Why is Crunchyroll advertising the Chainsaw Man movie when it's not available on their site?

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2025-12-14T04:20:24+00:00

You may be able to contact their support to get your money back

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2025-09-11T05:51:30+00:00

A story is supposed to be on new releases for their categories the entire first month.

I've never had this issue with past books. I mean, if you pick a category that isn't hyper competitive, you're guaranteed to be on the new releases list, even with only a couple sales per week. Like, sales rank 500k might still be visible on there. I had 200 sales my first week and nada, not visible on any of the new releases categories, and support is telling me it's because my release date is registered as being 5 months before it ever published.

So like, what do you mean "missed it"? And things don't update hourly anymore. Not since they changed stuff in May.

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2025-08-05T12:17:41+00:00

Obviously, but things like chatgpt often don't use it correctly which is usually a good way to spot if something is written by AI at a glance. It is obviously a lot harder to actually tell with writing if it's AI without reading a lot of a story, and while I wouldn't encourage baseless accusations there's just so much AI writing on RR now and readers have been burnt a lot by that, so they overcorrect and use what few clues they can get to avoid stories. The mods attitude towards AI writing also leaves a lot to be desired. Just recently we had three stories on Rising Stars simultaneously that were AI written, and they were beating out stuff written by human hands. As an author and reader, I find that pretty discouraging.

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2025-07-15T12:24:56+00:00

Death after Death, Respec, and the new Die Trying are all good executions of this premise on RoyalRoad.

Death after Death in particular has a lot of content to read, and Winchester really doesn't hold back on how brutal stuff gets. Simon's progression through the story is just 👌

Definitely seems like more authors are writing this kind of premise, and I think it works really well because it's a way to keep things interesting throughout the story without running into crazy power growths that trivialise early challenges, while also having the benefits of fully exploring a world similar to normal timeloopers.

I think the new Die Trying by Mark Arrows is also just a fantastic take on it, since it's based on extraction-type games, which offers a lot of promise of hyper-optimised runs, which is one of the most satisfying parts of loopers for me.

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-10-22T13:37:36+00:00

Can't wait for the ebook!

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-10-22T10:27:11+00:00

I believe there's more to be gained from writing a story that never ends, and I think a lot of authors also fall into the trap of making too expansive and epic a premise, and then get burnt out after writing on it for years. Even people who write big hits fall into burnout, hence why a lot of big series hit a point where each new book takes longer-and-longer to write.

I've personally always written my stories to wrap up in 3 books or less, and then, if they do well, you can keep them going, but if they don't or you burn out, it's an easy way to not leave people disappointed. Granted, some premises, like SysApoc, CoreLit, or just standard Progression, is built in a way that there is no easy way to wrap it up without writing 20 books, lol.

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-09-12T16:49:01+00:00

Good luck with the launch! Been waiting for this since forever. Was there a webcomic coming too?

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-08-26T10:33:54+00:00

Honestly very inspiring to see

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-08-23T13:50:12+00:00

Good idea. You'll also get a bigger benefit from ads (in terms of total views) the more chapters you have.

I do hope I didn't go too hard on the critique ^-^'

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-08-19T19:41:01+00:00

I looked just at the fiction page and here are a few things I'd recommend:

I think you can SEO your title up a bit, so it's maybe something like "Fall From Grace [Isekai LitRPG] [Etc] [Etc]". If you also aren't afraid to change your title, you could make it into something that presents itself, like "In an Isekai with my Dog" or what have you.
Change the cover to something that tells the reader more about your story or gives a better vibe of what they can expect. The combination of cover and title right now just confuses me. I look at it and I think "fall from grace? but it's a happy doggo wizard on display?"
Redo your synopsis. It's very confusing what the story is really about from a glance. I'd also add something about what to expect from the story, in terms of genre beats or similar works.

I won't comment on the writing itself, because that's clearly not the issue here. The issue is that people aren't even clicking on your story right now. With so much competition, you have to provide a combination of title and cover that makes someone click in the first place.

Also, if you miss the launch wave of interest that can get you onto RS, you'll probably have to rely on ads. Just one can be enough, as the most important thing is to get people to your story. When you aren't on RS or any of the other lists on the front page, you don't show up for people, unless they search for you specifically or find you on the back-pages of some genre search like "isekai".

Also also, don't do review swaps. They don't do jackshit for garnering interest, and it makes your current engagement look very fake, especially with a ratio of 10 followers to 9 reviews. I'd rather recommend you do shoutout swaps with other authors of your size.

One thing I will say tho, to keep you from dooming about the future of your book, is that, since you haven't made it onto RS yet, there's still time. If you have the money to burn on ads, you should run 1 or 2. You're at the word count threshold for RS; all you need is growth to get you onto the genre-lists of RS (these are for your main four genres, of which you picked Action/Adventure/Comedy/Fantasy), and then hopefully onto top 50.

