Board 8 > I published a book.

(+) Yeah! (+)

What's the difference between LitRPG and isekai? Does your story use game mechanics?
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My story uses game mechanics, yeah. Made sure to write them into the narrative so they're an important part of the plot/world and not just window dressing.

Isekai is any story about someone being transported to another world. The story concept has a wide umbrella, although the term originated from anime I think. For example, Konosuba is obviously an isekai, but technically, so is Space Jam.

LitRPG is specifically about a world that runs partially or fully on game mechanics. A LitRPG doesn't have to be an isekai, but a lot of them are. Konosuba has LitRPG elements for sure. Re:Zero doesn't.

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Worlds that run on game mechanics are reasonably common in anime but for whatever reason, I don't recall ever hearing them being called LitRPGs. Like if I explicitly google for SAO and LitRPGs people obviously do it but somehow I've never seen that until now.
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It's a specific subgenre of literature that's exploded in the last 5 years or so. I didn't know anything about it until about 2 years ago myself.

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I only first saw the term myself a few months ago though obviously I'd been familiar with a number of stories that fit it (though most, if not all, are isekai as well.)

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I tried writing a LitRPG several years ago and then abandoned it. I should finally finish ONE of these projects... it'll probably be a different one first.

P.S. Good on you for not only finishing Book 1, but also Book 2.
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xp1337 posted...

I only first saw the term myself a few months ago though obviously I'd been familiar with a number of stories that fit it (though most, if not all, are isekai as well.)

I imagine the existence of game mechanics stuff is easier to explain if it is the result of someone getting dropped into a video game like world. But, there are anime like Danmachi where characters just have level, stats and skills without being an isekai.
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Best Sellers Rank: #739 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
#9 in Fantasy Adventure Fiction
#38 in Fantasy Action & Adventure
#108 in Fantasy (Kindle Store)

Slowing down a bit. Could this be the end of my glorious march to #1?!?

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Whiskey_Nick posted...

I can't read

Any plans for an audiobook??

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MajinZidane posted...

Any plans for an audiobook??

Coming out next year!

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congrats! bookmarking to grab at some point

(Also, I really enjoy that a screen name I came up with 16 years ago is now used as an author's name)

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Team Rocket Elite posted...

Worlds that run on game mechanics are reasonably common in anime but for whatever reason, I don't recall ever hearing them being called LitRPGs. Like if I explicitly google for SAO and LitRPGs people obviously do it but somehow I've never seen that until now.

It's a recent term. From what I know from my friend's explanation, the genre mostly stems from East Asian webnovels dating back to early 00s-ish and really blew up globally when SAO became a huge hit. With the explosion of new works and without a term to call the genre in English, some site coined LitRPG as a catch all not that long ago. The term didn't even exist when the original SAO was airing.

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Best Sellers Rank: #641 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
#9 in Fantasy Adventure Fiction
#32 in Fantasy Action & Adventure
#95 in Fantasy (Kindle Store)

I fully expect to drop in the rankings tomorrow now that I don't have the first-day fanbase rush supporting me, but this has been an amazing first day, so I can hardly complain.

Not Dave posted...

congrats! bookmarking to grab at some point

(Also, I really enjoy that a screen name I came up with 16 years ago is now used as an author's name)

Here's a fun fact: I was advised by my audiobook company to keep the pen name, as they thought it was too catchy to give up on.

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is there actually paper backs of this thing

amazon.ca said there is 1 new available

i'll read it when it arrives on monday

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The paperbacks should be print to order, assuming Amazon isn't lying.

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I have actually been to one of the four make-on-demand book Amazon book sites! PHL9 in Delaware. They really do print everything to order, its pretty amazing and fascinating to watch. Probably one of the best corners of Amazon to work in as well, everyone has been there for 3+ years and they rarely hire which is super uncommon for an Amazon warehouse.

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As a side note, here's a truncated version of the advertising checklist I had for the 16th.

