Introduction

Welcome, everyone, to our final State of the Sanderson for the decade! If you’re not familiar with these posts, each December I take a look back at my year and talk about the projects I’ve been working on. Then I turn an eye to the future to see where I’m planning for things to go in the coming years. If you’d like to see last year’s State of the Sanderson, you can find it at this handy link.

This year was dedicated primarily to writing Stormlight Book Four; I’ll have a specific update on that for you in a little bit. I also spent a lot of time traveling, particularly to Europe—to the point that I’ve been feeling the weight of my travel. (Which indicates it’s time to scale back for a while.)

Stormlight years always have a little less variety than “off” years where I work on a more eclectic mix of stories. So while I got a ton done, there won’t be much in the way of updates on other projects. One thing I wanted to add this year, however, is a little survey—mostly about our leatherbound books. So if you’d do me a favor and hop down to answer a couple of questions, that would help us a ton. I’ve put the survey at the bottom of the following section, which will dig into leatherbounds in depth. This section is a tad long, which will come as no surprise since I wrote it. So if you’re not interested, you might want to meet me back at Part Two.

• Part One: Leatherbounds and Survey Time!
• Part Two: My Year
• Part Three: Updates on Major Projects
• Part Four: Updates on Secondary Projects
• Part Five: Updates on Minor Projects
• Part Six: Film/Television Updates
• Part Seven: Other Cool Projects
• Part Eight: Projected Schedule
• Part Nine: Bonus Section, the Future of the Cosmere

Part One: Leatherbounds and Survey Time!

This year, we’re releasing the Warbreaker leatherbound! This book is particularly gorgeous; we’ve added a few features such as illustrated drop caps and interstitial art. We put these volumes together in-house, rather than farming them out to someone else, and we pour a lot of attention into making them great. Next year is a big year for us, as we’ve reached the tenth anniversary of The Way of Kings, and will be releasing a leatherbound of that book.

Now, some of you might be wondering, “Brandon, isn’t The Way of Kings double the size of the previous books you’ve done as leatherbounds?” Yes. Yes, it is. That’s meant a lot of extra work on the part of my team, who have already been working on it for a good eight months. We want this book to be something extra special—and because of that, we’ve wanted to do preorder incentives (like goodies and swag) to go with it.

The logistics of doing this worried us a lot, however, as we’re still a relatively small team. Beyond that, we expect The Way of Kings leatherbound demand to strain our logistics and shipping departments. When talking about this with Howard Tayler, my cartoonist friend, he suggested we use Kickstarter to alleviate these problems. I was hesitant at first, as I know Kickstarter is mostly intended for people who need extra up-front money in order to create a product. We’ve been able to fund the leatherbounds ourselves so far, and we’re certain we can create these without needing extra time.

However, Howard really sold me on Kickstarter by pointing out how great the site’s management tools are for creators. If I want to offer different packages for the book, with a variety of preorder items personalized to customer preferences, the only way I’d be able to manage this is to take advantage of Kickstarter’s infrastructure and tools. As we’ve looked into the process, my team and I have come to agree that this is the only way we’d be able to do what we want to with The Way of Kings leatherbound.

So, while I know some of you might be skeptical about this like I was, I ask you to give us a chance to show why it will be a good thing. Our goal will not be to move to Kickstarter for all leatherbounds, only Stormlight leatherbounds every three years—because the added size, complexity, and logistics of such a large book require us to have some extra help. We plan to launch The Way of Kings as a Kickstarter in the summer of 2020, probably June or July. The book will likely come in two volumes, and will have to be around double the cost of our previous leatherbounds. (So, $200 to $250 instead of $100.) I thought it only fair to warn you all up front. Plus, if we hear concerns from the community that we haven’t considered, announcing it this early will help us deal with those before the actual campaign.

To that end, I have a little mini FAQ dealing with issues I think you might have.

Q: You are doing the Kickstarter in the summer. When will the books be sent out?

The goal will be to start sending these out as soon as possible, hopefully months before the holidays arrive. We are going to put our order in as soon as we can for the books themselves, and get the incentives constructed ASAP. Ideally, we’ll send you a single box with book and rewards all together in one cool bundle.

There will be some digital rewards offered as well. These will be sent out the moment the campaign closes, and will hopefully tide you over until the physical products arrive.

Q: Will this leatherbound be available on your store later, like the others?

Yes, it will. If you miss the campaign, you’ll still be able to buy the book.

Some things might not be available in the later printing, however, depending on what incentives we offer for the Kickstarter. For example, we will possibly offer a slipcase as part of the Kickstarter incentives—but (depending on the size of future print runs) we might not be able to offer that with the later editions we sell in the store. In short, the book will totally be there for you to buy later—but any stretch goal achievements and swag associated with the Kickstarter would have to come from that campaign. (With one exception mentioned below.)

Q: I like supporting my local independent bookseller. Will any stores be getting this book like they have other leatherbounds you’ve done?

I haven’t cleared this with any of the stores yet, so I don’t want to speak for them. However, we love our bookstores, and have tried from the get-go to involve them in our leatherbound distribution. Our goal will be to set aside a certain number of books as requested by the booksellers we work with frequently. (And if you’re a bookseller who has had me in your store for a signing in the past, and you would like to be selling these leatherbounds too, make sure to contact us.)

My goal will be to add all bookseller orders into the final count from the Kickstarter, and order an equivalent number of physical reward objects for them to include with their books. So these bookstore editions should include all unlocked stretch goal rewards in the boxes we send for them to sell. They might not be personalized to your preferences (e.g. you might receive a random order of Knights Radiant, based on the box you get), but we hope this will work so that readers who prefer to buy from the booksellers do not feel left out.

The short version is this: if you miss the Kickstarter, there’s a good chance that a limited number of boxes with full rewards included will be available at retailers, for the same price people paid in the Kickstarter. Those stores should be similar to the ones that have been carrying our leatherbounds so far.

Q: Leatherbounds are expensive. Will I be able to participate if I’m not interested in such a high ticket item?

My plan is to write a Stormlight (or at least Cosmere) novella next spring to offer as part of the Kickstarter campaign. We’re anticipating some lower tiers that involve getting digital-only rewards and a digital copy of the novella—all for a very reasonable price. We will likely also offer just the novella in print form, along with all campaign rewards, as another slightly higher (but still well below $200) tier that you can buy into as well. (And, of course, a tier that has everything—including the leatherbound and a print copy of the novella.)

Q: So…a novella you say. Anything else you can tell us about the rewards?

We haven’t settled on anything yet. I haven’t even written the novella, so it’s possible that won’t even happen. However, it’s likely that we’ll be letting you choose an order of Knights Radiant (and we’ll post full descriptions of all ten orders, including information not yet in the books) and receive rewards based on your preference (i.e. physical rewards with that order’s symbols on them).

There’s also a decent chance I’ll offer an ebook of The Way of Kings Prime (the version I wrote of the book back in 2002 that is way different from the 2010 version) as a stretch goal unlock. This would be sent to everyone who participates in the campaign at any level.

Okay, if you’re still with me after that (we’re over a thousand words into this SotS already, and I haven’t even really started yet), let’s talk about the survey. After The Way of Kings, the next book to hit its ten-year anniversary is The Alloy of Law. Instead of being a lot larger than the average Sanderson book, AoL is half the size. We aren’t allowed by Tor to sell our leatherbounds for less than $100, and the logistics of printing them kind of preclude that anyway.

However, I thought that perhaps you all would like to get The Alloy of Law and Shadows of Self bundled together as a single leatherbound. I figured if we have to charge double for a double-sized stormlight book, shouldn’t we charge half for a half-sized mistborn book? This would require binding the two books together though.

