Lots of good answers about litRPG and PF already, but I think the direct answer to why it's popular is that many readers like to have objective metrics for how powerful a character is, and how things are progressing. I also personally credit the popularity of shows like Critical Role.

Besides being good, TWI is also Brandon Sanderson-level value for money. The first book is like 48 hours of listening for one measly credit on Audible, and it's not the longest one by far! And that's at Andrea Parsneau speed; she's *not* a slow performer.

Time to go write a new LitRPG series where every class path ends with turning the person into a crab shifter. Warrior crabs, mage crabs, holy crabs, invisible sneaky rogue crabs; it's all crabs at the top!

Some unfortunate (?) framing of the cover there :D

Okay, that sounds awesome, but I must know: did the undead plague start because of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans?

I can play Jeff Hays reading "You will not break me" in my mind at will, and it's glorious.

Awesome! Will Tess be recording this one?

It's a chronic tragedy of my life that I'm so far behind on this series (I'm only on Fusing) that I can't sit in on these sessions without spoiling myself beyond repair.

I'm sure it'll be as great as ever, though!

Congratulations on the launch! First book? Amazing feeling, isn't it? And I love to see some more queer litRPG coming out :)

You should know that the shortened Amazon link doesn't work for me, on two different devices. But the book's searchable on both Amazon and Audible!

You can add Zogarth and Shirtaloon to litRPG folks who do exceedingly well. Zogarth is something like the 100th largest Patreon, with about 10k members.

That's a nice set of covers!

Also I love the title "Snacks Against Humanity" :D

It took me over thirty years before I allowed myself to put away my pride and put down a book I just didn't like. When reading for enjoyment, there are just too many good books out there to force yourself to spend your time on one that isn't working for you. The earlier you learn this, the better.

Oh, the new story tingles! I love that for you.

I mean, if it happened everywhere all at once a significant percentage of the world's population would just straight up be asleep. Imagine the integration happened at 10 AM CET on a Thursday. Almost all of the Americas wakes up ready to finish the week and SURPRISE!

You can add @kthanna.bsky.social to that list!

A good narrator can do so much to elevate a book.

I stand by the quality of my work, but I honestly prefer hearing Katherine Littrell's interpretation of my books over reading them myself. Narrators should get far more recognition than they do!

Welcome! Plenty of indie authors on here. Plenty of PF and litRPG authors, too, many of them indie. Since you mentioned wirting a litRPG book it sounds like you might want to grab the LitRPG & Progression Fantasy feed if you haven't already!