Brandon Sanderson Raises $7,000,000 in 1 Hour!
How Brandon Sanderson raised $15,000,000 on Backerkit Crowdfunding in a day!
Time to read: 7min. Interests: Success. Indie Creators. Crowdfunding. Publishing.
This is a brief breakdown of Brandon Sanderson’s most recent crowdfunding campaign.
Brandon Sanderson launched a Backerkit Crowdfunding campaign for his Words of Radiance Leatherbound Edition and once again knocked it into the proverbial stratosphere.
And once again, those of us interested in publishing, crowdfunding, or success in general can glean many a lesson from his marketing genius and business acumen.
The Numbers
As a TTRPG game designer and fellow fantasy author, raising 7 figures in crowdfunding took me 2 years. Brandon Sanderson raised more in the time it took me to write this post!
I learned about his campaign via someone in the industry a few months back, so I’d been watching for it.
By the time I noticed the launch, however, the campaign had been live for over an hour and had had already raised $7,000,000. In the minutes it took to post about it on my Facebook feed, that number had increased to $8,000,000.
Once again, Brandon Sanderson demonstrates the phenomenal success one can expect if they play their cards right.
Let’s look at some of the cards we know about.
Managing Intellectual Property Rights
First thing’s first.
At the root of Mister Sanderson’s success lies incredible foresight. I posted about Sandersons Word of Radiance campaign in the 20Booksto50k Facebook Group a few hours after it went live. It’s a fantastic resource for indie authors looking to turn their novels into a business. Someone asked a great question. “Since Sanderson is traditionally published, how does he have the rights to publish these books himself?”
The answer?
When negotiating with his publisher, he very cleverly retained rights to publish Limited Editions of his books.
On the surface, this might not appear to be all that important, but it serves as a linchpin. Mister Sanderson’s first Kickstarter campaign funded the Way of Kings 10th anniversary leatherbound edition.
The lesson? Whether you deal in intellectual property, product designs, patents or any other kind of licensing, you’d do well to negotiate a good deal. In the book world, for example, authors are all too eager to
And in the spirit of full transparency, I speak from experience on this one. 7 years ago, I directly licensed the audio rights to one of my novel series to a publisher only to learn later that an agent cut a MUCH better deal for several of my author friends.
I was just happy to find someone with the connection and finances to turn my novels into audiobooks, and I was too naïve to negotiate a better deal. Lesson learned.
That said, be less like Paddy Finn and more like Brandon Sanderson.
Don’t jump headfirst into the first deal you’re offered in any negotiation. I you don’t know Adam from Eve when it comes to deal negotions, engage the services a knowledgeable professional in your industry, whether that be an agent, a lawyer, or a business consultant. You’ll pay for that service, but you could make a lot more in the long run.
Content Marketing!
Over the years, not only has Brandon Sanderson maintained a level of fiction output to make G.R.R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss squirm, he has created a ton of value for his more creative fans too. You can find a series of lecture by Mister Sanderson on YouTube where he teaches all about how to write a fantasy novel. His lessons include the art of storytelling, plot designs, and character development.
And they aren’t just fluff either. I got a HUGE amount of value from Sanderson’s lectures when it came to publishing my own novels. In fact, I didn’t realize it at the time, but the lessons I learned from Sanderson helped me eventually become a full time author.
Aside from this, Sanderson is known for putting out regular videos where he updates his fans on publishing developments while signing book endplates.
On shorts, he has generated a ton of content marketing. And it would be foolish to claim that this didn’t have a part to play in his success.
What can we learn from this?
Content marketing is free and it can be exceptionally powerful over the long term especially when building your personal brand. Whether it be blog posts, vlogs, or shorts consider adapting content marketing as part of your business strategy.
Promises & Trust
Sanderson under promises and over delivers. He has a great track record of following through when so many in his industry don’t.
Say what you will about an author not owing their readers anything, as an author I disagree. And so does Brandon Sanderson. Which is why he’d completed several series of epic fantasy tomes that his fans enjoy.
Some feel his writing isn’t the best. Thought I disagree with that feeling, the thing is…Your writing needn’t be the best thing since sliced bread when you you fulfilling your promises, spoken or otherwise, to your readers.
His previous crowdfunding campaigns are perfect examples of his ability to deliver. In fact, crowdfunding is by nature a promise to your backers that you will send them rewards should they help you raise a certain number of funding. Time and again, Sanderson has set the bar high be delivering on those promises and then some.
He has so far delivered on three large, multi seven figure, crowdfunding campaigns…and then some.
This doesn’t include the campaigns where he’s partnered with for other products like board games, miniatures, and TTRPGs.
We do well to ask ourselves if we’re known for delivering on our promises. Relationships built on trust should not be underestimated.
He is a known quantity.
Brandon Sanderson doesn’t leap from into a new genre or a new product every other year. He is a fantasy author through and through. That is what he is and that is what everyone knows him for.
He isn’t a fantasy author who also dabbles in science fiction and mystery and boardgame design with a side of music writing on weekends.
There’s a lot to be said about being a known quantity when it comes to personal brand.
People find it easier to latch onto something they know and understand. Something singular and solid rather than nebulous and fluid.
There’s a lot more I could write about Brandon Sanders, his writing, and his Kickstarter shenanigans, but I need to leave something for all the other blog writers.
But it goes without saying that Brandon Sanderson is the king of crowdfunding and a master of Kickstarter AND Backerkit.
If you want to learn how to generate 6 or even 7 figures on Kickstarter, check THIS out.
Cheers,
Paddy Finn