Sanderson Time

For many, many years the Pebble Time has been the top project ever on Kickstarter. The revolutionary smartwatch was a smash hit on Pebble's second trip to Kickstarter. I was an early backer and loved the product. After so many years though, it was only a matter of when someone overtook Pebble to claim the slot. Leave it to prolific author Brandon Sanderson to be that person. Chaim Gartenberg at The Verge has more.

The project’s original goal was to raise $1,000,000 in 30 days; Sanderson hit that number in around 35 minutes, according to The New York Times. The campaign currently exceeds 82,000 backers and still has 27 days to raise additional contributions. The Pebble Time ended its record-setting campaign with contributions from 78,471 backers.

The Verge

Sanderson has slowly built a Marvel Cinematic Universe structure for his books. They are series that stand on their own, yet are all interconnected in something he calls the "Cosmere". Personally, I'm a big fan of his Mistborn trilogy and quite enjoyed reading those books. For this new project, the unveiling video is quite long (16-min) but has a lot of humor and flair.

To summarize, Sanderson spent quarantine with a lot of extra time. Prior to 2020, he was traveling nearly 1/3 of the year. With newfound freedom, he poured himself into personal works that yielded 4 novels and a 5th that he was a bit fuzzier on. However, this Kickstarter project is clear-cut: You get one book per quarter, bonus swag during the gap months when backing at higher tiers, and the books come in the format of your choice.

Given the immense work that's gone into this, it shows the power that Sanderson has on his own without needing the traditional publishing industry. Something as simple as offering bundles is possible because he's doing it himself. However, it also stands to know that it took him a long time to get to this stage in his career.

As of this writing, there are 26 days to go until this project is over. So if you are interested, now is the time to see what it's all about.