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I wonder how many people who read Brandon Sanderson (and/or are backing this Kickstarter) read much else, in genre or out. I was thinking of this because I remember a big online outburst from people who read Star Wars novels based on the idea that they were being "judged" for not reading anything but Star Wars novels, when they proudly did just that.

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author

Interesting question! How many big fat fantasy series can one fan be into at one time? You would know better than me. ;)

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Mar 2, 2022Liked by Gwenda Bond

This is all fascinating. As an agent, your point about contract language makes me wonder if we'll see more specific language re: "competing works". At this level....I could see crackdowns on that.

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author

That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m thinking about.

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Mar 2, 2022·edited Mar 2, 2022Liked by Gwenda Bond

It's going to be verrrry interesting to see how author contracts are drawn up in the future. My first thought was "I bet this creates a non-compete type of clause." And then it becomes murky because the idea of derivative works..I watched it skyrocket to over $17 million at lunch today. I mean..

Yeah, if someone paid me even $20k, I'd probably do a TikTok dance.

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author

There are already competition clauses in most contracts, but they tend to be fairly limited/specific. I imagine there will be some...innovations on that front. Could also show up in warranty or option clauses. :-/

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This is fascinating! I'm so curious about what this will do to contracts in the future. But I mainly like what it does for those of us who like to consider ways to monetize more of our work that otherwise seems like free content creation.

And like you said, most authors wouldn't draw the kind of money he's drawing, but they'd proudly and humbly accept much, much less. Stories like this always lead to others who turn around and do something similar, even if on a smaller scale. And the process will change and evolve into a new way of doing things for some.

Remember the first several authors who made it big by publishing their own work on the Kindle. Look how many authors now make REALLY good livings doing the same thing. Only now, it's gotten WAY more sophisticated.

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author

Yes, opens up lots of possibilities! I can't wait to see what people cook up.

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Good stuff. Definitely something to watch, and to continue to talk about!

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