Isaac Stewart - Head of Creative Development at Dragonsteel
One of the projects of Brandon Sanderson's company Dragonsteel is producing special editions of Brandon's published books for his millions of fans. Isaac Stewart, VP of Creative Development at Dragonsteel and long-time friend of Brandon's has led the way with many of the projects that Brandon has released over the last decade. Dragonsteel produces beautiful special editions with original art and materials that last, but doing it as affordably as possible so a large portion of fans can enjoy it. What they are doing now is only the tip of the iceberg, as they are continuing to publish more editions of Brandon's works, including a line of unpublished past work in their "curiosities" line, and expanding their scope by recently announcing they will also be doing special editions of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. We hope you enjoy this conversation with one of the creative minds at Dragonsteel.
Q: Let’s start at the beginning, when did you first meet Brandon and what were some of the pivotal moments where you knew that he was someone you wanted to align yourself with personally and professionally?
I’m not sure if there was ever a singular moment or any intentionality behind how it all started, but I first took his writing class at BYU in spring of 2005. I had already taken the class before from David Wolverton, who was the teacher who taught the creative writing class before Brandon. Brandon took it around 2000, and then I took it after that in 2001 and 2002, so we never really overlapped. We had a lot of the same friends at the Leading Edge (a speculative fiction magazine) and I was aware of him and that he was an aspiring writer, and I knew he was one of the editors at the Leading Edge, but I didn't see him a whole lot. At the time, I knew him as the guy who was passing around books for people to read and that he was really serious about being an author. I think that I even ran into him in the grocery store once in his early days of writing and talked about how things were progressing with his career, and if I remember correctly, at the time he was writing what we now know as Dragonsteel Prime.
We didn't really know each other until I came back to BYU after I'd already graduated and worked in 3D animation for a couple of years. I came back to school thinking I was going to be an optometrist and was pretty much planning on leaving the art business for good. I wound up taking the writing class again as an elective during a semester that was going to be really heavy with science classes.
This time around the class was being taught by Brandon. I found out he had a book coming out called Elantris, and Orson Scott Card had given it a really good review prior to publication, so I was interested in reading it. Once I found that review, I went to the BYU library and looked up Brandon’s name thinking that maybe he would have an honors thesis in the archives there, and it turns out that he did. That thesis was Dragonsteel Prime, and I was able to check it out of the library and read through it. I believe I was actually the first one to check it out. I read it, thought it was quite good, and that Brandon was a good writer. I continued on with the class, and he and I wound up becoming friends. Eventually, he asked me to do maps for Mistborn. I never thought I was going to make mapmaking a career, but it was something that I had done as a hobby for a while prior to that. In fact, when he first asked me to contribute a map, I don’t think he fully knew the extent to which it had been a hobby of mine.
Later, it wasn't until he asked my wife Kara and me if we wanted to work full-time for Dragonsteel that I had to make the big decision about throwing myself behind Brandon and his books. I already was doing a lot of work with him in my spare time, but up to that point, it was a hobby for me. I enjoyed being part of the books because I loved his work and I enjoyed supporting my friend, but with each book, he seemed to get a little more of a following. I never thought too hard about how big things were going to get or how famous Brandon might turn out to be, I guess I'm just oblivious. I simply saw it as being able to do fun things with my good friends, and it has turned out to be one of the most rewarding things I have been a part of. I look at things a little bit differently now because I know that we're trying to steer a company trying to maintain a high level of quality with the books and our other projects. After all these years and changes, I’m glad to report that I still love what I do.
Q: Tell us about the journey of Brandon going from a traditional author with conventional relationships with publishers to wanting to start his own personal press. When did he first start having an initial idea for this separate company and when did you come into the picture with Dragonsteel?
I don't want to put words in Brandon's mouth, so I can only give my opinion. I think that at first it happened organically as opportunities came Brandon's way. Each new opportunity was a good stepping stone to new opportunities. Once you’ve seen that pattern play out enough times, you start to get a good feel for what types of things are going to be good for your career and for the company. But in the end, I think what he really wants to do is just write stories and share them with other people in hopes that his stories might make people’s lives a little bit better.
I think there were a couple of things that influenced Brandon to create Dragonsteel. Dave Wolverton was very big on the idea that an author should create an LLC,. which is really a good practice for anybody who is running a small business.
Another important shift came when Brandon started talking to Kevin J. Anderson, who shared that having an assistant helped with a lot of the non-writing aspects of being an author. That seemed to really appeal to Brandon. I believe it was shortly after that when he hired Peter Ahlstrom to help him free up more time to focus more on the writing. I remember talking to Peter during that time period and thinking, “Lucky guy! He gets to work with Brandon! What are the chances that Brandon's ever going to need another person to help him?”
Brandon’s work continued to gain more traction, and eventually he hired Kara (my wife) to start running the online sales and fulfillment of signed books. At some point he started looking further ahead and realized if the popularity of his books kept growing at the same pace, he would need a bigger team.
