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  1. We have some exciting news to announce. So far in order to obtain some unpublished works of Brandon's, you'd have to email him through his site, and his assistants would distribute them. Well now you won't need to wait for that, because we will be in charge of distributing Aether of Night! All you have to do is post in this topic (you'll need a 17th Shard account, but that's it), and our staff will PM you the document. You do not need to post an email address here; we will send it to you through this website. Once we do this, we'll remove your post here. We'll be using this topic as a to-do list for requests. Ideally since we have lots of staff members, we will get this out to you soon, within a week or two. We hope you're excited about this, so many of you will be able to get this text in a much more obvious way now! You will receive a .docx file, and if you need to convert it into a .pdf or .epub, there are many converters to do that for you. (We are not distributing the old prose version of White Sand; that is distributed in Brandon's newsletters.) Thank you Dragonsteel for letting 17S do this! Edit as of 2024: This is still going! We've gone through over 300 pages of replies distributing. It's just that we remove posts here once we send them out.
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  2. General Brandon stuff: Cosmere spoilers: Mistborn spoilers: Stormlight Archive spoilers:
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  3. After our last major site update all the way back in 2016, we're excited to announce that we'll be updating the forums and everything else to the latest available version of the platform we run on. We picked Saturday, October 21, as the big migration day. This means there will be some disruptions in service you'll have to expect on that day, but we will do our best to get the site back online as fast as possible. At 06:00 UTC (2am Eastern Time, 11pm Pacific Time) on October 21, we'll be putting the site in "Offline Mode", which means regular users won't be able to use it from that point onward. In the background, we'll be performing a move to an entirely new server to host the site so we can modernize and clean up the environment everything runs in. We estimate this migration to take several hours as we'll have to perform some manual steps as well - plus, you all talk a lot on our forums, so there's lots of data to copy! As soon as all that's done, we'll flip the switch and allow you back into our gates. Immediate Changes The update will not be purely technical in nature. The most obvious change will be a new design that you'll see all across the site. We unfortunately won't be able to bring over the existing theme to the new version as there have been a lot of changes to the underlying software in the meantime and it's unfortunately not sustainable to customize the look and feel as much as we did for the current version. Regardless, we made some changes to give the site some character and to hopefully make the move ever so slightly less jarring. In order for you to get an impression of what the updated version looks like, here's a sneak peek of our homepage when you're logged in: The topic view will also change a fair amount with an at-a-glance overview of some interesting statistics about the topic in the sidebar: Another change is that custom member titles have moved a little bit in the user interface. They will be a regular profile field, but everything else about them should stay the same! Planned and Potential Changes You'll also notice in the topic screenshot above that the regular upvote button is gone! Instead, the new forum version allows us to define custom reactions! We'll keep this limited to an "upvote" reaction for now, but will definitely be exploring this and several other new features in the future: Additional reactions that might affect reputation differently Achievements for performing certain actions, e.g. posting enough or having very successful posts These can also be rewarded with fancy badges that show up on your profile page! Updated Social Connections: While some of our older members might still remember ICQ or MSN, we hear that these aren't as hip with the kids anymore, so we'll likely be updating those to reflect the current social media landscape Pronouns Profile Field: Asking for gender (sex, really) in your profile is kind of outdated and unnecessary for the most part, so we'll be replacing this with a pronouns field that should prove more useful and allows for many more options Dark Theme: With the move to a less customized default theme and thanks to advancements in how configurable a theme is, it will be much easier for us to hopefully introduce this at some point We can't give any concrete timelines on any of these and won't promise we'll implement all of them, but with everything else up-to-date, we should be able to iterate on new things a lot more! Future Update Schedule We aim to track updates of the software we use much more closely in the future, which will likely mean an increase in the update frequency. Rather than performing a big disruptive update every few years, there will be more minor and gradual rollouts of new versions. This is very much in the spirit of the books, as I think a wise man once thought
