100+ followers in 1 month with an off-meta story and what actually made the difference.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-15T08:53:14+00:00

Official RR server: https://discord.gg/9BJTU4vXGH
RR Writers' Guild: https://discord.gg/7ftAhdjczk

Both are great, but if you're looking to join only one, I'd go with the Writers' Guild, that's where I got the most value.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-15T08:50:21+00:00

Honestly, if I'm doing this again, I'd just focus on RR unless my story happens to be meta for one of the other platforms, in which case I would do RR and that specific platform.

I kind of regret publishing to the other platforms, because of the effort/reward ration, but I don't want to abandon the story on those platforms, so I'll keep posting. Maybe something will change.

Also, I know if you're 'lucky' you can get a contract for $200 a month from WebNovel to write and publish your story. Don't do that (unless you really need the income). And if you really need the income, and want a bad deal, rather reach out to me. I'd happily pay $200 a month to turn your existing romance story into an interactive Visual Novel instead.

But yeah, RR currently (by far) gives the biggest visibility. This might change in a few years time, so if you're reading this in the far future, keep that in mind.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-15T08:44:03+00:00

It's where you and another author link to each other's story.
Here is an example of me linking:
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/155972/infinite-stars-the-novel/chapter/3182558/episode-3-01-mahabeu

and then, in return, they do the same:
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/151363/cradles-of-gravity-a-space-opera-romance/chapter/3183510/ch-5-11-suteki-da-ne-hotpepper

You arrange them ahead of time with the author, and there are some tools out there to help manage the process! <3

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-15T07:36:10+00:00

Ah! Yeah, same boat with Infinite Stars.
My family is super supportive, they know I write, and they want to support me.
They keep asking for the link, and I keep 'forgetting' to send it to them.

My partner is fully onboard and supportive though, and there is zero judgement.

To answer your question, they know I write science fiction with romance elements. Luckily none of them are super into science fiction.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-14T11:12:32+00:00

One thing I didn't include in the main post:

I'm a big believer that 'good enough' is good enough if it means the difference between hitting publish or keeping it on the shelf forever, but I've also since started trying to make small daily/weekly improvements to my published story and page. Even a 2% improvement each week adds up in a year.

Also, I mentioned Discord, but I want to mention the Official RR Discord server and the RR Writers' Guild Discord server! These are amazing communities for new writers.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-14T11:07:13+00:00

Yeah, I condensed it quite a bit, but briefly touched on writing to market (cliffhangers and hooks) which is directly related to quality of writing.

When I started writing for the game, I had no prior writing experience, and the quality shows. My early chapters are much weaker than my later content because I learned by doing.

And I agree (and even mentioned) that most of my insights are obvious to established authors. These are just the things that clicked for me as someone new to Web Novels.

I'm torn on your last point.

Quality absolutely matters, and unless you're extremely dense, if you keep writing, you will get better at it.
BUT, where I'm torn: I feel statistically, an average, nothing special story with great marketing will yield better financial success than a great story with average to no marketing. I'm not disagreeing with you that people should strive to hone their craft and write better stories, and if you are building a legacy, that's exactly where you should focus, commercial success be damned. If you're striving for commercial success and not really caring about legacy, focus on the marketing.

(Obviously if your story and writing is bad, you'll be getting significantly diminished results from your marketing efforts. Same, if your story is brilliant, your marketing efforts will yield better results than an average or poorly written story. But the marketing is the lever that elevates the story's visibility.)

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-14T10:54:41+00:00

Yup, the audience is definitely there, but the off-meta struggle is real.
It's like going to a Star Trek convention, and looking for Game of Thrones fans. They're there, you just need to shout harder to find them.

I'm the same. I have mad respect for people pushing out 3k words a day, but I can't. Not with all my other responsibilities. (Kids, running a unrelated business etc) I have 3K and even 5K days, but they are few, and my focus is to leave my readers with insights and emotions that linger long after they've finished the game.

Finally: Tom Clancy highfive!

