How could one book’s popularity affect another’s buzz?
Some might wonder, can’t two books be popular at the same time?
In fact, they really can’t.
When industry insiders review the year’s bestsellers, they notice this: a year might see several bestsellers, but each has its own moment in the spotlight, a new bestseller hits the shelves, and the old one’s momentum fades, this is due to the sales cycle and model of physical books.
In layman’s terms, it’s like gossip, a new scandal emerges, and the old one’s heat dies down, celebrities later on often use their peers’ scandals to overshadow their own.
Zhao Dong’s situation was a bit like Teacher Wang, the famous rock singer, Wang releases a new song aiming for the trending list, but a juicier scandal steals the spotlight!
Of course, comparing Zhao Dong to Teacher Wang is frankly an insult to Wang.
Wen Ying mentally apologised to the forever-unheadlined Teacher Wang, then took her stack of newspapers and hopped on a bus to Zou Weijun’s workplace.
She sat alone in the water bar, reading through all the review articles, growing happier with each one.
About half an hour later, Zou Weijun arrived in a hurry.
Wen Ying’s manuscript, sent to Zou Weijun, had already been printed out, brought along in a big bag with her laptop.
“You’ve read these review articles already?”
“Yeah, just finished, I didn’t expect Youth Idol to gain such buzz in just a few days of seclusion,” Wen Ying said.
Wen Ying wasn’t upset at all, she was actually thrilled!
Zou Weijun looked at her expression and gave a wry smile, “I told Xie Qian to keep it from you, and you don’t care at all?”
This publicity strategy wasn’t Zou Weijun’s doing.
At first, a critical article appeared in a newspaper, Zou Weijun thought it was a fluke.
Since that paper wasn’t under Rongcheng Publishing Group, Zou Weijun couldn’t do much about it.
Soon, a second critical article appeared.
Zou Weijun suspected Han Qin was stirring trouble, furious, she wanted to clear things up for Wen Ying immediately.
She used her company’s newspaper to issue a clarification, but the forces smearing Fish Against the Current came on strong, as if anticipating her every move, Zou Weijun couldn’t suppress the negative criticism.
“Some people are speaking up for you, but… take a look at the online comments first,” Zou Weijun said.
Zou Weijun pulled out her laptop, connected to the internet, and opened the Tianya Forum.
Wen Ying glanced and laughed.
It turned out Youth Idol and Fish Against the Current weren’t just hot in Rongcheng, there was already a discussion thread on Tianya.
A month ago, someone had started serialising Youth Idol on the forum.
Amid suspense thrillers and family drama posts, a light-hearted youth novel like Youth Idol surprisingly had a following.
Back then, most people had little awareness of copyright, the internet was flooded with pirated e-books, even authors posting their novels on forums didn’t think to charge, Tianya’s fiction section had produced bestselling authors, some works gained popularity there, were shared elsewhere, and eventually caught publishers’ attention.
In this environment, Wen Ying could hardly hold the forum poster accountable for serialising Youth Idol.
They weren’t profiting from it and had stated upfront they were just sharing because they loved the book and wanted more people to read it.
In 2005, Tianya Forum left a deep mark on netizens.
That year saw the infamous “Zhou-Yi War.”
In short, a Miss Yi had been posting on Tianya since last year, flaunting her wealth, mocking four-person dorms, sneering at cafeteria food with MSG, even scorning shoeless workers with her sharp contempt.
Many netizens clashed with Miss Yi, who constantly bragged about her wealth, ordinary users, with thinner wallets, lacked the confidence and fell short.
Until February this year, a user named “North Latitude 67 Degrees 3 Minutes,” later affectionately called “Young Master Zhou” by netizens, stepped in to hammer the haughty Miss Yi, a thrilling debate about “high society” unfolded before netizens, who cheered for Zhou, his victory over Yi became a collective celebration for Tianya users.
Wen Ying thought today’s netizens were too tame, letting Young Master Zhou take down Miss Yi, a decade later, any anonymous Zhihu user starting with “Thanks for the invite” could overwhelm Yi.
, Times progress, and netizens’ bragging skills naturally refine.
But in 2005, only Young Master Zhou could shut Yi down, the “Zhou-Yi War” spread from Tianya across the web, reprinted by print media, such buzz meant new users flocked to Tianya, it meant traffic!
It was truly Tianya’s golden era.
Youth Idol was reposted there at this time, its light-hearted charm breaking through, gaining plenty of attention.
Readers quietly followed the thread, occasionally discussing plot directions, silently boosting clicks, content to be passersby.
Then Aige abruptly announced their termination with Fish Against the Current, no longer serialising Youth Idol, the thread’s poster, without new content, had to inform the readers.
The poster stayed neutral, simply explaining why updates stopped.
Most netizens were understanding, the poster wasn’t the author, they couldn’t conjure up the rest of Youth Idol from thin air.
Some enthusiastic netizens offered ideas, saying the book was good, why hadn’t a publisher picked it up?
If Aige stopped serialising, it could be published as a book!
This question stirred the hornet’s nest.
An anonymous netizen jumped in, claiming insider knowledge, vividly describing why Aige had to “kill off” Youth Idol’s author.
This anonymous user was skilled at teasing, doling out details like squeezing toothpaste, keeping readers hooked, in short, Fish Against the Current, seeing their book’s success, ditched the magazine that made them famous for a publisher’s embrace, unprincipled and untrustworthy, what good were their works?
“The book will hit shelves, but are you sure you still want to read it?”
Should a literary work’s quality be tied to the author’s character?
What started as Youth Idol’s serial thread gradually sparked debate.
Someone even launched a poll, among options like “want to read” and “don’t want to read,” only 9% of netizens firmly believed a work reflected the author’s character, insisting on hearing Fish Against the Current’s side before judging.
17% didn’t care about the author’s character, they just wanted the book’s ending.
The remaining 74%坚决boycotted Youth Idol’s release.
When Wen Ying’s eyes left the laptop screen, Zou Weijun gave a bitter smile, “Youth Idol isn’t lacking discussion now, but the online sentiment is bad for you, even if it won’t sell on Tianya, a collective boycott could hurt the book’s reputation and yours.”
Zou Weijun never planned for a controversial, scandal-driven bestseller.
She wanted sales, but also cared about reputation!
Not just her own in the industry, but Wen Ying’s as a new author.
