The Wandering Inn author Pirateaba recently took to Reddit for a massive AMA, answering questions about everything from the future of the series to their determination to remain anonymous.
The AMA on r/Fantasy comes at a big moment for The Wandering Inn. Ten years after Pirateaba began writing the series while working part-time at Costco, the story has now made its way into physical bookstores through HarperVoyager.
Pirateaba originally planned to answer every question in the thread. After more than 11 hours and 1,500 comments later, Pirateaba finally conceded:
“I have been routed; I should have known this subreddit was too big to take on. Carry me away on my shield, and I did my best to answer comments.”
Among those hundreds of answers were some interesting details about the future of The Wandering Inn and the person behind it.
Pirateaba plans to remain anonymous
One of the most interesting questions actually came from another major LitRPG author.
Dungeon Crawler Carl creator Matt Dinniman asked Pirateaba whether maintaining their anonymity has become more difficult as The Wandering Inn has grown into a much larger business involving publishers, lawyers and publicists.
Pirateaba said working with corporations has actually been the easier part.
“The easiest part is actually corporate people because we can have them agree in writing not to reveal things and they tend to obey contracts. Even if my name gets on legal paper we’ve made agreements hither-to. It’s everything else where it can get potentially hard.”
Marketing presents a much bigger challenge.
Pirateaba said they expect to continue avoiding traditional author appearances.
“In-person events I am likely to try to say no to forever. No disguises; if I went to a con I’d tell no one until I was gone, and say ‘hey, I signed this or left that here, come find it!’”
There is a deeper reason Pirateaba has remained so protective of their identity.
“I’ve observed fame as the Djinni leaving the bottle. I might want to open it dearly sometimes but I cannot undo it, and there are a lot of negatives I don’t want.”
Pirateaba acknowledged that someone could eventually reveal their identity without permission, but they are operating under the assumption that they will remain anonymous.
That doesn’t necessarily mean The Wandering Inn won’t have a presence at conventions.
“We might hire people to cosplay or represent us well! After all, I know the author is a draw, but there are far more talented people.”
You can read Pirateaba’s full response to Dinniman here.
Pirateaba’s origin story
Another reader asked what attracted Pirateaba to publishing The Wandering Inn as a web serial rather than pursuing traditional publishing.
The answer was fairly straightforward.
“I couldn’t get published?”
Pirateaba went on to explain that traditional publishing is a long and difficult process, especially for an unknown first-time author.
“Seriously, it’s a long and difficult process to do traditional book publishing and I’m glad I got the chance to do this physical release, but it’s nervewracking on multiple levels.”
One of the advantages of publishing online was getting immediate feedback from actual readers.
Pirateaba said that without the web serial format, an unknown author might be writing with feedback limited to beta readers or editors, assuming they even have access to them.
Ten years later, Pirateaba still believes in the model.
“If I had to do it all over again, I’d do the web serial route. It’s a model I like!”
That answer is particularly interesting given what is happening across LitRPG and Progression Fantasy right now. The Wandering Inn has moved into bookstores, while other series that built enormous audiences online, including Dungeon Crawler Carl, have followed similar paths toward traditional publishing.
Pirateaba’s writing schedule
Given the frankly absurd amount of The Wandering Inn Pirateaba has written over the past decade, several readers naturally asked about their writing process.
According to Pirateaba, things have actually slowed down.
“Less intense, believe it or not. One chapter a week is better and I actually take breaks.”
Pirateaba said the basic process has changed gradually rather than through one major overhaul.
“Pieces of what you were at the start slowly shifting as you try to do something a bit better, faster, more efficiently.”
Previously, Pirateaba spent more time walking and actively thinking through upcoming parts of the story. After writing the same world for a decade, much of that planning now happens naturally in the background.
The shift to one chapter per week has also made it possible to take actual breaks, something that wasn’t always part of Pirateaba’s famously demanding schedule.
Livestreaming helps Pirateaba stay motivated
Pirateaba also gave an interesting answer when asked how they maintain the motivation required to keep producing so much material.
One major tool is livestreaming their writing.
“Streaming is really good. Having even one person watching me gives me the motivation to put effort in. Might not work for other people but I hate letting people down.”
That doesn’t mean Pirateaba forces themselves through every writing session.
In fact, experience has apparently taught them when doing the opposite is the better choice.
“If I’m aware I’m off I stop. I know by now I’d rather quit than waste time on bad writing.”
Pirateaba also confirmed that older material is being reviewed as portions of the story move into physical publication.
“As for rewrites? I’m doing that before they go to physical book launch. If not full rewrites, I make sure things are updated lore-wise. A full rewrite’s harder and risky, though.”
So how close is The Wandering Inn to ending?
Considering the enormous length of The Wandering Inn, one reader asked one of the questions fans have probably been wondering for years:
How far are we from the ending?
Rather than providing a percentage, Pirateaba brought up a previous problem with her attempts at measurements:
“Did you hear about the time where I forgot a hand wasn’t as long as a foot in length? I wrote Fraerling heights wrong for ages because of that.”
Then came the actual answer:
“Now ask yourself if I can measure how long we are to the ending.”
In other words, don’t expect an accurate “we’re 70% finished” answer anytime soon.
Pirateaba on web novels today
In another answer, Pirateaba was asked about starting a web novel today and whether AI scraping or other changes to the internet should discourage new writers.
Pirateaba didn’t pretend to know exactly what the current Royal Road landscape looks like, but they were extremely bullish about web fiction more generally.
“I don’t know where RoyalRoad is these days. What I do know is that this is the moment to have a web serial; Matt’s story and everyone else going to print proves this is the time.”
Pirateaba also had a pretty definitive opinion about generative AI and fiction:
“AI cannot write good stories. I’ve seen their work; the longer it gets, the worse they do.”
Their advice to aspiring writers ultimately came back to the reason for writing in the first place:
“You write because you have to, because the story is burning, and find a way to parlay that into continuing.”
For anyone interested in digging much deeper into the series, including plenty of spoiler-heavy lore questions we haven’t covered here, the full Pirateaba AMA is available on r/Fantasy.
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