Another new book of mine had made it onto Three Rivers. Come to think of it, I was old enough to call myself an old hand at Qidian now. What was the difference between a new flop and an old flop? Thanks to the Qidian editors for always looking after me and letting me keep scraping by there.
And then there was the very handsome Black Dragon—no, Youlong—who had once encouraged me by saying, "I read your book. It's niche, but it's really interesting!"
I'd said through tears, "I don't actually want to write niche fiction at all."
But there was no helping it. Writing, even web fiction, was deeply personal.
Some readers liked to attack authors through their protagonists. They'd say things like, "If the protagonist's this much of a loser, the author must be the same in real life!"
That was a bit of an exaggeration, but a book did reveal some of its author's views and way of thinking.
Fortunately, that meant we didn't have to read the same cookie-cutter story a thousand times over.
And fortunately, even if web fiction was called fast food, it was at least cooked by human hands rather than churned out on an assembly line.
Things from McDonald's and KFC might have tasted average, but they were standardized, so they could be sold all over the world.
Food from a little roadside shop might have had a flavor all its own. But some people definitely wouldn't like it!
Where some objected, others would be fans.
Readers chose books they liked from among countless web novels. In the same way, a book was also choosing readers whose tastes suited it.
In this day and age, people chose books, and books chose people!
I hoped more and more people would choose my books.