It's very debatable about just how much good a tour does. In the case of this tour, I think Tor did a wonderful job - especially by working closely with Dragonmount and the two them making the Storm Leader program so successful. As one of the Storm Leaders I got a bit more of an insider's look along with being in touch with Sanderson's publicist fairly regularly.
I met Brandon at about the 3/4 mark of the tour and he was exhausted. Yes, he was having a great time, but traveling on a plane every single day, dealing with security, sleeping in a different hotel each night, meeting new people every day, signing books for several hours each night, and most significantly, being away from his 2-year old son and pregnant wife for a month were all wearing him down. He told me that he spoke with Tor and said he couldn't do a month-long tour ever again. He said that he anticipates about a 2-week tour for the release of ToM and a 2-week tour for the release of Way of the Kings. WotK is expected to have an August/September release. I imagine that ToM will end up with a November, perhaps December release.
He also told me that he was much less productive than he had hoped to be while on tour. This isn't a suprise really, but he was a bit disappointed by it. I think, he'll still manage to get ToM turned in for a release in late-2010, but it's far from certain. He said that TGS was over a year of 14-hour days to write. ToM will probably be less since he needs less background, but it's also a longer book that TGS was.
I think that the large, fan-friendly push was necessary for TGS to get the fan-base excited about WOT again and to get fans comfortable with Sanderson. Also just to answer questions - the vast majority of WOT fans are not like us, they don't follow things closely and they knew very little about the situation around Jordan's death and the choosing of Brandon to finish the series. This was necessary. It won't be as necessary for ToM.
Having said that, I love that Tor made such an effort to get fans the chance to interact with Brandon. I hope they keep it up for the future.
And on a tangental note, it's my guess that Brandon won't be doing any international tours until after AMOL is published. This means that folks and Canada, the UK, Europe and elsewhere will continue to feel left out.
I met Brandon at about the 3/4 mark of the tour and he was exhausted. Yes, he was having a great time, but traveling on a plane every single day, dealing with security, sleeping in a different hotel each night, meeting new people every day, signing books for several hours each night, and most significantly, being away from his 2-year old son and pregnant wife for a month were all wearing him down. He told me that he spoke with Tor and said he couldn't do a month-long tour ever again. He said that he anticipates about a 2-week tour for the release of ToM and a 2-week tour for the release of Way of the Kings. WotK is expected to have an August/September release. I imagine that ToM will end up with a November, perhaps December release.
He also told me that he was much less productive than he had hoped to be while on tour. This isn't a suprise really, but he was a bit disappointed by it. I think, he'll still manage to get ToM turned in for a release in late-2010, but it's far from certain. He said that TGS was over a year of 14-hour days to write. ToM will probably be less since he needs less background, but it's also a longer book that TGS was.
I think that the large, fan-friendly push was necessary for TGS to get the fan-base excited about WOT again and to get fans comfortable with Sanderson. Also just to answer questions - the vast majority of WOT fans are not like us, they don't follow things closely and they knew very little about the situation around Jordan's death and the choosing of Brandon to finish the series. This was necessary. It won't be as necessary for ToM.
Having said that, I love that Tor made such an effort to get fans the chance to interact with Brandon. I hope they keep it up for the future.
And on a tangental note, it's my guess that Brandon won't be doing any international tours until after AMOL is published. This means that folks and Canada, the UK, Europe and elsewhere will continue to feel left out.
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In an ideal world, would Sanderson spend slightly less time touring?
- 01/12/2009 04:52:08 PM
491 Views
In an ideal world, the series would have been over in six books quite a few years ago.
- 01/12/2009 05:06:18 PM
242 Views
well, the tour won't be as long next year...
- 01/12/2009 05:19:34 PM
348 Views
This year's tour was meant to be dual for TGS and Sanderson's Warbreaker.
- 01/12/2009 07:55:03 PM
245 Views