The streets of this historic northern Spanish town of Avilés have come alive with fantasy fans as Celsius 232—an annual festival celebrating sci-fi, fantasy, and horror—welcomes bestselling author Brandon Sanderson.
In a packed press conference alongside Spanish publisher Nova and local media, Sanderson shared exclusive insights on his bond with Spain’s readers and the excitement surrounding his return. The atmosphere here is nothing short of electric.
A Special Bond with Spanish Fans
Sanderson’s relationship with Spain goes back to the start of his career. “This was the first time I’d been invited to travel outside the US,” he said of his initial trip years ago, noting that at the time “I was nobody back then.” His wife Emily Sanderson, now COO of Dragonsteel (who speaks Spanish and lived in Madrid for a time during her study abroad) encouraged him: “Let’s go to Spain!”
The warm reception he received made a lasting impact. “Everything has changed since then,” Sanderson reflected. “It’s a mix of things that keeps bringing me back. One is the amazing reception I got from the Spanish readers… I don’t have a community like this outside English-speaking languages. It’s something special.”
That passion was on full display this week. Celsius 232’s free admission policy means “it’s a celebration of science fiction and fantasy for everyone.” Sanderson said. The turnout exceeded all expectations.
Fans traveled to Avilés from across Spain and beyond! Doing what Sanderson fans do well across the world, they created impressive lines to snag merchandise at the Dragonsteel booth. “I’ve been here before and thought I knew what to expect, but there were people waiting over five hours for my booth without me even there,” Sanderson laughed, astonished. “We underestimated the Spanish!”
Dragonsteel’s First Foray at Celsius 232
This year’s Celsius is for Sanderson’s company, Dragonsteel, which brought an official presence to the festival for the first time. “We’re packing our bags (and at least three suitcases of pins) because Team Dragonsteel is following Brandon to Spain for Celsius 232!” the company announced ahead of the event. The team went all out to make this international debut special, even shipping a container of merch and books months in advance to ensure Spanish fans could get their coveted items without prohibitive postage.
Kara Stewart, Dragonsteel’s VP of Merchandise and Events, explained their strategy: “Our priority was to bring some new things that we haven’t released to everybody yet. But the other consideration was weight. We’re bringing signed books, because these are the heavy things that are hard to ship internationally cost‑wise.”
More than the products, Dragonsteel’s presence carries symbolic weight. “This is our first time bringing products to an international show, and hopefully it’s not our last,” Stewart noted. “We want our international fans to know that we do think about them and we appreciate them.”
Sanderson said he hears from Spanish readers “all the time” about wanting to buy Dragonsteel’s leatherbounds or pins. So when festival director Diego García and the Celsius team extended an invitation, Sanderson jumped at the opportunity. “I decided to come back here in part because of my self-publishing initiatives… It’s hard to get things to Europe. With tariffs and shipping and all that, it’s really hard,” he explained. “We thought we’d try loading up a huge shipping container and sending it over to see if we could make it economical that way. And Diego is hard to deny, especially when he and everyone else involved with Celsius 232 put on an incredible convention. We were very excited to come.”
Nova and a Groundbreaking Partnership
While Dragonsteel handles special editions and merchandise, Nova (an imprint of Penguin Random House Spain) is the driving force behind Sanderson’s mainstream presence in the Spanish-speaking world. Sanderson was effusive in praising Nova at the press conference: “Let’s not underestimate the importance of Nova. Part of the reason what I do works is because I have a fantastic publisher in Spanish publishing the books in the bookstores… Nova brings in new fans here in Spain and hopefully those fans eventually want a leatherbound or two.”
Sanderson advocates for his hybrid approach, which includes traditional publishers for wide reach and self-publishing for collectibles. “I believe strongly that for authors, a hybrid approach is the best way to go,” he said, “editions in bookstores across the world in local languages” alongside direct sales to dedicated fans.
Nova’s efforts have been trailblazing. They have invested heavily to release Sanderson’s books in Spanish almost simultaneously with the English editions, a rarity in publishing. Achieving this feat requires an enormous push from the Nova team. “Getting the books published simultaneously was the first challenge, it’s a huge hurdle,” Sanderson said. “Nova is the only one doing it regularly, I think.”
