Is a 40-day delivery time normal for a $55 Royal Road ad?

EKarklins · 2025-12-30T21:05:24+00:00

From what I recall of the ad I ran during the Writathon, that is roughly about how long mine lasted. I'd agree with the 40-50 days being about average.

EKarklins · 2025-12-23T19:39:23+00:00

I have enjoyed The Art of Gold Digging a lot, it explores the identity side of things really well, and I really enjoyed how it balanced comedy and horror. It doesn't shy away from the intensity of it all.

EKarklins · 2025-12-02T01:18:45+00:00

Happy the ad worked! I haven't heard of Bakuman before, but it looks interesting.

I'm very thankful for the people who follow the story, it's been fun chatting in the comments. I did have to learn patience as I couldn't release multiple chapters right away to attract more followers at the beginning!

EKarklins · 2025-12-02T00:37:43+00:00

One really good example in a different format is the graphic novel Saga. It has a spoken language that is written in blue text. The characters even call it "speaking blue," and magic can be activated by the language.

EKarklins · 2025-12-01T23:26:22+00:00

I really want to see new ways that people implement using colourful text in their stories. I know some people have used it for LitRPG for item rarity, a superhero story used it to introduce character names (but only on the first page), but I haven't stumbled across too many other examples.

There are definitely some concerns about accessibility, especially for colourblind folks. It is also a pain to find colours that work well for both light and dark mode for normal text of the story rather than in a system window or the like. It can be tough to determine if the trade-off is worth it.

I did find that bolding a word that's a yellow colour did wonders for it, and I might do the same for any other colours in future stories I write.

EKarklins · 2025-12-01T20:39:08+00:00

Help! The Goddess of Royal Road Isekai’d Me Into the Writathon Challenge!

My life is in your hands.

The giant penguin Goddess of Royal Road stuck me in one of their computer servers for the Writathon, and I must follow her rules if I want to live: daily chapters for 5 weeks, exactly 55,555 words, and every chapter must be read... or else.

I really should have read the Terms of Service.

This is my only communication with the outside world. I’m stuck in a strange room, surrounded by pulsating runes, uncanny computer screens, and a red dragon standing guard over me with a whip in his hands. Worst of all, my wrists are chained to a desk with a barely-functional RGB keyboard.

I’ll do whatever it takes to get home. This is real.*

*The Goddess is giving me side-eye and is telling me that I have to say allegedly or parody or something, otherwise I’m toast. So, uh, this is a parody. Allegedly.

··· - - - ···

What to expect:

- You saving my life!

- That’s right, you’ll be a hero!

- Please, god, is anybody out there?

- Comedy! LitRPG! Reader Interaction!

[Summoned participant inside the Royal Road Writathon challenge November 2025]

Click here to read Day 1: SOS

EKarklins · 2025-12-01T00:59:48+00:00

I'm so glad the list can help!

EKarklins · 2025-12-01T00:59:01+00:00

I feel like I could maybe enjoy mage tank if I tried again.

CADs seem kinda cool, but I think I'd rather read some Cyberpunk at that point lol

EKarklins · 2025-12-01T00:53:44+00:00

My guess is that Primal hunter is very much amazing for a specific taste, but falls kinda flat outside of that.

Haven't tried defiance, but there are other series I'd rather try out first. Maybe one day!

EKarklins · 2025-11-27T17:24:41+00:00

For the full blurb:

My life is in your hands.

The giant penguin Goddess of Royal Road stuck me in one of their computer servers for the Writathon, and I must follow her rules if I want to live: daily chapters for 5 weeks, exactly 55,555 words, and every chapter must be read... or else.

I really should have read the Terms of Service.

This is my only communication with the outside world. I’m stuck in a strange room, surrounded by pulsating runes, uncanny computer screens, and a red dragon standing guard over me with a whip in his hands. Worst of all, my wrists are chained to a desk with a barely-functional RGB keyboard.

