Sanderson created the Cosmere universe, in which many stories similar to the Mistborn series take place. He was originally seeking $1 million in 30 days for a project that includes four new books. Sanderson has been writing them secretly for the past two years.
He reached that $1 million goal in less than 35 minutes.
Sanderson is not a neophyte author. He self-publishes new books and has written several other novels, many of which are also self-published. He co-created The Wheel of Time, which has since become an Amazon Prime Video television series. He has his own book company, DragonSteel Entertainment, and has been on the New York Times bestseller list 15 times, according to his website.
After raising that first million dollars, Sanderson set the record for the most money raised in 24 hours, raising $15.4 million, more than double the previous record, according to the platform.
Sanderson’s book proposal broke the overall Kickstarter record set by Pebble Time smartwatches in 2015, generating $20.3 million from 78,471 backers. Kickstarter also reported that at one point, Sanderson’s project was generating $20,000 per minute and set a new record for the most funding and the most supporters in the first 24 hours.
The project currently has over 84,000 supporters and could attract even more with 27 days left before launch.
What do these sponsors get for their investment? There are various price tiers that start at $40 which gets them quarterly e-books and go up to $500 which gets authored books throughout the year in all formats as well as other merchandise such as clothing.
Sanderson said on Kickstarter that the books should be delivered next year.
“Our goal is to have them delivered to you throughout 2023, as well as – for those who want it – a gift box with cool items related to one of my already created worlds or concepts,” he wrote on Kickstarter. “So please join us for the Year of Sanderson and experience for yourself the secret I’ve been keeping for the past few years.”