3 ms·

As far as I understand the books are essentially self-published in this case, so there is certainly some investment needed to make all of this happen.

Kiro 4y ago
Kickstarter should be for financing things you can't get out on the market without the investment. You're basically saying "I need X money for Y to happen" and instead of a regular investor you rely on the hopes of future customers. Like a pre-order but without the obligation to deliver because of the moonshot. In Sanderson's case it's just a pre-order where you milk your fans for some extra bucks. He doesn't need this money to make these four books happen.
- wlesieutre 4y ago
  The other advantage of a pre-order is you know roughly how many copies to print. If you're publishing your own book you may not be able to predict that, and if you estimate wrong you're out a bunch of your own money. Large publishers have some expertise in guessing that, and probably still plan to eat some costs for the times when they get it wrong. But on a smaller scale, "Oops I have piles of extra copies of every single book I printed" would be a big problem for someone self publishing a couple of books. If your fans trust you to follow through on a kickstarter, there's not really a downside.
- amluto 4y ago
  Again, the ebooks were a minor part of the total. If you write a book, sell $5 million of physical copies and associated swag, I guarantee you either need to outsource the whole operation to a competent publisher or you need money to make it happen. Brandon Sanderson appears to be running most of this operation in house, and he would have pulled it off entirely on schedule if it weren’t for a massive storm introducing a (short!) delay.
- matsemann 4y ago
  > Kickstarter should be... According to you. If you don't like it, your gripe is with KS, not Sanderson. And it's pretty common for things to launch their v2, v3 etc on KS even if strictly not needed. It's a hype channel, not an investment channel. > In Sanderson's case it's just a pre-order where you milk your fans for some extra bucks. Why so loaded language? It's not milking, it's fan service. People specifically want these extra things. Hence the success of the KS.....
  - Kiro 4y ago
    It's not about whether I like it or not. It's about people being hypocritical and giving him a pass while criticizing others for doing the same thing. For some reason Sanderson is untouchable.
    - matsemann 4y ago
      Who are being hypocritical? Are you sure it's not different people having different opinions?
    - CrazyStat 4y ago
      It's not hypocritical at all to support some kickstarters and not others, irrespective of how much money they raise. Sanderson has an established history of delivering books, and people trust him to deliver the promised books. Some random guy without an established reputation is going to encounter much more skepticism. Reputations matter. It's a fact of being human.
- idontpost 4y ago
  [dead]

Kiro 4y ago

Kickstarter should be for financing things you can't get out on the market without the investment. You're basically saying "I need X money for Y to happen" and instead of a regular investor you rely on the hopes of future customers. Like a pre-order but without the obligation to deliver because of the moonshot. In Sanderson's case it's just a pre-order where you milk your fans for some extra bucks. He doesn't need this money to make these four books happen.

wlesieutre 4y ago
The other advantage of a pre-order is you know roughly how many copies to print. If you're publishing your own book you may not be able to predict that, and if you estimate wrong you're out a bunch of your own money. Large publishers have some expertise in guessing that, and probably still plan to eat some costs for the times when they get it wrong. But on a smaller scale, "Oops I have piles of extra copies of every single book I printed" would be a big problem for someone self publishing a couple of books. If your fans trust you to follow through on a kickstarter, there's not really a downside.
amluto 4y ago
Again, the ebooks were a minor part of the total. If you write a book, sell $5 million of physical copies and associated swag, I guarantee you either need to outsource the whole operation to a competent publisher or you need money to make it happen. Brandon Sanderson appears to be running most of this operation in house, and he would have pulled it off entirely on schedule if it weren’t for a massive storm introducing a (short!) delay.
matsemann 4y ago
> Kickstarter should be... According to you. If you don't like it, your gripe is with KS, not Sanderson. And it's pretty common for things to launch their v2, v3 etc on KS even if strictly not needed. It's a hype channel, not an investment channel. > In Sanderson's case it's just a pre-order where you milk your fans for some extra bucks. Why so loaded language? It's not milking, it's fan service. People specifically want these extra things. Hence the success of the KS.....
- Kiro 4y ago
  It's not about whether I like it or not. It's about people being hypocritical and giving him a pass while criticizing others for doing the same thing. For some reason Sanderson is untouchable.
  - matsemann 4y ago
    Who are being hypocritical? Are you sure it's not different people having different opinions?
  - CrazyStat 4y ago
    It's not hypocritical at all to support some kickstarters and not others, irrespective of how much money they raise. Sanderson has an established history of delivering books, and people trust him to deliver the promised books. Some random guy without an established reputation is going to encounter much more skepticism. Reputations matter. It's a fact of being human.
idontpost 4y ago
[dead]