Kickstarter has officially recognized its most funded project of all time, which was launched just days ago by Brandon Sanderson, co-author of The Wheel of Time series.
The project, titled "Surprise! Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson," had a goal of $1,000,000 and is now at over $22,000,000 and growing, with over 93,000 backers. Kickstarter sent out an announcement to backers saying, "Wow! Just three days ago, sci-fi/fantasy author Brandon Sanderson launched 'Four Secret Novels,' a series of books and swag boxes to be released throughout 2023. It just became the most funded Kickstarter project EVER!"
The Wheel of Time is the epic fantasy book series that inspired the hit Prime Video show of the same name. It was created by the late Robert Jordan, with the final three books co-written by Sanderson after Jordan's death in 2007, hand-picked to finish the series by Harriet McDougal, Jordan's widow and editor. Sanderson was also a consulting producer on Season 1 of The Wheel of Time TV series.
However, Sanderson is also a prolific author of original fiction projects, such as the fantasy series Mistborn and The Stormlight Archives. Both of these are set within a universe called the Cosmere, which he describes saying, "Think of the Cosmere like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, except every story (instead of starring a different superhero) is taking place on a different fantasy planet with its own ecology and magic." Three of the record-breaking Kickstarter's new books take place in the Cosmere.
The initial announcement about the Kickstarter came through a video that Sanderson shared on Monday, March 1, in which he "confessed" to having used the time that he saved by not going to conventions over the past two years to write five new books. One of these, he said, he had yet to decide on how to publish, and thus it isn't included in the Kickstarter.
Sanderson added a note to his project's page saying, "Hello! Welcome to my increasingly unbelievable Kickstarter," and explaining what backers would receive. "These books are an excellent place to start into my work, as they are each standalone novels that require very little previous knowledge of anything I've written before. If you're interested in backing the Kickstarter, you can do so knowing that you're not going to be launching into a big series—instead, you're going to get a sampling of the many different types of things I like to do."
Source: Kickstarter