Release Day Remarks

Hello, everyone! This book was going premium!

Forty days had passed since I posted the first chapter on January 18. The book had reached around 220,000 words, and after midnight today, the first VIP chapter would be released! Confetti!

Here, I wanted to talk to everyone about the journey of writing this book.

About a year ago, I ended my serialization on another site, where I had been rapidly and frequently chasing trends in a gambling-like fashion. I decided to properly write a book that I could actually finish.

Just as I was preparing to start writing, I realized that because I had spent so long chasing trends, dropping stories whenever things went wrong, and constantly writing brainless face-slapping plots, my writing had deteriorated terribly. I had reached the point where my mind went blank the moment I needed to organize a long-running story.

So I started a practice project on another site, a pure slice-of-life story, solely to get my writing back into shape.

That book was completely solo. I wrote it for nearly a full year, from February last year to December this year, totaling around 1.5 million words. The income it brought me might not even have reached four figures.

But I was still very satisfied, because through that book, I practiced a great deal of slice-of-life writing, foreshadowing and payoffs, long-term story organization, and character building. My writing finally returned to a normal standard.

After finishing the outline I had at the time, I began preparing my next story. The reason I thought of American comics was also related to my childhood experience reading comics.

When I was in elementary school, there was a little shop across from the school gate that sold all kinds of comics, supplementary study materials, and stationery. That was where I first encountered superhero comics.

Unlike the Zhiyin Man Ke and Sa Manhua comics popular in China at the time, the superhero comics I read had a more realistic art style, and their stories were more grounded as well.

Over the following years, I intermittently caught up on the comics and then began watching the spin-off movies and TV dramas.

I think many people were like me: after reading certain plots, they felt something was lacking and continued imagining how the story might develop in their minds.

And so, this American comics fanfiction came into being.

When I first posted it, I had not researched internal submissions or contracts at all. I just posted it, purely wanting to create for the love of it. I liked these superheroes and wanted to continue their stories, so my writing was quite casual at the beginning.

Then, on January 23, five days after posting the book, I received a text message offering me a contract, and I signed it that very day.

At that point, I began considering the book’s commercial value and started piecing together the overall outline and certain standout scenes. That was also why some people said the style changed somewhat before and after, or that there were conflicts in the setting. I had simply been writing blindly at first; it was only after roughly 30,000 words that I had an outline.

Afterward, I never expected this book to perform particularly well, because those of you who had read it had probably noticed that it was rather different from most wish-fulfillment, face-slapping stories.

This book used superhero "character prequels" as its theme, focusing primarily on character development. Its writing structure mainly imitated American TV dramas, while its techniques emphasized cinematic atmosphere and visual storyboarding. Compared with web novels, both its structure and style were more like an episodic series.

Therefore, I had already prepared myself to write alone for another year.

But unexpectedly, quite a few people actually liked this structure and style. When the book reached around 110,000 words, Qidian’s smart recommendations kicked in, and it gained more than 3,000 bookmarks in a single day. Since then, the number of new bookmarks had never fallen below 1,000.

I remembered posting an author’s note before, saying that the book’s performance was not very good and that it might not advance through the recommendations. But from then on, thanks to every reader’s support, every one of my recommendation advancements had been first place by a huge margin.

And on February 13, fifteen days after the book was posted, it reached first place on Qidian’s new book ranking for the light novel section.

Immediately afterward, on February 14, it reached first place on Qidian’s overall new book ranking.

And it remained at first place on that overall ranking all the way until February 23. In other words, this book stayed at the top of Qidian’s overall new book ranking for a full nine days, with several level-five authors and even established gods beneath it.

For a newcomer who had opened an account less than two months earlier, this result could truly be called glorious.

This was all thanks to every reader. Every follow-up read, every vote, every reward, and every comment you contributed allowed an American comics fanfiction to remain first on the overall new book ranking for nine days, and allowed the characters and superhero stories I created in this book to be seen by more people.

As of today, this book had gained 50,000 bookmarks and received the strongest category recommendation on the web page, a featured new-book slot on the homepage, the little loudspeaker, and yesterday, it made it onto Qidian’s Sanjiang channel.

So far, this book had received every great recommendation a new book could possibly receive. Here, I especially had to thank several people.

First was my editor, Penglai. This directly posted book could be said to have been picked up by my editor before everyone could see it, and its smooth progress after 100,000 words could not have happened without Lord Penglai’s support.

Second were my first and second Alliance Leaders, Yi Anfei and Gongzi Qianji. The real-money rewards from these two great patrons spoke for themselves. Thank you so very much.

I also especially wanted to thank two fellow authors: Zuoche, author of I Accidentally Knocked Down a Witch While Flying on a Sword, which I had recommended before, and Hen Er Yin Zui, author of Every One of My Female Disciples Wants to Kill Me. When I was like an old man who could not make sense of Qidian’s complicated recommendation system, these two provided me with a great deal of help. So I also wanted to recommend their books. If you are interested, go take a look. Both are slice-of-life stories with very interesting ideas.

Other books I wanted to recommend were: One Piece: Starting with the Awakened Bloodline.

Madara Uchiha’s Journey Through the Heavens

One Piece: With the Salary in Place, Even the Four Emperors Get Kicked to Ruin

Bright Sword: Managing the Independent Regiment, Everyone Became Special Forces

Arcane: I Build Mechs in Piltover

Starting Funeral: Ultraman Brothers Come to See Off

Vongola Family in the American Comics World

Stop Arguing, I Just Want to Be a Quiet Craftsman

Flowery Years Starting from the Siheyuan

A Body Full of Spiritual Energy

My Dimensional Life Simulator

My Girlfriend is My Sister’s Best Friend

I Am an NPC in a Strange World

The Wonderful Adventure of Being Clearly a Waste

A Mechanical Planet Carried With Me

Simulated Cultivation: I Can Foresee the Future

I Can Smelt All Things

Fellow Daoist, Your Sword Is Amazing

How Did I, So Righteous, Become an Outer-Realm Heavenly Demon?

Max-Level Comprehension: Watching Swords at the Sword Pavilion for Sixty Years

As for updates after it went premium, I planned to write 10,000 words a day—at minimum for one week, and potentially for a month. Every Alliance Leader would get one extra chapter, and Hall Leaders and others would receive extras too. I would explain the specifics once I started updating.

Most importantly!!!!!! First Subscription!!!!!

Tonight at midnight!!! The first VIP chapter would be released!!!

I hoped everyone could subscribe!!!

This was really, really important to me!!!!

I wanted a great-looking first-subscription number!!!! This was one of my important life achievements!!!!!

Please, everyone!!!