Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 83 Forced Transformation Under the Banyan Tree
In mid-November, the second and third volumes of I Want to Become an Immortal were sold simultaneously in the mainland market, attracting tens of thousands of book fans to buy them. The popularity of the book further expanded, driving the sales of the first volume to exceed 11 copies.

The sales of the second and third volumes continued to soar, attracting the attention of many mainland publishing houses.

Many publishing houses, including Huacheng Publishing House, Tianjin Publishing House, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, and Elephant Publishing House, have contacted Cao Sheng through various means, hoping to commission articles from him.

Cao Sheng declined all the offers on the grounds that the sequel to "I Want to Become an Immortal" was still very long and he had no time to start a new book.

In mid-December, the fourth and fifth volumes of "I Want to Become an Immortal" were released in mainland China at the same time.

Sales volume hit a new high.

Sales of the first volume exceeded 70 copies.

The sales of the second and third volumes also exceeded 50 copies.

The momentum of the fourth and fifth volumes is even stronger than that in November.

In just two months.

"I Want to Become an Immortal" is extremely popular in the mainland publishing market.

The popularity on the Internet continues to rise.

It has already surpassed Cao Sheng’s previous work “Living with a Flight Attendant” in popularity.

However, the sales of "Living with a Flight Attendant" have also been increasing recently, seemingly driven by the hot-selling "I Want to Become a Fairy".

The serialization speed of "I Want to Become an Immortal" in Under the Banyan Tree has accelerated since November, with one chapter per day.

Book fans were very surprised by just updating one chapter every day, and the book review section became much more harmonious.

There are obviously fewer critical book reviews, while the number of encouraging and supportive posts has increased significantly.

Then, the other authors were out of luck.

Whenever a work cannot be updated every day, there are always readers in the book review section who use the updates of "I Want to Become an Immortal" as an example to stimulate the author.

Such as: "The quality is not as good as "I Want to Become a God", and the update speed is not as fast, no wonder you failed!"

"One chapter a week? Are you writing with your feet? Why don't you go and see how fast the author of "I Want to Become an Immortal" writes?"

"One chapter every three days? Author! You need to work harder! Even the donkeys in the production team wouldn't dare to be as lazy as you!"

"Author! Learn from the author of "I Want to Become an Immortal"! You update so slowly, no wonder you are not popular and no publishing house is interested in you."

……

and many more.

Other authors were so angry that some simply chose to be eunuchs.

Some people personally came out to argue with the readers.

Some people grit their teeth and work hard to update every day.

However, books that are updated every day may not necessarily have a positive effect. For some works, the quality has plummeted and their popularity has continued to decline due to their insistence on daily updates.

Only a few authors can maintain the quality of their works and increase the popularity of their works while insisting on daily updates.

As the sales and popularity of "I Want to Become an Immortal" continue to soar, more and more fairy-tale and cultivation works are published under the banyan tree.

Many authors who used to write short articles have switched to writing long novels.

When Under the Banyan Tree announced a new batch of published works in mid-December, there was a surge in new books on immortal heroes and cultivation under Under the Banyan Tree.

Because Under the Banyan Tree announced the publishing information of seven fairy-tale and cultivation works at once.

Such as: Jin Hezai's "Dark Cultivation", Annie Baby's "Legendary Taoist Companion in the Cultivation World", Li Xunhuan's "Under the Immortal Sky", Xing Yusen's "Successor of the Rogue Cultivator", Cai Jun's "Top Ten Unsolved Cases in the Cultivation World", etc.

After seeing the sales of Cao Sheng's "I Want to Become an Immortal", the mainland publishing market, because they were unable to get manuscripts from Cao Sheng, turned their attention to other similar works by Under the Banyan Tree.

Then the most popular books among these works came into the sight of these publishing houses and got the opportunity to be published.

These authors are following Cao Sheng's lead.

These publishing houses are following the trend of Changjiang Literature and Art.

The two sides hit it off.

