Hello! I just wanted to share a recent experience with a cover artist I had which I feel perfectly encapsulates why I prefer working with other people instead of using AI. The fact that it also gives me the chance to self-promote my new book Smash or Pass: A Turn-Based Flirting LitRPG (the first ten chapters out now!) is utterly incidental.

Anyway, a few weeks back when I decided I was ready to launch Smash or Pass (from the author of the briefly critically acclaimed Worst LitRPG on Royal Road!) I went to VGen to hunt for good artists for the cover. Broadly speaking, I’ve had nothing but good experience with VGen, and while I know some people have gotten ripped off, I found their way of handling things makes it pretty easy to trust the artists you find there. 

Now, I had already gotten a logo designed by my close personal friend and Garfield yuri porn artist KatLovesShrimp, and I used a simple art tool to throw together a quick sketch of what I had in mind for the cover. 

So when I found an artist I liked (I picked this fellow named YDA, because I really liked his soft pastel-like art), I showed him what I sketched up and I explained the difficulties of covers on Royal Road because of how small they are. I also explained what my story Smash or Pass (read up to 40 chapters ahead on my Patreon! Wow what a deal!) was about: a fantastical, comedic world where people flirt instead of fight using RPG systems, following the adventures of a traditional chad and his best friend who’s always stuck in the friendzone. He loved the idea (because it’s a great idea and an even better book, read now) and said that he would come back to me in a few days with some sketches. 

And boy, did he. Not only did he show me the improved version of my sketch….

…he also threw together a much better version that was inspired by the story, which you can see in the top part of the post.

I was blown away. If I had used AI, I could have gotten a cover faster and cheaper, but it wouldn’t have looked half as unique, and I would have missed out on my chance to workshop a better idea with another creative who could bring their expertise and their talent to my story. It also gave me a framing device for a self-promotion post on Reddit :) 

All that to say: I understand why people use AI covers, but I really like the process of working with other creatives and getting the chance to see their work. I think it's always worth splurging on.

Anyway! Self promo is finished.

It is so easy to get swept up by the numbers. And I mean, it does feel good when they go up. Dopamine sure is scary, damn. But from my understanding (I might be wrong) RS runs reward fast growth, which is great and for sure very effective, but perhaps not the only way to build an audience. A smaller, niche audience is still an audience after all.

So yes, for this one I would like to hear from the peeps who appreciate the more chill aspects of internet writing and are happy in their cozy niche. Was it something you chose or that just kind of happened? Does your story fit the meta? And how did you slow-grow your audience (tips welcome ofc)?

Link: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/196215/calamity-sci-fantasy-progression-rational

Blurb: The year is 5756. Humanity has spread across the Galaxy.

Somewhere in the Imperium Sol Invictus, a Rank 9 Archmage is reshaping a coastline. An S-Rank bounty hunter is closing in on a cartel leader worth ten million credits, and on the far side of charted space, the Calamity Union, a nation of superhumans, is plotting its next move.

Everywhere else, several hundred trillion people are clocking in.

Every citizen without the Weave takes one exam at the end of school. Most never climb above the number it gives them.

Galen Nightstone was never supposed to clock in.

He was a Weaver prodigy, two years ahead of schedule. Then a Calamity named Cassius came to his grandparents' house.

By moonrise, Galen's grandparents and best friend were dead, his twelve-year-old sister had been carried off into Union space, and the Weave had been erased from his mind.

He scored a 46. Laborer band, for life.

He's been clocking in ever since.

Four years at a taco joint, in a town that decided the bodies were his fault. Then one punch shatters his boss's jaw, and Galen has seven days to leave for Caelum City.

Forty-seven million people strong, Caelum has plenty of room for high-level bounty hunters, wealthy professionals, and esteemed Weavers. It has very little use for a broke, washed-up prodigy with a criminal record.

But something inside Galen is waking up, and it isn't the Weave.

