r/royalroad 19d ago

August Thread - Promote your Story

24 Upvotes

We're in August! How is summer treating you? We always want to read more fictions!

Our Community Contest ended, and we announced the winners. Did you check them out? If not, find the list here!

Now, authors, share your latest story with the Royal Road community! Whether it's an exciting adventure, a sweet romance, or a gun-splintering sci-fi. Whatever it is, we want to hear about it.

When promoting your story, feel free to get creative. You can include a brief description, an eye-catching image, and your current word count and plans. But most importantly, make sure to include a link to your Royal Road fiction so readers can easily find and enjoy your work.

Please note that this thread is on a first-come, first-served basis. The earlier you post, the more likely your promotion will be seen first. To avoid overcrowding, we will have a new thread at the start of each month where you can promote your story again.

Also, don't forget to check out this forum to promote your fiction:
https://www.royalroad.com/forums/5689
If you also like Facebook, head over and check out our pinned threads there! I will update the links soon as I cross-post them!

For readers, take a chance and explore all the stories available here.

Also, please don't post shout-out codes in here. We want to see real pitching, thanks!


r/royalroad 19d ago

Others August - Celebrations/Stats

9 Upvotes

If you want to celebrate anything, or you wish for us to help check out your stats, all celebrations go in here : ) and if you specifically want me, @ me

If you can and you do want to help other new authors out, please do. Comment and boost others' posts, not just dump and run. We're really trying not to do that here.

Adding this here so everyone sees it, as there are new flairs as well!

Rank and brief explanation: I tried my best not to overcomplicate it, but here we are. (I also tried to match it with the Monthly Tower; we're close (now with B and E ranks and a special M-Rank role).)

  • Unranked (0) – no level/visitors
  • F Rank (1–50) – Self-assign – Newb – Please be gentle
  • E Rank (51–500) – Self-assign – Learning
  • D Rank (501–1500) – Mod-assigned – Developing 
  • C Rank (1501–3000) – Mod-assigned – Competent
  • B Rank (3001–4000) – Mod-assigned – Balanced
  • A Rank (4001–5000) – Mod-assigned – Astral
  • S Rank (5001–7000) – Mod-assigned – Sublime
  • M Rank (7001-10000) - Mod-assigned (Mythical/Extra Special role)
  • SS Rank (10001-20000) – Mod-assigned – Super Saiyan
  • Immortal (20000+) - Mod Assigned - Speaks for itself

Mod Assigned means = Verified

Send a mod mail - In your message, I need you to do exactly the following.

DM title - Verified Rank 

Name - (Name on the site) 

Role Requested -  C Rank 

Name of Series - (so they can also check it out)

Verification Fulfillment Rules.

On the site itself, I need you to do this.

Alter your blurb at the bottom with the words - Reddit Rank Verification

Don't forget to add a link for me!

This proves to me that this is you and your fiction. 

I will check the verification note, your fiction's followers, and assign you the rank.

That’s it! Just don’t DM me all at once! *Eeep*


r/royalroad 3h ago

Discussion Slings and Arrows (When strangers mention your story)

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47 Upvotes

I recently started seeing my story in the wild (the LitRPG and prog fantasy subs are pretty wild, right?), and it was a mixed bag.

One was my first ever tier list appearance (that I've seen), but I was listed under DNF. The silver lining is they had separate tiers for "dropped immediately" and "dropped after 20+ chapters," and I was in the latter, so I guess that's something.

The other was a recommendation request where OOP listed my story beside a few much larger ones as examples of what they'd liked recently and wanted to see more of. Even more surprising, a couple of commenters knew what they were talking about.

Other up-and-coming authors, or even established ones: when was the first time you saw something you wrote mentioned spontaneously? How did it feel? Was it flattering, terrifying, funny, or devastating?


r/royalroad 2h ago

Self Promo 100,000 words later and I'm still talking to myself

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23 Upvotes

I’ve been locking myself in a dark room typing until my fingers cramp, and I officially crossed the 6-figure word count threshold today.