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  4. Important note: This list would be far less complete if not for the efforts of everyone who helped me compile it. Specifically thankyou to: Awesomeness Summoned, Delightful, Argent, PorridgeBrick, Kurkistan, Quiver, Green Hoodie Mistborn, Senor Feesh, Observer, ccstat, Swimmingly, Alvron, Metacognition, The Only Joe, GreyPilgrim, Aether, jasonpenguin, Mailliw73, Moodle, Tempus, Baine, Kobold King, LeftInch, Sir Jerric, Tensoon, Ashiok, Theorymaker, Seonid, Shaggai, TheYoungBard, Curiosity, Snoopy, Voidus, Frosted Flakes, Kasimir, Shallan. (Let me know if I missed you.) Hokay, for those who want to know the ranks, I looked through everyone who had at least 10 posts. Here are my findings. 10000+ God Beyond 9000 9999 Adonalsium 8500 8999 Hero of Ages 8192 8499 The Broken One 7800 8191 Shard 7500 7799 Splintered Shard 7200 7499 Splinter 6800 7199 Dragon 6400 6799 Stormfather 6000 6399 Herald 5700 5999 Sliver 5350 5699 Nightwatcher 5000 5349 Worldhopper 4750 4999 God of Color 4500 4749 Lord Ruler 4250 4499 Unmade 4096 4249 Dawnshard 3761 4095 Prime 3500 3760 Lerasium Mistborn 3250 3499 Bondsmith 3000 3249 Voidbringer 2750 2999 Knight Radiant 2500 2749 Most Ancient 2250 2499 Steel Inquisitor 2048 2249 Mistborn 1900 2047 Tarachin Superstar 1800 1899 Dawnsinger 1700 1799 Rambleman 1600 1699 Savant 1550 1599 Gerontarch 1500 1549 Midnight Essence 1450 1499 Listener 1400 1449 Enefel 1370 1399 Kalad's Phantom 1338 1369 Compounder 1337 So l337 Hoid Can't Compete 1300 1336 Surgebinder 1260 1299 Radiant Squire 1220 1259 Kandra 1180 1219 Twinborn 1145 1179 Returned 1111 1144 Scadrian Waffle Cook 1080 1110 Stone Shaman 1050 1079 Cryptic 1024 1049 Honorspren 1000 1023 Sentient Awakened Object 980 999 Truthless 950 979 Highprince 920 949 Worldbringer 890 919 Full Feruchemist 860 889 Full Shardbearer 830 859 Shardbearer 800 829 Seer 777 799 Spinner 760 776 Wyrn the King 730 759 Elantrian 700 729 Originator 667 699 Svrakiss 666 Torturer of Heralds 650 665 Shade 625 649 Soulcaster 600 624 Forger 575 599 Dakhor Monk 550 574 Lord Prelan 512 549 King's Wit 496 511 Son of Honor 475 495 Vanisher 450 474 King's Tester 425 449 Ghostblood 400 424 Envisager 375 399 Artifabrian 350 374 Ferring 325 349 Stormwarden 300 324 Bloodsealer 278 299 Silent Gatherer 256 277 Misting 225 255 Arbiter 200 224 Gyorn 180 199 High Prelan 160 179 Oldblood 145 159 Cobalt Guard 128 144 Hazekiller 110 127 Forescout 100 109 Houselord 90 99 Babsk 80 89 Prelan 75 79 Arteth 70 74 Idrian Monk 64 69 Obligator 56 63 Lighteyes 50 55 Grand 45 49 Noble 40 44 Crew Leader 32 39 Ardent 25 31 Pahn Kahl 20 24 Awakened Object 16 19 Noble-Blooded 10 15 Bridgeman 7 9 Spearman 5 6 Darkeyes 2 4 Skaa 0 1 Spren --- -1 -2 Negaspren -3 -5 Lifeless -6 -10 Hoed -15 -19 ? Beheaded Inquisitor -20 -24 ? Rotting Chull Carcass -24 -25 Lamespren -26 -100 Zucchini -101 and below Chasmfiend Corpse Note: negative reputation titles are no longer obtainable due to downvotes having been removed. I'll update this as we learn more We now know them all! I like the new levels. Good work Chaos Please don't ask me how long that took. Current lowest Unknown rep: nonexistent. We're so close to getting them all =D Edit: Wooohooo first popular post Later edit: For the record, at the time I added that comment 10 rep was a little more exciting Another edit: The lower rep ranks have changed at some point, I don't know where all of the new boundaries are yet.
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  5. Hello hello! The last couple of months saw an uptick in the membership of our Patreon page, in both free and paying members, so if you are one of those - welcome, welcome! (And of you are not, could we interest you?) Either way, hopefully you are enjoying your time here, on the 17th Shard, and hopefully the new year is treating you well. To increase the odds that everything is going peachy, we've got a Yumi and the Nightmare Painter fanart commission for you, coming right up! We bring you an art commission from last year, all the way back from August! Yumi and the Nightmare Painter had just come out in July, and we had decided to dedicate the next commission to the book. It was a close call, but Yumi and Nikaro at the Kilahito carnival beat Nikaro painting Yumi back to life (or whatever actually happened there) by a single vote, so that's what we did! We knew we had to bring Botanica Xu back for this piece, as their distinctive style was a perfect match for this book. Real life obligations made this piece take a bit longer than usual (turns out being an artist, editor, and translator makes for a busy life) but we couldn't be happier with it. Hopefully you like it too
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  6. Oh, whee, it's been a minute, hasn't it? Since we showed you art? Well, the end of the year is always a little crazy for everyone - between conventions, new books, exams, holidays, everyone is just a little busier, and things take just a little longer. But! Things are still moving along, and what better way to celebrate the upcoming holidays than with our October fanart commission - a piece as spooky as it is spoilery, so proceed with caution! If you haven't read all of Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, begone! Come back once when you've done your homework. But for everyone else... ... this is obviously the moment Yumi realizes she, just like everyone else in Torio, is a nightmare. Your artist for this heartbreaking piece is Megan Murphy, aka comiclysmic, whose iconic style you might recognize from a series of meme-y posts (like this Hoid being very upset with Design's stance on spoilers), but also "proper" fanart (like this Sja-anat). Regardless, familiar or not, Megan did a great job with this piece, just like she does with all her pieces (oh, do make sure you check out this Dustbringer OC), and we are all very happy to have worked with her on this, and are very much looking forward to working with her again in the future!
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  7. From the album: Cosmere Inktober 2023

    Cosmere Inktober 2023; Day 6 - Illuminate "He met her eyes, and her smile was storming contagious."
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  8. Kaladin will get a ryshadium with wings in Stormlight five and name it Rainbowdash.