Inform my fanbases at:
-Spacebattles
-Royal Road
-HFY Subreddit
-Patreon

Amazon Paid Marketing
Royal Road Paid Marketing
LitRPG Subreddit
Progression Subreddit
Twitter
LitRPG Books Facebook Group
LitRPG Forums Facebook Group
Make Imgur Post (btw this shit somehow went viral lmao)

ZenOfThunder posted...

I have actually been to one of the four make-on-demand book Amazon book sites! PHL9 in Delaware. They really do print everything to order, its pretty amazing and fascinating to watch. Probably one of the best corners of Amazon to work in as well, everyone has been there for 3+ years and they rarely hire which is super uncommon for an Amazon warehouse.

Huh, I never knew one of the rare good places to work at Amazon resided in Delaware. Like finding a unicorn in an IKEA.

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Best Sellers Rank: #534 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
#9 in Fantasy Adventure Fiction
#26 in Fantasy Action & Adventure
#81 in Fantasy (Kindle Store)

Don't expect me to rise any further in the first category. #8 is another new release, and #1 - #7 are the entire Harry Potter series.

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I see that it's on KindleUnlimited which I do have. But how does that work out for you? Does reading it there support you still or is it better to buy a copy?

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I was surprised to see I can get a paperback copy in Japan, but I guess they must have print on demand places out here too

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That is cool dude

Congrats! I ordered the paperback. Its been a while since Ive read a book.

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KamikazePotato posted...

A mod asked, so I'm in the clear! You all saw it!

An Outcast In Another World (Book 1 - Human Insanity)

Unsure if it's been brought up in the past 30ish posts, but when i searched "an outcast" it was the third Google suggestion! Thrilled to see this kind of success for you.

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KamikazePotato posted...

#1 - #7 are the entire Harry Potter series.

jfc

Congrats though, #9 is amazing!

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Thanks again everyone!

TotallyNotMI posted...

I see that it's on KindleUnlimited which I do have. But how does that work out for you? Does reading it there support you still or is it better to buy a copy?

A direct purchase is worth the most monetary-wise. Kindle Unlimited pays you based on number of pages read, but someone reading my book even to the end pays out slightly less than if they bought the full Kindle directly. This is probably different for super long books, but yeah.

The really good thing about Kindle Unlimited for authors is that someone adding it to their Kindle Library counts as a 'sale' in the algorithm's eyes. So if someone adds your book and reads like one page, you still get put farther up the rankings, get more visibility, ect. KU in general is about maximizing the number of people with availability with your book, and honestly speaking, it's where the money's at. Especially for a LitRPG.

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I know you said an audiobook is in the works, so you may not know this yet. What does the author get when you use a credit to get the book "for free?"

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I would assume it counts as an Audiobook 'sale', but I'm not sure, honestly. The audio side of things is being handled by a company because I only have the brainpower for self-publishing so much. I'll ask them.

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I listen to audiobooks all the time, so I'd be more likely to go that route. I just want to make sure you don't get short-changed through using a credit.

Also, would you read it yourself or are they just going to find somebody to do it?

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I always hear that authors like you get so screwed by audiobooks. People buying the audiobook and then listening to it and then returning it so you don't get paid, or Amazon giving the book for free and you get nothing for it.

If you are investing money into getting an audiobook made you should poke around on if it's even possible to make a return on it lol

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They're hiring a narrator. I don't think sporadic guest appearances on The Show have prepped me to be an audiobook narrator, sadly.

And I'm not investing any money into the audiobook's creation. The company fully funds the audiobook and I get a cut of sales. It's not a huge cut, and I've heard that people who self-fund their audio can make tons of money if it's successful, but I also don't have to worry about stuff like you just said happening. Based on the research I did, the audio world is way riskier than text self-pub, which is why I opted to let an established company handle the dirty work for me.

