Hey, all! I’ve been deep into revisions on Oathbringer. Turns out, big books don’t just take a long time to write—they take a long time to revise. (Who knew?)

Last year during my trip to the United Arab Emirates, I took a break from working on Oathbringer to write a novella, as is my habit to refresh myself now and then. Other than Edgedancer (the Stormlight novella in Arcanum Unbounded), this is the only thing I had time to write last year that wasn’t Oathbringer.

Snapshot is one of those stories that, once I had the idea, wouldn’t leave me alone. I wrote it furiously, having only about a week’s time to finish it, and I’m very pleased with the product: a kind of cyberpunk–detective thriller mashup. As we’ve posted earlier, Hollywood quickly snatched this one up, and it’s currently under option to MGM.

I think you’ll like it! The print edition is only available in a special edition leatherbound from Vault Books that will be released soon (though we will also have a cheap hardcover toward the end of the year). But as is our tradition, we’re simultaneously releasing an ebook for a few bucks, DRM-free, in all markets. So you can choose whether you want the expensive collector’s edition, or the quick ebook. (Audible has also released the audiobook today.)

Please give the story a look on its explanation page, where you’ll find a synopsis and links to the first two chapters. Also, note that if you buy the print edition in any format, we’ll happily send you the ebook for free at your request. (This will be handled via a coupon for my store.)

On Short Fiction

This seems a good time to take a moment and talk about the various editions I have out for my short fiction.

There are several motives that war within me when it comes to producing editions of my work. The first is that I really don’t want people to feel they have to pay multiple times for the same piece of fiction. I figure once you’ve paid me for it, you’re good, and you should have access (at least in ebook form) to that story for the rest of your life, whenever you want to read it.

At the same time, I want to provide different distinctive editions of the works for people who like them. This sometimes conflicts with my first impression because of additional costs involved. For example, doing an audiobook is more expensive than a print book as—once all the work is done for the print book—you then have to hire another team to take that text and make an audio version. I haven’t realistically found a way to bundle audio, print, and ebook together. (Though I do think the industry will need to figure this out eventually.)

I think the best I can do for now is give away ebooks of the books I myself publish for free, once you have a print edition. (Note the emphasis—I don’t have the legal right to do this for books like Mistborn and The Way of Kings, which were published by Tor. I can only do it for my self-published ventures, like most of my novellas.)

In addition, however, I can talk about in what formats these novellas will be available, and when. This at least lets you know whether you want to hold off getting one until your preferred format is available. So here is what I see us doing with these for the foreseeable future.

Option One: Individual cheap ebook
Available DRM-free from most ebook vendors on launch day.

Option Two: Individual audiobook
These depend on Audible or some other company wanting to release an edition. (They did so for the Legion books, for example, but not others.)

Usually, individual audiobooks for shorts are a bad value for readers—as the Audible economy depends on people using credits on stories, and there are no “half” credits. Which means a credit can be applied to a three-hour novella or a full-length novel at twenty-plus hours.

So you can’t depend on these existing. Sometimes they will, but not other times.

Option Three: Individual leatherbound hardcover
I’ve done these for most novellas, partnering with places like Subterranean and Vault Books. These are meant mostly as collector’s items, and usually have a short and limited print run. For those who want each individual novella separate and in its own book, this is your best option.

Option Four: Dragonsteel edition hardcover
These editions are often printed as “doubles” around the holidays, and sometimes (before official publication) go with me to conventions as convention exclusives.

This is the economical way to get a print edition, as they usually cost $20 and have two stories. (Snapshot, for example, is being published with another story called Dreamer this fall, and will be at conventions with me all summer.)

However, there’s a windowing of a few months on most of these, meaning you can’t get it immediately. This is by request of the publishers of the leatherbounds, who want a small exclusivity window.

Option Five: Collection version (ebook, audio, print)

I will be doing two types of collections moving forward. Cosmere stories (in the Arcanum Unbounded tradition, likely named Arcanum Unbounded II, III, etc.). These will collect in a single edition all the stories that haven’t been collected so far. (Arcanum Unbounded, for example, contained every Cosmere piece of short fiction that had been published up to that point.)

These are for the completionists who want everything, but who don’t mind waiting. They’re also very economical, as if you wait for the paperback edition, they will probably give you a dozen stories (of various lengths) for around ten bucks.

I do anticipate doing a non-Cosmere collection within a year or two, which will include stories like Snapshot and Perfect State. (And probably the Legion novellas, unless they become their own thing.)

