Cue Hysterical Giggling

:cue hysterical giggling:

So, apparently yesterday, Brandon Sanderson decided to do a kickstarter for, I believe, four unpublished 'secret' novels of his.  He raised 14 million in one day.  Say it slow with me... FOURTEEN MILLION DOLLARS.  In one day.  And it's still rising.  (Go here to watch his $ counter and backer counter roll like the tote board at the Labor Day Telethon.  It's mesmerizing.)

A month before my own fantasy novel is set to go out into the world.

Now, there are people who would rejoice over a coincidence like that.  My name being Sanderson, after all, means people could get confused and one-click my book thinking it's HIS book.  I could reap the whirlwind there.  But I don't WANT to.  I've never ridden anyone else's coattails and I'm not about to start now.  

Besides, think about how pissed those of his readers would be when they realized this book was not his book.  I already got tagged once because of my name, where someone intimated, after WISH IN ONE HAND went live with that tragic first cover, that I was a hack trying to riff off the dude's name.  

And there are plenty of people out there who do exactly that.  Some chick decided to write romantic suspense under a name so very similar to a friend of mine (bestselling author of romantic suspense) that the similarity had to be on purpose to suck off her reader base.  I don't do that.  Even the implication that I would makes me nauseous.

The only thing worse would be if one of those books is in any way similar to my book.  Cover?  Title?  Premise?  No clue if they are because he's keeping all that a secret.  With my luck, everything about them is similar to SONG.  

The only thing I have going for me is that I already went live with the cover and title, so I couldn't possibly be riffing off his, which aren't public yet.  And my book is already in the hands of two people who could vouch for me that I didn't 'steal' from him.  

How could I steal from him?  I have purposely never read a single title of his.  And I was out in the world as B.E. Sanderson before I'd even heard of Brandon.  

Ahem...

I'm seriously considering changing my name.  For these books only.  I am proud to be a Sanderson, after all.  Hubs made me one and I am proud to be his wife.  But yeah, it's a liability right now.  I need to do some research, though, to see if I can legally use another name or if I have to go get a DBA (doing business as), which costs money.  And then I'd need to change the cover.  Which, thankfully, isn't that hard.

Gah.

So, yeah, I'm over here giggling like a maniac.  The timing for his thing couldn't have been worse for me.  I mean, go him.  That's an incredible feat.  And his readers must really love him to be shelling out all that money to get all the goodies he's offering.  I wish I had half that love.  Hell, I'd be happy with a tenth.  But not at the cost of my integrity.  

Stay tuned.  This book will be published and it will go live on April First, barring unforeseen difficulties.  Whether it's as B.E. Sanderson or B.E. Meissner, who knows?  Would you buy Bes Anderson?  :shrug: