Team Sanderson: Communication Guidelines

[ccstat he/him]

The precipitating question here is that I have a question about Brandon's tour schedule and want to know the best way to ask it, but I think it would be useful to me and to other Sharders to have a generalized answer to how best to approach team Sanderson while respecting their time and space.

Obviously there is the contact form on Brandon's website. I have assumed (wrongly, perhaps) that it is primarily for fan mail or other things you want Brandon himself to read. The page cautions that it could take months to get a reply.

Brandon is active on Reddit and frequently responds to fans there, most often about Cosmere questions and writing advice. He also uses Twitter to give updates about tour stops and book news, and has a Facebook account that seems primarily to mirror the website and tour updates.

Peter shows up here on the forums and on Twitter.

Adam posts to Brandon's site blog and social media.

Here is the description of Team Sanderson and their individual roles, taken from the January 2015 newsletter.

Quote

• Brandon Sanderson: Yours truly, and writer of all the things.
• Emily Sanderson: Business Manager and executive president in charge of making Brandon get his hair cut.
• Peter Ahlstrom: Vice President and Editorial Manager. He does things like maintain continuity for my books, run beta and gamma reads, and edit stuff like this here newsletter. He also watches my social media, where you might see him responding to people’s questions when I can’t get to them.
• Kara Stewart: CFO/Shipping Manager. Kara runs the store on our website, and comes up with most of the promotions and many of items we put up for sale. If your order wanders off, she’s the one to talk to.
• Isaac Stewart: Art Director. Isaac is the brilliant cartographer who did the maps for Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive, and he also manages the other art projects we do. (Which are multitude these days.)
• Adam Horne: Brandon’s Executive Assistant. He basically does whatever we need him to. (And does it very well.)

In my case, since the question is one of scheduling, it seems like Adam (the executive assistant role) is probably the right person to ask. So...I could post to Brandon's facebook page, where Adam or Peter will see it, or I could look up Adam to see if he has his own twitter/facebook presence and message him directly, or I could ask the question here on 17S and tag Peter, or I could just use the contact form on the website and assume it will get to the right place in a timely fashion. 

Is there a guideline on the best practice so that fewer people at Team Sanderson have to look at something before it gets to the right person? Direct lines of communication seem more efficient on my end, but probably increase the noise level on theirs.

Edited November 30, 2016 by ccstat

[Pagerunner he/him]

I've had very quick turnaround from the contact form for questions that haven't had to go to Brandon himself (i.e. requesting White Sand or Aether of Night), so I think Adam monitors that mailbox. If he sees a time-sensitive question pop up, he might get right back to you if he knows the answer.

I monitor Team Sanderson's social media fairly regularly (lurking, of course), and I'd say that tweeting at Peter or Brandon is probably the best way to get a response. Adam also posts things on Brandon's Twitter account, so he'd be able to get back to you there, too.

If it's a question about a specific venue, you might be better off bypassing Team Sanderson altogether and using contact information for that stop, which you can find on the tour page on Brandon's website. Depending on what you're asking.