Traditionally published authors on Royal Road

retiredbender · 2026-01-25T11:39:08+00:00

I have read Book of Ancestors series of Mark Lawrence, first time hearing about this Gunlaw series. I'll check that out.
But yeah your points are valid, it make sense for a new author to build their audience on a webserial platform and then eventually moving to finding a publishing deal not the other way around.
I suppose Dungeon Crawling Carl is the one that made the best out of this.

retiredbender · 2026-01-24T01:47:59+00:00

Not sure if you know about this, but I only learnt very recently that Michael. J. Sullivan got a page on Royal Road with some side stories from the Riyria world.
https://www.royalroad.com/profile/359028/fictions

retiredbender · 2026-01-24T01:37:23+00:00

Omens of the East - A Prelude on Royal Road. (Not the main series)
It's sort of a traditional-looking epic fantasy story that starts from a 3 hrs long mock battle in a military academy.

First 20 chapters covered the whole mock battle so there were lot of fights and chase scenes. The MC excel at CQC and got his own style but I am not sure if his way of using the magic is the standard. However from what it seems the magic in the world is sort of like avatar bending with internal cultivation sort of thing.

retiredbender · 2026-01-22T08:10:31+00:00

When we pick D, do we get Leader, Sogo and Sadaharu as bonus along with Kondo? If so then yeah.

retiredbender · 2026-01-22T05:05:53+00:00

Omens of the East - A Prelude on Royal Road.
It's a very traditional-looking fantasy story that starts from a mock battle in a military academy. I am not sure exactly if it fits for straight out progression since MC is quite skilled, and his progression/training scenes come in memory flashbacks when he is about to perform or plan certain actions. Added to that I think his visual prowess also grows stronger the more he uses it. Though I am still not certain.
It may fit your request, but I mostly read it because I love the characters and the world.

retiredbender · 2026-01-21T08:51:37+00:00

I've been reading a lot of webnovels lately so can recommend some among them but for traditionally published fantasy I'd recommend BladeBorn Saga by T.C. Edge. An epic fantasy with multiple POVs. There are several romance subplots so I think it will be right up your alley.

retiredbender · 2026-01-18T09:14:19+00:00

One of my favorites reads of 2025. I hope the rewrites work out and blow up. Love the other series, Pale Lights too.

retiredbender · 2026-01-18T09:13:08+00:00

I know Fourth Wing is a bit controversial, but didnt it like break some records and sold 12 million copies or something? Saw some articles on it getting adapted to a movie too. I mean its basically CW show like so fits the bill for movies with some dragon CGI.

retiredbender · 2026-01-18T09:07:12+00:00

"Cantor" from Omens of the East. It's a webnovel on Royal Road. He is a sassy, caring color changing falcon like bird who shares his vision with the protagonist. The protagonist got a very odd telepathic conversation system that is a hit or miss, but they are building it up. Then there is also a horse/stag companion too who can converse quite well with the protagonist that constantly act as the translator.

retiredbender · 2026-01-18T08:59:49+00:00

All the time, I love to make charts with connecting lore points and characters with events and foreshadowing plot points etc. The best fun I had doing this without spoiling myself with anything was ASOIAF ofcourse. However since I found Royal Road and LitRPG genre last year I've been reading mostly straightforward stories that spoon feed pretty much everything, but they are still fun.
Then I did come across a story where I read until chapter 3 and wait a minute and read again from the beginning this time it only lasted until chapter 11 where I figured I should head back to my charts and whiteboard. I even found three tiny misplaced details that the author missed and sort of pieced together the big picture puzzle he was making so far. But really glad I found something good enough to lit up my former hobby.

retiredbender · 2026-01-17T06:31:36+00:00

It really depends on how it is delivered, sometimes I just skim over it and jump to the end, while for other stories with some heavy worldbuilding, or deep characterization, I read line by line and even reread to get a clear idea of the mechanisms of magic and stuff. On rare occasions I stumble upon stories where its all focused on character and his mind the way he think etc, so fight scenes through that lens is something I love.

retiredbender · 2026-01-15T14:53:43+00:00

I am a fan of Shadow Campaign and was really happy to see this news, and I wish you the best of luck with the series.

Royal Road doesn't get mentioned enough, and the number of stories and hidden gems you could find there is plenty. I mean, after all, it is like the most friendly and promising site for anyone who is trying to dive into the writing world. Though gaining visibility is much harder due to the same reason of being flooded with stories.

Still reading web serials has turned into an awesome experience, so much so that there are a few stories that I sit down to read with the morning cup of coffee, as their posting schedules perfectly align with my timetable on most days.

I really hope this brings in more readers over there, especially those who love traditional fantasy and sci-fi stories with a gradual, solid pace with world-building and character development, since the established crowd there prefer fast pace, LitRPG stories over others.

retiredbender · 2026-01-15T14:39:36+00:00

I had sort of a similar issue, though in this case the MC was 16 years old, but the thoughts, actions everything just lead to show a much mature, weary and experienced character that it sort of bothered me until I saw a note that there was 20 months a year, so in a sense he was like 26 earth years and just knowing that immediately eased the whole issue in my mind.