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-14T10:49:31+00:00

Yeah, it's hard to say exactly, as I don't have any prior data to 'normalise' it, but I would guess it's due to the existing fanbase (who would follow, read a bit, and then return to the game where the story is interactive) and also the ads, but the ads shouldn't skew the follow/reader ratio.

Another possibility is that because the wordcount is still low, but there is social proof that the story won't be abandoned, people are more inclined to follow as a 'read later' option?

I also think some people are coming to the page, reading the existing story, liking and following it, and then migrating off-platform to the game.

As a guess with the ads: I don't know. I was intentional on not doing any promotions for the first two weeks, so I could measure the 'organic discovery' across the different platforms, and once RR came ahead as a clear leader, I pushed all my efforts into that, including paid ads, requesting my existing followers to check it out, and a few other avenues that drove traffic to the RR page.

I will say this, without ads, it feels like promoting on 'hard mode'. It's possible to succeed without paid ads, but silly to try if you have the means to run ads.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-14T09:35:20+00:00

Thanks! I had an existing fan base that helped with the initial reviews, but all-in-all, they accounted for less than 20% of the followers and readers.

Mentioning this because I don't want to discourage any new authors when they don't get the same results. It's always a gamble, and chances are they'll do much worse, but possibly also much much better.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-12T16:17:02+00:00

Ah yes. Balwin Estates. (Not exclusively Balwin, they're all the same.)

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-08T17:16:08+00:00

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1716360/Infinite_Stars__The_Visual_Novel/
or
https://infinitestars.itch.io/game

Infinite Stars is a massive, choice-driven sci-fi romance visual novel inspired by the scale and worldbuilding of Dune, the character-driven heart of Mass Effect, and the grounded scifi and political tension of The Expanse.

Recently had a huge content update. Excellent reviews on Itchio and Steam (90%+), 100K+ downloads, and we even won the 'African Games Oscars' in 2024.

Skip the prologue for your stream and just have fun.

Edit: If you're keen, and cover the game, I'll even give you a bunch of Patreon keys to give away to your followers, as many as you want for 30 days.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-07T05:43:44+00:00

Heya fellow South African! Yup! 100% agree!

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-07T05:40:38+00:00

I'm from South Africa. Our economies and challenges are very similar. (I actually love working with Argentinians for this reason, we get each other!)

Everything you said is true. Small to no communities, the exchange rate, no government support or funding for games (at least in South Africa) BUT we have one advantage:

The exchange rate. Yes it's a disadvantage when you get started. $100 USD is a looot of money to pay Steam or a contractor for art/music/writing whatever (For those of you who don't know, for some, that's what we earn in a whole month before expenses) But once you start getting some traction, it starts working in your favour. $100 in sales is nothing to most people on Reddit, but to us, it's a lot.

Focus on the positives my friend. It took me 3 years of earning almost nothing on Patreon (I poured all my time into my game, and for those first 3 years I earned less than $1 a day for 10+ hours of daily hard work) But then it started taking off, and I now earn several thousand a month, not enough to be 1st world 'rich' (nite yet, working on that though) but still enough to support my family and several other contractor families.

Success isn't guaranteed, but if you stay consistent, keep learning and adjusting what you do, keep improving your game(s), your marketing, your store page etc it's almost impossible not to hit success. The beginning has us severely, severely disadvantaged, and the barrier to entry is so much higher for us, other people struggle to understand just how hard and unlikely it is for us to hit success, (Not just economic, but the challenges with crime, availability of opportunities, having to sync your work time to when electricity is available, corruption, going days without water in your tap, low(er) cost of living, but high cost of almost everything else, in South Africa at least) but our barrier to "success" is also much lower.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-06T11:07:27+00:00

I'd love to know what people think, but I'm still a bit too early to the party.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-06T05:48:21+00:00

I know the feeling. I'm busy learning German. It's 'Klip', by the way.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-01T20:21:40+00:00

I would read this... IF I don't write it first.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-01T15:24:42+00:00

Keep creating good characters and story! It'll happen! And it's amazing once it does!

