Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 390 The Anxious Head of the Copyright Department
Upon hearing this news, Cao Sheng smiled.

"Very good! Then you should make all the necessary preparations as soon as possible!"

Before Cao Sheng could finish speaking, Bao Jianfeng said, "Good! Good! Don't worry, we held another meeting this afternoon, and all employees attended. At this meeting, we assigned all the work that needs to be done in the coming period. The technical department is responsible for adding features such as recharge, paid subscriptions, and monthly passes; the copyright department is responsible for selecting all the excellent works currently being serialized on the site and handling the signing of contracts; the legal department is responsible for drafting copyright agreements as soon as possible; and there are also dedicated personnel in charge of publicity. In addition, as you suggested, the editor-in-chief of Sanjiang Pavilion was selected at today's meeting. In short, I have arranged all the work I can think of. Do you have any other suggestions?"

Sanjiang Pavilion played a crucial role in the rise of the original timeline.

It is the only recommendation slot on Qidian that includes a comment from the editor-in-chief.

The editor-in-chief of Sanjiangge is responsible for selecting the best among all the newly signed books that have reached a certain word count each week, choosing the most promising batch of new books, and then placing them on Sanjiangge's recommendation page. Each new book on Sanjiangge will have a brief review from the editor-in-chief.

This recommendation slot used to be the first choice for many readers looking for books on Qidian.

However, the Sanjiang Pavilion in the original timeline gradually lost its editor-in-chief commentary flavor and became a recommendation slot with no special features. Although the recommendation effect was quite good, that was because the works that were later featured on this recommendation slot were already good in various data and were outstanding new books.

However, the data in these books has become susceptible to falsification.

Therefore, the status of Sanjiang Pavilion in the minds of many readers has declined considerably.

People often question: Does a book like this even deserve to be listed on the Sanjiang Pavilion?
The initial selections for Sanjiang Pavilion sometimes didn't have great data, but the quality was definitely on point. Among them were some niche gems with unpopular themes. Because of their unpopular themes, their data performance was poor before being listed on Sanjiang Pavilion, but after being listed, their data often experienced explosive growth.

When Cao Sheng was discussing paid reading with Bao Jianfeng last night, he also suggested setting up a Sanjiang Pavilion to select the best new books each week and recommend them to readers.

He thought this was a good idea to boost paid reading.

This list allows readers to see a batch of high-quality new books, which will encourage more readers to subscribe.

In this era of rampant piracy, the key to getting readers to pay for books lies in the quality of the work.

The goal is to get readers willing to spend money to support the author.

Instead of making readers think, "This book is so bad, you want me to pay for it? Let the author starve! Who cares if he can survive? What? He can't keep writing if we don't subscribe? He wants to abandon it? Let him go if he wants! What's it to me?"

In the original timeline, many people later reminisced about the quality of online novels from that period.

I don't understand why the quality of later works not only didn't improve, but actually declined so much.
There are certainly many reasons.

But one important reason is that authors of this period had to rely on the quality of their works to impress readers, otherwise they would starve.

Some might argue that later online novels won over readers through their quality.

I guess so!

But the difficulty levels are vastly different.

How many paying readers did it have later? How many paying readers were there in the first few years after paid reading started?
With only a very small number of people willing to pay to read, authors often need to use the quality of their work to impress those who wouldn't normally pay, which is akin to pioneering a new field.

"Very good! I have no other suggestions for the time being."

Cao Sheng answered.

Baojianfeng: "When will your new book be published on Qidian? Could you publish it sooner?"

Cao Sheng: "By the end of the month! No rush!"

Bao Jianfeng: "Oh, okay! You're busy now. If you have any new suggestions, please feel free to call me anytime."

Cao Sheng hummed in agreement.

End the call.

After resting for a while, Cao Sheng got up again and sparred with Sun Liang.

……

About the same time.

Headquarters of Yangtze River Literature and Art.

Xu Li, the head of the copyright department, walked toward the general manager's office with a solemn expression.

He had just been promoted to head of the copyright department, which should have been a time of great success, but unfortunately, an unexpected event caught him off guard.

—Zhongyuan Yidianhui, who has collaborated with their publishing house on several works, didn't answer his calls today. He could only contact Zhongyuan Yidianhui's new assistant, Cui Xinyu. The result? Cui Xinyu said that many publishing houses wanted to collaborate with Cao Sheng recently, and Cao Sheng needed to consider it and asked him to make a quote.

What does this signify?
His intuition told him that this was a sign that Zhongyuan Yidianhui no longer wanted to cooperate with their publishing house.

In the past, although he would feel regretful, he wouldn't have cared too much about it.

After all, he wasn't the head of the copyright department before, and even if Zhongyuan Yidianhui stopped cooperating with them, they wouldn't make Xu Li take responsibility.

But just as he was recently promoted to head of the copyright department, he happened to run into Zhongyuan Yidianhui, who wanted to leave.

Is this still available?

In the past two years, among Chinese-language writers from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, whose limelight has surpassed that of Central Plains' Little Gray?

If this guy runs away, can Xu Li still hold onto his position as the head of the copyright department?
Isn't this ruining me?

