Brandon Sanderson’s $15 million Kickstarter day

Since Monica Leonelle and I literally wrote the book on selling books on Kickstarter, I feel it necessary to comment on the fact that Brandon Sanderson raised over $14 million dollars in one day with Kickstarter for four new books. So, here it is. My official statement.

It’s frigging rad.

Now that that’s done, how about some analysis about what happened yesterday. First, if you haven’t seen the campaign, this is where it stood when I woke up, less than 24 hours since he launched.

Kickstarter link

That’s nearly $15 million dollars from 56k people in less than 24 hours from selling books and swag.

Incredible, but let’s be honest. This is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the audience who buys his books. His books sell literally MILLIONS of copies and yet with just 56,000 people, he was able to raise 5x his normal advance in ONE DAY.

In fairness, these results are nearly impossible. Kickstarter crashed yesterday because NO CAMPAIGN HAS EVER RAISED $4 MILLION so fast.

Also, he was literally anointed as the next Robert Jordan, and then both Rothfuss and GRRM crapped the bed and decided not to finish their series, leaving Sanderson as THE preeminent name in complex, intricate, long-form hard-fantasy fiction.

I’m not saying there are not other very popular authors in the same genre, but Sanderson is THE name in that genre right now and has been for the better part of a decade.

It would be like Stephen King at the height of his popularity coming to Kickstarter with four new books at once. It would blow up. Heck, it would probably kill RIGHT NOW if he did the same.

That said, while these results are nearly impossible unless you’re the second coming of JRR Tolkien, it is very, very instructive of what an author can do on the platform.

After all, very soon the most successful campaign EVER on Kickstarter will be a novel, so how did he do it?

• While he shocked everyone by launching this Kickstarter as a surprise, he had a strong fanbase that was ready to mobilize and get the word out about his work. He developed that fanbase over nearly 20 years of going to conventions, speaking on panels, delivering awesome books, and building up communities of his fans that were ready to buy EVERYTHING that he writes.
• And it wasn’t exactly a surprise, because he dropped a few hints that “things were changing tomorrow”, and that he’s been “keeping a secret” from his fans for year, ginning up the fandom to a frenzy for a whole day before the announcement dropped. Anticipation is key, and building hype before a campaign, even if it’s only for a day, is incredibly important. I generally take a month to build up, while Sanderson did it in a single day.
• He focused heavily on the things his fans said they wanted. In his video, he said he was doing book boxes because that was what fans have asked for years. He wasn’t guessing. He used their words to give them exactly what they wanted.
• He gamified his launch, telling people he would not reveal ANYTHING except the covers for the books to most fans, but then giving people a reason to keep tuning in because every week he will reveal the plot of one more book for people who want to know. As a person who often buys from creators without knowing ANYTHING about the book, I thought this was brilliant. It allows superfans to buy immediately, and then others to trickle in throughout the campaign as the initial hype wears off.
• This wasn’t just one book. He had a plan, and four books to drive home his point. That alone let him maximize this one launch with the power of four projects. He could expend more effort on this one launch than spreading it out over four different ones throughout the year. I use this strategy as well, where I will launch multiple books in one series at a time, and have found it very effective.
• He utilized the channels at his disposal (Youtube, Reddit, Discord, etc) to the best of their ability to drive viral traffic. Instead of having a hundred videos leading up to launch and bifurcating his audience, he made one video that was easily sharable and explained everything somebody needed to know about the campaign.
• THE BOOKS WERE DONE. People have to wait for them to be delivered, but he was very clear that every book was already done, and all you had to do was believe that a very successful author would deliver them with all the resources at his disposal. He didn’t ask people to pay for covers or editing. He just wanted them to pay for the books, just like they’ve done for years.
• He charged a premium to attract his premium fans and made very expensive tiers filled with goodies for his super fans. His average pledge level is over $250 because he has people clamoring for these book boxes he’s doing, and simply to support him in a more intimate way.
• He’s very charming in his video. So often authors on camera look like they are having a root canal, but you can see the delight on his face (and I’ve seen this commented several times about fans’ favorite thing about this) and it’s infectious. Who wouldn’t want to be part of a project so delightful?
• His page was easy to read and join in on the fun. He didn’t fill his page with nonsense or irrelevant information, but his personality and love for the books came through.

No, you aren’t going to be raising $14 million in one day, but there is no reason you couldn’t put something together for your super fans, bring it to Kickstarter FIRST, and then use that to continue the hype train for your launch.

Because when these books hit Amazon, I am very sure they will be quite successful, probably more successful than his other novellas, because the hype train is real.

Yesterday, when I told my wife that his campaign raised $10 million in a few hours, she didn’t respond “that’s cool,” or “interesting”. No, the first thing she said was “I want those”.

I literally told her NOTHING about the books. She didn’t care. She wanted them sight unseen. I didn’t even show her the covers, or the video. She just wanted them because he wrote them.

That is the type of fan you are trying to grow. Brandon Sanderson built tens of thousands over 2 decades of producing top-quality books, but there is no reason you can’t, too, and then use Kickstarter to deliver something special to them.

But mostly, I am just so tickled by how the #1 project by a wide margin will soon be a book.

This is a HUGE opportunity for authors. If it’s good enough for Brandon Sanderson, it’s probably something you should look into as well.

In celebration of this, Monica and I have put Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter live on all platforms, just in case you want to learn more about how to do this, too.

If you want more information on launching and funding a Kickstarter, here is a playlist I created with my co-author Monica Leonelle.