Returning To 1980 To Enjoy Prosperity Chapter 122: Author's Note on Going Premium - Novel Cool

Chapter 122: Author's Note on Going Premium

Chapter 122: Author’s Note on Going Premium

Dear readers,

Tomorrow at noon, the book will go premium!

Over the past few years, I've been striving to innovate and write something fresh. My previous book, "In the Matchmaking Business, I Bow to No One," was a pioneering work in the professional matchmaking genre, and it did quite well. It started with 30,000 favorites and a first-day subscription of 3,600, and within a month, the average subscription reached 7,400—a great start indeed.

Unfortunately, I didn’t maintain the pacing well in the early stages, and the protagonist’s rapid ascension led to some reader fatigue later on. The book ended up with a high of 36,000 subscriptions but an average of only 8,000, which was quite disappointing.

Despite its flaws in the later stages, the book had a strong beginning, and that’s why it still managed such high subscriptions. If you’re interested, feel free to check it out.

For this book, I’m once again seeking to innovate.

The protagonist is already 44 years old when he first appears, with seven children, and his eldest son is of marriageable age. In just half a year after his rebirth, he has already married off his first son.

I’ve never seen a protagonist like this before, and I doubt many of you have either.

As my lovely editor put it, there are few middle-aged protagonists in urban settings (excluding those ancient beings in fantasy and cultivation novels), and a protagonist like mine is even rarer.

When I showed her the opening chapters, she didn’t give any feedback and immediately approved it, showing a lot of confidence in this book.

However, after the book was recommended, we discovered that it didn’t attract as many readers as we hoped. It only managed two rounds of recommendations before being cut off due to low reader retention, and it stayed cut off for two weeks.

Most readers might not understand the implications, but other authors would know that this book was likely doomed.

Many author friends advised me to cut my losses, and I began to doubt myself. But my editor truly believed in me and encouraged me not to give up. She pointed out that the book’s reader retention was slowly growing even without recommendations, and suggested that things might improve once the book reached 100,000 words and received a major recommendation.

She said if things didn’t improve by then, I could still cut it.

With her encouragement and my own determination not to give up, I decided to keep writing.

And it paid off. Thanks to your support, the book’s performance improved, and it not only regained its recommendations but even received a rare megaphone recommendation. Although it still doesn’t attract a large audience, it’s much better than before.

Here, I want to thank my lovely editor, Hu Ya^_^.

Due to the two-week break in recommendations, the free version of the book has already reached 250,000 words.

This is not ideal for an author, but it’s a good thing for you, the readers, as you get to enjoy an extra 70,000 to 80,000 words for free^_^.

Writing this far, I’ve become increasingly confident in the book. It has always been under my control, and I believe it has strong potential, unlike my previous works that started strong but fizzled out later.

This book is primarily aimed at middle-aged and older readers, as my editor put it, hitting the sweet spots for middle-aged readers. Younger readers might not fully grasp the nuances of life at this stage.

To quote my editor, "It’s hard to expect someone who gets excited just by washing their feet to understand the complexities of life!"

Recently, a fellow author from my era, who is around the same age, read my book and praised it highly. He said the writing style is very engaging and comfortable to read, though it’s a bit of a meal killer.

He’s been on a diet and only eats one meal a day, but my book made him so hungry that he ended up eating more over the past two days.

Of course, no matter how good the reviews are, the final proof is in the results.

Due to its lack of appeal, the book has only 18,000 favorites so far, and it might reach 19,000 by the time it goes premium tomorrow. This is a far cry from the 30,000 favorites my previous book had when it went premium.

Some readers will inevitably leave when a book goes premium, and there’s nothing I can do about that.

But I hope those who are leaving will give the book a friendly first subscription, and if possible, throw in a couple of monthly votes!

I believe that most of you who have stuck with me this far are older readers who understand the challenges of supporting a family. I’m 40 years old, with elderly parents and young children to support, and we rely on the royalties from this book to make ends meet.

If you can, please continue to support the book with subscriptions. I would be immensely grateful!

Now, let’s talk about updates.

I’m known in the author community for my slow writing speed, and after 15 years of writing, I’ve developed serious issues with my neck and back, as well as severe insomnia. So, I can’t maintain the high output of some other authors.

You also know that I’m a decent cook and have to balance writing with cooking and picking up my kids.

However, I promise that if the book’s first-day subscriptions reach the 3,000 mark, I will stop cooking and picking up my kids this month and focus solely on writing (of course, this promise is only valid if the book performs well^_^).

During the free period, I updated 4,000 words a day. If we hit 3,000 first-day subscriptions, I’ll aim for 8,000 words a day this month.

Finally, I’m asking for your monthly votes. I haven’t asked for them in a while, and we’re already behind in the new book rankings. With the book going premium, I hope you can cast two monthly votes to celebrate and give us a strong start. Thank you!

Lastly, I wish you all good health and enjoyable reading!

(End of Chapter)

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