I'm currently working on my third fiction on RR. Since I'm a student with the summer off, I'm able to write every day from about 9:00-4:30. I consider it a good day if I write over 2K words. I post at the same time every Saturday, and I'm over 450 pages into my current series. I think it's the best work I've done to date.
I'm studying illustration and writing in college and I've won various writing contests over the years, so I have at least some outside feedback that somebody thinks my writing is good.
But my numbers here are laughably low. I have 12 followers. My first chapter is sitting at 216 views, while my most recent chapter (number 30) is at 12.
It's just killing me. I've proceeded with the hope that the numbers would go up with time, but they've literally only decreased since my initial release date. At this point I'm feeling demoralized about writing in general. I want to make my career out of publishing and illustrating my own books, and it's hard not to take my reception on RR as a sample study for how my writing will perform in the greater world.
I've been adding supplementary media in the form of illustrations, music compositions, and even a text-based game to go with one of the chapters. I spent the summer of 2025 doing nothing but planning out my current plot. I've done review swaps.
To all those who have found success on RR, how can I build a better reader base? This is my first time posting on the forums. I figured it was time to stop stewing in my own misery and make use of the smart people who have already figured this out.
Thank you!

There's a lot of writers here than before but not as much readers, so getting found is hard.

Your cover images look cover if someone looks at them, but most people will only glance over them and there they look like very low quality images.

Your blurb is very short. It only tells facts about your story, it does not give the impression of your writing.

Both together means that less people might give it a chance.

Some loss is to be expected between first and later chapters. Not having much in the synopsis might make more people read the first chapter before giving up, but that still indicates that not getting attention might not be your only problem.

Writing contests often look for something art-sy. They usually lack the number of judges and the honesty to look for good writing.

I wish I had the answer to your question, but I am only just starting out myself, and as much as I would love to see the big numbers others have, I have resigned myself to the fact that slow and steady will win the race I am in. Especially as I fall into the 'not-the-usual-story' category on here.

From what I have read (and I have read a lot), there are SO many things which could be affecting this. 
Is your cover captivating? Is your blurb well written? Have you got reviews, ratings, shoutouts? Do you talk on the forums? What's your release schedule like, etc., etc.

I had this with my cover. My original one didn't get many views. I changed it, and my views instantly went up.

One of the best steps you have made is speaking on the forums. Loads of people click on people's stories just by seeing them talking on the forums and responding to posts. Reach out to others. Say hi to the newbies and post on the promotion threads to help your stories' visibility.

Whatever happens, remember finding your following doesn't always happen overnight; sometimes it takes time. Royal Road has so many stories on it, and reaching people will be a chore at times. But do low numbers mean you should give up on your dream of writing? Heck no! Does this mean you have failed and your work is not good? Absolutely not! 

I have come across people who didn't hit huge numbers, but they have published their work and made more money than those who did.

You'll get there, I am sure. In the meantime, I am rooting for you!! 

#1 obstacle is usually: people either don't know your story even exists, or they don't care to know it exists.

Solution: let go of the traditional pub cover style. Go for something flashy that'll catch the eye while you're scrolling through. Do shout-out swaps. Announce your story in the marketing forum, on reddit, facebook, etc. Just marketing.

That said, on RR, if you're not a litrpg, you're playing on hard mode. If you're writing in tradpub style, with large paragraphs, you're on double hard mode. Keep your expectations in line.

Disclaimer: advices based on other advice I've seen. I'm not really a successful writer.

EYESHINER Wrote: I figured it was time to stop stewing in my own misery and make use of the smart people who have already figured this out.

Uh oh, I have bad news for you... We're all struggling to make it too! But posting on the forums is a worthwhile step, I think. Every time you post with your signature, you will get more eyes on your fictions.

I think the harsh truth is that making it as an author is just very, very tough. When RL associates hear that you write novels, they can jump to wild, baseless expectations, which makes it all the harder. In reality, for every book you see on a shelf, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) that fall into obscurity.

If writing is something you genuinely enjoy, then the creation process is worthwhile in itself. If you are writing only for success, then you might have a difficult journey ahead.

