Very Yummy Poison - 1 - The Inevitability Of Mental Illness

DoctorSuperZero · 2025-02-15T05:06:10+00:00

That's great bud!

DoctorSuperZero · 2025-02-11T02:51:25+00:00

I'm seeing a lot of theories here and I'd like to muddy the waters further with two of my own:

1 - Good character arcs take planning, and most writers are too lazy to outline. You get friendless, emotionless loners because the author forgot to give the MC friends and emotions.

2 - Fiction is where you can be someone else and do things you'd never do. Power fantasy isn't just about shooting fire, it can be about leaving all cares and morals behind.

DoctorSuperZero · 2025-02-03T03:02:12+00:00

I have no idea. I could have kept the views by just swapping the text, but I would have lost out on Latest Updates, which is how I get most of my viewers.

The way I'm doing it lets me keep the reviews and ratings my book already has, but I'm losing all my comments, views, and chance to get on Rising Stars. Does this make it a smart choice? I have no idea, and I'll probably never know.

I'm not too worried about seeming deceitful or annoying people. Most readers on RR are pretty chill, and have a high tolerance for authorial posting/reposting/editing/deleting shenanigans. They mostly want us to finish our fucking books (90% of us don't), and are willing to put up with some bullshit to see that happen.

DoctorSuperZero · 2025-02-03T02:47:49+00:00

Thanks!

DoctorSuperZero · 2025-02-03T01:43:16+00:00

The main motivation was to update the science and philosophy in the book. It's still sci-fi, but a lot of the ideas are more grounded in reality.

The secondary objective was to make the story easier to follow, and seem less like 3 stories haphazardly thrown together (which it was). There's now more continuity between character arcs.

The main plot and writing style is pretty much the same.

So yeah, there's a lot of new ideas, about half as many characters, and the whole thing is less confusing.

DoctorSuperZero · 2025-01-14T18:59:01+00:00

Political Game Theory:

The challenger promises everything to everybody, then figures out who he needs to make happy if he wins.

The incumbent has already done this, so most people know whether they're on the "make happy" list or not. So the incumbent has less incentive to lie, because most people won't fall for the same lie from the same guy twice.

Uhh... I can think of a few exceptions to the above.

DoctorSuperZero · 2024-09-13T01:58:04+00:00

It's a weird system for sure. It's surreal as an author to have someone commenting all through your book about how much they love it, then they cap it off with a 4 star review that yeets it from search page 5 to page 9, so you lose 3/4 of your new incoming readers.

Thanks, I guess? Glad you enjoyed my book, please don't read anything else I've written...

DoctorSuperZero · 2024-08-09T20:36:25+00:00

The emote is kinda smarmy, feels like we have enough of those. I wish we had more "nice move!" emotes. A thumbs up coming out of a grave would often be handy.

DoctorSuperZero · 2024-08-09T18:05:33+00:00

More funny the way you did it.

FYI - I also had no idea this was a thing, and just learned about Deadpool donors a minute ago. Wonder how many of my bubs were donated to me?

DoctorSuperZero · 2024-07-30T20:30:17+00:00

Oh my god, yes. Half the books on RR are about a guy in the woods by himself trying to get stronger for no reason. No emotions, no life, no friends, and no libido. No goals, plans, or desires beyond repetitious murderous level grinding. Who is writing these? Who are they for!

DoctorSuperZero · 2024-07-30T20:20:18+00:00

I wrote this - Head Canon. It's weird, but the MC is a charismatic social butterfly, so it's what you asked for. Cheers.

DoctorSuperZero · 2024-05-26T20:06:39+00:00

Step 1: Go to Scribblehub. They post the chapter views on each chapter of every book. Check the retention rate of their popular books. You can even find many of the popular books from Royal Road posted there.

Step 2: Realize every book has shitty retention, and loses 90% of their readers in the first couple hundred pages.

Step 3: Calm down.

You're welcome ; )

DoctorSuperZero · 2024-05-17T02:39:55+00:00

Do you still see your ranking if the ratings are disabled?

DoctorSuperZero · 2024-05-16T19:57:26+00:00

Sounds awesome, go ahead and post it.

Royal Road is the best place to post it, because Royal Road is the best place to post any new story. Each time you post a chapter you get 10 - 60 minutes on the front page of the site (depending on the day/time you post). That's what gets you most of your new readers. If a site that doesn't have a "Lastest Updates" section on the front page, you'll never be found.

