So this is now up on Royal Road. I'm making the Providence chapters of All The Young Punks the first book of the Punks Universe. For the punks readers this is nothing new. It's the same story. I am publishing ATYP with a very light rewrite... mostly just fixing my fuck ups and some dialogue changes.
Two chapters into my Royal Road experience I have been tested. I almost quit because of - cue dreaded music of doom - MODERATORS.
My first chapter submission was rejected because I dropped an F-bomb in my public-facing synopsis. You can have all the profanity and sex you want inside your story but the outside packaging must be clean.
My bad. I fixed it.
Then it was rejected because RR detected that All The Young Punks existed elsewhere on the internet and I had to verify my authorship and ownership of my story. I appreciate their policies to protect authors against plagiarism but after two rejections I'm guessing those who follow me know how I reacted.
"Goddamnit. What the fuck? This is bullshit."
I had to write a note in my Literotica profile referencing Royal Road and I also linked my Lit profile and this blog with my Gmail as evidence I am the same dadadadiox. I wrote a short blog message here to RR staff that according my my blogger view count only two people saw, one of them a Royal Road staffer I assume.
I'm not a jumping-through hoops kind of guy. If you make something annoyingly more difficult than it should be I'll just fuck off and go someplace else. I had to fight those dark urges and let the process play out.
The good news is they accepted my proof. I deleted that message and now I am past the gatekeepers and free to roam on Royal Road.
On to Sons of Providence. I'm repackaging my punk writing. That cover photo is of Atwells Avenue, Federal Hill, Providence. The arch in the foreground holds a giant pine nut. Why? I have no fucking clue. That is the easternmost end of the Italian Strip, a mile and a quarter of fine restaurants, pizzerias, bars, delis, bakeries, and the best cultural experience Providence has to offer.
We called the pine nut hanging from the arch the Holy Hand Grenade Of Antioch. That line is somewhere in my story.
I'm brand new on Royal Road. I'm learning the platform and giving RR a test flight with my earliest Punks chapters. Compared to Wattpad, Royal Road has far more tools for the author and the reader. I like that they have built-in author notes to start and end each chapter.
If ATYP gains an audience on RR, which is doubtful, they will have a different experience than Lit readers had. There are features in the RR platform that make me want this literary site to work out. There's more opportunity for reader-author interaction. After only a few days, I can see clear advantages it has over Wattpad but it's not perfect.
Royal Road's content machine is so fantasy and sci-fi-centric I don't know if there's a market for my 1970s punk fiction. I'm throwing chapters against the wall to see if they stick. The writing is done. I have nothing to lose but the time I put into publishing.
RR and Wattpad both allow authors to roll out chapters as they wish without moderators deciding on what day it goes live. I will release Sons of Providence over a few weeks.
If you want to wander over there and check it out, great. If not, I get it. You've already read this story.
This link takes you to the dashboard. Scroll down for the chapters.