Cover of Elantris. Photo credit: Stephan Martinière
Transcript of a conversation between Moshe Feder and Sharon Hooper on how Feder first "discovered" Brandon Sanderson and bought Sanderson's first published novel Elantris (as well as other topics)
Please note that slight edits have been made to the transcript below for continuity purposes, but otherwise it has mostly been left unchanged. MF refers to Moshe Feder, New York Times-bestselling author Brandon Sanderson's Tor editor. The second book in The Stormlight Archive series, Words of Radiance, debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list in 2014, a first for both Feder and Sanderson. SH refers to the interviewer Sharon Hooper.
SH'S NOTE: ATTENTION BRANDON SANDERSON FANS. IF YOU WANT TO READ ONLY PARTS OF THE TRANSCRIPT THAT PERTAINS JUST TO ELANTRIS, THEY HAVE BEEN BOLDED FOR YOU. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SKIP THE REST OF THE CREAM/CREM, WHICH HAVE BEEN KEPT IN FOR OTHER READERS.
SH: Hey, Moshe.
MF: Yes?
SH: There's something I have been wondering for quite a while now. Brandon Sanderson fans (and as uncomfortable as this is making me feel, seeing as just how intense his fandom can be, I will count myself amongst them, with regards to this anyway) have heard, several times by now, how you choosing to acquire Elantris, has changed the entire trajectory of his writing career and helped catapulted him to achieve the meteoric (hope you don't find that adjective superlative like you did when I called you legendary) success he has enjoyed today. The story has remained rather consistent as he first recounted it, with little or no embellishments despite it all happening nearly two decades ago between 2003 and 2005.
I haven't seen or heard the story from your POV. All we have gotten is his POV. I was wondering, what is your POV in all this? Elantris famously sat on your desk on 18 months before you decided to read it and then when you wanted to contact him to offer to acquire it, his contact information had already changed, and you did have to invest quite a bit of effort tracking him down to acquire Elantris. I am just wondering, I don't know, what made you decide to acquire Elantris (per-Moshe edit)? What did you see in it? Was it the untapped potential? The undeniable hope that permeates every book he has written and published since Elantris? What was it about Elantris (pre-edit) that made you decide, "I want to acquire this book."
I mean sure, we can find you almost always mentioned somewhere in every major write-up of Brandon, but I don't think (I may be wrong), but I really don't think anyone has ever just sat down with you and I don't know, interviewed you or asked you, in any sort of depth, what was it really that you saw in pre-edit Elantris that made you decide, yes I want to acquire it for publication?
LOL, I may be completely imagining this, but I can practically almost see/hear/feel your mind thinking as you typed and sent me that one word: "Yes?", would be something likely along the lines of: "Oh dear Lord, what does this Sharon gal wants to ask me/of me now?"
I am just really curious about it, that’s all. I have always been a remarkably curious creature, perhaps too curious for my own good. I fear I may very well die like the proverbial curious cat one day, but that is a completely different topic, to be talked about another day, if ever (never =P). You might even be thinking; this crazy gal, asking about something that happened 15 years ago and expecting/wanting me to be able to recall it as though it happened yesterday, and to try to recall it to someone you didn’t even know existed a week ago.
It's alright if you don't feel/want to share, but if you could, or would be willing to, I think it would be beyond amazing really to find out and learn, really really learn and know exactly what it was about Elantris that made you want to sit up and go, I want to acquire this, and I will invest the necessary time and effort necessary to track down this unknown, unpublished author and make him an offer he can’t refuse (=P)?
MF: Brandon has always said it was 18 months and maybe his records support that (SH's note: Yes, it does!*). Looking back after all this time, I remember it as being more like 8 or 10 months (SH's note: Not true!*), under a year, anyway, but I’d need to dig up my old records to support that. So I could be wrong. But the essence of it Is that I started reading it immediately when he sent it and I didn't like the opening. It reminded me of a couple of other recent weak submissions that also began with the protagonist waking up. So I was put off and laid it aside.
*SH's note: Sanderson and co. Petered Feder on October 2001, and Sanderson received the voice mail and subsequent phone call from Feder on March 2003, showing a time span of 18 months in between Feder receiving Sanderon's manuscript and him contacting Sanderson to offer to acquire Elantris.
SH: Ah.
MF: After some time went by — 8 months or 18 — I felt guilty about it, remembering what a nice young man he was, and decided to try again so I could at least offer him some helpful suggestions if I were going to reject it.
SH: Wow, OK.
MF: So then I just stuck with it and got further in, quickly noticing how it got better as it went, and being struck by its originality. By the ⅓ point or so, it was obvious what a natural storyteller he was and I began to get excited.
From that point on, I read nonstop until I finished it. There were rough spots and infelicities, but all fixable. More importantly, I had obviously stumbled upon a real talent. I knew well before the end that I wanted to buy it.
SH: That was really decent of you, to give Elantris another chance, even though you really didn't like the introduction, and didn't plan to acquire it. Wow you are really very nice too, just like he is!
MF: You can usually spot crap early, but it’s always a good idea to at least spot check further so you don't cheat yourself out of a find. In this case, my desire to simply help him, as I want I’ve always tried to help aspirants back to my days at AMAZING, was rewarded.
