CHAPTER 58: CHAPTER 54: NOVEL CONTRACTED, PROMOTION MAXED OUT!

I finally remembered what I’d forgotten.

Yesterday, when I went to use the restroom, I received a phone call from an editor who wanted me to sign a contract. Afterwards, I got caught up in there for quite a while. By the time I came out, Xu Qingqiu had whisked me away, and it completely slipped my mind.

I wonder if it’s too late to remember now.

I glanced at my messenger ID. Immediately, several messages popped up. One was from someone noted as "Qiu Ye, Editor at Cloud Summit Culture." She had attempted to add me as a friend several times and sent multiple messages.

Could this be my editor?

I took a look at the messages, clicked to accept the friend request, and then sent a message back.

’I’m sorry, I was held up with something yesterday. Where should I go to sign the contract?’

「At Cloud Summit Culture.」

Qiu Ye had been distracted all morning. She had high hopes for a novel that hadn’t been successfully contracted yet. That morning, the chief editor had instructed her to call the author named Nanmeng for another negotiation. However, it was too early, and she worried about disturbing his rest, so she’d been told to call later. She was already incredibly anxious and could only wait.

Just then, her messenger pinged. She didn’t pay much attention at first—she had so many authors contacting her every day that she typically set aside time to deal with them all at once—so she didn’t focus on it.

However, she glanced at the notification in the bottom-right corner out of habit and was instantly taken aback.

[Nanmeng has accepted your friend request.]

Huh? Nanmeng? Nanmeng!

Realizing who it was, she hurriedly opened her messenger and saw the notification. Without a second thought, she clicked on it.

[I’m sorry, I was held up with something yesterday. Where should I go to sign the contract?]

Nanmeng messaged me? He was held up yesterday? And he’s asking where to sign the contract?

Just as she was about to reply, she suddenly remembered what the chief editor had said last night. She quickly grabbed her laptop and headed to the chief editor’s office.

"Chief Editor, Nanmeng sent me a message!"

"Nanmeng?"

"Yes, the author of ’Candle in the Tomb’!"

"Have a seat. What did he say?"

"He’s asking how to sign the contract and said he was held up yesterday," Qiu Ye replied, setting her laptop down in front of the chief editor.

"Alright. Reply to him and guide him through the signing process."

"On second thought, just give him a call. I’ll talk to him!"

Feeling that a message wouldn’t be clear enough, the chief editor instructed her to call him directly.

Meanwhile, Chu Tian, after sending the message and seeing no prompt response, wasn’t bothered. He logged onto the website, updated today’s content since he had nothing else to do, and then waited to find out how to sign the contract.

This wasn’t really his field—there was a lot he didn’t understand. He’d heard you only get paid after signing a contract. While he wasn’t surprised his book could be contracted, he really had no idea how the process worked.

It wasn’t long before a phone call came in, even before he received a message reply.

"Hello, who is this?"

"Hello, Mr. Nanmeng. I’m Qiu Ye, the editor who contacted you yesterday. Our chief editor will discuss the contract signing with you."

After the call connected, Qiu Ye turned on the speakerphone and then pushed the phone towards the chief editor.

The chief editor? What’s going on? I’ve only published one novel, and the chief editor needs to contact me personally?

But it didn’t matter. Editor or chief editor, as long as I can sign the contract, it’s fine.

"Alright. So, how do we handle the contract signing?"

"Mr. Nanmeng, hello. Here’s the thing: after reading your novel, I feel that it is excellent..."

They discussed many things over the phone. Generally speaking, the chief editor was very optimistic about the novel. So far, its data was also quite good, showing signs of catching on. However, because it wasn’t contracted, its exposure was insufficient, so it hadn’t truly taken off yet. After signing the contract, they would provide some very good initial promotion. If all went well, many people would soon be reading it, and they hoped he would maintain a steady update schedule.

That was more or less the gist of it.

Chu Tian didn’t really understand these things. Since the chief editor was right there, he figured he might as well ask directly about anything he didn’t understand.

He asked many basic questions. With guidance from the other end of the line, he soon noticed that there had always been message notifications in the top-right corner of the webpage he updated daily. Dozens of them had piled up. After clicking on them, he found various posts with writing tips, daily data about his work, and, crucially, the contract information was also there. Various Promotion Coins and comments were listed there too.

Chu Tian felt like he had discovered a new continent. He’d never noticed this section before, assuming it was just system notifications or advertisements. He hadn’t expected it to contain so much useful information!

Following their guidance, he found the contract link, clicked on it, and proceeded through the steps.

After ending the call, he first filled out the required information and clicked "Confirm." Only after seeing the ’Pending Review’ notice did he exit that section.

Back on the homepage, he glanced over the other information.

In the data section for his work, the details were extremely specific:

[Clicks] 3,672

[Favorites] 3,491

[Reads] 3,161

[Promotion Coins] 11,781

From the phone conversation, he understood that ’Clicks’ represented how many people had clicked on the novel’s page, ’Favorites’ showed how many had saved it to read later, ’Reads’ indicated how many people were currently reading it, and ’Promotion Coins’ were akin to the recommendation tickets from his past life.

He didn’t know what to make of these figures, but they felt somewhat low—only a few thousand people. In his memory, this book had been hugely popular throughout Jiangnan in his past life. Why were there so few readers now?

Oh, right. They did say something about insufficient exposure because it wasn’t contracted, didn’t they?

That explained it. The contract process would take three business days, so he’d just have to wait. He wasn’t in a rush; after all, even after signing, it would still be a while before he got paid.

He might not have been anxious, but Cloud Summit Culture certainly was.

These statistics were explosive for the entire online literature world. The clicks and favorites were almost equal, a ratio nearing 1:1. What did that mean? It meant that for every hundred people who clicked on the book, practically all of them wanted to continue reading.

Did this book possess some kind of magic?

It did! Immensely so!

In an online literature scene primarily built on the Martial World genre—which often expanded into various other worlds and even mythological tales—a novel centered on Tomb Robbing was like a rare flower blooming amidst a field of green grass, strikingly conspicuous.

Anyone who encountered it was inevitably captivated by its fantastical and eerie world of Tomb Robbing.

Fresh! Exotic! Magnificent! Unrestrainedly imaginative! Sparking endless associations!

All these varied elements irresistibly drew in readers. It offered a novel approach never seen before, a worldview previously unconceived, a story that wove itself through real history, seeming both real and illusory. Readers simply couldn’t put it down!

What he didn’t know was that many readers who had already encountered the story had spontaneously begun to promote it; it just hadn’t been long enough for their efforts to gain significant traction.

"Qiu Ye, go tell the contracting department to expedite the review process. Once it’s approved, immediately apply all available promotions for him. I’ll also allocate the promotional resources I control. For such a great book, let’s max out the initial promotion and see how it performs!"

"Understood, Chief Editor!"