Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 541 Available on Both Platforms

Those who have been proud will not easily admit defeat.

Zhang Shuang is a case in point.

Two years ago, he won the championship in the New Concept Writing Competition. He was incredibly famous and everyone looked at him differently than before.

He became the pride of the school.

It also made their parents and relatives proud.

Fudan University also sent him a letter of recommendation for admission because of his championship title, and he was invited to interview and enroll at Fudan University.

It can be said that he has tasted success.

They find it particularly difficult to accept their current state of disgrace.

At this moment, as he looked at the large red banner at the top of the Qidian homepage congratulating Zhongyuan Yidianhui on his new book's first subscription exceeding 10,000, he felt as if countless ants were gnawing at his heart.

This book, which had tens of thousands of pre-orders, was one he had previously openly criticized and satirized.

At the time, he said that this book was not as good as his own book, "Fairy Aura".

And now?
His own novel, "Immortal Aura," was abandoned long ago, but this novel, "Cultivation Chat Group," achieved a first-day subscription of over 10,000.

The more successful this book becomes, the more of a joke I am in the eyes of others…

The thought flashed through his mind.

But he was unwilling to be a laughing stock in the eyes of many people.

Who am I?

Zhang Shuang!

Champion of the New Concept Writing Competition!

How many champions like this are there in the whole country right now?
I, Zhang Shuang, deserve a place in the mainland literary scene; it's what I deserve! What's a little dust in the Central Plains? What makes him so incredibly successful?
This honor should have been mine!
One failure is not enough to determine success or failure!

It's normal to fail when it's my first time trying to write a web novel.

I should get up where I fell.

Life is a series of gambles. There's no such thing as losing if you gamble. As long as I'm still at the table and keep gambling, I still have a chance to win! What's most frightening is losing once or twice and then being too afraid to continue betting.

"The Aura of Immortality" flopped, but I can write another one. If it still fails, I can write a third one. I refuse to believe that I can't achieve anything.

One day, I, Zhang Shuang, will have a place in the online literature industry!
In front of the computer.

Zhang Shuang's face was ashen, her brows furrowed, but she was constantly trying to mentally prepare herself.

When he won the New Concept Writing Competition, he was extremely proud. He had experienced the glory of being looked up to wherever he went.

He would never forget the way those beautiful women's eyes lit up when they learned he was Zhang Shuang, the champion of the New Concept Writing Competition, and how they nervously and excitedly chatted with him.

How could he be content to fade into obscurity now?

What kind of book should I write?
He sat in front of the computer, racking his brains for over an hour, but couldn't come up with any inspiration that satisfied him.

I left the internet cafe.

Walking on the sidewalk of Fudan University, he glanced aimlessly at the vehicles and pedestrians on the street, and his heart gradually calmed down.

When he reached the entrance of Fudan University, he suddenly stopped.

A flash of inspiration came to my mind.

—Everyone is curious. Out of more than a billion people in China, only a tiny minority can get into a prestigious university like Fudan. These people must be very curious about what campus life at Fudan is like, right? If I wrote a novel about studying, living, and dating on the Fudan campus, would it attract those bumpkins on the internet?
He often goes online at internet cafes.

I know very well what kind of people are in internet cafes.

In his view, most people in internet cafes are unsophisticated.

These "country bumpkins" from all over the country gather on the internet, representing the majority of netizens in mainland China.

These people like playing video games, swearing, chasing girls, and reading erotic novels.

So, if I wrote a novel about falling in love and picking up girls on the Fudan University campus, these bumpkins would probably like it!
The more he thought about it, the more promising it seemed.

He is also confident that he can write such a novel well.

Because many girls have actively flirted with him in the past two years.

There were female classmates from high school, college alumni, cousins, and other female friends... and so on.

She can easily contribute more than a dozen love stories to him.

With that in mind, he couldn't wait to start writing.

He has recently read many novels on Qidian carefully and has long noticed that Qidian's urban novels seem to have good data, are not difficult to write, and most importantly, are popular.

That night.

On the manuscript paper in his residence, he wrote a new book title: "Fudan Love Diary".

The introduction reads as follows:

Two years ago, I wrote an essay and submitted it to the New Concept Writing Competition. Not long after, I won the championship title of the New Concept Writing Competition.

From that moment on, my life changed.

While my classmates were working hard to prepare for the college entrance examination, I received my admission letter from Fudan University.