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  9. Well, today is my Shardiversary. It's hard to believe that it's been a year, but at the same time it's hard to believe it's only been a year. It's been an adventure, for sure! Recently, I've found myself increasingly reflective as I prepare to graduate high school and depart from my home. It's a melancholy time, but it's also filled with hope. And the memories I've made on the Shard, and the friends, connections, stories, jokes, adventures...they've changed me. I'm a different person than I was before. This year has been really tough for me, but having people here to give me advice and guide me through it, and honestly just having an outlet for the pain has really made a difference in my life. This is a special community, one that I'll always remember. I think the people here are what makes this place so unique. @The Wandering Wizard, the wonderful Wiz! You were one of the first people to help me feel like I belonged, and you've been a true friend to me, an amazing source of laughter and fun. Thank you for everything. @Robin Sedai, your sharing of Calvin and Hobbes and other comics when I first joined is one of my favorite memories on the Shard. I admire your voice of reason whenever things get a little unhinged. @CalanoCorvus, you always bring optimism to conversations and give great advice. You and @DoomslugLuna are adorable. @SymphonianBookworm our conversations here will always make me smile. I know you haven't been as active recently (I miss you!), but I know you're going to do great things! #Phantom #Jasnahoid @Telrao, come backkkkkkkk soon! I miss having someone to nerd out about jazz with. Your muffins and cats are iconic here on the shard. And your playlists are fantastic. Thank you for the wonderful art. @The Bookwyrm, your passion for space and astronomy really shines through. You're thoughtful and insightful, and our conversations keep me thinking for a long time after we're done. I'm looking forward to seeing where you'll end up!@Kajsa :), thank you for being a wonderful human being. You care about us, and you're just amazing. Your art is also out of this world! @That1Cellist, you are worth more than you could ever comprehend. You deserve the world. Thank you for sharing your love of cello with the world. @The Halcyon Girl, you are an amazing person. We miss you on the Shard. I'm so glad you commissioned that throne from me. @InfiniteInsanity, you are kind and you have wonderful ideas to cheer people up. Your mission was such a sweet idea. When you're on sugar, now I know to runnnnn @The Aspiring Archivist, I'm glad I know you. Thank you for putting up with me and for being there for anyone who needs it. You have a nice voice, too. @Ranryu, your energy, and sense of humor make the world a better place. Best of luck to you with your piano and compositional career! @TheGreatSnail, aren't filters funny?? In all seriousness, those SU replys were fun. That was where it was at! @Wittles of Shinovar, WITTLESS Skittles, I admire the way you bring a positive attitude towards problems. It's not easy the way that life works out, but you're an amazing helping hand. @The Last Fæ, you often have something very interesting to share. I like the way that you think. @Potato's Wit, you're really funny. The things you share make me laugh a lot @Morningtide, you're always so nice. I still can't believe there's an Idaho Potato Museum! @S. Stormy, diggin' the new branding. I love how you're always up for shenanigans and helping everyone here have a good time. @Cinnamon, you're down-to-earth and friendly, EVEN THOUGH you live life upside-down. That makes it even more special. @Thaidakar the Ghostblood, you're funny! And you always have quality things to share. @Sequence, you're always full of good vibes. It's always so interesting when you share the coolest info on planes and the like. @Cruciatus_heart, Elfffffff! Your interest in a certain type of brooding slightly insane sociopath is very funny to me. You have excellent taste in media. Congrats on everything you've accomplished this year! @TheAlpha929, you're very chill, and just fun to be around. @Eluvianii, you have chill pfps and you have cool answers on the forum games. @Matrim's Dice, thank you for all your help in SE and for putting up with me that one conversion game. No thank you for betraying me, but I know that's how it goes. and :P. for life. @The Known Novel, Thank you for the chaos. It is the way. *fist bump*. Kasimir, Archer, Aman, Stick, Illwei-- you guys are all really cool. I'm happy to have gotten to play with all of you this year. @Channelknight Fadran, you've always been the cool, experienced, cultured guy here. Ever since I joined, I've looked up to you and your RPing and worldbuilding prowess. @dannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnex, I never know what to expect from your SUs! I always know it'll be a fun time when I open that notif up. Man, those nnnnnns really keep growing. @DramaQueen, you really are a queen of drama. I know we haven't talked much but can't we just agree that theatre kids are the coolest! @Trutharchivist, thank you for sharing your culture with the shard. It's been very eye-opening. @Nathrangking, you write beautiful poems, and you have a wonderful perspective on the world. @Cash67 I never can remember if you're young but really wise for your age, or older but still really wise for your age. You are Perry the Platypus incarnate in the best way possible. SPEAKING OF PLATYPI, @Being of Cacophony, you are ALSO a pretty cool platypus. I like checking out TLT and seeing your chaos there. Cacophony is also a really fun word. @Edema Ruh, you'll remain an Aes Sedai in my mind for a very long time. Also, spontaneity is the best! And you're great at that. @Lotus Blossom, I'm so happy Symph got you to join the shard! You're a cool person @The Storming Stormfather, your messages on peoples' profiles are really funny. Thanks for being the storming The Storming Stormfather. @Justice_Magician, your art is incredible! Thank you for sharing it with the shard! @HOID WANTS INSTANT NOODLES, bro we gotta make that board game happen. You had so many great ideas. @Lord Gregorio, you have cool pfps. Also, interesting thoughts to share! @Nameless*, it's truly a shame that Nameless stole your name. Your contributions to TLT are immense, and not to be questioned. @Szeth's Facepalm, your cute froggie dudes make my day. Where they at??? @Shadowed you're always great fun and it's always so cool to find fellow musicians here. Flute rules! @solarcat can we just take a minute to appreciate how awesome your username is?? @2EmLee2, @Enter a username, @PyroPhile, you guys are all super cool. Thanks for being iconic. It's been an amazing year. Here's to many more Thank you everyone <3
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  10. Hi everyone. Calano here. With some news. A little while back, I made a post saying I'd be still here, but taking a break. Become something of a lurker. Well, I've decided to just take a break entirely. It's not been so great for me mentally, to have the Shard hanging in the back of my mind. I'll update y'all on big important things in my life, because I like telling people those things, but for the most part I'll be unreachable unless you have my phone number. If you want my phone number, ask someone who has it to PM it to you: I'll gladly accept texts from Sharders, but I'm not comfortable just putting my phone number out there. Y'all are some of the greatest online (and IRL) people I know. This community is safe, and accepting, and warm, and homely, and wonderful. But I have a life to live. So, I'll be going. I don't know if I'll return. I might not, not to a level of activity that I once had. Y'all have been just... an incredible group of people. And I'm honored to call you my family. I've seen so many others leave; Haly, Misting was gone for a while, Fadran left unexpectedly, Kajsa kinda went dark too, but I can text her sometimes lol But people have been slowly leaving. And I think that now it's my turn. Like I said above, I'll come back occasionally for big updates, regarding college, my mission, big life milestones, good and bad news, etc. But for the most part, I'm honorably discharging myself from active duty on this site (so to speak). loverboy Lessons is still coming out January 19th, 2024. I plan to make the entire album the week of December 18th, and get it going through the distribution process starting that weekend (23rd/24th). It's been a pleasure. It really has. I love you all so much. Goodbye.