With all that said, I am just as clueless as everyone else here, so don't take my word as gospel.

whoever Wrote: There's a lot of writers here than before but not as much readers, so getting found is hard.

That's a very good point. I guess I just should've gotten here sooner

This is me, but I've dissociated from the rat race of royal road. I focus more on the individual readers I get. The ones that comment, especially. Those are the ones that mean the most to me, and I tend to get those through checking out and commenting on other people's stuff.

Initium Wrote: I changed it, and my views instantly went up.

Ahh okay. I've been thinking about updating my covers for a while now. I'll take this as my sign to get on that :)
I really appreciate your encouraging words. Thank you

G.W. Heart Wrote: That said, on RR, if you're not a litrpg, you're playing on hard mode. If you're writing in tradpub style, with large paragraphs, you're on double hard mode.

Oh man that's me on both counts. 
Thank you for the advice!

EYESHINER Wrote:

G.W. Heart Wrote: That said, on RR, if you're not a litrpg, you're playing on hard mode. If you're writing in tradpub style, with large paragraphs, you're on double hard mode.

Oh man that's me on both counts. 
Thank you for the advice!

Hey that makes me respect you more and be slightly more interested. But I'm weird.

EYESHINER Wrote:

whoever Wrote: There's a lot of writers here than before but not as much readers, so getting found is hard.

That's a very good point. I guess I just should've gotten here sooner

fight the curse of Royal Road do not give up after 30 chapters or less try to reach a hundred or more also don't focus on getting into Rising Stars that's a good way to come up blazing star you burn brightly then you burn out about 80% of the fiction it winds up and Rising Stars is now abandoned or dead cuz the author burned out

I feel you. I’m on several platforms. I’ve sat at 256 views *total* on one for over a year. My advice is to branch out onto some other platforms. You may have better success on one than another. It’s hard to get noticed out there…thousands of stories are posted every day. But I look at like this, if no one read my story, would I still write? For me, the answer is yes. So that makes it worth it, no matter how few views or whatever I get 😊

1. Write a compelling story
2. Write well
3. Advertise it
4. Blind luck

Every successful author had #4 land on their lap. There isn't a magic bullet and for every author you see in the Amazon top 100, there are tens of thousands who fall into obscurity, most of whom are far better than anyone in the Amazon top 100.

Your writing style is not dynamic. You use a lot of filter words.
This is also known as not writing in an active voice, using passive verbs imply a lack of motion.

I often say that if you can do the verb in the sentence while sitting in a chair and not moving a muscle, then the sentence is passively written. This is NOT the same as the grammatical definition of a passive sentence, although grammatically passive sentences are typically not dynamic.

Writing in a passive voice (by using filter words) adds extra verbiage to a story. It also relies a great deal on Telling and not Showing. Now of course, we could go on and on about striking the proper balance between Telling and Showing, but that's not what this post is about.

This post is about using Filter Words, and the lack of Dynamic Writing.
Of course, to reiterate, Filter Words, Passive Sentence Structure and Excess Verbiage all lead toward removing a reader from a story, by adding a layer of distance.

There is no actual list of Filter Words to Avoid, for filtering is a style-of-writing problem, and not a word-use problem.

Your new story is being written in the First Person, where filtering can be an especially big problem, because the reason why you write in the First Person is to give immediacy to your story. But I see it in your other stories too, where you write in the Third Person. The layer of distance that filtering adds removes the immediacy from even the most active scene, and a reader will grow disinterested, as the lack of immersion takes its toll.

Here are Rules of Thumb to follow, to increase immediacy:

1. Keep your sentences tight. Never say in four words what you can say in three. This holds true for sentence, paragraphs and punctuation. Reduce your word count whenever possible.
If, upon rereading what you wrote, you feel the need to add a word or a comma, or split up a sentence, do it during your third or fourth edit.
Your first edit should be to remove as many words, sentences and paragraphs as possible.

2. Do not over explain. Let your readers fill in the blank with thoughts and opinions of their own. Let them visualize a scene in their own way, rather than explicitly laying out every detail.

3. Imagine yourself in the scene, as a character. Would you say these things? Would you think these things? Would you know these things? Would you notice these things? Would you care about these things?

