Records Are Meant To Be Broken

📚 Fantasy/sci-fi author Brandon Sanderson recently broke the Kickstarter record for the most successful crowdfunded project of all time, raising almost $25 million over a period of just three days.

• He initially set out to raise $1 million to self-publish four new books that he wrote in secret during the pandemic... and reached that number within the first 35 minutes, according to the NY Times.
• As of late Sunday, Sanderson’s campaign had raised more than $24.8 million with 105,000+ backers – and there’s still 24 days left to contribute. The previous record of $20.3 million was set in 2015.
• Sanderson is best known for his Cosmere collection – a massive, interconnected fantasy plotline made up of different sub-series of books, similar to projects like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Three of the four new books are set within the Cosmere, which now features almost 30 different novels.
• The prolific fantasy author is famous for the sheer speed at which he writes new novels, and is also widely known for finishing the final three books of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series after the author’s death.

👀 Looking ahead... As with all Kickstarter campaigns, there’s a risk the product won’t materialize – though Sanderson’s company already ran a successful $6.7 million campaign for a leather-bound edition of one of his books.