I received good news today (it should be a new day when this article is published). The average subscription of this book finally exceeded 3,000, and I got the premium badge.
From the upload of the first chapter on January 13, 2021 to April 16, 2023, two years and three months, 1.58 million words, excellent work.
To be honest, any reader who knows a little bit about the online literature industry can see that this is not a good result, and it is quite bad.
Nowadays, better books generally have four to five million words. If you write them quickly, you can update to my word count in less than a year. As for this book, I wrote more than fifty words until the fourth volume. The contract was signed only after 10,000 words, which is why everyone saw how the fourth volume was separated into one volume in the middle. That was because the inverted V was put on the shelves and a new VIP volume was added.
Because when I signed the contract, the best publicity period for a book had passed, and it took Lao Sao more than two years to write these words, so it was easy to imagine updates, so it was difficult to get recommendations. At first, it was not available every month. The royalties were only three to four hundred yuan, and this situation lasted for nearly a year. Of course, Lao Sao also had his own job and his income was not bad, so he was not in a desperate situation.
Sometimes I wonder, this book doesn’t make any money and writing is tiring, so why do I keep writing it?
After all, I started writing this book to make money.
On Zhihu’s question-and-answer platform, new Internet writers ask for advice every day on how their writing is, and among the massive number of related posts there is such a question——
"With a starting point of 220,000 words and no contract signed, is there any chance of a comeback?" 》
I clicked on it just now and found a new answer. In fact, it is not new at all. It is an answer from a year ago, but I only saw it now.
After reading a chapter, the respondent started a long reply, using fierce words. After some professional analysis, he concluded that the author of the question was stupid. He clearly had a simpler way, but he chose the stupid method of "Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains". A waste of time and effort, paranoid and self-motivated. In the answer, he madly output some writing theories that are in line with the style of today's Internet writing.
I very much agree with the respondent's opinion and support his views, but I still clicked the downward-facing Disagree button under his answer. No reason, because I am the author who posted the question. .
Hehe, this is so naughty~
To this, I also replied below -
"You say I'm stupid, I understand, but since when has the spirit of Foolish Old Man moved mountains been used as a negative example?"
Saosao is not a fool, and I don’t think what this friend said is wrong. I am just a stubborn person.
If being moved by oneself can arouse the resonance of others, is this still called being moved by oneself? Isn't this a skill?
Sao Sao does have a big flaw in her character. It's not that she doesn't know how to adapt. It's because she has too many flexibility in reality. This time, she just wants to persevere for a while longer.
To be honest, I think if a person never insists on something...
That would be a pity.
And what I insist on may be creation. To be precise, it is insisting on a correct but outdated creative concept. To be more narrow, it may be this book.
So, in reality, the smooth and kind-hearted Lao Sao decided to become a paranoid, narrow-minded, conceited, and vindictive online article creator online.
All of these became the best motivation for me to complete this book in the early stage.
They are too important, just like "holding a grudge". Many friends in the group know that after I finished writing the first volume of this book, I tried to contact an editor, and someone else turned over two chapters and threw in a few words——
"How can you create such an annoying female protagonist and make readers fall in love with her? I'll just thank her and let the male protagonist go."
This means lukewarmness.
"So why is the male protagonist so incompetent? Does anyone really like this kind of character?"
This is about the first volume of He Tianran.
"So the female protagonist is not likable, and the male protagonist is not likable either. You write the whole story from God's perspective?"
This is about both characters and me.
At that time, after I read these few sentences, I was so impressed that I screamed out loud, but I still had to maintain my self-cultivation in my reply and said that I had learned a lesson.
After graduating from Saosao, I rarely hear people in writing-related fields say such disparaging words to me, because this will in turn make me question your professional ability and aesthetic level. This is what I said above. "conceit".
This "conceit" comes from my own professional knowledge.
Respecting the profession, but not blindly following the profession, is a principle I have always respected.
I can tell which ones are bad words and which ones are suggestions.
I'm a docile person, and I'm okay with everyone talking to me, but if you want to criticize me so much and judge my entire book from the perspective of only reading a few chapters, then don't blame me for being rebellious. He Tianran is The kind of person who can really solve a big math problem for you when pushed hard. So, if I'm pushed too hard, can I make the protagonists who are hated by readers in the editor's mouth make people like them? ?
I'm crazy, I want to give it a try.
Therefore, these few words of the editor made me hold a grudge for a long time. Saosao is a newcomer to the Internet, and she is a little-known author in LV1. It is true, but I just don’t accept it. Everyone who reads online articles has this kind of mentality. Not hard to understand, right?
I thought to myself at that time, okay, just wait for me. It doesn’t matter if your time and energy are wasted, so I will fight to the end. If this book is sold out, I will admit it myself, but if this book can be read , you wait for me, thirty years to the east of Hedong, thirty years to the west of Hexi, friends all know this, right?