Eliminate the extraneous, especially in world build and scene description. Nobody walks down the street, and thinks about the last one hundred years of history, or notices every storefront, billboard and passerby. Pick out what is pertinent to the plot, and discard the rest.

Now, with all that said, let's do some examples. Here is a random passage from your story:

I stare at the scattered pile of red shards that used to be my sister.
Why’d she do that? The Hubbot stood in front of her for literally an entire minute, and she just sat there! What the heck?
- How does the MC know that it was 'literally an entire minute?' Did he use a stopwatch?
Now I glance at the robot. Its gun isn’t turning red, so I kneel down and begin gathering the shards together. I will put them into the bag. I’ll keep them safe until I can turn them back into my sister.
I wonder all the time what it’d be like to be a rock. I’ll have to ask her what it’s like once she’s better again.
- Nearly every sentence in this paragraph starts with I. Three of them start with I will (the word WILL is very often used as a filter word)
I need to get every single little red chunk. I don’t want to leave the piece behind that’s supposed to be her head. I look closer at one. My hand is shaking a little, so I can’t see it very well. I can test what kind of crystal it is later.
- Again. Nearly every sentence starts with I. You also say RED three times, This will wear on a reader, in a short amount of time. It's most likely the main reason why people drop your story.
I gently put the piece into my bag and reach for another.
Before I can grab it, it disappears.
“Huh?” I look around. All of the shards are disappearing. Even the ones I’ve already put into the bag. They’re all gone.
- This sort of detail is extraneous. The shards are disappearing. That is all that matters.
It doesn't matter what kind of crystal the shards are.
It doesn't matter that he's putting them in a bag.
There's no need to tell the reader that the MC is examining them.
He will not be able to test them. 
They're disappearing. This is what matters.
I sit back onto the road and look blankly around. Gen is gone. Rook is gone. I am alone.

Here is the same passage with the filtering removed.

With my sister now reduced to a pile of red shards, I stare at the Hubbot. Its gun no longer glows, so I kneel down to gather up the pieces.
Why did she do that? I think. The Hubbot stood before her, and she did nothing!
I have get every single chunk, in case one of them is her head. But they begin to disappear, and soon they are all gone. 
While sitting on the road, I blankly stare at nothing. Gen is gone. Rook is gone. I am alone.
Good luck with your story! I think that it's very good, and I hope I've helped. 

Shout outs and advertisements are the name of the game. That, and regular posting here.

Battle_Sloth1 Wrote: Shout outs and advertisements are the name of the game. That, and regular posting here.

Yeah, this. Forums are where I found a lot of my current reads, and I think that's how a good few other people have found mine.

ArDeeBurger Wrote: Good luck with your story! I think that it's very good, and I hope I've helped.

Absolutely! I'll keep all of this in mind. Thank you for the thoughtful advice!!

EYESHINER Wrote:

ArDeeBurger Wrote: Good luck with your story! I think that it's very good, and I hope I've helped.

Absolutely! I'll keep all of this in mind. Thank you for the thoughtful advice!!

You are very welcome. 🐺

Battle_Sloth1 Wrote: That, and regular posting here.

Keep in mind the forums are mostly authors. That usually means we're readers as well, but the general audience does Not hang out on the forums. 

You've gotten some good advice already. Keep in mind that writing and publishing is a glacial industry. Everything moves slowly, so think marathon, not sprint. Also consider that there are 130K other fictions on the site, and of those, 97K of them have 10 or less followers.

whoever Wrote: There's a lot of writers here than before but not as much readers, so getting found is hard.

Your cover images look cover if someone looks at them, but most people will only glance over them and there they look like very low quality images.

Your blurb is very short. It only tells facts about your story, it does not give the impression of your writing.

Both together means that less people might give it a chance.

Some loss is to be expected between first and later chapters. Not having much in the synopsis might make more people read the first chapter before giving up, but that still indicates that not getting attention might not be your only problem.

Writing contests often look for something art-sy. They usually lack the number of judges and the honesty to look for good writing.

It would be great if you can give some advice to my story as well. Thank you in advance if you do!