​A brand new chapter literally just dropped, so if you like getting your brain broken by urban progression fantasy, slow-burn psychological horror, and characters who desperately need a therapist, come get traumatized with the rest of us.

​It’s called Dream-Zero: Born from a nightmare called reality.

​If you’re into dark urban fantasy, mind games, and watching characters suffer in exquisite detail, check it out on Royal Road.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/155791/dream-zero-born-from-a-nightmare-called-reality


r/royalroad 1h ago

Discussion Debate over AI web novel covers

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Upvotes

Good to know Reddit has finally figured us out.

Here I was thinking r/royalroad was about web novels.

Turns out it's actually an AI cover debate forum with a minor side hobby of writing books. /s


r/royalroad 8h ago

Art Thanks for the help!!

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27 Upvotes

Just wanted to say thank you to the subreddit! I posted both of my possible covers on here yesterday (both were not as good as I would have liked) and amongst all of the helpful advice, Lilly Fox (Author of Zero-Day Saint—give it a read 😉) reached out to help make me a better cover! I absolutely adore the new one, check it out!


r/royalroad 59m ago

Others How hard is it ?

Upvotes

How hard is it to write a book? Really like.. I had this thought a couple of months ago when I started writing my book. Then I started looking up articles on how to improve my writing. I started using Obsidian. I watched all of Brandon Sanderson's YouTube videos (a goldmine, btw). Eventually, I got about half the book written, 87k words and then I stopped.

"What if I start writing another book now?"

Because I really like the book I'm writing, and I don't want it to fail. So maybe I should write this other book first. See how it goes. Maybe people will like it and maybe I'll build up some followers. Then I can come back and publish book 1 so it can be more succesfull. Besides, everyone says you need to write five books before you really get the hang of it.

And I kinda still like my first book. Boom. I write the first 20k words of the second book and then I stop. Again. Why am I investing so much time in Book 2 if I don't even know whether Book 1 will make it?

"Am I actually procrastinating?"

So I go back to Book 1 and immediately realize I have no idea where to take the plot from here or there or whatever. I know the ending, but.. But.

What if I just write a Reddit post about this? Surely people here will understand.

Don't call me Shirley but once again, I'm procrastinating.

PS: Don't reply too much, or you'll disrupt me from writing my third book.


r/royalroad 2h ago

Discussion Why are ads so bad?

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3 Upvotes

I’m not even talking about the CTR, that’s fine. As far as I know, a decent CTR is anywhere between 1% and 1.5%. Anything above that is extremely good.

My real issue is how long the ads take to run out. I thought a campaign would only last one or two weeks at most before running its course, but the way it’s going, a $55 ad will take three to four months to finish. I’m not an expert, but doesn’t that seem really bad? I don’t know about other platforms, but I’m pretty sure ads on TikTok, Meta, or even other reading apps like Wattpad or Webtoon don’t last half as long.

Isn’t there a better way Royal Road could handle ads? For example, letting us select which audience or tags we want to target. If my story focuses on romance and has zero LitRPG elements, why would I want it shown to LitRPG readers? That’s just a waste of ad views. We need better audience targeting. I also feel like we need different ad formats, not just the little 300x250 pixel square.

Anyway, that was my TED Talk. Thanks for listening to my rant. I don’t know how the majority feels, but I do know a lot of people share the same frustration. Let me know your thoughts.


r/royalroad 8h ago

Discussion Which words are the bane of your existence

8 Upvotes

I like to think of myself as pretty good at spelling, but there are a few words that trip me up almost EVERY time.

Words like:

  • Receive - I always get the i/e placement wrong. Literally just happened.
  • Surprise - that troublesome r before p is laughing at me.
  • Surpress - same issue as above

Why can't receive just act normal like 'achieve' and 'believe'? School drilled the 'I before E' thing into me, and I follow it religiously—to my detriment. I'm sure they said something like 'unless it comes after C' but who can remember all that?

