Entertainment: Starting with a Song of Rice Fragrance

The official novel of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" has a total length of 61 words.

Even if Zheng Ning had already honed his writing speed to 2000 words per hour through online chatting, it would still take him 305 hours to finish writing this novel.

Fortunately, because it was a newbie gift pack, the system generously provided the entire book's text file this time. Otherwise, even just copying the book would have taken Zheng Ning at least 10 to 15 days, leaving him no time to do anything else.

……

Since its premiere, "The Legend of the Swordsman" has attracted countless viewers who love classic martial arts and fantasy dramas.

A TV series with a viewership rating of 2% to 3% is considered quite good.

However, thanks to director Zhang Xiaogang's reputation, the existing fan base of the original book, and the advantage of being broadcast on Channel 1, it managed to achieve an astonishing 4.32% viewership rating!

This further fueled the media's enthusiasm for publicity, repeatedly promoting the number, which in turn stimulated more and more viewers who had never seen it before to join the wave of watching the show.

For a time, the entire Western Continent was abuzz with discussion about this popular TV series, its plot, and the performances of the actors.

There's even a feeling that if you don't talk about "Immortal Mountain" when you meet someone, you won't fit into this circle.

The popularity of the TV series has also begun to drive up the sales of the original novel. The novel was originally written 10 years ago, and its sales were already a staggering 200 million copies. Readers who were willing to buy it had already bought it, and sales had long since stagnated.

But now, thanks to this push, it has miraculously revived and started to rise rapidly again!

Suddenly, Xizhou was in high demand for paper. Shops put out their old stock of Mr. Swordsman's Tale and also had Xizhou New City Publishing House, which was responsible for publishing the novel, re-contact the printing plant and start a large-scale reprint.

Even in Zheng Ning's composition department office, people started discussing the TV series adapted from this phenomenal work.

"Want some milk candy?"

On the morning of February 3rd, Zheng Ning had just sat down in the office when Wang Xiaoyu, to his left, handed him a bag of black and white milk candies and began his daily feeding routine.

"Thank you, here's a squid roll for you. I saw it while shopping yesterday, it's really chewy."

Zheng Ning also handed her the snacks he had just bought, completing the morning's ritual between the two.

"Hey, Xiao Ning, did you watch episodes three and four last night?"

I had just put my backpack down and turned on my computer when I heard Lao Long's greeting from the side.

"Episodes three and four? What three? Oh, you mean Chinese Paladin 3? I've seen it, of course I've seen it!"

Zheng Ning casually tossed him a bag of squid rolls and picked up the conversation.

Although he previously thought that both the drama and the original novel were masterpieces, one in a million.

However, after obtaining the Legend of Sword and Fairy from Earth through the system yesterday, he suddenly felt that this once classic game had become somewhat tasteless.

But one cannot be a loner in a group. Since everyone was having such a good time, he forced himself to be interested and excited, and chatted back and forth with everyone.

"The five little ones discover that there are actually spirit stones in the world that can grant a wish when nine are gathered together, and they begin their adventure. However, the demon race has also discovered this and has sent their forces..."

Hearing them discussing the plot, Wang Hui, who was sitting nearby, pushed off his foot and slid the chair over to join them. It turned out he was also a novel enthusiast.

Before long, the composition department office was bustling with activity as everyone began discussing last night's plot. They only reluctantly stopped talking when Minister Yang arrived at work, and returned to their seats, their feet on their computer chairs.

"Speaking of which, this Azure Dragon Immortal has certainly made a fortune this time!"

While struggling to chew the squid roll that Zheng Ning handed him, Wang Xiaoyu composed music on the keyboard while also chatting with Zheng Ning in between words.

"Yes, I heard that Xingchen Publishing House is going to reprint 20 copies of this book this time, with each copy priced at 158 ​​yuan. A top author like him can get at least 20% of the royalties! You guys do the math and see how much that is?"

Sitting to Zheng Ning's right, Wang Hui chimed in, his tone full of sour envy.

Although composers are at the top of the food chain in the West, this is only within the music industry; they are more often revered and hold a high status.

But when it comes to making money, they still can't compare to A-list celebrities and top authors who write books.

It can only be said that no matter what industry it is, as long as you reach the top, you will make a lot of money.

"Oh? His book is 50 words long, right? And it sells for 158 yuan a set?"

When Zheng Ning heard Wang Hui say this, his eyes lit up immediately!

"Hehe, are you envious? Envy is useless. This is the standard that only established writers have! Nowadays, some ordinary writers can only sell a 50-word novel for 50 yuan a copy at best! And they can only get 10% of the copyright."

Chen, who was sitting to Zheng Ning's right and slightly in front of him, turned around and interjected, her tone full of sourness.

"Furthermore, there's no necessary correlation between the number of words in a book. As long as you write well, the plot is engaging, and the book sells well, even if it's only a few tens of thousands of words long, it can still be a bestseller and fetch a high price!"

The old dragon sitting to Wang Hui's right also chimed in with a comment.

"I once tried writing a fantasy novel and submitted it for publication. It was 10 words long, and it took me a whole month to polish it!"

"They were only willing to publish it for me because I'm a well-known composer. But the book is two volumes, and the price is only 15 yuan, so I can only get 7% of the royalties..."

He sighed deeply, clearly regretting that he couldn't make a living by writing novels.

The group chatted quietly about this topic for a long time, and even at lunchtime, they were still somewhat reluctant to part.

Each month, the composing department has a certain composing quota: either one B-level song or two C-level songs.

Once the KPIs are met, Lao Yang basically won't care whether you slack off at work, study, or chat and joke around.

For a prodigy like Zheng Ning, who delivers two songs in the first month, Lao Yang is too lazy to bother with him, since he has already met his performance target.

So at this moment, Zheng Ning's mind was completely focused on the novel.

He got off work at 6 p.m. and went home.

I immediately went back to my room, turned on my computer, logged into my email, and checked if there had been any replies to my submission to Xingchen Publishing House that morning before I went to work.

"Dear author 'The Cat Who Loves to Write,' hello."

"Our editorial department is pleased to inform you that your submitted novel, 'The Legend of Sword and Fairy,' has passed the manual review by our editors and meets the standards for signing a contract."

"Our editor, Milk Tea, has added you on TK chat and will be in further communication with you."

"Huh? It's already time to sign a contract? My goodness, I thought literary works from Earth like this would be somewhat out of place here!"

"Who knew that on the very first day of submission, an editor already thought it was good enough for a contract? Is this what they mean by 'gold shines wherever it is'?"

Zheng Ning was overjoyed and immediately opened TK (short for talk), a common online chat software in Xizhou.

Sure enough, as soon as I turned it on, the computer speaker emitted a "beep beep beep" system notification sound indicating that I had added a friend.

In the bottom right corner of the screen, a cartoon cow avatar is constantly jumping around.