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  11. You all warm my heart. I don’t come to the forum very often anymore, but this still makes me laugh.
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  12. When you finally have them all:
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  13. DARK MODE PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ADONALSIUM
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  14. Two years ago, when Brandon first announced the secret projects, people were surprised to hear the audiobooks wouldn't be available on Audible. Brandon had spoken out before about how he was worried about their business practices and what that would mean for authors with a lot less success than him, and for the secret projects––where the rights would initially be in his hands rather than going through Tor first, as Dragonsteel would be publishing the books themselves––he took a big risk, knowing most of his readership was through audio, and decided to promote other alternatives for audiobooks besides the Amazon-owned company. Now, after many conversations with the company, he's reached a historic deal, not aimed at himself, but to benefit indie authors in particular, who are the most affected by Audible's policies regarding royalties and exclusivity. Many people have heard about this basic context. You remember Brandon explaining the new other options that weren't Audible. But today, I want to do more than just paraphrase this newest blogpost. So I want to explain the entire context behind the relationship between Amazon, and by extension Audible, and the publishing industry. I'm going to give a big shoutout to the Print Run podcast for a lot of this extra information that isn't pulled from Brandon's blog. If you're interested in the industry, go listen to them! Part 1: Amazon's Origins For those of you who don't know, Amazon started its online retail empire through books. The reason wasn't because of some artistic sensibility, but because books are "easy to ship and hard to break." In particular because with the amount of books and editions of each of those that exist, it is impossible to find them all at a physical bookstore. But it is possible with the internet. Which was the perfect opportunity for the business. The other thing about books is that they say something about us. The kinds of books you buy tells you a lot about a person, which for a business like this, is consumer data. Which helped them expand beyond the book realm. Part 2: The ebook revolution In these early days, Amazon started innovating a lot on distribution. The traditional process is pretty messed up, and Amazon made this a lot easier both for print books, but most importantly for ebooks. The Kindle changed the game. Dan likes to cite a statistic about how in sometime like 2012, the sales of books if I'm not mistaken, in that year alone, were higher than in the rest of history. And Amazon decided to price ebooks at 9.99 USD, and everyone agreed to it. But publishers eventually realized that their books couldn't cost that little. So they suggested switching to a model where they chose whatever price they thought was appropriate, and give Amazon a cut of that. Part 3: The lawsuits In 2010, we get the first large lawsuit with one of the Big 6 at the time, Macmillan. You all probably know that Tor is Brandon's publisher, but Tor is just an imprint of Macmillan. And Brandon has mentioned this incident before. To put leverage on Amazon, Macmillan said they'd window their ebooks. One thing you should know about the publishing industry is that most sales for a book come in the first few months of it being out, or even before. The bestseller list is built on preorders and hype, because you can rack up those numbers with months of marketing and word of mouth which will all count for week 1, rather than doing all that work in a single week. What Macmillan was going to do was not release the ebooks until about 6 months later, where a good chunk of those people would have already read the book in hardcover, which costs significantly more. But Amazon wasn't threatened by this. They pulled the buy buttons on Macmillan books, which means you literally couldn't buy anything from any of Macmillan's imprints on Amazon. I am not kidding, this is literally the nuke of book sales. So Macmillan panicked. Eventually, Amazon got enough backlash from the general public that they put it back, but they'd successfully scared the publishers. So in 2012, the Big 6 at the time––HarperCollins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette and Random House––came together to try to put pressure on Amazon to adopt the model Macmillan had suggested in 2010. Amazon filed a collusion suit against them, which prompted the Big 6 to settle. The compromise was that Amazon could discount books as much as they wanted, but they wouldn't get back their 9.99 ceiling. However, since Amazon has so much business elsewhere, this allowed them to use books as loss leaders. 7% of Amazon's sales were books in 2016, but 43% of all online retail went through them. Books were extremely insignificant for them, unlike the situation publishers were in. And of course, this accustoms people to go to Amazon first when they want to buy a book because they're more convenient and cheaper. During this time, Amazon also started using this rhetoric of publishers as elitist and gatekeeping, that didn't want the good of the customers and authors, who if they self published on Kindle Direct Publishing would receive a higher royalty rate, particularly on ebooks, even if their books wouldn't be in physical stores as often, because physical stores don't like stocking Amazon published books. In 2014, we get a second lawsuit, this time with Hachette. At the time, this was the biggest of the Big 6, with authors that are both incredibly prolific and popular, such as James Patterson. Who, I am not kidding, had books coming out about every week. Hachette wanted better pricing now that their contract was up and it was time for renegotiation, but Amazon wouldn't budge, and Hachette wouldn't either. Even being the fourth largest trade publisher in the world, it was 12 times smaller than Amazon at the time. Just like last time, Amazon pulled the buy buttons, but they went further than that. They delayed shipping, pulled the preorder buttons, ceased their discounts, letting consumers feel the weight of the full price they weren't accustomed to, and filled Hachette recommendation pages with similar, cheaper books. This caused a huge culture war. Amazon brought back their gatekeeper argument, saying the reason paperbacks took about a year to come out is because publishers wanted to get you with the bigger hardcover purchase, and that if Hachette gave all their online retail share and gave it to authors, they would stand down. Of course, Hachette couldn’t do this. In a way, Amazon lost this fight, but this is when everyone started getting involved. Particularly authors and agents. One