[Short version]
First, thank you all for your support.
Since the book is still in its new-release period, starting in October, I'll post a fixed four thousand Chinese characters a day until it goes premium.
After it goes premium, the daily minimum will be six thousand characters.
[Please, dear readers, keep reading each new update. If the ongoing readership numbers aren't good enough, the recommendations are done for! My deepest thanks!]
"Bonus chapter plans after the book goes premium"
1. (There will be a separate mass release when it goes premium.)
2. (Bonus chapters earned through monthly votes and tips between September 30 and the premium launch will be delivered after launch. Updates will remain at four thousand characters during the new-release period; otherwise, it'll affect what comes next and force an early premium launch before the book has received its full run of recommendations.)
3. (Lao Jiu is an old hand. I've finished three books totaling three million characters without abandoning them, so you can trust my track record.)
Monthly vote bonuses: for every twenty monthly votes accumulated, I'll add two thousand characters-one chapter. (Double monthly votes count too.)
Tip bonuses: every ten thousand Qidian coins accumulated in tips earns one extra chapter. A League Leader tip earns twelve extra chapters in one go. (Although I've never had the good fortune to receive a League Leader's favor, I'm putting it here anyway.)
These bonus chapter rules are something I, Lao Jiu, came up with after looking at what other authors do. If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.
Thank you to Mage V for twenty monthly votes, and to Reader 20230610181443171 for two monthly votes. That already puts me one chapter in debt. (Double monthly votes count.)
[Detailed version: "With lots of rambling added"]
First, thank you all for your support. Your continued reading, monthly votes, and tips are the best motivation I, Lao Jiu, could have for writing.
Previously, I always posted bonus chapters whenever I felt like it, without any fixed standard.
Basically, whenever enough people cast monthly votes, I felt bad about not posting another chapter. So six thousand or eight thousand characters in a day was perfectly normal.
Looking at other books, though, four thousand characters a day seems to be the most suitable pace during the new-release period.
For example, this novel is already a hundred thousand characters long, but it hasn't even received all the traffic from its first free-period recommendation yet. It only has eight hundred bookmarks and two hundred readers keeping up with updates.
I don't even know whether those numbers are good or bad-you might not believe this, but although I, Lao Jiu, have finished three books totaling three million characters, I've never thought about this side of things.
Before, I just buried my head in writing. During the new-release period, I never bothered about recommendations or anything like that. I simply posted four thousand characters a day-because I had no chapter backlog and could only write four thousand.
Then the book would go premium, and as a veteran flop, I'd basically just collect the full-attendance bonus. Apart from a mass release on launch day, I still posted four thousand characters a day afterward.
Fortunately, though, I never abandoned a book once it was under contract.
Even if its results were poor, I did my best to finish it at a million characters... As for updates after the full-attendance bonuses ran out, I couldn't guarantee those. I might rise from the dead to post an update every few days.
Here and now,
Once again, I kneel and kowtow in apology to all the readers who kept supporting Lao Jiu's previous book, "Conan: My Supernatural Tale Organization Begins with Alternate Identities"!
-I know those sudden back-from-the-dead updates were tormenting, but with my graduation thesis keeping me busy, the poor performance of the Conan fanfic, and various other factors, I genuinely didn't have the mental energy to write.
Especially the two big supporters, Qing Shuang Jiang Xue Bai and Persimmons Steamed Just So. Each of you spent a hundred yuan here and there on my previous book, only for it to end with a botched conclusion at 1.12 million characters. I'm truly sorry!
(Qing Shuang Jiang Xue Bai cast a huge number of monthly votes. Seriously incredible. Now, whenever I type "thank you" on my phone, the first suggestion that automatically appears is "Qing Shuang," and if I keep tapping, it spells out your full name.)
There were many other readers too. At the very least, to everyone whose fan level reached Disciple or above, I really let you all down.
Once again, I kowtow and offer seppuku in atonement!
If I get the chance in the future, I'll write another Conan fanfic, in honor of all the dear readers who spent money on "Conan: My Supernatural Tale Organization Begins with Alternate Identities"-the patrons who put food on my table and clothes on my back.
Back to this book.
Right now, the reason "Douluo: Long Yue Brings a City Back Twenty Thousand Years" can receive six thousand characters a day, and sometimes eight thousand, is that I have a chapter backlog, and I can write six thousand characters a day now that I'm doing this full-time.
That backlog is almost gone now, and I don't even know whether there will be any more recommendation traffic coming.
If I keep posting six thousand characters a day, then by the time the book goes premium at two hundred thousand characters or more, its bookmarks, ongoing readership, and subscriptions probably won't amount to much.
At that one-to-twenty subscription-to-bookmark ratio, I don't know whether this book can even pass five thousand bookmarks.
Honestly, I'm a little anxious. I went straight into freelance work after graduating from university. Although I have some savings, writing novels is my sole means of putting food on the table.
That was also why, once my previous book passed a million characters, I wanted to finish it as soon as possible.
Watching my monthly income fall short of my expenses and my savings shrink day by day, I really couldn't hold on anymore.
(Lao Jiu spends only fifteen hundred yuan a month to stay alive and keep breathing. That really isn't much for living in Changsha.)
Everyone says they don't recommend writing novels full-time, but I, Lao Jiu, really have no other choice. Without writing novels, I can't survive.
(Entry-level salaries in Changsha's new media industry aren't high either, and working overtime editing videos, doing design and planning, and so on isn't the kind of work I enjoy. I'd rather write novels. Either way, I'm just trying to put food on the table.)
(Mainly, I also have a bit of social anxiety, though Long Yue and I are at opposite extremes of it. Generally speaking, in my old fan group, I just lurked without saying anything, and I don't normally contact my editor unless there's something work-related. So I don't really like that sort of office environment.)
All right, technically, this sort of sob story should wait until just before the premium launch, but I figured there was no harm in saying it now and explaining the bonus chapter plans for after launch while I was at it.
[For the detailed plan, please see the short version.]
Finally!
[Please, dear readers, keep reading each new update. If the ongoing readership numbers aren't good enough, everything is done for!]
Lao Jiu bows in thanks!
Before you continue