I still remember that the day my first novel was released happened to be April 1st, April Fool’s Day.
The meaning of being on the shelf is that it has started to be sold. Each book has a free period for new books. When a certain number of words is accumulated, a fee will be charged.
But what I write is a supernatural novel, which is a niche subject that is not popular. There are not many readers in the first place, and I am still a newcomer, so there are even fewer readers.
But what makes me happy is that during this period, my grades have been quite good. I have been in the top three of the new book rankings, and I have also established my own book club with more than 100 people in it.
So I think the results won’t be too bad when it’s put on the shelves this time, right?
So I uploaded the chapters with confidence, wrote a testimonial about the book's release, and promoted it in book club groups for several days.
I think, no matter how little it is, if it sells for 180 yuan a day, it should be fine?
As a result, it turns out that I am too young. If I ask you to guess hard, you may not be able to guess my sales performance on the first day.
Let me tell you straight away: it’s more than a dollar.
That’s right, the sales of my first novel on the first day it was put on the shelves was just over one yuan.
There are probably less than ten people who pay to read.
At that time, I was worried and my heart felt cold. With this result, how could I surpass the third uncle of the Southern School and become the best singer in the world?
This extra dollar was all it took for me, and my dream was shattered to pieces.
At that time, I wanted to give up directly, but I was unwilling to give up because this was my first book and I had put a lot of effort into it.
Uncle Ma also advised me, saying that it’s only one day, don’t be discouraged, maybe you will become awesome in a few days?
I thought it was right. What if I become awesome in a few days?
Besides, even if no one reads it, as long as I write the full number of words every day, I will receive a perfect attendance bonus of several hundred dollars a month!
With this attitude, I persisted.
Regardless of whether anyone pays to read it, I will write it anyway, just for the perfect attendance bonus!
So, as I persisted, a month passed quickly.
This month has been really tough, because in order to get perfect attendance, you must write at least 5,000 words every day. It doesn’t matter how much more you have like before.
So I went to work during the day and didn’t go anywhere when I got off work. I ate my food and worked quickly, because I had to write all 5,000 words before twelve o’clock at night.
Of course, if I’m not sleepy, I’ll continue writing after twelve o’clock and try to finish tomorrow’s writing and save it.
So I was very busy and tortured. I remember there were several times in the early morning when I was very sleepy but wanted to write more, so I would lie on the table and squint for more than ten minutes, then get up and continue writing.
There was even one time when I dozed off while typing, and ended up dreaming. I typed the content of my dream onto the computer in a daze...
And as a result, Mr. Liu became dissatisfied with my state.
I remember once on a business trip, it rained heavily that morning, so I was typing in the hotel, hoping to wait for the rain to stop before going out to the mall.
As a result, at 8:30, Mr. Liu called me and asked me what I was doing.
I said I was in a hotel and it was raining heavily outside and I couldn't get out.
Then Mr. Liu said to me: "Don't you stop going to work if it rains?"
I was stunned for a moment, and then I was speechless. It took me a long time to say to him, "Okay, I'll go out right now."
Because people said there was nothing wrong with me, I went out in the heavy rain. When I got to the mall, people were surprised and asked, "What are you doing here at this time? It was smoking even with the rain, and there wasn't even a ghost in the store."
I said I was idle anyway, so I had to be dedicated to my work...
With that said, I took out my notebook and wrote the novel at the mall counter.
You didn't want me to stay in the hotel, so I wrote "Headquarters" on the counter, right?
Anyway, there are no customers now, so no one can care about me.
All in all, the days at that time were like this, and there was another incident that left a deep impression on me. That time, the customer's shopping mall was doing team building and invited many of our manufacturers, so I had no choice but to go along.
As a result, I drank too much that day, and it was already one o'clock in the morning when I returned to the hotel. I also forgot about updating the novel, so I threw myself on the bed and fell asleep.
When I suddenly woke up, it was almost dawn and it was past four in the morning.
I suddenly remembered that I had not written the novel yesterday, and I broke into a cold sweat. I quickly got up and went to the bathroom, washed my face with cold water to refresh myself, and then turned on the computer and started working.
I kept writing until about eight o'clock in the morning, and finally made up for the previous day's words. And there was a rule at that time that if you want to make up for the previous day's word count, you must double it.
For example, if you want to make up 5,000 words, you have to write 10,000 words.
Anyway, I was young at that time, so I worked hard and wrote from 4 o'clock to 8 o'clock. I came up with 10,000 words, and then I went to work with peace of mind.
I was young at that time. In order to write novels, I often slept only four or five hours a day, and I could still survive. But now I can’t. My body is increasingly not allowing it...
I finally got through this month, and when it came time to pay the publication fee on the 12th, I remember it was more than 700 yuan in total.
Even though it is only over 700, most of them are perfect attendance, and there are not many people who pay to read books.
But I was very happy about this. I took the money to treat Uncle Ma and the others to a meal, and bought myself a keyboard. I ran out of money that day...
Money or no money, actually I don’t care, the main thing is this mentality, we have to persist!
But they also advised me, saying that you can't endure it like this. If it doesn't work, you won't make much money even if you don't take the bad class, so why bother?
Yes, why bother?
And it's not a big deal for me to secretly write novels when I'm at work. I don't blame Mr. Liu for not being happy about it. It really shouldn't be like this.
I said that since this was the end of my shift, I would resign after a while.
Uncle Ma said that you should wait for a while and resign tomorrow. He just said that your uncle would take you out for a trip and he might not be able to come back for two months, so he would not be able to go to work.
I asked him in surprise, what does this mean? Do you really want to take us out?
Uncle Ma said that's right, you have been with me for so long, I will take you out to experience and experience, let's go to Zhongnan Mountain.
Oops, Ma Yunfeng and I immediately became excited. This is a good thing. It is much more interesting than going to work. Uncle Ma is going to take us to experience the world!
So we agreed without saying a word. I hesitated for a while, and then decided to quit my job. What I was doing was meaningless, and I was as tired as a donkey every day.
But the next day when I went to work, Mr. Liu was not there, so I wrote a letter of resignation and put it on his desk. Then I called him and told him that I had something to do at home and had to travel far away and couldn't go to work.
Mr. Liu was silent for a moment and without saying anything, he agreed and asked me to hand over the work.
But he was quite interesting. When I resigned temporarily, he didn't deduct my salary and paid me a lot of money.
Several people in the company may have different attitudes, so I won’t go into details. Anyway, I felt relaxed after I left the house.
This time I also experienced the life of working, and I also tasted some bitter, spicy, sour and sweet. It was time to get back on the road and start another part of my life.
But it’s not like I’m going to Zhongnan Mountain right away, because I don’t have any manuscripts at all, so I have to prepare for a few days and save up some manuscripts.
Then, Ma Yunfeng also has his own matters, which must be resolved first.
This matter actually does not belong to him, but to his cousin Ma Yunxiang.
It's quite speechless to say that Ma Yunxiang, in more than a month, actually met a man who offered to sell him a few old immortals to help him set up a hall...