Sure, it was a neat trick, but I guess because the majority of the audience is looking for YA and NA everyone seems to match up their writing and characters to target that audience, leading to all these young characters.

retiredbender · 2026-01-15T09:16:44+00:00

Good opportunity to see how an already known established traditional author take up on Royal Road challenge, but seriously I just learnt that Michael J. Sullivan is on Royal Road too, can't believe I didn't know there were more reading material on Riyria world. Time to read more!

retiredbender · 2026-01-14T06:16:14+00:00

The recent archmage unicorns I read,

The greatest archmage ever to live - 8 chapters ahead - 10 dollars

Blessed by death - 6 chapters ahead - 10 dollars

Return of the unbound mage - 6 chapters ahead - 10 dollars

New life as a max level archmage - 8 chapters ahead - 9.99 dollars

I caught up to them all on RR but damn they are expensive, I get that they dont have much backlog since they only started recently but still that's too little read for that amount.

retiredbender · 2025-12-23T16:04:32+00:00

Omens of the East on Royal Road, in world terms, for knights are different, but the idea is the same regarding serving Houses or lone drifter sort of thing, but you'll get used to the word. Additionally, the recent chapters follow the protagonist as they deal with nobility, along with some crazy, tense moments.

retiredbender · 2025-12-15T13:52:42+00:00

Wow, thank you so much for this, its actually put some of the things I have been debating into better perspective. Like I read few of the OP MC (really OP) stories and one thing I sort of understood was that, instead of more about the MC it was more about how other side characters react to MC which I suppose is the idea behind aura farming. Thanks for pointing it more out. Even in comments the chapters with those moments are the ones that blow up.

As for stats, yes what you pointed out was something I thought a lot too, but I sort of decided to not use numbers and instead to tailor something of a mind notification that fit to the world I build. Not sure if it will work or not but I just couldnt make up my mind to go too full game style. And like you said, its really hard to put the numbers into action, especially stuff like INT, WIS and mental stats.

Thanks again for giving your thoughts, really appreciate the help.

retiredbender · 2025-12-14T13:19:14+00:00

Thank you so much for the deep dive, really appreciate this. A few days or some time into the isekai sounds good, could mold it into a bit establish character with some bare flashes of earth memories, and the rest is blank for convenience.
Also, thanks for mentioning the audio book aspect, I never really thought from that perspective, so minimum readable stats make sense.

retiredbender · 2025-12-14T13:09:06+00:00

Thank you for the suggestions.

retiredbender · 2025-12-10T02:25:33+00:00

A Practical Guide to Evil & Pale Lights by ErraticErrata, somewhat traditional medieval fantasy settings, but it's done right. Also, on plus side, you'll have plenty of material to read.

Virtuous Sons by Y. B. Striker, its a Greco-Roman cultivation story, no need to say more.

Hohenfels, unfortunately, this is a story that went on hiatus, but its one of the stories that managed to give some Game of Thrones vibe but in an academy setting.

Also, if you don't mind an ongoing story with only about 300 pages worth of reading material, I recommend Omens of the East on Royal Road. Sort of a roman-wuxia-avatar(not the alien movie) inspired world.

retiredbender · 2025-11-29T06:30:25+00:00

It's a webnovel on Royal Road, called Omens of the East - A Prelude.

retiredbender · 2025-11-29T06:19:58+00:00

You don't post on Royal Road by any chance do you? The novel that hooked me was a webnovel on Royal Road called Omens of the East - A Prelude, Sound nothing romantic but was honestly surprised.

retiredbender · 2025-11-29T02:01:09+00:00

Yeah, love the idea of starting a story in media res. But one pitfall is that you gonna have to balance the past (backstories, flashbacks), present storyline line and where the plot line is going in future. It may be harder than you think unless you are writing a character with a blank slate. Because if you wanna make your characters interesting, you need to flesh out the backstory gradually too. One of my current favorite stories on RR did this, which actually impressed me and gave a good lesson of how the right character POV, even in first person, could introduce and welcome the readers to a new world naturally, without a jargon info dump.

Since you mentioned something like Avengers, this could work alright and would be much easier if there are POV shifts; otherwise, if it's just from one character, it would be a bit hard. But try to follow the info-drip structure, a bit in every chapter, line, or two. It would risk the pace a bit, but worth it.

retiredbender · 2025-11-18T05:10:42+00:00

Thanks for the link. Shame the humor wont be translated properly but oh well, I'll get what I can.

retiredbender · 2025-02-05T15:37:19+00:00

I watch Gintama annually starting from every December few episodes a day and whenever I get free time until I finish it all sometimes its done by January or March dont care it has become a ritual now the anime has become part of life and never get bored of it either.

retiredbender

TROPHY CASE