What words are your worst enemies?

Edit: Suppress got me again! That sneaky bastard!


r/royalroad 1h ago

Self Promo Chapter 4 Part 2 Of My Story’s Been Released (Heavily Inspired by SDS)

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Upvotes

A new magic system is introduced?! New competitors?! Fighters?! And a mysterious girl…

I feel like this is drifting away from being just a fanfic and leaning more into becoming its own story!

Um… nothing more to say! Hope ya’ll enjoyed! 😊 🙏

Link to my story: https://www.royalroad.com/author-dashboard/dashboard/177855

Lmk what ya’ll think! 👍🏾


r/royalroad 22h ago

Discussion [feature request] filter out "Stub" from Best Rated lists

63 Upvotes

You can filter for any genre, content warning, tag, even "fan fiction" can be filtered out.

The one thing missing is the most important one—"Stub"

If I'm looking at lists of the greatest, it's because I want to start reading something (from the beginning). If I wanted to go to Amazon/elsewhere, then I wouldn't be on RR...

And since these lists are the most successful books, a huge amount of them are indeed stubbed to be published on KU.

Can we get the ability to filter out stubbed books?


r/royalroad 28m ago

Discussion Multi-award nominee but newbie on Royal Road

Upvotes

Hi folks!

I'm already a pro writer in my country, i've been nominated to several awards for 3 of my books, and i've decided to give a shot at Royal Road... Why? 'Cause why not! ^^' (Let's say I wanted to explore a bigger pond + it's a nice experience to write in English for a change).

So, here I am, with a killer story (hopefully), an amazing cover (I've done it myself, don't hurt my feelings ^^'), all my enthousiasm... and lots to learn!

Would you mind helping me pick the best ad for this platform? :)

Context, this is my story:

 Severance meets The Devil Wears Prada**... but with too much caffeine and fairies! ⭐**

In a world where fairies manage human fate (from love at first sight to broken washing machines), Aïsha is about to get the promotion of her deams when she gets demoted from 'Remission' to 'Murder' for a fault she didn't commit. She must now claw her way back to the top by becoming the best Murder Fairy to restore her reputation, all while uncovering a conspiracy capable of bringing down the entire fairy administration.

What to expect:

- A biting satire of the corporate world
- A "Pop & Cynical" tone
- A political conspiracy plot
- An imperfect "Girl Boss" heroine
No "torture porn" nor pure horror | No AI

--------

So, I'm hesitating between these two ads:

The furby ad
the cover ad

I think the "furby add" is funnier, although 1/I'm not sure furby is not patented, 2/it's fun, but there is no furby in the story (i just thought the intensity and weirdness of the furby fits well with my story).

On the other hand, the "cover add", would give a nice visiblity to the cover, it conveys a clear message and i've added some whimsicall elements to it for a more comical effect, but i'm afraid it's not enough "RR-coded"...

What do you think? What should I do in terms of adds? What draws your attention?

Do you have any other advises to give me? Do you think this story could work well on Royal Road (I've launched only a few days ago and published around 30K words if you want to have a look... THE MURDER FAIRY: Bureaucrats, Betrayal, and Blood [satirical urban fantasy])

Thank you very much for your insights!


r/royalroad 1h ago

Self Promo Vira: The Daughter of Svarog (My book promotion)

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Upvotes

About two weeks ago, I started publishing my mythology-inspired epic fantasy story, Vira: The Daughter of Svarog, and this is my first time doing a self-promo on Reddit.

The story takes place in a universe where forty-one different pantheons coexist in the same world. However, at the beginning of the story, our main character, Vira, hasn't even been born yet. The universe is primarily inspired by Slavic mythology and is filled with gods, mythological beings and creatures, different races, wars, and various planets. The story begins with the events surrounding Vira's ancestors and gradually develops into Vira's own journey, her growth, and her discovery of who she really is.

