Chapter 232 - 217 Official Release_1
The award seems rather adolescent.
However, who among the readers who enjoy fantasy novels don’t have some adolescent attributes?
The official naming of this award is probably also a way of catering to young readers who love this genre of novels.
After all, everyone still likes to call their favorite author “GOAT”.
There are also some who call them “old rascal”.
However, this title is used by the minority.
Only those authors who evoke mixed feelings of love and hate from their readers are addressed as old rascals.
If there were an “old rascal” award, Chu Kuang, the author who killed off Biyao, might be famous on the list.
Lin Yuan didn’t care about these shallow titles…
Until he knew that being the supreme deity could earn better contracts.
At that moment, Lin Yuan’s aspiration to be the so-called “supreme diety” was as great as his anticipation of becoming “Maestro”.
In comparison, the benefits of the short story award, apart from gaining a good reputation, seem uncertain?
Of course, there are some benefits.
But in terms of making money, long stories overpower short ones, which is why Lin Yuan has never given up on writing long novels.
In the following days, Lin Yuan conscientiously paid attention to the award’s developments.
The Literature and Art Gazette, which previously ranked authors based on their short stories from Qin and Qi provinces, is affiliated with the Literature and Art Association and is considered a subsidiary unit.
The short stories were judged by the Literature and Art Gazette.
The judging of the long stories, on the other hand, is conducted by the headquarters of the Literature and Art Association, and preparations for it have been underway for a while, otherwise the news wouldn’t have already reached the public.
Only someone like Lin Yuan, who straddles multiple industries, lacked knowledge of industry updates.
And by the middle of May.
The details of the GOAT and supreme deity awards were finally disclosed.
The Literature and Art Association published an article in the Literature and Art Gazette, stating, “In the future, the awards will be held annually, so there will be new GOATs and supreme deities every year. The exact number is yet to be determined, but the number for the first event has already been decided. We will judge fair and square, openly choosing ten GOAT-level fantasy authors and three supreme deities…”
As expected.
The difficult supreme deity award only has three spots available, which are very likely to be given to the top fantasy authors who have been famous for many years and have consistently achieved good results!
The number of spots for the GOAT award is comparatively more, a total of ten.
No wonder Silver Blue Books believes Chu Kuang can secure one of the GOAT spots.
Although he started late, Chu Kuang’s influence is not something ordinary novelists can compete with!
Indeed, there are many industry insiders who have already started to forecast.
For these kinds of rankings, it is actually possible to predict some of the results in advance, given that the editors within the industry understand the authors’ achievements the best.
And in the vast majority of predictions, Chu Kuang’s name features prominently.
“In terms of sales, Chu Kuang doesn’t have a significant advantage in being picked as the GOAT, but his industry influence is undeniable. Chu Kuang has consecutively created two new genres of writing. It’s only fair that he secures a spot as the GOAT.”
Many agreed with this sentiment.
The indisputable fact is, the sports novels and Xianxia novels created by Chu Kuang have provided for many authors.
The influence of the pioneer is too great.
Especially the Xianxia novels, which are so hot right now!
There was a tally…
In the Qin provincial market, the Xianxia and sports competition genres combined have already occupied one-fifth of the market share in the fantasy domain!
In other words.
One-fifth of the authors on the market are following the two genres initiated by Chu Kuang!
Does one-fifth sound small?
No, when we talk about the entire Qin Province, it’s quite terrifying.
Of course.
Now with the merger of Qin and Qi provinces, this market share has certainly shrunk a lot, but this accomplishment is already dazzling enough for Chu Kuang.
The editors are making predictions, and so are the readers.
The readers are more fond of making these predictions than the editors, even coming up with specific lists.
There are people who believe that Chu Kuang will make it to the GOAT list, but his ranking might not be particularly high because fantasy authors from both Qin and Qi will be participating in the evaluation…
In comparison, the fantasy novels from Qi Province are indeed inferior to those from Qin.
That’s just relatively speaking.
Qi Province also has many talented fantasy authors.
But to be fair, several fantasy authors from Qi province will inevitably be selected, although the number will likely be less than those from Qin.
But now, there’s no point in making any more predictions.
Because the official results will only be formally announced after July.
Currently in the marketplace.
Everyone seems more concerned with how the new books released in June will perform.
There are many talented authors in June.
Among these, three works catch the most attention.
The authors are:
Chu Kuang, Devil Child, and Mister Sea.
No need to mention Chu Kuang, the marquee artist in June for Silver Blue Books and the focus of the highest ad campaign.
Devil Child’s work is also being released in June, titled “The Sword Sage Descends the Mountain”.
His fame is no less than that of Chu Kuang. As the June marquee author heavily backed by Ding Sheng publishing, it also has the highest promotional efforts, with the goal of fixing a spot in the GOAT selection!
As for Mister Sea…
He’s the banner author for Sky Publishing in Qi province, with a book titled “My other world is primitive society”.
Needless to say, it also gets the highest promotion, only the subject matter chosen is traditional other-world adventure…
Devil Child has the suspicion of imitating Chu Kuang.
But now that Xianxia has created a trend, nobody keeps bringing up whether one is copying or not anymore.
When a lot of people are writing on the same subject, it forms a genre.