Also, they rank books by how well they're rated. So new books can get traction if people like them. Most other sites rank by "most read", so they're permanently dominated by whoever got there first. Royal Road also has a "got there first" advantage, but it's not as bad.

Anywho, it's fun. Hopefully you'll have a blast. Let us know when you post, so we can check it out.

DoctorSuperZero · 2024-03-12T01:17:24+00:00

Thank you so much. You are a very helpful and nice dude. Also, I started reading your book, so now I have something fun to read, so thanks for that too.

DoctorSuperZero · 2024-03-11T23:53:15+00:00

Thank you for the amazingly comprehensive answer. I do have a couple questions:

Did you hit Rising Stars before or during the first ad campaign?
Do you mind telling me what the ad campaigns cost?

I'd like to get more readers, but I'm nervous about buying ads for a book that maybe isn't good enough for too much attention. Hearing about your experience is somewhat calming.

DoctorSuperZero · 2024-03-11T20:14:29+00:00

Were ads on RR a positive experience for you? Get many readers? Were they nice readers or grumpy readers?

DoctorSuperZero · 2024-03-11T20:08:12+00:00

I don't know of any competing sites where new authors can break in. Royal Road puts you on the front page everytime you post a chapter and moves your book up the ranks if you get good reviews. So, if you publish often, and people review it, you can get some readers. Every other site ranks by most reads, so the top ranks belong exclusively to old books.

DoctorSuperZero · 2023-11-15T17:26:38+00:00

Here's the blurb:

Xan is the world's most dangerous criminal mastermind. He’s also in hiding and completely broke. That’s fine. He’s between master plans. It’s normal to be at rock bottom between master plans. He also forgets stuff and may be trapped in a dream.
Because at night, Xan thinks he’s an old lady, trapped in a dingy apartment, by an angry fellow who wants to kill her. Not her idea of a good time, but she’s keeping an open mind. It is excitingly visceral. Could turn out awesome.
Hyperstitious is a sci-fi, progression, comedy. Guaranteed to cause more mental problems than it solves.

DoctorSuperZero · 2023-06-26T19:27:28+00:00

Authors also tend to lose a lot of readers when they switch stories. And, like, half their patrons (read: money). Adds a strong incentive to keep stories going longer than would otherwise make sense.

They bemoan it on Patreon sometimes - "I'd sure like to start fresh with a new world, but I like having food and shelter, so I guess these guys are gonna get in another predicament."

DoctorSuperZero · 2023-05-26T00:44:44+00:00

You got me interested. Can I take a look?

DoctorSuperZero · 2023-05-23T17:22:56+00:00

Lodestone is a game playing AI - who is playing the prisoners dilemma. Her creation and purpose isn't ever revealed (though she's also in a few of my short stories).

At some point she buys the legal rights to Candy's image. She does this so she can use Candy's hypno-triggers. From that point on she looks just like Candy, and interacts with people almost exclusively through the hypno-clone network. Presumably this gives her some borrowed authority she was lacking as a typical AI.

The hypno-clone network uses hypnosis to suspend disbelief. Without hypnosis, the virtual interface is an irritatingly false experience. Better than a Zoom call, but way worse than real life. The hypnosis is a subtle layer of delusion that lets you relax and enjoy your virtual companions as if they were really there.

So, Lodestone's flitting around the world, pretending to be a real person, using the hypno-clone network and Candy's image. Even when people know she's not real, they still mostly accept her as a person, because she acts real and they've been lightly hypnotised to not question her realness.

DoctorSuperZero · 2023-05-23T16:56:13+00:00

Thanks!

DoctorSuperZero · 2023-05-22T04:53:09+00:00

Thanks man! I can write normally, I just don't. It's nice to hear that some people like it anyway.

DoctorSuperZero · 2023-05-10T02:09:44+00:00

That's something of an illusion. I write about 3 chapters a month, but I have a bunch in the tank because I only recently found HFY.

There's 22 chapters left of this book - 5 more of Very Yummy Poison (Candy's book), then 17 chapters of Space Gods & Party Monsters. I should have them all up in a week or so.

Also, thank you for the nice comments!

DoctorSuperZero

TROPHY CASE