#794: Brandon Sanderson on Building a Fiction Empire, Creating $40M+ Kickstarter Campaigns, Unbreakable Habits, The Art of World-Building, and The Science of Magic Systems

Brandon Sanderson is the #1 New York Times
bestselling author of The Stormlight Archive series and the
Mistborn saga; the middle-grade series Alcatraz vs. the Evil
Librarians; and the young-adult novels The Rithmatist, the
Reckoners trilogy, and the Skyward series. He has sold more than
40 million books in 35 languages, and he is a four-time nominee
for the Hugo Awards, winning in 2013 for his novella The
Emperor’s Soul.


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Timestamps:


00:00 Meet Brandon Sanderson


07:10 Soundcheck Fun and Memory Skills


11:21 Brandon's Writing Journey and Creative Process


25:35 Teaching Creative Writing and Publishing Insights


38:08 Brandon's Early Reading Experience


44:18 Discovering the Magic of Storytelling


45:32 A Journey from C Student to A Student


47:02 The Influence of a Great Teacher


48:51 Understanding Narrative and Plot


56:42 The Art of Character Development


01:09:42 Balancing Writing and Personal Life


01:24:04 Meeting Editors and Early Struggles


01:24:30 First Book Sale and Financial Realities


01:25:28 The Danger of the Second Book


01:25:49 Hitting the Bestseller List


01:26:34 Amazon and the Changing Market


01:29:03 Entrepreneurial Shift and Direct Sales


01:36:45 Building a Team and Crowdfunding


01:42:50 Kickstarter Success and Lessons Learned


01:52:22 COVID and Creative Freedom


02:02:53 Brandon Sanderson's Colbert Report Cameo


02:03:48 Kickstarter Success and Subscription Boxes


02:09:01 Test Readers and Feedback Process


02:14:16 Warbreaker and Creative Commons Experiment


02:22:50 Navigating Publishing Deals and Platforms


02:33:26 The Wheel of Time Opportunity


02:42:36 The Call to Finish The Wheel of Time


02:43:10 Negotiating the Deal


02:43:56 The Struggles of Mistborn


02:45:02 The Cosmere and Building an Audience


02:48:25 The Death Spiral in Publishing


02:52:29 Magic Systems and Their Importance


03:00:39 Sanderson's Three Laws of Magic


03:14:35 The Zero Law and Final Thoughts


*


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