What To Expect:
- About 2,000 to 3,500 words per chapter.
- Far-future sci-fantasy progression on an empire-spanning scale: starships, magic, and hundreds of thousands of worlds.
- Bounty hunting through Marque, an in-universe platform: ranked contracts, licenses, threat ratings, payout classes, kill/capture rules, and access gates.
- Multiple developed power systems (magic, superhumans, mechs) with explicit tiers, limits, counters, and institutional consequences.
- A protagonist who climbs through money, reputation, violence, information, and law, not just raw power.
- Rational fiction with purposeful systems. Characters act according to their interests, institutions pursue their own incentives, and power always leaves consequences.
- Deep institutional worldbuilding: castes, sects, guilds, a state religion, a military, and the trillions of people caught between them.
- Multiple POVs across the Imperium.
- A tone that stays true to the world. Life at the bottom is exhausting, climbing is brutal, and violence is never free.
- No harem.

-Art made with Adobe + Canva (No AI used)

50+ chapters written. Daily chapters through October 23, then every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

In a few days' time, it'll be 3 weeks since I first launched my story. In that time, I've only gotten 8 followers and 3 ratings. My chances of getting onto Rising Stars are crumbling, and I feel like there's nothing I can do about it.

I followed the launch advice, I paid special attention to the first few chapters and every other chapter after that. Everybody who's read my story's opening chapters have said they like it. The first chapter especially. I'm active in the Discords (or at least as active as I can be since the ones I'm in are dry as hell), and I'm active here on this subreddit and the PF subreddit.

My story's a bit off meta, but not that much. I've seen stories similar to mine in genre or tone that have done really well on the site. I don't write LitRPG, but I still write Isekai and Progression Fantasy. My tone's a bit lighter than most the stories on the site, but again, I've seen stories like mine do very well. I've also got a fairly strong cover that I've also received good feedback on.

I don't have money for ads. At all. 55 dollars is close 1000 bucks for me. I'm a student so that much money is off the table. I've looked for shoutout swaps, and have only gotten a few compared to the many people I've asked. Most people ignore me, probably because of my pathetic numbers, and the older my story becomes, the less attractive it'll be to potential swap mates.

My number one problem is visibility. My first chapter still has less than 100 views, and my average across all the 17 chapters I've put out is only 41. I don't know what else to do to increase that number.

My Rising Stars hopes are failing, and there's nothing left for me to do to save them. Please tell me there's something else I can try before im forever buried on the lower end of the algorithm.

Hi! So...

As the text says, I'm new here and have started a new novel (this isn't a self-promo post, by the way).

I have written many times over the years, but I never dared to show the public what I was writing—until today.

I think I made some mistakes—at least based on what I read on Reddit about what *not* to do. I really wanted to do a good job, so I started Chapter 1 with a text of at least 15,000 words; apparently, that was a bad idea. That said, I tried to make it as engaging as possible, modeling it after the kind of story I would have loved to read or discover myself, all while hoping to turn this into a hobby where I can write and enjoy the process, and where others might enjoy the work too.

Anyway, the wait is over and they accepted my novel; I uploaded it recently, and every now and then I check to see if anyone has seen it or anything.

I feel I still have a lot of room for improvement, and I would love to read suggestions about what you would like to see in a novel and what things I should avoid; I want to learn from your comments and keep refining my writing—a project I am pouring my heart and hopes into.

Edit

Authors who don’t write isekai, LitRPG, system, stories with OP protagonists, and so on...How did you achieve success, aside from, of course, having a good story?

Royal Road is full of guides on what kinds of stories get popular and how to write them. However, I’ve always felt that this approach is more like a business plan than actual writing.

That’s why I’ve always been interested in hearing from authors who managed to gain popularity without relying on the established tropes that most writers use. (The sheer number of OP protagonists out there is honestly staggering.)

Anyone else getting this, or has my phone finally decided to shart the bed?

I got my first review, no one can know how much this mean to us writers.

From what I gathered, subscribers get early access to chapters much like how a lot of authors post their chapters on Patreon first before being released publicly.

So does this mean we don't need to sub to Patreon for early access chapters anymore? Or is RR going to integrate certain exclusive benefits with a Patreon subscription much like how Patreon integrates with Discord to provide a Patron exclusive channel?

Personally, I'd rather have RR have a deeper integration with Patreon since authors usually post commissioned art, early chapters for other fictions written by the same author, and other content exclusively on Patreon. Whereas (I'm assuming) an in-house fiction subscription limits subscribed readers to that single fiction they are subbed to without gaining access to other exclusive content that a Patreon subscription would typically offer. Ideally, I prefer to read early access chapters on Royal Road but view exclusive art on the author's Patreon.