Assistant Adam, who is a leatherbound connoisseur, mentioned that some people might not like this—he thought the leatherbound collectors he knows would just prefer to have the individual books, separate as they’re sold in stores, for their collection. So, we thought we’d ask you. The survey below is getting at this idea. The questions are very simple, so feel free to look them over before taking it.

Finally, a couple of questions for those of you who attend my book signings. I’m having some growing pains in this department. My signings, put flatly, are just getting too long for me to handle. The last Stormlight tour wore me out, with each signing lasting until 1 or 2 a.m., with signs that they were going to grow even larger. I need to do something to either speed up the lines, or make the signings easier.

Fortunately, I have some guides in this department. I’m fortunate enough to be approaching crowds similar to the ones GRRM or Neil Gaiman get, and talking to people like them, I’ve found that there are two approaches authors generally use. Neil, for example, will pre-sign all the books. You don’t get to meet him personally at a signing, but instead you get a signed book—and then he does an extra-long presentation, with much longer readings, Q&As, and speeches than I do. In short, it becomes “an evening with Neil” instead of a book signing. Other authors (I know George has done this) still sign all the books, but don’t do a presentation at all, and don’t allow personalizations or pictures.

I’m curious what all of you think. My own inclination is a hybrid of my current method and Neil’s method—where I do a longer presentation like Neil does, perhaps bringing Isaac to do a presentation on artwork too. Then have a lottery (which is not based on your ability to buy a more expensive ticket, and is instead completely random) for a hundred people to come meet me afterward and get a book personalized.

If you’re interested, I’d enjoy you answering some questions about this too. (Note that none of these apply to release parties, which will continue to be the insane and enormous extravaganzas you’ve come to expect.)

Okay, whew. Thanks for sticking through all of that for me. But we spend a lot of time on the leatherbounds, and want to make sure we’re creating them the way you want. Now, on to the regular State of the Sanderson.

Part Two: My Year

January–March: Starsight Revisions

My goal had been to launch straight into Stormlight Four in January, but I didn’t quite make it. We thought we had the book wrapped up by February, but some of the beta reader comments set me thinking about several problems with Starsight—and I made the tough call to do another round of revisions on the book to make it as good as it could be. This put me about a month behind; I’d built in a buffer, but had really wanted to start on Stormlight Four in February. (I even had a trip to Hawaii planned to kick it off—as nothing is better than writing on the beach. Alas, though I got a tad of Stormlight done on that trip, I spent most of it on Starsight.)

But the revisions worked, and the book finally clicked into place. Judging from the reader responses, it feels like that extra month really paid some dividends, so I’m glad I did it.

April: Stormlight 4

The real work on Stormlight 4 started in April, where I launched into Part One. Writing went pretty good from the get-go, as I’m always kind of working on Stormlight outlines—even when I’m writing other books. So I can often hit the ground running. Stormlight books literally have two decades of planning behind them.

May: Europe Trip One (Germany)

This trip was a lot of fun—and Art Director Isaac went with me, as he speaks German. The fans were enthusiastic, and the tour was a huge success. But it did also slow me down a ton. Not much written this month.

June: Stormlight 4

I got back into it, eventually managing to catch up all the lost time from Germany. (Though I was still about a month behind because of the Starsight revision.) I might have caught all the way up, except…

July: Europe Trip Two (Spain/France/Belgium)

Another big trip through Europe, though about half of this one was vacation rather than work. My father was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in France and Belgium when he was in his twenties. Now that he’s retired, we wanted to take him back to show us around. Spain was a work trip for me (one of my favorite SF/F conventions is in Spain, and I love going there).

August–September: Stormlight 4

I jumped back into it, and despite a little detour at Dragon Con in September (the hotel room they gave me was amazing—check out my view above!). I managed to catch all the way back up on lost time, and then on October 9th caught up (finally) from the lost month in March, putting me 100% on track to finish the book by January 1st. But then on October 11th, I flew back out on tour…

October: Israel, Europe Trip Three (France, the Czech Republic)

I’ve always wanted to go to Israel, and locked in about two years ago to be a guest at a convention in Tel Aviv. The trip was great, really special—and was followed by the utterly cool chance to go visit the Wheel of Time television show set in Prague. So while I had a great time, it was a little hard to admit it put me behind again by a month.

Here are some photos from my tours and conventions!

November, December: Stormlight 4

I’ve finally caught up again as of last week, and am making the final push to finish the novel. It’s been touch-and-go all year, but I’m confident now that the book will be finished by January, which is why I let Tor announce a release date. (See below.)

All in all, it was a great year—despite being a bit frantic and putting me on way too many airplanes. (The odd part is that after all of this touring, I have a ton of frequent flyer miles—but I’m often too tired of travel to use them, so my family/assistants end up using them for trips.) At the same time, I really do love working on Stormlight books. One of the reasons I take such a long break between them is to make certain that when I come back to Roshar, I’m refreshed and eager to get back to it. And speaking of that…

Part Three: Updates on Major Projects

The Stormlight Archive

Book Four has a release date next year on November 17th. I allowed Tor to set this because I’m confident that we’ll meet it—so we should be in good shape for that release, barring some catastrophic responses that I haven’t anticipated during alpha/beta reads. The tentative title for the book is still Rhythm of War, but because of the way Stormlight books work (where each book title is an in-world book title as well), I can’t 100% say that will be the title in this case until the book is finished.

When Book Four is done, we’ll have only one more book in the first Stormlight sequence. As I’ve been saying for years, Book Five is one of the major end points of the series. I anticipate writing that in 2022, for a 2023 release. Yes, I know, many of you wish those gaps were shorter. It’s turned out that a three-year gap is best for my writing psychology, so we’re going to stick with that for now. And, since they’re each as long as four regular books, it’s like getting a Stormlight book faster than one per year—except you have to save them up to read in batches.

STATUS: All systems go!

Mistborn

I had hoped to squeeze in Wax and Wayne Four this year, but falling behind a month (plus the aggressive tour schedule) made that impossible. I sometimes forget just how much touring takes out of me—which is partly why there wasn’t a Starsight tour. (And partly why I put that question in the survey about how to make book tours a little less exhausting.)

I consider Wax and Wayne’s final book to be imperative to finish before I start Stormlight Five. Starting in July, once Stormlight Four is fully revised and turned in, I’ll have two main projects demanding my attention. Wax and Wayne four is one of those, Skyward is the other. (I might need to get to Skyward Three before it, FYI, depending on how much Stormlight burns me out on epic fantasy. But both Skyward Three and Wax and Wayne Four should be finished by the end of the year next year.)

After that, it will be time for me to be looking to Era Three of Mistborn—which will be written in the years between Stormlight Five and Stormlight Six.

STATUS: Wayne is threatening to beat me up if I don’t get to this soon. 2021 or maybe 2022 release for the final book.

Skyward

Book Two is out, if you somehow missed that fact. I’d like to say thank you to everyone for indulging me so much on my side projects. Starsight was a huge success, even without me touring for it. These books are really fun to write, and good for my writing as they allow me to relax between big Cosmere projects. The fact that all of you are willing to embrace and read them is quite gratifying. One of my biggest fears becoming an author was that I’d get locked into doing only one thing, then get burned out on it.

As you can see from the last 15 years of my publishing career, I am interested in a lot of different things. The fact that you’ve been willing to read about Spin, Jerkface, and Doomslug as readily as you do about Kaladin, Dalinar, and Shallan is wonderful to see. Thank you so much for making this new series a success.

STATUS: Should write Book Three sometime late next year. 2021 release is likely.

