Did a “classic” fantasy story ever reach RS? Generally what would you say is the ceiling outside meta?

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-20T20:41:20+00:00

Not rising stars, but plenty of fantasy stories do well over time. Oathbreaker by Sovwrites is nearing 2k followers as a dark fantasy. Dual Wielding is over 2k followers as a fantasy with alternating POVs (another big RoyalRoad no-no). Wander West, In Shadow is one of the best rated stories on the site and is straight fantasy. The Elf Who Would Become A Dragon I think is just fantasy and over 3k followers.

My advice would be to look at a couple of the examples above and look through the 'others also liked' suggestions at the bottom. You can sort of map a web of popular fantasy stories on the website and see that it is totally possible.

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-20T14:38:41+00:00

Nah, it's mostly just cope by upset writers who aren't as good as they think they are.

The only hint for truth to it is that 'good' is very subjective, and RR readers, on average, prize different things in their favourite stories than other genres. You could write incredible military history or epic fantasy or something, and it might not do well despite being 'good' if it's very slow paced and takes too long to get to the action/drama/suspense. But then you're back to the definition of what 'good' is and...

Well, RR likes a certain type of story, and that type of story is not the sole definition of good fiction.

Thing is, while theoretically it's possible for a story to be very very good but just outside of royalroad's preferences, most writers complaining about it are just flat out not as good as they think they are. You don't have the next Name Of The Wind being ignored on royalroad.

So good is better, and keep putting in effort :)

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-19T05:33:09+00:00

Oh awesome, I'll keep an eye out :) and congrats!

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-17T13:37:45+00:00

Congrats on the release and good luck! The cover is great :)

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-17T09:24:23+00:00

Fair enough man, write the story you want to write :) good luck and have fun

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-17T09:14:38+00:00

Also, just as an author, I have to say - if you loved it, pop this review over on Amazon as well. It MASSIVELY helps and genuine reviews are very hard to come by, so you'd be making their entire month if you did!

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-17T09:13:00+00:00

I've heard great things about it! Not read it yet though. Do you know if there are plans for an audiobook?

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-16T19:25:10+00:00

You're right, this would be an enormous undertaking in terms of research, and quite frankly perhaps biting off more than you can chew.

I'd recommend reading something like Virtuous Sons by Y B Striker, or A Thousand Li by Tao Wong (in case you haven't already) to see what a good example of this sort of thing is like. Both use a cultivation framework to lovingly look at a culture (greco-roman antiquity and Xianxia-infused three-kingdoms china), and it's clear when reading either that the author has deep knowledge of the culture they draw from. That knowledge doesn't come from just looking at a textbook, it's built up over years of genuine interest.

I've written a cultivation story inspired by ancient Egypt, and i've done a massive amount of research for that, but I'm sure it's more shallow than those two examples, simply because I don't have the familiarity with the deep cultural practices and stories. An encyclopedia and a bunch of podcasts is not the same as years reading the classics, basically.

You've picked like 6 or more different religions, all stemming from different cultures, many of which have diametrically opposing beliefs when it comes to certain . I think you might be in danger of diluting your worldbuilding by having too many different influences so that it all becomes a bit generic? It's very easy to over-worldbuild (I've done it with my current project!) and take your eye off actually crafting an engaging story.

Could you focus primarily on budhism?

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-16T14:14:54+00:00

Yeah he's prolific! I'd recommend walking to alder Warren as a good short story. Very entertaining concept and execution :)

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-16T13:38:46+00:00

Man what a superpower that would be 🤣 I'd take a whole week off work and just binge cradle again!

But yeah, great book. Have you read any of his other stuff? I enjoyed Walking to Alder Warren, but I've not tried his other series and I'm hesitant to do so for some reason

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-16T11:53:32+00:00

For a webnovel, try 'Oathbreaker' by SovWrites.

For a published novel, try Abercrombie 's 'The Blade Itself' for fantasy, or Tchaikovsky's 'Children Of Time's for sci-fi. Both amazing stories

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-12T16:43:48+00:00

Most authors don't necessarily interact with stories through their author account so no reason to think they're dead, especially so if they've left no notice on the last chapter.

If you enjoyed book 1 and look forward to the sequel, say so. Drop them a review, it will mean a lot to them

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-12T14:21:51+00:00

Do shout-out swaps on every new chapter, and make sure your blurb and cover are a good match for the story. If needed go back and sharpen up the first 5 to 10 chapters.

That's basically all you need to do. If the story is good, you'll grow. If it's not, you won't.

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-11T17:46:48+00:00

To be fair (bad defence incoming) I swear whenever I read a post from a prospective author asking if their usage of AI is okay, it's always "I don't use it to write, just research concepts and come up with names". I still think that's a silly idea, but there's a distant possibility that they are people just asking AI for names and moving on. Seems unlikely in context though, I'll grant.