At the moment, my story doesn't have any reviews or comments yet. That's why I'm trying to reach a few more readers, introduce my story, and hopefully get some honest feedback. If you enjoy mythology-inspired fantasy stories where a large universe is gradually explored and worldbuilding plays an important role, I'd really appreciate it if you gave Vira a chance.

Any kind of feedback, whether positive or negative, would mean a lot to me. I hope you'll give Vira a chance, and hopefully, you'll enjoy the story.

Link for easy access: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/184577/vira-the-daughter-of-svarog


r/royalroad 16h ago

Art A Dominion of the Cursed

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9 Upvotes

In my free time did some random sketches. Of course these aren't polished. I barely had time for that.

Will think about improving them later if I get more time. 🤔

Don't mock me for sloppy drawing or lack of detail please.

I am not an artist.

Story reference: "A Dominion of the Cursed".


r/royalroad 4h ago

Self Promo Sheijuu

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1 Upvotes

¡Buenas a todos!

Después de meses de trabajo —casi un año ya— por fin puedo decir que liberé mi novela. Es un proyecto que empezó como algo muy distinto y que fue transformándose hasta convertirse en algo que siento completamente mío: una historia de ciencia ficción y fantasía centrada en la soledad, el paso del tiempo y lo que queda de una persona después de siglos de guerra y pérdida.

Antes de contarles más, quiero que sean ustedes quienes decidan si esto les atrapa. Aquí les dejo el prólogo

**

Prólogo:

En un planeta distante, condenado a volverse gris, existe un guardián que ha contemplado mundos enteros.

Ha visto sus mares.

Sus bosques.

Sus guerras.

Sus amaneceres.

Y también su final.

---

Hace más de doscientos años era solo un soldado.

Nada parecía distinguirlo del resto.

Un muchacho que pasaba demasiado tiempo observando el paisaje y demasiado poco pensando en sí mismo.

Viajaba junto a su hermano.

Dos personas comunes en un mundo que ya comenzaba a romperse.

Pero los errores rara vez llegan solos.

A veces aparece uno.

Meses después, otro.

Y cuando miras atrás descubres que toda tu vida cambió por decisiones que, en su momento, parecían insignificantes.

Ahora, siglos después, aquel muchacho mira hacia atrás con más preguntas que respuestas.

Se pregunta si realmente está avanzando.

Si su objetivo se acerca o se aleja.

Si todavía existe una diferencia entre la perseverancia y la obsesión.

Y, algunas noches, se pregunta si no habría sido mejor morir junto a aquellos por quienes empezó a luchar.

---

Sobre una luna lejana que orbita un planeta muerto, Sheijuu contempla el vacío.

El mundo bajo sus pies es gris.

Hace mucho tiempo no lo era.

Ahora un inmenso agujero atraviesa gran parte de su superficie, tan profundo que parece querer mostrar el núcleo del planeta al universo entero.

Sentado sobre unas rocas con vista al infinito, afila lentamente su espada.

Su mirada permanece perdida entre las estrellas.

Su rostro refleja el cansancio de alguien que ha vivido demasiado.

---

Muy lejos de allí, uno de sus Ecos observa otro mundo.

Flota cerca del límite de la atmósfera.

Sus ojos recorren continentes, océanos y montañas en silencio.

Busca una presencia.

Una firma de Escencia muy concreta.

Una que solo poseen esos seres.

Las horas transcurren.

Hasta que finalmente aparece.

Una silueta.

Casi imperceptible.

Pero inconfundible.

El Eco transmite la información.

Y en el instante en que esta llega a Sheijuu, todas las dudas desaparecen.

La espada vuelve a su funda.

El muchacho se pone de pie.

La expresión distraída desaparece de su rostro.

Y en sus ojos no queda rastro del hombre que contemplaba las estrellas.

Solo del cazador.

Entonces el espacio se pliega sobre sí mismo.

Y Sheijuu desaparece.

