Full Transcript

BRANDON: Hey! Brandon here with the Weekly Update. I was gone last week. Sorry about that. But I've got some cool stuff to announce. Very cool things this week.

Number one, your book updates. Ghostbloods first draft is at, Bing! 52%. I got over the 50% mark, which was a really good break point. And I actually went back and am now doing revision on those while also working on some kind of worldbuilding documents for my arcanists and my team to look at. So I'm going to take a little break from new percentages, so don't expect new percentages for a little while, while I work on that, and then we're going to let my team do some early reads on the first part of Ghostbloods.

Janci also just kind of, you know, has been working these last few weeks quite diligently, and she is at, Bing! 49% for Songrise, up from 28%. So she showed me up this week by having a monstrous 21% increase on her book. Obviously, she hit her stride on a big chunk of that book. So very excited by that. We will probably soon have news for you how you're going to get those books in the Skyward follow-up series.

So what else is going on? Well, Tailored Realities, our non-Cosmere collection, has this really awesome by Brian Mark Taylor. You should check it out. I really like it. We spent a lot of time coming up with concepts, and then he just really, really did an awesome job. I love this cover. Good job to Brian Mark Taylor. Check that out.

Let's talk about Nexus, Dragonsteel Nexus. The last batch of options for people to buy tickets through our system of randomized giving people chances to buy tickets has gone out. Thank you all for your patience with this. We are very pleased with how this system worked. People got a chance in a more sort of democratic fashion to be able to buy tickets. We got through 80% of the list, which makes us feel pretty good because almost everybody who signed up early got their chance. If you're in that 20%, I'm sorry. I hope that your luck next time is much better. But we did get through almost everyone. 

This is something we've been wanting to solve for many, many years, how to have some sort of more randomized system for people to get access to the things that we have limited amounts of. And we feel like this system ended up working. So this is what we're going to be doing going forward for this sort of thing. Obviously, we will refine the process. We appreciate your feedback. 

We do get a lot of questions on why we don't just sell more tickets, and this is a good question. It comes down to two things. First thing is, there is limited space at the convention center. And they are now willing to give us as much space as we want. But it also is going to be undergoing a bunch of construction in coming years. And so the options for space go down, even though our ability to get space there goes up. 

We could cram more people. In fact, we would make a lot more money if we crammed more people into the space. But you already can go to comic cons where they sell as many tickets as they can. You might have gone to these before, where you're kind of shuffling through a dealers' hall. The only thing you can do with that many people is have them shuffle through a dealers' hall. It's not how we want Nexus to be. We want Nexus to be more interactive than that. We want you to not have to be fighting for space. We want you to be able to actually breathe. And we just don't want to over-crowd it. 

And beyond that, our staff--we have a wonderful staff. We love our staff. We don't to overload them. And so there is a limit on the number of people we are comfortable having. We are looking at, like, other options, whether we might want to do two Nexus', like around the country or things like that. We are approaching that. But for right now the idea is that we want to keep Nexus at a size where we can make sure everyone has an awesome time. We'd rather have 10,000 people have a really awesome Nexus than have 30,000 people sit in a dealers' hall and shuffle along, and, you know, not be able to really do anything else. Anyway, this is what we're doing with Nexus, and this is how it's going. We do appreciate your feedback. But I did want to address that just in case you're curious.

So something very cool happened this week that you might think that I didn't think was very cool, but I really do. We have been surpassed for the number one Kickstarter, which I think is awesome. More people doing cool things with crowdfunding, I think, is great. And looks like a very cool company that has a good track record. It's eufyMake. It's a 3D printer that's not a 3D printer. It's like a texture printer. And they have beaten us at Kickstarter, so I wanted to give them a hearty congratulations, pass the torch to them for being the new number one Kickstarter. I am happy having number two and number four, I believe is what we have currently. So yeah. Huzzah! Well done! And I hope everybody loves their new texture printers that they have gotten through eufyMake.

