Tailored Realities Just Broke a Record—Even Brandon Sanderson Says Hitting the List Just Got Harder

Brandon Sanderson just turned a low-expectations short story collection into a legit bestseller. Not a Cosmere doorstopper. A collection. And yeah, that matters.

The surprise: charting with a short story collection

On his YouTube channel, in a State of the Sanderson update and a weekly check-in, Sanderson said his new collection, Tailored Realities, landed at #10 on the New York Times list and hit #3 on USA Today. For a collection, that’s wild. He even admitted he didn’t think this one would chart at all.

'This is a short story collection. It is much harder to hit the list... I didn’t think that we would chart with this book,' Sanderson said on YouTube.

The twist here is that Tailored Realities isn’t even Cosmere. It’s a bundle of his non-Cosmere work, and he’s been clear this wasn’t some big cash grab. Collections rarely move like that. He told Winter Is Coming earlier that he wasn’t expecting sales records and mainly wanted to put everything in one place for fans so you wouldn’t have to track it all down piecemeal.

Why it worked anyway

Two things can be true: Sanderson pushed the book hard online (he’s extremely visible and constantly engaging with readers), and he also framed it as a simple, fan-friendly consolidation. That combo clearly clicked. Add interior illustrations and you’ve got the kind of package that longtime readers want on the shelf and curious newcomers can actually finish before 2040.

What you get in Tailored Realities

• Stories: Snapshot, Perfect State, Firstborn, Defending Elysium (set in the world of Skyward), Mitosis (set in the world of The Reckoners), the novella Moment Zero, plus four other stories
• Vibe: Non-Cosmere shorts and novellas with full-on Sanderson hooks, presented with interior illustrations
• Who it’s for: Great if you’re Sanderson-curious but not ready to dive into the Cosmere sprawl yet; longtime fans get a neat, consolidated collection
• Quick facts: Published by Tor Books on December 9, 2025; Goodreads rating sits around 4.07/5 as of now

New-reader friendly, Cosmere-adjacent

If you’ve been eyeing Sanderson but are understandably intimidated by The Mistborn Saga, The Stormlight Archive, Elantris, Warbreaker, White Sand, and Arcanum Unbounded, this is the gentler on-ramp. None of these tales are Cosmere canon, though a couple tie into his other universes (Skyward and The Reckoners). It’s a smart sampler without the homework.

Bottom line: a non-Cosmere short story collection cracking the NYT and USA Today lists is not normal, and Sanderson knew it. The fact that Tailored Realities is pulling that off tells you the pitch worked: easy access, strong curation, and a creator who knows exactly how to talk to his fanbase.