Option Six: Dragonsteel collection leatherbound

If there is interest, we might do a leatherbound edition for the 10th anniversary of the collection, like we’ve done with Elantris and are currently doing with Mistborn. So if you like leatherbounds, but miss the initial limited edition, these will eventually be available—but they are a looong way off.

Anyway, I hope that lets you plan! Thank you for your interest in these smaller stories. Your enthusiasm for them is part of what keeps me so productive, as I don’t feel locked into doing one type of story. Overall, this makes even things like Stormlight move faster, as I remain engaged and excited as an author moving between projects.
And do please consider giving Snapshot a look!

Best,

Brandon

Adam here. You may remember a post that Brandon wrote this past summer regarding a novella he finished on his trip to the United Arab Emirates. It is called Snapshot and is a science fiction detective thriller. Normally when Brandon releases a novella he starts promotion at the time of release. This time, however, he is working with some of his long time colleagues (including a bookseller who long ago organized Brandon’s first real signing) who just started a specialty press. Snapshot doesn’t release till February but is available for pre-order now at the Vault Books website. Let me give a little warning here: the leatherbound collector’s editions are expensive. If the price tag makes your eyes bulge, realize there will be a simultaneous ebook, and then later in 2017 we will have a non-limited-edition hardcover available on Brandon’s website store. Without further adieu, here is your first look at the cover of Snapshot.

It’s time to talk novellas. I commonly do one or two of these a year (this year, I did Mistborn:Secret History and the Stormlight novella Edgedancer, coming out in November in Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection). These shorts are ways for me to explore cool or intriguing ideas in a briefer form, so that my attention isn’t drawn too far away from my main projects.

For next year, I only have one novella scheduled right now: a science fiction detective thriller called Snapshot. I wrote it during my trip to Dubai this year, and I’m quite pleased with it. I think you’ll all enjoy it quite a bit.

Normally when it comes to one of my novellas, I just release it and then start promotion. With this one, however, some of my professional colleagues (including the bookseller who long ago organized my first real signing) are starting a specialty press, and so we wanted to announce this one early to give a little momentum to their company. Therefore, Snapshot is up for preorder at Vault Books right now. (Exciting!) It releases February 2017.

I do want to warn you, however, that their edition is the expensive, leatherbound collector’s edition we sometimes do for these books. If the price tag makes your eyes bulge, realize that there will be a simultaneous cheap ebook (which will also be included for everyone who buys the limited edition), and then later in 2017 we will have a non-limited-edition hardcover on my webstore along the lines of the Shadows for Silence/Perfect State double. (We might publish Snapshot alongside Dreamer, the horror story I did for a Charlaine Harris anthology.)

As always, thanks for reading!

Brandon

Today marks the release of a new novella of mine, Perfect State. This one is a bit different from anything else I’ve written, and I think you’ll enjoy it. Here’s the blurb:

God-Emperor Kairominas is lord of all he surveys. He has defeated all foes, has united the entire world beneath his rule, and has mastered the arcane arts. He spends his time sparring with his nemesis, who keeps trying to invade Kai’s world.

Except for today. Today, Kai has to go on a date.

Forces have conspired to require him to meet with his equal—a woman from another world who has achieved just as much as he has. What happens when the most important man in the world is forced to have dinner with the most important woman in the world? Perfect State is an action-filled novella about privilege, culture clash, and expectations.

Check out an excerpt here. The cover illustration is by the talented J.P. Targete, and you can get the novella now as an ebook (with no DRM) at the usual ebook vendors (see links to the upper right).

A couple years ago I put out a double edition of my novelettes Firstborn and Defending Elysium, and this year I’m doing the same thing with Perfect State and Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell. The double hardcover of these two novellas (they’re printed back-to-back, so there are two front covers) will start out as available exclusively at conventions, before going up on my website store sometime in the fall. If you want to pick one up, your first chance will be this week at Minicon in Minneapolis. Check my events calendar throughout the year to see what other conventions I’m attending.

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.

Rejoice! My Reckoners short novelette Mitosis was finally released today by Gollancz in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland (and other Commonwealth countries, plus everywhere outside the US/Canada). Check the store links in the various tabs to the right.

Mitosis takes place between Steelheart and Firefight, which will be released on January 6 in the US and January 8 in the UK. It’s a little something to tide you over until then.

In addition to the ebook and audiobook that the US and Canada received, Gollancz has also released a spiffy little hardcover. Here’s a photo (alongside the Steelheart editions that the UK got).

If you live in the US or Canada and are jealous of a print version of Mitosis, you might consider importing it via The Book Depository, which has free worldwide shipping.