Also very cool. Isles of the Emberdark has started shipping. eBooks downloads should be available for backers today. So check your email. Things have gotten a little tricky with the codes for your audiobooks. So Audible's system has a lot of trouble giving people an audiobook that isn't out yet. But we have the raw files that we're sending you. So you should be getting right now in your email access to the raw audiobook files. If you want it on Audible, you will be getting also a code to download it on Audible. But that's going to be happening when the book goes up for sale for everyone. OK? So you get the book early through your raw files. Your code won't work until the book is available for everyone. 

This is the best that we've been able to make it work. We feel it's probably OK, because otherwise it was going to take us, like, weeks and weeks and weeks to figure out how to get people a book early and then put it up for--. Anyway, you're going to get your book earlier. In fact, we're all getting them two months early. So if you want your book on Audible, don't worry. You'll be getting a code on July 10th. If you want to listen to it early, you should be able to listen to the raw files right now, and you've got them. That's the best that we've been able to work it out on this thing so far. Let us know via feedback how you feel about this, and we'll see what we can do going forward. 

The real issue is, we have a lot of control over sending out the raw files. But getting it onto these platforms, which makes it so much easier for a lot of you to listen, is super difficult just because of the way that their systems work. So this is what we're going to do for the audiobook on this one. So hopefully that works for everyone. It seems like a good compromise on our end rather than making everybody wait a month to get their audiobook just so that we can make sure backers get it early, and making you all wait, you know, however much time it would take to get this going. We're just going to do it this way.

In conjunction with that, if you didn't get in on the BackerKit, well, Isles of the Emberdark eBook and audiobook will be available to non-backers on July 10th. So look forward to grabbing that. I think you'll really enjoy this book.

So, upcoming events. I've been gone for a while, so we have a lot of announcements. But stick around. There's a really cool one coming. 

I will be at Celsius 232 in Spain July 15th through 19th. You probably already know that if you live in Spain or the surrounding area. I just want to give you kind of a final heads up. Hey, I'm going to be in Spain. We are bringing, like, the whole company. Not quite. But we've, like, filled a giant shipping container full of merch that we are shipping to Spain that's theoretically arriving tomorrow. So yeah. Giant shipping container full of merch, and we'll be at Celsius 232.

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Bing! Hey! It's Brandon from the future, or technically still your past but my future except my now for this version of me. We forgot to mention some things that Celsius wanted to say. If you're going to Celsius, free tickets for signings will be available on Eventbrite this Thursday. Because that's this Thursday, we wanted to make sure to sneak this into the Weekly Update. Watch for more info. But we will have both traditional and lightning signings each day of the festival, the difference between them being a traditional signing I'll put your name in and chat with you for a minute, lightning everyone stands in a row, and I hit as many of them as I can. It's just a way that we can slip in extra signings because I can get about 100 people in about the time I can get, like, 20 in a traditional signing. So sign up for the traditional signing until they're gone. Then grab the lightning signings.

All right. Now back to past Brandon that is extra past for you.

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So, regarding WorldCon in Seattle in August. That is August 15th and 16th. I have a special announcement, which I'm going to hand off to the people from SFF Addicts, who put together something really cool for you.

ADRIAN: We're very, very excited. Obviously, Brandon set us up with a little bit of hype. But we are going to be at Seattle WorldCon in August, and we have been given the unique opportunity to do a live episode of SFF Addicts podcast. And looking through the entire schedule, I realize there's no epic fantasy. So why don't we do a panel on epic fantasy? And with that, they gave me free reign to invite whoever I wanted. And so, without further ado, we're going to tell you--we'll do it one by one just to hype it up a little bit more--who's going to be on this panel. I'll start with our good friend Ryan Cahill, author of Of Blood and Fire. Very, very amazing author, you know, stalwart of indie fantasy. And M.J., you want to go with the next one?

M.J.: Sure. We have the wonderful Rebecca Roanhorse, author of Black Sun, Trail of Lightning, all kinds of cool stuff.

