Writing Web Novels In America-Chapter 40 Turmoil

Due to the New York Times, in the United States, and even in the entire Western World, its influence was simply too great.

With this incident, a curious situation arose where the media formed a consensus to support one another in difficulty.

Thus, what was originally an outcry against online piracy quickly transformed into a conventional media encirclement of the New York Times.

Click-through rates, the weapons wielded, soared high.

"Arcane Throne" benefited from this easterly wind, with its sales skyrocketing.

In the end, within a week, it climbed to the 16th position on the bestseller list, just one place ahead of "A Song of Ice and Fire."

Even more astonishingly, over at Princeton, a theoretic physics professor who was fond of fantasy literature took notice of the first volume of "Arcane Throne."

Finding the concept that "knowledge is power" particularly intriguing, he recommended the novel to the school.

After earning the unanimous approval of many physics professors, the book astonishingly became recommended reading for the Ivy League.

This marked the first fantasy novel to receive such an endorsement from the Ivy League.

This turn of events inspired many rejected writers.

Hmm?

So it could be done this way?

Hence, these writers quickly registered their personal websites and uploaded their works for more people to see.

But due to lack of fame and other factors, these personal websites mostly had few visitors.

These individuals then turned their attention to...

Positioning excerpts of their works in the comments sections where readers left messages.

Hoping that readers of "Arcane Throne," upon finishing the portions published online, might stumble upon their own stories and offer feedback.

It has to be said, these individuals truly loved literature.

They were not like Wang Jian, who always considered his interests first and foremost.

At this moment, Wang Jian had just received a call from the publisher’s editor, informing him of the news.

Within a week, "Arcane Throne" had sold 70,000 copies across the United States.

At once, he began to calculate how much money he had made.

Forty US dollars a book.

A 10% royalty share,

70,000 copies.

That meant he had pocketed 280,000 US dollars.

Plus a guaranteed advance royalty of 120,000 US dollars.

So, just the first volume of "Arcane Throne" had earned him a total of 400,000 US dollars.

The key point was that this sum came from just 300,000 words.

Remember, the entirety of "Arcane Throne" spanned a whopping 3.3 million words!

This proved that publishing one-third of a book online and then enticing readers to purchase the rest was an effective promotional strategy.

So, it was necessary to find ways to maintain the website.

Wang Jian looked over at Jack Dorsey, who was still furiously debugging the website.

He felt it was time to offer a sweetener to the person who played the biggest part in establishing the site.

After all, it wouldn’t do to work the horse to the bone without letting it graze, right?

"Hey, Dorsey," Wang Jian clapped his shoulder, asking, "How much do you think is a fair salary if I ask you to manage this website full-time?"

"Salary?" Dorsey turned around, somewhat baffled, and said, "Do you still need this website after ’Arcane Throne’ is completely published?"

Wang Jian, considering the slowly growing thickness of the third book in his mind, confidently replied, "Of course, I hope it will continue to exist."

"Until all the novels in my mind have been published," he silently added to himself.

Dorsey then seriously considered the proposal.

He swiveled his computer chair, pondered for a moment, and said, "If it’s in the short term, I can manage the website for free."

"For the long term, we’d need to consider the salary level of a top programmer amidst the current internet craze."

He smiled at Wang Jian and continued, "This salary would definitely be far above the initial cost of establishing the website. So, are you sure?"

Wang Jian thought about it and asked, "How much exactly?"

"Eighty thousand US dollars a year," Dorsey said. "Friends’ rates."

Eighty thousand?

Programmer salaries are really goddamn high.

Wang Jian inwardly clicked his tongue.

Dorsey went on saying, "Actually, we could even convert it to shares, 15% would suffice."

He shrugged, "After all, I really do like fantasy literature."

"Let me think about it," Wang Jian replied.

Dorsey made an "ok" gesture, then turned back to tackle the bugs while starting to chat with others as the author of "Arcane Throne."

While the two were discussing the future, over at the office building of Cadabra, which had been called out along with Wang Jian’s website, its bald founder, Bezos, was starting a speech to a group of employees.

"Random House has authorized us with the electronic rights to their books. We must seize the internet reading craze this has sparked and rapidly expand our business."

"And prevent such incidents from happening again."

After everyone nodded in agreement, Bezos instructed the programmers, "Go live again."

On the employees’ computers, books with various colored covers and prices began to appear.

Eventually, the website’s name finished loading with large black letters.

"Amazon."

And right below the website’s icon, the cover of a novel was placed in the most prominent position.

On closer inspection, it was "A Song of Ice and Fire."

In a faraway place in Europe, a woman named J.K. Rowling was reading her favorite newspaper, The Sun.

Suddenly, she discovered that the author of "I’m a Great Mage" had released a new novel named "Arcane Throne."

Furthermore, this author had uploaded parts of the novel online.

And from time to time, would engage with readers in story discussions.

After some pondering, she hurried back to her home.

She turned on her computer and logged into the website.

Once captivated by the portion of "Arcane Throne" published online, she began to check the comments section.

To her surprise, she found other authors’ works posted there.

The readership drawn by "Arcane Throne" would read and evaluate these works.

And the luckier authors would sometimes even receive comments from the author of "Arcane Throne" himself.

Taking a deep breath,

She returned to her bedroom and took out a manuscript she had written to entertain a child.

Then, like the others, she typed the first few Chapters into the comment box.

The name of the story was "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone."

At the bottom of her post, she wrote: New author, lonely in creation.

Hoping readers and the author of "Arcane Throne" could leave some feedback.

Heartfelt thanks!

P.S.: Wrote this in a daze again. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Lately, the withdrawal symptoms have been quite severe, perhaps due to my history of smoking one and a half packs a day for 13 years.

If it reads confusingly, leave a comment and I’ll take it down.

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