How Fight. Level. Survive. Came to Be

I’ve spent most of my career working in TV in the UK, but the industry has been eerily quiet for the past few years. With work drying up, I suddenly found myself with a lot of free time—and I filled it by diving headfirst into the world of LitRPG.

One book turned into ten, then fifty, then a hundred. At some point, I had a realization: I could do this. Out of curiosity, I did a quick Google search to see how these books were performing, and imagine my shock when I discovered multiple authors earning tens of thousands of pounds a month on Patreon. I didn’t expect to reach that level of success, but just knowing it was possible lit a fire in me.

So, I started writing. Like many aspiring authors, I began publishing chapters on Royal Road. Unlike most, however, I did zero research on how to do it properly. Turns out, you’re supposed to launch with five to ten chapters on day one and then keep up a relentless schedule—posting a chapter a day, every day, forever.

I, on the other hand, dropped a single chapter upon launch and called it a day.

That left me in an awkward position—I had no backlog or strategy, just me trying to write and publish a chapter a day while simultaneously scrambling to build enough of a buffer to launch a Patreon. I kept it up for a while, but eventually, the daily grind got the better of me. I stepped back and started posting less frequently.

Eventually, I gained a fair few followers and found my way to the wonderful people at Aethon Books, who helped me sort all the many things you need to sort to get published.

And that’s how Fight. Level. Survive. began—born out of unemployment, a LitRPG obsession, and a whole lot of trial and error.