Me? If I sink any lower, IвЂ™ll be the William Shatner of epic fantasy. I mean, you HAVE a reputation to crap on. How about this? We take both of our cut beginnings, polish them up, then find a few other authors and start an anthology. It was cool worldbuilding, but it slowed the book down too much. I actually cut the first chapter of Name of the Wind before we published it. Revising makes it a polished stone, flawed and ugly, with medium-sized glimmers of what it could be. When you finish the first draft, a novelвЂ™s such a rough stone, flawed and ugly, with only little glimmers of what it could be. (Possibly a hundred pages, depending on spacing.) I went through seven hundred pages with a red pen, hacking out everything that wasnвЂ™t necessary, and cut twenty thousand words. Then, much later, my agent told me to cut ten thousand words from ShadowвЂ™s Edge. I cut the first thirty thousand words of The Way of Shadows.

WhatвЂ™s your revision process like? How many drafts do you go through? WhatвЂ™s the biggest cut youвЂ™ve ever made to a manuscript? When The Name of the Wind was first published, I shotgunned books at least a hundred books out there, desperately hoping someone would read it, like it, and tell their friends. I donвЂ™t know if itвЂ™s the *most* shameful, but I have a bad habit of sending copies of my book to anyone I think might be remotely interested in it. I made some Stormtroopers pose with my books. I joined Twitter? No, wait, IвЂ™ve done worse than that.

WhatвЂ™s the most shameful self-promotional thing youвЂ™ve ever done? But I can proudly say that IвЂ™ve been Amazon sober for several monthsвЂ“with only a teeny little bit of backsliding. Then I would check that sucker every couple of days. Then I found this service that would do the dirty work for meвЂ¦free. How often do you check your amazon sales rank? YouвЂ™re relatively new to the publishing world. The monstrous compendium of Calvin & Hobbes. If you had to pick your favorite book of all time, what would it be?ДЄhhвЂ¦ ThatвЂ™s why IвЂ™m talking to you. Oh manвЂ¦ youвЂ™re only on the extended list? Good lord, why I am I even bothering to talk to you? Thus: Hi, my name is New-York-Times-bestselling-author-but-only-on-the-internet Brent Weeks. One publisher who I gave a blurb to said, вЂњOh, we only count authors who hit the printed list as NY Times bestsellers.вЂќ Oh.

I was on the list for 3 weeks, but I topped out at 29. The list goes to 35, but due toвЂ¦ well, heck, I dunno, the cost of paper? the lists that get printed go only to 20. ThereвЂ™s a fiction hardcover list, a fiction mass-market paperback list, non-fiction lists, self-help lists, and childrenвЂ™s lists. There are more NY Times lists than people think. ThatвЂ™s how everyone introduced me at conventions for almost a year. Now youвЂ™re New-York-Times-bestselling-author-Pat Rothfuss.вЂќДЄnd it was totally true. She said, вЂњYouвЂ™re not Pat Rothfuss anymore. A couple months after I hit the Times, an editor at Penguin asked me, вЂњHow do you like your new first name?вЂќ That carries a ridiculous amount of weight. Oh, IвЂ™d definitely drop the NY Times bestselling author bit, though with a self-deprecatory asterisk. What sort of things about your writing career would you casually drop into the conversation to prove that youвЂ™re awesome? LetвЂ™s say youвЂ™re at a party and you meet someone you wanted to impress. Time for another interview folks, this one with Brent Weeks author of the Night Angel Trilogy.

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