This made other authors so envious that their eyes turned red.

Anyone who has a little confidence in his or her writing skills would like to try to write a fantasy novel and have a taste of being published.

Nowadays, there are too few channels for cultural monetization.

In the past, the domestic publishing threshold was a bit too high for most literature lovers.

If you are not a famous writer, it will be difficult to find opportunities to publish your works.

But if you don’t publish, you will never become a famous writer. And these days, the status of a writer who has his works published is very high.

The dream of many literature lovers is to have their works printed and published.

It is very difficult to publish domestic works before.

For most literature lovers, it is a rare achievement to publish one or two tofu-sized articles in newspapers or magazines.

Write a novel and publish it as a book?
This is something most people dare not think about.

So, when everyone saw Jin Hezai, Annie Baby and others successfully published novels by following the trend of Zhongyuan Yidianhui's "I Want to Become an Immortal", the atmosphere under the banyan tree changed.

The number of people writing poetry, essays, and short stories is decreasing rapidly.

Authors who write about fantasy and cultivation have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, with dozens or even hundreds of books popping up every day.

Under such circumstances, the editorial department of Under the Banyan Tree held several meetings.

The topics of several meetings were: Should Rongshuxia transform? Should the main genre on the website be changed to fairy tales and cultivation stories? Or novels?
……

This evening.

Zhu William, the webmaster of Under the Banyan Tree, locked himself in his office, browsing the web pages of Under the Banyan Tree unconsciously, with his brows slightly furrowed, which did not relax for a long time.

Under the Banyan Tree is not only his entrepreneurial project, but also carries his literary dream.

As a Chinese American, he saw the development prospects of the Internet in the United States and thought it would be worthwhile to set up a literary website in the mainland.

So he came back and started Under the Banyan Tree.

At the beginning, as he expected, Under the Banyan Tree attracted many literature lovers, and some magazines and publishing houses were also interested in cooperating with Under the Banyan Tree.

This made him see how Under the Banyan Tree could make a profit.

As long as it can make a profit, Under the Banyan Tree can continue to develop and embark on the path of sustainable development.

but now……

Zhongyuan Yidianhui's "I Want to Become an Immortal" led his hard work - Under the Banyan Tree - astray.

Under the Banyan Tree is a literary website.

But literature is more than just novels.

There are more than just fantasy novels in the category of fantasy and cultivation novels.

But now?

There are only a few people who publish poems, essays, diaries, and short stories every day. Most authors are writing novels, and most of them are writing about fantasy and cultivation.

Can Under the Banyan Tree still be considered a literary website?

He has attended all the editorial meetings in the past few days.

He also knew what everyone was thinking.

There are only two options: either keep the website style unchanged, or transform the website into one that focuses on long serial novels.

But he knew in his heart that most of the authors under the banyan tree were only capable of writing short stories, and few of the novels they wrote were of a quality that could meet publishing standards.

If it really transforms into a website that mainly publishes long serial novels, there will be very few works that can actually be published, and the profitability of Under the Banyan Tree may drop significantly.

unless……

Able to raise funds.

Use other people's money to burn, use other people's money to provide nutrition for the banyan tree. Over time, there will naturally be more authors who can write good novels under the banyan tree.

By then, Under the Banyan Tree will be able to regain its profitability, or even become more profitable.

Financing...

Can I get financing?

What to use for financing?

The five words "a little gray in the Central Plains" flashed through his mind.

Zhongyuan Yidianhui is now the most famous and best-selling author in the country, and this author is now under their banyan tree.

If Under the Banyan Tree can be tied together with Zhongyuan Yidianhui, they should be able to raise funds, right?

The question is how can I be tied to Zhongyuan Yidianhui? Zhongyuan Yidianhui is currently only a resident writer at Rongshuxia. Although there is cooperation, there is no binding relationship between the two. Zhongyuan Yidianhui can leave Rongshuxia at any time.

(End of this chapter)