Today, my new book is finally going to be available for purchase. This feeling is actually a bit unfamiliar. When my last book was released, I don't think I wrote any launch notes or anything. It just happened without me realizing it, and I wasn't as nervous as I am now.

Back then, I was a newbie who didn't know anything. Before launching the product, I kept calculating the relationship between average subscriptions and revenue, thinking about how much money I would make in a month with 3,000 average subscriptions and how much I would make in a month with 5,000 average subscriptions. My mind was full of thoughts about getting promoted, getting a raise, marrying a rich and beautiful woman, and reaching the pinnacle of life.

The result was that the ideal was far from reality. In the end, it only got about 400-500 initial subscriptions, or something like that. I can't remember exactly.

I only realized afterward that such a first-day subscription result was already quite good for a new author, but I didn't know that at the time. The huge gap between the result and my expectations was like a bucket of cold water being poured over my head, and my heart sank.

However, since things have come to this, I can only persevere. After all, I had a lot of passion for writing books at the beginning. I was writing about things I liked, and I thought I had to keep going no matter what.

However, passion eventually fades. The feeling of writing a book in isolation, without any positive feedback or stimulation, makes writing less and less exciting. In addition, I was also extremely busy with work at that time. Sometimes I was too tired after get off work, so I would think that I should put it aside for now, take a good rest today, and continue writing tomorrow.

Who knew that it was easy to put it down but hard to pick it up again? Some of my older readers probably remember that I stopped updating for a few months during that period.

Later, when my work became more stable, I suddenly couldn't sit still one day. I thought I couldn't just give up like that. After all, I hate reading unfinished books the most. I didn't want to become the kind of person I hate. Besides, this story is a world I love. I didn't want it to die prematurely, so I started writing it again.

After persisting for almost another year, just in time for the national crackdown on piracy in 2016, the book's performance gradually improved, the number of readers increased, the book review section became more active, and there were more discussions in the reader groups.

Unfortunately, the good times didn't last long. Various internet cleanup campaigns and increasingly strict censorship led to my previous book being 404 errors several times. Well, no, it was completely 404 errors a few times. It was only through the editor's efforts, plus my tireless revisions of each chapter, that I managed to pull it back from the brink of failure time and time again.

Even though the later parts were written in a very clean style, with no limits to what was acceptable, the book's reputation, coupled with its misleading title, meant it was frequently reported and called out. In the following years, I received notices to make major revisions every 3 or 4 months and minor revisions every 1 or 2 months, which was exhausting.

At the time, I wasn't even confident that I could finish it safely, because given the circumstances, it wouldn't be surprising at all if I woke up the next day to find that the book had been blocked. This was the case on our site, and it had already been removed from various other channels long ago.

Under these circumstances, the website and editors have suggested that I start a new book as soon as possible. Those who remember should recall that I mentioned starting a new book about two years ago.

But I was unwilling to let my first book, into which I had poured so much effort, be abandoned halfway through. I insisted on finishing it, and the new book was delayed again and again.

It was delayed for almost two years until two months ago when the website couldn't wait any longer and asked me to release a new book. So I had to start both the old and new books at the same time.

The editor asked me many times about the end date of the old book, and I kept putting it off until he stopped believing my ending time. He finally gave me an ultimatum, but even so, I still shamelessly delayed it for another half month before finishing. I want to thank the website and the editor for their patience over the years.

The reason I kept postponing the ending is because I didn't want to rush the conclusion. I wanted to write out all the plot I had prepared and give this book the ending it deserved.

During that period, I was under a lot of pressure, so I was really angry when I saw some readers with no knowledge of literature or social status going to every post in the book review section to complain about the bad ending. It was because I had been holding back the pressure and postponing the completion time to avoid a bad ending, and yet I was still being criticized by so many people. The worst part is that you paid money to criticize, and almost all of them were people who read pirated versions.

I've never argued or quarreled with my readers over the years, but that time I really couldn't help but snap at them.

Fortunately, I finally finished writing it. At that time, I had a complicated feeling of emptiness and satisfaction. I couldn't believe that I had actually finished it. It felt like a lifetime had passed.

After finishing the old book, I immediately started writing the new one, and now the day has finally come for the new book to be released.

Unlike my initial naivety and fearlessness, I am now extremely anxious and under a lot of pressure.

Because I'm no longer a new author, I know what the results after publication mean. Besides being closely related to the author's income, it also affects a series of subsequent recommendation resources from the website and third-party channels.

Just like in the novels we read, if you take the first step, you'll always be ahead; the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker. That's the rule that this world operates under.

My new book, "Land Immortal," currently only has around 3,500 favorites. Based on industry experience, the number of paying readers will generally only be a few hundred. In the exceptional case of a 1,000-to-1 subscription ratio, it might break a thousand, but that probability is very small. If I'm unlucky, I might only get a couple hundred. So, when I said in the previous chapters that I was very anxious, I wasn't joking.

I recall asking for monthly tickets a few times for my last book, but I almost never asked for subscriptions. I've always been easygoing about subscriptions, and I understand even if someone reads pirated copies. After all, I used to read pirated copies myself. Life is tough, and everyone has their own struggles.

My consistent view has been, "Those with money can support me financially, and those with connections can support me personally."

So although the previous book had good data across the internet, the paid subscription rate was really low. At least hundreds of thousands of people read the book online, and it even ranked in the top ten of the martial arts and fantasy category on Baidu Index later on, but only a very small percentage of them actually paid to subscribe.

During the peak of the crackdown on piracy in 2016, my average daily subscriptions were around 4,000. However, piracy became rampant again, and with various rectification measures and the impact of my own update speed, my average daily subscriptions dropped to around 1,000.

Now that my new book is about to be released, I can no longer be as laid-back as before. Because if I fail in this dire situation, I probably will never recover. You might not see me again in two years, because by then I will have been completely eliminated from the novel industry.

The new book really needs everyone's support. If you can, please subscribe, even just for the first subscription. Thank you all.

Over the years, many readers have said they're too lazy to download the Zongheng Novel app and would rather send me red envelopes privately, but the effect is really different. The website decides on subsequent resources and exposure based on its own data, so please subscribe to Zongheng to support us. Thank you again.

The "Zongheng Novels" app can be downloaded from major app stores and can be automatically logged in using QQ number, WeChat, Baidu account, mobile phone number, etc., which is quite convenient.

Because we need to wait for the website to be up and open VIP access, it will probably be updated in about half an hour. We hope you can understand.