Brandon Sanderson’s surprise novels overtake Pebble watch as most successful Kickstarter ever

The most successful crowdfunded project of all time has just been broken by fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, who broke the record set by the Pebble Time in 2015.

It is notable for the sheer amount of money raised but also for the speed. The project for four new novels that the author wrote in secret over the course of the Pandemic was announced on Tuesday, March 1st and broke the record by early Friday morning, March 4th.

According to The New York Times, the project's original goal was to raise $1,000,000 in 30 days. The campaign has 27 days to raise more money. The campaign ended with 78,171 contributions.

Image: Kickstarter

There are two parts to the project: the four novels, which will be released directly to fans on a quarterly basis throughout 2023 in ebook, print, or audiobook formats, and a larger subscription box that pairs.

The four books in all three formats and the eight box of goodies start at $500, and the pledges start at $40 for just the four ebooks, $160 for hardcovers, $360 for ebooks and the rest of the box, and a full $500 for the four books in all three formats and

George R.R. Martin and Patrick are two popular writers in the science-fiction and fantasy genre, but Sanderson is one of the most prolific modern writers. He rose to prominence for finishing the final three books of the Wheel of Time series after the death of the original author.

The Stormlight Archive, the Mistborn novels, Elantris, Warbreaker, and other books and novellas are all part of the Cosmere. The ultimate goal of each series or novel is to create a larger story with characters crossing over and facing off against each other as the stories progress in each series.

Fans of Sanderson's work tend to enthusiastically follow each new release to better follow the overarching work, and three of the four novels in the Year of Sanderson package are new Cosmere stories, which may help explain some of the popularity.

There is always a risk that the products won't come to fruition or that the company won't follow through. The fact that the author has already written all four of the novels makes the project less risky than most.

Dragonsteel Entertainment has experience handling fulfillment for large projects like this, as the company successfully ran a kickstarter before the release of The Way of Kings, which ended with almost 30,000 backers.