OldFolds Guide to RR

Hey all - Shawn here

There are lots of discussions / guides and more about how to launch on royal road and I’ll go with the simple version that I like to follow. 

This list isn’t pretty - not laid out with fancy bullet points, or anything else.  It’s simply my ‘I want the best launch possible on RR’ that you should do.

Step 1. Finish the book if possible.  

Seems crazy, I know but honestly, we need a LOT of chapters.  Have at least 50.  More chapters are better.  Just  know I’m expecting each chapter to be 2,000+ words.  If you’re one of those who does 1500 word chapters, then have 75 chapters.  If you do 4,000+ word chapters… I’d still have 50 but I’ll mention why later.

Step 2 - A Banging Cover

This is probably my best and least listened to advice.  People are going to see one thing about your story first and its the cover.  Yes… the title matters, but that cover better pop. It needs to scream ‘click me!!’ and if it doesn’t, it makes you start this process from behind.  Use Midjourney, try out Dalle-3.  Ask someone for help.  

Yes, I’d love to use an artist. Most people can’t afford one at start but I have done a book launch with an artist cover as I got ‘bigger’.  If you can’t, AI is your best shot now.  Try different book covers.  See what your friends and fellow authors think.  Have multiple ‘good’ covers so if you hit Rising Stars (7+) you can swap out during that time every few days, looking at getting someone to click (again I’ll mention later).

Step 3 - A good Blurb

What makes an appetizers a great one? It tastes good, satisfies me a little bit, but makes me hungry for the real meal.  Also an amuse-bouche. Its a single bite and it makes me go -OMG I WANT MORE!

Spend time on this. Don’t make it a novel. Get a lot of feed back. Nail it down.

Step 4 - Set a date to launch

Seems stupid but this part plays into what comes next.

You need to decide when you’re going to launch because from this moment on everything we do is about that launch date.  You’ve written the story (or lots of chapters), nailed the cover and blurb.  Now, we focus on everything else.

November is the writathon.  Good/bad, it means lots of ‘new’ stories.  You also learn when some of the bigger fish launch new stuff.  Does this matter? Yes and no.

If you know 5 of the top RR followed writers are all dropping a new story the 1st week of October, you might want to go ahead and wait 20 days till you launch, because they will most likely eat the top 5 spots on Rising Stars and you won’t have a chance.

This advice becomes less and less true as Royal Road grows, because honestly, anyone can be the next big thing if the story is good. 

So pick a date, and set it.

Step 5 - Setup Shoutouts for that date.

Now this ENTIRE time I pray you haven’t been living in a bubble.  This next part requires you to be ACTIVE across the writing community.  You NEED to be involved in discords, building relationships, helping other authors, and getting help from them. Why?
Now is when you mention: “HEY, I’m launching Oct 15th. I have 50 chapters. Anyone want to swap shoutouts?”

Hopefully everyone says yes! Just remember if you write off meta (Harem, or REALLY dark stuff) some may pass, but most will often say okay.

I create an excel sheet. I typically don’t shout out anyone on the first 10 chapters (20k words, we’ll come back to this) I drop on day one. After that its one person per day.

As you can see I have the date showing of the chapter # as well as who is shouting and when they are shouting.  This allows me to do a few things:

Launch time is hectic. Knowing who has what chapter for their shoutout makes it easier to schedule and plan. It also helps me know who to send my code to.  

https://finitevoid.dev/shoutout

This is where you go to create a shoutout code (I’ll come back to this in a bit) but the link is important.  

You wants 20+ shoutouts scheduled before you launch.  The first two weeks need to be structured so that you take your ‘biggest’ and best shoutout people (someone with 3k+ followers or REALLY good engagement) and spread them over the first few weeks.  Rising Stars isn’t just one day hitting everyone, its maximizing your growth.  Having a spread out shoutout launch is great.  So maybe 4-7 people on day 1, 2-3 day 2, repeat for 2 weeks. And after that? Keep having shoutouts as you can every day after the first 14 days of your launch.

This is why you need to have a date set. Because when you schedule your story, you need to verify that people will have the dates you want to get a shoutout on free… plan ahead, reserve them.  

I have shoutouts ‘banked’ for future stories from people and they have the same with me.  This comes from doing multiple shoutouts over a year now but again, you have to have that date set.

Launch time.

Step 6 - PreApproval

3 DAYS before launch, go to RR and submit your story for approval but make sure you check the box saying you want to choose when it goes live.  It can take 1-2 days for your story to get approved.  Saying ‘hey I’m launching Oct 15th’ and then submitting it that morning is horrible… because it might be the 16th or 17th before the story is approved.

Once its approved ‘launch the story.

ONE chapter is now pushed live.  Delete it.

Create a new chapter “OMG ITS COMING!” or whatever title you want, and then say hey ‘launching oct 15th ((perhaps its oct 13th))’. You can be funny, add some crazy whatever, just hit 150 words.  

This is also where you can mention - Hey 20k words upon launch, 1-5 chapters a week, and let people know what to expect on the release schedule.  Also make sure to mention if the story is FINISHED here as people love that!. Publish it and focus on the next part.

Step 7 - Shoutout code

You got your story live, so you go to the page of the story, select the URL and then head to:

https://finitevoid.dev/shoutout

Paste that url in fiction link, hit FETCH, then at bottom, Generate, copy and presto, you got a code.  Send this to EVERYONE who said they would shout you out.  They now have 1-3 days to get your code setup. This keeps them from scrambling last minute going “where the heck is that damn code…”

Step 8 - Upload all your chapters.

With the code setup, now you start the process of uploading all your chapters.  Get ALL OF them setup. Some don’t. Some do a week, maybe two.

I however know life can be crazy. So i upload all of them and schedule them for when I’m going to have them drop. This allows me to not be worried about what happens next.

Some say ‘but if I drop a bonus chapter, I have to change the date on all of them.’

True… again, do what you want. I don’t drop bonus chapters anymore and I’ll explain why.

Step 9 - 20k words + Chapter Release schedule.

LOTS of debate here. SOOO much debate.

20,000 words is considered the bread and butter ‘sweet spot’ for hitting rising stars.  Once 20k words are live, your story now has an easier time hitting rising stars.  Can it be done at 10k? Yes…. it’s just harder.  Have 20,000 followers? You can do it… brand new? Uh… good luck…

Have your 10 chapters (or whatever 20k is) go live.  Some do one every hour, some do every 15 minutes, me I have them drop 2 mins between each other.  End of day, it’s your choice.  I’m open to whatever.  What matters is people want to know there is a lot of stuff to at least read.  So I’ll mention at either the top/bottom of chapter how many chapters are coming once more.

Step 10 - The hard part.

So much debate comes in this next section. I have my own plan, but this is how it usually goes for a new story launch.

10 chapters (20k+) day 1 (I launch on a Monday)

1-2 chapters days 2,3,4 & 5 (T/W/Th/F)

1-2 chapters days M/T/W/Th/F the next week.

1 chapter M-F next two weeks.

If you follow the plan above, you’ll notice that if I do 2 chapters the first T-F and just one the rest of the time, I blow through 28 chapters the first 4 weeks.  If I do 2 chapters the second week, I need 38 chapters for the first month.  This is why it’s important to have 50+ chapters at 2k a chapter.

If you do 1.5k chapters then you might go

15 day 1

2 Day 2-5

2 Day 6-10

Etc

You might also go a chapter every day (7 days a week) for a month if they are 1.5k chapters.

If you have a 4k chapter… well then you might go:

5 Day 1

1 Day 2-5

1 M/W/F (repeat)

Again this one takes into account the larger chapters as having 4k chapters would require a lot more backlog/finished book to do a standard 28 chapter first month.

Step 11 - Patreon

Some would say this should be up higher. I’ll be honest, this should be done LONG before you get your story live on Royal road.  You should have a patreon setup and you should already have your chapters uploaded to have them advance at the same pace of RR on the starting date.

How many chapters ahead and for what price? This is a hard topic.  It again depends on a lot (Typing speed/ back log/ etc).

$5 for 5 or 10 chapters is common as is $10 for 20 chapters.

Some do $10 for 50… (man those freaks…)

End of day you’ll have to decide how much backlog you have and if you can keep ahead.  

Step 12 - Day of Launch

Here you need to just make sure you are verifying your chapters went out right, engage some with your readers.  Ignore harsh criticism.  It’s Royal Road… people are mean.  Keep talking about it and promote it.

If you’re REALLY big about planning and serious about pushing out your story - this next part requires advanced effort.

Be active on Reddit /litrpg and /progressionfantasy.  Have the necessary post engagement and then once your story is live, go there and say ‘hey i wrote a story on RR’.  Drop the cover, give a quick blurb.  Hit go.  After it’s live, do a link right after in a new comment (sometimes posts with a link get kicked).  Then click that share button and let your friends know, so they can go love on you.

From here, this is all about letting the work you’ve done play out.

Don’t worry, you’ll check stats like everyone 2000 times a day.  It’s normal.

Step 13 - Rising Stars.

Once you hit rising stars (top 50) your story is on the clock.  You ‘technically’ have 21 days (sometimes more, we wont get into this) to push as far as possible up the list.  Key here is stead shoutouts, keeping them going.

If you REALLY want to try and maximize this, the next part is done before hand (but after story is accepted and you hit go live before its launch date).

Ads. This is where you spend money because you believe in your story.  $55 to create a single ad and put it before people.  Make something that represents your story.  Don’t have guns and rocket ships if its fantasy and that isn’t there.  Don’t use big boobed cat women if they ain’t a part of your story.  Again sell your story as much as possible while making people want to click the ad.  Or do what I do, pose topless and point to a bunch of words over a clear ocean…. Ok… maybe don’t do that, its my jam.

Get the ad setup, and have it start the day of your story going live.

Top 10 RS - This is where stuff gets crazy. If you hit the top 10, then top 7 and finally top 5 and 3, you are in the big leagues.  Typically you have at least 1000 followers, and now you are in advanced mode.   From here, I’ll add a few bonus things to consider:

First - Top 7 is front page on all formats of Royal Road.  Top 10 doesn’t always show up on all pages.  If you hit top 7, consider changing your cover out every 2 days.  Remember how I said make a few different covers? If they are all bangers, this is where you flex them, giving people something new to look at each day.  

Someone might gloss over your story for five days and suddenly that 3rd cover catches their eye and now they click it, finding out they love the story and start to follow/favorite/join patreon, help you earn millions and you send me a signed book for helping that dream come true (/s off).

Top 7 are more likely to get publishers reaching out to them. If you do, talk to other authors. Discuss what is offered. I’m out there, as are many others who can give advice and help. We’re here to assist in you making the best decision for yourself.

If it’s day 5 and you got 1,000+ followers and hit top 7, odds are you’re going to probably hit 3000+ followers.  Know that as signing at 1.3k followers vs 5k, 7k, 8k+ followers is a lot different. You could get a better deal possibly at those numbers (again way beyond scope of this document, so just talk with authors you trust who might know).

Top 3 - You are in the big leagues.  This is place where you sit back and go…. “Holy hell… Shawn’s guide was right and my story is a ‘banger’.”  Now you just keep on grinding. Celebrate this achievement.

Top 1 - First let me say this. Out of all my stories so far as of the writing of this guide, only Battle Through the Nine Realms, hit #1.  My Dragon Rider was #2 and Ultimate Level 1 was #2 (Darn Beware of Chicken, cock blocked me).  If you hit #1, this is a great place to take a screenshot, go get some icecream, celebrate and realize you’ve done something really cool.  

Next - Keep writing. You need to keep having chapters for people to read.  Don’t fall behind.

Bonus Step 14. If you hit top 20 or top 10, reach out to those on Rising Stars above you and say ‘hey want to shoutout each other?’

Just remember - if you booked all your chapters and its a month out… they most likely won’t want to.  So you might say, should I leave some empty slots? That’s up to you.  End of day, I can’t answer that question as I just schedule them all and return to writing.

Other than that… Good luck!

And if you wish to find me or my books - all my links are here!