Utah Business proudly presents this year’s cohort of our Leaders of the Year award. These 12 honorees represent accomplishments of Utah’s business community in 2024 and were selected by the Utah Business editorial team.
Brandon Sanderson
President | Dragonsteel Entertainment
Emily Sanderson
Co-President (aka “The Queen”) | Dragonsteel Entertainment
As a Christmas gift in 2020, Brandon Sanderson gave his wife and business partner, Emily, a book. But this wasn’t just any book. It was the manuscript of an unpublished novel written just for her — and she didn’t have to share.
A second, third and fourth secret novel soon followed.
No one else knew these volumes existed. Brandon had written for the sake of the story, but Emily could tell he had a plan for the novels if she should so choose. In the end, she agreed to have them published.
“What’s the point of having books that nobody else can read, and you can’t talk about them?” Emily says.
On March 1, 2022, Brandon, Emily and Dragonsteel Entertainment — the Sanderson’s publishing company — launched the “Year of Sanderson” Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to publish special editions of the four secret novels. It would become the highest-funded Kickstarter of all time, reaching $41,754,153 from 185,341 backers.
While the Sandersons couldn’t have foreseen this wild success, they had planned for it by betting on themselves, their team and the support of an incredible fan base. The campaign launched with various tiers of purchase available, offering three versions of each novel — e-book, audiobook and premium hardcover — plus other goodies.
“One of the things Brandon’s wanted to do for a long time is bundling, but you can’t really do that when Audible controls all the audio,” Emily says, explaining why the secret novel audiobooks weren’t initially available on the popular, Amazon-owned site.
Brandon and Emily had been frustrated with Audible’s market dominance for a while. There was even a point when, during an industry dispute with Brandon’s publisher, Amazon stopped selling his books altogether.
“That opened my eyes,” Brandon recalls. “I don’t work for the fans anymore. I don’t work for the booksellers anymore. I don’t work for [the book publisher], and I don’t work for myself. I work for Amazon.”
Before launching the Year of Sanderson and considering other audio options, the Sandersons approached Audible to see what it would take to improve rates for all authors.
“There are deals I could have taken just for me that would have quieted it down,” Brandon says. “I was unwilling to take any deal that didn’t involve significant change for everyone.”
In the 2022 State of the Sanderson update, Brandon explains that creators are typically paid 70 percent of a sale for a digital product, but Audible only pays 40 percent to authors who give them exclusivity and only 25 percent otherwise.
“Authors should be getting 60 percent of audiobook [royalties],” Brandon says. “Any argument of why you can’t do this for audiobooks falls on its face when you realize you can do it [for video games]. It’s just the fact that authors do not have weight to throw around.”
Emily says Dragonsteel’s stand might not have garnered as much success without fan support. “That’s one thing we do have: direct contact with the fans,” she continues. “That’s why our leatherbounds work. That’s why the Kickstarter worked, and I think that’s why Audible paid attention.”
In February 2024, a team of Audible representatives met with the Sandersons to discuss a new royalty structure. On November 7, 2024, Audible and ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) announced early access to the new royalty model, offering a 50 percent royalty rate to exclusive authors and a 30 percent rate to non-exclusive authors.
“I’m a powerful author, but no author is powerful enough to make Amazon bend,” Brandon says. “[We] gave a marshaling cry and drew attention to the problem, which then lets the entire industry work on it.”