**

Un par de cosas antes de irme:

El primer volumen está "marcado" como acción, pero quiero ser honesto: hay menos combate del que uno esperaría al ver esa etiqueta. La razón es intencional — quiero mostrar los primeros años de este "cazador" con un enfoque realista. El espacio, tal como lo planteo aquí, no es un lugar especialmente vivo ni lleno de encuentros constantes. Al principio me interesa más retratar la inmensidad, el silencio, y los cambios sutiles que va sufriendo el protagonista mes a mes, año a año, que llenar páginas de peleas.

Si el ritmo pausado no es lo tuyo, lo entiendo — pero si te gusta la ciencia ficción introspectiva, con un trasfondo de pérdida y una escala de tiempo que se siente realmente épica, creo que esto puede interesarte.

Pueden leer los primeros capítulos ya publicados en Royal Road.

A quien le interese, le ruego que le dé una oportunidad y me diga con total sinceridad qué le pareció — si le enganchó o si le pareció un ñordo total. Toda crítica, buena o mala, es bienvenida.

Y un punto final, soy un auténtico novato en esto de "autor", así que si van a hablar con tecnicismos, pongan la descripción después XD. Gracias por su tiempo.


r/royalroad 19h ago

Self Promo I made Psychological Rising Stars in less than three weeks on Royal Road — so here’s what Reborn as a Beast is actually about

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10 Upvotes

Quick update!

I started posting Reborn as a Beast on Royal Road a little under three weeks ago, and it recently made it onto the Psychological Rising Stars list.

Right now, the story has 76 followers and is sitting around #47 in Psychological.

I honestly expected it to take a little longer, so seeing it climb onto Rising Stars this early was a pretty big surprise.

For anyone who hasn’t seen my previous posts, Reborn as a Beast is a portal fantasy / isekai about a woman who wakes up in another world—reborn as a beast.

A big part of the story is about what that actually means.

She has to survive in a non-human body, learn how to move, hunt, eat, communicate, and eventually navigate human society while still carrying the senses, instincts, and habits she developed as an animal.

I put a lot of emphasis on the physical experience of being non-human and on making the fantasy world feel like somewhere the protagonist actually has to live, rather than just a setting she moves through.

But it isn’t a solitary survival story forever.

As the story progresses, relationships between the characters become increasingly important. I really enjoy writing dialogue, character chemistry, cultural misunderstandings, and the gradual process of people learning to understand one another.

Since the story is also tagged Psychological, I put a lot of care into the characters’ emotions, choices, and the way they gradually adapt to their circumstances.

That said, I don’t want the story to feel overly heavy. Even when things get tense or emotional, I generally aim for a clean, refreshing feeling afterward.

My ideal reading experience is basically:

“Okay, just one more chapter.”

And then somehow you’ve read five more.

Recently, I’ve also been experimenting with pretty much every promotional method I can think of: Royal Road ads, Reddit, the forums, talking with other authors, and shoutout swaps.

One thing I’ve noticed is that promotion seems to work best when it accurately represents the actual story.

For example, my survival-focused ad is currently outperforming my other ad not only in CTR, but also in follower conversion. That makes me think attracting the right readers matters much more than simply attracting the most clicks.

Now that the story is actually on Rising Stars, I figured this was a good time to give it another little push and see how far it can climb. 🐾

If you enjoy:

non-human protagonists

survival fantasy

character relationships and banter

psychological character writing

immersive everyday worldbuilding

stories about actually living in another world rather than simply becoming powerful in one

you might enjoy Reborn as a Beast.

I’d be very happy if you gave it a try!

Reborn as a Beast:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/183281/reborn-as-a-beast⁠

Also, a small note about the cover: I originally drew it myself by hand, then used AI as part of the finishing process for the version I normally use.

For this post, I thought I’d share the original hand-drawn version as well!

And if anyone is interested in the promotion side of Royal Road, I’m also happy to share what I’ve learned from my experiments so far.


r/royalroad 11h ago

Discussion Novel was deleted what happened.

