I'm a traditionally-published author, with nine novels released by Doubleday, HarperCollins, and Penguin Random House. Some children's fantasy, some adult thrillers. I posted a novel here under another name, years ago, figuring I'd blow everyone's mind with my Awesome Skills! 

Nobody cared. 

Served me right, too. Not just for my hubris: the story--the style, the plot, the tone--was a complete mismatch to RR.

But it's been making me nuts that I can't seem to write successfully in this genre--or this 'milieu,' I guess. So I've been reading RR. And reading. And mulling. And reading. And in few weeks--maybe months--I'm going to try again.

I've got nothing to post now, and was going to keep my mouth shut until I uploaded something. But part of this experience is the community, right? Chances are I'm old enough to be your father, so I'm not a great match--and I feel like I'm in over my head. But I figured what the hell, might as well introduce myself and maybe spark a conversation or two.

This is a pseudonym, because I'm expecting my next story here to bomb and I don't want the stench of failure to attach to my real self. But other than keeping that quiet, I'm happy to try to answer any questions about traditional publishing. I'm US-based, and don't know much about publishing elsewhere. I've worked with two agents, my current one for five years. I'm very interested in the differences between novels that rocket to the top of the list here and those that appeal to tradpub editors... but that's probably getting too granular for an Intro.

Anyway: hi! And if you've ask any questions, I'll do my best ...

Hello! I suppose what I'm wondering is why you're interested in being successful on Royal Road when you've already got an audience, publishers, and presumably make decent money off your work. There's a lot of free labor involved in writing on this site, and no guarantee that you'll ever get much out of it.

Have you heard of the term progression fantasy? There are some blog posts explaining it if you look it up. I think a lot of the stories that are successful here have characters seeking to excel at something and actively work towards that goal. Traditional fantasy skews more towards large POV casts, characters being at the mercy of fate, heroes that initially "refuse the call to adventure," that kind of thing. Generalizations, I know, but necessary if you even want to try to talk about the differences.

If you already have a patreon or email subscription list or something, hiding your identity might be a mistake. Lots of authors here use fan followings they have from other sites to springboard themselves to the top. Mark Lawrence is a successful traditional author but posted some novels on Wattpad, and while I'm going to guess they didn't take the site by storm, he at least had fans happy to go read more content from him. I don't know your situation, but you might have some shortcuts at your disposal you're not using.

Hello!  I look forward to seeing what you write.  I’d love to hear more about fantasy books via traditional publishers. I’ve heard tell they are hard to get on with when writing fantasy. 

I’m 50 and have just begun what I hope to be my calling. I’m only a short chapter into writing stories and I’m already overly hopeful. 

Feel free to check my first chapter out, but it’s currently under revision (read: redid it, knocking out a few more chapters before I put it up).

Lots of great reads here. 

Mateusz Wrote: Hello! I suppose what I'm wondering is why you're interested in being successful on Royal Road when you've already got an audience, publishers, and presumably make decent money off your work. There's a lot of free labor involved in writing on this site, and no guarantee that you'll ever get much out of it.

Part of it is the challenge, but largely it's the freedom. I usually write 20-30k words of a new project before sending it to my agent. About half the time he's like, "Meh, I don't think we can sell this." So it's back to the drawing board. And that just gets old. I think I've trained myself to take writing _too_ seriously, sort of? I don't do it for fun. I'm going to try to use RR as a way to just share stuff without worrying if it's perfectly polished, or right for the market or whatever. 

And I make okay money, but not great. A few more bucks wouldn't hurt.

I've been reading a bunch here, so litrpg and progression fantasy is familiar to me from RR. But only from here. It's just so odd that the stuff that does really well here doesn't have much of a presence in publishing. Very much agree in terms of 'character excelling.' I usually think of a story as, 'Character has a goal, but every attempt they make to achieve that goes turns into a setback. Things get worse and worse and worse until (if there's a happy ending) at the climax of the book they finally succeed.' But here it's different. Characters go from success to success, pretty much. There's always a bigger challenge, but they tend not to wade through failure after failure on the road ...

Hello, welcome! I hope you enjoy your time here a whole bunch!

JimmyDaBigToe Wrote: I’d love to hear more about fantasy books via traditional publishers. I’ve heard tell they are hard to get on with when writing fantasy. 

I’m 50 and have just begun what I hope to be my calling. I’m only a short chapter into writing stories and I’m already overly hopeful. 

Feel free to check my first chapter out, but it’s currently under revision (read: redid it, knocking out a few more chapters before I put it up).

Well, I'm happy to report that I'm not old enough to be _your_ father. I figured most people here are teens/twenties ...

Like I said above, I think the big difference with stuff here and traditional publishing is that characters here tend to go from success to success ... but also the worlds are very often almost instantly comprehensible. Some of the world-building is very strong, in the specifics. But the broad strokes usually just make things easy for the reader. It's a fantasy world. There are paladins, rangers, mages. Monsters, guilds. It doesn't take me three chapters to get oriented. By the end of the second page I already know a great deal.

And LitRPG is combines both things, in steroids. It quantifies the characters' successes and adds another level of clarity.

And that is in service, here, of an unabashed sort of fantasy fulfillment that's kind of refreshing. This isn't always true, but the vast majority of stories I've read here revolve around an ordinary person, often from our world, so even more identifiable, who starts of clever but not never powerful (like most of us here!) and who just gets stronger and stronger.

Looking forward to checking out your chapter!