This close coordination meant that by the time Sanderson arrived at Celsius 232, a wave of new Spanish fans—energized by recent releases—was ready to greet him.
Epic Stories, Bold Strategies
Sanderson opened up about the origins of the Cosmere and the unconventional path that led him there. “I love giant epics. I write fantasy, right? My subgenre of fantasy, epic fantasy, was started by Tolkien. We love long books full of very involved storytelling,” he said.
“I always say that my superpower as a writer is that I’m an artist raised by an accountant,” he joked. “My mother is an accountant and is very practical.” That pragmatism led him to write several “Book Ones” in different settings. “I learned that if I wrote two book ones instead of book one and then a sequel, I could send them out wider—no one would want book two if they had already rejected book one,” he explained.
“Being a super nerd, I secretly started writing an epic by connecting all these first books and having some characters move between them, because this is what I love to do. We’re told to write what we know, and what I know and love is interconnected universes.” He also notes that this was a year before the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) which set the stage for more fans to enjoy epic universes like Sanderson’s.
Those early standalone novels (set on different planets with different magic systems) became the foundation of the Cosmere. “I realized I could build something out of all these stories I’d written… I called that the Cosmere.” At the time, he didn’t know if readers would care. “I knew I loved it; I had no idea it would be what the fans would love.”
Breaking Records and Riding the Buzz
“When I did my Secret Projects that broke all the records and became the number one Kickstarter… a whole bunch of people who had barely heard of me thought they should now come and check me out,” Sanderson said.
But he attributes his success less to flashy campaigns and more to word-of-mouth. “These days, advertising doesn’t work like it used to. Word of mouth is much more important for driving book sales.”
Sanderson praised events like Celsius 232 for fostering this grassroots energy. “While I love the conventions in America, they’re expensive. This is a huge barrier for bringing new, particularly young, people into the fandom. At Celsius, it’s a celebration… for everyone.”
The Showman and the Storyteller
When asked whether he still finds joy in surprising and emotionally affecting readers, Sanderson lit up. “The answer is yes. As a storyteller, I’m a showman. I love the idea of imagining a reader and what the story is going to do to them. I live for those moments. The reveal. I’m like a magician on the stage.”
“When asked what drives me, I think it’s a combination of loving the work and imagining the reader. Can I make them cry a second time? Emotion connects us. It’s the closest thing to telepathy we have.”
On endings: “Like a great meal, you’ll remember the last bites. I think with books readers feel the same way—they take away the ending.”
He admitted that Wind and Truth was one of the hardest books he’s ever written. “I wasn’t going to include everything I knew the fans wanted. It wasn’t right for the art of this book to do that… though it was hard for me. I always want to give the fans what they want – but it was important [to hold back].”
Mistborn, the Future, and Finishing the Cosmere
Sanderson reiterated that his goal is to finish the Cosmere in his lifetime in response to a question about his mortality. “None of us can do anything about my mortality,” he laughed. “I want to finish the Cosmere. There won’t be any other large scale things beyond the Cosmere.”
His next project? Mistborn Era 3. “[When I pitched Mistborn] I wanted to do something that had never been done—start with an epic fantasy, then jump forward in time and do an urban fantasy, and then jump forward again and show how that fantasy series became the basis of a science fiction series. I thought it would be interesting to see how the mythos of the fantasy series became the religion of the sci-fi era. I’m on that middle part, the urban fantasy, right now with Era 3.”
When asked if he had any surprises up his sleeve (ever the magician), he gave a familiar grin: “I can’t tell you yet, that’d be a spoiler.” The crowd laughed. “RAFO!” they shouted in unison.
A Triumphant Return to Spain
Brandon Sanderson’s return to Celsius 232 has by all measures been a triumph. The partnership of Dragonsteel and Nova illustrates a powerful synergy: the grassroots enthusiasm of fandom combined with smart industry support. Sanderson’s presence turned Avilés into a pilgrimage site for fantasy lovers.
In the end, Sanderson’s 2025 visit to Spain has solidified something powerful: the Cosmere is not just an English-speaking phenomenon, but a worldwide community.