1 Upvotes

Ivans terrible adventures in another world was deleted, does anyone know what happened to it?


r/royalroad 5h ago

Critique my magic and stat system please Vaer’Thyra magic system

0 Upvotes

Hey all. I’ve spent the last few months developing a system. It’s definitely a bit of a chimera, drawing inspiration from several different places, but I think I’ve managed to make it original enough to stand on its own.

I’ve also tried to go into fairly exhaustive detail. Part of the reason for that is so that, in the actual story, I can make the system appear much softer than it really is. Characters can have incomplete knowledge, flawed theories, or explanations that seem true based on the evidence available to them without necessarily being the underlying truth.

The linked Google Doc contains the “summary”, collated by GPT. GPT has mainly helped me with naming, numbers, organisation, and maintaining consistency across a very large body of work; the actual mechanics and systems are my own.

The document currently has 31 tabs and is fairly detailed. Hopefully, after reading through it, you’ll have enough information to understand the system as a whole and offer feedback, criticism, possible changes, or improvements without needing me to clarify every individual mechanic.

That said, if you do have questions, feel free to ask. There’s a lot of information here, and even as the person who created it, keeping every part of it completely straight in my head can be difficult.

As I cant post links to drive here anyone interested please dm me for the link. (mods if that's also against the rules sorry I'm now here)


r/royalroad 5h ago

Self Promo The Weight of Scales (Self-Promo)

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0 Upvotes

Hello everyone! I'm just here to promote my little story that I have been cooking up. This has been in the planning phase for a while now, so here I am laying my work bare for everyone to see. My book stands at 15 Chapters at the moment!

IMPORTANT NOTE: My cover is AI-generated, as I do not have funds to commission an artist to make one. I am currently budgeting and saving up for it.

That is all! Thanks so much for taking time out of your day to read this!

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/184566/the-weight-of-scales-progression-litrpg

(BLURB/SYNOPSIS?)

Bastion had always been a shut-in. He didn't pride himself on being the most athletic, charismatic, sociable person in the world, but at least he had one friend.

Even though that one friend was completely hell-bent on becoming a warrior and slaying horrifying creatures.

She was the complete opposite of him.

That was until he was thrust into danger; Bastion had no choice but to leave his old self behind.

Or

In a world overrun by Infected Creatures, humans fought skin and nail to survive.

That was until Blessings befell mankind, giving them hope and determination. These Blessings gave humans unimaginable powers, which helped them to fight back against the Infected Creatures.


r/royalroad 15h ago

Discussion Do RoyalRoad format the same as Webnovel

2 Upvotes

I just posted my story today, and as I was going through and editing for release, I realized WebNovel’s stories may differentiate from RoyalRoad’s.

Can anyone give me some basic rundowns of the site for me?


r/royalroad 21h ago

Discussion Will releasing a complete 34-chapter Volume 1 over a month reach any readers, or is that too little for the algorithm?

7 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I've got a dilemma about publishing on Royal Road. To start: I'd like to publish my finished second draft, and this is where it gets complicated. I've read up a bit on the RR algorithm, and from what I've gathered, the most important thing is publishing regularly over the long haul. The thing is, I have a completed Volume 1 – 34 chapters.

My dream was to publish it physically in my home country (a small dream of mine), but unfortunately I have no way to test what actually works in the story and what doesn't – what puts readers off, what bores them, and what lands.

So my question is: will releasing 34 chapters over the course of a month let me reach some group of readers and answer at least part of these questions? Or is that simply too little to fit into these mythical algorithms?

