Tesh

I originally wrote this as a response to @Dannnex's status update, which can be found here, but a friend recommended that I post this as a SU myself so that more people will see it than just those who originally commented on Dannex's SU. This is just to share my point of view, not to attack those of you who have no issues with the kickstarter. Your positions on this are valid, too. 

And to be clear, I'm still getting the books myself. 

Okay, so, for me, I'm not thrilled about the kickstarter, and here's why:

1. This is a very large expense that was thrown on a lot of people with no warning whatsoever, and it's a limited time thing. A lot of people who aren't in a great financial situation are still going to get these books and boxes even though it isn't the best idea in terms of money. With more notice, it would have given the people in this situation more time to set aside some money to lessen the financial blow. For me, in order to get the hardcovers, I'm having to return a couple dnd books I got a few weeks ago so that I can afford them. If I had known about this in advance, though, I wouldn't have bought them in the first place. I'm a high school student, I don't have a job, and this is the last of my birthday money, so this isn't a huge deal for me, but I can't even imagine springing this huge expense onto, say, a college student, or a struggling family, with no warning. And I can't blame these people for, say, taking money out of their food budget to pay for this. Because I love Brandon's books too, and I also don't want to wait an extra year, or even more, to read these books.

2. Storms this stuff is expensive. Dragonsteel is asking people to pay $600 for these swag boxes that they aren't telling us what is in them. And that's okay to a certain extent. Surprise is fun. However, they're so expensive that they should be giving us some idea of what's in them. All we have is "yeah there might be a shirt or something." Plus, $50 for a book the size of AoL is really storming expensive. I get that they're not printing with a traditional publisher, and that the books are going to have extra stuff in them. But it's still a lot, especially with how successful this kickstarter is. And then $40 for shipping... Once again, it's a lot. I do understand the decision to ship all of them separately though. But if there was an option to just get all of the limited edition books in one shipment at the end of 2023, I would take that option myself and save on the $30.

3. A lot of people were really genuinely concerned for Brandon. I have a family member who is really close to his family, and if something was really going on there, it would have impacted my life as well, especially the life of my family member who is close to them. A lot of people were worried he was going to drop the Cosmere or something like that, and it's been so so so important in so many people's lives, including my own. And just the emotional stress his presentation of this put on me and so many other people... I know a lot of people were able to just brush it off. But some of us can't.

4. This kickstarter started two days after the end of The Project For Awesome, an annual charity event run by John and Hank Green. They have done this for fifteen years. For the first half of the livestream that they do (it's 48 hours long) the money goes to Partners in Health and Save the Children. The proceeds raised during the second half are going to a variety of charities and non-profit organizations nominated and voted on by the community. The P4A raised $3 million in 48 hours. Which is so storming incredible and it was almost a spiritual experience when they hit that number. And then the kickstarter. They got to $13 million in about 12 hours. And that just... honestly, it really hurt. And I know this is more of a thing that's specific to me, but that doesn't change the fact that it hurt. And yes, I know Brandon has a charity and stuff, but there is almost no information on it. He doesn't tell us how much he gives to it, keep us updated on what it's doing, or anything like that. Frankly, he doesn't need all this money. And at the very least he could give us more information on the Lightweaver Foundation. Then this wouldn't be as big of a deal for me.

I'm so excited for the new books, and I can't wait to read them. I'm so glad so many other people are excited too, but I can't be excited about the kickstarter itself.

Even just trying to say "YAY BRANDON GOT $20 MILLION IN FOUR DAYS!" leaves me with a metaphorical bitter taste in my mouth.