Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 429 The Birth of "The Mad God" and "The Legend of the Little Soldier"

After ending the call with Cao Sheng, Zhu Weilian frowned and fell into deep thought.

He wants to enable the tipping function on the banyan tree.

His favorite book is Cao Sheng's new book, "The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts." He believes that if this book also has a tipping function, it will definitely receive more tips than any other book.

Not only can it bring a considerable income to Banyan Tree, but it can also make the reward function that Banyan Tree has enabled look much better.

Most importantly, "The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts" is the newest book with the most collectors and the highest popularity among Rongshu Xiao.

It would be a great pity if such a new book could not participate in the Rongshu Xiao's reward function.

but……

Cao Sheng just said on the phone that this book has an exclusive license agreement with Qidian.

What to do?
He pondered for a long time, when suddenly a flash of inspiration struck him.

—If you don't give us authorization, does that mean we can't enable the tipping function for your book? As long as we extend the tipping function to all works on the entire site, how can your book escape? I don't believe you'll turn against us every month when we share the tipping revenue with you.

"However... this makes compiling the monthly revenue from all the works on the site a huge undertaking!"

He frowned and muttered to himself.

This was one of the obstacles he had considered.

After all, Rongshu.com is currently the most popular novel website with hundreds of thousands of works. If the tipping function covers all works on the site, it means that even if each book only receives one yuan in tips per month, the accountant will still have to do the accounting and remit the money to the author.

Based on the 50/50 revenue split of tips on Qidian, does that mean we have to send 50 cents to many books every month? Banks probably wouldn't accept such a transaction.
Besides, the workload is too much; the accountant would probably go crazy.

Encountering problems and solving them is his way of thinking.

He thought for a while and came up with a solution.

—Set a withdrawal threshold!
For example, it is stipulated that the author will only receive payment if the book's revenue from tips exceeds 200 yuan.

For example, for works where the author did not fill in their bank card number and real name in the author's backend, the reward income will not be paid out temporarily.

For example, authors need to actively apply for payment of royalties in order to receive them the following month.

and many more.

In a short while, he came up with several ideas, each of which could significantly reduce the workload of the accountant.

Just like the requirements women have when choosing a partner, each additional requirement can exclude tens of thousands of men.

For example, height, appearance, education, job, personality, family background, whether parents have a pension, etc. Each condition seems reasonable, but adding one more condition can exclude countless men.

The more Zhu Weilian thought about it, the wider his smile became.

He had already figured out that such restrictions would not only greatly reduce the workload for the accountant, but also generate more income for the banyan tree.

He believes that there will definitely be a lot of donations for his works, but it will never reach 200 yuan, which is not enough to meet the standard for the website to pay royalties.

For the authors of these works, the money was not much.

However, for the website, tens of thousands of such works combined can generate a significant amount of extra revenue for the site each month.

……

This afternoon.

Cao Sheng received a call from Bao Jianfeng.

Bao Jianfeng reported his work to him over the phone.

"Mr. Cao, since we launched paid reading, our website's daily traffic has been gradually declining, and many readers may have gone to read books on other websites."

On the phone, Bao Jianfeng's tone was somewhat heavy.

This is indeed a bad sign. If the website continues to lose readers like this, it won't be long before Qidian's popularity ranking in the industry continues to decline.

When the number of readers drops to a certain level, Qidian's paid reading model will inevitably become unsustainable, because the number of subscribers will certainly not be very high.

Cao Sheng thought for a moment and asked, "Have you noticed a significant increase in the number of authors publishing their works on Qidian recently?"

Baojianfeng: "..."

After a moment of silence, Bao Jianfeng said, "Compared to before, the number of new books entering the warehouse every day has increased by about five or six times."

Upon hearing this, Cao Sheng chuckled, "Then what are you worried about? The number of writers in the industry is limited, and the number of excellent authors is even more limited. As long as Qidian can attract 70-80% of the authors in the industry, those readers who went to other websites to read books will eventually come back. What do you think?"

Baojianfeng: "..."

can you?

Shanghai, the headquarters of Qidian.

