Brandon Sanderson & Phillis Wheatley

Old ways to do new things

I started this newsletter a few months ago, when I was reading about the publication history of Phillis Wheatley, and wanted to make an argument for subscription publishing—which was a norm for most of the 17th and 18th centuries—as a precursor to Kickstarter (or Kickstarter as a throwback to publishing’s early days), and, actually, a very good model, one that Belt has tweaked and tried to emulate in our efforts to drive preorders to our store. Too bad I didn’t finish it then, because a bit of buzzy publishing news lately has been Brandon Sanderson’s Kickstarter.

My response to Sanderson is: good on you! More authors who have a built-in audience and are interested in the logistics of printing and distribution (or want to hire someone who is) should do the same. Stephen King would make more money if he self-published, and have more control. This is the lesson that so many successful genre writers have taken over the years: romance writers particularly, as well as science fiction and o…