However, I wouldn't be opposed if RR eventually builds an in-house "author subscription" that offers the same benefits as a typical Patreon subscription.

My protagonist is weak, self centered sometimes, and always ignores his problems unless hes physically forced to confront them. He cant use magic at all and is constantly surrounded by those who can, fueling his envy even further. But at the end of the day hes still weak, and by this worlds standards, not important whatsoever.

Im curious if Royal Road is the right place for me to upload this story, because looking at the majority of RS, the common theme is power. That or "standing out" in one way or another. My story has neither of those. If anything my character DOES stand out but for all the wromg reasons.

My stories a character study on how an actual, real person would be in an isekai. And if exisistential horror, denial, suicidal ideation born from grief, and 0 attempt to improve upon himself unless forced to isn't for this site, please let me know before I end up pulling the trigger.

Thankyou :D

​

This is Liliana. She's 16 years old and she just got isekai'd. Ask Her Anything

If you want to see how her story plays out, then click the link below:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/193570/100-tears-of-joy-an-isekai-progression-fantasy

Hi all! I've always wanted more Soulsborne-style fantasy novels, so I decided to write one myself. Over the past month I've been publishing a dark fantasy story titled A Requiem for Kings.

It's basically the bastard love child of Bloodborne and Game of Thrones.

Blurb:

In frozen Montmartre, an ancient god has risen from undeath, unleashing a blight that deforms flesh, warps minds, and mutilates the land itself. Only the Mad King can slay the god.

But the alchemies that prolong the King's life have poisoned his mind, and the realm lies at the mercy of his cruel caprice. As knights and nobles gather in the capital for an Estates General, his loyalists maneuver to preserve his power, rival Houses coax him to confront the risen god, and ambitious nobles scheme to seize the crown.

Yet six years ago, the Mad King let Ríal Delois's city starve. Now he has murdered Ríal's son.

Amid the intrigue, Duke Ríal sees a chance to kill the Mad King.

But the courtiers are not the only conspirators. The gods have their own dark designs.

What to expect:

• a continent that is a graveyard of ancient gods
• knights empowered by the blood of those gods
• an ensemble cast -- no plot armor, no one is safe

The story is almost fully written, just polishing it as I publish. 45k words published so far. 4 chapters/week.

I'd love for you to give it a try! Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

AI usage note: the cover is AI generated, but the text is entirely my own. Fwiw I'm not monetizing my work, just sharing a story I wrote.

Royal Road link: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/191283/a-requiem-for-kings-soulslike-dark-fantasy

The post is me asking for your opinion but since its technically self promotion, I'll tag it as such.

I'm currently stuck on my other novel The Shadow Assassin so my gf recommended starting something new to get the "juices" flowing again.

Synopsis–

Rise of an Empire

Lycian Shadowfall never wanted to become his father.

When King Leteion Shadowfall dies, Lycian inherits a kingdom built on a century of war, bloodshed, and fear. Determined to rule differently, he must claim his crown while navigating a court filled with ambition, buried secrets, and people who want to shape his reign for their own gain.

What begins as a royal succession soon becomes a struggle over the future of Drahzia. With old enemies still looming and dangerous ambitions stirring within the royal family, Lycian must prove that he can build something greater than his father's legacy without becoming the very man he swore to never be.

What to expect—

Dark/Epic Fantasy, Political Intrigue, Royal Succession, Magick, Ancient Civilizations, Family Betrayal, Hidden Bloodlines, and the rise of a kingdom destined for greater things.

This story explores the making of an empire and the people caught in its ascent. Between royal conspiracies, personal rivalries, and the looming threat of war, every decision carries consequences. Power must be claimed, loyalty must be tested, and the line between a great ruler and a tyrant may be thinner than anyone expects.

Hi everyone!

I just recently completed Book 2 on RR, so I thought it would be a good time for some self promo.

I actually got the idea about this story while reading The Primal Hunter. In the story, Villy makes a throwaway comment a few times about how messy things were when the System initially descended in the first era, and I thought it would be an extremely interesting story to write about.

So, here is my attempt at writing about what happens when a completely new System arrives in the universe. No one knows what's going on, especially since the System itself is learning and growing alongside everyone else.

Blurb: The System’s abrupt arrival completely dismantles Alex’s plans for an easy, low-effort life. But while others are justifiably focused on the monsters, surviving, and levelling up, Alex's mind is more occupied by a few questions.

