Where did your idea for the Cosmere originate?
I started this whole business wanting to write a big epic. However, I recognized that starting some huge series right out as a new author might not be the best decision. While it worked for some authors, I wanted to give people a few stand-alone novels and a trilogy or two to try me out before they got into something deeper. (i.e., Stormlight.)
I also felt that it was easier to market myself to publishers with standalone novels. (This proved to be very true, by the way.) But I still wanted to do a big epic. So, for my self and my own love of the concept, I started linking all of my books together into a ‘secret’ epic.
One other thing having to do with this was seeing some authors do it in a retcon kind of way, and always being slightly disappointed it hadn’t been planned from the start. (See Asimov.) I felt that if I were ever going to do something similar, I wanted to lay the groundwork.
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