You Know You're a Sanderfan When...

[Treamayne]

. . . when you make a Cosmere Crossword, just to see if you can.

Spoiler

Across
 1 - Alethi Royalty (former)        
 5 - Helaran Victim
 6 - Gum source
 8 - Focus Aon        
10 - Shade Enforced
12 - Cosmere Genre
14 - Canteen Squire
15 - Partinel Title
16 - Skathan's Language

Down
 1 - Hrathen's Blesser
 2 - Brandon's rough Cameo
 3 - Citizen Advisor
 4 - Hallandren's most honorable
 7 - Sword Mother
 8 - Nilto's home
 9 - Dalinar's Aon
11 - Valette's station
13 - Riots

Sorry, it's not quite right. Had to slightly break pattern. . .
Also, had to dig deep for some words to fit.

[Wasing the want of this]

ykyasf When your younger brother calls you a Jerkface when he's mad and you take it as a compliment 

When you get a bad grade on a math test and think you could have gotten a better grade if renarin was your math teacher then spend the next week making a school with just characters from mistborn and stormlight archive

[Through The Living Glass She/They]

2 hours ago, Wasing the want of this said:

ykyasf When your younger brother calls you a Jerkface when he's mad and you take it as a compliment 

When you get a bad grade on a math test and think you could have gotten a better grade if renarin was your math teacher then spend the next week making a school with just characters from mistborn and stormlight archive

. . . 

that's a great forum game idea

. . .

who's with me

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

2 minutes ago, Through The Living Glass said:

. . . 

that's a great forum game idea

. . .

who's with me

I second

[Through The Living Glass She/They]

3 minutes ago, Kaladin Stormcursed said:

I second

Done

*goes to make thread*

[Honors Spectral Image She/her]

12 hours ago, Through The Living Glass said:

. . . 

that's a great forum game idea

. . .

who's with me

I third 

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

20 hours ago, Through The Living Glass said:

Done

*goes to make thread*

I agree.

You know your a sanderfan when you've finished Mistborn and see: "Oh dang. It's in a universe? Cosmere? Time to read the entire cosmere. Next Cytoverse... Maybe Frugal wizard, ..."

You know your a sanderfan when you plan the best way to buy all the cosmere books. "So I start with mistborn... Then I do mistborn era 2, get the arcanum unbounded, White Sand Omnibus, Dawnshard, The 5 SA books, Secret Projects (Including Frugal Wizard just to be safe), Elantris, and then Warbreaker."

[Use the Falchion]

When you spend too much time thinking about how awesome it would be for your second-favorite author (Will Wight) and the author of your new obsession (Bryce O'Connor, author of Warformed: Stormweaver series) joined Dragonsteel. (Please note that this works for many authors, but these are the ones I think about as they're my favorites at this time.)

 

Pros:

Concept Art On-Demand - Brandon has a team of in-house illustrators, working around the clock to fulfill his and Dan's concept art needs, as well as the needs of any merchandise desired. Just this week, Bryce sent out a call for fan-artists so he could commission them to make something. How much easier would it be if he could have that all done in-house?

Built-In Fanbase - The best part about working with Brandon is that we, his fans, are very, VERY dedicated. A lot of Brandon's coauthors, while prestigious and incredibly talented in their own right, don't have the level of fame or fans that Brandon does. So, when he DOES collaborate, they get a MASSIVE boost to their own sales, even if it's something small and non-Cosmere. 

Say, any particular author Brandon works with sells 200-300 books a month. It's solid sales, with 10-20 books sold per day. A new book may come out, and they may sell between 5,000-10,000 on opening day, for something highly anticipated. This is all great! Now, a collaboration with Brandon may push that up to 30,000-60,000 on opening day, depending on what the project is (Skyward novellas in all formats vs Legion only in audiobook format for example) and how well it's promoted; later on, it may sell around 350-500 books a month for the first year. That can be a MASSIVE jump in someone's salary, even if they don't get the full profit. (I can't put money on it or really get an estimate, but I'd wager that Skyward Flight Collection is one of Janci Patterson's best-selling novels, if not her best-selling one.)

Logistics, logistics, LOGISTICS - This is honestly the biggest draw a larger company, Dragonsteel specifically. After years of merchandise shipping and a few years of MASSIVE growth, Dragonsteel has the connections to make big moves happen without too much of a fuss. This is a really good sign for things like leatherbacks and hardcover versions of books, something that Will Wight more or less just started being able to do, and something that Bryce really can't do as much of yet. Dragonsteel isn't so big that authors become lost in the shuffle and everything's about the bottom line, but they're not so small (anymore) that they struggle pumping out the merchandise promised. They're growing, and that's a good place to be.*  

They've also got the connections for other projects these authors might dream of. Want to make a TTRPG of your universe? They can talk to Brotherwise for you. (And if Brotherwise is too busy with the Cosmere RPG, then they'll at least know someone else who can help.) You've gotten some interest in Hollywood? Talk to Brandon about it, and maybe he can introduce you to some people. You want to make a graphic novel? They've got the means and know-how to do so in-house nowadays! 

 

 

Cons: 

It's Unnecessary - Will is a big name in his associated subgenres and has run several successful Kickstarters. (He's had at least one, maybe two, raise over a million dollars. That's HUGE.) His company is mostly family and friends, and at this point in his career it's a well-oiled machine. He's even done smaller events focused around his books and works, and has (small) panels at bigger events. Add in the fact that there's a massive crossover between fans of Will's works and Brandon's works - and it's growing quite often! - and you'll see that Will doesn't actually need Brandon to function. 

