxes (they suggest 40-60% profit margins). And so on.

Like, maybe Sanderson is going to buck expectations and just treat it as revenue-neutral and will up the quality of all the goods promised and add in more stuff until profit margin is down to $0... but I doubt it? 

(One could get even more granular and figure out how much those custom pins they added as a bonus are going to roughly cost. Almost 500,000 pins, I see licensed pins he's done are about 1x1 inch... almost 360k for those, though he's going to do batches way, way bigger than 5000 and may get an even lower  price... and that's just one producer of pins, no idea if they have competitive pricing)

Edited April 2, 2022 by Ran