Bao Jianfeng raised an eyebrow, feeling that Cao Sheng's words made sense, but he dared not completely trust Cao Sheng's judgment.

Because he was unsure whether readers who were unwilling to pay for a subscription would actually return to Qidian if they couldn't find many good books on other websites.
He felt that for many readers, perhaps... free access was the most important thing.

"Thank you for your kind words! I hope so!"

Bao Jianfeng said with a complicated expression.

Cao Sheng: "Well, let's wait and see!"

……

In fact, while the two of them were discussing this issue on the phone, readers were already leaving Qidian.

For example: Li Yu.

As a freshman in college this year, it's already quite difficult for him to squeeze out a little bit of internet access money from his living expenses. So, although he really likes some of the works on Qidian, seeing these books being put on the shelves and requiring payment, he can only reluctantly leave Qidian and go to other websites to find books to read.

He thought that with so many online novel platforms in the industry, surely there were plenty of books worth reading.
He left quietly, he left gracefully.

There are many readers like him.

Some readers feel that the paid reading trend on Qidian should not be allowed to continue!
Therefore, I left the starting point and went to other websites to read books.

Some readers find it too troublesome to recharge. With so many free websites and so many books, why bother reading on Qidian?
Some readers simply couldn't stand that Qidian was trying to make money? They thought it was too mercenary and tarnished online literature, so they went to other websites.

but……

at the same time.

Some authors from Rongshuqian quietly finished their works and then silently came to Qidian to publish new books.

Some authors from a certain sword game brought their works directly to Qidian. Since they hadn't signed with a certain sword game, the copyright of their works belonged entirely to them.

Many authors from Qidian, as well as authors from other websites in the industry, who want to make money, have spontaneously come to Qidian to publish their works.

Of course not all!

Some authors who had already gained some fame on their original websites, especially some who were particularly popular, were reluctant to give up their popularity and readers on their original websites and chose to wait and see for the time being, without rushing to Qidian.

They plan to observe Qidian's paid reading service for a while.

I'm also planning to wait and see if my website will follow suit with paid reading. If they do, that would be ideal, as my popularity on the website could quickly translate into royalties.

Even so, authors who spontaneously come to Qidian to publish their works every day are still as numerous as carp crossing a river, vying to be the first to do so.

Although the author, Tang Jia San Shao, has not yet finished "The Seven Treasures Exquisite Pagoda," he has already taken the time to prepare a new book and has released it on Qidian.com.

The new book is titled "The Mad God." This time, he didn't follow Cao Sheng's trend of using the word "god" in the title.

Currently, many popular online books have the word "god" in their titles.

Examples include "The History of the Bastard God", "The Legend of the Dark God", and "The Tale of the Heavenly Demon God".

On almost any online novel platform, you can find several books with the word "god" in their titles among the popular works.

The Third Young Master thinks this is a hot topic and it's worth stepping on.

However, to his surprise, "Mad God" was only on the new book list on Qidian for half a day before it was pushed off.

In his memory, not long ago, a new book appeared on the list of newly added books on Qidian.com and it would stay there for at least a day.

Why can we only stay for half a day now?
There seems to be a significant increase in authors publishing new books on Qidian recently.
He considered this possibility.

Then, my gaze fell upon the new book charts on Qidian.

Thinking: Since the new book has no chance to stay in the library, I should speed up the updates and try to get on the new book list as soon as possible.

He plans to speed up the writing of his new book, "Mad God," to meet the criteria for inclusion in the new book list as soon as possible.

……

Xuan Yu.

He was the same age as Cao Sheng, and influenced by Cao Sheng's works, he, like Lao Zhu and others, tried writing online novels earlier than in the original timeline.

In this timeline, his first book was called "Interstellar Prodigal Son," which he wrote with great difficulty over six months before it was completed.

It was never published.

I didn't earn any royalties.

While Lao Zhu was writing "Nine Sons", Xuan Yu wrote his second book, "Starry Sky".

Like the previous book, it is still a story about a future science fiction world.

Even the overall structure of the story was based on the previous book, which he transformed "Starry Sky" into "Starry Night".