of the most famous agents to get involved was Andrew Wiley. He is probably the most well known literary agent, the one people will think of when they think of the classic agent. He is also very notorious for being extremely anti-publisher, saying that "if a book has sold out its advance, he failed as an agent because he didn’t get enough money for his authors." One would think he’d jump on the Amazon bandwagon of criticizing the publishers. But he didn’t. He spoke out on behalf of them. He went pro-publisher. This is because Amazon’s model dries up the money authors would be getting very fast. Publishers have less money to spend on advances or new deals, and become even more risk-averse, which is bad for authors. The fact that someone so notoriously anti-publisher would side with them against Amazon says a lot in my opinion. Part 4: The Penguin Random House merger. This brings us to the Penguin and Random House merger in 2013. Companies didn’t want to wait to have to fight the same fight Macmillan and Hachette had to deal with, and since they’d gotten caught colluding before, the solution was to make that collusion legal with a merger. This made Penguin Random House the biggest publisher in the world, and let me tell you it’s staggering how many imprints they own. You forget half of them until you start looking at their company timeline on their website. What happens here is that because publishing’s response to Amazon is to band together, you get these two giants punching at each other with everyone else crushed in the middle because competition has been driven down, there are less places to submit a book to, less houses to drive up prices in auctions, and a lot of other side effects. You probably heard about the recent merger attempt between PRH and Simon & Schuster. Authors like Stephen King spoke out against that one because of these exact reasons, and Brandon’s Kickstarter that prompted this article also got caught in it because PRH and S&S were trying to use it as an example of how authors could go independent, making it even more necessary for a merger like this to keep business going. This original merger was just the first iteration of what happened in 2022 and early 2023. In 2017, Amazon made a change to their buying page, where instead of automatically buying a new copy from Amazon’s warehouses, you could be buying from third party vendors who would usually be reselling. This means that you can’t trace that money back and that it won’t go to the authors. It also increased the chance of fake books or fraudulent copies. Part 5: Audible in 2022 We’ve been talking about a lot of these policies in terms of ebooks, but they apply for audio too. In the old days, audiobooks were incredibly expensive, because they came in cassettes or CDs, and the process of getting them made was much more complicated. Just listen to any Wheel of Time fan who listened in audio from when the books first came out talk about it, or to Michael Kramer and Kate Reading in their many interviews. With Audible, Amazon made audiobooks viable again, and much cheaper, just like they did for ebooks. In his 2022 State of the Sanderson post, Brandon explained why he wasn't putting the Secret Projects on Audible. He focused specifically on its impact on indie creators. And worse, these are the rates for Amazon exclusive authors. That means they can't have their book available on any other platform, like Libro.fm for example, which is also very popular. The rates for non-exclusive authors drops to 25%. The other problem is that most audio companies turn around and put their books on Audible as well. Brandon cites Apple, Recorded Books, his own publisher Macmillan (who owns Tor), etc. And because of that, most of everyone else pays the same rates Audible does. To even try to compete with them. He urged readers to go to those other providers and try to change the tide. Part 6: The new deal On the 5th of March 2024, on the heels of another secret project announcement in conjunction with the Words of Radiance leatherbound, Brandon announced he'd had conversations with Audible about changing their practices. Like I hope you've been able to realize by now, getting Amazon to budge on anything is HUGE. Even authors with more clout than Brandon gave up pretty quickly. With that in mind, this is what Brandon says constitutes the new deal. Higher royalty rates for both exclusive and non exclusive authors The system will pay more predictably on credit spent, paid monthly rather than quarterly. They will provide a spreadsheet explaining how the money received will be split. Brandon does clarify this is far from perfect. The percentage gap between exclusive and non exclusive authors is still about the same. This change doesn't bring royalties up to the 70% he wanted in the first place yet, authors still won't have control over pricing, and they will always sell for the price of a credit, which won't be raised with inflation. He talks about how his agent, Joshua, spent months arguing for a 2% increase when Brandon was a new publisher to illustrate how important a small increase can be, even if this is bigger than 2%. And I hope this article has illustrated that as well. How difficult even getting them to move this much has been. Brandon explains that the Secret Projects will now be on Audible, and closes, thanking everyone for their support and the pressure they put on these issues. Part 7: Reflecting about how all this affects the publishing industry The publishing industry has always had this dilemma of art vs. business and where to fall on that scale. Treat it too much like a pure art and you get mentalities like the starving writer who does it despite not being able to sustain themselves. Treat it too much like a business and you lose out on the artistic value of works that won't sell as much in the moment. Works that sometimes become classics or will be praised critically but not be incredibly popular. My personal favorite example is Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. It's not accessible to a lot of people because of the layers and the prose, and how much mental energy it takes. But it is an absolute masterpiece, and I don't know if in today's market it would be published because of those commercial considerations. Sad as it is to say, the publishers left the door open for Amazon to fill the space because they failed to think for more than a second about the initial pricing of ebooks. And the way it's going, it only leads to more and more of a blockbuster model with publishers being risk-averse to new things because they are getting squeezed, it just makes the market harder for debut authors with new ideas and innovations, with more diverse voices. This year's Lee and Low Diversity Survey found that publishing is still 72% white, 71% cis women, 68% heterosexual, 83% able-bodied, and 58% living in the northeastern United States. And none of these numbers will change, like they barely did from the last time this survey was conducted, if