How Much Money Does Brandon Sanderson Make

Brandon Sanderson, a sci-fi/fantasy author, raised more than $30 million on Kickstarter. And, for some reason, people are actually, actually outraged that an indie author, of all people, should attract that much attention and money.

This is among the topics discussed on Self-Publishing News with ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway and News and Podcast Producer Howard Lovy. Together, they will bring you lot the latest in indie publishing news.

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Listen to Self-Publishing News: Brandon Sanderson and More

On the #AskALLi Cocky-Publishing News #Podcast, @agnieszkasshoes and @howard_lovy enquire: Why are people so upset that Brandon Sanderson raised more than $30M on Kickstarter? Click To Tweet

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Nearly the Hosts

Dan Holloway is a novelist, poet and spoken word creative person. He is the MC of the operation arts show The New Libertines Before this year he competed at the National Poetry Slam final at the Purple Albert Hall. His latest collection, The Transparency of Sutures, is available on Kindle.

Howard Lovy has been a journalist for more than xxx years, and has spent the final viii years amplifying the voices of independent publishers and authors. He works with authors as a book editor to prepare their piece of work to exist published. Howard is also a freelance author specializing in Jewish issues whose work appears regularly in Publishers Weekly, the Jewish Daily Forwards, and Longreads. Find Howard at howardlovy.com, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Read the Transcripts: Brandon Sanderson and More than

Howard Lovy: Hello and welcome to the March 2022 edition of Cocky-Publishing News from the Alliance of Contained Authors. I'1000 Howard Lovy, in Traverse City, Michigan. Joining me from Oxford University is ALLi news editor, Dan Holloway. Hello, Dan, how are you?

Dan Holloway: Hi, Howard. I'm good. How are you?

Howard Lovy: Oh, I'grand fine, I'g getting over a cold, only I think it's only a cold, and so I should withal be safe to travel to London in a couple of weeks for our 10-year ceremony.

Dan Holloway: What's happening in a couple of weeks, I seem to have forgotten?

Howard Lovy: We've merely been discussing information technology for the last month or and so, at least, but it's a banner year for u.s.a., and I'm happy to travel to London to help celebrate it. But too, while I'm there, we'll record a special episode of Self-Publishing News where we'll talk about the by x years and even the next 10 years.

And you were there at the founding, correct Dan? What do y'all remember from that, 10 years ago?

Dan Holloway: I remember at the founding, we were stuffed up in a room correct at the top of the building, right at the back, where no one could see us, information technology was sort of like, oh, there'south this weird indie thing going on over there. So, that was the offset matter I remember, is they didn't quite know what to exercise with us, but they knew it was an important declaration, so they couldn't not accept us there. I remember we were all very excited. So, there were four of us on the panel that day. So, Orna and I have been both effectually for ten years doing that.

The other thing I really retrieve is Ben Galley in the audience. He was there every bit an eager listener, and obviously he's gone on and become one of our high-profile indie authors at ALLi. He links in very nicely to our first new story, I think, because he was the beginning indie I knew who really made a success out of using Kickstarter.

Howard Lovy: Oh, right. Yeah. So, permit's talk nigh the news, and and so nosotros'll go more into in the adjacent 10 years, or the previous x years, when we talk in person and record our next podcast from London.

So, yep, permit's talk about this outrage when indie authors especially, make some money. You're talking about Brandon Sanderson, a sci-fi fantasy author who raised, I call back, more than than 20-5 million dollars on Kickstarter.

Dan Holloway: I've got information technology open now. It's really interesting watching it, if you keep the folio open, considering it literally does tick in front of your eyes. It'southward going so quickly. It'due south at present, as we speak, it's $32,139,000.79.

Howard Lovy: And for some reason, people are really, actually outraged that a writer, of all people, and an indie author, should attract that much money and attention.

So, tell me a lilliputian chip about Brandon Sanderson and why this is such a big deal?

Dan Holloway: Well, it's a big deal because it's a record on Kickstarter, that's the offset thing. Information technology'due south not but a record for authors, but it's a tape full finish. So, it's the most successful Kickstarter campaign ever.

It's really kind of absurd that the largest Kickstarter campaign ever is a entrada run past a writer. I'one thousand existence a chip naive, but I would say rhetorically, I fail to run into why that's not a skilful news story. It simply seems fabulous. So, that's the offset thing to say.

Howard Lovy: I'm reading a headline, I think, from what is it, Slate Magazine, how angry should other writers be nigh Brandon Sanderson's $22 million Kickstarter?

I don't know, I'm non aroused. Are you angry?

Dan Holloway: No. Kris Rusch has got a really good couple of columns she'south written on it, where she basically goes to town on everyone who's been playing him down, because he really has got a lot of hate over information technology.

He's got a actually great postal service on his website where he'due south written some FAQ's near why he did information technology, and also it gives some context.

So, I call back a lot of people possibly think information technology'southward like these celeb books you run across that come out, you know, similar the glory chef books that come out and they brand a fortune, they get a vii-effigy advance, they conspicuously have the book ghost-written, and everyone really resents information technology and says, oh, make infinite for the real writers. And I recollect a lot of people who probably don't know retrieve it'due south like that.