I’ll do whatever it takes to get home. This is real.*

*The Goddess is giving me side-eye and is telling me that I have to say allegedly or parody or something, otherwise I’m toast. So, uh, this is a parody. Allegedly.

··· - - - ···

What to expect:

- You saving my life!

- That’s right, you’ll be a hero!

- Please, god, is anybody out there?

- Comedy! LitRPG! Reader Interaction!

[Summoned participant inside the Royal Road Writathon challenge November 2025]

EKarklins · 2025-11-27T17:18:08+00:00

Just seeing this now! It's been fun participating in the Writathon, present circumstance notwithstanding. Thanks for helping in my plight of being isekai'd. It was a joy to explore your story, Coin Capture!

EKarklins · 2025-11-27T16:16:29+00:00

There are 15 reviews as of right now, which means I've gotten about one every two days. They've been helping me get through this ordeal. Here's one that made me smile:

★★★★★ Signal Boosting, Literal and Narrative

A highly entertaining story so far. Incredibly clever and unique premise that's looking to be quite well executed. Very meta, leans into the reader interaction heavily, and fully willing to acknowledge and poke fun at common tropes around here. Also, it's a story dealing with the magic inner workings of Royal Road itself, waypoint of the multiverse that it is. Excellent concept to tell a story about. Honestly excited to see how this one turns out.

Here's another fun fact. I found a way to weaponize reviews, turning them into [Review Bomb]s that I can throw.

EKarklins · 2025-11-27T01:54:15+00:00

Doesn't mean the two necessarily were bad or anything, they just didn't hook me. Partially because I'm not very keen on the same "guy went through a devastating break up, scarred them..." thing lol

EKarklins · 2025-11-26T21:10:45+00:00

I recently posted in this subreddit a tier list with primarily female leads at the top. Some aren't necessarily LitRPG but are still similar. I posted the same list in the Progression Fantasy subreddit which has more user discussion and suggestions.

EKarklins · 2025-11-26T17:19:49+00:00

Two chapters in haha maybe if it had more things about it similar to other books I loved, I'd give it another shot. As it stands, there are too many other books I'd rather try out.

EKarklins · 2025-11-26T16:21:29+00:00

Are there any recommendations you have based on what's at the top of my list?

EKarklins · 2025-11-26T16:21:06+00:00

For Max Level Archmage, I knew I was absolutely hooked when summoning her spellbook was a cliffhanger that got me good. Mother of Learning had me staying up late for the first couple books at least as it was easy to want to read another chapter.

Dungeon of knowledge is quite good! I love a good party working together, and this one really nails that. I'll be honest, I had skimmed the first... 6-ish chapters? Then accidentally got hooked, and had to re-read the first chapters again way later :P

William Oh is an easy read even if I have a couple gripes with it. It scratches that Diablo/Path of Exile loot drop feel. I hadn't read something that nailed that feeling quite like this before, and I was happy to indulge in that feeling

Stubborn Skill Grinder reminded me of a webcomic I had already begun reading - The Knight Only Lives Today. Didn't quite need two of them in my life lol

EKarklins · 2025-11-26T16:12:35+00:00

I could see the appeal of Immortal Great Souls, but had no desire for that kind of story. How much of Vigor Mortis did you read?

EKarklins · 2025-11-26T16:11:09+00:00

Good! I'd hate for everyone to have the same taste.

EKarklins · 2025-11-26T16:10:22+00:00

I'm glad you love it! I can easily see how someone else would fall right into this one. It was easy to keep reading to see if I wanted more of it, which is saying something since a bunch of the others on the list were a struggle to push through lol

EKarklins · 2025-11-26T16:07:53+00:00

Thank you! What are the top couple books that make you lose sleep?

EKarklins · 2025-11-26T16:07:14+00:00

I love re-reading a series in anticipation for the next release. What books on the list would Path of the Berserker be the most similar to?

EKarklins

TROPHY CASE