Part Four: Updates on Secondary Projects

Dark One

We’re moving ahead with the graphic novel on this, and giving you some glimpses of that is one of the big things I’m happy to announce for this State of the Sanderson. We’ve included some gorgeous pages below. The graphic novel is turning out to be something really special. We don’t have an exact release date for this yet, but it shouldn’t be too much longer before we can announce one.

In addition, many of you may have heard the news that J. Michael Straczynski (creator of Babylon Five, among many other cool projects) is attached to this project to make a television show. The same outline I came up with for the graphic novel drew serious Hollywood attention, which is how this happened. That said, JMS has other projects he’s working on as well, and Dark One needs to wait for the right time for him to work on it.

STATUS: Real motion here. Exciting developments in the process!

Songs of the Dead (Was Death by Pizza)

This perpetual entry in the State of the Sanderson is creeping ever closer to being a reality. My co-author, Peter Orullian, has suggested the title Songs of the Dead—which is a really great title, considering it’s about a heavy metal singer necromancer.

We’ve got a second draft done, but it needs a third one. Unfortunately, the hangup is me, as Stormlight has taken basically all my time this year. Peter sent me his latest draft in June or so, and I’m only halfway through my revision of it at this point. So I’m sorry it’s taking so long; I’m excited for you all to read the book, but as it’s my first true book collaboration, there are some growing pains as we figure out how to make the process work right for us.

Hopefully I can finish my next revision early next year, send it back to Peter for one final draft, then begin showing it to editors.

STATUS: Waiting on my next revision.

The Original

This novella that I wrote with the fantastic Mary Robinette Kowal is finished and being recorded as an audio original. It should come out very soon, and I’m quite proud of it.

I’m a little annoyed as the Will Smith movie that came out earlier this year has a similar premise. But that movie bombed and apparently wasn’t very good. So maybe people will appreciate a similar idea done right? We’ll see. I had hoped to get this out before Mr. Smith’s movie came out, but Mary Robinette was busy winning all of the awards for her excellent Lady Astronaut series, and I was busy getting rained on in Roshar.

STATUS: Out soon.

Alcatraz Six

This one is mostly done, just needing a few little tweaks. Again, I haven’t had a ton of time last year, but this one is looking really good. It’s basically all complete, only needing one last pass. We should be doing the interior artwork and editorial work next year.

STATUS: Basically done.

Elantris, Warbreaker, The Rithmatist

No updates from last year, I’m afraid. There was no intention to make progress on these this year. Once Alcatraz is wrapped up, I’ll turn my attention back to The Rithmatist as the last looming series that needs a wrapup that hasn’t gotten one. Elantris and Warbreaker sequels aren’t to be expected until Stormlight Five and Wax and Wayne Four are done.

I know a lot of you keep waiting on Rithmatist news, and I feel bad having to give you the same news every year. (Yes, that paragraph above is the same one I put in the State of the Sanderson last year.) But the truth is, I really can’t work on this until at the very least Alcatraz is finished.

A glimmer of light for you Rithmatist fans is this: my son just read the book, and he’s joined the crowd calling for me to do a sequel. So you have an in-house representative.

STATUS: Keep Waiting. (Sorry again, again.)

White Sand

Graphic novel three is out now! So if you haven’t picked it up, please check it out!

We’ve learned a lot doing our first graphic novel series. Again, there were some growing pains. (We aren’t thrilled, for example, by how often we ended up needing to change artists.) The good news is that we really enjoy doing these, and so we are planning to do another graphic novel series set on Taldain, visiting darkside and dealing with Khriss and her adventures there. So if you are one of those people who read the prose version years ago, and have been waiting for some resolution, Isaac and I are outlining a sequel series right now.

STATUS: Trilogy complete, likely to do a collection of all three in coming years. Sequel series being outlined.

Part Five: Updates on Minor Projects

For many of these little projects, you may want to glance back at previous State of the Sanderson documents to see what they even are, as this is pretty long already and I don’t want to keep making the same pitch every year. So really, take note if a specific idea interested you, but don’t worry if you’re confused and you don’t get many details here on these.

The Reckoners, Legion

Both are completed. Though I’ve had enough people asking after them that we’re toying with doing some audio-original novellas set in these worlds. For example, one of my big goals for Legion was to get it made into a television series. While that could still happen, as it’s under option by a production company, I’ve been thinking that maybe I could do something like that on my own—as an audio series. We could create a sequence of episodes written by a writer’s room with me as the “showrunner.” I could see doing something like this with the Reckoners to continue that story, for those who want to know what happens next.

If we can get these off the ground, I’ll let you know. Also, if you like The Original, please let me know—as that will influence me in doing similar projects with Legion and the Reckoners.

STATUS: Completed, but cool things could still happen.

Adamant

No change from last year. This space opera series of novellas is in limbo until I find the right time to work on them. It will happen eventually.

STATUS: No movement.

Starburner/Soulburner

Something’s happening here, but it’s hush-hush for now.

The Apocalypse Guard

Well, this book got weirder—as expected with Dan and me working together on something. It’s moved to the back burner, as even Dan’s revision wasn’t enough to get it where we want it to be. So this one is entering limbo for now.

STATUS: No motion for months now, might be dead.

Other Projects

Untitled Threnody Novel, Sixth of the Dusk sequel, another story with Shai, and The Silence Divine persist as “maybe” stories that someday I might write. They are joined by a Secret Standalone Cosmere Book, that wacky YA Cosmere Book with Magic Kites, Untitled First of the Sun YA novel (not involving Sixth), and a few others as Cosmere novels that might someday make it to the front burner. (Once Skyward is done, I think it would be good to do a YA book in the Cosmere, so I’ve begun working on possible ideas.) Aether of Night also is still hanging around, maybe needing a novel. So we’ll see. I’ll talk a little more about the Cosmere in a future section, after we get to the film stuff.

If I write a novella to go with the Stormlight Kickstarter, it has about an equal chance of being Wandersail (a Rysn novella), Horneater (a Rock novella), or a sequel to Sixth of the Dusk (which is tricky because it reveals maybe a little too much about Space Age Cosmere politics).

Part Six: Film/Television

Note: read last year’s State of the Sanderson for more talk on what it takes to make a film or television show out of a novel. However, the biggest news here is that I’ve decided to try taking a more active role in getting some of these made. To that end, I’ve most specifically been working closer with Dan Mintz, the producer who is trying to get some Cosmere things made. See below.

Snapshot

New screenplay has been written, and is being shopped to directors right now, so far as I know. Still under option by MGM, and looking good—but no real updates.

Stormlight Archive

I’ve offered Dan Mintz to do treatments for this myself, and he’s been very amenable. He and I have been working more closely together lately to see if we can make this happen.

Steelheart

Option lapsed at Fox just last month. This wasn’t surprising, as after the Fox/Disney merger, there wasn’t much of a chance that Disney would greenlight a non-Marvel superhero project. Instead of immediately going out to shop this again though, I’m taking a few months to consider how I want to approach film and television.

Legion

Still under option to Cineflix Media. No updates lately.

Skyward

Deal is in the works, but can’t talk about it yet.

Alcatraz

Likewise, deal is in the works, but can’t talk about it yet.

Dark One

Working on this with JMS, which has been super cool.

Mistborn

Considering maybe writing the screenplay on this myself. After speaking with Dan Mintz, we decided he would focus on spearheading Stormlight, and I would focus on spearheading Mistborn. So we’ll see what I decide to do.

Part Seven: Other Cool Projects

Stormlight Children’s Book

A publisher Isaac has worked with doing picture books asked if maybe we could do an adaptation of “the girl who looked up” story that Shallan and Wit tell in Oathbringer. We thought this was a pretty cool idea, and so Isaac is working on the adaptation. If we do this right, it could come out around the same time as Book Four.

