There’s nothing like announcing a big advance on the book to make other writers grumble in protest, whether the jackpot winners are Michelle and Barack Obama, who struck a staggering $ 65 million deal for two books in 2017. or such nasty figures as right-wing provocateur Milo Janopoulos, whose relatively modest $ 250,000 contract with Simon & Schuster caused enough noise that the book was eventually canceled earlier that year.
But today’s announcement that Kickstarter’s fantasy novelist Brandon Sanderson’s campaign to fund the release of a four-book series has surpassed $ 20.8 million to become the platform’s richest-funded project to date is an unusual challenge for critics. how publishing evaluates books. Conservatives could complain that an extremely liberal industry has drastically overestimated Obama’s popularity, and progressives could complain that a company like Simon and Schuster has shown terrible judgment in promoting and accumulating the pockets of trolls like Janopoulos. But in Sanderson’s case, there is no guilty goalkeeper.
Literary writers have long complained about the amount of money and advertising resources publishers have poured into books by celebrities, politicians and stenciled commercial fiction writers. More recently, critics of the industry have urged publishers to invest in more titles than authors with different identities. Ever since Sanderson’s Kickstarter hit the headlines, it’s no surprise that there’s been dissatisfaction on social media about whether such a commercially successful author needs that kind of money. “Today is a really good day to support your favorite author who hasn’t made $ 18 million in the last few days,” he tweeted. fantasy writer Nathanie Barron. Others are disappointed that this is a white Mormon who benefits from this generosity: “There are so many excellent varieties of SFF.” tweeted critic Alex Brown“And you all intend to give this man millions of dollars.”
But it’s hard to accept a problem with someone who just sells his books directly to people who really, really want to read them. Sanderson would not have such a large number of followers, of course, without the benefits of years of conventional publishing, with the full resources of the traditional publishing house and its distribution networks behind it. (He also wouldn’t have such followers if he didn’t satisfy his readers.) And that $ 23.3 million won’t be an old-fashioned advance, as Sanderson has to print, store and ship the books himself, along with boxes and special collectibles. editions that many of the project’s subscribers have purchased. That, of course, is a huge pile of money, but it’s not unprecedented: Dell paid Ken Follett about the same amount for two books back in 1990, while Penguin paid $ 50 million in advance for Follet’s Century trilogy in 2008. Follett had to do nothing but write.
A writer as popular as Sanderson may even suffer a small loss from this operation, compared to what he could gain if he released these books through his current publisher, Tor. But Sanderson is interested enough in the book publishing business to try this experiment at a time of paper shortages, container shipwrecks and other supply-side headaches. Most authors with any identity or level of literary achievement are not interested in such a project. And not every author is willing to pay more for a bribe and books printed on more sophisticated paper with plush bindings. This endeavor and its success are unique to Sanderson himself, as well as the achievements he has made with his fans.
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There may be a handful of authors – Neil Gaiman and George R. R. Martin, who come to mind – who could do something similar. There are authors who sell even more books, such as James Patterson or Diana Gabaldon, but whose fans are not very interested in collectibles. And it’s possible that there are still other writers who aren’t familiar to me with fans who are so stubborn that they can look at Sanderson’s $ 22 million and think, “I can beat this.” But I suspect no more than a handful.
It is one thing to challenge publishers to provide readers with a greater variety of books from a more diverse selection of authors, so that everyone can find more books to appreciate. It is another thing to scold readers for their enthusiastic support of an author whose work they really love, because there are authors and books that you consider – for some reason – more worthy. People don’t enjoy books just because other people tell them they should. And if I were one of those supposedly great authors, I’m not sure I’d want to see my own work as spinach versus Sanderson’s fries. It seems that writers always find a way to take offense at the success of the other, but the case against Sanderson and his fans is based on pure fantasy.