Author Skills | Writing Prompts
The Expert Guide to Making Thousands of Dollars on Royal Road
Insider information from breakout LitRPG author JF Brink
The time has come. We’re almost at November, the month when people jump onto NaNoWriMo and dream about becoming novelists.
I’ve been there. And yes, it is possible to write a 50k-word novel in a month. I’ve done double that, alongside a full-time job.
But is it success?
If you want to turn the endeavor into earnings — rather than just sore fingers from typing so much — read on…
“Now, there are a bunch of us making over $20,000/month on Patreon alone, in addition to the piles of cash coming in from Amazon…..” – JF Brink
The source
JF Brink, a.k.a. The First Defier, is the author of the massively successful Defiance of the Fall series.
I don’t know him personally. I’m just mentioning his name because he is so successful (see quote above), and has very kindly shared some brilliant information on how he got there.
Specifically, on how to make money from writing LitRPG on Royal Road.
“Writing what on what, now…?”
If you haven’t seen them, I previously explained LitRPG here, and explained Royal Road here.
To very briefly summarise: LitRPG novels are usually fantasy or post-apocalyptic stories, and have game-like elements such as character statistics and hit points. Royal Road (or ‘RR’) is a free-to-read web-novel site.
It’s a magic combination, because the Royal Road audience can’t get enough of LitRPG. Authors in that genre are cleaning up… and you could join them!
The method
“Wait,” I hear you ask! “If RR is free, how can I make money from it?”
The answer is simple — Patreon. People like Brink release their novel a chapter at a time (one chapter per day, to be precise), and put ‘advance chapters’ on Patreon for a flat monthly fee.
Their super-fans then pay up to get the stories early.
You know what it’s like when you just can’t wait for the next episode!
That’s the basic model. But Brink shares three massively important pieces of advice that help to explain why some authors succeed and others fail. I think every would-be RR star needs to bear these things in mind:
- Run your author career like a business. Successful writers don’t play around, trying one thing and then another, then taking a few weeks off. As Brink says, it’s like running a small business. You need to be committed, take it seriously, and put in the hours.
- Share chapters of 1,500 to 2,500 words, 5–7 times a week. That’s the formula… don’t vary, don’t experiment. Any deviation from this will play worse with audiences, and therefore reduce your chance of success. And if you can’t write that fast, practice (and read this article. And this one).
- Stick to the tropes and popular genres. This is not the time to dabble with something unique and experimental. You will have your own characters and style, sure, but you have to give the readers what they are looking for. As Brink puts it, “stay in the middle lane.”
- Grow your story from the ground up. Many of the most successful fantasy, post-apoc and ‘cultivation’ tales begin with a main character who is weak, pathetic, and impoverished, and in the middle of nowhere. We follow their journey to becoming a hero! Likewise, we don’t need to meet the big guns in terms of foes/monsters right at the start.
- Always end on a cliffhanger…
And on that note, I hope you enjoy part 2 of this article. 😆
Thanks for reading! You can find JF Brink’s full article here. Recommended!
For more of my creative writing guidance, click here. I also write fiction on Medium — check out some examples in this list! Avoid missing a thing by getting all my posts direct to your inbox! 🧠 And if you are yet to join Medium, considering supporting my work by signing up with my referral link, right here. Thank you so much! 🌟
