From Royal Road to print
Most of the series we cover started as free web serials on Royal Road before they came out as ebooks and audiobooks. Once that happens, many authors take most chapters down: Royal Road marks the story a stub. Its help page puts it this way: “Stubs are fictions that do not have all content available on Royal Road. This can be because of exclusivity contracts with, for example, Amazon's Kindle Unlimited.” Below, what each series' Royal Road page showed when we read it, and when book 1 came out.
- Series
- 5
- Stubs
- 4
- Complete, free
- 0
Stubbed
Published, most chapters taken down (4)
Defiance of the Fall by JF Brink
Stub- Royal Road shows
status tag STUB
- Chapters listed
- 73 on the day we checked
- First chapter
- May 5, 2019
- Book 1
- Defiance of the Fall, Jun 8, 2021 (ebook), Aethon Books. 25 months after the first chapter
- On the page
Books 1-12 are now on Amazon/Kindle Unlimited/Audible!
- Checked
- Oct 10, 2026, Royal Road page
The Primal Hunter by Zogarth
Stub- Royal Road shows
Original STUB
- First chapter
- Sep 19, 2020
- Book 1
- The Primal Hunter, Mar 8, 2022 (ebook), Aethon Books. 17 months after the first chapter
- Where books start
- Book 17 starts at chapter 1216
- On the page
Book 1 now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited & Audible
- Checked
- Oct 10, 2026, Royal Road page
Mark of the Fool by J.M. Clarke
Stub- Royal Road shows
Original STUB
- Chapters listed
- 31 on the day we checked
- First chapter
- Mar 26, 2021
- Book 1
- Mark of the Fool, Sep 20, 2022 (ebook), Aethon Books. 17 months after the first chapter
- Checked
- Oct 10, 2026, Royal Road page
He Who Fights with Monsters by Shirtaloon (Travis Deverell)
Stub- Royal Road shows
Original STUB
- Book 1
- He Who Fights with Monsters, Mar 9, 2021 (ebook), Aethon Books
- Where books start
- Book 12 starts at chapter 883
- On the page
Earlier books available on Amazon
- Checked
- Oct 10, 2026, Royal Road page
Not recorded
Status not recorded (1)
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Status not recorded- Book 1
- Dungeon Crawler Carl, Sep 21, 2020 (first published), Ace (Penguin Random House)
- On the page
The first several chapters of DCC are now off of Royal Road because the book is on Amazon.
- Checked
- Oct 10, 2026, Royal Road page
Sources
How we checked this
Source: each series' Royal Road fiction page, read by our editors in a normal browser on the date shown on its row and recorded in the source table behind that series' guide, with the quote. We never collect Royal Road pages automatically. Book 1 dates and publishers come from the same tables (publisher, Amazon and Audible pages). Chapter counts change as authors post or take chapters down, so treat them as a snapshot of that day.
4 of 5 series have a status checked in the last 90 days. This page joins search results at 12.
See also which series are finished, the publishers and every series.