we don't make an active effort to change them. That's why it is so important that Brandon stands up for these small authors, particularly those who publish independently. Traditional publishing isn't without its problems, but indie authors get affected the most by Amazon's policies that force them to be exclusive or take a huge loss to run ads as the only way to be discovered. Amazon says it's good for consumers by having low prices, but in the long run it isn't good because it will be creating this white noise where nobody stands out and removing quality and variety from people's options because publishing becomes more risk-averse. Not only will those potential classics, or books that are very niche, or that are being revolutionary, ahead of their time, be lost, but the quality on more commercial books will go down. We're already seeing this with controversies like the Iron Flame printing controversy. I hope that all these reflections about how it can affect our culture from multiple people will make an impact, and we'll start to see change. But we can't stay and do nothing. Even if you're not personally involved in the industry, there are still ways to affect it. Stay informed, use your local library and buy books in indie stores, preorder books, read more diversely, talk about the issues online, support indie authors. The list goes on and on. There is hope with a deal like the one Brandon has made. But we have to keep working for a better place, and better conditions for the artists we admire so much so they can keep bringing us amazing art. Part 8: Conclusion This article was originally just meant to go over the generalities of this deal and add information from the stream. But when I got my hands on it after a couple of days of discussion, I realized that it was a chance to talk about something I care about very deeply as a literature student and aspiring author, which lots of people may not know about. One thing I appreciate about the original stand Brandon took is that it showed people how bad the situation is, in a way that they wouldn't have even been aware of before. I hope that this article was a chance for you all to learn more about this beyond the endless paraphrasing of the same original article. And as pessimistic as I feel this sounded for a lot of it, what we need to take out of this is to make it known. Keep putting pressure on Audible to be better. Congratulate them for moving forward, but don't just let it rest here. Feel free to ask any questions and to start more of a discussion in the comments, I would love to know what you think.
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  15. Highspren have come off as rather weird and distant in the Stormlight books so far - in fact, I don't think we'd ever seen or heard a highspren talking to their Radiant yet, and Szeth mentioned that his spren "rarely showed itself" to him, much less converse with him constantly as most other spren do with their Nahel bonded person. And their approving and enabling of hundreds of years of Skybreakers hunting down and eliminating all other spren bonds under direction of a mad Herald has always made the whole group of them seem bonkers. And we see them through the POV of how the honorspren and all other Radiant spren regard them for siding with Odium in the Final Desolation. But Auxiliary... Even as a monotone fragment of a highspren, he comes off very, very well. This is even more moving than Maya's declaration of WE... CHOSE! to the court of honorspren in Lasting Integrity. Aux chose. HE CHOSE. Not "with" his Knight, Sigzil, but FOR him.
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  16. This is a cropped version of a Way of Kings drawing I did for my own enjoyment. Couldn't decide on what color version I like more. I know it's not quite how the visage of the Stormfather is described but this image has always overridden the cannon in my mind ...
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  17. From the album: Stormlight artworks 2023-2024

    "The wind had always been there, his friend, his companion, his ally. Until one day it had come to life and started talking to him". Rhythm of War. Congratulations to everyone that Mr. Sanderson wrote 50% of Book 5!! Yoohoo, I'm so happy! If all goes well, we can read the book in Fall 2024! I can't wait to learn the history of Kaladin and Syl in this book. Excited!
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  18. Hey y'all! So... you may have been wondering why I've disappeared for a few days... Yeah the Shard's blocked at home and I have been banned. Wheee Therefore, this is the last post I'm gonna make on here for a while. So I would like to say thank you! Thank you all for your support in my art and my writing - it has really meant a lot, and has helped me grow and improve! Thank you for being such an awesome community! It has been a joy to hang out with y'all and cause cHaOs. I apologize to y'all in the RP's and Sanderson Elim games - @The Wandering Wizard, you have full permission to do whatever you like with Telrao. She is yours now. It has truly been a delight and an honor to be with y'all! Until we next meet: May the sun shine upon your face The wind be at your back The path lead you to whatever place That brings you the joy you lack I LOVE you all, and hope our paths shall meet again! Blessings - Telrao *throws infinite muffins*
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  19. So. Today is my Shardiversary. It has been one year since, after quite a while lurking, I decided to join this community. Little did I know that the choice would mark a turning point in my life. As I slowly got involved in the activities on the Shard, I made friends. Connections. One of the first friends I made was The Wandering Wizard, who, though I didn't realize it at the time, lived in the same city as me. After some social deduction (and some off handed mentions of penguin...excrement...) I realized where he lived, and managed to meet up with him. A month or two later I met Cellist and Ranryu, and we got them to join too. During this era a bunch of other Sharders, many that I knew in real life and even more that I didn't, joined, and I somehow became popular. I fit in this community now. I have a place. I have friends that I can confide in, friends that know how to help me when I need help. Joining this site has given me friendships in real life and made them stronger, but it's also let me connect with so many amazing people, people who think like me, people who I'd been looking for for a long time. My time here has helped me realize who I am, I think. I've been able to greater understand my interests and goals and values in the last year, and while there were a great number of factors in that, this site, and the people here, have been a huge part in it. I'm glad all of you became Sanderfans and decided to come here at one point or another. Because you being here has been a huge blessing in my life. Thank you all, and here's to many more years!