It might be a stretch to say that every Xianxia novel on Earth is influenced by “Floating Dream”.
When they first came out, everyone would compare them to “Floating Dream”, but later on, this stopped.
All in all.
The promotion of these three novels was fierce, alongside the release of some other novels.
But clearly, they couldn’t compete with the hottest promoted titles.
The booksellers were also making choices.
On the side of Silver Blue Books, many booksellers pre-ordered “Ghost Blowing Lamp”.
But the June new releases of Mister Sea and the Devil Child, two novelists, were also pre-ordered by major bookstores.
Just comparing the pre-order data…
Ghost Blowing Lamp of Silver Blue Books, which hasn’t been released yet, has already sold a million copies.
The Sky Publishing House’s “My other world is primitive society”, also not yet released, has currently sold a million copies as well.
The most impressive is Devil Child’s “The Sword Sage Descends the Mountain”, with pre-sales of 1.3 million copies!
This doesn’t mean that Devil Child is stronger than the other two.
The main reason is related to the theme.
Because there are no tomb-robbing types in the market, Silver Blue Books classified “Ghost Blowing Lamp” as a horror-mystery —
A niche market.
It was only after “Zhu Xian” that the industry dared not treat Chu Kuang normally. Otherwise, the initial treatment of this book would not be better than Chu Kuang’s previous work.
On the other hand, “My other world is primitive society” is much more steady – – a traditional other-world adventure. While readers may be tired of this, it is still the most active genre in the market.
As for Devil Child’s “The Sword Sage Descends the Mountain”, the pre-sales were the highest because it is a Xianxia!
Xianxia is the freshest subject matter currently, with several bestsellers already out. Plus, the writer this time is Devil Child, naturally appealing to booksellers! Why?
Because Devil Child has many nicknames, such as, “killer of original series”, “king of bandwagon-hopping”, “master of drastic changes” and so on.
Hearing these nicknames…
Devil Child is good at jumping on the bandwagon, but he does it cleverly, adding his own details and thoughts, making drastic changes, and the final works often perform better than those he imitates!
This is a kind of ability.
Many powerful writers in the industry have this ability, but Devil Child is undoubtedly the cream of the crop.
Some even wondered if “The Sword Sage Descends the Mountain” could surpass the pioneer…
That is, Chu Kuang’s “Zhu Xian”?
Lin Yuan cared about the title race of the GOAT, but he didn’t care about the competition for the new book in June.
Although the competition for the new book affected his top-tier promotion.
This is natural.
If there is only one best-selling author starting a new book at the same time, everyone’s attention will naturally be focused on this best-selling author.
But if several best-selling authors start a book at the same time, their attention will inevitably be dispersed.
Booksellers also need to make judgments…
Bookstores sell books, basically, there are the main push works.
If the performance of the works they choose to push is not good, it will affect their income.
Of course.
They can adjust according to the situation.
For example, if the book they push does not perform well, they can completely switch to promoting another book that sells well…
But it depends on whether they signed any other contracts when they preordered the novel.
If they signed other contracts, such as author signing events, they can’t easily change their main push works.
Actually.
Some big booksellers also hope that Chu Kuang can cooperate with the bookstore to have a signing event for “Ghost Blowing Lamp”, which is a good method to stimulate sales.
Chu Kuang’s fans might buy “Ghost Blowing Lamp” for Chu Kuang’s signature, even if they don’t necessarily like this book.
However, after receiving a call from YangFeng, Lin Yuan refused.
Although he really wanted to make this money, once he held a signing and selling event, his fall would not be far away.
This is the downside of having too many pen names.
Lin Yuan decided to continue being a quiet Matryoshka doll.
On the contrary, Devil Child and Mister Sea have signed additional contracts with different booksellers, preparing to hold signature selling events, aiming to achieve higher sales in June.
However, Lin Yuan also has his own way of promoting.
He promoted the news of “Ghost Blowing Lamp” releasing a new book in June through Chu Kuang’s account.
Then, he used Shadow and Xian Yu’s accounts to forward and recommend.
The three accounts are interconnected, sharing the same heart, emphasizing unity in progression and retreat!
It’s also due to the bundling of the three accounts that fans get extra excited whenever they see these three accounts collaborating. It always feels like a self-circling CP, and the collaboration always locks CP with a heavy taste.
“Today’s threesome has started!”
“Triangle love?”
“A battlefield of love?”
“Before it was just Chu Kuang and Xian Yu, but now there’s an additional Shadow. It seems like Chu Kuang is the core, while Xian Yu and Shadow are competing for favor…”
“You guys are so dirty (blushing)”
“As everyone knows, when Chu Kuang posts an update, Xian Yu and Shadow must share.”
11 11
The three-person CP is as steady as a dog; netizens love to tease the bromance circle formed by Chu Kuang, Xian Yu and Shadow. Various spoofs abound, so every time they collaborate, it’s like a sucker punch to the netizens’ wicked sense of humor.
Lin Yuan was not sure if this bundling promotion was good for sales. Anyway, once he finished this, he didn’t continue to pay attention to it.
At this point, May had quietly ended.
June.
A large number of new books have been placed on the shelves of major bookstores.
Chu Kuang’s third long novel, “Ghost Blowing Lamp”, was officially released!