Jump to content

Brandon Sanderson's Towers of Cash


SpaceChampion
 Share

Recommended Posts

No matter exactly how much profit will be made, it will be a shitload of money for 4 unedited, self-published novels.

The kicker is that he won't have to pay the usual 15%-20% fees to his agents on both sides of the pond, which means even more money in his pocket.

So yeah, well done by him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He mentions Peter Ahlstrom being "Editorial Director" at Dragon Steel, and Ahlstrom did an AMA identifying himself as Sanderson's "in-house editor" while stating this:

Quote

I'll be the main editor on three of the secret projects, though I'll also use a combination of in-house and outside line editors, copyeditors, and proofreaders. The fourth will have editing duties shared between me and someone who has edited his books before

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ahlstrom edited up to seven titles monthly for Tokyopop, per an interview. Edited publications + paid for it = professional editor in my book. But sure, the way he came to now editing books for Sanderson is non-typical. Still, money is actually being spent on editing.

The fourth title must be co-edited with whoever has edited his Stormlight Archive at Tor.

 

Edited by Ran
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Ninefingers said:

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. 

Right.

And interestingly, on Reddit Sanderson has spoken of already working out details of publishing all the books traditionally. The only sticking point is he wants to make sure the Kickstarter/Backerkit subscribers all get their copies first before the books hit shelves. So he's moving pretty quick.

The amount of press he's gotten from this is a huge boon because you can be 100% sure that next year when the first of these hits shelves, there will be more pieces in national/international media reminding people, "Hey, remember that writer who shattered records and raised $40+ million for books he wrote? The first of those can now be bought on shelves, might be worth seeing what all the fuss was about."

Really smart stuff, honestly. Good for him and his team.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Ran said:

Right.

And interestingly, on Reddit Sanderson has spoken of already working out details of publishing all the books traditionally. The only sticking point is he wants to make sure the Kickstarter/Backerkit subscribers all get their copies first before the books hit shelves. So he's moving pretty quick.

The amount of press he's gotten from this is a huge boon because you can be 100% sure that next year when the first of these hits shelves, there will be more pieces in national/international media reminding people, "Hey, remember that writer who shattered records and raised $40+ million for books he wrote? The first of those can now be bought on shelves, might be worth seeing what all the fuss was about."

Really smart stuff, honestly. Good for him and his team.

And I'm pretty sure Hollywood took notice of the amount and the popularity/publicity of this Kickstarter. Given that cinematic Universe are in vogue right now, the Cosmere seems not too far from seeing actual adaptations. I'm betting we see a Mistborn series/movie by 2025/26. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, fionwe1987 said:

And I'm pretty sure Hollywood took notice of the amount and the popularity/publicity of this Kickstarter. Given that cinematic Universe are in vogue right now, the Cosmere seems not too far from seeing actual adaptations. I'm betting we see a Mistborn series/movie by 2025/26. 

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Edited by Ninefingers
formatting
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Am I reading too much into his Stormlight Archive commentary being a bit of "Mormon nice"? Sounds to me like he thinks Mintz and DMG should let go of their option so that someone else can take a crack at it.

Edited by Ran
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Ran said:

Am I reading too much into his Stormlight Archive commentary being a bit of "Mormon nice"? Sounds to me like he thinks Mintz and DMG should let go of their option so that someone else can take a crack at it.

Might be. :dunno: 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Hey this is the most hyped book Sanderson's announced, specific to my taste! I absolutely think the Wax and Wayne books are the best version of Sanderson. My opinions of Stormlight sour by year, but I thoroughly enjoy this series. He keeps the pace throughout while weaving in his always interesting magic systems and world building. And his quick character pastiches of his mains come off the pages far more relatable and charming than his ponderous explorations of other his series protagonists' motivations. 

Great timing for a rip-roarin' jaunt to re-read under an early summer sun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Brandon hisself has updated the status of Stormlight 5 on the official subreddit.

Brandon’s update on Stormlight 5

He says it will likely be the longest in the series thus far by a significant margin.

”this last month has seen a lot of good progress on Stormlight.  I’m sitting at 65,000 words right now as of this writing.  Roughly 16% if we assume a 400,000-word final book.  (Though this one will, as I said, likely be longer than that—so that 16% might be more like 15%.)  ”

Heres the entire update in the quote box so it collapses down.

Quote

Stormlight Five Update One

Hello, all!  I know some of you may have been waiting for this.  It’s time for the first in a series of updates about your book!  I wanted to wait until I’d made good progress this month before I stopped to write one of these updates, and I do apologize for leaving you in the dark for so long.  I probably should have written one of these back in January, but it’s been an odd year for me, full of unpredictable timing issues.   
 

So, let’s get the obvious questions out of the way.  Do I have a title yet?  No.  Still thinking.  I’d like it to fit the format of KOWT or KOW, but I don’t like most of the options that have presented themselves.  It requires more thought.  
 

When will the book come out?  I’m looking at fall 2024.  I have tried to be very forthcoming about this one—warning people for a while that 2023 might be too optimistic.  And, as I feared, I have been forced to let the date slide quite far into 2024 because of three issues.  The first is that I set myself up for a TON of revisions this year, and they’ve been taking more time than expected.  I still have two books to revise, though I’ve been spending all of August on Stormlight.    
 