Q: The first major publication from Dragonsteel was a 10-year anniversary edition of Elantris that set the tone for what the press would be about moving forward. How have you tried to keep things consistent over time with your special editions and how have you tried to improve upon what you started eight years ago?
Brandon and I both knew that Tor had been doing leatherbound editions of the Robert Jordan books for a while. These were commemorative editions designed to celebrate the release of the book rather than something created for readers to have an accessible edition. The Tor leatherbound editions upgraded the standard edition to bonded leather and added a slipcase. But they were somewhat out of reach for the average book buyer’s budget. For our editions, we ask ourselves, “How nice can we make these while still making them affordable?”
I was always intrigued by leatherbound books early on, well before I was working for Brandon. At one point I was trying to figure out a special gift to give him. I got the idea of remaking some of his old books, ones that were never published--what we call “Sanderson Curiosities” these days. I would lay them out in a book format and then make it look like a fake leatherbound, meaning I printed the covers to look like leather just to get an idea of what it could look like.
I had been designing books for a publisher in New York prior to working at Dragonsteel, so I had learned the business of laying out books, and it made sense at that point for us to try the leatherbound editions ourselves. I don't know if we knew it was going to be as successful as it has been and continues to be. With so many readers moving to audiobooks and ebooks, I think that a lot of people had become hungry again to have a tangible object, especially when it was well designed and printed and bound with nicer materials. It became a special item to commemorate a reader’s own journey through the books and the worlds within them. It seems like we were a little ahead of the curve of authors creating their own special editions, but at the time it was much less prevalent.
Q: For those who don’t know, Brandon finished five secret projects during the pandemic, above and beyond his normal publication schedule, and decided to release a package of four of these as a Kickstarter initially. It was quickly clear that this campaign was going to be enormous and within days became the biggest Kickstarter of all time. What were those first 2-3 days like at Dragonsteel as this was ramping up and how quickly did you start adjusting to the new reality?
When I found out about the secret projects, my first reaction was surprise and delight. Then my second reaction was, “Wait. How fast do we have to get these out?” There was still the whole editorial aspect that needed to happen before we could even think about making a beautiful physical product. Of course, at that point, all of the departments in the company had to be involved with helping run the Kickstarter, making sure there was a final product, coordinating a marketing campaign, etc. and that amidst all of these details, we had to make sure that the quality remained high.
I can’t say that we really had an accurate idea of how popular it would be. It truly did blow up more than any of us thought. We had certainly done big projects before, like The Way of Kings leatherbound Kickstarter. There was also the added curveball this time around that these were new stories, so people were taking a larger leap of faith than a special edition for a book that they already loved. Of course, we knew that people would be interested in new Brandon Sanderson books, but we didn’t know the extent. The Way of Kings was a known thing--for many, it is their favorite Sanderson book. Regarding the secret projects, internally there were conversations about how awesome it would be if we could beat our previous record of 7 million and maybe hit 10. But then the Secret Project campaign blew past that within the first day. I think it did raise some awareness and paved the way for other authors to be able to do some direct bookselling to their fans, which was an added benefit.
One thing to mention is that I think sometimes people who don't know how the industry works will see that giant number and assume that a huge amount of that is profit in the author’s pocket. First of all, a huge amount goes to shipping, another portion to taxes, and a very large margin goes to the actual people producing the books, as well as materials. One of the most important aspects for us is providing good jobs for the people we work with. That was probably the thing that we were most excited about when we saw that number growing, because we want Dragonsteel to be a great place to work. We take our company and the creation of these books very seriously—so, yes, a lot of money goes into the production of them, but we are always looking for opportunities to improve things for our employees and collaborators as well.
I personally take it as a responsibility to the fans who supported the Kickstarter to produce something that they’ll love and get excited about. We are definitely not sitting here going “What's the cheapest thing we can make and get by with the biggest margins?” Our main concerns at the end of the day are quality and trying to figure out what the fans are going to enjoy. We are all fans here as well, which is one of the coolest things about this job. We try to make something we would love ourselves and then share it with everybody, and of course, we can’t make it without the support of all of Brandon’s wonderful readers!
Q: Artist selection seems to be something you and Brandon are very passionate about and a lot of time goes into it. How do you balance the different priorities of choosing an artist? Do you look at the notoriety that Brandon has gained as a chance to highlight lesser-known artists and give them more exposure or an opportunity to try and bring more well-known artists into projects? How did this influence who you used for the Secret Projects?
Yeah, this is definitely one of the most important aspects and there are a lot of things we weigh in on for the decision. It's not an accident that for the first two books, we chose artists we'd worked with before, because it was such a new process that we wanted as few new variables as possible. Not only do we think that Howard Lyon’s style was perfect for Tress and the Emerald Sea, but we also know what to expect from Howard. We knew that he was going to be able to deliver art on time and create something beautiful. That was the same thing with Steve Argyle (artist for Frugal Wizard). It was a huge help to work with reliable artists and have one less complication to deal with. As we were getting into those two books and felt like we had learned the process, that's when we started to branch out and decided to work with some artists that we hadn’t worked with before.
