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Evil Fluffy posted:He looks like he wishes he could be anywhere else than in that picture. I want to be anywhere but where that picture is.
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Mar 9, 2020 07:42
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I must admit I came to this thread late because I was trying to answer this question: how does he afford to live? Does he have a job? Does he live off his wife? Did his two books make that much money he can spend years just doing whatever? I truly don't understand this, because my understanding was that 99.9% of authors can't make enough year to year without seriously supplementing their income, is he truly in that 00.1% off the sales of these two titles? I suddenly saw a mention of Rothfuss and remembered he existed, then tried to google to work this out out of sheer curiosity. I figured the only reason someone wouldn't have delivered another book is if they had another job to go to that was in the way. But this doesn't seem to be the case?
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Mar 9, 2020 09:26
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He's not-married to a woman who probably has a job.
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Mar 9, 2020 09:39
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He also got a massive advance sight-unseen by his publishers who he was buddies with and 'convinced' had a fully written out trilogy that just needed editting and nothing more so they advertised the gently caress out of him so the books sold a lot too. The books turned out to be not written at all but I don't think they cared beyond funneling money to their friend.
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Mar 9, 2020 10:27
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Yeah but that was presumably a decade ago, right, that's why i was wondering. He doesn't seem to be living the life of a man freaking out about money which is what i don't get. Maybe he's mostly a house husband (which is totally fine if so). edit: maybe this is all based on a poor understanding of the US, where I assume that if you are not working hellish hours to retain health care you just die (or go bankrupt and then die),
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Mar 9, 2020 11:28
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I believe he teaches at whatever university is close to him.
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Mar 9, 2020 11:43
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Blamestorm posted:Yeah but that was presumably a decade ago, right, that's why i was wondering. He doesn't seem to be living the life of a man freaking out about money which is what i don't get. Maybe he's mostly a house husband (which is totally fine if so). You can be on your spouse's health insurance or buy it independently. And now it's mandated or you get a huge tax hit at the end of the year, so he's likely gotta have one or the other.
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Mar 9, 2020 13:55
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Tak royalties.
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Mar 9, 2020 14:14
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I remember he lost a bunch of money investing in a company that makes board game tables that went out of business. https://www.polygon.com/2017/7/19/15999728/geek-chic-bankruptcy-filing-documents-patrick-rothfuss
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Mar 9, 2020 14:39
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Super-expensive custom furniture for a small, niche audience? Why, I can't imagine how anyone could lose money on a great investment like that!
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Mar 9, 2020 18:56
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Apparently he has sold over ten million of those two books. So unless he is really dumb he probably has 5+ million dollars invested and can live very comfortably indeed forever without selling another book.
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Mar 9, 2020 19:43
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he probably also gets paid for appearances to all the wholockianpotter-esque nerds-but-with-money stuff he attends
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Mar 9, 2020 19:50
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crammed onto a boat with other creators, ones actually making things, and fans. All of which are wondering when his next book is. It sounds like it would be an anxiety nightmare cruise.
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Mar 9, 2020 19:54
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StonecutterJoe posted:Super-expensive custom furniture for a small, niche audience? Why, I can't imagine how anyone could lose money on a great investment like that! Business wise the demand was insane, because people went nuts and pre-ordered all these expensive custom pieces. There's no reason the company should've imploded like that unless the owners were complete loving morons. Spoiler Alert: They were https://www.heraldnet.com/business/geek-chic-maker-of-high-end-gaming-furniture-closes/  quote:In a story in 2013, Gifford said his company made $2 million in revenue in 2011, but lost $100,000. The company suffered similar losses in 2012. Uh, I'm just copying what Amazon did, duh. How could I fail?
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Mar 9, 2020 20:04
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pentyne posted:Business wise the demand was insane, because people went nuts and pre-ordered all these expensive custom pieces. There's no reason the company should've imploded like that unless the owners were complete loving morons. I am a loving moron, I don't understand how they closed down with numbers like that. If you make $2mil per year then how do you close down if you lose only $100k in that same year? Or is that the joke and they took all that sweet investment money and ran away with it?