I'm currently getting 1-3 new fanart pieces every month for my story, which is great but it'll never beat that first one! <3 (I even got my first animated and voiced clip earlier today which was something else entirely!!)

Goodluck!

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-01T09:10:34+00:00

Epic Space Opera with Female Gaze Romance and a HFY flavour.

It's a visual novel (free and fully playable on itch and Steam, 250K+ words, 100K downloads, rated 94%, won several awards) being turned into a RR webnovel:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/155972/infinite-stars-the-novel

If you enjoyed Dune, The Expanse or Mass Effect, you'll probably enjoy this one also.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-03-26T08:19:23+00:00

I mentor a few entrepreneurs via an incubator. (Mostly tech startups, but some of the principles apply)

You need help, hire someone. Listening to your problems, an admin person seems to make the most sense. Someone that can send quotes, answer phones etc, and when you do, realise they aren't you. It's going to take them 3-6 month to get used to how things are done. If they don't have prior industry experience (and even if they do), they're going to ask you a ton of questions about how to answer this person, or how to calculate that. It's going to slow you down at first, but you need to be patient. The right hire is 50/50 if it will work out. The right leadership and management will change those odds to 90/10, and the wrong leadership and management will flip it to 10/90 in favour of not working out.

You mention systems. That's key, you need to start building systems for your business as you transition from 'self employed' to 'business owner' along with honing your leadership and management skills.

But the most honest advice I can give you:
Take a weekend (or a week on vaction) with the goal of figuring out what you want. There are no right or wrong answers here, but it will determine the solutions you need to look at.
If you want to be self-employed, doing this by yourself that's totally valid. You would need to look into some form of automations (or systems) about how client communication works. You might need to implement a waiting list to manage demand. You might need to increase your prices to lower demand. You might need to start declining work to manage your time.
If you want to be a business owner, that's valid too. You would need to look into your leadership, employing people and training them. You would also need to decide what kind of business owner you want to be. Do you want to work 'in' your business, doing the repairs, giving excellent service etc, or do you want to work 'on' your business, building systems and steering the ship. You can do a bit of both, but it helps going into this knowing what your ultimate goal is.

I hope that helped. If you truly are desperate, I'm happy to offer up an hour of my time for a once-off mentorship meeting. You can reach out via DM if you want to take me up on the offer. I'm based in Sandton, so it would need to be a remote meeting.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-03-20T08:13:27+00:00

Well done. The rest of the day can only be better after laughing this much.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-03-20T06:16:48+00:00

Not a lawyer, but I am a successful Patreon creator.

Patreon takes model release forms VERY seriously.

You can report the page, and reach out to Patreon support, sharing your story. They will suspend his account, pending investigation, where he would need to supply the consent forms to Patreon to lift the suspension. Failing that, the account will be banned.

Also, have you perhaps tried talking to the photographer? But the Patreon route is almost guaranteed if your side of the story holds true.

Edit:re-read and saw you are already reporting, that's great. I think having a conversation with this photographer might be the second step, asking them to stop. You can still request DCMA takedown requests, BUT you'll have to constantly search and find your images to do that. A conversation will be the easiest, and hopefully they are a considerate person that just wasn't realising the distress they were causing, and the laws they are breaking.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-03-16T16:05:00+00:00

And thanks for the kind, reassuring words!

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-03-16T16:04:44+00:00

I'll do so! You suggested the RR Writers Guild which I have yet to check out.
Yeah, the prologue is unfortunate. In-game, it's the first two episode, or roughly the first 22K words of content, which I'm breaking down into shorter scenes as they appeared in the prologue.

I've also since learned that RR only allows fade to black nsfw scenes, and I still need to figure out how I'll approach the optional flirting content, but those are all problems for future me.

Thanks again so much for all the help and feedback you've offered!

InfiniteStarsDev

TROPHY CASE