It's time to go premium again, and at this moment, I have mixed feelings.
Some attentive readers may have noticed that in all the time I've been writing, I've never asked for recommendation votes or urged people to keep reading in my chapter titles.
That's because I'm extremely socially anxious and introverted.
I'm over thirty, and all I know how to do is bury my head in writing novels. I don't understand anything else.
Sigh.
My first book was also a Western fantasy novel. I published it on July 27, 2023, and it went premium on September 30.
I endured more than two full months of the free period before it went premium, and it had reached 330,000 words by then.
During that time, I didn't earn a single cent.
If it hadn't been for my editor-in-chief and responsible editor constantly helping me, I would have starved to death long ago.
I wouldn't have been able to keep going.
Believing that hard work would eventually pay off, I thought that if I wrote enough, people would read it. Unfortunately, its performance after going premium was terrible, and my mentality collapsed, so I abandoned it unfinished.
That period truly was the darkest time of my life and the heaviest blow I had ever suffered.
Next came my second book, a xianxia novel.
I published it on December 25, 2023, and it went premium on February 27, 2024.
Once again, I wrote more than 300,000 words during the free period—over two full months of work.
I still didn't earn a single cent.
The results were a little better this time, but the subscriptions were still very low.
My boss suggested I cut it short.
That wasn't anyone else's fault. I could only blame the poor quality of my writing.
Every recommendation during the free period performed terribly. As a result, other authors went premium after 170,000 to 200,000 words, while I had to write even more free chapters to build up an audience.
That created a vicious cycle.
The two books had reached more than a million words combined, yet I still hadn't earned anything.
I have to thank my editor-in-chief and responsible editor again. I only survived until now entirely because of them.
The xianxia book performed a little better, and when I abandoned it, a great many people cursed me.
Only then did I realize that many distinguished readers had been following it all along; they simply didn't like leaving comments.
But the subscriptions were terrible, and I truly couldn't keep going.
I'm sorry.
Here, I want to offer a sincere apology.
And I also want to offer my heartfelt thanks.
Thank you, everyone.
Although this Western fantasy novel has many unsatisfactory parts, its results have still been the best so far!
There was one comment that has stayed vividly in my memory.
In the book reviews, a distinguished reader said that Chapters 18 and 19 were a deal-breaker, and that people should continue only if they could accept them.
That comment sparked a heated discussion. I saw the reader say that they couldn't be more explicit, or the author would delete it.
That was wrong!
Completely wrong!
You have no idea how happy I was the moment I saw someone leave a comment.
Whether it was good or bad, I accepted it all.
It would help me grow.
Although most distinguished readers don't write novels themselves, they have all been reading novels for years. Their sensitivity to the market is undoubtedly the best, most genuine, and most effective!
I think that if I write another novel in the future, I won't write this kind of deal-breaking plotline again.
Because I've been writing novels with no outside input, like someone building a carriage behind closed doors.
I've read and remembered all the points everyone criticized, including things like the 33-system.
Seeing everyone discuss things so passionately and criticize them so fiercely actually gave me even more motivation to continue writing.
At the very least, someone was reading it, right?
As for the deal-breaking point mentioned in the book review, I want to tell you that even if you put it more bluntly or cursed me more harshly, I still wouldn't delete your comment.
Because I don't want readers to waste several days on the book, only to leave disappointed in the end.
Across more than a million words and three books, I've never deleted a single comment or muted a single account.
I also never asked for votes or thanked people for their tips. (I did thank people for the first book, because there were rather a lot of tippers.)
Because of my personality, I'm not good at playing for sympathy. I can only state the facts.
I've seen distinguished readers ask why I don't update more.
It's not that I don't want to. Qidian's rules only allow 4,000 words per day during the free period.
Every day, I "cut corners and bend the rules," writing 5,000, 6,000, or even 8,000 words in a chapter—sometimes as many as 12,000.
If my editor-in-chief and responsible editor hadn't felt sorry for me, they would have stopped me long ago!
So,
For this book, after reaching more than 200,000 words, I took the liberty of applying to my editor-in-chief and responsible editor for an early release.
I want to take a gamble.
My dear readers!
Please help me!
I will release five chapters in a row on the day the book goes premium!
I hope the initial subscriptions can be higher!
With 300 initial subscriptions, I absolutely won't abandon this book. I'll keep writing until it reaches a million words.
With 800 initial subscriptions, I'll write it to three million words.
With 1,300 initial subscriptions, I'll write it to five million words.
If—
If I can get 2,000 initial subscriptions, I'll write it to seven million words and bring it to an end, because seven million words was what I wrote into the contract when I signed it.
This book has a very slow buildup.
The writing is detailed, and it takes a great deal of effort!
The first three arcs alone will take 1.5 million words to complete.
According to my plans, I was aiming for 12 to 15 million words.
But my writing skill and ability are limited, and the quality has never reached the standard I want.
I desperately need everyone's support.
Even if you don't want to keep subscribing after the initial subscription, I will still honor my promise.
The book goes premium on June 1, and I will reveal the result on June 2.
I hope all my distinguished readers will give me a chance!
This really matters to me.
The number of readers following along isn't bad, but my daily recommendation votes and monthly votes are always the lowest among books released around the same time.
Actually, during the free period, every recommendation vote is immensely precious to a book.
But I can't bring myself to ask.
First, it's because of my personality and my extreme social anxiety.
Second, I really do feel that my writing isn't good enough, so I feel embarrassed to ask.
As a result, several people tipped me when I started the book, but I didn't thank them either.
It's not that I don't know how to be grateful. It's that great kindness cannot be repaid with mere thanks. All I can do is write even better and repay my dear readers!
Many people like to save up chapters, but that's fatal for a new book!
Books with good results don't lack votes.
So I'll shamelessly ask for a vote!
Whether it's a recommendation vote or a monthly vote.
I hope we can break a thousand at least once!
By the time I've written this much, my emotions are already in turmoil, and tears are streaming down my face.
I bow to all of you, great readers.