Brotherwise Call to Adventure Board Game

This summer, Brotherwise Games will release Call to Adventure: The Stormlight Archive. Originally planned as an expansion for the board game Call to Adventure, it has grown into a full standalone game with 120 cards and everything you need to play. Call to Adventure is a hero-crafting game that combines strategy and storytelling. It’s similar to some “tableau-building” games where you’re creating a kingdom or civilization, but in this game you’re building a character. Each player begins with cards that define your hero’s origin, motivation, and destiny. Over the course of the game, you overcome challenges and gain traits. It’s a game with points and a clear winner, but the highlight of every game is telling your hero’s story at the end.

The guys at Brotherwise are huge fans, and they’ve worked closely with us to make sure the Stormlight Archive game is true to the books. It emphasizes cooperative play as players become Radiants and face Odium, but it’s possible to choose a villainous path and work against the team. The cards are all inspired by familiar scenes and themes, and in Call to Adventure you’re piecing together those moments to tell new stories. Here’s a sneak peek at illustrations for some of the cards: Choose A Side (Ganna Pazyniuk), Herald of Justice (Petar Penev), Face the Unmade(Artem Demura), Leader (Ari Ibarra), Elsecaller (Randy Vargas), and One More Try (Artem Demura). Expect more news on the game closer to its release date in summer 2020!

Crafty Games Dice Kickstarter

If you’re reading this when it comes out, know that you’ve only got a few hours left to get in on the Mistborn dice Kickstarter (and help them try to meet their final stretch goal). This should be the last Kickstarter we do for anything until we reach the Stormlight one in the summer.

Crafty has been doing great work on the RPG front, and have been an excellent partner. If you’re at all interested in dice, have a look at their Kickstarter. I’m really looking forward to getting mine!

Part Eight: Projected Schedule of Releases

• The Original audio novella: 2020
• Stormlight Four: Fall 2020
• Skyward Three: Summer(?) 2021
• Wax and Wayne Four: Fall(?) 2021
• Alcatraz 6: 2021–2022
• Dark One Graphic Novel: 2021–2022
• Skyward Four (final book): 2022
• Stormlight Five: Fall 2023

Part Nine: Bonus Section, The Future of the Cosmere

One thing you might have noticed in the secondary projects section is that I have a number of collaborations in the works. This is partially because I wanted the chance to work with some of my friends on books, which is a fun and different way to write. But it’s also because I’ve begun to realize that I need to keep more of my focus on the Cosmere.

That isn’t to say I’m not going to write anything that isn’t Cosmere moving forward. (Skyward proves that.) At the same time, these State of the Sanderson posts come out on my birthday each year—and as I age, I’m growing more aware that I won’t be able to write all the books I want to. I’m still relatively young, and relatively fast as a writer.

Let me explain. Back in my 30s, I generally didn’t worry that I wouldn’t be able to finish things I started—that wasn’t even something that occurred to me. I just wrote whatever I wanted at the time I wanted to write it. Now I’m in my 40s, and I’ve realized that the Cosmere is also a big project. Back in the summer of 2007—before I even had kids and before the Wheel of Time came my way—I first sat down and asked myself, “How big is the Cosmere?” I came up with an outline of between 32 and 36 books. That seemed like an easy task. At two books a year, that would barely be fifteen years out of my (hopefully) very long career.

But I was somewhat naive then about a number of things. I didn’t realize just how much effort Stormlight books would take to write. I didn’t realize how much time touring would eat out of my schedule as I grew more popular. I didn’t realize how many other things might take my attention, like doing films.

A few years after that 2007 outline, I realized that I needed to start writing some of my side projects as novellas, rather than novel series with promised sequels. (Things like The Emperor’s Soul and Sixth of the Dusk grew out of that realization.) Lately, I’ve begun asking myself on some of my ideas, “Could I do this as a collaboration? As an audio original or graphic novel?” These are other ways to tell my stories, but to do so in a manner that takes less of my direct time. You’re all going to have to tell me if you like the products of this effort. I can’t stop doing side projects; as I’ve said many times, this is how I prevent myself from burning out. But maybe I can make the deviations I take to do those side projects a little less time-consuming.

For what it’s worth, here is what I have as the current Cosmere sequence, not counting potential YA books or the occasional novella. Finished books are in bold. This isn’t an exact chronology of when I’ll write them either.

• Elantris 1
• Elantris 2
• Elantris 3
• Mistborn Era 1: Book One
• Mistborn Era 1: Book Two
• Mistborn Era 1: Book Three
• Stormlight One
• Stormlight Two
• Stormlight Three
• Stormlight Four
• Stormlight Five
• Mistborn Era 2: Book One
• Mistborn Era 2: Book Two
• Mistborn Era 2: Book Three
• Mistborn Era 2: Book Four
• Warbreaker 1
• Warbreaker 2
• Mistborn Era 3: Book One
• Mistborn Era 3: Book Two
• Mistborn Era 3: Book Three
• Stormlight Six
• Stormlight Seven
• Stormlight Eight
• Stormlight Nine
• Stormlight Ten
• Dragonsteel Book One
• Dragonsteel Book Two
• Dragonsteel Book Three
• Untitled Threnody Novel
• Untitled Aether Book One
• Untitled Aether Book Two
• Untitled Aether Book Three
• Mistborn Era 4: Book One
• Mistborn Era 4: Book Two
• Mistborn Era 4: Book Three

That’s thirty-five novels. The original outline I made in 2007 had a maximum of thirty-six, but was a little different. For example, I had Dragonsteel in my mind as seven books back then—but as I progressed through the Cosmere I quickly realized that I was offloading a lot of that story to Stormlight. (Bridge Four, remember, started on Yolen—the Dragonsteel world. So did Dalinar, actually.)

I’ve shrunk Dragonsteel to a trilogy as I focused on what I wanted it to be: a compelling story about Hoid and his origins. (Along with the shattering of Adonalsium.) That snapped Dragonsteel into place in the Cosmere quite nicely. This is why I’m still at around the same number of mainline novels even after adding the Wax and Wayne books.

The original outline didn’t name the Threnody novel as such; that slot was filled by a standalone where I planned to do some of the things I’ll now accomplish. In the original outline I had White Sand, but that became a graphic novel series. This, plus my uncertainty at the start if there would be other standalone novels, indicates why I had a 32–36-book series in mind at the start, but now have 35 “mainline” Cosmere books. (Another point I’ve wavered on is where Aether fits into this.)

That makes eleven books in the Cosmere finished in the last 15 years, less than a third of the full Cosmere sequence. This means, at this speed, I’ve got at least another thirty years of writing to do—putting me optimistically at age seventy-four when I finish. (Assuming I don’t add anything else, like a Mistborn cyberpunk between eras three and four—or a standalone or two, which I’d really like to be doing more.)

So, perhaps you can see why I feel a need to start focusing a little more attention on the Cosmere. I don’t want the years to slip away from me, and right now seems the time I need to be thinking about this—not when I hit sixty and realize I’ve been ignoring one series or another.

I write this out not to scare you. (Hopefully.) One of the reasons I divided it all up into separate sequences, even within the same series, is so that we’ll have endings and be able to “complete” series, rather than leaving you hanging forever, feeling like these things are going on too long. At the same time, the Cosmere is my life’s work—and from the get-go, I wanted it to be epic in every sense of the word.

I hope you are enjoying the journey, because I don’t intend to stop anytime soon.

Thank you all for another fantastic year.

Brandon

Adam here. I just wanted to give all of you a little reminder that the Hugo Award voting deadline is tomorrow (July, 31st). Voting is open to all supporting and attending members of Worldcon 76. If you’re wanting to cast your vote but aren’t a Worlcon member, it’s not too late. You can still register and vote online.