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Have you still not linked the book? After the 1st post they can delete your post but not the whole thread

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Well, true.

https://www.amazon.com/Outcast-Another-World-Adventure-Insanity-ebook/dp/B09FZ16ZNT

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KamikazePotato posted...

I don't think sporadic guest appearances on The Show have prepped me to be an audiobook narrator, sadly.

Vocally, perhaps not, but I like to think we took you to another level intellectually, resulting in such epic success ever since!


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I got my husband to order this. Its the type of stuff he likes to watch anime of, so I thought he might enjoy this.

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I'd say I'm well equipped to narrate audiobooks

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KamikazePotato posted...

Best Sellers Rank: #534 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
#9 in Fantasy Adventure Fiction
#26 in Fantasy Action & Adventure
#81 in Fantasy (Kindle Store)

Don't expect me to rise any further in the first category. #8 is another new release, and #1 - #7 are the entire Harry Potter series.

says it's #8 to me!

Alanna82 posted...

I got my husband to order this. Its the type of stuff he likes to watch anime of, so I thought he might enjoy this.

Thanks for recommending it! I hope he likes it.

Ngamer64 posted...

Vocally, perhaps not, but I like to think we took you to another level intellectually, resulting in such epic success ever since!

Of course. I owe it all to standing in line, to see the show tonight...

Paratroopa1 posted...

says it's #8 to me!

The rankings shuffled a bit since then. I'm #8 in FAF but lowered in everything else. Currently at #619 in the general good store, which is about the drop I expected from yesterday. So far, the initial fanbase push has converted into strong new-reader support on Kindle Unlimited. No idea what the next few days will bring, but so far the outlook is definitely bright!

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Fun fact: I can watch my KENP (essentially the numerical value for how many pages my Kindle Unlimited users have read) go up in real-time. It's tied heavily to the US; boost when the east coast hits around 5 PM, then another for the west coast.

What I'm saying is that my story has an ASV.

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So that means the kiddies love your story, right?
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sounds like an opportunity for a trend chart

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Xeybozn posted...

So that means the kiddies love your story, right?

Young Adult is the most successful fantasy market, so there's worse things! Although based on the Top 100, the genre of 'Literotica branded as a fantasy novel so women can read it without feeling embarrassed' is a close second.

xp1337 posted...

sounds like an opportunity for a trend chart

I don't get hourly trends, unfortunately. I'll post a Day 1 vs. Day 2 comparison at midnight EST, but the general gist is that Day 1 had lots of direct Kindle sales, while Day 2 is dominated by Kindle Unlimited readers.

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I reviewed your book yesterday but its still not showing up, worried I said something to get it rejected lol

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Some reviews take a long time to get accepted for arbitrary reasons, I wouldn't worry about it. And thanks for the support dude, it means a lot!

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Because I'm a big fucking nerd, I started tracking today's KENP numbers myself. All times are EST PM. One of those updates is not like the others - Amazon metric updates are slow and staggered a lot of the time.

7:20 - 85736
7:30 - 87147
7:50 - 88458
8:00 - 89046
8:15 - 90831
8:30 - 92163
8:40 - 93803
9:00 - 100,000
9:10 - 101,831
9:20 - 103,268
9:30 - 104,235
9:45 - 105,094

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KamikazePotato posted...

8:40 - 93803
9:00 - 100,000

stuffers getting too obvious just ending on a round number like that on top of the massive spike /s

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n_n

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weird seeing "KamikazePotato" as an author's name. Why not go with a pseudonym?

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KamikazePotato posted...

Here's a fun fact: I was advised by my audiobook company to keep the pen name, as they thought it was too catchy to give up on.

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Because the story had already been posted under the name KamikazePotato on several sites, and the audiobook company recommended that I keep it as it's a name that people will easily remember. I still included my real name on the inside of the book, so it was never about wanting to hide my name.

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I am so excited to have a book by "KamikazePotato" on my bookshelf. Also to read it but it is a great conversation piece

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