Today I am going to rant. I am going to rant about something that makes me angry. No, not politics – I swore to keep political discussions away from this space – but about a viral story that is getting a lot of play in both traditional media and in the social media sphere.
I am talking about the Brandon Sanderson Kickstarter dust-up.
The Background (you can skip this if you know the players already):
First, what is Kickstarter? Simply put, it is a platform where creators can raise capital to fund a project, a process called crowdfunding. Kickstarter investors (known as “backers”) can support a project for just a few dollars. The rewards are in line with the investment: a book, a digital music album, a copy of a new game.
Second, who is Brandon Sanderson? He’s a writer. He’s a best-selling fantasy writer. He’s a best-selling fantasy writer with a solid career, a passionate fan base, and a lot of books to his credit (in 2021 his total sales were reportedly over 21 million copies).
Third, what’s all the fuss about? Well, Sanderson used Kickstarter to launch a set of four novels, and within a single day raised more than $15 million in pledges. By the 4th day it had become the most-funded project in the 13-year history of the site, and the haters crawled out of the woodwork.
Now Back to the Rant:
There are plenty of places you can read about what is being said, both about the project, and about Sanderson. The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/03/books/brandon-sanderson-kickstarter.html has a take on it, Slate https://slate.com/culture/2022/03/brandon-sanderson-kickstarter-criticism-why-writers-are-upset-about-his-record-setting-campaign.html has another. Lots of writers have taken to Facebook and Twitter to grouse about the amount of money Sanderson has raised, and why it hurts publishing for him to do so.
But I am not here to rant about those arguments. Many of them are misguided and uninformed, referencing business practices that haven’t been used for years, or decades, and making assumptions that experienced publishing professionals know are incorrect. (If you want to see an excellent rebuttal of those arguments, see the Patreon page of Kristine Kathryn Rusch https://www.patreon.com/kristinekathrynrusch/posts where you can subscribe for as little as $1/month.)
I am here to rant about how other writers are treating Sanderson.
He doesn’t need me to defend him. He’s successful, he has a loyal fan base (I can give you 22 million reasons why I can say that - 30 million since I wrote this piece last week), he’s very good at doing what he does, and if the comments hurt his feelings he can cry all the way to the bank, as the saying goes.
But I do not understand the anger, the abuse, the absolute vitriol, that has been unleashed. No one deserves this kind of treatment simply because they are good and successful at what they do.
Who even asks whether a writer “deserves” his success? To claim that by being successful he is somehow harming other writers? To dismiss his hard work (his first sale was his sixth novel, and he’d written twelve before that one sold) and his dedication and discount him because he writes “commercial” fiction?
WHO DOES THAT?
Several weeks ago I wrote “It Costs Nothing to be Kind.” At the time I was talking about being open and welcoming to newbies in our creative communities. About helping those just starting out, about being a mentor to those following our same path.
But today I am just plain angry at the level of nastiness directed at someone just because they are ahead of us on that path.
Sanderson works hard. He is good at what he does, and he has put in the time and effort to learn how the business works. He respects his fans and treats them well. He is trying something new, and taking the risk of falling on his face. He isn’t the first to try Kickstarter – I know a lot of people who have been using it successfully for the last several years – but he has clearly studied the successes and failures of others, and put a good deal of work and thought into designing his project.
Most of all, he is a human being, deserving of respect. And compassion.
Currently he is getting neither from a great swath of the chatterverse.
It is neither necessary nor kind, and at the moment I am ashamed of some of my fellow writers.
Despite their arguments to the contrary, it costs them nothing to be kind. And if they can’t be kind I want them to shut the hell up.