Daddy Sanderson Flexes, Corpo Pub Seethes
How Happy Should Other Writers Be About Brandon Sanderson’s $24 Million Kickstarter?
Award-winning fantasy and science fiction writer, Brandon Sanderson has taken the world by storm. Already internationally known for his successful, epic series such as “Mistborn” and “The Stormlight Archive”, he has now levelled up with a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign for “Four Secret Novels” which he is publishing exclusively to backers who crowdfund this project 1. As I write, it has currently achieved over $24 million (and rising every minute). With over twenty days still to go, there is no telling what the final amount might be.
Of course, the traditional publishers and many traditionally published authors have taken to social media to lament this phenomenal success that has taken place in spite of them. They are of the mind of noted leftist Gore Vidal who infamously said, “Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.” Twitter is a sea of salty tears as the Twitterati bemoan a straight, white, religious male stealing the bread from the mouths of much more deserving LGBTXYZ authors who can barely make ends meet. As an independent writer, I could not be happier for him.
Since Gutenberg invented the printing press, writers have been subject to the tastes and vagaries of the publishers as a barrier to reaching their readers. In the beginning, there were perhaps good reasons to limit those who appeared on bookshop shelves to an elite few authors. These days, when every man and his dog is capable of banging out a hundred-page novel per month, list it on Amazon and have copies printed on demand, the dead tree merchants' monopoly has been broken.
The soon-to-be “big four” (down from the “big six” just a few years ago) have failed to react. The decline of mainstream publishing has been ongoing for some time and rather than trying to address the challenges from electronic publishing and the competition for diminishing leisure time from video games and other media, they decided to double-down and concentrate on “diversity” and “representation”. While they might think this is an honourable goal, they have neglected one thing in order to promote writers from diverse backgrounds: good stories that people want to read.
The diversity hires cry that their failures are due to classics such as Tolkein and Lovecraft lining the shelves that should rightly belong to them and not some dead, white male, overlooking the fact that these books sell because people want to read them.
In their article about the campaign2, Slate laughingly states, “A novelist as popular as Sanderson may even be taking a slight loss on this operation, compared to what he might net if he released these books through his current publisher, Tor.” Whereas he would only touch around ten percent of the profits from his books if traditionally published, I’m sure that once he has fulfilled his obligations to the donors, he will have enough money left over to buy Tor outright. These days, quality books can be printed and delivered around the world for a small fraction of their cover price. Also, by crowdfunding in advance, Sanderson has avoided the main risk that mainstream publishers run; that of printing mountains of unsold books that end up taking up rented warehouse space.
Straight, white gamma-male, John Scalzi complains that Sanderson is “playing the game on easy mode”, while he himself has had difficulty meeting his thirteen book, $3.4 million contract (which he was awarded as much for voicing the “right opinions” as for his potential based on his successful, Heinlein-pastiche first novel).
Meanwhile, as the mainstream digs itself deeper and deeper into its oubliette of inclusion, independent authors have taken advantage of the new technologies and the book sales left on the table by them. They have become successful by following the simple formula: providing enjoyable stories to people who want to read them.
Breakout books from the independent scene, like Andy Weir's, “The Martian” and Hugh Howie’s, “Wool” had the traditional publishers falling over themselves to throw money at the same books they had probably rejected scores of times, once they had proved themselves in the marketplace.
Science fiction and fantasy publishing has mirrored this decline as much as any genre, if not more so. The once prestigious Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) were more than happy to grasp the banner of diversity and go charging over the precipice of irrelevance. Claiming to be, “a professional organisation for authors of science fiction, fantasy and related genres.” and boasting that, “Esteemed past and present members include Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffrey, Ray Bradbury, and Andre Norton.”, they purged their membership of wrong-thinkers with the vigour of soviet commissars while insulting the illustrious authors they had built their reputation on.
Their international equivalent, The World Fantasy Convention, changed their award trophy which was modelled on HP Lovecraft, following a campaign by the pearl clutchers and bed wetters of so-called “fandom” that called the author out as an “avowed racist” with “hideous opinions”. Panels at conferences which would previously have been filled with recognisable authors discussing world-building techniques and how to write enjoyable stories that people wanted to read, transformed into Benetton adverts of unknowns chosen to meet quotas who would discuss how not to offend readers by using the wrong pronoun.
Larry Correia3, the author of the “Monster Hunter” series and many other books, embarrassed the SFWA with his “Sad Puppies” campaign a few years ago. He heretically suggested that awards should go to commercially successful writers and encouraged his fans to nominate his and other writers' books for the Hugo Awards based on (shock!) merit. They were ignored. SFWA pariah, Vox Day4 (who helps run a successful publishing company, Castalia House) took it to the next level with the “Rabid Puppies” campaign. Again, readers and writers were encouraged to nominate books based on merit instead of diversity boxes checked. The campaign was so successful that several of the categories’ shortlists were full of their nominations.
Did SFWA accept the choices of the majority of readers? Of course not. The 2015 Hugo award ceremony became a travesty in which they chose to “no award” any category tainted by the opinions of the wrong-thinkers. Once this embarrassing mess had played out in public, the “true-fans” retreated to a private party where they awarded each other the now irrelevant awards. According to SFWA, NK Jemisin is the most successful science fiction writer of all time, having been awarded the Hugo for best novel in three successive years. Something Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffrey, Ray Bradbury, and Andre Norton never achieved in their lifetime (although their book sales dwarf hers).
While impressive and encouraging, Sanderson’s success is just the next fanfare that heralds the decline of the deluded gatekeepers of traditional publishing and the rise of independent authors and publishers. Meanwhile, the drakkar that is “The Bizarchives”, under the able helmsmanship of Dave Martel, rides the waves of enthusiastic, skilled authors delivering enjoyable stories to an appreciative public. I am happy to be part of the crew.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonsteel/surprise-four-secret-novels-by-brandon-sanderson
https://slate.com/culture/2022/03/brandon-sanderson-kickstarter-criticism-why-writers-are-upset-about-his-record-setting-campaign.html
https://monsterhunternation.com/
https://voxday.net/