SH: AMAZING? Haven't heard of this publishing house before.
MF: Founded in 1926? The very first SF magazine?
SH: I am just someone who LOVES to read fantasy. I don't know the ins and outs of fantasy publishing, at least not yet. So you basically being a decent guy and just wanting to do the right thing led you to acquire Elantris?
MF: I was assistant editor there while in college. We also published the fantasy mag FANTASTIC.
Gosh, you kids nowadays! No foundation.
SH: Hey! I am trying to learn right now, aren't I?
MF: You could put it that way. Or you could say he won me over.
I don't know why everyone before me didn’t see it.
SH: Man, the mountain of rejection letters he said he has received before you acquired Elantris.
MF: To that extent, I'm willing to claim some skill. Having read SF&F for almost 50 years at that point probably helped. Experience does matter.
SH: So yes, sage advice to aspiring authors: if you don’t want your manuscripts to sit untouched on an editor’s desk for 8 (or 18 months, depending on who is telling the story =P), don't start your manuscript with the so-well-worn it's-rubbing-my-entire-skin-off "tropish" introduction of having your protagonist just waking up from something. Got it!
MF: That's why you see me making unapologetic judgments as in my current Hugo threads. At this late date, I have full confidence in my taste.
SH: Even though they almost always come in last?
Do you unintentionally curse the people you vote for? With your vote?
MF: Yup. Because I'm right and they're wrong. Also because I know the difference between pure literary quality and what's popular and can recognize both.
SH: If you say so LOL. But yes I jest. Do go on.
MF: When I read for Jim Baen at Ace, I got him to buy both a literary fantasy by Aldiss and a lightweight, pulpy romp by Laumer. Both were good in their own way, and both judgments were valid.
SH: Wow. You were a reader before all this? Like a professional reader for Ace? That's where Sharon Shinn is/was, in fact. See, I do know SOME stuff at least when it pertains to my favorite authors. So there!
MF: An editor has to know the difference between his personal preferences and what will sell. I happen to enjoy both. That's why I'm good at this.
Yes, I read submissions for a number of major houses as a freelance. Good training for a future editor.
SH: Good to know, good to know. Thanks!
But I have to ask. An editor’s time is very limited. His time can even be said to equal money. Time he spent trying to pick up something he previously dismissed, could have been better used to read another manuscript to find another undiscovered talent. Was it the fact that he was such a nice young affable man then, when he Petered you at the 2001 Montreal con that made you want to give him another go/chance 8 or 18 months later?
MF: Baen's relationship with Laumer began with that book — THE GREAT TIME MACHINE HOAX, a personal favorite of mine on the light side — and grew from there. At Baen Books he acquired the whole Laumer backlist.
SH: Otherwise it may have well still be sitting on your desk right now, still gathering dust or long since pulped and returned to the earth. Maybe something even in that very bad tropish introduction he had in the manuscript?
MF: Hard to say now how much was his niceness and how much my sense of duty to any new writer desperate for feedback. There's a story about that.
SH: Or how nice he and Dan Wells and Peter were collectively as a group. Did you know that Dan Wells actually stalked you for like three days to find out who/what you look like/were going to be and only succeeded just barely on the last day of the Montreal con?
SH: Yes and I do absolutely LOVE to hear it, if you would be willing to share of course!
MF: When I read for AMAZING and FANTASTIC in the 70s, I tried to say something personal with every manuscript I sent back, not just a mere rejection slip. Sometimes I offered detailed comments and encouragement. So...
SH: Wow! I don't think many other people in your position would have taken the time or effort to do that.
MF: Years later, in 1980, I get a Ballantine paperback in the mail by a writer named Lawrence Watt Evans.
SH: I must look into how to become a professional reader now, seems like a great way to start! Or get your foot in, into the publishing industry.
MF: The book, his first publication, was dedicated to me.
SH: Okay, I have to tell you I don't know who Lawrence Watt Evans is and had to Google him but now I know.
MF: Because I had been the first editor to take him seriously and tell him to persist, because he would eventually succeed.
SH: So please don't say "you young unlearned people these days again!" because I am trying! And Googling!
WOW. MAN. YOU ARE SO AWESOME.
MF: Well, he thought so, anyway.
I was flabbergasted.
You should try his stuff. Very entertaining fantasies. OK, gotta read now.
SH: OK. You have a dedicated reading time each day? Did you manage to get Naomi's short story yet, or do u still need to wait to go pick it up?
MF: I reserved it.
Reading occurs randomly and constantly.
SH: I saw the status change on the link I gave you so I know you did. I wasn't a nosy journalism major for nothing you know. If I want to dig into someone's life, you may be astounded to know what I can unearth. I surprised my editor-in-chief when I told her her middle name and she in her life never told anyone about it, at least not in the newsroom.
MF: Kind of stalker-ish, perhaps?
SH: It is a useful skill which I am careful not to abuse. With great powers (or great nosiness anyways) comes great responsibility and all that jazz.
Hey I prefer to say I keep myself well-informed okay!
I'm not stalkerish! Actually yeah I am, but that sounds bad when you say it like that. =p
Continued in Scroll 5
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