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It has been said of
Brandon Sanderson
that he is the Tolkien of this century, that he is the greatest -and perhaps the only one, if fans of Steve Erikson's
Malaz
saga will forgive us- rival of George RR Martin designing monumental fantastic series of epic and magic , and
every time one of his books appears, the sensations are not only confirmed, but their popular impact is accelerated
.
Not more than five years ago,
Sanderson
was a cult author, a secret shared by hundreds of thousands of readers around the world, but the rise of his fame - and, even more important, his prestige as a storyteller - has experienced a curve of exponential growth as he progressed on his project.
There is no longer any doubt that the present and the future of fantastic literature pass through his hands
.
This progress by Sanderson is clear with its impact on the Spanish market.
The Nova label publishes all his work, and according to its editor, Marta Rossich, in the last five years -since Penguin bought the Ediciones B group-,
sales have increased by 100% and accumulates up to a total of 600,000 units sold only in Spain
, not counting the Hispanic American market, where its growth is also entering an effervescent phase.
"It is also a phenomenon that is difficult to compare with others"
, affirms Rossich, "because it is supported only by books. There are still no audiovisual products based on his work."
Indeed, there are no series on platforms or film cycles produced by major Hollywood studios that squeeze the two most important sagas of the author, Born from the Mist and The Stormlight Archive -the two mainstays of his personal universe, the Cosmere- but that will not be long in coming.
If it hasn't happened, it's because Sanderson is also distinguished from other authors by the way he manages his assets:
instead of selling the rights to the books and forgetting about it, he has created a company, Dragonsteele, which manages his
merchandising
and mediates with studios or with board game manufacturers in the adaptation of his work
, always under the supervision of the author himself.
It is known, since he has said so -another of his virtues is that he keeps fans up to date with any news-, that there are advanced conversations about audiovisual adaptations.
"It will be soon," he always says.
But soon is a relative notion of time: for Sanderson it means "when everything is perfect"
.
Every time another book comes out, the others are moved, and they are sold en masse
The great action of the author in this 2023 is
the materialization of a project that has consolidated him as the largest of the fantasy authors who operate at the same time in the industrial market and in the self-publishing market
.
At the beginning of 2022, he announced to his fans that, during the pandemic, he had taken advantage of the interruption in travel to throw himself into writing ideas that he had had in his head for a long time.
He had completed four secret novels and was going to publish them himself after funding via Kickstarter.
Once the campaign launched, it became the most successful ever for a literary project, with 185,000 backers and $42 million raised
.
The first of the books,
Braid of the Emerald Sea
, just came out in English and it's also in Spanish.
Because
another of Sanderson's efforts is that her books are world events
in several languages at the same time.
The first attempt was with
The Rhythm of War
(2021), the fourth volume of the series
The Storm Archive
-the fifth is announced for the end of 2024-.
"Brandon asked us to publish it at the same time as in English," says Rossich, "because the Spanish market is the second most important for him, ahead of the Asian or German ones."
Publishing simultaneously was not easy, since
the book has 1,400 pages, but thanks to the efficiency of its translator, Manu Viciano, and a Stakhanovist working method, the publisher accomplished the feat
.
"Since then there is no option: we have to publish at the same time," says his editor.
2023 will be Sanderson's great year because he will occupy five titles of the 10 that Nova publishes annually
: the fourth installment of the Squad
youth series
, and the four secret projects.
Braid of the Emerald Sea
is a youth novel, the story of a young woman in love who goes in search of the boy she loves, captured by a witch in a remote country, and who ends up leading a pirate ship.
The seas they plow are made of spores instead of water, and this world is surrounded by explosive magic.
The
Cosmere
,
Sanderson's fantastic universe, consists of a grouping of planets with different magic systems, and in each one he places each of his series
From him.
This novel, which has a strong influence from
The Princess Bride
, is a gateway to that universe, short by the author's standards -550 pages- and self-contained.
For his Spanish publishing house,
Sanderson is not an author of novelties, but of catalog background
.
"Every time another book comes out, the others are moved, and they are sold en masse."
A solid block, with different interconnected audiences - there are books for children like the Alcatraz saga, or for adults like the hard core of
Cosmere
- and that arouses passions.
When the stories become images, then perhaps Tolkien begins to see his throne threatened.
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