This book is quite popular on Qidian.com and was one of the first works published on Qidian.com.

but……

To his disappointment, the highest number of subscriptions for a single chapter of "Starry Sky" within 24 hours of its release was only 284.
It is far inferior to the "National Martial Arts Romance" which is completely unknown in the Central Plains.

Even "Nine Sons," published at the same time, cannot compare to his work.

This frustrated him, and he stopped updating for two days before resuming.

But after updating for a few days, he suddenly ended the book.

After it was finished, he rested for a few days and reflected on it for a few days.

He wanted to rewrite the story of "Star Wanderer".

He believed that he would be able to write the story more brilliantly and maturely on his third attempt.

In this respect, he is different from most authors.

Most authors, after a book flops, either stop writing or start a completely new story.

He wanted to rewrite the story, removing its shortcomings, adding some new and exciting plot points, and making some appropriate adjustments to the personalities of the main characters.

He felt that copying his own book wasn't plagiarism and was risk-free.

Because you can't sue yourself.

He believes that by constantly refining a story, it will become better and better. So why write a completely new story?

That evening, he created a new folder on his computer and named it "The Legend of the Little Soldier".

This folder contains my two previous works, "Star Wanderer" and "Starry Sky," as well as various materials I collected for writing these two books and their outlines.

He created a new document.

In this document, the outline of "The Legend of the Little Soldier" is written bit by bit.

Through his practice with "Star Wanderer" and "Starry Sky," his writing style and thought process have made significant progress.

When he was writing the outline for "The Legend of the Little Soldier", he felt confident and prepared. He knew the style of the story, the exciting plot, the main characters with different personalities, and even the ending of the work. He had a clear understanding of everything.

He felt that this was the benefit of repeatedly writing the same story.

Of course, in order to avoid people realizing that his three books are the same story, he is making sweeping changes to the character settings and plot of the new book's outline.

He believed that as long as his changes were significant enough, then... when people read his book, they would at most think that he was writing about the same subject, and that his "Legend of the Little Soldier" was a sister book to "Star Wanderer" and "Starry Sky".

The thought of the phrase "sister piece" sparked an idea in him, and he decided to focus on the word "sister."

For example, by significantly increasing the number of beautiful female characters in the book.

Create more female characters with outstanding appearances and likable personalities.

When he was writing "Star Wanderer" and "Starry Sky", he discovered that most readers were not very interested in stories about the future world and did not feel a strong sense of immersion. However, whenever a beautiful woman appeared in the plot of the book, the positive reviews in the book review section would increase significantly.

Not only his books, but he noticed that other books seemed to be the same.

The more outstanding the female characters in a work, the higher its popularity tends to be.

Publishing seems relatively easy.

In front of the computer.

As he was creating female characters in the outline of his new book, his mind was racing. He thought to himself: science fiction isn't as down-to-earth as urban novels, nor as grounded as fantasy or cultivation novels. If he wanted to attract readers, beautiful women would be a good choice.

Who doesn't like beautiful women?
Although I can't give every reader a beautiful woman, I can create beautiful women for them. Therefore, in this new book, I need to put more emphasis on the romantic storylines.

Let them be attracted to the beautiful women in the book first, and then gradually come to like the other plot points.

Just like when a new store opens, the owner always likes to arrange several beautiful women in high-slit cheongsams to greet customers at the entrance...

That night, no one knew that the once wildly popular "Legend of the Little Soldier" from the original timeline was about to be born.

This book was the gateway to online literature for countless readers.

It inspired everyone to unleash their imagination.

It captivated many viewers, making them forget to eat and sleep.

……

2 month 1 number.

"The Legend of the Little Soldier" was officially published on Qidian and quietly entered Qidian's library.

When the book was being added to the database, the reviewing editor didn't pay much attention and casually approved its inclusion.

After being added to the database, for several days in a row, Xuan Yu felt like she was playing a single-player game. The number of clicks increased very slowly, the number of recommendation votes was not many, the increase in collections was also mediocre, and even the book reviews... were not as many as the posts advertising.

Until Cao Sheng accidentally saw the book one night.

(End of this chapter)