Science fiction and fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson's recent Kickstarter continues to break the news cycles, but not everyone will agree that the news is good news. For those who missed it earlier this week, the Stormlight Archive author revealed four brand new novels that he produced in secret over the past two years and decided to fund independently through Kickstarter. Not much information was given, synopsis-wise, about the novels themselves other than the fact that three of them will take place within the Cosmere universe. But that did not stop Sanderson's fans from supporting the prolific author.

Sanderson's Kickstarter goal initially was $1,000,000, but in half of a day's time, more than $15,000,000 had been raised. As of this writing, Sanderson's Kickstarter has surpassed a staggering $25,000,000 and counting. Officially, this marks the highest earnings for any literary project posted onto Kickstarter in the website's 13-year history. The project is slotted to remain up and running until April 1st, putting him on track to end his Kickstarter campaign with, essentially, one of the biggest book deals in American history. This puts Sanderson in the same company as James Patterson's $150 million 17-book deal with Hachette Book Group and the Obamas' $65 million deal with Crown for their memoirs.

Related: Brandon Sanderson Announces Four New Books In 2023, Including New Cosmere

The reaction to the overwhelming success of Brandon Sanderson's Kickstarter campaign has mixed, to say the least, from not only casual audiences but even writers in the same field as Sanderson. The polarizing reactions can best be summarized just by glancing at anyone's Twitter timeline. We'll showcase some of the more positive and optimistic tweets here, but rather than add fuel to someone's fire by highlighting a more disparaging, critical tweet out of context, it's important to break down why some critics may not be as happy for Sanderson as others.

Why Are People Critical?

Two characters from The Cosmere by Brandon Sanderson

For those who are critical of Brandon Sanderson's success on Kickstarter, the most glaring reason is that his popularity and success in the industry are somewhat counterintuitive to what Kickstarter is normally used for. More often than not, the outlet is used for lesser-known creatives in need of crowdfunding for their creative projects who otherwise would not have the sources or means to fund it. In Sanderson's case, he is still linked to his current publisher Tor and theoretically could have still released these new secret projects through his publisher. He simply chose not to.

While his reason for not going through his publisher this time (more on that later) can be considered noble on the surface, this is still an immensely successful writer who doesn't necessarily need a Kickstarter. Brandon Sanderson's name may not ring as many bells (yet) in mainstream circles as, say, a George R.R. Martin, but his works speak for themselves, as do their successes. This is a sharp contrast from the average Kickstarter user who may be lucky enough to have $84 in their bank account as an aspiring author. By comparison, it's hard to say Sanderson exactly took a gamble on this new business venture.

Perhaps Sanderson's lack of need for Kickstarter is more of a reason to celebrate that nobility, but not everyone finds cause for celebration when Sanderson is bordering on being a household name. Whether audiences want to be critical or happy for Sanderson, one point that is hard to ignore in conversation is just how fast Sanderson successfully achieved his goal. This may be inspiring for some, but to others, it begs the question as to why does someone who can acquire a $20+ million fund within 24 hours even needs a Kickstarter? Does this take attention away from less-fortunate creatives who actually do need it?

Related: Why Tabletop Game Devs Worry About Kickstarter's New Business Model

Why Are People Happy?

This is far from the first time that a writer's book deal spurred the ire of the general public. Even the aforementioned Patterson and both Michelle and Barack Obama's deals were criticized when their respective news first broke. However, what puts Sanderson in such a unique situation is because, unlike his authoring peers, there is no publishing company to point the blame at. Apart from the colleagues within his creative team, Brandon Sanderson is strictly doing this independently.

That was the entire point of his Kickstarter campaign. It seems as though Brandon Sanderson's main intention with this campaign was to simply give directly to his fans, putting his works instantly into their palms without a middle man publisher. Backers get not only the works themselves, but additional perks and goodies in special limited edition gift boxes as well. For a lot of people who are reading about this news, whether they be well-established fans of Sanderson or not, it becomes hard to criticize the author too heavily when the act seems incredibly selfless on the surface. It's even more selfless when weighing out how the cost of perks and swag bag will likely cost Sanderson more than the books themselves and, therefore, he is likely to be making less of a profit than he would if he signed any one of these secret books to his publisher. If that's truly the case, it may even explain why authors in the same league as Brandon Sanderson have yet to take on such a business endeavor. Not every established author sees a reason to put extra time and money into producing gift bags for readers or produce these books on fancier paper without the security of a publisher's backing. Sanderson merely seems dedicated to taking that potential risk on the assumption that he has enough fan support to pull it off. For some of those same fans of Sanderson who may be aspiring authors themselves, it can be inspiring to see another author receive immense success from working independently.

Regardless of whether audiences love what Brandon Sanderson is doing or not, his Kickstarter campaign has now made it possible for his next four books to be released throughout the year 2023. Stay tuned for the latest updates regarding Brandon Sanderson's books and the accompanying Kickstarter campaign as more information about these mystery projects is revealed.

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