Don''t worry — new chapters are still releasing on schedule! Chapter 25 releases on Tuesday the 25th of March 2025.


    Hello everyone,


    This is just an update to tell you how TEWWBAD is going, so you can get some insight into behind-the-scenes. I value your interest, so I want to keep you in the loop about how we''re doing.


    How are we doing?


    I''ve read that Royal Road hosts somewhere in the region of 50,000 fictions. I don''t know the exact number, but that estimate tracks with my experience: TEWWBAD was ranked somewhere around the 40k mark on the day it was first published.


    Ranking is determined by only three things: star ratings, short reviews, and full reviews.


    Full reviews count way more than short reviews, which count more than star ratings. To my knowledge, readers/views don''t count for ranking.


    So how are we doing? On February 5th, shortly after launch, TEWWBAD was ranked 19,364th. About a month later, on the 3rd of March, we had risen to 9858th.


    On Friday the 21st of March, we reached 4,019th of all fictions on Royal Road.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    This was thanks to the twenty-three wonderful people who have rated the story, a great short review by StarryRazi, and two lovely full reviews by Sirealism and Hiria Dunning (shout out of the moment to Hiria, whose beautiful review pushed us up 638 places and into the top 5k).


    Last I checked, this put us at 25th in Rising Stars for the "Psychological" genre, and 10th in Rising Stars for the "Tragedy" genre. It also means that TEWWBAD is now counted somewhere in the top 10% or so of fictions on Royal Road. It gets harder and harder to hold on to our ranking the higher we climb, but I''m doing everything I can to break us into the top 2.5k — and into the main Rising Stars listing.


    Given I started here with no previous work, no buzz, and no word of mouth, this is a pretty decent performance for a first story.


    To those of you who have rated or reviewed TEWWBAD: thank you, eternally, from the bottom of my heart. You''re making a huge difference to my life.


    And to show my thanks, when TEWWBAD is done I''m going to write a short story and upload it only on Royal Road — and I''ll dedicate it, by name, to everyone who posts a fair review before the story is complete. I''d happily include everyone who gives a rating as well, but unfortunately I can''t see your names.


    So, what now?


    I''m thinking of doing updates like these every once in a while. I''d like to talk a little about the challenges of making it as a professional author (i.e. why the ranking on here matters so much — it''s not ego), as well as future writing plans for TEWWBAD and beyond. I''ve put a poll below on this topic, so please give it a quick vote.


    That''s all for now. My cat is demanding I stop, and that we go have lunch. Who am I to argue?


    Thanks for reading,


    LJ


    P.S. This is a temporary message. It was too long for an author''s note in a chapter, so I''ll delete it next week.