MikanSensei Wrote:

WilliamGabriel10 Wrote: I have an entire series written and edited in advance on another site, called Wattpad. So I'm putting one a day.

Ez clap

Thank you.

larareispoetry Wrote:

MikanSensei Wrote:

larareispoetry Wrote: I would publish two chapters for sure - Tuesday and Thursday. It would be 3K per week. I will post on Sunday or Saturday if I have a good backlog and I'm not stuck on the narrative. I don't have a huge follow-up, so I sort of feel it is okay for me to do as I want and when I feel comfortable.

As people say, it depends on your goals. On my side, I just want to share my story and be sure everyone understands what I'm narrating.

So personally, first my story, then the reader.

Ah, I post on a  similar schedule, that being Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So around 7-8k words a week per average. I do agree that the goal of a writer should be to only focus on telling the story to their readers, but I find it useless to think about the readers when fewer people are actually reading it

This is the time you focus on your needs and your story. And if you need feedback, I have used the review swaps. There are some excellent pointers where you win or lose.

I've dabbled once or twice, but it's at these times when I really start to notice how little time I have with this schedule to read others' fictions on top of writing mine

SilverFlame Wrote: Currently, I'm trying to release as fast as I can, so 3 chapters a week. I'm a slow writer so that's my top speed. Can't fathom how some authors can release every day, crazy.

For me, it's not the speed that's the issue, it's the motivation. This may be a crude way to put it, but I could compare writing to nutting (hear me out). Before writing the chapter, I'll get this huge urge to just write it out. But after I wrote the last word of the chapter, I lose any and all motivation to write the next one despite being so motivated just minutes prior. That's why I've never had a backlog, and also why I've never written more than one chapter in a session

WilliamGabriel10 Wrote:

MikanSensei Wrote:

WilliamGabriel10 Wrote: I have an entire series written and edited in advance on another site, called Wattpad. So I'm putting one a day.

Ez clap

Thank you.

Heh, I hit the limit for giving +rep to others lmao. You're welcome king, props for working smart, not hard!

SilverFlame Wrote:

MikanSensei Wrote:

SilverFlame Wrote: Currently, I'm trying to release as fast as I can, so 3 chapters a week. I'm a slow writer so that's my top speed. Can't fathom how some authors can release every day, crazy.

For me, it's not the speed that's the issue, it's the motivation. This may be a crude way to put it, but I could compare writing to nutting (hear me out). Before writing the chapter, I'll get this huge urge to just write it out. But after I wrote the last word of the chapter, I lose any and all motivation to write the next one despite being so motivated just minutes prior. That's why I've never had a backlog, and also why I've never written more than one chapter in a session

I mean, you don't have to post what you wrote immediately. I understand the urge, but you can just keep it on the shelves. Then, when motivation finds you, you write more chapters and more chapters and slowly but surely, youre backed up, so to speak. You compared it to nutting, so your 'libido' should naturally regenerate after some time passes.

Well, yes and no. You got the latter part right, but it should be noted that I don't post immediately after writing a chapter. It's just that my 'libido', so to speak, takes 1-2 days to recover, leaving me with a 3 per week schedule

MikanSensei Wrote:

I_AM_V Wrote:

MikanSensei Wrote:

I_AM_V Wrote:

MikanSensei Wrote: I'm a procrastinator. I've never had a backlog before, and I publish 3 chapters per week. It's a good pace for me, don't get me wrong, but I feel that it's not a good pace for Royal Road.

That being the case, I've heard upping it to 5 chapters a week is a good idea to get more people's attention, so I was wondering what your guys' schedules look like. Should I just stick to my regular schedule or try my hand at more frequent posting?

Okay so. Currently I'm on a 5 published chapters a week schedule (excluding this week since it was launch week).  4 for one series 1 for the other but after I complete the backlog the 4/week series will upgrade to 5/week. 

Uploading a lot does give more attention since not only do you build up chapters faster which is good since many people will either wait to binge or have an arbitrary ammount of chapters a series needs to reach before reading it. 

You'll also get more screentime on latest updates. 