Just a quick note: the ebook of The Rithmatist is on sale today for $1.99 in the US and Canada, and it looks like it’s €1.78 in continental Europe. Check your local region to see the price there—links are on the right. I don’t know how long this lasts, but I’m guessing it’s just today.

And if you didn’t notice, last week I put out a new novella out in its own ebook: Sixth of the Dusk. Available worldwide.

Additionally, The Way of Kings ebook is still free in the US on the iBookstore and Amazon until the end of the year.

A few weeks ago, Crafty Games, the makers of the Mistborn Adventure Game, released their second supplement for the game (after the Terris supplement). This new one covers the Alloy of Law era.

As in the original adventure game book, where I wrote a short story for the volume that features Kelsier, I’ve written a new piece for this supplement that features everyone’s favorite Roughs hero and correspondent: Allomancer Jak! These episodes follow his appearance in The Alloy of Law. Check out a preview here. Includes bonus annotations by Handerwym, Jak’s faithful Terris steward!

You can buy the Mistborn Adventure Game and the Alloy of Law supplement now. This week, Tor.com is running a contest to give away both books, and they’re also including a trade paperback of Mistborn. Their contest is open to residents of the US and Canada (but not Quebec). To enter, post a comment here.

Here’s what Crafty has to say about the new supplement:

Secure your vials and strap on your six-guns!

It’s 300 years after the fall of the Lord Ruler. The Final Empire is a distant memory, and the heroes who brought it down are legend. The rebels and thieving crews of old have been replaced with gunslingers, bounty hunters, shysters, and lawkeepers, and around every corner is a land of wild adventure, unlimited opportunity, ancient mystery, and ever-present danger. This is The Alloy of Law.

Alloy of Law is a core supplement for the Mistborn Adventure Game, helping players leap headlong into the thrilling world of the fourth book in Brandon Sanderson’s best-selling Mistborn series. This 320-page supplement features a wealth of new world information, game rules, and advice for playing this Old West-styled era, including:

• An exclusive original story from Mistborn creator, Brandon Sanderson!
• A comprehensive overview of the people, society, and history of the remade Scadrial, with new information not seen in the novel
• Updated character and Crew creation. Play a metalmind-slinging Ferring, one of the powerful koloss-blooded, or a Twinborn — master of Allomancy and Feruchemy alike
• Magic of The Alloy of Law era, including updates for all three Metallic Arts and rules for the godlike power of Compounding
• Rules for technology, guns, and gunplay — with a magical twist
• A gazetteer of the towns, cities, and key locations of the Elendel Basin and Roughs
• An exploration of the faiths, politics, and secrets of The Alloy of Law…and beyond
• Advice and inspiration for Narrators on running campaigns in The Alloy of Law era
• A rogues’ gallery of noted personalities in the era, including novel heroes Wax, Wayne, and Marasi

Did you enjoy reading The Alloy of Law? Now you can make your own Mistborn stories.

Already play Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Adventure Game? This book more than doubles the supplemental setting material.

Alloy of Law is available at fine book stores and hobby shops worldwide. You can also order print and digital (PDF) copies directly from the publisher, Crafty Games.

If you are a store owner and would like to discuss wholesale orders, please contact marketing@crafty-games.com

Today marks the worldwide release of the standalone ebook for my Cosmere novella Sixth of the Dusk. It’s the same novella that I included in the ebook and hardcover of Shadows Beneath: the Writing Excuses Anthology, which also has stories from Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. That book contains multiple drafts and detailed behind-the-scenes information on each story, but if you’re not interested in that and all you want is the final version of Sixth of the Dusk, now you can get it by itself.

Here’s the description:

A fascinating new novella in Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere, the universe shared by his Mistborn series and the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive.

Sixth of the Dusk, set in a never-before-seen world, showcases a society on the brink of technological change. On the deadly island of Patji, where birds grant people magical talents and predators can sense the thoughts of their prey, a solitary trapper discovers that the island is not the only thing out to kill him. When he begins to see his own corpse at every turn, does this spell danger for his entire culture?

Read an excerpt here.

I’m happy to announce that Mitosis (the novelette that takes place between Steelheart and Firefight) has been released as an audiobook. What’s more, Audible is putting it up for free for a limited time.

The talented Macleod Andrews returns as the audiobook’s narrator—and he will return for the Firefight audiobook as well, which comes out in January and which you can preorder here.

Here’s an audio preview for Mitosis. Since the novelette takes place after Steelheart, the preview below contains major spoilers for that book, so be warned! If you haven’t read Steelheart yet, there’s an audio preview for it at the bottom of the post.