I have some exciting news for Audible members: The Emperor’s Soul, Steelheart, Elantris, and Warbreaker are all part of Audible’s Sci-Fi & Fantasy Sale and are only $4.95 (at least in the U.S.) each! So, if you’ve been tinkering with the idea of trying a new book or series, this is the perfect opportunity.

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Project in Depth, THE CALCULATING STARS, with Kjell Lindgren, Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Kjell Lindgren—who is a current NASA astronaut and one of Mary’s consultant readers on The Calculating Stars: A Lady Astronaut Novel. If you haven’t read it yet, you may wish to rectify that prior to listening.

Like most of their project-in-depth episodes, this one runs long. Longer still because we were at JPL in Houston, which was incredibly cool for all of us, so nobody was watching the clock.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread of Oathbringer, we were able to follow Puuli, Ellista, and Venli in the first three interludes. This week, in chapter thirty-three, Shallan makes her way to the room where she scared off the Midnight Mother, looking for Jasnah. She finds her and the two have a brief conversation about why Jasnah didn’t contact anyone to let them know she was still alive.

The Twitter Archive for July is up to date.

I found this week’s featured cosplay of a Shallan Davar, by lyra256, on reddit.

For those of you who have been paying attention to my various feeds on my social media channels this won’t come as a surprise, but for those of you who are just seeing this, Humble Bundle has put together a collection which includes many of my shorter works as well as the Graphic Audio edition of a few others. I will get to more on that shortly. Many of you may not know how Humble Bundle works and I don’t think I could say it any more succinctly than they have listed on their website.

Brandon Sanderson’s the man. So we’re bringing you a bundle of some of his highlights – and some lesser-known titles, too. Some are audiobooks and some are ebooks, but all are awesome.

Pay $1 or more. All together, the novellas, audiobooks, game guides, and graphic novel in this bundle would cost over $174. Here at Humble Bundle, though, you name your price of $1 or more and increase your contribution to upgrade your bundle!

Read them anywhere. The books are available in PDF, ePUB, and MOBI formats (instructions are here); the adventure game and supplements are available in PDF; the comic is available in PDF, ePub, and CBZ formats (instructions are here); and the audiobooks are available as MP3 and FLAC files (instructions are here).

Support charity. Choose where the money goes – between the publishers, The Moth Education Program (Storyville Center for the Spoken Word), and, if you like, a second charity of your choice via the PayPal Giving Fund. For details on how this works, click here. If you like what we do, you can leave us a Humble Tip too!

So, What’s Included?

Pay $1 or more

• Firstborn/Defending Elysium
• The Emperor’s Soul
• Legion
• Legion:Skin Deep
• Warbreaker Part 1 – Graphic Audio
• Elantris Part 1 – Graphic Audio
• Mistborn Adventure Game

Pay $8 or more to also unlock!

• Sixth of the Dusk
• Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
• Perfect State
• Warbreaker Part 2 – Graphic Audio
• Elantris Part 2 – Graphic Audio
• Terris: Wrought of Copper Player’s Guide

Pay $15 or more to also unlock!

• Snapshot
• Dreamer
• The Hope of Elantris – Graphic Audio
• Warbreaker Part 3 – Graphic Audio
• Elantris Part 3 – Graphic Audio
• White Sand – Graphic Novel
• Alloy of Law: Mistborn Campaign

There are a few regional restrictions that we couldn’t work around, so a few items will vary from one region to another so use the link at the top to check the specifics for your locale.

Introduction

Hello, all! I recently turned in Shadows of Self, the new Wax and Wayne Mistborn novel. (And, well, something else too. More on that below.) In addition, tomorrow is December 19th—known with fondness as “Koloss Head-Munching Day.” Also my birthday. (I’ll be 39.)

This seemed like a good chance to take a step back and give you all a long-form update on what I’ve been doing lately, and where I am looking for the future. I like to be accountable to you, my readers, for what I’m doing. You are the ones supporting me in this, my lifelong dream of being a professional writer.

2014 was an excellent year for me. Words of Radiance has been very well received, and enthusiasm for the Stormlight books is very high. As this series is my baby, it feels awesome to see people getting to know characters like Dalinar and Kaladin, whom I’ve known for decades. At the same time, I’ve been jumping back into teen books again after the Alcatraz books. (Which kind of fizzled back in 2010 or so, though we’re planning a relaunch.)

Having two publishers made for a very challenging tour schedule. I’ve been away from home far more than I want to be, mostly because of the need to add more touring (along with things like school visits and appearances at teacher/librarian conferences) for Steelheart and The Rithmatist.

I’m still struggling to find a balance I like. On one hand, I enjoy visiting you all and going cool places. On the other hand, my real love is writing the books—and I don’t want to get so busy that the stories fall by the wayside. Anyway, the following is an account of my 2014 writing experience for those who are curious.

What I spent 2014 doing

January–March 2014: Firefight

Though I had hoped to have Firefight (The Reckoners 2) done long before January, the touring last year made that impossible. It snuck over into 2014, which is why you’re getting the book in January 2015 instead of the originally scheduled fall of this year. In March, I also did the Words of Radiance tour, which really cut into my writing time.

April 2014: Legion: Skin Deep

In April, once all the chaos was done, I took the time to finish up Legion: Skin Deep (sequel to Legion from a few years back), which I’d been working on during plane flights the year before. If you haven’t checked these two novellas out, you might want to consider it! They’re very fun, though the second book is not yet out in the UK and associated territories such as Australia and New Zealand. (Note that in those territories, Legion 1 and The Emperor’s Soul were released together in a very handsome paperback.)

We will eventually have regular hardcover copies of Legion 2 available. That will probably come sometime in the first half of next year. Our contract with Subterranean Press, who produced the very attractive limited edition hardcovers of Legion 2, says that we’ll wait until their edition sells out before we release a competing one.

May 2014: The Aztlanian (Rithmatist 2)

Next, I dove into research for a sequel to The Rithmatist. This is going to be a tough book to write, as it takes place in a fantastical version of Central and South America, and deals with things from Aztec (Mexica) mythology. (In The Rithmatist, a lot of the geography is shifted around in bizarre ways.)

Dealing with another group’s culture in this way is rife with opportunities for stuffing my foot in my mouth, and so I wanted to be very careful and respectful. This meant spending time devoted exclusively to doing extensive research. I didn’t actually get any writing on the book done, though I read some very excellent history books.

(As an aside, if anyone out there is an expert in the Aztec/Mexica culture—particularly if you yourself are a Native American—I’d love to have your help on this book.)

At the end of the month, I decided I needed to do way more research than a month afforded, so I put the book off for now. I still intend to write it, but I need more time to do it right.

June 2014: Alcatraz

Having spent a month with no writing, I wanted to jump into something fun and quick to refresh me before moving on to my next book. So, I dug out my outline for the Alcatraz series and at long last did a rough draft of the fifth book. These are fast, fast books to write—as I improvise them—but they are very slow to edit.

I finished the book, and am pleased with it, but I have no firm date yet for when I’ll be publishing it. Tor is rereleasing the series starting next year with new covers and extensive interior art. I believe these launch starting about a year from now. (If you want them before then, your best bet for getting them is the UK omnibus of the first four.)

I’ll want to release the fifth one once the series has been rereleased, so maybe summer 2016. If you’ve never read these, they are very different from my other work. They’re bizarre and sarcastic comedies that are self-referential and offer commentary on fantasy as a genre along the way. Those who love them absolutely love them. Those who don’t tend to find them insulting. That dichotomy alone is part of what endears them to me.

July–December 2014: Mistborn

The last half of the year was dedicated to Shadows of Self, the new Mistborn novel. And I have a confession to make.

