Why Brandon Sanderson’s Second Kickstarter Did 4.5x Better Than His First One

Six Lessons Any Author Can Apply to Their Campaign Design

Brandon Sanderson’s campaign took the author community—and then the world—by storm when it hit Kickstarter at the beginning of March 2022 and quickly because the most funded Kickstarter project to date. The previous record was a little under $20.4 million, which Sanderson’s Four Secret Novels project surpassed in its first three days on the platform.

Screenshot of the Four Secret Novels campaign taken by the writer of the article.

At the time of this writing, Sanderson’s project hovers around $31.7 million with 9 days left to go. Will it reach $40.8 million and double the second largest campaign to date? We will find out at the end of March.

In the meantime, we (Russell Nohelty and Monica Leonelle) wanted to share some insights around what made this project raise so much more funding than the last and only other project Sanderson has run on the platform to date. That project, called The Way of Kings 10th Anniversary Leatherbound Edition, raised a “measly” $6,788,517—a figure that, at the time, was the biggest Publishing category project in history at Kickstarter.