But tbh. Dont sacrifice quality for quantity and don't overwork yourself. Burnout will lose you the momentum you've built up with your consistent uploads. Many successful series do 1 chapter a week. But having the backlog faster sure does help. 

Anyways. Good luck.

I tried once per week. I'd finish that weeks chapter then do jack squat for the rest of the week. It felt too slow, and I was scared that this leisurely pace would make me forget about the project one day, so I upped it to three. Still get that feeling that I could be doing more, but it's way rarer of an occurrence now.

3 chapters a week are quite good. Especially if you aren't writing full time. I am not sure of what your chapter length is but I'm pretty sure that 3 a week will be good enough at most logical lengths. 

So I'd say to not overdo it since as I previously stated, getting burnt out will lose you your momentum that you've worked hard for. 

If you stop liking writing because you are overdoing it then that's just a net loss. 

Liking what you're doing is a big help when it comes to well.... Doing

I need this last sentence on my motivation wall lmao. That being the case, each chapter is around 2,5k words per average (give or take 500 depending on how motivated I am that day) and that amounts to around 7-8k words per week. Hope it's enough for my readers...

That's VERY good.

All the answers so far are quite consistent with RR. They are good answers if you are writing for a hobby, fun, and without the goal of making it your primary job. There are stories that make it big, with inconsistent, low release rates, but those are the exceptions. I don't think they are good answers if you want to make writing your living and primary source of income.

For me personally, I release at 1 chapter/day. On Patreon it has already reached the +1 a day portion and will be about to hit that on RR since I did separate antagonist chapters, that release at the same time as the main chapters. I still think this is too slow. I am trying to build up my buffer so I can increase the release rate even further. This constant release rate is key factor to stand out from the blood bath that is RR. The competition is fierce, incredibly fierce. You need to do everything you can to stand out, release rate is one of those ways you can stand out.

Beyond the increased reader pull, there are two other immediate benefits that come to mind with a higher release rate. The first is that readers are more forgiving of minor spelling mistakes. If you release 1 chapter/week then it needs to be perfectly polished. Releasing 1 chapter/day, you can get away with some imperfections. Second, chapter count directly impacts the race to climb up PTW list. The closer you are to page 1 the more people you will pick up and getting on the front page is the best.

I know a lot of people can't cope with that kind of writing speed, but let me put that in perspective. My personal hero author Exlor of The Mech Touch, has been releasing 3, 2,000 word chapters a day for 4 years along with bonus releases. Sure about 50% of his writing is filler, but he cranks it out, like a boss. That is where I want to get to someday. So, my advice is to push yourself. Like anything else, writing well and fast is a skill. You need to work at it to get better. You need to push those brain and finger muscles. It is a struggle bus, and hard. Like how everyone can't become a top athlete, becoming a fast writer is a similar challenge, just a lot more mental.

I vary it depending on the chapter length. The start and end of my current work has short chapters (a couple hundred words) so for those one's I post them daily (and some twice a day). For the main chunk of my story the chapters are longer (3000 - 8000 words) so I've been doing 2 chapters a week. In hindsight I got more views when the chapters were shorter and came out more frequently and some of them I probably could have broken down a bit more so maybe I'll do that for future stuff. It depends a lot on where a chapter feels like it naturally ends though. For my current work the goal is to have it finish right on Halloween so I only have one releasing at a time, since NaNoWrioMo starts then. For NaNoWrioMo I am hoping to get a new chapter out about every 1-3 days with 2000 words a chapter. It will depend how fast I go. Usually I have a backlog but for November it will be out as fast as I can write it. Then I'll probably spread things out a little more in December to finish that story.

I probably put the last one out faster than I could write normally (outside of November madness) but I have a bit of a backlog and I wanted to test things out. I can maintain about 100k-150k a year (with a third of that in November) so next year I might drop things back to once a week chapters (except for November) or maybe shorter ones more often. I guess I'll see how the story feels.

I also have my poetry and short stories which I publish completely chaotically because there's no overarching plot to them.

MisterVii Wrote: All the answers so far are quite consistent with RR. They are good answers if you are writing for a hobby, fun, and without the goal of making it your primary job. There are stories that make it big, with inconsistent, low release rates, but those are the exceptions. I don't think they are good answers if you want to make writing your living and primary source of income.