I also wrote the sequel.

Now, before you start wagging your finger at me for being a robot, there was a really good reason I did what I did. You see, I was having real trouble getting back into Shadows of Self. I had written the first third of it in 2012 between revisions of A Memory of Light. (I was feeling Wheel of Time overload.) However, it can be very hard for me to get back into a book or series after a long time away from it. (This is another issue with the Rithmatist sequel.)

So, jumping into Shadows of Self was slow going, and I found it much easier to go write the sequel to refresh myself on the world and characters. That done, I was able to move back to Shadows of Self and finish it up.

So a week or two back, I turned in two new Wax and Wayne Mistborn novels. They’re titled Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning, and Tor decided to publish them in quick succession: the first in October 2015, the second in January 2016. So, if you have read the original trilogy but haven’t tried The Alloy of Law yet, you might want to give it a look! From the beginning, I’ve planned Mistborn to be a continuum series, showing off Allomancy in different time periods. I think you’ll find the Wax and Wayne books to be fun, quick reads—and they introduce some very, very big things coming in the Mistborn world.

There will be one more Wax and Wayne (early 1900s-era) Mistborn book. Back after I finished The Alloy of Law, I sat down and plotted out a trilogy with the same characters. The Alloy of Law was more of a happy, improvised accident. The follow-up trilogy is meant to be more intentional. So in the end, we’ll have four total. (The final one is tentatively called The Lost Metal.) From there, I might jump to the second “big” trilogy, which is 1980s tech. Or I might dally a little more in something 1940s-era instead. We’ll see.

Amusingly, doing these two Mistborn books together totaled only about half as much writing as a Stormlight book. Perhaps you can see why it takes even me quite a long time to finish Stormlight novels. (And it’s why you might want to lay off Pat Rothfuss a little. I believe The Wise Man’s Fear was even longer than Words of Radiance.)

Tor did their announcement about these books earlier today. You may now commence wisecracks about me secretly writing extra novels when nobody is looking.

Next Projects

I’ve now begun Calamity, last of the Reckoners series. My goal will be to rough-draft it over the next three months. I have a tour between now and then (for Firefight) and a trip to Taiwan as well, so who knows if I’ll make that deadline. We’ll see.

Once that is done, I will dive into Stormlight 3. I’m still waffling on whether this will be Szeth’s book, Eshonai’s book, or Dalinar’s book. The original outline calls for book 3 to have Szeth’s flashbacks, but I am feeling that another character might match the events better.

I did some exploratory scenes for it this summer, though these may or may not end up in the actual book. I have been tweaking the outline, and am starting to feel very good about it. Writing the book should consume the entire rest of 2015, with a 2016 release. I do plan the Stormlight books to be an every-other-year thing.

Follow along starting next spring as I write the book and post updates on my website. I’ll even try to do some screen capturing with Camtasia as I write, for those who are interested in watching for them.

That wraps up current and finished projects. 2014 was partially about me getting my feet underneath me after finishing The Wheel of Time and going right into Stormlight 2. I’ve caught my breath now, and feel good moving forward.

And, speaking of moving forward, it’s time for a State of the Sanderson tradition—we’re going to play “What about the sequel to this book I love, Brandon!”

Here comes the big list.

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The big list of projects I want to do

Elantris sequels

The Emperor’s Soul is now two years old, so it is probably time to get back to Sel and do some more there. We should be releasing a trade paperback of Elantris in the next year or two, with revised (and new) maps and a better Ars Arcanum. (Read: an Ars Arcanum.)

The full sequels will need to be finished before I can do the contemporary (1980s tech) Mistborn novels because of behind-the-scenes Cosmere bits, so I will do my best to find a place to squeeze these in. At the very least, I will write them following the end of Stormlight 5. So, these are distant, but not too distant.

Nightblood (Warbreaker sequel)

This is still on the back burner, but it is coming. Probably after the Elantris sequels. I’ll squeeze it in someplace. I’m very excited about it, but now (while I’m juggling multiple teen series) is not the time.

Dark One

This is a series I’ve talked about for a long, long time about a boy who discovers he’s the “Dark One.” Basically, it’s the classic epic fantasy story told from the eyes of the dude destined to try to destroy the world instead of save it. I’ve made good progress on the setting, which is going to be awesome. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the teen series I do once the Reckoners and the Rithmatist are both done.

As a note for fans, this is a Cosmere story.

Silence Divine (this will be renamed sometime)

I did readings from this on my last tour (you can probably find them on YouTube; it was the Words of Radiance tour). I only have a few pages done, playing with the primary concept. (Diseases grant magical talents for as long as you have the disease—you lose the power when you get over it.) This one has probably been downgraded from full novel to novella, as I feel that something more Emperor’s Soul-esque will do a better job with the themes I want to explore.

Legion 3

Legion 2 is out! Are you tired of me mentioning that yet? I’m sure that someday there will be a third adventure for Stephen and his aspects, but I don’t have an outline or plan yet.

The Lurker (now renamed Adamant)

I’ve finished a novella set in this science fiction world. For those who want more SF from me along the lines of my two novelettes, this should be coming someday. I don’t have time for revisions right now, but I plan to tinker with the story again next year sometime between Stormlight 3 drafts.

White Sand

The graphic novel adaptation of this Cosmere book is coming along very well. The first volume’s script adaptation is finished, and pencils for the first chapter are done. We should have pages to show you before too long. Expect a lot of talk about this on the blog come 2015.

Dragonsteel

Hoid’s backstory series is still going to be one of the last Cosmere sequences I do, so don’t expect this until Stormlight is completely done. (Both sets of five books.)

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That’s the list of things people often ask me about. Unsurprisingly, I have other projects in the back of my mind. For example, I have two more Cosmere series that will need to be written before we can get to the third “big” Mistborn trilogy. (The sf one.) But that’s the long, long-term plan.

For now, my goal is to get Calamity and Stormlight 3 finished. As always, I appreciate all of the enthusiasm you show for this crazy thing that I have somehow managed to do with my life. Thank you for sharing my books with others, and for being willing to try the more unusual projects (like Legion) that I do.

I feel humbled to have a great crowd of fans who are willing to put up with my eccentricities as a writer—particularly my desire to not work on just one project, but to have an entire body of varying stories. You guys are awesome. May you have a happy holiday season, and do go munch some heads tomorrow in my name.

Brandon

p.s. If you aren’t on the newsletter mailing list, please consider signing up! In the summer, the newsletter included exclusive looks at some of the Stormlight 3 scenes I was working on. We plan to do more of this sort of thing in the future. As always, if you include your city, we’ll send you notifications when I’m going to be doing signings in the area.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m signing today in Idaho Falls. But there are some ebooks at low prices that I want to talk about. For links to where you can buy these books, click on the titles below.

The second Legion book, Legion: Skin Deep, which came out this week, is $4.99 (or around there, depending on the currency—except in the UK and associated territories, where it’s not yet available).

The Alloy of Law is $2.99 today only on most of the ebook stores in the US.
This is technically the fourth Mistborn book, but it takes place hundreds of years after the original trilogy, and a number of people have read this one first and really enjoyed it. If you haven’t yet read the Mistborn Trilogy, don’t be afraid to pick this one up.

The Way of Kings, the first book in the Stormlight Archive, is still free in the US on the iBookstore and in iTunes (even on Windows) for the rest of the year. It’s sold without DRM (as are all of my Tor books), so you can get it there and read it any way you like.

And the second Stormlight book, Words of Radiance is $3.75 right now in the US on Kindle and Google Play. I don’t know how long that price will last.

