brandon sanderson books in publication order

But publishers kept telling him that his epic fantasies were too long, that he should try being darker or “more like George RR Martin” (it was the late 90s, and A Song of Ice and Fire was topping bestseller charts). The books were written over a decade while Sanderson was working as a night clerk at a hotel – a job chosen specifically because as long as he stayed awake, his bosses didn’t mind if he wrote between midnight and 5am. Most writers have novels that never see the light of day. All this for a book that was just one of 13 Sanderson wrote before he’d even landed a publishing deal.

With 15 days still to go, he’s raised more than $5.6m. In less than 10 minutes, it became the most-funded publishing project of all time when it topped $1m. The fantasy author initially set out to raise $250,000 (£198,500) to release a 10th anniversary, leather-bound edition of his doorstopper novel, The Way of Kings. W atching the numbers tick up on Brandon Sanderson’s Kickstarter is a remarkable way to pass the time.

Brandon sanderson books in publication order