[pwalker8]

Yep, it's unfortunate for Sanderson, but I'm sure all the money that he makes from those three books will help the bruised ego.

Actually, I would argue that how fast a clean pirated version of the book shows up is a pretty good indicator of the popularity. The last Harry Potter book was out before the book was available. If a clean pirated version doesn't show up, then it's probably because no one cares enough to scan it and proof it.

In a way, having the ebook come out 3 or 4 months after the hardback is the worst of both worlds. More people who would have bought the ebook are likely to get the pirated version simply because they don't want to wait. I would suspect that for the vast majority of people who prefer the ebook, 4 months just isn't long enough to get people to buy the hardback rather than wait for the ebook. It will be interesting to see the NY Times best seller list next week. I think that will be the first list that includes sales data for this book.