For me personally, I release at 1 chapter/day. On Patreon it has already reached the +1 a day portion and will be about to hit that on RR since I did separate antagonist chapters, that release at the same time as the main chapters. I still think this is too slow. I am trying to build up my buffer so I can increase the release rate even further. This constant release rate is key factor to stand out from the blood bath that is RR. The competition is fierce, incredibly fierce. You need to do everything you can to stand out, release rate is one of those ways you can stand out.

Beyond the increased reader pull, there are two other immediate benefits that come to mind with a higher release rate. The first is that readers are more forgiving of minor spelling mistakes. If you release 1 chapter/week then it needs to be perfectly polished. Releasing 1 chapter/day, you can get away with some imperfections. Second, chapter count directly impacts the race to climb up PTW list. The closer you are to page 1 the more people you will pick up and getting on the front page is the best.

I know a lot of people can't cope with that kind of writing speed, but let me put that in perspective. My personal hero author Exlor of The Mech Touch, has been releasing 3, 2,000 word chapters a day for 4 years along with bonus releases. Sure about 50% of his writing is filler, but he cranks it out, like a boss. That is where I want to get to someday. So, my advice is to push yourself. Like anything else, writing well and fast is a skill. You need to work at it to get better. You need to push those brain and finger muscles. It is a struggle bus, and hard. Like how everyone can't become a top athlete, becoming a fast writer is a similar challenge, just a lot more mental.

Who the fu-?! 3 chapters a day?!? That man ain't human... Well, I guess I could see how one could do that, but say in my case it takes anywhere from 1-2 hours to write a single chapter, one would have to dedicate...6 HOURS A DAY AT MOST?!?

I-I'll just try and steadily build a backlog before thinking of upping anything for now...

Saiph Wrote: I vary it depending on the chapter length. The start and end of my current work has short chapters (a couple hundred words) so for those one's I post them daily (and some twice a day). For the main chunk of my story the chapters are longer (3000 - 8000 words) so I've been doing 2 chapters a week. In hindsight I got more views when the chapters were shorter and came out more frequently and some of them I probably could have broken down a bit more so maybe I'll do that for future stuff. It depends a lot on where a chapter feels like it naturally ends though. For my current work the goal is to have it finish right on Halloween so I only have one releasing at a time, since NaNoWrioMo starts then. For NaNoWrioMo I am hoping to get a new chapter out about every 1-3 days with 2000 words a chapter. It will depend how fast I go. Usually I have a backlog but for November it will be out as fast as I can write it. Then I'll probably spread things out a little more in December to finish that story.

I probably put the last one out faster than I could write normally (outside of November madness) but I have a bit of a backlog and I wanted to test things out. I can maintain about 100k-150k a year (with a third of that in November) so next year I might drop things back to once a week chapters (except for November) or maybe shorter ones more often. I guess I'll see how the story feels.

I also have my poetry and short stories which I publish completely chaotically because there's no overarching plot to them.

Oh right, NaNoWriMo is all the buzz these days around writing communities. How exactly does it work? I've done some research and from what I understood, you're allowed to continue your story as long as you only check in the words you wrote in November, right?

That being the case, when november starts I'll be at around halfway through Volume 6, so could I post what I've already written now and just continue where I left off on november?

MikanSensei Wrote: Oh right, NaNoWriMo is all the buzz these days around writing communities. How exactly does it work? I've done some research and from what I understood, you're allowed to continue your story as long as you only check in the words you wrote in November, right?

That being the case, when november starts I'll be at around halfway through Volume 6, so could I post what I've already written now and just continue where I left off on november?

Royal Road does their own writathon too which covers roughly the same period but not quite.
NaNoWriMo is all November (30 days) and the royal road writathon is 5 weeks (35 days), I think starting right on Halloween). NaNoWriMo has a 50k word goal and RR writathon has a 55k goal.

I've done NaNo for a few years now but this year will be my first RR writathon. 

