how do they work?
are there any bonuses for having levels in either of the two catagories?
what contributes to normal level? 
also just general info about them?
edit: thanks for the response, really helpfull

Probably best you read the FAQ section posted to the "Support " pulldown at the screen top.

Levels do not offer anything special other than the frames around your avatar. As you can see to the left of this post. 
Reputation Levels up with the accumulation of Rep which other members give out on posts and comments. 

It's just a fun way to gamify participation, it isn't particularly important.

I think at higher reputation levels you can give more reputation to others, and as already mentioned levels unlock new borders.

You can read about it more on the official blog post here Leveled Up! | Royal Road

Basically it's just a mechanism to gamify interactions on the site, just for fun! Higher levels unlocked custom border, which usually is better than the previous one. Fun fact: Currently there is only one member who has unlocked the highest level border: The Mighty Zethuron. It's true! You can check it yourself from the Member List!

Reputation is basically Royal Road's "Like" mechanism. The interesting thing about Reputations is if you have many reputations you can give more reputations to others. 

To be honest, I was hooked by this game mechanism and became much more active because of the Levels and Reputations. Previously I was just a silent reader, and now I tried to comment and write reviews whenever I can.

Hope this helps

Ankur_93 Wrote: Levels do not offer anything special other than the frames around your avatar. As you can see to the left of this post. 
Reputation Levels up with the accumulation of Rep which other members give out on posts and comments.

They also allow you to give more rep.

And I think that's it. 

Mostly it's for bragging rights.