Chapter 74: Speaking Out On Premium Release Day
It’ll go on sale tomorrow at noon. Thinking about it carefully, I’ve never posted a single chapter before, so I’ll take this opportunity to ramble a bit.
I asked the authors in the group how to write the on-sale testimonial, and the answer I got was just two words: play the pity card.
But after thinking about it, besides studying civil engineering and having to go to the construction site to mix mortar if writing books doesn’t make money, there’s nothing pitiful about me, so we’ll skip that part and mainly talk about the situation with this book.
As everyone knows, Qidian is a very sacred place for writers (I don’t deserve to call myself a writer, or even an author).
But I’m different; I just want to be a mole leading the Tieba brothers to infiltrate and occupy Qidian (just kidding).
So I created this book with a bit of a funky smell and wrote this somewhat outrageous protagonist.
The original intention was just for fun, but unexpectedly the response was pretty good. At its peak, Ji Cha’s ranking on the new book list was right next to mine, and the follow-up reading numbers looked promising for Sanjiang.
Then I got possessed by Ding Zhen and started a brainstorming storm: If this kind of book gets results, won’t it get taken down? This content would basically need to be completely rewritten if edited.
So starting from around chapter 50 something, I started holding back a bit, and then the problem appeared.
Follow-up reading started dropping; it might be nurturing, might be abandonment, I’m not sure.
But I have a clear understanding of my own writing ability. To put it bluntly without exaggeration, I’m about equal to relying on a defense.
I started reflecting: The plot during that time was basically losing sight of the main goal, weakening the advantage of creating excitement and instead focusing on other parts.
Realizing this, I went to my editor and shared my idea. My editor Zi Liang gently comforted me: “With your crap, you still want Sanjiang? Go get on sale!” (just kidding)
So at the end of that chapter, I shared this news with everyone and restarted high-intensity creating excitement.
Yes, the sewer rats don’t deserve a glamorous life. From the day I started this book, I was destined to have no connection with mainstream success. All I can do is make this book even more stinky, hoping one day to see in the comment section “Came from Tieba/Xiaohongshu/Douyin/Kuaishou/Bilibili, Qidian’s stink really lives up to its name.” Then my long-cherished wish would be fulfilled.
Speaking of which, there really are brothers on Douyin and Kuaishou who made short videos promoting it for me. I wouldn’t have known if not for seeing it in the comment section, which made me a bit uneasy, so I immediately shared this news with my editor Zi Liang, asking if this situation was good or bad.
“Laughing to death, you’ve gone viral. Suggest you screenshot it and send it to the group so I can brag about it.”
These were his exact words, then I blocked him. Just like Chinese people don’t worship idle gods, I don’t need an editor who’s no help to me.
Of course, the above is all joking around. I have a very good relationship with Zi Liang, which is why I joke like this. If any friends who want to write books are welcome to submit to Zi Liang of White Rose; increase his manuscript volume. I don’t want him to have time to rest. Please!
Then let’s talk about the book’s content.
The initial setting was that Jiang Ce is a chaotic neutral character who acts on whims, purely for amusement—a very pure mischief maker.
And his mentality isn’t that lofty either: He gets self-moved by doing good deeds and has no psychological burden from doing bad things, emphasizing a clear conscience.
So when readers say the plot is cliché, I don’t really agree, because according to the character setting, I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes a traitor at any time. And when outlining, I thought the most stable good-vs-evil standoff plot was boring, so I ditched that setting. What I want to create is a world undivided by good and evil, only by positions. Of course, those who harm innocent ordinary people are basically bad guys and must be ruthlessly written to death. Others are uncertain for now; we’ll see.
So I introduced the merit setting, and what I want to express is very simple: Anyone who achieves cultivation through merit, no matter their personality, is a good person who can make the right decision in the face of major issues of right and wrong, but not necessarily in other aspects.
Take Xiao Lin for example: Essentially he’s a good person, but his actions and style are very extreme, making him look like a villain, but his starting point is good. He’s a relatively contradictory character, and I’ve used corresponding space in the text to flesh him out.
There are many similar places; subsequent plots might unfold some side stories based on the foreshadowing laid earlier.
But who knows? What if I forget? That’s possible too, so everyone shouldn’t expect too much; maybe I’m just saying it for fun.
In short, one sentence: No matter what happens in the future, I will always stick to the original intention of writing this book, which is creating excitement, building happiness on the pain of other supporting characters, and coming up with more wild operations.
Oh right, I must mention one thing that’s been bothering me for a month; it almost pissed me off to death.
The last sentence of the blurb wasn’t originally this; it should have been “I’m Jiang Ce, I’ll Jiang-ruthlessly-side you while coding,” but it got deleted during review. Helplessly changed to what it is now. Though it’s a small matter, not saying it out makes me feel really stifled!
Regarding first subscription extras, I asked Zi Liang. He told me to aim for five hundred first subs, with fifteen thousand collections for five hundred first subs, thirty-to-one ratio—actually a very poor expectation. Of course, it might also be that after I said I was preparing to go on sale that day, everyone started nurturing the book. Anyway, we’ll know the exact situation tomorrow. Hope it’s not too bad.
So this is the current plan: I’m willing to believe everyone is nurturing, so I’ll confidently set it at eight hundred, with one extra chapter for every additional hundred.
For rewards, one helmsman for one extra, and so on? But this is just mentioned routinely; I know all you abstract lovers are poor bros like me, so just turning on auto-subscription to give me a meal is great. I won’t ask for more.
Because I’ve been busy with my graduation thesis lately, tomorrow I might only manage the guaranteed four updates; can’t squeeze out more.
Also, I don’t check the backend much, so I didn’t know there were so many readers supporting with rewards, but saving them up to now is too many to thank individually. So a thousand words boil down to one sentence: All who have supported me are my dads, and as for ranking who is big dad or second dad, refer to the book friend list!
As for books to sacrifice for going on sale, I want to recommend some, but no one asked me. There’s only one, “Global Taboo Day.” The author of this book has helped me a lot; I affectionately call her Gugu Sis. But although I call her Gugu Sis, she has no relation to “Global Collapse” or intermittent reanimated corpse. I must clarify this.
In summary, I’m a bottom-tier flop newbie that everyone looks down on, so I’ll sacrifice Zi Liang, and by the way sacrifice his White Rose group too, robbing all the luck from those premium and ten-thousand-average books. I think it fits this book’s core values perfectly.
As for the group, I haven’t created it yet; I’ll post it in the first chapter after I do tomorrow.
That’s about it. Hope everyone can come support at noon tomorrow at twelve. Thank you all.