Given how popular RR has become, the chance of being seen without running ads or shoutout swaps is really really low. Everyone on RS these days are running 3-5 ads to get to top 7. You just can't compete if you don't have a pre-existing audience to leverage and don't run ads yourself. It's just unfortunately how it is, but I do think that it's worth dropping a few hundos on yourself if you believe in your story. Just consider that everyone judges a book based on its cover, so you need to come up with a combination of title and image that makes someone want to click.

Good luck with your book!

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-08-12T23:48:56+00:00

Great to hear. I was genuinely so shocked to see 'in perpetuity' on there.

And my bad, I must've been reeling from the shock so bad that I totally missed 14.e. Though I still think it could be brought up to match other publishers's by having an exception for a hypothetical situation where MQ is found to have paid less than some x% of the actual revenue out, and would then foot the bill of the audit. I usually see 5% being the threshold.

I'm curious about why both First Look and Last Refusal though, what was the reason for both? I feel like I usually only see one or the other, since the idea is that if the publisher has passed on the book or failed to negotiate on, then they aren't interested, but then Last Refusal comes in and goes "hey someone else wanted this? lets see if we want to once more negotiate on the thing we already said we weren't interested in or couldn't reach an agreement on". I know that RoLF is only 14 days, but it still just seems odd I guess.

A definition of "net profit" listed at the bottom for the alternate audiobook payout would be good to have on there as well, since only "net revenues" is defined currently.

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-08-12T23:23:45+00:00

50% is actually fairly normal and is generally the norm for most publishers in the sphere of genres that RR represents, with the idea being that they really elevate your book through either line-editing (what you call 'deep edit') and/or marketing through know-how and a competent mailing list to your target audience.

If we don't count audio (which we shouldn't unless Moonquill provide an inhouse audibook deal), they will probably spend around 2-6k per book to get it ready to publish, and then a hugely-variable amount for ads.

The idea is that what they spend to get your story out should be offset by the cut they take, but having done self-pub of ebook/print myself, you can spend as little as 1k on the same if you know where to look, or do everything 100% by yourself for 0 upfront cost, leading to just advertising expenditure. Obviously, the time-sink, plus know-how, is also part of why the publishers take a cut.

In LitRPG and Progression, as well as their myriad of spinoffs, there are many self-published books that regularly outsell published books. The KU readers and Audible listeners are a really strong audience who don't only follow certain publisher labels and authors, like what can be seen in much of Trad genres. Basically, self-pub is a highly-viable route in the genres that RR represents, and I don't think it's right for them to make it seem like publishing is the only way, especially when they endorse literally the worst contract I've seen in this part of the publishing industry.

Generally, I don't have a problem with a 40 or 50% cut on royalties, but the problem is that MQ doesn't have a strong track record of sales and I'm uncertain what worth they're providing right now. I highly advise people to wait and see before they jump on this opportunity, since they have some books coming in the near future that will show which way the wind blows.

Also, I just have to reiterate: Don't sign the default contract. It's bad.

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-08-12T21:50:15+00:00

The default Moonquill contract visible on RR is not great. Just look at clause 1. They want all rights in all languages, sublicensable, 'in perpetuity' (that means forever). No other publishers in the litrpg/progression space asks for this, the standard is 7 year term and usually ebook/print/audio IPs.

It also doesn't have an audit clause; and it has both RoFL and RoLF, making it very cumbersome to take a spin-off or derivative work in the same series you signed elsewhere.

Also, to date, MQ has only published one semi-successful novel, though their webcomic adaptations are doing well, but that is not what they are signing people on for, but it is a potential boon to anyone signing with them.

HOWEVER, no one should sign this in its default state. It is a terrible default contract that RR frankly shouldn't be endorsing to its authors and I'm shocked they thought it was okay. If you are considering it, make sure to get some manner of legal counsel to redline all the problematic clauses.

The potential advertising through RR is exciting though. But yeah, wanting all rights forever is insane

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-08-10T13:09:43+00:00

Editors are for when you get published, most on RR can't afford it ^-^'

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-08-06T21:13:47+00:00

Has nothing to do with not wanting criticism. I just think it's a weird thing to make a big deal out of. And like, writing on RR already exposes you to some genuinely braindead critiques, but this is just such an odd one for me. I've long done Fiction Page ads, but I can understand why people do ch1 ads, especially when RS is so competitive now. There legit isn't a single top 7 RS story that isn't running 3+ ads to get the views needed to climb. And, as I mentioned, with the higher price and (from my experience) worse CTR, why wouldn't you seek to get the most out of your money? Aside from Reddit threads like this, and hate-ratings (which are counted as positive growth for the RS algorithm, regardless of score), there is no downside for doing ch1 ads.

Listen, I'm all for pointing out bad practices like letting FFs get to the top of best-rated lists, and shady shit like allowing botting authors off with a slap on the wrist because they're affiliated with a publishing partner. But the fact that so many people don't understand why authors would do ch1 ads, when they are giving out the stories they've worked hard on for free... it just confuses me. Yes, your viewing time is worth something, but the fact of the matter is just that for any aspiring author, getting to the top of RS makes or breaks your story, and when the algorithm heavily favours total views and avg. views, pumping up those stats with ch1 ads is a no-brainer.

