Chapter 94: These days, who still reads the acknowledgments on a bookshelf?
Taozi is social anxiety personified, rarely speaking to anyone except when catching cicadas, but always keen to communicate with everyone through writing, sharing the emotional journey within.
For starters, Taozi’s life isn’t great, but it’s not miserable either, just normal.
So we’re not going to play the pity card here.
Originally, this book had a different beginning—I had written forty thousand carefully crafted words.
But as the publishing date approached, Taozi kept feeling the writing wasn’t good enough, so in the end I scrapped it all and wrote the current opening, which doesn’t seem to be much better than before either.
When the book first launched, the loyal readers came out in force to support, leading to quite nice data growth early on.
Grateful for the old readers.
Therefore, Taozi held high hopes for this book, beginning to wonder if, after the initial subscriptions exceeded ten thousand, it might be time to break it to the family "Don’t make me do chores, a great author never does housework," while fantasizing about the specifics of negotiating a superstar contract with the editor.
And the outcome... Our current favorites haven’t even reached ten thousand, and there are fewer than fifteen hundred followers, let alone initial subscriptions... It’s a hell of a joke, haha!
Taozi has always been someone incredibly optimistic about the future, and almost never loses hope in the face of reality.
Before launching the previous book "Football Should Be Played Like Me," Taozi thought, "We could easily hit two to three thousand initial subscriptions, right?"
The result... a little over seven hundred.
Taozi nearly fell apart then.
But upon waking up and fueled by my passion for football and everyone’s support, I persevered and wrote happily.
Now that book is about to hit the premium shelves, finally reaching the goal, albeit a year late.
For this book "Football on the Ground," Taozi’s expectations went from "over ten thousand initial subscriptions" to "eight thousand would be acceptable," to "at least it should be a big hit (six thousand)," to "four or five thousand is the lowest we can go," to "Let’s settle for three thousand, at least a premium label won’t be embarrassing"—steadily lowering the expectations.
Until yesterday, when I spoke with the editor who said that it would be impressive if our initial subscriptions could even hit a thousand.
That’s... a bit hard to swallow!
A sequel to the hellish joke?
In terms of subscription ratios, about one in every eight book collectors is willing to subscribe, which isn’t bad at all.
But as sports literature is more niche and unpopular, the low base number makes this initial subscription figure less than heartening.
Taozi isn’t trying to compete with anyone; I just hope to improve upon my past self to a certain degree, otherwise, it would feel somewhat discouraging.
Everybody says that sports literature has a higher subscription ratio, dedicated readers, and readers who are willing to support authors who write well.
So, Taozi wonders, can we create a miracle that’s neither too big nor too small? The miracle of Sanremo, is it possible to set sail once again?
Can the final initial subscriptions for this book exceed the editor’s expectations?
Just think, if we get eight thousand favorites, and if two thousand lead to initial subscriptions, that’s a four-to-one ratio, which is leading in the industry!
If we could hit three thousand, that’d top every category, wouldn’t it? That would be too cool!
If we reach four or five thousand, wow, that’s something even platinum-grade authors might not achieve!
If it’s eight thousand, ten thousand, then... that’s just someone gaming the system.
Cough cough, can you see Taozi’s optimism?
That’s right, I’m already shamelessly optimistic, haha!
So please subscribe as much as you can.
And ask your friends and family to subscribe too, test the reliability of your relationship... not subscribing means you’re not good brothers!
Also, to the brothers who read this book on platforms other than QiDian, you must come to QiDian and support Taozi!
Let’s all pray together for a miracle to happen!
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Having chattered about all that, it’s time to talk business—update plans.
Because each Chapter of my last book was too long, leading to too few Chapters overall, and some readers felt regretful for not being able to receive the light of the great author at the end. So, unless something unexpected happens, each Chapter of this book will be around two thousand words, ensuring everyone can receive the light of the great author.
After going on sale, a minimum of "three updates" per day is guaranteed, but most of the time, I should be able to keep up with "four or five updates."
Of course, if the initial subscription results are too poor, Taozi may need some time to adjust my mindset. During that period, updates might not slack, but they’ll hardly be explosive.
After all, even a fierce and cute beast occasionally needs time to quietly lick its wounds and slowly recover.
Don’t worry, because after taking a breather, the "Daily Ten Thousand Words Taozi" will still be on.
The last book with just seven hundred subscriptions didn’t knock Taozi down; this book... it better not be less than seven hundred, beauties; let’s not make a joke of ourselves.
And if the initial subscription numbers are good, then driven by excitement—ahem... I meant fiery passion—the updates will only be explosive, never holding back! Then I might have to worry if you all have enough Points in your pockets.
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Now for the added update plan for the next few days.
On the launch day, as short can seldom be happy, let’s go all out with ten extra updates!
Once the initial subscriptions reach two thousand, for every additional three hundred subscriptions, one extra update will be added.
For every five hundred monthly tickets, one more update.
One extra update for every five WanShang rewards.
Three extra updates if the Alliance Hierarch gives a reward.
Taozi has never seen a Silver Alliance before, but if I’m lucky enough to broaden my horizons, I’m willing to attempt the challenge of ten updates a day for five consecutive days. As long as it doesn’t kill me, I’ll write till I drop.
If there are any owed updates, Taozi will make them up as soon as possible; it won’t take months or even until the end of the book without repaying them—we’re not that sort of person. So feel free to subscribe, reward generously, and cast your monthly votes!
All right, starting from twelve, ten updates are coming at you in one go.
Let’s continue with the music and reading!
(Praying with hands clasped together)