Traditional NaNo is starting a new story but it's more of tradition than required and a lot of people just continue on one they are already working on and some people do editing versions.
For RR writathon it doesn't have to be a new work. It Can be one you are already working on. I'm not sure  how it would work if one wants to continue one with a backlog though. I suppose you could either publish the backlog up until then before it starts and then keep going from there or maybe just publish the same number of words that get written during that time. I don't know. That's a good question for others who have more experience than me.

I recommend you check out,  Running your story like the business it is. | Royal Road. That post is very useful for understanding what you need to launch your book. A huge backlog is also important, since you will need to release ~50 chapters in one month to help you climb up the RS list. Even then, depending on the competition nothing is guaranteed. This is all if you want to make a living off writing. If you are doing it for fun/experience/hobby, please ignore what I said and do what makes you happy. 

For the Writeathon, your backlog has to be published first, before you can start counting what you write. So that is why, I can't enter the contest. I have too much backlog. It seems silly to say, but I won't get through it all by the time November is over, even though I will be writing like a madman and at a minimum releasing about 70k words. It works for people with say a couple chapters of backlog, or who write chapter by chapter. I understand because it is to prevent cheating. This is everything I have picked up from looking over the past rule sets carefully. Things might change.

MisterVii Wrote: I recommend you check out,  Running your story like the business it is. | Royal Road. That post is very useful for understanding what you need to launch your book. A huge backlog is also important, since you will need to release ~50 chapters in one month to help you climb up the RS list. Even then, depending on the competition nothing is guaranteed. This is all if you want to make a living off writing. If you are doing it for fun/experience/hobby, please ignore what I said and do what makes you happy. 

For the Writeathon, your backlog has to be published first, before you can start counting what you write. So that is why, I can't enter the contest. I have too much backlog. It seems silly to say, but I won't get through it all by the time November is over, even though I will be writing like a madman and at a minimum releasing about 70k words. It works for people with say a couple chapters of backlog, or who write chapter by chapter. I understand because it is to prevent cheating. This is everything I have picked up from looking over the past rule sets carefully. Things might change.

I've read the thread a couple months ago, but I'm gonna be honest I'm kind of willfully ignoring it lol. The post just really sounded pessimistic in its approach to writing, and it basically said "If you don't get to the top of RR within a month, just toss your entire story in the bin and write something else. Either you make bank off of writing or you're a failure". I never intended on making money off of writing Transcontinental (nor any other future story for that matter), all I wanted was to spread the word of my story as far as humanly possible. I want people to know about it, to read it, talk about it, and hopefully be inspired by it to at least a fraction of the degree that my favorite book (Mushoku Tensei) inspired me.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If I was given the option to somehow get everyone to know about my book, get it published etc (basically have it be a success), but I wouldn't get ANY money out of it, I'd take that option in a heartbeat! I'm not rich or anything, but I can live a pretty good life with the money I have. I don't need money, I want to inspire people. And if I can make them have fun while getting inspired, then all the better!

MikanSensei Wrote: I've read the thread a couple months ago, but I'm gonna be honest I'm kind of willfully ignoring it lol. The post just really sounded pessimistic in its approach to writing, and it basically said "If you don't get to the top of RR within a month, just toss your entire story in the bin and write something else. Either you make bank off of writing or you're a failure". I never intended on making money off of writing Transcontinental (nor any other future story for that matter), all I wanted was to spread the word of my story as far as humanly possible. I want people to know about it, to read it, talk about it, and hopefully be inspired by it to at least a fraction of the degree that my favorite book (Mushoku Tensei) inspired me.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If I was given the option to somehow get everyone to know about my book, get it published etc (basically have it be a success), but I wouldn't get ANY money out of it, I'd take that option in a heartbeat! I'm not rich or anything, but I can live a pretty good life with the money I have. I don't need money, I want to inspire people. And if I can make them have fun while getting inspired, then all the better!

Well put. This is pretty much how I feel about mine. I think there's a lot of middle ground for wanting more views without the goal being to make money.

