What do you do at T-30 days?
Upload to KDP as pre-order with a 14–21 day window. Decide on Kindle Unlimited enrollment. Final cover, edited manuscript, and back-cover copy must be locked. Build the Royal Road announcement post but don't publish yet.
Why run a continuity pass before you lock the manuscript?
Because paying readers notice slips that free readers forgave. A serial gets rewritten as it goes, so the first draft of book 1 often carries a rank that goes backwards, a brother who turns into a cousin, or a skill used before the chapter that unlocks it.
PlotWrite (plotwrite.ink) reads the chapters you've already written and builds a Story brain, with facts timed by chapter. The canon check finds contradictions and shows both quotes side by side, and the Continuity report lists the top 5 to fix first. You write; PlotWrite remembers every stat, rank and promise. It never writes the book for you.
What do you do at T-14 days?
Publish the Royal Road announcement post. Drop it in the author note of your latest chapter and as a standalone post. Mention the pre-order link, the launch date, and the KU enrollment. Reader wishlist additions during pre-order signal Amazon's algorithm.
What should you do on launch day?
Post a launch-day chapter with the announcement at the top. Email any list you have. Cross-post to r/ProgressionFantasy or r/litrpg (follow subreddit rules). Reply to every comment for 48 hours. Launch-day sales velocity strongly shapes the next few weeks of Amazon ranking.
Keeping a long serial straight is the hard part. PlotWrite remembers every rank, skill and secret in your story and checks each new chapter before you post. Works with the Claude or ChatGPT plan you already pay for. Free for 7 days.
plotwrite.ink learns your writing style, keeps track of your characters and world rules, and can draft the next chapter in your voice with your Claude or ChatGPT plan or your own AI key. Built for Royal Road, Wattpad, and serial authors who post weekly.
- No credit card
- Cancel anytime
- Full Architect access
- Works with your Claude or ChatGPT plan or your own AI key
Ready to try it on your own serial? Start your free trial
How do you handle launch weeks 1–4?
Watch the Bestsellers Rank in your sub-categories. If you crack the top 100 in a small category, the algorithm may surface you to non-Royal Road readers. Re-promote to your Royal Road audience every 7 days for the first month, but always inside a chapter, never as a standalone post.
What income should you expect from a KDP launch?
Nobody can promise a launch-month figure. It depends on your follower count, genre, cover, blurb and how engaged your readers are. Track your own numbers from the first launch and use them to plan book 2, rather than trusting a range from someone else's launch.