Only this is a guy who's been around writing for ages. He constantly, in his Kickstarter video, he does a actually good series of pie charts of how much time he spends on the excursion but going around talking to readers, reading his piece of work out, going to comic cons, just doing all the things yous're meant to do and engaging with people and getting them excited almost his books. And the reason his campaign has done and then well is because readers love reading what he writes, and that merely seems to exist what writing is well-nigh.

Howard Lovy: Correct. He earned information technology. Then people are angry for reasons, including well, there'south lack of a gatekeeper. Well, his audition, they're the gatekeeper.

Dan Holloway: Yeah, that's the whole indie matter is that it'south well-nigh stopping anyone coming betwixt y'all and your audition, and that's something here he'southward washed really well.

The note of caution that I've sounded in the cavalcade, the couple of times I've covered this story, is I tin imagine lots of people reading this and thinking, oh, I know what to do, I'll go and try and offset a Kickstarter. His blog mail service on this is a really proficient, sort of, warning about that and some context for it, that his last few books have all sold between a quarter of a one thousand thousand, and eight yard copies in their first year.

Then, he's not starting from scratch. He's someone who's built an audience and I think, going back to Ben Galley, that's the first thing that he always says is, Kickstarter simply works if you've already got an audience, it's non a style to build an audience.

So, his experiment was to see how many of those people would want to buy a new book, not only in year 1, but on day one. And it turns out they all do, which is really interesting. Then, information technology has paved the mode, but only for people with an existing audition.

I think the other thing nosotros need to exist wary of is the next matter we'll encounter, and this is probably something that John, exercise you ever exercise podcasts with John, John Doppler?

Howard Lovy: No, I don't. I haven't.

Dan Holloway: So, if you practise, and so it'due south something that to talk to him nigh, because the next affair that we'll see coming in the Watchdog is a load of PR companies trying to sell services to indie authors saying, that Brandon Sanderson, wouldn't you lot like a piece of that activeness? We can aid you launch a successful Kickstarter.

Then, I can imagine there'll be a whole new scam industry built on the dorsum of information technology, which is something to watch out for.

Howard Lovy: Correct. Which is why ALLi, and specially John Doppler's, services are needed.

I was reading a New York Times story on this when you brought it to my attending, and i paragraph stood out to me. Information technology says, 'but cocky-publishing of the scale Sanderson is proposing is an enormously complicated proffer. Fundamentally, most authors want to write books, not run a publishing house.'

It was interesting because, as we know at ALLi, some authors too want to run a publishing business, and we're here to teach them how to do it. It's kind of like the mainstream is, 10 years later, practically discovering what we've known all forth.

Dan Holloway: Yes. It's nearly infantilizing. It'due south like, oh, stay out of that, you don't want to do that, and a lot of people do.

Howard Lovy: Right. Exactly. I hateful, correct, at that place is a certain percentage of writers who just desire to write and let other people handle all that other stuff, just more than and more, even traditionally published authors, take to do a lot of their ain marketing and their own social media presence, and things similar that.

So fundamentally, almost authors want to write books, merely most authors also know they accept to sell books.

Dan Holloway: Yes, exactly, and a lot of authors as well just like meeting readers, especially authors in the fantasy/science-fiction infinite. It's ane of the reasons comic-con'southward work then well and are such a great way of bringing authors and readers together. And the same with me and poetry, there's nothing improve than getting upwardly on phase performing then meeting people afterward, handing over a book, talking as you sign it; it's function of the process that a lot of u.s. actually enjoy.

Howard Lovy: Right. So, this is non a go rich quick scheme, it'south a possibly make a living slowly scheme. Or you lot can be similar Brandon Sanderson and be in the right place at the correct fourth dimension, having done all this groundwork to brainstorm with.

Dan Holloway: Yeah, exactly.

Howard Lovy: Yeah. Anything else you want to say near Sanderson or that topic?

Dan Holloway: No. I volition leave information technology, other than go and accept a look, it's quite fun. Every bit I say, information technology'south quite fun watching it tick over. Allow's run across how much he has made since, so yeah, whoa, at that place it goes, that'southward at least $10,000 since nosotros've been speaking.

Howard Lovy: Since we've been speaking? That's a practiced payday.

At present, we should besides say that this isn't all money for him to spend on sports cars and vacations, this is how he publishes his volume.

Dan Holloway: Yes, most of this coin will go towards printing costs, pattern costs, editing costs, formatting. As he said, also, warehousing costs, which is something most of the states don't need to remember about.

Howard Lovy: Which could be a good segue to our adjacent topic, past the way, which is print-on-demand. And again, this is some other case where the mainstream world is discovering what indie publishers take known all along, and that's the globe of print-on-demand.