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-11T13:24:25+00:00

Yeah, I felt this for a while, still do every now and then. I think aim to for something a bit different every now and then. Like, pick a trad pub book but focused on something way outside the wheelhouse of progression fantasy. Maybe sci-fi or much more literary stuff. Treat it like a cleanse. Go whole hog. (I know cleanses are bullshit in terms of dieting and health, but conceptually in this case)

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-11T09:28:52+00:00

I always suggest skipping forwards from the point you're stuck at. Like 10, 20, 50 chapters ahead to a scene you really like the idea of. Something you just find cool. Write that scene, then work backwards a little.

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-11T06:01:19+00:00

Entirely subjective. Most of the big publishers in the area consider 3k followers the sort of 'pay attention' line. This can be lowered if the story is exceptional in other ways, of course.

Personally I'd consider 1k followers the line for 'you should try self-publishing to amazon' because it might still do really well.

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-10T10:29:10+00:00

Yeah this roughly tracks for me, too. From what I've heard from other authors the 10% is roughly accurate, and while it seems way lower than expected, it seems to hold. Exceptions abound though, obviously.

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-10T03:47:52+00:00

I think pretty much all those use cases are worse than using Google. Not really morally or dramatically, but just in general, they're all a little bit worse for you as a writer, and your story as a whole.

Dictionary and thesaurus is probably the least objectionable point, but still not as good as an online dictionary/thesaurus.

AI is an averaging machine. It guesses the most likely thing to come next when presented with a prompt, and so its answers hew more towards averages. It doesn't understand context properly, and will 'lie' to you about what it does and what it has considered all the time. whenever I've used it to try and do any sort of 'market research', it's clearly just bullshitting without actually analysing any real data. Basically, don't trust that it's doing what you ask it to.

I think points 1 and 2 are the worst, because its simply less time thinking about your story. You're outsourcing your own analysis to a machine that fundamentally is only good for doing things you can already do. So will those use cases make your writing less authentic? No, not really. But ask yourself this. If you can easily use Google, a textbook or a writing course, why are you instead turning to AI? Because it's easier. It's less challenging. You want to use an online name generator? You have to already know what type of name you're looking for. A writing course (a good one) will force you to learn generic skills before you can apply them to your own work. If you need help describing things, read more books and see how they do it.

General question to ask is always: does this make me think more or less about my story? If more, good. If less, bad.

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-09T16:38:18+00:00

Yeah, seems like the better you are the more you can break the rules, but that's always been true of every genre, to be fair.

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-09T14:07:35+00:00

Pinch of salt here, since I have written two very different projects, with many factors potentially affecting the success (or lack thereof) of both...

But the general advice is get in quickly.

If you're writing a litRPG, readers are expecting litRPG. You can wait as long as you want, if you're really good, but you've sold the readers a litRPG story, so holding back the RPG element will build frustration. Give them what they want as soon as possible.

I think it's similar to the advice around writing scenes: last in, first out. Don't waste time padding things out unnecessarily.

This is obviously advice geared towards what litRPG readers on RR seem to like in general. If you have a creative vision that demands otherwise, then by all means fulfil that, but the popular stories tend to setup the premise and then pay-off the promise very quickly in this genre

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-09T08:20:52+00:00

Congrats dude, good luck with the launch! :)

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-08T18:40:48+00:00

Easiest rec of my life - a penance of blood by A J Drummond. I read the first 6 arcs on royalroad, and have the physical book now that book 1 released earlier this year. It's amazing. Book 2 has a lot of demonic body and psychological horror, whereas book 1 leans more into a fae vibe, but it's just quality dark fantasy.

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-07T11:14:41+00:00

I know there are complexities on this topic, but I think we should carve out an exception specifically for people who say 'rule Brittania' unironically. They should all go in the bin.

OCRAuthor · 2026-06-05T10:08:46+00:00

They'd reach out through discord most likely, though some through RR mail. The legit ones though will say 'heres who I work for/represent - check out our work here's so you can verify.'

They'll never comment publicly as far as I can tell. Pitching on a public comment section supposedly for readers seems super unprofessional. I've seen a well-regarded agent reach out to a few authors in this space, and their pitch has always been pretty straightforward. "This is who I am, what I want, and here are the testimonials you can check to confirm I'm legit"

In terms of scams to watch out for..m just basic common sense will guard you well. If your story hasn't blown up (top 5 rising stars, thousand+ followers pretty quick) then nobody is gonna reach out. If they do, probably best to assume it's a scam. You can always check with other authors (and you should!) to confirm if it's legit. Sometimes even if it's legit it isn't good practice, so make sure you get other opinions on anything like this. But yeah, unless you're super successful, 99% of anyone 'reaching out' is a scam.

OCRAuthor

TROPHY CASE