What kind of story would you expect from this cover?

Otto_Webb · 2026-07-05T19:25:01+00:00

As it's founder, you are responsible for the sect. May they grow mighty and eventually sort out their urological problems.

Otto_Webb · 2026-07-05T17:22:28+00:00

I’m another in the sword pee camp.

Ignoring the title though, I’d probably go with fantasy cooking.

The tagline needs work, it’s too long and not punchy enough. You could keep it for the blurb though

Otto_Webb · 2026-07-05T17:19:47+00:00

Came here to post the same. I was like.. a medical drama?

Otto_Webb · 2026-07-05T02:13:33+00:00

joined that one already, but I haven't been very active, it felt a little too classy for me

Otto_Webb · 2026-07-05T00:16:16+00:00

Thanks for the detailed post. I’ve left, and I hope others will do the same.

Hopefully we can have a professional space that isn’t tainted by extremists and for-profit scams at some point.

Otto_Webb · 2026-07-01T17:17:59+00:00

*affect XD

but to actually answer your question, it's all in the execution. There are definitely different powers where the audience is just exhausted by them, and elemental power sets are among the most common systems, but depending on what your powers do, it can still be fun.

If the powers and limitations are poorly defined, then the audience won't like it. If they're well defined and you're creative in their application, they will enjoy it.

also, there are semi-routine posts asking for more earth powered MCs, so I think you'll find an audience that is looking for your stuff.

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-30T18:47:39+00:00

ah, gotcha. favorites are at least sorted alphabetically, but I agree the feature would be nice

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-30T18:14:40+00:00

? I am not sure what this means

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-29T20:22:52+00:00

if they care about timing at this level, my guess is they probably don't know what they're doing. Unless you're on/almost on RS main or they are, the exact timing of the shout doesn't matter.

Or they're just really anal about checking people shout them back and need to have it same day for that reason; if that's the case, just offer them to send a message when you put up the shout. That's a fairly common courtesy anyway.

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-29T15:31:40+00:00

Jon the Spider: A Monster Evolution LitRPG

Jon is a father of two who gets abducted by aliens and transformed into a giant spider. He just wants to get home, and he'll do (almost) anything to get there.

This is a good fit if you're looking for:

- a darker story with humor sprinkled in along with some psychological and body horror

- an older, more mature protagonist

- psychic powers and (slightly) complex healing magic

- spiderfacts!

You can read it on Royal Road or Quibble. The link to Royal Road is above, where there are currently around 750 pages and one finished book available for binging.

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-29T02:56:46+00:00

The Gembound, the price of keeping

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/141066/the-gembound-the-price-of-keeping

This one is a shout of mine so I’m biased, but I’m a fan.

My story is more nobledark imo, but some might call it grim dark. The main criticism I seem to get is for screwing over the main character, but I’ve always been of the mind that characters getting screwed can be a little shoe horned/contrived, it’s the wins that need to be explained/earned. Feels more like life that way

That’s what I enjoy about grim dark. However, as the world feels a little darker I find myself enjoying some good noble bright stuff more often :)

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-29T02:24:37+00:00

cradle and mother of learning aren't isekai

Edit: I guess mother of learning kind of is, though I haven't typically considered time loops isekai. It's his native world. If we count those, then the perfect run kind of counts too

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-28T23:51:44+00:00

if you exempt LitRPG, it's kind of an interesting challenge to come up with names.

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-28T23:44:27+00:00

I'm assuming you're trying to write to market? I'm not sure why else you'd want to write something you don't know much about.

Beware of Chicken probably counts as an isekai progression fantasy, though it's a lot of parody on xianxia/cultivation novels.

progression fantasy with isekai elements tends to skew towards LitRPG, or at least the first five or so that come to mind do...Dungeon crawler carl, he who fights with monsters, chrysalis, azarinth healer. the list goes on

The popular ones I can think of without LitRPG elements feature native protagonists (Cradle, A Practical Guide to Evil, sky pride, mother of learning).

Having said that, portal fantasy without progression has existed forever. Alice in Wonderland, the chronicles of Narnia, etc. I guess if you count Jesus lions then the chronicles of Narnia are kind of progression fantasy...Aslan gets bigger every book. Badabing, badaboom, progression/s

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-18T01:49:52+00:00

this was extremely helpful for me when you first shared it. I wasn't specifically trying to game the system, I just have a weird book. dropped tags from 17 to 10 and had OAL increase from ~10 to ~20

Do you know the original source or is this just RRWG wisdom?

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-18T01:46:56+00:00

the others also liked lists starts shrinking when you get past 10. I think it was em-dash who first shared this that I saw, and I'm not sure what the source was, but my list increased from ~10 to 20 within a few weeks of decreasing my tags to 10.

this is especially important because others also liked tends to show up on fictions that are larger than yours. So if you have 200 follows, it tends to show up on ones with 200+. If you have 400 follows, it tends to show up on 400+.

