Recount of a Cannon Fodder’s Counterattack (2)
Although webnovels were like fast food and didn’t really need insightful writing, it still needed enough imagination for even elementary schoolers to be satisfied. However, Wang Lizhi’s imagination was ordinary and he used tropes from years ago. From the introduction, the person reading would probably be too lazy to continue reading after the first couple sentences, much less be willing to publish it.
Lu Shijin listed out all the issues with Wang Lizhi’s writing one by one and started editing it, teaching him how to write with a rhythm that would capture the readers’ attention. It took him more than half the day to do so, resulting in him not writing his own things at all.
Under Lu Shijin’s tireless efforts, Wang Lizhi was finally able to write an interesting beginning after half a month.
Although Lu Shijin praised Wang Lizhi on the surface, he knew that it was far from being able to be published.
Lu Shijin saw that Wang Lizhi seemed to have genuine interest in writing, and seemed to be trying pretty hard. He couldn’t destroy his dreams like that, so after praising him, Lu Shijin said that the topic might not be what interests the mainstream audience, so he should put some more mainstream elements in it.
Wang Lizhi had not read many novels, so he didn’t know what mainstream elements were, and asked Lu Shijin.
Lu Shijin thought about it, and asked if Wang Lizhi was sure that this was the career he wanted to go down. Wang Lizhi replied that it was.
Lu Shijin directly gave him one of the previous drafts he wasn’t very satisfied with to Wang Lizhi and told him to edit it before submitting to be published.
The draft was only unsatisfactory because Lu Shijin had high standards. It was more than enough to be published.
As expected, not long after Wang Lizhi submitted it, he was able to get a contract.
Wang Lizhi was very excited. It was his first time trying so hard for something, a lot more than when he was still in school. Getting a contract meant that his hard work wasn’t all for nothing.
Of course, this was only the first step to working as a webnovel author. Most people couldn’t even earn enough for takeout after writing tens and hundreds of thousands of characters.
This only made Wang Lizhi more sure that he had to stick to Lu Shijin. Since Lu Shijin could get him a contract, then he could also make him earn money.
After getting the contract, Wang Lizhi started writing according to how Lu Shijin taught him.
Of course, no matter which field, newbies needed time to get used to the environment.
New authors had no publicity, so pretty much no one would read their things.
Wang Lizhi’s writing wouldn’t get any views, and he spent days complaining to Lu Shijin that the website was being biased and not recommending him.
Lu Shijin was soft-hearted and understood that it was difficult for new authors, so he recommended Wang Lizhi’s novel to his audience.
Lu Shijin’s works were pretty good and updated often. His readers believed in their favourite author’s judgment and went over to see. Seeing that it was a new author, even though Wang Lizhi’s writing needed work, a lot of them still left encouraging comments.
It was Wang Lizhi’s first time seeing so many people read his work and even praise him. This made his ego inflate at a rapid pace.
Seeing how easy it was to have a more popular person recommend him, Wang Lizhi discovered that Lu Shijin was pretty close with a big god on the same website, so he started thinking about how to get Lu Shijin to ask the big god to recommend him.
Lu Shijin didn’t like asking people for favors. His relationship with the big god was born of mutual appreciation. If he asked them for something, then he would owe them and their relationship would be clouded by other factors, so he refused Wang Lizhi.
But Wang Lizhi begged him by saying how poor he is, and how a family member was in the hospital while also in debt. He really needed money to help his family. Seeing how he only needed a couple hundred more followers to be able to earn money, he hoped that Lu Shijin could help him one last time in the face of their friendship.
Finally, Lu Shijin caved and awkwardly asked the big god for help. The big god was a chill person and agreed when Lu Shijin asked. This made Lu Shijin feel even worse.
The big god had a lot more backing than a nobody like Lu Shijin. Having the recommendation of someone like them, Wang Lizhi’s novel immediately shot up. The site’s administrator realized that Wang Lizhi might have some potential, and put it on the recommended lists.
It was really strange. Wang Lizhi had the writing ability of an elementary schooler, but with Lu Shijin’s advice and his strange imagination, his writing became something that made the readers shocked, but still want to continue reading.
Wang Lizhi was really lucky to have directly hit on what made readers satisfied.
After getting that recommendation, his followers and views steadily rose up. Since the website was also working on supporting new authors, Wang Lizhi was doing quite well. The novel was almost at the level of Lu Shijin’s most popular novel.
Wang Lizhi’s success drew the attention of a marketing company.
This company would pick a couple of authors with potential and sign a contract with them. They would help publicize them and once the authors start making money, and maybe even get adapted into films and dramas, the company would get a percentage of their earnings.
And because these new authors had no backing, their signing price would be a lot cheaper, being the marketing company’s top choice.
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