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Mar 9, 2020 21:54
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HIJK posted:I am a loving moron, I don't understand how they closed down with numbers like that. If you make $2mil per year then how do you close down if you lose only $100k in that same year?
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Mar 9, 2020 22:06
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Sham bam bamina! posted:Gross vs. net. They spent 2.1 million to make 2. Ohhhhh. Oh. Oh jesus.
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Mar 9, 2020 22:07
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And yet for a tech startup people would be breaking down your door with funding offers if those were your numbers.
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Mar 9, 2020 22:24
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I'm so confused about why they were rapidly expanding. You're just...making tables. Get a big warehouse and pump them out. You don't need to expand.
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Mar 9, 2020 22:32
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Daric posted:I'm so confused about why they were rapidly expanding. You're just...making tables. Get a big warehouse and pump them out. You don't need to expand. 
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Mar 9, 2020 22:42
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Daric posted:I'm so confused about why they were rapidly expanding. You're just...making tables. Get a big warehouse and pump them out. You don't need to expand. That's what expanding is. Small businesses often suffer massively from expanding too rapidly. That's why capital investiture is so needed, to supply cash in the present to ensure being able to generate cash in the future by meeting expected demand. It's very easy for costs to bloat beyond expectation when a niche business is moving up. When he was on shark tank he valued his company at 2mil, and the investor who wanted to work with him valued it at 1.2, but ended up pulling out completely. Likely the business on paper was a nightmare. So you take a operation and try to scale it up. You and another craftsmen become a team. You can't just hire random laborers since your assemblage isn't codified and you're still selling a bespoke luxury product. So unsurprisingly these crafters are going to be difficult to source and have higher salary demands than you and your buddies who are also profiting from the business itself. Since you've got more crafters you need more tools and machining equipment. And while you might've been lucky and gotten your initial equipment cheap/free, outfitting a full shop is expensive. And you are going to need a full shop. Even a random warehouse is going to likely need remodeling. Security, electrical, station setting. You're doing custom shipping so it'll need to have a full loading bay and hopefully be near major transit. Also it needs to be near where you can find skilled craftsmen in the first place. Then your supply lines get weird. Increasing your material load twofold or tenfold and demanding a degree of uniformity in the goods can grow more difficult. Hope that warehouse has plenty of storage because you're going to need an initial outlay of purchases to get suppliers on this scale to work with you. And you're a niche manufacturer doing custom orders, JIT inventory management isn't really feasible for you. So the time to turn the investiture in materials to finished product is money sitting dormant and at risk of damage and shrinkage. And of course you've got a small business suddenly handling 2 million in cash flow per year. That's a lot of juggling plates. Likely they ended up using today's orders to pay for yesterday's sale materials and without a vigorous cash flow analysis you can bury yourself quickly in that. Also in conclusion that guy looks like every geekpreneur I've had the misfortune of dealing with.
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Mar 9, 2020 22:55
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Also the tables are hideous and look pretty awful to actually play on.
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Mar 9, 2020 22:58
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I got really excited reading comments on one of the articles about this game table company where people were discussing somebody named Patrick who stole a truck and this was surprising because "he always seemed like such a nice guy at cons" but it was some other Patrick.
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Mar 9, 2020 22:59
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Also the tables are hideous and look pretty awful to actually play on. So they're quintessentially geek chic?
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Mar 9, 2020 23:12
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I think they were doing ok with the furniture, but bought some other failing business and trying to prop that up killed them.
