After these nearly bankrupt enterprises were acquired, Ding Yun immediately posted a new announcement on the Zhutian Literature Network.
It mainly announced three important pieces of information.
First, the company had expanded. From now on, excellent works on their website could be published by themselves, serialized in magazines, or even adapted into comics or film and television works.
After all, related companies had been acquired.
There was no harm in painting a grand vision.
Second, if a reader particularly liked a novel on the website, but there were no immediate publishing plans for it, they could opt for a private publication if they gathered more than a thousand interested readers willing to pay three times the normal price of a published novel. This would be a unique, limited print run.
Third, author benefits were increased.
Besides these three points, there were many other minor changes, such as the addition of small advertisements for magazine subscriptions and a small online store on the literature website.
Although Ding Yun bought the magazine and publishing houses, her distribution channels were nowhere near as extensive as other magazine and publishing houses, making it difficult for her to achieve widespread sales.
Therefore, she could only find an alternative approach by advertising on the literature website. She hoped that among the more than 30 million registered users of the literature network, a portion would be willing to subscribe. If even one percent subscribed, that would be three million subscribers; one in a thousand would still be 300,000.
The small online store was for the same reason.
They would sell novels published by themselves.
Additionally, they launched pre-sales for some works, such as the limited private publications mentioned in the announcement. These pre-sales generally required authors to apply. After the literature website calculated the costs to ensure authors received income and the website itself wouldn't incur losses, pricing would be set. If the number of buyers exceeded one thousand, the publishing house could be notified to apply for an ISBN and proceed with printing and publication.
Because it was a limited print run and obtaining an ISBN also cost money, the high price for these works was inevitable.
All Ding Yun could do was to minimize her own profit and design the novels to be attractive with good materials, so that readers felt they weren't overpaying too much when they received their copies.
These actions taken by Ding Yun did have an effect.
At least the contracted authors on the website who had not jumped ship or breached their contracts remained stable in their emotions. Simultaneously, many began subscribing to the magazine, which was said to have content completely different from the literature network, featuring all new novels.
The initial print run subscriptions for the magazine surged to over a million.
Furthermore, many authors applied for pre-sale publication.
There were even authors with ample funds who, seeing that the number of readers purchasing their pre-sale novels was insufficient, registered several small accounts themselves and bought five hundred or eight hundred copies at once, just to get their novels published quickly and experience the joy of being a published author. As for the hundreds of copies they bought themselves, they could always give them away to friends, relatives, or neighbors.
In addition, people who wanted to publish their own works but couldn't find channels, or who felt that self-publishing required printing too many copies at a high cost, also uploaded their works to the Zhutian Literature Network.
Some planned to wait and see, adding to the numbers themselves if the deadline passed without enough buyers. Others directly bought a thousand copies themselves, treating it as a self-printed edition.
The minimum for self-printing with other publishing houses was five thousand copies.
Here, it only required a thousand. What was there to hesitate about?
Undeniably, this was also something Ding Yun had not anticipated.
However, since she had set the prices high and wouldn't lose money, it was merely a matter of extra effort. If they were happy to do it this way, so be it. To ensure the final printed books wouldn't look too unappealing, Ding Yun specifically collaborated with AI to design thousands of different templates. With free combination, there could be millions of different book design templates. These were placed in the design library of the online store, allowing authors to choose and combine them freely. Of course, authors could also design their books themselves if they wished.
Ding Yun created book design templates mainly to assist those who were not skilled in design.
In summary, the final outcome was that Ding Yun successfully weathered the storm. Not only was her position further solidified, but the integrity of her involved industries and entertainment business was further enhanced, already showing the rudimentary form of a giant.
...
Unlike her previous obscurity, every move made by the Zhutian Literature Network was now closely watched by industry peers in various magazine companies. Their strategic changes were even discussed at meetings by some magazine companies.
They discussed the deeper meanings, the potential impacts, and whether they should imitate or follow suit.
For instance, the magazine published by Ding Yun was a prime example.
In the conference room of Qingchang Literature Company, eight issues of the initial print run of the Zhutian Literature Society's magazines were neatly arranged on the conference table. These magazines were significantly thicker than normal ones, and their packaging and materials were also much better.
They included Zhutian Wuxia, Zhutian Xuanhuan, Zhutian Xianxia.
Zhutian Xianyan, Zhutian Guyan, Zhutian Huanyan.
Zhutian Sci-Fi, and Zhutian Literature.
"The Zhutian Literature Network has great ambitions. One could even say they are sparing no expense. Such thick magazines, although priced slightly higher than ours, have only a limited increase. The materials and design are better than what we use.
Considering the manuscript fees, they probably aren't making much profit.
Anyone who looks at them will feel they are getting great value for money. If it weren't for their lack of good promotion and less than smooth offline distribution, their sales wouldn't be what they are now. We misjudged. This isn't a wolf at the door; it's a tiger! One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers.
This isn't about a multitude of heroes rising; he wants to swallow the entire world.
This isn't the most outrageous part. The most outrageous thing is that I flipped through it last night, and the quality of the works in here is exceptionally good. Not a single one is subpar.
Moreover, each work is something that has never appeared before. None have been serialized online or appeared anywhere else. Tell me, where did he find so many excellent authors and outstanding works? They couldn't have just popped out of a rock, right?
Our literary circle is different from other circles.
We truly speak through our works.
If the Zhutian Literature Network has recruited a large number of excellent authors, then it has already placed itself in an invincible position.
All previous targeted plans are canceled.
We will switch to seeking cooperation.
As long as he can continuously produce various excellent works, no one will be able to defeat him, nor can he be defeated. It seems we can only cooperate now."
Liu Yunxiao had self-awareness. At this point, he fully recognized the power of the owner behind the Zhutian Literature Network, so he could only choose to change his original strategy. Instead of vying for territory and dividing the spoils, they would now cooperate.
"Boss, isn't it too late for cooperation now?
The Zhutian Literature Network neither lacks magazine companies nor publishing houses. They even have smaller film and television production companies in addition to us. Moreover, their sales are not bad.
If we cooperate with them now,
We might only be able to share distribution channels.
Isn't this like nurturing a tiger that will devour us later?
And once they control the channels, it won't be difficult for them to kick us out. This..."
Previous cooperation could be considered offering help in a difficult time. But cooperating now would at best be adding splendor to an already flourishing situation.
Even if the other party was unappreciative,
It would only help them become stronger sooner.
Therefore, someone immediately expressed concern, worrying that if they truly cooperated, they would only be able to share their channel advantage. Once they lost this advantage, they would have no ability to resist and no possibility of competing with the Zhutian Literature Network.