Author Topic: Starting on Royal Road, then to Patreon, then to Amazon  (Read 2358 times)

Tom Wood

Starting on Royal Road, then to Patreon, then to Amazon
« on: October 09, 2019, 01:56:22 AM »
This guy lays out his system whereby he publishes first to Royal Road (and Webnovel) and set up a Patreon account which makes enough to live on, before moving his books to Amazon. He also mentions several other web-novel type websites.



I notice that he strings all his novels together at Royal Road, presumably so the single 'Fiction' as a submission is called there will continue to show up in the 'what's new' charts?

 
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DrewMcGunn

Re: Starting on Royal Road, then to Patreon, then to Amazon
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2019, 04:37:13 AM »
Thanks for posting. It was an interesting 30 minutes. I'd be curious to hear from people who have followed similar strategies.


Drew McGunn
 

Tom Wood

Re: Starting on Royal Road, then to Patreon, then to Amazon
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2019, 09:14:46 PM »
As Skully mentions in the video, Royal Road (RR) is known for being a place to find LitRPG/GameLit stories. In one of the subReddits, Luke Chmilenko (Ascend Online) mentioned that he started on RR. I don't know if he followed the same method. I think I'll skip the Patreon step since that's a 12-18 month process of posting chapters to build up the Patreon supporters list. I may add a PayPal option, but my main objective is to gather a few followers who might help with reviews during the launch at Amazon. With three books going out at the same time, I can post a chapter a day for 90 days while they are on pre-order.
 

tired1680

Re: Starting on Royal Road, then to Patreon, then to Amazon
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2019, 06:51:12 AM »
Read book 1 at least, not sure if I ever finished book 2 on Royal Road.

RR gets a TON of Gamelit/LitRPG authors. A lot of us started there, more for fun and then threw our books up on Amazon and saw sales. And just kept at it. I can name at least a half dozen who have done the same.

With regard to Patreon, the best way to do it (if you are able to keep writing / releasing regularly) from what I can see is as follows:
- write and release a bunch of chapters first (for free, no PayPal or Patreon needed).
- build up a backlog of chapters that are only available for Patreons.
- keep writing / releasing free chapters while letting people support you on Patreon
- release book 1 while continuing to write book 2. Generally, most of the ones who generate the majority of their money via Patreon have gone wide, leaving their books free rather than taking it to KU.
- continue until you burn out. :) (Kidding. But most of the people I've seen do this have been in the ... 2/3 year range so far. No idea if they're headed for a burnout).

Of that, the writers for the Wandering Inn, Randidly Ghosthound, He Who Fights with Monsters, etc make over 5k a month doing this. I'm sure there are others like Skully who has done well too, though I'm not sure of his $ amount.
 
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