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  20. From the album: Stormlight artworks 2023-2024

    “I… can’t,” Kaladin finally whispered, tears streaming down his cheeks. Kaladin bowed his head, sagging forward, trembling. Syl’s arms enfolded him from behind. She pulled him tight as he wept, sobbing, at his failure. Oathbringer
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  21. From the album: Stormlight Archive Fan Works

    Look at this very serious painting that is directly based on what was totally written in the actual book itself
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  22. Ok, tomorrow is the day! Have an amazing few years everyone!
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  23. yes luna and i broke up it was on good terms, and we’re still friends, but we’re not romantically together anymore thanks y’all for asking if i’m okay. i am okay. a little hurt, pretty sad, but.. i’m okay. and i’ll be okay. life’s different now, but i’ll get through it. and.. yeah. just wanted to let y’all know in case you hadn’t seen yet. im not mad at her. she gave incredibly logical reasons that i also agreed with, so it was a mutual parting of ways. please don’t bash on her or on our relationship or anything. thanks.
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  24. I don't like YA fantasy anymore (Exceptions: Rick Riordan's stuff, Skyward saga, Hunger Games) And I get that the whole thing about having a bunch of twelve-year-olds save the multiverse is there so a bunch of twelve-year-olds can get into reading. As a kid I sustained myself entirely on Brandon Mull - Five Kingdoms was my first real foray into high fantasy. But now that I'm an adult? It just... hurts to read. There're always these grown adults sending these children into battle and making stupid decisions to make the kids seem smart and epic. And then some god-level monstrosity finally reawakens from his slumber and is defeated by the power of friendship. Why am I thinking about this? Maybe because I'm watching Rebels? I really like the series, but the fact that they keep sending Sabine and Ezra into these tough-nut situations on their own usually breaks the immersion a bit for me. Some episodes less so than others - like the one where Ezra infiltrates a squad of Imperial Cadets, because Kanan is all "this is the dumbest idea I've ever had we need to pull him out of there" - but a lot of the time it's like "our plan is to have the mandalorian child run down a whole platoon of stormtroopers as a distraction" and I'm like ??? Child soldiers??? (I do really like Rebels though; not crapping on it or anything) Maybe I'm thinking about this because I was thinking about some fantasy pet peeves I have - all of which tend to show up in YA fiction at some point or another: "We've got company!" "I'm not leaving here without [][][]" [Two sword fighters glaring at each other while their swords are crossed... like I can't hold eye contact with anyone for the life of me and you're telling me that these people hate each other so much that they can't bear to look away for one second?] "Believe in yourself. BELIEVE" (somehow they passed this off in The Lego Movie. I guess Morgan Freeman just has that effect) [Wisecracks amid the final battle between the protag and antag, including "oh yeah? well -"] Objectively the worst thing to ever come out of any of these stories are when the twelve-year-old children form lifelong romantic bonds with each other. No, Harrison the sword boy and Verdi the tank top girl are not in love. No, they did not find their other half at the ripe old age of thirteen. If it's written by a christian then neither of these kids know how babies are made, and you're telling me that they're going to kiss at the end of the story and get married in time for the Era 2 sequel? If your prepubescent tweens are going to be kissing then you need to get an appointment with a psychologist. Meeting your future spouse at that age is called arranged marriage, not true love. (I have some opinions about the very end of AtLA, in case you cannot tell) And then these children are beating up the bad guy's soldiers left and right? "It's because they use their wits to fight, not just their muscle" man shut up. No tyrant-king of this fantasy world is going to maintain control over his empire with a bunch of brainless monkey guards. No army consists of a billion muscle machines and three characterized elite warriors. It's like in the Kenobi show how the good guys will whack a stormtrooper in the face and they'll just drop their blaster because reasons. You want to show the protagonists being capable and thinking on their feet? Give them fewer guards to worry about. Instead of twelve on two make it four on three with tight individual v individual combat. You'll never establish the least bit of tension if the sword child can take out two dozen bad guys on his own. I know, I know... it's YA. It's written for children. No one's forcing me to read any of it. It just bothers me that there are grown adults who are making the decision to send children into battle because they're their "last hope" or some crap like that. Like maybe if the child has some super powerful magical abilities and is practically incapable of dying (Mob Psycho 100 my beloved), but giving them a slim chance of success on some elite mission? It's not worth endangering these kids over, and it's probably even less worth endangering the mission by leaving it up to a bunch of kids. Basically, I'm being very conscientious about what happens with my younger characters in the Iconar Collective.
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  25. Today was Senior Skip Day and oh boy what a day it was! Yes, my car may have broken down and started leaking motor oil when we were six minutes away from the beach but that's how it goes sometimes! Also I got Promposed to right after we got home from the beach!! I'm really happy about it! She did it in Morse code (which we learned together) and it was really cute. I was planning on promposing to her, but she beat me to it. But just you wait until Prom! I'll really step things up for her! Also also yeah I was going to make a status update about London from my trip last week but I never got around to it. Long story short I got to play piano at the top of tallest building there, did a Sherlock Holmes Escape room, toured the Harry Potter studios, saw some beautiful architecture, and just had a blast with my family. Last vacation before I'm outta here :/ Life is good.
