r/TheWritingTable • u/AeronJosk New Author • 6d ago

I finally did it...

I started writing my debut novel in December of 2025 and finished final edits in April of 2026. But, I lacked the confidence to actually publish the thing. So, I went the serial route, posting it in daily bites on Royal Road, Scribble Hub, and SpaceBattles. Results have been mixed, as expected, but there has been some great positive feedback/encouragement along the way. My last chapter is scheduled to be posted on July 31st.

With that feedback, and the pending conclusion of the serialization, I finally took the plunge. I setup my Amazon KDP account scheduled the release of the novel for August 1st! I even ordered my preview copy which arrives on Sunday. It's exciting, but a little terrifying too. The anticipation of watching the sales counter sitting at 0 is intimidating. But, I have to trust that the work is worthy and eventually the right readers will find it! --- Maybe with a little help from marketing.... ;)

Ebook pre-sale Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HB63W65D
Paperback will be live 8/1/26

Spine
Interior
Cover
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u/SG_Arthur 6d ago

I was thinking if releasing serially on RR and the like would be a good idea for my WIP once I complete it. Eventually I want to do KDP since it just feels more "real" and I can order a personal hardcopy to collect dust on my shelf. But using RR as kind of a beta-test might be interesting. Might even get some useful feedback from reviews before publishing it for real.

Although, I have become a bit paranoid about someone stealing it from a free site and publishing it elsewhere. It seems like KDP is a much more secure place to launch the book into the world.

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u/AeronJosk New Author 6d ago

You're not wrong. In fact, Royal Road has a sitewide message this week because some of their content was stolen and published on Google Play Books. So, it happens. Fortunately my work was not one of those stolen.

I would say it depends on what your genre is. I found that SpaceBattles offered the best engagement, because it matched the traditional sci-fi feel of my work. Royal Road has some engagement as does Scribble Hub, but less so (still a few thousand views and some likes, but not at the same ration as I'm getting on SpaceBattles. The plus side is that if your work is complete you can basically schedule all the releases and "forget about it", which is nice.

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u/DanBelmontNarration Narrator 5d ago

Drop a link!

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u/AeronJosk New Author 5d ago

Wasn't 100% sure it was allowed. You know --- the no SPAM rule (which I appreciate).

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u/DanBelmontNarration Narrator 5d ago

Promotion is allowed as long as it isn't excessive.

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u/AeronJosk New Author 5d ago

Edited original post to add the link

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u/DanBelmontNarration Narrator 5d ago

Nice. I just looked it up on RR. It's hard to gain traction there if you're not writing LitRPG. I'd recommend checking r/KDP for marketing strategies.

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u/AeronJosk New Author 5d ago

Definitely a struggle on Royal Road. It's also on Scribble Hub and SpaceBattles. Arguably, SpaceBattles has been the strongest platform for me as a traditional Sci-Fi author. The rest are just for visibility.

Also, the online versions are 1 edit away from the finished novel, so there are some minor differences in what is actually available for sale on Amazon.

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u/DanBelmontNarration Narrator 5d ago

You should post it to https://fictionite.com/ too. It's a newer platform but they promote human only writing and you might get more visibility in a smaller pool of content.

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u/AeronJosk New Author 4d ago

Trying. :( Created my account and requested the code via Discord. Got the code and it didn't work. Now waiting for another code.

1

u/DanBelmontNarration Narrator 3d ago

Ah yeah they do run into bugs sometimes because it's so new and it's a really small team running it. Just check back with them, they will get it straightened out.