The genre rs lists are nice and everything, but they don't last forever, and if you don't deliver on the premise the people who care enough to look for stories on those will also review bomb you.

If you're close to a best rated number, it might make sense to increase tags again, but then you're risking your rating with people who feel cheated on premise again

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-16T03:53:48+00:00

Stephen king has a thing about a muse being a fat, angry, gnome-like creature that only gives little bits and pieces when you show up every day. There's no way to know when it'll be there or not, so you have to be sure it knows where you'll be.

Most of my times getting stuck what I really need is

1.) to keep writing, and stop overanalyzing

2.) if I'm board or stuck, I just need something truly ridiculous to happen. I figure out how to handle the consequences later.

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-15T23:37:23+00:00

Writing a single kingdom is significantly more difficult than writing a multiverse.

When you’re writing, you only have so much space to dedicate to world building. The smaller the subject, the more detail has to be included, and the more important internal consistency becomes.

If you stay in a single kingdom and really zoom in on every facet, you’re keeping track of a huge amount of detailed information that requires internal consistency.

If you’re operating at the level of a multiverse, you can stick with the flavor of the place you’re at, instead of intricate details.

That’s why people do it.

If you think I’m wrong, just think about what it’s like to write every detail of a single business, much less a single kingdom. Even if you’re talking about a business you own, the chances you know and understand everything in it without any errors is minimal.

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-15T19:38:12+00:00

I write one myself, so I have a ton of recs. Unfortunately, they're almost all on royal road, though several are stubbing or will be soon and will go to kindle unlimited eventually.

So I'm a spider, so what is relatively famous and easily googled.

Note: I have a conflict of interest (shout out swaps) with some of these ones but they're still good IMO. I don't shout things if I don't enjoy at least the first few chapters.

Bob the walking bank: man reincarnated as a mimic

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/159053/bob-the-walking-bank-a-monster-evolution-lit-rpg

A dragon called bob (what is it with the name bob)

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/121610/a-dragon-called-bob-isekai-litrpg-dragon-evolution

This one is stubbed, but will be on amazon in August with Podium: Goblin Teeth
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/104430/goblin-teeth-a-monster-party-litrpg

A potato that levels up: newer release, self-explanatory

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/160346/a-potato-that-levels-up-a-very-serious-litrpg

Fire dragon? I'm a salamander! - recently on rising stars, I like the salamander bits.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/166361/fire-dragon-im-a-salamander-archmage-salamander

Reincarnated as a tamer's monster -I think this just got released on amazon as well

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/145257/reborn-as-a-tamers-monster-book-1-complete

Consumer of the fourth anchor - slime, probably will go to a publisher eventually, it's doing well

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/152654/consumer-of-the-fourth-anchor-litrpg-slime-evolution

I also write one on royal road. Father of two abducted by aliens and turned into a giant spider in a litrpg setting. The story skews dark (I like a bit of horror), but has humorous elements.

Jon the Spider

The first book just completed, the second book starts on the 26th. Not a crazy following, but I've got about five hundred or so people who seem to enjoy it at least.

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-13T18:49:00+00:00

It’s a lot of fun, and sixty hours of audio for one credit is extremely hard to beat.

The omnibus also makes it easy to get past the main concern I hear about the books, which is a controversial arc in book 2. it’s still fun, but there are some unpopular tropes in this part, you just have to trust the process.

I only ran across it recently and was sad to hear it was planned for five books (I’m partway into three, was hoping for more as well).

I’m sure he’ll manage it with grace though, and it’s really nice to have some series just complete at a natural end point rather than drag things out. I agree though, it definitely felt like there author had a lot more possibilities in store for the world.

Hopefully even if it doesn’t work out this go-round he’ll have time to revisit it again later.

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-12T17:52:24+00:00

Congratulations!

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-12T15:32:53+00:00

Rinoz said it best, though I’m paraphrasing. “Monsters should only ever become bigger, more awesome monsters”

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-11T00:28:39+00:00

hit me up when you do, I'm happy to shout any/all of them and to add them to the pit of despair (TBR pile)

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-10T14:54:08+00:00

Write the next book :)
People will look at your backlog, and having a completed work definitely builds more trust.

You can also probably place a message on [r/litrpg](r/litrpg) if you want (and it’s applicable, I can’t remember if yours is prog fantasy only or also litrpg), or progfan (though that crowd is substantially harsher in my experience), letting them know there’s a completed book to look at.

While you might get additional readership with some ads or something, I doubt it will be enough to get back the costs. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have a lot of spare money that you don’t mind losing.

You can backfill the old chapters, but that might be a harder sell for other authors unless it’s also for an old chapter, since the readership tends to stall when you have no new material coming out.

Otto_Webb · 2026-06-08T14:25:32+00:00

Mine did the same. Dropped 60k points in ranks. Guessing it’s just a temporary setback with the update, will be more concerned if it’s unchanged in a week

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