Time has come like this one and a half years later.
One day, Sao Sao was fortunate enough to receive the help of three powerful men from outside the world. In addition, she gathered a large number of book friends to work together to teach the skills and provide strong support. As a result, the four characters Wen Liang, Cao Aiqing, He Tianran, and Jiang Xixi were obtained. With a silver blessing, they ranked first on their character star list that week!
After this unexpected encounter, Lao Sao's morale improved greatly. He immediately took the screenshot sent by the group friend, clicked on the editor's avatar and dumped the screenshot.
Soon, a reply came from the other side:
"Keep up the good work, there is no fixed formula for writing..."
I thought to myself, hey, why is there no formula now?
When I looked at it, I felt like oh, it’s so, so, so, so cool!
I know that there are hundreds of high-quality authors under others, and there is no shortage of books with my level of achievement. Moreover, this book was not a high-quality book at the time, but this can't stop me from feeling happy. Why do you think so much? That is to say, anyway, I rely on my own ability, my own profession, my own pen to defeat you. Those characters you hate, some people like them, and some people spend real money for them, and those who looked down on them at the time It seemed like a professional evaluation, and I called them back one by one!
That day was really happy.
There are many extra-book stories about this book. For example, at the beginning, a book friend helped me recommend the book on a forum, but was criticized as a green article by some readers who liked the "real" too much. The person who helped me recommend it was also framed. The book friend is my waistcoat trumpet.
I think everyone who has read this book knows this.
Lao Sao is paranoid and doesn’t like others to teach me how to write books. There is a way that if you ask me to write like this, I just don’t realize it. I always think that the ideas I think of are the best and the things I write are good-looking, even in When I was writing the water chapter, I was thinking that the writing in this chapter was too bad, the candy was too greasy, and the knife wasn't painful enough, so I might as well just cut it off instead of cutting it.
On the one hand, Lao Sao is a bit proud of his talent. Of course, whether he has talent or not is not something anyone can say. I think I just have it.
On the other hand, Lao Sao is also very philistine. If you ask me if I want to make money, I definitely want to, but I can’t kneel down. I just make money without wanting to please anyone. I even I want you to please me in turn...
Do you think this is abominable or not?
Of course, what's even more disgusting is that Sao Sao considers herself noble and a little bit pursuing, and refuses to collude with ordinary people. Therefore, this year, when people come and go, they will be busy, but their careers are still so high and low.
Two words, deserve it.
If you understand too many principles, you will live a very awkward life. You think you are living a clear life, but in fact it is nothing more than compromising on some things.
I remember during the Chinese New Year, I asked my current editor, Jun Bai, if I wanted to continue writing this book? At that time, the results were given by four silver coins, and the results were slightly better.
He didn't give me a very clear answer, and I guess he was confused by me. Every time he wanted to give me a recommendation, I stopped updating it, so that I have only recommended it twice now, and the results were not very good. This book is still a bit niche and not suitable for the PK system.
But he didn't respond. When I asked the question, I already had the answer in my mind.
At that time, I remember that my collection was more than 60,000, and my monthly ticket list was about 230. I flipped through the fifty books behind me, and without exception, they were all excellent books.
I thought to myself, damn, why am I not a high-quality product, so I felt unhappy again. Why is this so popular but not popular? It’s just because I habitually interrupt updates.
In this way, the boutique badge became a knot that made me continue to write.
This is more like a kind of... concrete recognition, so that my efforts in the past two years can be officially recognized.
If this book has achieved this achievement with only four to five million words, then I may not take this thing so seriously. After all, many so-called high-quality products or tens of thousands of orders are worth it in my small business. It seems that's it.
This has nothing to do with money or income. I value it just because this thing is called "high-quality". I think my thing is qualified to get one, that's all.
Yes, Saosao is so average and arrogant. Good is good, bad is bad. On the Internet, everyone pretends to be a big-tailed wolf, and they don't act modest. It's very boring.
The sordid past is not worthy of praise, but today the dissolute thoughts have no limit.
Although Sao Sao has not yet achieved the following two sentences, she can receive this recognition and feels that the story she wrote was not in vain.
Thank you all for your love for this book, and I am also very grateful to my friends who subscribed and rewarded this book. Again, without your support, I, a shameless person like Saocha, would not have the persistence I have.
Lao Sao tells a story, but without an audience, everything is in vain, so this honor of quality is given to you.
Thank you all, thank you!
By the way, having said that, do you think that the author who asked a question on Zhihu and was judged as a fool has reversed the situation in his book?
I don’t think so. The current results are not worthy of his book, but the readers who like that book are worthy of all his efforts!
Finally, back to our very beginning.
Guys, if you think my story about Sao Cha is okay and I did a good job, please remember to give me a reward. If you have money, you can do it with money. If you don’t, you can do it with others. After all -
Articles are valuable~