One of the things we often do at Dragonsteel is open up ourselves to suggestions from lots of different people within the company. My assistant is really aware of what the fans of Brandon’s books are looking for and she brought Aliya Chen’s (artist on Yumi and the Nightmare Painter) name to my attention, and I instantly thought her style and aesthetic would be perfect for this book. We do think it is important to look for some artists who may benefit at a professional level from the exposure that comes with a project of this size and scope, but the artist needs to be a good fit for the book too.
We thought that The Sunlit Man was a little bit on the fun and pulpy side, so we decided to put a team together with Nabetse Zitro from Paraguay, who does really great art, and Ernanda Souza from Brazil, because we loved her color pieces. Their art paired really well together, and we are happy with how we were able to offer two different styles of art in that project. We’re also working with Esther Hi’ilani Candari for the fifth Secret Project, which will release in 2025.
I have a network of existing artists that I can reach out to, like Steve Argyle and Howard Lyon, to see who they think might be a good match for the content. We also do some of our own research internally to see who might be a good fit for future projects. Over time, we whittle it down to a very small list of names and then bring this to Brandon to discuss and decide who we are going to make a formal offer to.
Q: When I first received my copy of Tress and the Emerald Sea, my first thought was, “How was this so affordable?” Our readers are very used to identifying the quality of a publication and deciding whether they got their money’s worth. If anyone questioned that the quality of the secret projects was worth the price, I would seriously question their judgment. How were you able to create a limited edition with multiple hits of foil, original illustrations and just a wonderful overall package while keeping it within a very reasonable budget?
It is important to start by acknowledging that this ended up being a project of massive scale, which allowed us to do things that wouldn’t have been as cost-effective in a smaller print run.
Another major part of the reason we can do this is we're our own distributor.
You definitely seem to be in tune with the collector mindset as you understand the need for very high-level quality control, consistency in design and are interested in the finer details of your production, like the leather color consistency with the second printings of the first era Mistborn books. Are you and Brandon collectors at any level or is this just something you have paid attention to with feedback over the years?
We are both collectors, maybe not at the level that some people are, but I know that Brandon and I and others at the company enjoy beautiful books and have talked about them and shared them around. If we see a new special edition online that's for sale, we get excited, especially if it's a title we love. At the end of the day, we love beautiful books and we want to make sure that our books are the best we can make them.
It seems that there is a huge demand for the versions that you are creating currently. And every time you release a new book, the demand seems to be growing. Case in point, the Words of Radiance Leatherbound raised 23 million. Have you or Brandon considered doing even more limited versions with things like higher-quality paper, fine materials and letterpress printing, or does this go against your overall idea of what you're trying to accomplish with Dragonsteel?
I'm not exactly sure how we could get higher quality paper than what we are doing within the range we are trying to come in at. We spend a lot of time finding the paper that we use and we are trying to use it as often as we can so that the manufacturer will keep making it. You start getting into having to bind the books by hand to get much nicer than what we make. Now I know that there are some highly limited editions out there that are larger format books with clamshell boxes with lots of extras included. As of right now though, we're not planning to go that route. Mostly we want to be able to keep things accessible to the average reader. I'm not saying that we wouldn't ever do a more limited version of the books, but right now that's not our plan.
With the massive success of the last couple of releases, has there ever been any conversation about using the Dragonsteel platform to sell other authors' work? Or would this become too complicated and go beyond the scope of what it was created for?
We just announced that Dragonsteel, in cooperation with Tor and Bandersnatch, will be publishing a leatherbound edition of The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. We're extremely excited to have been entrusted with this responsibility, and we're doing everything in our power to make this edition as beautiful as possible.
Flash forward thirty years into the future, do you think we will have a full set of all the leatherbound Cosmere books?
Well, I hope so. I hope that we will have a complete Cosmere leatherbound set someday. That’s one of our goals. Whether we add other leatherbound books of Brandon's outside of the Cosmere, is yet to be seen. Currently, we're focusing only on Cosmere books.
As you've probably seen, we have expanded to allow for other writers in Brandon’s worlds. It's been announced that Dan Wells is writing a book, and I'm writing a book and Janci's books in the Skyward universe with Brandon have all started to come out as well. Looking at the future, we hope to continue to expand the Cosmere, and ideally, all of those will be available in leatherbound someday.
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This interview was done over a video call between Zach and Isaac and then transcribed into written format. If you want to follow what is coming in the future from Dragonsteel, check them out at https://www.dragonsteelbooks.com/. Brandon Sanderson is famously known for keeping his readers and fans up to date on his writing progress and plans for the future. You can also follow Brandon and Dragonsteel on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for more content.
Interview by: Zach Harney, co-founder of the Collectible Book Vault