Chapter 77: It’s about to be launched, come and check it out.
It’s about to be launched,
Looking at the data in the background, I’ve been writing for 634 days in total, which is almost two years.
In two years, from Naruto: Rise of the Main God, to Martial Movement of All Heavens, and now to Don’t Mess with That Dragon. Although I occasionally got lazy and took breaks, although the results have always been dismal, both books were completed with effort and not abandoned.
And the author has successfully upgraded from an unknown failure to a small-time failure on the eighteenth line at Qidian....
(ŎдŎ;)
The bitterness within, who can understand it.
The journey of the new book hasn’t been smooth either. Initially, the choice of the title discouraged many readers, and the clicks were pitifully few. Although the name was later changed, it didn’t seem to make much difference.
Also, after finishing Martial Movement of All Heavens, I was somewhat bored with writing about heavens. Coupled with reading a novel about metamorphosing into a dragon, I wanted to write one myself.
Writing this book is essentially to fulfill a farming genre dream of mine.
When I was little, I was a book fanatic who loved stories, starting with encountering four great classical novels in elementary school: Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Journey to the West, and Dream of the Red Chamber.
I have almost forgotten how many times I read Three Kingdoms, but it must have been no less than twenty times. At that time, I could almost recite the entire plot, especially when Liu Huangshu received guidance from Mr. Shui Jing, visited Zhuge Wulong thrice, and from there things went smoothly—occupying Jingzhou, entering Chuanshu, and claiming the title of King Han, I was deeply impressed and felt excited.
Of course, in the end, the big generals of Shu Han back then died one by one, Zhuge Liang passed away at Wuzhangyuan, leaving plans to retreat Sima, slaying Wei Yan, and until the surrender of Shu’s later lord, Zhuge Kongming’s disciple Jiang Wei’s death in battle, the grand curtain of Three Kingdoms finally fell. Even though I was only eleven or twelve then, witnessing Luo Guanzhong’s conclusion that "unity is followed by division, division followed by unity," a feeling of pity welled up in my heart.
It’s been many years, and that Three Kingdoms has long been lost, but the scenes of the world as a chessboard, the clashing armies still echo in my mind, impossible to forget.
Next was Journey to the West. Although I watched the TV series adaptation many times as a child, the text version offered a different taste. However, I almost forget the main plot now.
As for Water Margin, it must have been about ten times. Not sure how old I was initially, probably around sixth grade. When I first read it, I only felt the heroes of Water Margin possessed a sense of pride, with stories of the 108 generals almost familiar in detail. Despite being saddened by the tragic ends, my fondness for reading it remained. Yet, each time revisiting, I never read the section about Liangshan’s campaign against Fang La.
No other reason, just felt too sad.
Later on, maybe after one or two years passed, reopening Water Margin brought another kind of feeling unexpectedly.
Except for a few, the whole book was filled with "wanton slaughter."
Not to mention those who ate human flesh. Song Jiang, appearing righteous, slaughtered nearby cities and states impersonating Qin Ming to incite rebellion, causing many innocent deaths; later, for Lu Junyi’s ascent to Liangshan, he maliciously plotted, leading to Lu Junyi’s ruin; then, to draw Zhu Tong to join, kidnapped the prefect’s child, and Li Kui killed the little boy...
Many, many examples could be listed. They say it’s government oppression leading to rebellion, but mostly, it’s Liangshan forcing the rebellion that I see.
Speaking of Li Kui, when Song Jiang was framed, many heroes planned to rescue from the execution ground. Then, as they rushed out of the city gate, vendors lined up on Moat Bridge selling vegetables, obstructing the heroes’ path, which led Li Kui to wield his Three Axes, slashing helpless vendors as if cutting vegetables, making another wave fall into the river. Even as civilians fled in panic, Li Kui relentlessly pursued.
Pity those hard times, how many impoverished families, anxiously harvesting vegetables to sell for a meager wage, awaited by their family at home, only to receive a headless corpse. Li Kui’s "excited to kill," left countless orphans and widows.
And Song Jiang? Lightly uttering "my fault," and the matter was brushed aside.
Since then, I never touched Water Margin again.
About Dream of the Red Chamber, forgive my lack of a lady’s heart; after several attempts, I couldn’t finish it. Eventually, borrowed a classmate’s simplified version, which was about ten thousand words, to roughly follow the storyline.
After reading it felt nothing really, seemingly less captivating than Three Kingdoms.
In high school, I began to encounter foreign classics. I read two parts of Gorky’s trilogy, Childhood and In the Mortal World, but My University bought in college didn’t intrigue me anymore, perhaps due to web lit.
Among them, the most memorable ones probably are Verne’s Mysterious Island and Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, considered early works of the farming genre, having read them multiple times, perhaps just a notch less than Three Kingdoms.
Though I didn’t read many foreign classics, in senior year, accidentally discovered a delightful manga in Zhiyin Manga called Fights Break Spheres.
At that time, borrowed every past issue I could find and searched online extensively, eventually finishing its entire backstory, but found the manga too slow and opted to read the original novel.
Thus, I officially entered the realm of web novels.
Indeed, once in, web novels are as deep as the sea, all other literature became strangers.
From Fights Break to Douluo by Tang Jia San Shao, Divine Seal, then to The Mortal Cultivation Chronicles by Wang Yu, from fantasy to immortal cultivation, immersing in countless grandiose and fantastical worlds....
Uh...
Suddenly realized time is running short, so I won’t boast anymore and will stop here.
.....
Finally, let’s talk about the situation of this book,
This book is only 160,000 words in, might be a bit early, but despite multiple recommendations from the editor during the new book phase, results remained at the lower end. Reviving recommendations also failed, leading to losing hope in new book recommendations, compounded with numerous great authors releasing works this month. Being a small-time, less visible writer with the book’s inherently niche topic in the upcoming public phase means enduring being cast aside and bare-launching.
As per the editor’s suggestion, only launching early to see how it fares, avoiding queuing behind renowned authors for app pushes, and hoping to garner some support...
༼༎ຶᴗ༎ຶ༽
Thus, I’m seeking first subscriptions here,
Based on current collections,
Three hundred first subscriptions, barely passable.
Five hundred, quite satisfactory,
Seven hundred, very happy.
One thousand, I’d wake up laughing from my dreams. If there truly are a thousand first subscriptions, I wouldn’t mind doing head-down writing for the next half month, achieving daily updates of ten thousand words. But I think that’s basically impossible, so I don’t expect too much.
Post-launch, a minimum of two updates, and for additional updates, since there are no saved drafts, maybe four or five on the first day, then I’ll try for three later.
Anyway, the leisure of the public period for the new book won’t continue.
Sigh, so struggling.