My homeroom teacher, who used to frequently cause me trouble, started to treat me with kindness and gentleness.

The class beauty, who used to look down on me, often gives me flirtatious glances.

The school bully who used to harass me now looks at me with awe.

My parents, who were going through a divorce, suddenly reconciled, and I saw happy smiles on their faces.

A few months later, I arrived at Fudan University.

I arrived at this campus with several love letters written to me by female classmates, and met even more beautiful women. They all admired my talent, and from then on, I was surrounded by admirers.

Because it's based on my own real experiences.

Therefore, he wrote very smoothly and had a lot of fun.

If something isn't exciting enough, he'll use artistic techniques to adapt and modify it.

……

On the day Zhang Shuang was preparing her new book.

Rongshuxia is going all out, launching attacks everywhere, and promoting "Cultivation Chat Group" to be available for sale on Rongshuxia at midnight tonight.

The advertisements have even reached the book review sections of many works on Qidian.com.

Similar advertising posts have also appeared in the book review sections of many other websites in the industry.

Within a single day, countless people in the industry noticed the news that "Cultivation Chat Group" was going to be available on Rongshu.com.

Many people only belatedly discovered that the book "Cultivation Chat Group" was being serialized on two platforms.

This shocked many writers and readers.

Here at the starting point.

In the book review section of "Cultivation Chat Group", a large number of posts discussing this matter appeared.

There are all sorts of opinions.

For example: "Rongshuxia is going to implement paid reading too? Rongshuxia used to be a mecca for online novels! It's a pity that it's only now starting paid reading, isn't it a bit too late?"

"They've even started advertising on Qidian! Wow!"

"Wasn't this book already listed here? How come it's also listed on Rongshu.com?"

"Ah Hui is awesome! This book must be the first one to be available on two websites, right?"

"It's unbelievable that such an advertisement could appear in the book review section of Qidian!"

...Related discussions have also appeared in many book review sections on Qidian.com.

These posts, inadvertently, also made more writers aware of this matter.

For example: The wind is laughing.

Feng Zai Xiao is a contracted author on Qidian. He has two works under his pen name. The first one was not under contract, while the second one was under contract and has been published. The performance is neither good nor bad, with an average of over 800 subscriptions per book, which is neither high nor low on Qidian at present.

That afternoon, after posting a VIP chapter, he habitually went to the book review section of his work to read today's reviews and relax.

Let's also find out what everyone thinks of the recent plot.

I stumbled upon several posts discussing the upcoming release of "Cultivation Chat Group" on Rongshu.

At first glance, he doubted he was seeing things.

I closed my eyes, then opened them again, and realized I hadn't misread anything.

He couldn't believe it.

They hurried to the banyan tree grove, hoping to find out if the book "Cultivation Chat Group" really existed there.

But what immediately caught my eye was the large red banner at the top of the website's homepage—"Zhongyuan Yidianhui's new work, 'Cultivation Chat Group,' will be available for sale tonight at midnight!!!"

Got it!
Keep the change, please.

This banner confirms that the news we just saw is true.

Feng Zaixiao frowned and pondered for a moment, then logged onto QQ and sent a message to his editor: "Hello! Is it true that 'Cultivation Chat Group' will be available on Rongshuxia tonight?"

After waiting for a while, the editor, Potato, replied: "It should be true!"

Feng Zaixiao quickly sent another message, "Can my work also be listed and sold on Rongshuxia? I want to earn more royalties, is that okay?"

After waiting for a while, Potato sent a string of question marks.

Feng Zaixiao frowned, and a string of question marks popped into his mind.

I thought to myself: What do you mean by this? Zhongyuan Yidianhui's new book can be sold on two websites, but I can't? Are you laughing at me with all these question marks? Yes! My achievements and fame aren't as great as Zhongyuan Yidianhui's, but does being a flop mean I don't have rights? Why can Zhongyuan Yidianhui do it, but I can't?
"Can't you?"

He suppressed his anger and spoke up to ask the question.

This time he waited a long time, but still didn't receive a reply from Potato.

……

It was a little after 6 p.m.

While Cao Sheng was eating, he suddenly received a call from Zhu Weilian.

"Hello? Mr. Zhu, what can I do for you?"

Cao Sheng asked casually, continuing to put food in his mouth.

Zhu Weilian's voice came through the phone, "Brother Cao! Your new book will be available on our website tonight at midnight, have you heard?"

Cao Sheng hummed in agreement.