IanFlat Wrote: This isn't always true, but the vast majority of stories I've read here revolve around an ordinary person, often from our world, so even more identifiable, who starts of clever but not never powerful (like most of us here!) and who just gets stronger and stronger.

It's definitely true that the majority of stories here have this, but I think something important to keep in mind is that if you emulate what others are doing here too much, you don't stand out from the crowd at all. There are a ton of character tropes that bother me on this site lol -- I'm sick of introverted MCs who are explicitly stated to be unkempt or average looking, hate parties, have a prostitute mother who they also hate (because she's willing to do anything to provide for them!), an over-the-top tragic backstory where they're always hard-working and don't deserve all the scorn they get, annnnd inevitably show disdain towards the first woman they see.

I love the trend towards MCs that take agency in their own lives, but honestly these isekai characters who are meant to be relatable are often ... less relatable than a mage who grew up in another world to me. At the very least the Best-rated page seems to have more character variation than what I tend to see on Rising Stars, so maybe what I'm describing above usually hits an audience cap.

Welcome. Kudos on being published. I have little idea of how that works other than that trying to get picked up is supposed to be incredibly difficult.

I hope you enjoy RR and your fictions find an audience.

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Welcome to Royal Road. Actually there's quite a few of us "older" writers here. Getting published is a wonderful accomplishment. I certainly understand wanting to write something just for fun. It's the main reason I write. Hope you have fun and that you achieve all you wish to here. Good luck.

I am certain that I am old enought to be everyone's dad on Royal Road.

The cool kinda dad tho. Like, the one with a party bus, or sumthin. Fulla Furries, probly too.

You know. Or sumthin.

❤🦆🦊🐧😸🐶🐯😈🦕🐿️😻🦄🐉🦦😼🦖🦈🐰❤

Cinn Wrote: Welcome. Kudos on being published. I have little idea of how that works other than that trying to get picked up is supposed to be incredibly difficult.

I hope you enjoy RR and your fictions find an audience.

I'm not sure it's that tough, to tell the truth--at least not at the midlist level, where I am. You have to have some facility with words, of course, but certainly that's a bar that many of the writers here clear. You just need to focus on the market ... and to rewrite 10 times more than you write. (At least that's how I do it.)

I'm reading a couple stories here that are absolutely good enough (whatever that means!) for traditional publishing, in terms of basic craft. But I don't think any agent would rep them for other reasons. Largely the worlds and the pace. And it works the other direction, too. I'm playing around with some pages to post here and it's really tough for me to get fast enough. I want to linger and describe and force the reader to appreciate my slooooow, self-indugent genius! 

But what I like about the stories here is that they don't do that. They just move. 

Elmore Leonard said something like, "Leave out the bits that readers skip."

Of course, that raises the question, 'which readers?', but I think that's the virtue of the best stuff here. People just don't write the boring parts!

Huh. I guess I'm not the Only Old around!

Maybe I'll write a story where a middle-aged guy is portalled to a fantasy world and defeats monsters with the power of Dad Jokes.

I think you should write a story where the monsters are defeaed by the power of Dad's chili.

Like, maybe after he eats it. 🙀

Mateusz Wrote: have a prostitute mother who they also hate (because she's willing to do anything to provide for them!)

Huh. I haven't seen that trope--thankfully. Anti-sexworker bias is ugly. And I'm a father. I'd do anything for my kids. I mean, I'm not sure sex work is a realistic option for me, given my general state of disrepair, but ...

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It's been in the first chapters of two fairly recent Rising Stars. While the lines about it tend to make me lol, I really can't get behind protagonists that hate their parents for going to any lengths to put food on the table.

Anyway, I'm curious to see what you'll ultimately come up with, so I'll give you a follow. I'm a fairly particular reader so I can't promise I'll like the premise, but I'm looking forward to it!

I'm a little happy to see that RR has changed over the years to have more of the slow fiction, in fact...though maybe that's also because I like to write it? To me it's the difference between an introspective story (built up slow with a ton of character growth and scene setting) and a more extrospective (based on a lot of existing worlds, existing tropes, that sort of thing). I think there is a place for both, but definitely RR is home to more of the latter. I'm in the process of learning not to take my time quite so much...

IanFlat Wrote: Chances are I'm old enough to be your father,

Doubtful :D I'm on the older side too (51) though I'm pretty new to Royal Road.

Maybe we should start an Older Guys Club on here LMAO.

IanFlat Wrote: Part of it is the challenge, but largely it's the freedom. I usually write 20-30k words of a new project before sending it to my agent. About half the time he's like, "Meh, I don't think we can sell this." So it's back to the drawing board. And that just gets old. I think I've trained myself to take writing _too_ seriously, sort of? I don't do it for fun. I'm going to try to use RR as a way to just share stuff without worrying if it's perfectly polished, or right for the market or whatever.

I totally get this. But why not try self-publishing? (or maybe you have?) It'd give you that same freedom.

Not trying to talk you out of using RR, mind you (I'm here too, after all, haha) it just strikes me that it'd be somewhat easier because you could write in genres you are more familiar with.

But then there's the challenge aspect, of course... ;)

Just wondering I guess if you've given self-publishing any thought at all.

Crea Wrote: I'm in the process of learning not to take my time quite so much...

It's an interesting exercise in discipline. I'm toying with a story now. I want my protag to get from Plot Point A to Plot Point B, and my instinct is to show them in the world, first. Where they sleep, where they work. Who they know, etc. But I'm trust to just go with: "The next week, Plot Point B smacked them in the face ..."