This is an interesting podcast conversation with Brandon Sanderson   that I came across accidentally (I enjoyed particularly the parts from [00:37:57] onwards). He is the author of The Stormlight Archive   and Mistborn   fantasy novels. I have read The Way of Kings some years ago but didn’t yet continue the series.

A couple of interesting things he discussed:

• He publishes and distributes his books via his company, Dragonsteel, and uses successful kickstarter campaigns   to finance new projects. Kickstarter is quite common for board games or video games projects, but not many people have used it for successful book projects.
• He develops and tests his books like a Hollywood studio would test movie ideas. For example, his team developed an elaborate test reader process to understand whether they understand and/or like certain parts of a book. I find it interesting how he walks the fine line between writing about what he likes and writing for the market and commercial success.
• He explains that ebook and audiobook deals are hard to negotiate when the market is dominated by amazon / audible.
• He can easily deconstruct popular books into common narrative patterns, e.g. Three-act-structure   or The Hero’s journey   .
• I found his distinction between hard magic systems (magic rules are explicitly laid out to the reader, e.g. Asimov series) and soft magic systems (rules are vague, and reader or characters will develop surprising new capabilities, e.g. Gandalf in Lord of the Rings) fascinating.