I don't know why but I've both read on Kindle Unlimited and Royal Road and I find it easier to find stories that I like on Royal Road even though the quality is subjectively «worse». I've tried several fantasy stories on kU and what seems to dominate is Fantasy Romance/Werewolves/Shifter stories while we can read some very interesting new story concepts here...

I find that royal roads author are in general more creative..

I’m glad authors earn KU money as well as patreon money.  I hope the number of people making a living this way increases exponentially.  It’s so cool.

As I understand it, Royal Road and Patreon stories that actually end and are relatively well written graduate to KU.  There isn't a lot of reason to publish straight to KU if the story wasn't a webfiction first.

From what I remember, I didn’t find the difference in quality big enough to be worth the price.

I buy nonfantasy books on kindle(mostly romance and thriller) and their quality is superior to 99% of rr content. 

I will never buy a kindle. Don't like em

Ararara Wrote: I will never buy a kindle. Don't like em

(you can just download the app and read on your favorite device)

I did not know this. I thought the point of it was to make you buy a kindle device

Ararara Wrote: I did not know this. I thought the point of it was to make you buy a kindle device

The point is to sell you books in electronic format.  The kindle device was designed in a time where it wasn’t certain that everyone would buy a smartphone, and it still sells well in some countries.  I bought some for elderly relatives because they are very lightweight compared to the books they like to read.

I've been loving the RR books on audible with edits. Randidly Ghosthound was so bad in its rough form, but the updated version is awesome!

Not a fan of KU's exclusivity rules. I wish it didn't require removing the story from everywhere else. I'd gladly support authors' revised and updated versions but there are people who can't afford it and for them to lose out on the rough draft that was here freely is sad.

tfisb Wrote:

Ararara Wrote: I will never buy a kindle. Don't like em

(you can just download the app and read on your favorite device)

you don't even need the app, you can read it on PC from amazon website 

Ararara Wrote: I will never buy a kindle. Don't like em

As others have said you can just read on your phone or similar...

KU basically always has a "free trial" of a month or something so you can always check to see if thats running and try and catch up to all the stub stories you have vague interest in. Aparently it resets sometimes and lets you re get a free trial even if you've gotten one before... so I'm waiting on that to try and start some series and catch up to the RR release.

tfisb Wrote: The point is to sell you books in electronic format.  The kindle device was designed in a time where it wasn’t certain that everyone would buy a smartphone, and it still sells well in some countries.  I bought some for elderly relatives because they are very lightweight compared to the books they like to read.

Our family owns multiple Kindle eReaders. They're far better than phones for reading:

* They don't project blue screen light that keeps your brain from getting sleepy at night

* e-ink displays are perfectly legible in direct sunlight

* e-ink displays don't cause eye fatigue like phone screens do 

* eReaders are only for reading - you don't have texts and other notifications popping up and ringing and pulling you out of the story 

Amazon's exclusivity is predatory and unfair to authors, especially in the long term. It's also full of scammers. The indie pub community would be far better served if most people went wide instead. The power needs to be in the hands of authors, not an uncaring mega corporation that routinely screws authors over.

I can't speak for quality comparison. Quality is a struggle throughout the indie world. And a lot of trad pub books are becoming lower quality as well. 

RR makes writing more fun.  For me,  it's just very cool to write one chapter at a time and see how readers respond to it.  I like that a lot.  KU is a whole different ball game.  I think if you don't know marketing and don't have a long series to your name, might as well not bother.

I usually like royalroad because it's free.

Yeah, I think Timothy is right, KU is kinda bad for authors as a whole since it removes our bargaining power... It would be better if indie authors went wide or teamed up to offer their products in a bundle or in a specific platform. Royal road is a pretty good platform to host your fiction due to how the algorithm allows you to get up the ranking. The only problem is the lack of reader diversity since the website is dominated by litrpg/Xianxia... and thus discourage authors from innovating and writing in other genres.  

And about writing quality, the lack of feedback given to less popular stories on this website doesn't help to increase overrall quality, RR could encourage readers to give more honest and good feedback through some benefits (I don't know to what extent due to the non-financial nature of the website). Right now, the only real way to get feedback if you have less exposure is through review swaps.. 

I'll be going KU after the book is completed. Sorry, but making money is important so it's hard to fault people.

I'm also planning on putting my German works to KU, after having them on several platforms and after refining them with user feedback.
So I'll always have a mix of several platforms where you can read my stuff in different stages and wouldn't strictly say KU or RR (or insert any other platform).

As for reading, I just don't have enough time to read much and can't talk about quality differences I've noticed.  

I can't offer exclusivity to Amazon, it is an one way road. On a medium I have no control on and no guarantee. 
Amazon's algorithms are almost hostile for new authors.
A solid nay.