Is Royal Road paving the way for online serials to become our next print bestsellers?
A look at how a Royal Road partnership is shaping the future of publishing
Independent writing is evolving, and we’re witnessing the groundwork being laid for popular IPs (intellectual properties) to emerge from indie creators, writers, and presses. With sites like Wattpad, Royal Road, and others, these IPs will be developed by relatively undiscovered writers and adopted by online communities of readers who love what they read instead of what publishers want them to read. The next print bestseller topping the charts—only to become a multi-media franchise—could originate from an online writing community near you.
Recently, I discussed the announcement and business framework of Authors Equity. In this article, I’m covering yet another example of exciting innovation at the grassroots, independent level that highlights the crucial changes in publishing. This time, it involves a partnership between a growing online writing platform and an independent full-service press. I’ll be explaining who they both are, what we know so far, and what this might mean for the future of publishing.
What is Royal Road?
Royal Road is an online platform and community where writers can publish and share their stories, often serialized, for free. It primarily focuses on fantasy, science fiction, and LitRPG (literary role-playing games), but it also hosts various other genres.
Key Features:
Serialization: Many stories on Royal Road are published in parts or chapters, allowing authors to build an audience over time as they release new content.
Free Access: Readers can access the stories for free, which makes it a popular platform for both established and emerging writers to reach a wide audience.
Community Engagement: Royal Road has a strong community aspect. Readers can leave feedback, reviews, and ratings, which can help writers improve and gain visibility.
Ranking and Discovery: The platform uses a ranking system highlighting popular stories, making it easier for readers to discover trending content.
Author Support: While the platform is free, many authors also use it to build a following they can later monetize through Patreon, self-published books, or other means.
Royal Road is often compared to Wattpad but is particularly known for its focus on genres that appeal to fans of gaming and fantasy literature. There are several notable success stories where authors have gained significant recognition, published books, and even turned their online works into profitable ventures.
One of the biggest stars from Royal Road is Travis Deverell, AKA Shirtaloon. He rose in popularity while releasing his LitRPG serial “He Who Fights With Monsters” on Royal Road. Now, he makes between $28K-78K monthly from paying subscribers on Patreon.
What is MoonQuill?
MoonQuill is a publishing program that helps indie authors get their books to market by cutting out the middlemen and providing author-centric services. They offer customizable packages that meet the author’s needs, whether that’s editors, artists, or a marketing team.
Here are some of their core tenets (as seen on their website):
Resources - We have vetted editors, award-winning artists, and a staff full of indie publishing experts.
Quality Service - Our staff has extensive experience publishing and marketing books, including e-books, paperbacks, audiobooks, AND webcomic adaptations.
Focus - We’ll handle all the logistics that come with preparing a book for sale so that you can focus on your craft.
Transparency - We will key you on the process and communicate your novel’s progress with you as often as you’d like.
The Partnership
On August 12, Royal Road announced its publishing program partnership with MoonQuill. As the owner of a small press, I was immediately interested in how this partnership would work. In the initial post, this is what Royal Road said:
It is such an honor that we are the cultivation ground for new and old authors alike to find their footing and following for their stories right here on Royal Road, and as such, we thought, why not help in that process?
Initially, we felt that authors should leverage their own follower base in order to self publish and retain 100% of their rights. However, over time we saw that authors prefer to focus on creating content, which is what they enjoy, and leave the logistical stuff to publishers. It is also expensive to prepare a story for publication, and publishers remove that burden from the author. (Side Note: This is about publishers that cover the entire cost, if any publisher ever asks you to pay, that is called a vanity press and you should not sign with them.)
To that end, we've decided to partner with established publishing companies to tremendously simplify the process for authors seeking publishing deals but not knowing where to start looking for such an opportunity.
For starters we decided to introduce MoonQuill, a publisher with vetted editors, quality experience preparing books for publication (including several Royal Road titles), and significant experience making audiobooks, translations, and adapting novels into webcomics.
