Brandon Sanderson’s Secret Novels Break Pebble’s Kickstarter Crowdfunding Record

More than half a decade later, a new Kickstarter campaign has finally eclipsed Pebble’s crowdfunding record on the website. Fantasy and sci-fi author Brandon Sanderson set up a campaign to raise $1 million within 30 days to fund four secret books he plans to publish quarterly next year. However, it didn’t take 30 days to blow past that target – it took only 35 minutes† And three days later, at the time of writing, the campaign has already made $20.4 million, nearly $100,000 more than what the pebble time e-paper smartwatch retrieved when it ran out of funding.

Although Sanderson self-publishes the four books in the project, he is not a little-known indie author. It was possible to raise over $20 million in just three days as he already had a solid fan base that knows he can deliver as he is known as a fast writer who can produce new books quickly. He is known for his novels set in the Cosmere universe, which he likens to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive series. Three of the secret books in the campaign are also set in the Cosmere universe, with each story set on a different fantasy planet. Sanderson is known for finishing Robert Jordan’s the wheel of time, also.

The author told The New York Times that one of his goals for launching this project is to see what it would be like to challenge Amazon. The e-commerce and cloud giant dominates the print and e-book market, accounting for 80 percent of Sanderson’s revenue. “If Amazon’s grip on the industry is weakened, that’s good for the publishers – they’re very much under Amazon’s thumb right now. I don’t want to present this as ‘Brandon versus Amazon’. Amazon is great. But I think that on “The long term, Amazon is a monopoly is actually bad for Amazon. If they don’t have competition, they will stop innovating,” he said.

To get Sanderson’s Secret Books, fans must pledge a minimum of $40 for ebook copies. The audiobook versions will refund them a minimum of $60, while they must pledge a minimum of $160 (excluding shipping) for the premium hardcovers. Sanderson plans to release one book each in January, April, July, and October 2023.

Interested parties can either go in blind and just wait for the deliveries or read a fragment from the first book on Sanderson’s website. They can also hear him read the opening chapter of the first book on Youtube†