'Golden age' Dawns for Chinese Web-writers

Source: Chinadaily

In almost every bookstore in China you can find an area for Internet literature.

Over the past 10 years, Chinese Internet literature has grown. With ever more such novels adapted to film and television drama web-writers have finally reached their "golden age". Some even earn more than 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) annually.

According to a survey by Beijing-based newspaper Jinghua Times, Internet literature websites offer writers a lower access threshold, while writers themselves have more channels to publish their works and earn higher income.
Between this year and next more than 30 movies or TV dramas adapted from Internet literature will be released. Meanwhile, large Internet literature groups are set up one after another and traditional Chinese Internet giants such as tencent.com take the literature to new heights. In that case, a group of web-writers and high quality copyright resources will be intensified.

Web-writers initially published their work on online forums. Bu Feiyan, a web-writer as well as a Chinese literature lecturer at Renmin University of China, told Chinadily.com.cn that she wrote for fun when she started on tianya.cn, the largest internet forum in China.

"I was a common college student in 2002. Someday, I made up a wuxia (martial arts) story in my mind, but none of my classmates wanted to hear it, so I decided to write it down on the Internet. A very simple intention, but soon, I was surprised that so many people liked my work. About four months later, a publisher left a message on my blog and asked if I want to publish my work," she said.

Bu has published 25 books so far. Most were serialized on an Internet literature website where people can read them after payment. Since early this year she has worked as a screen writer for a internet drama.

"To some degree, Internet changed my life. Before, my works attracted attention from publishers, while now they earn dashang (reward) from my fans. Web-writers now have more chance to become rich, if they have enough talent, effort and fans," she said.

Maoni is a platinum web-writer.

Fans are really important to web-writers. According to the new remuneration system of China Reading Limited, the biggest internet literature website in China, web-writers can receive up to 50 percent subscription revenue sharing.

Almost all Internet literature websites include a reward function. Readers can award the web-writer money or props which can be "exchanged" for money.

Some sites encourage "fans economy". They publish monthly charts of popular web-writers which are determined by votes from readers. However, readers must pay to vote, and the more they pay, the higher rank their favorite writer will get.

There are millions of web-writers in China. They can be divided into five levels by their income and number of fans. The lowest level is ordinary writer, also known as poor guy (or poor guy writer). Their fans are limited, while their works seldom get recommended. Normally, their annual income is around 1,000 yuan (&161).

Xiaoshen (low rank god) class writers have more than 100,000 fans with an annual salary of more than 100,000 yuan ($16,100). Generally, they are the foundation of a literary website.

Zhongshen (middle class god) class writers earn more than 500,000 yuan ($80,600) per year and have hundreds of thousands fans. There are several hundred such web-writers in China now.

The annual salary for dashen (super god) class writers is more than 1 million yuan ($161,200). The number of their fans is always more than 1 million as well.

There are around 20-30 top web-writers in China. They are called platinum authors or zhigaoshen (the Supreme God) class writers. According to the 2014 Chinese web-writers’ list, Tangjiasanshao, who ranks first, earns 50 million yuan ($8.06 million) annually from royalty income, while the second and third in the list both earn more than 25 million yuan ($4.03 million).

Tangjiasanshao earned 50 million yuan ($8.06 million) from royalty income last year.

IP (intellectual property) or qualified contents became the direct driving force of the Chinese Internet in recent years. The concept of IP upgraded the business mode of Internet literature websites from single paid reading into a industrialized operation.

Popular network novels are welcomed in the film, TV drama, and animation and game industry. Until the end of last year, the copyright of 114 network novels had been bought by different companies. Among them, 90 works will be adapted into TV dramas, while others will be adapted into movies. Giant Interactive Group Inc, a Chinese online game company, bought 40 copyrights of network novels as reserved contents.

Piracy and plagiarism have become a danger for web-writers. Some readers pay to read the works but then share them with other Internet users for free. Some writers "imitate" the plot in ordinary writers' works or mix different novel elements together into their own works.

According to Maoni, a platinum author, web-writers should spend more time to study, instead of make money or enhance their reputation by trickery.

"So many people are engaged in online writing, but only a few do a good job. If you want to be a top commercial writer, you need talent as well as diligence. There is no shortcut to fame and fortune," he said.

Popular network novels are welcomed by online game companies.