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  26. IT IS DONE! Please enjoy, Shatter Me! @That1Cellist @Telrao @Being of Cacophony @Thaidakar the Ghostblood @Morningtide @Cinnamon @Spark of Hope @The Bookwyrm @InfiniteInsanity @Kajsa :) @CalanoCorvus @Aes Sedai
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  27. 17 likes
  28. Hi! Hope you like the birthday cake I just made for my son’s 16th birthday. No one in my family has any idea what it is, but they are impressed that it’s is so shiny….
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  29. Hey everybody. As you've no doubt noticed, over the past month there has been a serious drop in my own activity on the Shard. This is due to the fact that over the course of a month, my life has gone through a complete 180 degree change. I was broken up with by Luna (mutual, we're still homies), got into another relationship (which, I'll be honest, is actually better than the one I had with Luna. nothing against Luna, it's just... my new gf and I are taking it at a pace that's our own, and being slow and talking about it. she's also good at physical affection, which is HUGE for me), and I've just finished my first quarter of my senior year, and my last first quarter of high school. Tomorrow and Wednesday I work on college essays to BYU Provo, and continue to go about my life. I'm sorry I've been so inactive, I know there's things that I've been missing out on: I just barely this morning and the past like 2 days finally got around to posting on the Insanity Clinic- which by the way, Season 1 is OFFICIALLY CONCLUDED :DDDDDD- and I also haven't really been writing as much, because there's just so much happening in my life, and I've been in a bit of a writing funk. I'll figure it out, don't you worry. I'm not leaving. I'm still here. No EP updates; like I said, it's all under wraps until right before it's release, so y'all are getting nothing except maybe a couple SUPER cryptic hints. Insanity Clinic Season 2 should come in the next couple of days. Cheers, y'all. My life has changed in such a crazy way, with sooooo many things happening in the past month ALONE. But yeah. New job is going great, it's great pay, and my coworkers are all wonderful people, as are the customers. I buy all my Mistborn cosplay gear in like a week and a half, and then after that I buy stuff for my room. Still here. Still going. Things are just changing a bit. Love y'all <3
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  30. Found out today I'll be able to go sit in on a NY Phil rehearsal with their organist!! Also 3rd AP Done!
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  31. MAJOR bands of mourning / secret history (original work I drew it)
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  32. MEMES?! MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!! I have a meme:
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  33. We have a sighting of @Toothless of Shinovar! (Or @Toothless In Shinovar. I'm not sure.)
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  34. I have no intention to create a political forum here. I have a few words to say and I'll leave it at that. I got married two days ago. To the woman that I love most in the world. A woman about whom I have written many a poem. I regret nothing, but the timing. As you may or may not have heard the worst war in the history of Israel. The carnage is unspeakable and sure to get worse. I almost felt wrong getting married amidst the death and slaughter. We were I suppose a light in the darkness that has fallen as a cloak so thick as to be blinding. Remember to be the light in the dark never feel guilty for being happy because you deserve it!!!
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  35. 16 likes
  36. I sewed this chonker with my own two hands. ...and a sewing machine and a needle and thread and fabric and buttons and stuffing. But I created this. His name is Snoodles. That is all, thank you.
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  37. Some problems: We don't know what shape the universe is We don't know the one-way speed of light Time is only symmetrical if you don't have a lot of stuff Some ramifications of those problems: We don't know if our universe is symmetrical Light could be faster in one direction than another direction Time travel could be possible but not really? ... ...it is 2 AM
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  38. So My parents they dont exactly like the whole online talking thing And they found out about the Shard They're making me leave I'm sorry I'll miss you guys Thank you for being such great friends and for being there for me. I love you all <33
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  39. From the album: General SA Art

    "Any meaning is for you to assign, Kaladin." One of my fav RoW chapters!
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  40. Does anyone else ever have the sudden urge to gather together the lego minifigures for all the Fellowship of the Ring and leave them lying around the city along with a note saying that they're going on an adventure and to move them someplace else and take a picture to add to a dropbox somewhere and see how far it gets or are you all normal.
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  41. Not sure how relevant it may be or if Brando ended up changing his mind, but I feel this WOB from the livestream ties into this discussion.
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  42. me: *looks at my profile page* also me: *sees i’ve won 64 days* also also me: hehe >:} a stack of days.
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  43. Not exactly a meme, but I didn't know where else to post it. I saw this on Reddit. Honkai Star Rail made a Mistborn reference.
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  44. Today, I officially entered the realm of adulthood! Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday today. Y'all really made me smile 'Twas my last birthday at home and the last one of high school, which makes me kinda sad, but it was a wonderful day. Except for the part where at track my coach made us do 40 minutes of core and I died. We don't have to talk about that. I got to order some excellent specialty pizza from a local restaurant, which was fantastic, and finished the night with lemon meringue pie! Also, my dad bought me a Bridge Four hoodie! I'm very excited to wear it. I wonder if any Sanderfans will come up to me after noticing the design...I hope they do, at least! Photo: ALSO ALSO ALSO this is unrelated to everything else but I found out tonight that BRANDOSANDO is speaking at my cousin's high school graduation!! I'm in shock and awe and I wish that was my graduation!! Anyway, hope y'all have/had a wonderful day today. You guys deserve it
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  45. I am so so done with this stupid society. Why can't the world be like my backyard? Flowers, grass, trees... AND NO ANNOYING PEOPLE. No depressing politics or sad news or pointless arguments. Just the wind, the clouds, and the dirt. No talking, just humming. The endless expanse of sky instead of a cold war bunker school/prison.
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  46. 15 likes
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