S.L Rowland is one of the pioneers of LitRPG and cozy fantasy, dominating the Amazon charts with his character-driven work that’s captivated a substantial audience. His work has been so integral to the community that he’s got a character in Dungeon Crawler Carl named after him. He’s been joining the ranks of authors doing deluxe editions on Kickstarter and his latest, There Be Dragons Here, is doing some of the best numbers of his career so far. Rowland sat down with Fandom Pulse to talk about the new campaign and his fantasy work:
You’ve been a big part of the LitRPG revolution since before it overtook everything in fantasy fiction. What was it like coming up in that, and do you think the genre has legs to last?
I started publishing LitRPG in 2017 with Pangea Online. The genre was so hungry that it’s still one of my best launches to date. We had a very tight-knit community, and there were so few books being published that the LitRPG Podcast would read and review almost every book coming out in a given week.
I definitely think it has the legs to last. We’re seeing more LitRPG books hit the mainstream than ever before, with several hitting the NYT Bestseller List, with Dungeon Crawler Carl paving the way.
Amazon’s really changed a lot in recent years; what are your thoughts on it? Is now a better or worse time for authors than when you started?
It’s hard to say if it’s better or worse. There’s more competition than ever before, but there are also more resources for authors to promote and gain traction. Indie publishing in general has evolved by leaps and bounds since I started. The days of throwing up a homemade cover with little editing and hitting it big are extremely rare, and I’d argue that many indie books have covers and editing on par with traditional publishers. Advertising and Marketing are a key component of any launch nowadays, making it more difficult to bootstrap a launch, but it’s still possible if you hit a popular niche at just the right time.
What exactly is cozy fantasy? Does it lean more toward some slice of life in a fantasy setting?
In its simplest terms, cozy fantasy is feel-good fantasy. It’s all about the vibes. Sometimes that leans toward slice of life, but I also quite enjoy cozy fantasy adventure. The promise to the reader is similar to romance in a way because you should always have a happy ending.
Everyone has a different scale for what’s cozy to them, so it’s hard to have a precise definition, and the genre is still evolving. But I like to think of them as nice palette cleansers between longer series or heavier reads. Sometimes you just need a book with low stakes and good vibes to escape the world.
Is that inspired by Japanese light novels that seem to have a lot more of that vibe than traditional Western fantasy?
I don’t know that they are inspired by light novels, but that is an accurate way to put it. When I’m on a cozy fanel panel or interview, vibes is a phrase that comes up quite a bit. Personally, I was inspired by Travis Baldree’s hit Legends & Lattes, and I know many cozy authors who were as well. It was such a comforting read for me that I wanted to write my own.
While certainly a different concept, There Be Dragons Here has a bit of similarity to Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End with the concept of a character who’s past their adventuring days. Did that manga inspire you, and what are your thoughts on how it’s impacting fantasy?
I actually started watching Frieren while I was writing There Be Dragons Here. I know Frieren has a strong fanbase, so it’s a very easy comp when I’m talking about the premise. People want to read books that capture a similar vibe.
The idea for There Be Dragons Here was born of my desire to push the boundaries of what cozy fantasy could be. I really wanted to start a book with a funeral, and it evolved into this beautiful story of a grandmother who was a renowned adventurer in her younger days, taking one last quest to scatter the ashes of an old adventuring companion. It’s the story of legacy, found family, and passing the torch to the next generation. Plus, dragons. Who doesn’t love a good dragon story?
You’ve done a couple of Kickstarters for the series of Tales of Aedrea that have been wildly successful already. Are you seeing an increase in readers who are looking for more premium, physical content?
One thing I noticed very early on when I started writing cozy fantasy was that the fanbase loves physical books. They love showing them off on social media and having something physical to hold. LitRPG is mostly ebooks and audiobooks, so it was a lot of fun being able to design these beautiful collector’s editions.
Each book you say focuses on a different character; does that make any book in the series a good jumping-on point?
Exactly! Before I started writing cozy fantasy, I was working on a 6-book litrpg series. It took me 6 years to finish it. So with this series, I wanted the ability to pivot from story to story, building up this epic world and exploring various characters and locations, much in the same way as Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. Creatively, it’s been amazing to have that freedom.
What are your favorite games and books that inspired your take on fantasy?