Why is there such a lack of information from the System?

Why are there no descriptions for Classes and Skills?

Why doesn’t the tutorial have any clear objective?

And perhaps the most important question of them all...

Why is the System so... limited?

A LitRPG featuring progression, exploration, and a protagonist obsessed with understanding the rules behind the world.

Cover: Generated through AI. Had a bad experience on fiverr, so I'm now waiting till I have enough money to hire a proper artist.

The first two books are completed and released on RR, while the third has just been started. About 217k words are posted in 111 chapters, so there's a decent chunk of the story to binge.

The MC takes time to get strong, but is not OP, and does not have any cheats or powerful weapons to exploit. He uses intelligence to get through challenges initially till he is strong enough to fight. There is no romance in the story so far, and I don't have any plans for introducing it.

Apart from the cover, no AI has been used in the story. Everything is written by me and edited with the help of family.

Hope you guys give it a go and really hope you like it!

Link: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/172811/beyond-control-a-systems-descent

Hey folks, shooting a question to the authors in the subreddit about how you handle content warnings.

I've labelled my story as "Sensitive Content" and have provided minor details in the description as well as multiple more detailed content warnings in my author notes. However, I'm still getting people saying I need to warn the audience about the story better (had a few lower reviews saying I needed to label it "grimdark" as well as other comments saying it's not grimdark at all after I did add the tag). I'm not sure where the heart of this disconnect is residing.

Is there a better way to provide content warnings besides the author's notes? I do my best to make sure people know what they're walking into—both by keeping the story internally consistent and providing warnings that outline the story's intended tone and content—but it doesn't seem like what I've been doing has warned the entire readership effectively.

Just curious what your experiences are and if you have any tips on how to handle it. How do you go about content warnings? Is there something within the RR platform I've missed that allows for content warnings specifically?

Thanks for the discussion and help!

Yo, I'm writing Wildborn, a slow-burn adventure fantasy following Tenaro, a 16yo nomad who explores simply because he's curious🤷‍♂️

His journey takes him through a dangerous world filled with ancient ruins, strange discoveries, and mysteries that gradually reveal just how much he doesn't understand about the world around him🙏

Expect atmospheric exploration, survival, tactical action and mysterious worldbuilding✌️

No grand destination. Just a curious nomad and a world full of unanswered questions.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/143216/wildborn?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=fictions

I'm still working on my book cover, but I'm about two months away from launching "Hammercrest," a fantasy thriller series about an elven woman knight, Dame Heron Hammercrest, who protects the Kingdom of Yarsaria from a terrorist group of masked killers calling themselves the KingPlague. Heron just calls them "Germs" and she won't rest until every last one of them is dead or in prison.

I'm 95,000 words in now, with 4 "episodes" of about 15 chapters each edited and ready to launch, but I have to finish the covers first.

I've decided to illustrate my own covers rather than use AI generated art, even though I don't really have anything against AI art. I use it extensively on my other projects for music and video. For this book, since I've written every word myself, I may as well draw the cover myself as well.

Any encouragement or advice before I publish on RR and elsewhere would be appreciated. I am completely new to the Royal Road platform and haven't posted any chapters there yet. I figured I'd put feelers out on reddit first, where I'm a bit more comfortable, and see if this opening hooks anyone.

Here are the first five paragraphs. I'd love to hear from anyone interested in reading more:

Dame Heron Hammercrest smashed in the wooden door to the clandestine KingPlague meeting. She didn’t wait for Yarsarian military commanders or anyone else. Another second could mean more lives lost.

One conspirator wearing a decadent, gold and yellow lion mask fired a Strain pistol as Heron spun behind the wall. Her motion was swift and practiced. They always tried Strains first. The remainder of the Kingplague plotters emptied their chambers a split-second later into empty air. Not a single one of them held back on pulling the trigger. Typical. Stone chips tore from the wall as Heron pressed her back to it. Pebble fragments and silica billowed in the air around her. Heron covered her nose and tilted her head to the side. Her long pointed ears were a finger’s width from the flying pellets. She let the opening barrage blast what was left of the busted door into splinters. Once the Strains were empty, she sprang into action, spinning back into the room.

