Chapter 34: The Impact of the Publication Announcement

Cao Sheng logged into his email account.

He indeed saw an email from Wang Jing.

The content of this email was as follows:

"Cao Sheng, I have good news for you: your novel 'Days Living with a Flight Attendant' has passed the review by Huacheng Publishing House. They are very interested in publishing it. We negotiated preliminary terms on your behalf, and they agreed to offer you an 8% royalty rate—this is already quite high, as most new authors in China typically receive only 6%. We used personal connections to get your royalty raised to 8%. If you have no objections, we'll sign the contract under these terms, and then you just wait to receive your payments…"

Cao Sheng read up to this point in the email, then skimmed the rest without carefully reading further.

Because there was no more valuable information after this.

An 8% royalty…

He had heard of royalties before.

At first glance, it sounded like a tax, but it was actually another term for payment—unlike fixed royalties, royalties are calculated based on the book's price and sales volume.

The higher the book's price and sales, the greater the total payment the author would ultimately receive.

But if sales were poor, the total payment would also be low.

This payment method could sometimes make an author rich overnight, like J. K. Rowling, author of 'Harry Potter'.

Of course, Cao Sheng didn't expect his own book to make him rich overnight.

But compared to fixed royalties, he truly preferred royalties.

The only drawback was that royalty calculations took a long time—it might take half a year, or even several years after publication, to receive all the royalties.

He sent Wang Jing a positive reply.

He agreed to let Huacheng Publishing House publish the book.

He didn't need to worry about the follow-up matters.

The unpublished drafts of 'Days Living with a Flight Attendant' had already been copied to Wang Jing when she visited him earlier, so he didn't need to provide the remaining drafts again for this publication.

A few days later, he received Huacheng Publishing House's advance payment—only a small amount; after deducting Rongshu Xia's share, Cao Sheng received just over three thousand yuan.

Because Huacheng Publishing House planned a first print run of only 5,000 copies.

The price was only 22 yuan per copy.

Even if all copies sold, total revenue would be only around one hundred thousand yuan.

If the initial 5,000 copies didn't sell out, there would be no further printings, and Cao Sheng would receive no additional royalties.

This was the risk of taking royalties.

This was also why some writers today paid out of their own pockets for self-publishing.

Many books, even after being printed, struggled to sell a few thousand copies; publishers made no profit, so authors who wanted to publish had no choice but to pay themselves.

Fortunately, Cao Sheng's 'Days Living with a Flight Attendant' had already become popular on Rongshu Xia, with over one million page views so far.

After confirming Huacheng Publishing House's upcoming publication, Rongshu Xia placed a prominent pre-sale announcement on the website's homepage.

It immediately attracted a lot of attention.

"Celebrating the upcoming publication of Zhongyuan Yidianhui's heartfelt masterpiece 'Days Living with a Flight Attendant'! Interested readers can pre-order!"

This red banner stretched across the very top of the homepage—any reader entering the site couldn't miss it.

Cao Sheng saw that many people were already discussing this in his book review section.

One late night, he went to an internet cafe for an all-night session; before converting part of his drafts into digital files, he logged into Rongshu Xia to check the data for his book 'Days Living with a Flight Attendant'.

In the review section, he saw the following comments:

"This book is actually getting published? It's really popular!"

"Getting published? This book doesn't have many words yet—does it even have enough to fill a book? Or has the author already written a lot but is deliberately updating slowly? Is this just a trick to make us pay for his book? That's so sneaky!"

"Breaking news! Supposedly this book was already completed—this publication contains the full text. Those wanting to read the later chapters can pre-order on the homepage for just 22 yuan."

"Damn! Zhongyuan Yidianhui, you really live up to your name! You've already finished this book but update only every two days, just to lure us into buying it? Your heart is completely black! No wonder you won't call yourself Zhongyuan Yidianbai! You're not gray—you should be called Zhongyuan Yidianhei!"

"We built up the popularity of this book for you, and now you want to make money off us? Publishing… what era is this? Why not just keep serializing online? Other authors' books are free to read online—why are you the only one publishing and charging? Don't you have any internet spirit?"

…

And so on.

Cao Sheng couldn't finish reading these reviews—there were far too many.

No one knew who had leaked the rumor that the book had already been completed.

Wasn't this just asking for him to be scolded?

Will the royalties I earn from this publication turn out to be nothing but misery money?

Being scolded by readers was inevitably a bit depressing.

But thinking that his book would be published, he felt more joy than sorrow.

Still, Rongshu Xia's heavy promotion had caused some impact on his real life.

Two days later, when he returned to his dorm after finishing his writing, his roommates looked at him differently.

Pang Yunhai, expression complicated, spoke first: "Cao Sheng! I heard your little porn book is really getting published?"

All his roommates turned to look at Cao Sheng.

Cao Sheng was surprised: "How do you know?"

Song Chao chuckled: "Do you really think none of us know how to use the internet? Ever since the Rongshu Xia editor came to our dorm looking for you, we've all checked out your 'Days Living with a Flight Attendant'. Today when I went online, I took another look—and there it was, your book's publication announcement right on the homepage. Are you still denying it?"

Guan Zhi: "Cao Sheng! You've earned your royalties now, right? Shouldn't you treat us to dinner?"

Cao Sheng: "…"

In 1998, internet fees were too expensive—five yuan per hour made many people hesitant to visit internet cafes; in his memory, his roommates usually didn't have the habit of going online.

So he had assumed the news of his book's publication would take some time before they heard about it.

He hadn't expected these guys to find out so quickly.

"What do you want to eat?"

He had no reason left to refuse their invitation, so he decided to treat them once.

Otherwise, he might be isolated in this dormitory from now on.

Besides, he didn't want people spreading word that he was too stingy.

When he asked that, his roommates immediately perked up.

"I want a feast!"

Someone shouted.

Cao Sheng: "No feast!"

"Then barbecue!"

Someone suggested.

Before Cao Sheng could reply, another suggested: "I want hotpot!"

Others quickly called out their own thoughts.

"Let's go to Tianranju! At Tianranju, you can order anything you want!"

"Why Tianranju? Isn't the first floor of Laojie better?"

"Let's go to Zhuangyuan Yi Jia! Their braised pork ribs are excellent!"

……

After a burst of noise, Cao Sheng made the decision: he would treat everyone to hotpot, and nothing else was up for discussion.

His roommates all got up, eager to go right away—no one wanted to wait until tomorrow.