Dan Holloway: This goes dorsum, in a way, to what people were talking nigh at the Futurebook Conference final autumn, when publishers were talking about the environmental touch on of printing, and just how ridiculously wasteful publishing is as an industry. And 1 of the things that they were realizing there, that we'd sort of realized all along, was that about of the problems in the publishing industry come up from returns and come from the fact that they print too many books, and nigh of them go pulped, or a lot of them get pulped, and they have to exist returned to the publishers in order to become pulped. And print-on-demand is far and away the most environmentally friendly course of publishing.

And even since and then the example has got even stronger, considering the paper shortage and the paper pricing crunch has got worse. So, in the last few months nosotros've seen Italian publishers asking for a tax rebate, for instance. We've seen prices go up 30-40% on the price of paper. So, printing has get really expensive.

And so, a couple of weeks ago, publishers got together, and they had a big industry conference, and it's as though they suddenly discovered it, they discovered that print-on-demand might actually be the answer to their problems and the way to get around some of these costs and some of the negative environmental bear on that they're having.

Howard Lovy: Correct. Meanwhile, indie authors are like, really, y'all don't say? We've been doing this for a decade. Yep.

Dan Holloway: Then, I guess one of the things to watch out for is whether this has a knock-on effect on how easy it is for us to print. If publishers suddenly get-go using all the print-on-demand facilities out there, are nosotros going to end up fighting for space?

Howard Lovy: Oh, really?

Dan Holloway: So, I don't know, that might be 1 of the impacts it has. Only we should certainly, if awareness is being raised through things similar this, it's something we can use to point out to readers that we've been doing these things all along, and that actually, they're not only supporting indie authors, but they're supporting a more sustainable way of publishing if they support us.

Howard Lovy: Right. Exactly, and information technology'southward but some other example of the style that indies have been leading the way in terms of technology, in terms of the supply concatenation, so obviously in print-on-demand besides.

Dan Holloway: On that, I've read something, I think it was in Tech Crunch, a couple of weeks agone, that reminded u.s.a. of something that I think long before ALLi started, which is that the espresso printing auto still exists. Apparently, there are however places where yous can use it, which is one of the very first things to use this engineering science and bring it into the mainstream. Then, it's still out there and there are places where it'due south possible to go into a book store and have the book printed for y'all on the bounds. Probably people don't even know what an espresso book machine is.

Howard Lovy: Yeah, suddenly I got a hankering for caffeine when you lot mentioned that, only I think I've heard of it.

Dan Holloway: Yes, it's like a cross betwixt the printing press and a photocopier. You literally, you type in the ISBN of the book you want and out comes a book, and they still exist evidently, which is really interesting.

Then, maybe they are going to start to come back into fashion and nosotros're going to commencement to encounter what we thought we might see all those years ago, which is bookstores that are essentially a shop window, and you go in and the bookstore prints your book, which is absolutely fabled when it comes to thinking about the miles on the clock.

Howard Lovy: So, allow'southward segue to something that involves absolutely no newspaper and that'southward audiobooks, and I empathize that an indie author has recently won a major Aural honor or audiobook award?

Dan Holloway: Yes. So, this is merely a nice flake of news. Then, I first reported on it when Mary Jane Wells was shortlisted for the Audie Awards. At that place were 125 books shortlisted, in 25 unlike categories, and she was the but indie author to be listed, which was quite cracking for her, but quite damning. Only she'due south subsequently gone on to win, which was absolutely brilliant news. And so, that was for her audiobook chosen, Heroine.

And it won in the best original category, and it'southward a really good example of an indie project because Mary Jane Wells is a playwright and voice histrion, so ideally placed to record her ain work in an indie way.

Howard Lovy: Correct, admittedly. So, she did information technology herself?

Dan Holloway: Yes, she did it all herself. And the platform she used is a platform chosen Authors Commonwealth, which I checked, and information technology has a recommended rating from John Doppler on the ALLi Watchdog.

Howard Lovy: Wonderful, and she's a playwright likewise, so she writes in a way that sounds good to the ear?

Dan Holloway: In a way that works well as an audiobook, yeah.

And information technology's also interesting to notation that the overall winner at the Audi's was the latest audiobook from Andy Weir who, similar so many, started out as a famous indie author.

Howard Lovy: Correct. He writes the science fiction stories.

Dan Holloway: Yep. Then, The Martian was the volume that made him famous. The book that won was chosen Project Hail Mary.

But information technology feels like it's been a proficient news month, we usually spend our time moaning about Amazon, just actually this has been actually proficient news month.

Howard Lovy: So, speaking of skilful news, I look forrad to actually meeting y'all in person. What are some of the things that you hope to achieve at the London Book Off-white?

Dan Holloway: Oh, I have no thought. Information technology's always a weird feel. It depends. I have no preconceptions, I think. Mainly just communicable upward with people, I guess.

Howard Lovy: Yep. I mean, I'm going to be abrasive with my microphone. I'm going to interview various people, members of ALLi, other indie authors, and just become a feel for the pulse of indie publishing ten years later, and that'll be the subject area of next month's Self-Publishing News Podcast.

Dan Holloway: Super.

Howard Lovy: And so, until and then, take a wonderful few weeks, and I'll see you soon.

Dan Holloway: And I'll run into y'all shortly. Have intendance.

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