MikanSensei Wrote: I've read the thread a couple months ago, but I'm gonna be honest I'm kind of willfully ignoring it lol. The post just really sounded pessimistic in its approach to writing, and it basically said "If you don't get to the top of RR within a month, just toss your entire story in the bin and write something else. Either you make bank off of writing or you're a failure". I never intended on making money off of writing Transcontinental (nor any other future story for that matter), all I wanted was to spread the word of my story as far as humanly possible. I want people to know about it, to read it, talk about it, and hopefully be inspired by it to at least a fraction of the degree that my favorite book (Mushoku Tensei) inspired me.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If I was given the option to somehow get everyone to know about my book, get it published etc (basically have it be a success), but I wouldn't get ANY money out of it, I'd take that option in a heartbeat! I'm not rich or anything, but I can live a pretty good life with the money I have. I don't need money, I want to inspire people. And if I can make them have fun while getting inspired, then all the better!

Unfortunately, success is a subset of visibility. Like how a square can be a rectangle, but a rectangle can't be a square. You can have a visible story that is not successful or focused on money, Mother of Learning comes to find. But you can't have a successful story without visibility. Those two things are so interlinked they might as well mean the same thing when writing. When I launched my story, I looked at several other stories on RR. There are stories with 300 chapters but less than 1,000 followers. Well written, decent, long, but they didn't get visibility. You have shorter stories that leap to the top of RS and shoot up on Patreon.

The guide is brutal, but it is right to a large extent, since it focuses on visibility, which is a key component for success. I agree with you it is frustrating, but that is how things work. If you want recognition, you have to fight for it. There is a reason I call RR a bloodbath. The competition is incredibly fierce.

Quote:You can have a visible story that is not successful or focused on money, Mother of Learning comes to find.

?

Didn't MOL earn mountains of cash? It has 2500 ratings on amazon. Let me repeat that, 2500 ratings.

Ararara Wrote:

Quote:You can have a visible story that is not successful or focused on money, Mother of Learning comes to find.

?

Didn't MOL earn mountains of cash? It has 2500 ratings on amazon. Let me repeat that, 2500 ratings.

It also had a successful patreon.

7 on my main, 0 on this one because I'm on hiatus. More chapter = more engagement = more followers. It's that simple.

MisterVii Wrote:

MikanSensei Wrote: I've read the thread a couple months ago, but I'm gonna be honest I'm kind of willfully ignoring it lol. The post just really sounded pessimistic in its approach to writing, and it basically said "If you don't get to the top of RR within a month, just toss your entire story in the bin and write something else. Either you make bank off of writing or you're a failure". I never intended on making money off of writing Transcontinental (nor any other future story for that matter), all I wanted was to spread the word of my story as far as humanly possible. I want people to know about it, to read it, talk about it, and hopefully be inspired by it to at least a fraction of the degree that my favorite book (Mushoku Tensei) inspired me.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If I was given the option to somehow get everyone to know about my book, get it published etc (basically have it be a success), but I wouldn't get ANY money out of it, I'd take that option in a heartbeat! I'm not rich or anything, but I can live a pretty good life with the money I have. I don't need money, I want to inspire people. And if I can make them have fun while getting inspired, then all the better!

Unfortunately, success is a subset of visibility. Like how a square can be a rectangle, but a rectangle can't be a square. You can have a visible story that is not successful or focused on money, Mother of Learning comes to find. But you can't have a successful story without visibility. Those two things are so interlinked they might as well mean the same thing when writing. When I launched my story, I looked at several other stories on RR. There are stories with 300 chapters but less than 1,000 followers. Well written, decent, long, but they didn't get visibility. You have shorter stories that leap to the top of RS and shoot up on Patreon.

The guide is brutal, but it is right to a large extent, since it focuses on visibility, which is a key component for success. I agree with you it is frustrating, but that is how things work. If you want recognition, you have to fight for it. There is a reason I call RR a bloodbath. The competition is incredibly fierce.

Sadly, this is how RR works. But like with anything else, you can't come out on top if you're a pushover or god forbid passive. Sometimes you just gotta shout your lungs out about your dream so people can hear you

based Wrote: 7 on my main, 0 on this one because I'm on hiatus. More chapter = more engagement = more followers. It's that simple.

That's fair. I believe it was Elon Musk who said the key to success is to find one thing and focus everything on it - put everything else aside, otherwise you won't ever reach the level of 'successful' on the goal you started on.

Good luck!