However, that isn’t the primary reason I’ve ended up pushing back the book.  I’d planned for these revisions, and could have done those while working on Stormlight.  The second reason I pushed the book back is that I knew this book, of all the ones in the sequence, deserved a little extra time and attention.  It will likely be the longest of the series to date, and I have to be careful to juggle all the storylines properly.  I didn’t want to be rushed on it, and—though it may shock you—an 18-month production cycle wasn’t going to cut it.   
 

The third reason is one I haven’t been able to gauge as easily as the first two—something new to my life.  Lately, I’ve needed to dedicated more and more of my time to running a company.  I still reserve three days a week solely for writing, but that’s down from four days a week in previous years.    
 

The meetings take two general forms.  The first category is meetings with my team.  Things like reviewing the production of the secret projects and leatherbounds to make sure things look and feel right.  Others involve deep dives into concept art for characters and settings, so that when we create products like the upcoming Stormlight miniatures, they can fit with a canon version of the characters.  This is something I resisted for a while, feeling like it was all right if different artists interpreted the singers (for example) differently.  More and more, though, Isaac and I feel that we should have specific canon examples for continuity.    
 

Other meetings are editorial related, or publicity related.  Dragonsteel has kind of grown up the last few years, and I want to do it right.  That means being involved, as long as it doesn’t impact my time TOO much.  But all of that needs to be balanced with the numerous film and television meetings that have been happening lately.  Again, I want to do this right—which means being deeply involved in the projects that are moving forward.  (Announcements should be coming in the near future.)  That takes time.  So, the free time that I had during Covid to write secret projects is now being eaten up by a lot of these meetings.

I’m still finding the right balance, but this last month has seen a lot of good progress on Stormlight.  I’m sitting at 65,000 words right now as of this writing.  Roughly 16% if we assume a 400,000-word final book.  (Though this one will, as I said, likely be longer than that—so that 16% might be more like 15%.)  
 

Unfortunately, progress is going to slow again as I have a couple of other deadlines due.  My goal right now is to do the last two revisions (Defiant and Secret Project Four) in rapid succession, in September and October, and be back to Stormlight in November.    
 

For a teaser, though, here is what I’m working on: >!I’m going to write this book in phases, straight from beginning to end, through several character groupings.  For example, the first sequence I’m writing is Szeth and Kaladin in Shinovar, including the Szeth flashbacks.  I plan to write all of their plot, from start to finish, before moving on to the next sequence of characters.
!<

>!All of that 65k so far, except the prologue, has been on this plotline—and I’m loving how it’s shaping up.  I know the Szeth backstory has been a LONG time coming.  I hope it lives up to your expectations.  There are some interesting lore secrets here to reveal, and the climax is something I’ve been building to since book one—indeed, you’ll find death rattles from the first volume referencing the events here in this sequence.!<

>!I plotted this sequence at 100k.  It’s looking a lot more like 150k now that I’m neck deep in it.  The picture is related!!<  
 

I know that four years is a long time to wait for a novel, and it’s been my goal in the past to keep that to 3 years.  My intention is that once this is done, we’ll have another longer-than-normal gap as I turn my attention to Mistborn Era Three (and hopefully the Elantris sequels) before diving back in to do the back five Stormlight books.  From there, I’m hoping to return to a 3-year gap between books until we push to the ending at book ten.  

A long journey, I know!  But you’ll almost certainly have television and film projects in the interim to keep you occupied alongside the other things I do.  And I continue to feel that Stormlight works best in ultra-long-form novels, rather than the (far more profitable) option my publisher would prefer of one shorter 100k Stormlight book every year.  The experience of the thick book full of interconnected plotlines and smaller interlude flourishes is part of what makes the artistic vision work for these volumes.      
 

As always, thank you for your patience.  My job is to make sure it’s all worth the wait, and I am striving each day to show respect for the trust you’ve put in me.    
 

Next update should come around the end of the year, where I’ll let you know how my November/December went.  With luck, I’ll have managed another 70k or so across the two months, and land us at around 130k, which MIGHT be the end of the first sequence.  

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/9/2022 at 2:40 AM, Rhom said:

Brandon hisself has updated the status of Stormlight 5 on the official subreddit.

Brandon’s update on Stormlight 5

He says it will likely be the longest in the series thus far by a significant margin.

”this last month has seen a lot of good progress on Stormlight.  I’m sitting at 65,000 words right now as of this writing.  Roughly 16% if we assume a 400,000-word final book.  (Though this one will, as I said, likely be longer than that—so that 16% might be more like 15%.)  ”

Heres the entire update in the quote box so it collapses down.

 

I'm wondering if it will be split. If they're not 100% on TWoW being bound in one volume at ~480,000 words, then I don't see a Sanderson book which will only sell ~25% of the same number of copies in the opening year (probably less) being bound in one at significantly more than 500,000 words. Although Tor do have their own inhouse large-scale printer, which apparently Random House does not, which does impact the economies of scale.

Has anyone seen the new Stormlight miniatures Kickstarter? It's raked in over $1 million in like two days, but the miniatures look pretty poor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...