Publishing has traditionally offered authors two well-worn paths: land a traditional deal or self-publish. In the last few years, a third option has grown into something authors at every level, from brand-new indie writers to genuinely massive bestselling names, are using deliberately: crowdfunding the book directly through Kickstarter. Here's what that route actually looks like, and how it differs from the other two.

The Traditional Route

A traditional deal means an advance from a publisher in exchange for the rights to the book, along with the publisher's distribution network, marketing budget, and editorial infrastructure. The author typically gives up a significant share of royalties, often around 85%, in exchange for that support and reach. The publisher assumes the financial risk upfront, and the author is paid regardless of whether the book ultimately sells well enough to earn out the advance.

The Self-Publishing Route

Self-publishing flips that structure. The author retains all rights and keeps the much larger royalty share that comes with platforms like KDP, but they also take on every cost themselves: editing, cover design, formatting, marketing, all of it, upfront and out of pocket, with no guarantee that the book will earn that investment back.

The Kickstarter Route

Crowdfunding sits in a different spot entirely. Instead of a publisher fronting the money, or the author fronting it alone, readers fund the book's production directly, before it exists in final form, in exchange for early access, exclusive editions, or bonus content. The author still self-publishes in the sense that they retain their rights, but the financial risk of production is distributed among everyone who backs the campaign rather than resting entirely on the author's shoulders.

It also functions differently as a sales mechanism. A traditional or self-published launch sells a finished product. A Kickstarter campaign sells belief in a project before it's finished; backers are often funding a story they're excited about sight-unseen, based on an author's track record, a pitch, or a concept.

Where Brandon Sanderson Fits In

Sanderson's name comes up constantly in this conversation because his campaigns reframed what crowdfunding could mean at scale. In 2022, his "Surprise! Four Secret Novels" campaign, featuring four Cosmere-universe books he'd written and kept secret during the pandemic, raised over $41 million from more than 185,000 backers, becoming the most-funded Kickstarter project in the platform's history at the time. He's since returned to Kickstarter and BackerKit repeatedly for special leather-bound and collector's editions, each breaking further records.

Notably, Sanderson wasn't leaving traditional publishing behind to do this. He continues to publish his main line of novels through Tor. The Kickstarter route was layered on top, specifically for projects, secret novels, and deluxe editions that didn't fit neatly into his existing relationship with his publisher. He's also been open that one of his goals was testing what a book's sales and distribution could look like with less reliance on Amazon, which accounts for a large share of most authors' sales.

What the Rings of Adventure Anthology Represents on the Other End

Sanderson's campaigns operate at a scale most authors will never see, but the same underlying mechanism shows up at a much smaller level too. The Rings of Adventure anthology, a themed short-story collection by 34 indie authors, is running its own Kickstarter with a funding goal of just $2,500. It's a completely different scale, but structurally the same idea: readers fund the project directly and, in exchange, get early or exclusive access to the finished work, while the cost and risk of production are shared among many contributors rather than borne by a single author or a publisher.

Why Authors Are Weighing This Option At All

A few structural features seem to be drawing authors toward crowdfunding as a real third option rather than a fallback: it lets an author gauge reader demand before committing to full production costs, it builds a direct, engaged community around a project from the very start rather than after launch, and it allows for premium or collectible editions, leatherbound hardcovers, special art, bonus content, that are often too costly or too niche for a traditional print run or a standard KDP release to support.

None of this makes one route inherently better than another. Traditional publishing still offers infrastructure and reach that's hard to replicate. Self-publishing still offers speed and full creative control. Crowdfunding offers something different again: a way to fund a specific project directly with the people most excited to read it, before it's finished, rather than after.

Sources:
- Engadget, "Brandon Sanderson's record-breaking Kickstarter campaign ends with $41.7 million"
- Kickstarter, "How Brandon Sanderson's Kickstarter Project Broke the Bookish Internet"
- Read Indie Fantasy, "New Release Roundup for September 2026"
- Kicktraq, Rings of Adventure Anthology campaign page