1 You're Not Paying Royalties

"Cheng Zi, are you coming or not?"

"Hurry up and answer me, or I'll castrate you!"

Chen Yi frowned and wanted to pretend that he didn't see the message, but the person continuously bombarded him with messages and wouldn't let him go. Chen Yi reluctantly replied, "Depends. I might not be able to come."

Then, he closed the chat interface and set it to 'Do Not Disturb'. He scratched his hair haphazardly.

He leaned against the shabby leather chair that he had found in the second-hand shop and looked at his rented room with a complicated expression. It was a single room rented for 500 dollars a month.

The room was less than 20 square meters. There was a wobbly table with an uneven table leg, a bed that squeaked when he slept and was about to fall apart anytime, and a toilet that could only be flushed manually. The toilet was also paired with a showerhead, so it could also be used as a bathroom... other than that, there was a floor full of garbage.

It was a university reunion after three years!

The corners of Chen Yi's mouth twitched. No one knew what he was thinking.

Chen Yi's classmates had organized a reunion on the 18th of next month. They said that they had not seen each other for three years, so if everyone was free, they should come over and hang out. That way everybody could become closer.

Although they claimed that they wanted to become closer, Chen Yi knew at the time that this reunion was more or less to see how everyone was doing and to see who was the best.

The topics that would be brought up during the reunion were obvious. It would be about their partners if they had one, their current jobs, and their salaries. They would also ask each other whether they bought a house, bought a car, and whether they wanted to travel abroad.

In short, this was a cruel 'war' without gunpowder smoke after three years.

This made Chen Yi think about what he had done in the past three years.

After graduating from university, he did not choose a job in the industry he majored in. Instead, he threw himself into the online literature industry with a passion. He dreamed of becoming 'a legendary writer with one book', and then turning into a very famous and legendary person in the online literature industry.

However, his fantasy was broken by the cruel world of reality. He persevered and failed again and again. After repeated failures and defeats, he still could not change the fact that he was unsuccessful. His works were even worse than some immature works written by teenagers...

Chen Yi could only laugh mockingly in his heart.

He looked at his income over the past three years. It was really pitiful. It was probably not as much as the scholarship his college roommate got in a year. He remembered that there was an awesome roommate nicknamed '13,000'!

Yes, his scholarship was 13,000 dollars a year, and that was after all the expenses!

Chen Yi took a deep breath and subconsciously touched his face and stomach.

In order to survive in the online literature circle, he spent almost every day in front of the computer. He stayed up late at night and did not exercise. His diet and biological clock had long been messed up.

Chen Yi was 23 years old, in the so-called period of 'little fresh meat', but he had seriously deviated from the setting of 'little fresh meat'. He could even become the spokesperson for 'greasy uncle'.

Therefore, he did not want to go to the university reunion.

What was he going to do there? Was he going to be a foil to others or a joke to everyone? Wait for others to point at him and mock him, "Look at Chen Yi, why is he like this? Is he going to become a beggar?"?

Even if that was the case, Chen Yi might still have to laugh along with them...ha!

Thinking about his current lack of presence in the community made him very unhappy! Why was it that way?

It was fine if he couldn't beat the 'legendary writers' in writing, but why wasn't he better than some middle-school teenagers who wrote immature novels?

"How the f*ck am I bad at writing? Why is it that not even one book of mine is popular?" After a round of indignation, Chen Yi still chose to accept reality and continued his miserable journey of survival with his fractured fantasy.

One had to work hard for something in his life, like Chen Yi for example. He had to start a new book so that he would not starve to death.

He tried to enjoy life in adversity. He even fantasized that if he died in a rental room, would he be reported on the news? Would the news write that a so-and-so full-time online writer starved to death because he had been struggling to write?

It seemed that he would be more famous than he was now?

He was immersed in his writing, but he was not satisfied with it even after writing it for a long time.

The QQ message notification interrupted his train of thought. He received an email with the subject line: "Hello, hello big boss. I think your writing is good. I am Salted Fish, the editor of the Evil God novel website, are you interested in coming to our website to write a novel?"

Attached to the back was a QQ number, it probably belonged to that editor.

Hmm? Evil God? Never heard of the website.

Chen Yi did not remember which novel or forum he had left his QQ address.

Who cares! Poaching was a common occurrence.

In order to win over the author, they would often comment under the author's books, add the author's contact information or even drop the author an email.

Even if the author failed, it would not affect the enthusiasm of the editors, because the income of the editor was linked to the author.

For example, if the author started a new book and updated it to 500,000 words on a regular basis, the author would receive 2,000 dollars in royalties and a reward of 50 dollars for the 500,000 words written. The corresponding editor would also receive a reward of 50 dollars. When the work was finished, the editor would also receive a reward of 100 dollars. If the paid chapters were subscribed by readers, the author would receive 500 dollars. The corresponding editor would also receive a commission of 50 dollars.

Although receiving 150 dollars from a failed author's work was not a lot, the editor would not let it go so easily. After all, small amounts could add up to a lot of money!

Under normal circumstances, Chen Yi would not care about poaching. It was just that he had not had much inspiration recently. Although he had already started writing his new book, it lacked something. Therefore, Chen Yi added the 'Salted Fish' editor.

The addition was successful in one second. Before Chen Yi could say anything, Salted Fish sent, "Flying kiss emoticon, you're finally here~ Wink emoticon.". Chen Yi's mouth twitched.

"Evil God? What kind of website is that? Is it a new website? It can't be some rubbish website, right?"

"Friend, please watch your words. Our website has been established for a long time, it's not some rubbish website. It has been officially established on Earth recently. Congratulations on becoming the website's first author on Earth. A round of applause for you!"

Chen Yi casually typed, "Dumbf*ck, you're so humorous."

Salted Fish typed, "My humor is alright. What does dumbf*ck mean? Is it a compliment?"

Chen Yi was speechless, "Yes, yes, it's a compliment."

Salted Fish typed back, "Then you too, dumbf*ck! Flying kiss emoticon~"

'You're the stupid one!'

Chen Yi sent a slightly smiling emoticon and decided to cut to the chase, "How do you calculate the royalties for your website? 1,000 words? Or is it just a commission? How is the money split? Will there be a channel to send the royalties after signing the contract?"

Under normal circumstances, the royalties were divided into several levels according to every 1,000 words written. Some websites did not require full work attendance, so they would give commission. As for the split, the big websites would split it 50-50, while the smaller websites would split it 60-40 or 70-30. Those websites let the authors take up a bigger share of the royalties in order to attract and retain the authors as well as expand the websites' library.

"There are no royalties for the Evil God website," Salted Fish's words almost made Chen Yi swear. To think that he was serious!

'No royalties? If there are no royalties, then why the h*ll are you poaching authors for! If there are no royalties, I'll waste your time and let your efforts to poach me go down the drain!'

"No royalties? If there's no money, are you going to sell yourself to me for me to write?" Chen Yi retorted impolitely.

In the end, Salted Fish replied, "If you want, it's not impossible. Shy emoticon~"

'Go destroy yourself! Go to h*ll!'

Chen Yi was shocked and appalled.