Even if you run away again next year, I'll still have some room to argue.

If you run away now, who in the company won't suspect that it's a problem with my work ability?

Fortunately, he was personally promoted by General Manager Yan Qiansan and was considered one of Yan Qiansan's confidants. So, he hurriedly went to Yan Qiansan's office, hoping that Yan Qiansan would personally call Cao Sheng to discuss the new book collaboration.

"Dong dong!"

"Come in!" Xu Li pushed open the office door, walked in, and then subconsciously closed the door again.

Yan Qiansan was tidying up his documents, preparing to leave work.

Upon seeing Xu Li, Yan Qiansan laughed and said, "It's Xiao Xu! It's almost time to get off work, why are you still looking for me? You don't mean to invite me to dinner, do you? Haha."

Xu Li forced a smile, walked closer to Yan Qiansan's desk, and mustered his courage to speak: "President Yan, there's something I need your help with. You must help me this time, otherwise I'm afraid I won't be able to gain the respect of others in the future, and I won't be able to carry out my work."

"Oh? What's wrong? Is it that serious?"

Yan Qiansan, who had not yet realized the seriousness of the matter, was only curious upon hearing this, and even had a smile on his face.

In his view, if Xu Li couldn't handle something, it would be a piece of cake for him to do; the only question was whether he wanted to help.

Xu Li forced a smile and said with a wry smile, "President Yan, you must have heard that Zhongyuan Yidianhui has recently released a new book. I heard it's already published in traditional Chinese characters, and the book is called 'The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts.' I heard the news this morning and immediately called him. I called him at least a dozen times in one day, but he didn't answer once. I was really anxious just now, so I found his assistant's number and called. His assistant did answer, but from what she said, it seems like a lot of people have contacted her these past two days. Quite a few publishers want to acquire this new book, and she even asked me to submit a bid. It seems like she wants us to compete with other publishers! So, what do you think? Could you call Cao Sheng yourself? He won't answer my calls, but he should answer yours, don't you think?"

Yan Qiansan, who had initially appeared relaxed, gradually became serious as he listened.

Xu Li hadn't mentioned that Cao Sheng had released a new book, and he hadn't heard about it.

The key point is: it seems that Cao Sheng doesn't want to collaborate with them on his new book.

Competing with other publishers?

He's not afraid of normal bidding.

However, there will always be people who will spare no expense and participate in the bidding without any bottom line.

He believes that given Zhongyuan Yidianhui's current popularity, there will definitely be publishers willing to suffer huge losses to cooperate with Cao Sheng.

He can understand that kind of publishing house.

It's nothing more than spending money to buy a reputation.

Losing a lot of money with Cao Sheng is like paying for advertising for the publishing house to attract other authors to submit their work, and then making the money back from those other authors.

If Changjiang Literature & Art were in trouble and had such a bidding opportunity, Yan Qiansan would surely be willing to spend such money on such "advertising".

The problem is—now it's Yangtze River Literature and Art that's taking on this challenge.

Who knows which unscrupulous publisher will offer such outrageous prices?

"Mr. Yan, could you... could you please make a phone call for me? Please! I really have no other choice."

Xu Li shamelessly made the request again.

Yan Qiansan looked at him and forced a smile. "Alright! Zhongyuan Yidianhui is our most valuable author. I'll make this call for you."

Xu Li quickly thanked him.

Yan Qian waved his hand, signaling him to be quiet, then reached for the phone on the table, looked down to find Cao Sheng's number, and dialed it.

Huizhou.

Inside the gym.

Cao Sheng heard his phone ring again, glanced at it on the bench, frowned, and said to Sun Liang, who had stopped, "Continue!"

As he spoke, he threw a punch.

Sun Liang hurriedly parried.

The phone continued to ring, but Cao Sheng ignored it and kept attacking Sun Liang. Sun Liang dared not fight back and could only parry. For a time, he was overwhelmed and was like a banana leaf being beaten by a rainstorm.

Cao Sheng didn't check the caller ID, so he naturally didn't know who was calling.

He just didn't want to keep interrupting his boxing practice today by answering phone calls.

Baojianfeng just called, and he answered the phone for a while before continuing his boxing practice. Why did he have to answer the phone again? If another call comes in later, will he have to interrupt his training to answer it again?

and so……

Yan Qiansan was embarrassed.

Under Xu Li's expectant gaze, Yan Qiansan awkwardly redialed Cao Sheng's number, and a moment later, his embarrassment doubled.

Even after he redialed the number, Cao Sheng still didn't answer.

"Hehe, he's probably eating or busy with something else right now, so he didn't hear the phone ring."

Yan Qiansan forced a smile and said to Xu Li.

Xu Li forced a smile and nodded repeatedly to save face for him, "Yes, yes! I know! I know! That must be it."

Yan Qiansan: "It's time to get off work. You can go now! I'll try calling him again in a bit."

Xu Li wished he could disappear into a crack in the ground.

He knew he had embarrassed General Manager Yan, and he felt he should be outside the office, not inside.

If Cao Sheng hadn't been there when Mr. Yan called him, Mr. Yan wouldn't be in such an awkward situation now.

(End of this chapter)