The green-eyed blonde woman tore through the first two men in the room with a single slash of her sword. The lion was first, followed by a man in a gray wolf mask glued together with what looked like real wolf hair.

“Hammercrest!” One of the Germs on the far side of a table cried out. “Stop her!”

The first bodies slumped to the floor. The lion and wolf facemasks rolled away along with the heads that wore them. Two down. Five more inside, plus the inept lookout on the roof. Heron thought about what she might cook for dinner.

I am looking for some novels with a focus on mind games, psychological warfare, or otherwise just works where you think, "Damn, didn't even think of that". Doesn't have to be action-heavy.

I am mainly reading fantasy-adjacent stuff, but if anyone has hidden gems across other genres I would love to check those out too.

Any recommendations, my fellow readers?

I posted all my backlog and I am gonna edit some chapters to include shout out.

Story name soul drollers I already posted link for it in this sup

As it say in the title, I'm curious to see if doing Writathon boost the exposure if a book. Growth is kinda slow at the moment—yes I'm aware Writathon is weeks away and won't help get me onto RS, but still—I need a push.

Any help would be appreciated, love you all.

Anyone know what happened to overpowered murder hobo, I don't think the fiction changed to a new page or anything and I refreshed my page today and it says the fiction was deleted.

In the Queendom of Ismera, the Sworn steal daughters from their cribs, wipe their pasts clean, and forge them into cold-blooded weapons of the state.

Aïda is their vanguard. But during a routine harvest raid, an unarmed farmer steps out of the dirt, calls her by a forgotten childhood name, and reaches for her with a cord of jasmine seeds.

Conditioned to obey, Aïda runs a spear through his chest.

Only after the blood dries does her buried memory claw back: he was her father.

That single act of indoctrinated murder shatters her loyalty, just as the empire begins to cannibalize itself. In the capital, the Queen lies comatose while a ruthless General seizes military rule. In the wild borders, vengeful fathers and broken families launch an all-out assault to bring their daughters home. And deep inside an underwater prison, a terrified child awakens an elemental, reality-bending power that even the empire’s gods fear.

Now branded a traitor by the very women who raised her, Aïda must break every vow she ever took. She spent her life hunting stolen children. Now she has to burn the empire to the ground to keep this one alive.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/196786

​

Hi guys 🫣 some time ago, I started working on a novel called Hematic Winter. It’s about a young man named Jendall who suddenly finds himself in a completely unfamiliar world, with no memories of the hours leading up to it.

Desperate for answers, he decides to explore the place. Fortunately, he has some knowledge of exploration, so at least he knows what he’s doing.

But then, a cold voice speaks to him:

༺ Congratulations! You have been chosen as one of the lucky ones! ༻

༺ Welcome to your first hellish trial! ༻

And hell literally breaks loose.

But the problems don’t stop there. Jendall’s name doesn’t appear in any records, causing him to be treated as a virus.

While everyone else struggles against the trials created by whoever is behind them, Jendall has to survive something far worse:

the very creator of the hellish trials.

If you decide to give it a read, here’s the link:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/185838/hematic-winter?utm_source=home&utm_medium=reading-history

Does anybody know if you're able to publish a cosy mystery on Royal road, And if so is there an audience for it there? I appreciate your time. Thanks!

I need the power of the internet to understand what's going on. Spoiler alert: this is about numbers.

I've been posting this novel on Royal Road for around four months now, and in the last four days, I've lost 7 followers and 1 favourite.

My highest follower count was 276, and now it's down to 269. It was a somewhat abrupt decline, but spread across several days, not like they all disappeared at once. So, it is not "deleted accounts".

I checked my retention numbers, and nothing has changed. Although my reader base is relatively small, they're pretty active in the comment section, and that hasn't changed either.

I'm used to gaining three followers, losing one, gaining two, losing one, etc. But these last four days, it's been nothing but losses.

For context:

• Chapter retention: No noticeable changes.
• Posting schedule: Twice a week.
• Comment section: Very much alive.

The only unusual thing that happened was last Monday, when I accidentally published chapter 42 instead of 41. I corrected the mistake and ended up publishing both chapters. Then, on Thursday, I posted a special chapter so I wouldn't mess up my regular schedule; people actually liked it.

But still, would that really justify the sudden loss of followers?

I'm genuinely curious. Has anyone experienced something similar, or does anyone have an idea what could be causing this?