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Mar 9, 2020 23:18
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Genuinely despairing at the number of people giving this book low reviews. I'm convinced that many of them must be trolls, and the rest are simply, not meaning to cause offence, incapable of appreciating what makes a good piece of literature. The majority of these negative comments cite 'the annoying, implausible main character' as the main cause of their displeasure - let me draw your attention to Achilles of the Iliad (which, by the way, is arguably the greatest piece of literary fiction to have been composed), to the eponymous hero of the Harry Potter series (far and away the best-selling book series of all time - and little wonder, it's great!), to Shakespeare's Hamlet, protagonist of one of the greatest plays that will ever be written: the best heroes throughout the history of literature are balanced by their flaws and their assets, as Kvothe so demonstrably is. This book is a skilfully composed amalgam of several distinct genres of fiction - the Epic, the bildungsroman, the romance - and as such, fails in no respect to appeal to all types of avid reader. Whether you seek a sentimental tale of love and loss, a thrilling journey of toil and hardship, or a provocative fable with deeper moral implications, this novel has facets which should appeal to you. Most striking to me personally are the honesty of Rothfuss' characterisation and the beauty of his prose. Having read a vast quantity of fiction, from dozens of esteemed authors spanning millennia, I can categorically say that this is one of the best books I have ever had the joy of reading, and one with uncommonly high rereadability; indeed, I feel I gain more pleasure from this book with each subsequent reading, as I perceive more about the inner workings of the characters, the subtleties of the plot, and the deeper nuances and themes of the text as a whole. I genuinely believe that those who have given this book 1-star reviews should have their opinions nullified - the only explanation is that they have misunderstood the text entirely, and as such their misguided observations do not reflect the true brilliance that Patrick Rothfuss has achieved here.
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Mar 10, 2020 02:24
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Sham bam bamina! posted:Things that make me think for the first time that college for everyone is a mistake.
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Mar 10, 2020 02:34
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Sham bam bamina! posted:Genuinely despairing at the number of people giving this book low reviews. I'm convinced that many of them must be trolls, and the rest are simply, not meaning to cause offence, incapable of appreciating what makes a good piece of literature. The majority of these negative comments cite 'the annoying, implausible main character' as the main cause of their displeasure - let me draw your attention to Achilles of the Iliad (which, by the way, is arguably the greatest piece of literary fiction to have been composed), to the eponymous hero of the Harry Potter series (far and away the best-selling book series of all time - and little wonder, it's great!), to Shakespeare's Hamlet, protagonist of one of the greatest plays that will ever be written: the best heroes throughout the history of literature are balanced by their flaws and their assets, as Kvothe so demonstrably is. This book is a skilfully composed amalgam of several distinct genres of fiction - the Epic, the bildungsroman, the romance - and as such, fails in no respect to appeal to all types of avid reader. Whether you seek a sentimental tale of love and loss, a thrilling journey of toil and hardship, or a provocative fable with deeper moral implications, this novel has facets which should appeal to you. Most striking to me personally are the honesty of Rothfuss' characterisation and the beauty of his prose. Having read a vast quantity of fiction, from dozens of esteemed authors spanning millennia, I can categorically say that this is one of the best books I have ever had the joy of reading, and one with uncommonly high rereadability; indeed, I feel I gain more pleasure from this book with each subsequent reading, as I perceive more about the inner workings of the characters, the subtleties of the plot, and the deeper nuances and themes of the text as a whole. I genuinely believe that those who have given this book 1-star reviews should have their opinions nullified - the only explanation is that they have misunderstood the text entirely, and as such their misguided observations do not reflect the true brilliance that Patrick Rothfuss has achieved here. What alt account did Pat post this from?
