Chapter 36: New Book Launch

Xu Youyu was born into a family with high literary cultivation.

Her father was a literature professor at Qianjiang University, and her grandfather had also been a history teacher.

Her mother graduated from the history department of Qianjiang University, where she had been her grandfather's student, and her maternal grandfather had once been a village schoolteacher.

So from a very young age, Xu Youyu had the conditions and environment to encounter various literary works, long immersed in the literary atmosphere at home.

But by fifth or sixth grade, this little sapling brimming with literary spirit seemed to start growing crooked after encountering a romance novel secretly lent to her by a friend.

However, perhaps due to her different family upbringing, Xu Youyu did not become overly immersed in romance novels.

She always felt the female leads spent all day lost in love and romance, lacking their own convictions; reading too many made them boring.

Later, she read male-oriented novels, and from then on, she was on an irreversible path.

To Xu Youyu, the novel I Am Really Not a Star was a standard literary entertainment white text.

If she were truly asked to critique it, she could seriously analyze all its strengths and weaknesses.

But if Li Luo, the author himself, asked her this question, Xu Youyu could only chuckle softly: "It's average, barely readable."

Li Luo: "..."

If it's barely readable, why did you read it?

Yesterday you were calling him Big Boss left and right, and today it's just average?

"If you haven't read it, my advice is not to read this kind of novel," Xu Youyu coughed twice and said. "Read too much and you'll get addicted. Studying is more important."

That statement was indeed correct.

But coming from Xu Youyu's mouth, it sounded somewhat hypocritical.

Li Luo's lips twitched twice; he gave a reluctant nod, too embarrassed to reveal her true identity, then went back to eating.

August 22, Friday.

Wenxue Group, Changning City, Urban Category Editorial Team.

Today was the day new books went on sale.

Editor Qianzhou was verifying the list, checking for omissions or errors, so he could submit it to backend technical operations to grant VIP chapter upload permissions to these new books.

In this batch of new books, Qianzhou had two he favored.

One was Chongran's "I Am Really Not a Star"; pre-launch follow reads had already risen to 2,000. If written well and the plot remained steady, it might become his first author to break the 3,000 average subscription threshold.

The other was ZaoShuiHuiChangGao's Literary Era, whose follow reads had reached 1,000. Though its performance lagged behind the former, Qianzhou knew this was a slow-burn novel, and this opening was already decent.

In contrast, editor Qingyue's new books this week were far worse.

Her best-performing book, K-Pop Max Level Guide, for some reason—perhaps because it failed to secure a Sanjiang recommendation slot, or due to the author's psychological imbalance, or simply lack of ability—had completely collapsed.

Follow reads had stagnated and now hovered around only 800, even lower than Literary Era.

Though he hated to admit it, Qianzhou still felt a faint sense of satisfaction.

After all, Qingyue had only joined Wenxue Group about half a year ago, and Qianzhou himself had been employed for just over a month; both were newcomers in the team.

Moreover, although the chief editor or general editor had never stated it outright, most categories operated with one chief editor and three responsible editors.

So with two veteran responsible editors already in the team, hiring two new editors within half a year clearly signaled a survival-of-the-fittest competition.

No one wanted to be eliminated.

Thus, right after joining, Qingyue had subtly revealed in the contracted author group and some Qidian new writer groups that she was a female editor.

Then, leveraging the performance from her previous months' K-pop novels, she publicly claimed she had cultivated one ten-thousand-subscription author and five top-tier authors within half a year.

But in reality, all six were K-pop novels.

And that ten-thousand-subscription book was originally written by an established author using a pseudonym; too embarrassed to approach an old editor, he had handed it to a new one to pick up.

But this didn't hinder the growing appeal of the "Qingyue" editor brand.

As a result, Qianzhou faced extreme difficulty in his early stage.

After all, they were both new editors; she had arrived months earlier, had concrete performance to back her claims, and was a kind, attractive female editor.

In terms of author resources, Qianzhou simply couldn't compete.

Yet precisely because of this, slightly outperforming Qingyue in this week's new book sales still gave Qianzhou a quiet sense of joy.

But just as Qianzhou was pleased, Chief Editor Hongdou cleared his throat twice, clapped his hands, and signaled the team to pay attention.

Then he said: "I have an announcement for you."

"The urban category will launch a new writing contest, primarily targeting literary entertainment."

"You all know K-pop novels have always dominated this area and are growing rapidly."

"But recently, a K-pop novel was reported to higher-ups, who verbally urged us to pay attention to our influence and guide authors to promote our nation's culture."

"So the general editor has arranged a writing contest in response, advocating the promotion of national cultural characteristics and the dissemination of uniquely Chinese entertainment symbols and forms."

"Contest entries will receive some traffic bias, as a way to satisfy higher-ups."

"Each of you will submit a list to me later—don't use old books as filler; try to find new books that meet the contest criteria."

"Also, if any authors later want to write new literary entertainment novels, recommend they try this direction."

"Chief," Qianzhou asked after hearing Hongdou's words, "do today's newly scheduled books count?"

"Yes," Hongdou nodded, glancing at the time. "Deadline is noon today—any new book not yet uploaded qualifies."

"Got it, Chief!" Qianzhou beamed, opened Word, and immediately typed in I Am Really Not a Star and Literary Era.

Just then, Chief Editor Hongdou paused briefly, then added softly: "For the next while, sign fewer K-pop novels. All K-pop novels seeking contracts must be submitted to me for review."

"Also, remind any authors under you writing K-pop novels to research more thoroughly. Don't write nonsense if you don't understand historical facts—just stick to straightforward power fantasies."

"That's all for now. If you have questions, see me privately."

Twelve noon exactly.

Li Luo and Xu Youyu sat at their respective bedroom desks and uploaded the first VIP chapter of their new novel.

Shortly after, both received a message from the editor Qianzhou.

【Qianzhou】: A new writing contest has been launched in the urban category, related to entertainment.

【Qianzhou】: I've signed you both up; there may be some recommendation bias later.

【Qianzhou】: Also, I checked — if your performance is good and you qualify for awards, the first prize is ten thousand yuan. You should pay attention to that too.

Seeing the editor's message.

Xu Youyu raised an eyebrow; he wasn't particularly interested in the ten thousand yuan, but he did want the recommendation resources.

Li Luo's eyes lit up.

【Chongran】: Ten thousand yuan? So generous?

【Fallen Writer's Diary】: Thank you to the patron, Zui Ai Dongshan Qing~

PS: Currently updating 4,000 characters per day, as I'm still in the new book period and need to control word count. Please keep reading daily so I can finish the new book promotion faster! I expect to go live on June 1st, then I'll burst with updates~