Bryce is even more impressive, as he has several other smaller indie authors under his publication. (Due to who some of these authors are, I'm not sure Brandon would feel comfortable buying out or taking over Bryce's company, nor would I push it, if I was in a place to give advice.) However, Dragonsteel absorbing Bryce's company could theoretically mean that Bryce can spend a lot more time writing at a lot less time on the admin side of things. More writing ideally means faster books, and under the Dragonsteel umbrella, that means more eyes on them, which in turn means more sales. But Bryce is a "pantser," or rather a "gardener" not a "planner" or "architect" like Brandon and other writers who work with him are. It'd be hard for Brandon to have a meeting with Bryce about where his story is going and when the next book is coming out, when Bryce himself wouldn't know. (THAT BEING SAID, Bryce is pretty consistent about getting chapters out semi-regularly.) 

 

It Slows Everyone Down - The larger Dragonsteel gets, the more meetings Brandon has to have. The more meetings Brandon has to have, the less time he's writing. Once writing decreases, the wait-time for books increases, and nobody likes that! Sure, having Will and Bryce on the team means that Dragonsteel would still be releasing books, but it's not the same. People already get upset about how many collaborations Brandon already has; adding more authors to the list wouldn't help. And honestly, Brandon would probably add to the wait time on Will and Bryce's books. I can't imagine that Sanderson would allow ANY book under Dragonsteel to be released without his final say. Just look at how long it's taken Brandon and Dan to get Dark One out. So now Will, Bryce, and Brandon are all delayed on releasing books because of the planning meetings as well as revisions going long. 

 

Potentially Less Money in the Long Run - As much as I talked about how sales can be boosted above, that's not a guarantee. When collaborating on the book, the profits are split, so each author gets less than if they wrote the novel all by themself. Ideally, in the case with Dragonsteel, an influx of new fans from Brandon's promotion would make up the difference. But what if that's not the case? What if book sales don't reach the threshold where it was beneficial to coauthor a book? The only one winning is Brandon, and even he would probably feel like his time could have been used better on different projects. 

 

Overall - Imagining Bryce and Will's companies joining under a Dragonsteel umbrella is a nice fantasy, but it's not realistic. It just shows how much I think Brandon and his company could benefit other authors, and how fun it'd be to see more authors under Brandon's umbrella.

(Neither need it. Bryce's company is too established and would cause a lot of growing pains and issues if it combined with Dragonsteel. Meanwhile, Will's company is focused on only Will's work at this time, but it doesn't need to be bigger or the support of a larger author.)

 

*As an aside, I don't envy Dragonsteel as a company. On one hand, Brandon's talked about how if he just signed leatherbounds, he wouldn't ever have to write another book again and his family and company would be okay. However, to keep the company growing, he needs not only to provide more books, but also merchandise. I can't imagine how much of a toll that could take over the years, providing new items to the store annually...

Edited April 22, 2025 by Use the Falchion

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

When you start theorizing about Mistborn and the cosmere so much you create a multi-step plan to CONQUER THE COSMERE (by buying all the books)

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

When, just about any time you see your friends, you try to get them to read Cosmere books

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

59 minutes ago, Kaladin Stormcursed said:

When, just about any time you see your friends, you try to get them to read Cosmere books

NO NO WAIT. THATS LITERALLY ME LOL

[Through The Living Glass She/They]

1 hour ago, Kaladin Stormcursed said:

When, just about any time you see your friends, you try to get them to read Cosmere books

YOOOOOOO I DO THAT :D:D

well I used to

but SOMEONE has my TFE copy

*cough cough @Dabi cough*

it's fine though he's reading it 

[Honors Spectral Image She/her]

YKYASFW every morning you think abt how if you could use lashings to get to school you would never be late 

[Skylano]

You think about how convenient a Seon would be in real life (I forgot phones existed)

[The Great Wyver She/Her]

When you wish you could be Mistborn, Knights Radiant, and/or Feruchemist. Oh, and also a Shard.

[Riino He/Him]

When, being Elantrian, you find it hard to get out of the Door 

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

When you start making a D&D character based on Earthbending and end up making a Mistborn

[TheUnInvestedCremling he/him....]

On 12/14/2013 at 1:46 AM, Shardbearer said:

You know you're a Sanderfan when you start to wonder who around you might be a worldhopper in hiding.

when you think every other book turns you into a potato?!?!?

[The Great Wyver She/Her]

You know it when you start putting flames next to a perfectly-carved gemstone so you can catch a Flamespren.

[Riino He/Him]

35 minutes ago, Wyver said:

You know it when you start putting flames next to a perfectly-carved gemstone so you can catch a Flamespren.

When you bring out the tuning fork to move some electricity between batteries

[The Great Wyver She/Her]

4 minutes ago, Riino said:

When you bring out the tuning fork to move some electricity between batteries

When you start making up random tunes to summon/demolish stormlight/voidlight/lifelight

Edited May 6, 2025 by Wyver
fixed my typo :0

[Riino He/Him]

Just now, Wyver said:

When you start making up randon tunes to summon/demolish stormlight/voidlight/lifelight

When you breath in to turn your lamp off at night time

[The Great Wyver She/Her]

1 minute ago, Riino said:

When you breath in to turn your lamp off at night time

When you wait ten heartbeats tryna summon a shardblade/honorblade

[Riino He/Him]

1 minute ago, Wyver said:

When you wait ten heartbeats tryna summon a shardblade/honorblade

When you Compare other planets size and gravity to Cosmere standard (Yolen)

[The Great Wyver She/Her]

2 minutes ago, Riino said:

When you Compare other planets size and gravity to Cosmere standard (Yolen)

When you start trying to make one expansive Ars Arcanum