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Mar 10, 2020 04:40
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mods change my name to Provocative Fable
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Mar 10, 2020 05:40
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Blamestorm posted:I must admit I came to this thread late because I was trying to answer this question: how does he afford to live? Does he have a job? Does he live off his wife? Did his two books make that much money he can spend years just doing whatever? His books have sold millions of copies iirc, so yes. He sold the movie/tv rights too and even if nothing comes from those he gets to keep that money as well. Sham bam bamina! posted:Genuinely despairing at the number of people giving this book low reviews. I'm convinced that many of them must be trolls, and the rest are simply, not meaning to cause offence, incapable of appreciating what makes a good piece of literature. The majority of these negative comments cite 'the annoying, implausible main character' as the main cause of their displeasure - let me draw your attention to Achilles of the Iliad (which, by the way, is arguably the greatest piece of literary fiction to have been composed), to the eponymous hero of the Harry Potter series (far and away the best-selling book series of all time - and little wonder, it's great!), to Shakespeare's Hamlet, protagonist of one of the greatest plays that will ever be written: the best heroes throughout the history of literature are balanced by their flaws and their assets, as Kvothe so demonstrably is. This book is a skilfully composed amalgam of several distinct genres of fiction - the Epic, the bildungsroman, the romance - and as such, fails in no respect to appeal to all types of avid reader. Whether you seek a sentimental tale of love and loss, a thrilling journey of toil and hardship, or a provocative fable with deeper moral implications, this novel has facets which should appeal to you. Most striking to me personally are the honesty of Rothfuss' characterisation and the beauty of his prose. Having read a vast quantity of fiction, from dozens of esteemed authors spanning millennia, I can categorically say that this is one of the best books I have ever had the joy of reading, and one with uncommonly high rereadability; indeed, I feel I gain more pleasure from this book with each subsequent reading, as I perceive more about the inner workings of the characters, the subtleties of the plot, and the deeper nuances and themes of the text as a whole. I genuinely believe that those who have given this book 1-star reviews should have their opinions nullified - the only explanation is that they have misunderstood the text entirely, and as such their misguided observations do not reflect the true brilliance that Patrick Rothfuss has achieved here. If Rowling wasn't a coward or was half as good an author as she thinks she is, she'd have made Harry's death permanent and Neville Longbottom would've been the one to kill Voldemort due to Harry's sacrifice. Neville is the real hero for putting up with idiots like Harry. 
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Mar 10, 2020 05:42
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Evil Fluffy posted:His books have sold millions of copies iirc, so yes. Anyhow he won't go bankrupt in any way except creatively and that already happened.
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Mar 10, 2020 11:08
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Evil Fluffy posted:His books have sold millions of copies iirc, so yes. Well that answers that. I guess I didn’t realise genre authors could make that much bank for debut books. Good to know it’s still possible I suppose. I wonder how often that happens these days.
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Mar 10, 2020 13:19
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I honestly cant think of another fantasy author that has seen THAT much success from their first two books. Even folks like Martin and Sanderson took years or decades to see that level of financial success, and authors that are demonstrably better than Rothfuss, like Jemisin, are not nearly as financially successful.
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Mar 10, 2020 14:58
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There's a reason why I mentioned he was pals with his publisher.
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Mar 10, 2020 16:05
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TV Zombie posted:What alt account did Pat post this from? I think it’s BotL making his triumphant return.
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Mar 10, 2020 21:22
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I like to imagine Rothfuss being like this in a creative writing class: https://twitter.com/such_hockey_wow/status/1236638019517657089?s=20
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Mar 10, 2020 23:07
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calandryll posted:I like to imagine Rothfuss being like this in a creative writing class: I'm legit concerned about all the Reddit/Twitter users who don't immediately peg that as a satirical sendup. That said Rothfuss would 100% be the real person that is satirizing.
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Mar 11, 2020 00:53
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calandryll posted:I like to imagine Rothfuss being like this in a creative writing class: Someone find this heroic student and set him on Rothfuss
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Mar 11, 2020 01:07
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That's some goddamn grade-a trolling. "It's around 22,000 words so I guess you'll have to wait until it gets published" is the piece de resistance.
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Mar 11, 2020 03:22
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Did Rothfuss ever get on that cruiseship? Is he now banned from re entering the country for 2-4 weeks?
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Mar 15, 2020 17:11
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