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Idea Of The Day - Start the Book Empire for Nerds Who Think in Quests, Not Chapters.
Needs To Exist
May 13, 2025
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Daily Idea - LitRPG. Reinvented. Relentless.
Look in the Shadows
Level Up the Book Game
Inspired by The Startup Idea Podcast Episode 124 by @dickiebush and @Nicolascole77
The One Liner
Books for gamers. Quests > kisses.
The 140 character tweet (or X) version
Romance has its billion-dollar empire. Time LitRPG got one too.
Better stories, better covers, more XP. Building the publishing house gamers deserve.
The Longer Story Version
The Problem
Romance fiction is a juggernaut. Wattpad, Colleen Hoover, TikTok book hauls — all massive.
But what about the other side of the bookstore?
The side with dragons, dungeons, damage stats, and skill trees?
LitRPG — think “book that reads like a video game” — has exploded. Reddit, Discord, and Kindle rankings all show it: demand is there. But quality? Not so much.
Covers look like they were designed in 2003. Writing is hit or miss. And most books feel like they were churned out on autopilot. Readers want more, but publishers haven’t caught up.
The Solution
Build the ultimate LitRPG brand — part publisher, part media engine.
Start with better books:
Curated authors who actually play games.
High-quality editing and design.
Serialized stories that feed binge readers.
Then stack the moats:
Feels like a “Wattpad meets Crunchyroll meets Warhammer” type of business — where stories become worlds, fans become co-creators, and books become billion-dollar IP.
How We’d Build It
Stage 1: Solo Hacker Mode
Stage 2: Operator Mode
Bring in multiple writers using Campfire to build a shared world
Run writing contests, fund top series
Create digital collectibles or reader achievements using Paragraph.xyz
Start small-scale Twitch collabs with RPG streamers doing live reads
Stage 3: Studio Mode
Why It Needs to Exist
Because LitRPG is the only genre where reading feels like leveling up — and no one’s building for it at scale.
It’s a rare trifecta:
Underserved fans who spend
Sticky content they obsess over
IP flywheels that can expand into gaming, merch, and media
Books are just the entry point.
This is the fandom infrastructure for the next billion-dollar story universe.
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When no one’s building for them, that’s your signal to start.
Most people look for startup ideas in all the wrong places.
They chase what’s hot. They ask AI to give them "business ideas." They build for themselves and assume everyone else is just like them.
But real opportunity? It hides in the shadows — in the places no one’s building yet, even though the demand is bubbling.
Here’s the move:
Find an underserved group that’s passionate, spending money, and stuck.
That’s where you build. Not where the noise is. Where the silence is.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Go where people obsess, not just visit.
Communities are gold mines. But not just any community. You want the ones where people post daily, argue over small details, and spend their own money.
Examples:
Niche YouTube rabbit holes
Discord servers with inside jokes
Reddit threads 200 comments deep on obscure tools
You’re looking for the “100 true fans” zone — the places where people don’t just like something, they live it.
Tool to use:
Discord Discovery: Find niche servers by keywords. Lurk and listen.
Glasp or Readwise: Use highlights from forums and blogs to see what real users underline. You’ll start to see the same phrases, pain points, and dreams repeated.
2. Hunt for homemade hacks.
When people are hacking together Google Sheets, Notion templates, or Frankensteined Zapier flows to solve a problem... they’re begging for a real product.
If your target users are solving a problem despite the tech, imagine what they’ll do with the right tool.
Tool to use:
Product Hunt Comments: Scroll launches in weird categories. Look at what power users are saying is missing.
StackShare: See what tech stacks people are duct-taping together — that’s your roadmap.
3. Check who's spending and still complaining.
Money spent ≠ problem solved.
Look at categories where people already pay — but still post “this sucks” reviews or Reddit threads asking for better.
That’s when you know: they’re not price sensitive. They’re pain sensitive.
Tool to use:
AppStore / G2 / Capterra reviews: Search for 1- and 3-star reviews. That’s where the pain lives.
Fakespot or ReviewMeta: Weed out fake 5-star praise and get to the truth.
4. Zoom in where others zoom out.
Everyone wants to build “the platform.”
You should build “the tool that fixes the broken part.”
Narrow wins. Uber started as black car reservations. Amazon sold books. Airbnb was a mattress on the floor. You don’t need the whole market. You need one wedge that works.
Tool to use:
Exploding Topics: Find emerging sub-niches before they peak.
TidyCal / Calendly / SavvyCal: Interview your niche. Ask: “What’s the one thing that drives you nuts every week?”
Final thought:
You don’t need a breakthrough idea. You need a group no one’s serving, a pain they feel often, and the willingness to build just for them.
When no one’s building for them, that’s not a dead end.
That’s a neon arrow pointing right at your next startup.
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