To clarify, Royal Road isn’t publishing your book; it’s a contract with MoonQuill. Royal Road is merely a mediator providing a dashboard for you to submit your manuscript to MoonQuill, who will oversee all services. However, based on an update to the article, Royal Road added that they receive a financial kickback on royalties from the publisher(s) receiving manuscripts from their website.
Here is what they had to say about their financial interest in this partnership (highlights are my own):
We have been notified that a previous version of this article didn't make it clear that we have a financial interest in this arrangement; per our agreements with MoonQuill and Mango Media, we do take part of the royalties from the publishers' side as part of this deal. The actual percentages are likely to change going forward as we see what works and what doesn't; we are looking to come to an arrangement that's beneficial to all involved.
This percentage does not impact the royalties agreement in the contract between the author and the publisher. So, this would be a slight upfront loss on the publisher’s side for being an affiliate with Royal Road, but with the benefit of increased exposure (example being that here we are discussing them in this post).
What this means for the future of publishing
Publishing is still a growing market, as evidenced by the rise of self-published books in recent years. The stigma associated with reading a self-published book is quickly fading as the quality of self-produced works skyrockets with the improvement of fulfillment services like IngramSpark and Amazon’s KDP. The lines are blurring, and everyone seems to benefit from this, from readers searching for better books to writers seeking an audience and to the companies willing to bring them to market.
According to Jim Milliot’s article on Publishers Weekly, ISBN purchases more than quadrupled from 2011 to 2021. This surge in self-publishing can be attributed to the democratization of the process and the ever-increasing requirements imposed on authors by the Big Five. If breakout authors are expected to gain a large following on social media and market their own work anyway, then the allure of traditional publishing will erode. The rise of smaller publishers offering higher royalties, tailored packages, better IP control, and “no cost to publish” services will continue to take market share. That is, until the Big Five pivot to do the same. Only time will tell.
Like MoonQuill, Storyletter XPress Publishing is committed to bringing quality fiction to market at no cost to the author. Just this year, I signed two Substack authors and will publish their books in 2025. Therefore, this endeavor is near and dear to my heart. I hope the Royal Road partnership thrives—not just from a business standpoint but for all authors who believe their stories are worthy of being published and for all of the readers who wish to read even more amazing, original fiction often overlooked by traditional publishing.
I’d love to hear what you think about this partnership. Is it offering a service you’d be interested in here on Substack? Are you a fan of Royal Road? What are your thoughts on the future of publishing?
Thanks for reading! See you in the comments. ~ WM
To be perfectly honest, as a once RoyalRoad writer, in my opinion, this is geared towards certain writers.
RoyalRoad really has a specific niche. Progression fantasy and lit-rpgs, and honestly, anything power fantasy, holds strong with that community. So any book that will be published is going to have to appeal to RoyalRoad's audience. And believe me, that audience is particular to the point of frustration if you happen to write off-genre like I did. That is one of the main reasons I no longer post on RoyalRoad. I'm never going to write a series that will appeal to that audience. So their particular publishing program isn't attractive to me.
Also, I honestly wish they never partnered with Moonquil. They've been publishing stories for years now and they don't exactly have that much of a presence in comparison to other lit-rpg and progression fantasy publishers. And the reason being is that they are terrible at marketing.
I know in this arrangement, RR is going to do the bulk of the marketing. I don't know if they can manage it, but I think it's better than anything I've seen Moonquil do. I mean, the only story I've seen given good marketing is the founder's own series. Sadly, I don't know enough about MangoMedia, because they are a part of this as well. They are just too new. I've never seen the name prior to the announcement.
Overall, I will stand back and watch, because it's interesting. However, I wouldn't even try. I'm trying to step aways from serial writing as I don't particularly enjoy it. Maybe Substack, in the end, will treat serialization differently. However, fiction platforms are too specific and have their own culture and ecosystems that don't allow for a lot of flexibility. Substack offers more, but what it has in flexibility it lacks in visibility.
they’re where I looked when I thought to write fiction, seems like a good place