GRETA: And of course, next up we have the wonderful Robin Hobb, author of The Assassin's Apprentice and many others.

ADRIAN: So many books, man. So many books. And as well we have the wonderful Brandon Sanderson. All of you here on the channel know him well so I don't have to do any kind of introductions. We're very excited to have him on this panel as well. And M.J., do you want to announce our last guest?

M.J.: Sure. Final guest on our lovely live episode is going to be George R. R. Martin, author of, oh, I don't know, just A Song of Ice and Fire.

ADRIAN: Stuff.

GRETA: The myth, the man, the legend.

ADRIAN: The myth, the man, the legend. And so we're very excited to gather these five authors together with us to discuss the shifting landscape of epic fantasy, which is going to be really exciting for us to look back at where epic fantasy has come from, especially with such big names like George and Robin, and then Brandon, who's an author, in my mind, who's kind of led the transition from, you know, the older generation of epic fantasy with the completion of The Wheel of Time series into a new era of epic fantasy where we're seeing authors like Brandon take it to new levels. We're seeing Ryan and Rebecca and so many other fantastic epic fantasy authors doing their thing and making this genre really stand out, whether it's in self-publishing, whether it's in traditional publishing. 

And we're so, so excited for all of you to join us at WorldCon. So we hope to see you there. It'll be August 15th at 3:00 PM Pacific Time in Ballroom 2. So probably line up early or make some things happen behind the scenes. I don't know. But we're very excited to see you all there.

GRETA: Also, if you can't make it in person to the panel, you can buy a virtual ticket to WorldCon, and watch live that way.

ADRIAN: And if you're unable to attend the convention in any capacity, whether that's virtual or physical, you can check out the panel on our podcast feed in audio a few weeks after the convention finishes. It'll also be available on our YouTube channel, as well as Brandon's YouTube channel. So if you can't make it to WorldCon in any capacity, come back here.

M.J.: Either way, we'll see you guys.

ADRIAN: Yeah. No matter where you are you can see this panel, and I hope you enjoy it.

BRANDON: So yes, I am going to be doing a panel with Robin Hobb and George R. R. Martin. It's been a very long time since all three of us have been on a panel together. In fact, the last time I think I was on the panel with George, it's been over 10 years. Just getting us all in the same place at the same time is super difficult. This should be really fun. And I recommend that if you can make it to WorldCon, go. 

Do remember they've got a special pricing if it's your first WorldCon, or if you're a student. Like I've said before, WorldCon is a little on the pricey side. It is worth it. It is a wonderful convention. So I recommend that you join us there. And, of course, you also, as long as you buy early enough, you will get the entire Hugo voting packet, which is usually copies of all the stories and books nominated. And you get to vote in the Hugos. So that's really cool.

Last thing. I know this has been a pretty long Weekly Update. But we also have a really cool YouTube video that you'll want to check out, our interview with Tom Doherty. This goes into the original publishing stories for some of the biggest fantasy books that you've heard of. It's a fantastic look at the history of TOR from the founder himself and includes some fun stories about the beginning of The Wheel of Time. Tom is a great storyteller, and I think you'll really enjoy this YouTube video, which we have up on our channel right now. 

We're obviously doing this because we are releasing a copy of The Eye of the World, the first book of The Wheel of Time, in leatherbound, done by Dragonsteel, the first leatherbound that we've ever done that's not one of my books. It's looking gorgeous. I love all the art in it. We're hoping to have that out to you in this year or early next year. We're not exactly sure when they'll get shipped in. But you can sign up for the specific Wheel of Time newsletter below, which will let you know when this thing goes live and when our preorder for it happens.

On that newsletter we'll also be sending out behind-the-scenes content. In fact, like when this YouTube video, we had it ready, we actually let people who signed up for the newsletter see it early. And so I was seeing all their comments come through on my YouTube response thing. So anyway, yeah, if you want to get information about behind-the-scenes on just The Wheel of Time and our leatherbound, sign up for that newsletter.