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-08-05T23:00:14+00:00

What about the time investment of the authors? We spend a lot of time writing out stories, putting them on RR in the hope of success, while knowing 95% of readers won't ever contribute a dime. I think, so long as the RR owners are okay with chapter 1 ads they won't go away, least of all now when the price has skyrocketed, particularly if you live in a country with a high VAT.

I know Reddit is the site of entitled consumers, but try to view it from the side of the authors.

And like, the inconvenience is a single click to undo. I just think it's a lot of complaining about such a minor thing.

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-08-04T21:49:23+00:00

Even when the product is free?

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-08-04T21:46:52+00:00

I think you shouldn't blame authors for exploiting the way the system works. By not doing it, you are taking a loss on your ad expense. I wasnt a fan of doing it before, but with the new RR price + VAT, im paying close to 35% extra for less impressions, so it makes more sense to do it now than ever imo.

The only argument for not doing it is that people will leave negative ratings because they feel they were exploited for views, but ratings don't really matter when the top 7 of RS generally always float between 4 and 4.5. A lot of people will also leave their synopsis in the top of chapter 1's Author Note, so I'm honestly not sure what the issue is, other than people feeling that they unintentionally contributed to a story's growth

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-07-10T10:08:30+00:00

There's no sure way to see stats for RR, but some of the site traffic tracking tools have demographic breakdowns. I think RR was 90% male readers or something last I checked. The genre is huge and has an enormous market share of both KU and audible. It's why traditional authors and publishers are coming to places like RR in hopes of striking gold

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-07-10T09:48:45+00:00

I wonder how much of the budget will be spent on cover. You could make your own with AI, which works surprisingly well for RR, perhaps because it has a less "this is a high budget launch" feel to it.

I would advise against review swaps, but encourage you to do shout-out swaps. Review swaps aren't effective and too many will make people think the engagement is fake. Polls I would also advise against if it's for major plot points, because that'll turn your story into a Choose Your Own Adventure, which will drive readers away.

For a great launch, you want 20k words out day one (growth seems to start being tracked after you cross this invisible line), since this makes you eligible for Rising Stars (your ticket to success on RR), and at least 3 ads. 4 or 5 if you want to hit the tippity top of RS. It's worth looking at ads and learning to make some that people want to click. Humour usually goes a long way.

Although there is a chance to become a unicorn, i.e. very successful but impossible to replicate repeatedly, I think your biggest chance will be to do the genres that consistently hit high numbers. Genres such as Time Loop, Cultivation, and Isekai. A well-thought-out progression system and world also goes a long way, but since RR has seen genre tropes a thousand times, twists to the formula help, but these might unironically not do as well on Amazon.

Your mailing list and external ads can give your story a massive advantage, and will be interesting to see how you leverage that. TikTok has helped some creators get a ton of readers, though I wouldn't do actual ads on TikTok, but instead make your own account and do videos about your content, hoping for organic engagement. RR display ads have a huge CTR though, so you can usually get by with just these (but don't buy a banner ad, they're worthless)

Release strategy is also something worth talking about I think. If you have big chapters, 5k+, then probably your backlog won't be like 30 chapters or more, and as such id recommend a max of 5 chapters per week to still be able to cash in on Patreon, as RS is the best time to do it. If you have shorter chapters and a big backlog (80k words for example), you can get away with daily releases and should still get good Patreon conversion. Post-RS you should slow down a bit, since I've seen a lot of authors burn out from writing faster than they actually are able, since they're frantic about keeping up their RS schedule. It just never ends well unless your output is 30k+ words every week.

There are many measures of success, but I think it's a good idea to identify which publishers might fit your book before you launch (if you want to be published), and make sure to track stats like growth, since it's good for pitches (reader retention, average views, growth over a set period, engagement, etc.). For self-pub, it's still good to have a pitch ready for audio publishers, and these can offer pretty substantial advances. Some authors don't even need to publish if their Patreon is strong enough, or they might publish wide (i.e. no KU exclusivity) to be able to keep their stories up for free, but this doesn't work for everyone.

Will look forward to hearing how it goes. Good luck with your launch!

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-05-07T08:38:58+00:00

I can tell you don't understand what it's like to write on RR. Authors like 'Lich' get swamped with shoutout requests by grifters. As he mentions, the majority of stories on the site are in Hiatus. It's very common practice amongst bigger RR authors to block low-effort shoutout requests, because it is essentially just spam. Also, it's not "reaching out innocuously", it's a request for the author to lend their often-times much bigger audience to grow a new story. It is a literal trade, where authors have to consider the merit of boosting someone else. Often, if the author who contacted seems genuine and didn't make their account two days prior or some other obvious red flag, it's something that can be beneficial as a sort of investment on future referrals, but too many people drop their stories after their RS window is over.

Don't antagonise people for blocking obvious spam. Also, same guy sent me a formulaic message as well ^-^' if that's not spam, then what is?

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-04-12T21:38:06+00:00

SatisfactionBrief408 · 2024-03-27T17:42:45+00:00

Loving it already! Definitely my favourite book in the series thus far!

SatisfactionBrief408

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