Chapter 75: Publishing Announcement

The book is about to be published soon; first, thank everyone who has supported me along the way, and my editor Sister Orange—without you, this book would never have reached this point.

Let me answer some of your questions: I’m not new to writing—I previously wrote for Cat and Eggplant, but achieved little success, and at one point I considered giving up freelance writing because I wasn’t earning anything substantial—only a little over a thousand yuan a month—while my age increased and financial pressure grew.

Although my family never criticized me, my household conditions are modest, and I have a younger brother; families with two boys know well the pressure that brings, so I’ve always wanted to ease the burden on my family, which is why I took up writing as a side job. My main job is as a full-time firefighter—I don’t earn much, just a stable, ordinary income.

After several failures, I decided not to write fanfiction anymore and tried original work instead, returning to Qidian and barely managing to write an original novel averaging two thousand words per chapter—somehow, I even made a little money, which rekindled my determination and showed me that writing novels could actually earn income.

This book is the new one I started after finishing that original work. At first, I had little hope, because American horror is niche on Qidian—most readers treat it as just a side plot, and very few seriously write American horror fanfiction, let alone achieve success; almost nothing worth reading exists. But I love horror films—I’ve watched plenty of Japanese and American ones, and some Thai and Vietnamese too—so I thought I’d give it a shot; at least it’s a niche genre.

As expected, this genre is indeed niche. The book’s performance was unremarkable for several days after posting, but after being added to the library, things changed—around the New Year, it gradually picked up, then seemed to capture most of the genre’s traffic, which flooded in, and the results began improving.

It even briefly reached third place on the new book ranking; had the two above me not been Platinum Grandmasters, I might have taken first.

At that moment, I thought: this book has taken off! My god!

Along with it came anxiety and self-doubt—forgive me, this was my first takeoff, and I truly felt nervous; during that period, I thought constantly about the plot, and the Eden Lake arc was written then—due to blindly accepting advice and obsessing over settings, I inserted plot errors that lowered reader experience; I apologize sincerely here.

And perhaps because success attracted criticism, when the book was recommended, it received many negative reviews—I even dared not read the comments, unable to tell good from bad.

Of course, no matter what, I sincerely thank those brothers who voted for me and tipped me—without you, this book would never have taken off, and I wouldn’t have been able to keep going this far.

Going forward, I’ll work harder and strive to increase updates, but posting ten thousand words daily may be difficult, because this book requires a large reservoir of films—I spend nearly all my free time watching film analyses, and I also need to consider Left-Path magic techniques and how to reasonably insert plot elements.

Writing is challenging, so after the book launches, I can likely maintain only six thousand words daily, trying for eight thousand.

Finally, let me talk about bonus updates.

I asked some people in the group, and most suggested one extra chapter per thousand monthly votes, and one extra chapter per ten thousand tips—I’ll follow the same rule: tally at month-end, then add bonus chapters next month.

I’ll also count the ten-thousand-tip donations from the two senior authors: Supreme Great Luo Heavenly Immortal Ten-Thousand Longevity Emperor and Caught a Sheep.

That’s all. The book launches tomorrow at noon—please support it, and I beg for your first subscription. Thank you.

(End of chapter)