Legion is $2.99 (or close equivalent) worldwide. And I mention its sequel above. My recent Cosmere novella Sixth of the Dusk is also $2.99. My Hugo Award-winning novella The Emperor’s Soul is $4.99 (or less in some countries). And both Infinity Blade books are $2.99.

Today is the final day to get the Epic Fantasy Bundle (which includes The Emperor’s Soul if you’re outside the UK and associated territories) from StoryBundle. After 11:00 p.m. Mountain time today, the bundle will no longer be available. By the way, the winners of yesterday’s contest are Ashley Wilson-Rew, Matthew Holmes, Matt Jarchow, Prem, and Tess. Check for an email from my assistant Peter Ahlstrom and make sure to download your books tonight before the bundle offer expires!

The official Words of Radiance book tour is over (see yesterday’s post for a list of bookstores with signed books), but I’m doing an extra signing this Saturday in Salt Lake City at the Barnes & Noble in Sugarhouse starting at 3:00 p.m. This signing will go pretty much like the signings on the tour, but I hope it won’t last five hours. Anyway, I’ll sign any book I wrote that you bring, but it’s nice to support the store hosting me by buying something while you’re there. I will also do a reading and public Q&A (don’t worry, no spoilers for Words of Radiance will be allowed!). See the event listing for full details.

I also signed a bunch of books during the Literacy Promise conference, and those signed books are now at the Funfinity store in Springville, UT. Give them a call to see what’s left: (801) 491-8940

The Shardhunt is still ongoing. The most recent unlockable was a discussion of the back-and-forth development process for the Whitespine page from Shallan’s Sketchbook in Words of Radiance. (You can see the final versions of all of the art pages here.)

Here are some more stores that are participating in the Shardhunt. Give them a call to see if they have any books left that include signed bookplates and Szeth die-cut standup cards.

• Asheville, NC: Malaprop’s Bookstore and Cafe (828) 254-6734 (Thanks, Erin!)
• Hamilton, MT: Chapter One Book Store (406) 363-5220 (Say hi to Mara!)
• Homewood, AL: Books-A-Million (205) 870-0213 (Thanks, Lyndsie!)
• New Orleans, LA: Octavia Books (504) 899-READ (Say hi to Tom!)
• Coral Gables, FL: Books & Books (305) 442-4408 (Thanks, Noah!)
• Hanover, MD: Books-A-Million (443) 755-0210 (Say hi to Kaye!)
• San Francisco, CA: Books Inc. (415) 864-6777 (Thanks, Larry!)

And here are a few more airport stores where I signed books and inserted Szeth cards (or Syl and koloss stickers, if I ran out of the Szeth cards). Sometimes these get snapped up very quickly, but sometimes they stick around for weeks, so if you’re traveling through these airports be sure to check.

• SLC: Simply Books by gate C6
• MSP: Store by gate F5, and the “mall” store
• MKE: Newsstand by gate D30
• ORD: Barbara’s Books in E gates
• PHL: Heritage Books between B & C gates
• Philadelphia 30th St. train station: Faber Books
• DAY: Heritage Booksellers

Lastly, here’s something very much out of the normal swing of things. Rick Martin on Facebook posted these photos of two The Way of Kings-related Lego builds: the Battle of the Tower and the Chasmfiend hunt. The detail on these is amazing. Check out the full gallery here (but note that it contains spoilers if you haven’t read The Way of Kings yet!).

Wednesday night is the last chance to name your price for StoryBundle‘s Epic Fantasy Bundle. They’ve given me fifteen download codes to give away. Five of them are being given away on Twitter and five on Facebook. I’ll also give away five here on the blog. My assistant says I have to put in some kind of requirement for these types of things, and he suggests signing up for the newsletter. So that’s what we’ll say: use the contact form here to say you’re entering this contest, check the box that says “Notify me when Brandon is signing near my city & add me to the mailing list” (or remind me if you’re already on my list), and tell me the city where you live. Valid entries received before noon Mountain Time on Wednesday will be accepted, and five winners will be chosen randomly. All codes must be redeemed before the Epic Fantasy Bundle is removed from sale Wednesday night.

Anyone can enter the contest unless you live in the UK, Commonwealth (although Canada is not excluded from the contest), or a former Commonwealth country. I’m putting in this restriction since anyone in those countries who gets the Epic Fantasy Bundle won’t be able to include The Emperor’s Soul in your download because my UK publisher has the distribution rights in those territories. I don’t want to encourage you to enter the contest if you can’t win any of my books. (Though actually, if you’re in one of those countries and already have The Emperor’s Soul or for some other reason want to enter the contest anyway, knowing you can’t get that book, you can go ahead and say that when you enter and I’ll accept the entry. Up to you!) If you’re not sure whether your country is on the exclusion list, go to StoryBundle.com, click on the The Emperor’s Soul cover image, and check to see if the description that pops up includes a warning saying the book won’t be included in the bundle.

Speaking of the newsletter, I only send out three or four each year (though to date I’ve never managed to send more than three), usually around the time when a book is released. All of the newsletters are archived here. The March newsletter is now online.

My book tour for Words of Radiance is now over, though I still have some conventions throughout the year and I’ll be signing in the UK in the London area right at the beginning of August (details forthcoming). I’ve also left a lot of signed books in my wake. Many of the stores where I signed at would be happy to ship you a signed book. Give one of these stores a call!

San Diego: Mysterious Galaxy (858) 268-4747
Huntington Beach CA: Barnes & Noble (714) 897-8781
San Rafael CA: Copperfield’s Books (415) 524-2800
San Francisco: Borderlands Books (415) 824-8203
Beaverton OR: Powell’s Books (503) 228-4651
Seattle: University Book Store (206) 634-3400
Houston: Murder by the Book (713) 524-2595
Omaha: Barnes & Noble (402) 691-4557
Scottsdale AZ: The Poisoned Pen (480) 947-2974
Tucson: Mostly Books (520) 571-0110
Lexington KY: Joseph-Beth (859) 273-2911 (they also have signed Michael Whelan art prints)
Beavercreek OH: Books & Co (937) 429-2169
McLean VA: Barnes & Noble (703) 506-2937
Collegeville PA: Towne Book Center (610) 454-0640
Skokie IL: Barnes & Noble (847) 676-2230
Milwaukee: Boswell Book Company (414) 332-1181

My assistant Peter has added more tweets to the March Twitter posts archive.

On this week’s Writing Excuses episode we touch on more rapid-fire questions, joined by Eric James Stone.

• What writing rule do you break the most?
• When you review your novel do you print it out and mark it up, or do you edit on the computer?
• How long do you wait between finishing a novel and starting the editing process?
• What is the number-one issue that you have to overcome each day in order to put words to paper?
• How do you feel with the fear of screwing up when you’re writing the other?
• When giving a book as a gift, how do you decide on a book to give?
• Any advice for people wanting to write a grand, universal story for their fantasy novel?
• Is there a place you go to be inspired to write?
• Do you ever have trouble writing characters out of the story (you know, by killing them)?
• How do you strike the balance between too little description and too much?

My book tour for Words of Radiance continues today. Tonight I’m in Houston, and later in the week I’m in Omaha, Phoenix, and Tucson. My whole tour is listed here.

If you don’t live near one of the tour cities and want a signed book, most of the stores I signed at already have signed books and would be happy to ship you a copy. If you want your book personalized, contact one of the upcoming stores on my tour to ask if they can get a book personalized and shipped for you.

Here are the stores that should have autographed copies ready to ship to you:

• Mysterious Galaxy San Diego
• Barnes & Noble Huntington Beach
• Copperfield’s San Rafael
• Borderlands San Francisco
• Powell’s Beaverton
• University Bookstore Seattle

It’s probably safest to deal with them over the phone to make sure you get an autographed copy.