After finishing a chapter this afternoon, during a short break, he saw many posts discussing this matter in the book review section of his work.

William Zhu: "Then tonight at midnight, could you please publish a few paid chapters on time? Is that alright?"

Cao Sheng: "Yes, no problem!"

Cao Sheng certainly wouldn't have a problem with having another platform to help him make money.

He had been waiting for this day since he decided to publish this new book on two platforms.

But when it comes to things like listing items, he's used to waiting for the website to make arrangements and notify him.

Therefore, Qidian notifies him when to publish the book, and he complies by publishing it whenever that time comes.

He didn't receive a notification from Rongshuxia that the chapters were already available for sale on Qidian, so he wouldn't post them on Rongshuxia and would suspend his serialization there.

When he decided to suspend his serialization on Rongshuxia, he mentioned that Rongshuxia would react.

Therefore, he was not in a hurry at all.

I've been waiting for news from Rongshuxia.

It's fair to say that Rong Shuqian's quick arrangement for his new book to be released was within his expectations.

"Brother Cao! There's something else I'd like to discuss with you. Would you like to hear it?"

William Zhu coughed lightly and said this.

Cao Sheng: "Go ahead! I'm listening!"

After saying that, Cao Sheng shoveled two more mouthfuls of rice into his mouth.

William Zhu: "Hey, Brother Cao, as you know, you've already listed this book on Qidian, right? So, I'm a little worried that if we list your new book on our website tonight... the results won't be ideal. So, I hope you can cooperate with our listing plan. For example, when it's listed tonight, could you also post a listing statement, just like you did on Qidian? But I hope this statement can be different from the one on Qidian, preferably more emotional and profound. Is that alright with you?"

Cao Sheng put down his chopsticks, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but turn up slightly.

"Okay! Anything else?"

He could give William Zhu that much face.

William Zhu: "Well, there's one more thing. I hope you can release 13 or 14 paid chapters tonight. That way, you can earn more money and also help us attract more subscribers. What do you think?"

Cao Sheng raised an eyebrow.

This was clearly unexpected.

"How many? 13 or 14 chapters? You're not mistaken?"

Cao Sheng wondered if he had misheard.

William Zhu: "No! Of course not! You heard me right, Brother Cao. You see, you released 4 chapters at midnight on the night you launched your book on Qidian, and another 4 chapters before midnight the next day. It's not midnight yet today, but you should be able to release 4 chapters today, right? So, you've released 12 chapters on Qidian in the last two days."

Therefore, if we list your book here, and you don't release one or two more chapters to attract readers, our subscription numbers will likely be significantly lower than those on Qidian. Don't you agree?

Cao Sheng chuckled slightly.

"Mr. Zhu, I don't have many chapters left, so I will only update 3 chapters on Qidian today at most, and I will not release 4 chapters."

William Zhu quickly replied, "Then you can just release 12 or 13 chapters here tonight."

Cao Sheng: "I'm sorry! I can only post all the paid chapters published on Qidian in the past two days to Rongshu. That's all I can do! I hope you can understand."

William Zhu fell silent.

Before making the call, he had mentioned that Cao Sheng would probably find it difficult to agree to the request.

But if Cao Sheng doesn't agree, the sales performance of Rongshuxia tonight will be in jeopardy.

This is the downside of not releasing the book simultaneously with Qidian.

After a long silence, Zhu Weilian spoke again: "Well... Brother Cao! We've known each other for a long time, and you're also a shareholder of our website. You also hope that our trial of paid reading will be a success, right?"

Cao Sheng nodded, "Of course!"

William Zhu: "Could you give me some advice? Help me think of a way to attract more readers to subscribe to your book. I really can't think of any good ideas. Can you help me come up with one?"

Cao Sheng: "???"

Can you help me come up with an idea?

A strange thought flashed through Cao Sheng's mind: Subscribe and get a girlfriend?

If Banyan Tree could get that many girlfriends to give it to him, this idea would definitely be very effective.

"Let's send some free coins!"

Cao Sheng thought for a moment and then suggested a trick that many websites in the original timeline had used.

William Zhu: "Huh? What are you giving? I didn't hear you clearly. Could you please be more specific?"

Cao Sheng: "Give away coins! The 'gift' in 'gift' is the same as the 'coin' in RMB. For example, you could announce that reading 'Cultivation Chat Group' will give away coins. Readers can use these coins to read other works that have been released on your website this time. What do you think of this idea?"

(End of this chapter)