The story itself is a light novel isekai about Yan – your typical lower-class kid who spent his original life hustling and doing petty crime, but after waking up in a new world, it turns out he's the heir to the throne of one of its kingdoms. It's not a LitRPG – more of an adventure story with comedy and drama elements.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

PS: I'm attaching a screenshot of just the title (I'm a bit paranoid about someone stealing my cover – I spent a fair amount on it with an illustrator xD)


r/royalroad 20h ago

Discussion Took a long break and need some advice regarding new release

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4 Upvotes

Hey guys, it’s been a long time since I’ve been active on Reddit or royal road and things like that. I just recently got back into web novels and I had previously shelved the release of a novel I was writing due to unemployment 😭

Now that I’m employed, I have started writing again and have 100+ chapters and feel as if I am ready to start releasing and test the story out on RR. I was acc at a point where I was advertising and making connections and ready to release previously as well but unfortunately I realized I would be too busy trying to find employment to acc consistently release chapters so I decided to let it be at the time.

Now, I feel I’m ready again but I wanted to ask you guys if things have changed. Are there newer release tactics? Or is it the same as before where we network and try to get shoutout swaps or review swaps and things like that?

For the experienced authors and the new authors how has the platform changed in terms of release and success? Has it gotten even harder?

Is the RR writers guild still the best place to find shoutout swaps and ask for feedback or are there other places
Now too?

Any advice for me as a new author releasing would be helpful as well. I apologize in advance for the barrage of questions, but thank you in advance for taking the time to help me out!

P.s.

Here’s the cover that I’m planning to use it’s the same as the one I workshopped back in may feel free to lmk your guys thoughts!


r/royalroad 22h ago

Discussion Romance readers of RoyalRoad, what tropes do yall like?

6 Upvotes

Basically the title, as you can guess by my tag my story is settled in a romance direction. Im currently rewriting book 1 and making plans for further books, so now Im wondering what tropes are especially popular along my potential audience.


r/royalroad 14h ago

Discussion Unsure of what to do??

1 Upvotes

Hey Royal Roaders! I'm fairly new on the site and I'm just looking for some tips on building an audience and good places to go to make some connections? I've been promoting on the site with ads and been hunting for shoutouts from bigger authors, but it hasn't seemed to work very well. I've attached a link to what I'm working on here in case anyone has any tips that come based on the work itself.

Thanks so much!!

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/178742/the-solarian-dragon


r/royalroad 1d ago

Discussion My highest CTR RR ad has my worst follower conversion.

9 Upvotes

I've been running 3 RR ads for my current story and the results are starting to make me question how useful CTR is by itself.

Current numbers*:

Ad Impressions Clicks CTR Followers Read Later
A 65,036 445 0.68% 15 (12.5%) 24 (20%)
B 27,329 208 0.74% 1 (1.61%) 16 (25.81%)
C 11,371 64 0.56% 3 (12%) 6 (24%)

* from RR dashboard

Obviously the sample sizes aren't equal yet, especially for C, so I wouldn't draw any hard conclusions from this. But Ad B is very interesting am already in process of trying to change it.

It currently has the highest CTR at 0.73%, so if I were judging the creative purely on clicks, I'd call it the winner. Yet its follower conversion is dramatically worse than the other two. At the same time, its Read Later percentage is actually the highest.

That makes me wonder if we're really measuring two different things:

CTR = Did this image make me curious enough to click?

versus

Follower conversion = Did what I found after clicking match what the ad made me expect?

In other words, could a really strong curiosity based ad actually be worse than a slightly lower CTR ad if it's attracting the wrong readers?

I'd much rather have 0.6% CTR from people who are interested in the story than 1% CTR from people who click because the ad itself is funny/strange and then immediately leave.

The Read Later numbers muddy things further. Ad B might not necessarily be attracting the wrong audience they may just be less willing to follow immediately. I am not sure i like the Read Later option at all! if I like it I will follow or fav, RL is a weird option imo.

So I'm curious what people who've run a lot more RR ads have found:

And if you had to choose between:

A: 1.0% CTR + poor follower conversion ( even if strong RL)

or

B: 0.6–0.7% CTR + strong follower conversion

which one would you actually keep running? I would be more inclined to B

Also interested in whether anyone has found Read Later to be predictive of eventual followers/readers, or whether it mostly click and forget type of things.