With the release of Words of Radiance, publishers have reduced the ebook price of the first title in the Stormlight Archive, The Way of Kings, in some markets. In the US it’s $2.99 in some stores including Kindle, and in the UK it’s £1.99 in some stores including Kindle. I’m not sure which of all the other different ebook stores have the special price, but several of them do. Go to this page and click on the tab for your region to see the ebook store links. I’m also not sure how long the special price lasts.

As with the first book, Words of Radiance also includes many full-page illustrations. My assistant Isaac has uploaded the illustrations for the book, which is helpful if you have the audiobook. The ebook illustrations this time around are included at “retina”-quality resolution, so you can zoom in on them on your ebook reader if you have trouble making out the details.

The Epic Fantasy Bundle at Storybundle I talked about last week is still available for the next two weeks.

Neil Gaiman, David Farland, Tracy Hickman, James Artimus Owen, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Peter David, Kevin J. Anderson, and Peter J. Wacks & Mark Ryan, along with me. This is a great lineup, and in the tradition of bundles like this, you can name your price and receive six of these ebooks, and if you pay more than $12 you receive the first six as well as The Emperor’s Soul, Clockwork Angels, and The Immortals. All are DRM-free. You can also decide yourself what the split is between the authors and the Storybundle organizers, and you can optionally pick from three charities to donation a portion to. Please do note that my Hugo Award-winning novella The Emperor’s Soul is the only part of the bundle that can’t be included worldwide for licensing reasons—it’s not in the bundle if you buy it from the UK or Commonwealth/former Commonwealth countries (except for Canada, where it is included in the bundle). I apologize for throwing this wrench into things, but my UK publisher has exclusive distribution rights in those countries.

My assistant Peter has uploaded my March Twitter posts up to this point here. Future March tweets from me will be added to that page later.

I posted my review of the audiobook of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, narrated by Simon Prebble, on Audible.

The Rithmatist audiobook, narrated by Michael Kramer, has been nominated for an Audie Award in the fantasy category. The winners will be announced at the Audies Gala in New York in May, and all the nominees can be seen here.

In the most recent Writing Excuses episode, Nancy Fulda joins us to talk about engaging characters.

My assistant Isaac has uploaded another video from my creative writing class. This one is an in-depth discussion of setting.

Words of Radiance came out yesterday. I’m on tour now; today I’m signing in the Los Angeles area and tomorrow I’ll be in the Bay Area for a lunchtime signing and an evening signing.

We had a great turnout at the midnight release, and the BYU Bookstore ordered enough copies that they managed not to sell out. In fact, there are about 50 copies left that are signed and numbered NOW SOLD OUT. Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego also has about 50 signed and numbered copies, and you can order one here while supplies last. Both stores will ship.

Yesterday before our outbound flight fromt the SLC airport, Ben McSweeney and I signed copies of Words of Radiance in the airport’s Simply Books store. I posted photos on Twitter and Facebook yesterday, and you can also see them in one place on Tor.com. (Note: Fans who went to check at the store report that these books have already been purchased by some lucky readers.) Ben’s not going on the whole tour with me, but I’ll be leaving signed books in airports across the country. Some will have Szeth cards inside, and some Szeth cards will have codes for the Shardhunt. I’m also posing Szeth in various locations on his travels during this tour, and you can see the photos on Twitter and Facebook.

Today marks the release of another project: the Epic Fantasy Bundle at Storybundle, available for the next 3 weeks only. Below are the ebooks that are included.

Neil Gaiman, David Farland, Tracy Hickman, James Artimus Owen, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Peter David, Kevin J. Anderson, and Peter J. Wacks & Mark Ryan, along with me. This is a great lineup, and in the tradition of bundles like this, you can name your price and receive six of these ebooks, and if you pay more than $12 you receive the first six as well as The Emperor’s Soul, Clockwork Angels, and The Immortals. All are DRM-free. You can also decide yourself what the split is between the authors and the Storybundle organizers, and you can optionally pick from three charities to donation a portion to.

Please do note that my Hugo Award-winning novella The Emperor’s Soul is the only part of the bundle that can’t be included worldwide for licensing reasons—it’s not in the bundle if you buy it from the UK or Commonwealth/former Commonwealth countries (except for Canada, where it is included in the bundle). I apologize for throwing this wrench into things, but my UK publisher has exclusive distribution rights in those countries.

As a bonus, The Emperor’s Soul ebook now includes the deleted prologue with Hoid in a bonus content section at the end of the book. That’s in the Storybundle version, and my assistant Peter will be adding it to the other ebook stores’ versions soon (so that if you bought it already you should be able to redownload the book and receive the updated version). Right now that version of the book is on Google Play and the iBookstore, and it will be added to the other vendors’ versions when he can find a moment.

Enjoy!

Lots of news for you today! First off, I’ll be doing two Magic: The Gathering drafts this month that you can sign up for if you’re local to Utah. I’ll be at Epic Puzzles & Games in West Valley this Thursday, and I’ll be at Dragon’s Keep’s Orem store on the 21st. See the links for details.

I’m happy to say that I have two books up for votes in the first round of this year’s Goodreads Choice Awards. Steelheart is nominated in the category of YA Fantasy & Science Fiction, and you can vote here. And the final volume of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, A Memory of Light, is nominated in the Best Fantasy category. You can vote for that here. Additionally, Steelheart and The Rithmatist were both nominated for YALSA’s Best Fiction for YA.

Amazon has launched their Kindle MatchBook program in the US, which allows you to get ebooks for a reduced rate if you’ve bought the print version of a book from Amazon. You can read more about it and see your own list of eligible titles here. Now, I’ve long been in favor of offering a good way to get an ebook along with the print version of a book, and Amazon’s program is a good first step. Tor has decided to do a pilot program with MatchBook that includes three of my books: Mistborn: The Final Empire, Warbreaker, and The Way of Kings. All three Kindle versions are available for $2.99 if you buy or bought the print version from Amazon.

I’ve also included the ebook of my Hugo Award-winning novella The Emperor’s Soul in the MatchBook program for free. Legion is eligible too, but the MatchBook option will only show up if you previously bought the hardcover from Amazon, since it sold out and they don’t have any more copies. And as always, if you bought the print book of either novella elsewhere, I’ll give you the ebook for free if you email. Details on that are at the bottom of the page here.

Writing Excuses has posted two episodes that I haven’t mentioned on the blog. First is an episode with Wesley Chu about realistic melee fighting. And next is one of the biggest luminaries we’ve ever had as a guest: Tom Doherty, publisher of Tor, talked with us about publishing.

My assistant Peter has uploaded another of my Twitter posts archives. This one is for October and includes that massive fantasy chat I did with Christopher Paolini.

Way back in March I announced a convention exclusive hardcover of my novelettes Firstborn and Defending Elysium.

Well, since convention season is over, you can now order a signed & personalized copy of the hardcover in my store. And did you know you can buy signed hardcovers of all of my books that have been out for at least a year, plus signed bookplates to put in your own books? I also have jewelry, T-shirts, prints, and decals.

My store manager Kara has also given me this year’s deadlines for ordering from the store if you want your items to arrive by December 24th. These are:

• December 1: International orders. (This is a “best-effort” date: International shipping is unpredictable, but this date matches recent delivery times.)
• December 7: Jewelry and personalized books
• December 14: T-shirts, prints, and “signature only” books

One last bit of news that should make fans of Farscape and Stargate: SG-1 happy: I recently found out that Claudia Black will be the audiobook narrator for my novella “Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell” that is appearing in the upcoming Dangerous Women anthology edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. That book comes out in just one month, but I’m not sure if the audiobook comes out at the same time—it’s not up for preorder yet on Audible. You can read an excerpt of my story here.