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Bestselling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson is turning fandom into real-world support with a new charity collectible. His just-announced Next Step Coin will send proceeds to Nerd HQ, helping fund free virtual mental health care for people who can’t afford it.
Sanderson revealed the coin during a livestream at his annual Dragonsteel Nexus convention in Salt Lake City, which draws tens of thousands of Cosmere fans in person and online. The special-edition piece is available now through Dragonsteel Books and at future Dragonsteel events.
How the Next Step Coin Helps Pay for Therapy
Each coin purchase funnels money directly to actor Zachary Levi’s nonprofit Nerd HQ, which has been rebuilt in recent years around one mission: removing financial barriers to mental health care. Nerd HQ partners with virtual care provider TimelyCare to offer free therapy sessions, 24/7 on-demand emotional support, self-care tools, and community discussion spaces.
Since Sanderson’s announcement this past weekend, nearly 40 additional people have already gained access to TimelyCare support, according to the release. Individuals can sign up for free, first-come, first-served TimelyCare access through Nerd HQ’s site.
Levi, whose own struggles with anxiety and depression led him to relaunch Nerd HQ as a mental-health-focused nonprofit, praised the partnership. “Nerd HQ is dedicated to breaking down financial barriers that prevent people from getting the mental health care they need, and the Next Step Coin will help us make an even bigger impact,” he said.
Sanderson’s Fandom Keeps Expanding—On and Off the Page
The charity coin lands during a major growth phase for Sanderson’s Cosmere universe. This year he concluded the first arc of The Stormlight Archive with Wind and Truth, while the Cosmere Roleplaying Game became Kickstarter’s most-funded tabletop RPG. He’s also begun previewing Ghostbloods, the first novel in Mistborn Era 3, signaling a new era for the series.
Recent coverage of Sanderson’s fandom, from his long-running convention to new Hoid-fronted novels like The Fires of December, shows how tightly his readers connect with his worlds—and with each other. As we noted when IMDb spotlighted his growing universe in a recent feature, the Cosmere’s expansion is increasingly spilling beyond books into games, events, and multimedia projects.
Sanderson has also announced collaborative ventures like the space-fantasy trilogy The Strata Wars with Peter Orullian, and continues to see international releases across 2025–2026, including new Cosmere entries such as Isles of the Emberdark. Against that backdrop, the Next Step Coin offers fans a way to mark this new phase of the Cosmere while directly funding therapy for fellow readers and nerds who need it most.
For many fantasy fans, that combination of expansive storytelling, community-building, and concrete support may be exactly what makes this latest Sanderson project stand out.
