Chapter 39

The reaction from the publishing houses was within Lin Mu's expectations, but the changes in the martial arts novels that followed left everyone in the martial arts circle shocked!

Generally speaking, regardless of the quality, the major publishing houses always release about ten martial arts novels each month. Dozens of martial arts novels compete with each other, and the monthly sales champion drives the authors to madness.

Once an author wins this honor, it is equivalent to winning the "New Author King" in the previous life's point system, which has a significant promotional effect on both the novel and the author themselves. The other top three also have considerable influence.

As for the novels that rank lower, if there are no highlights or surprises, they generally do not sell well in the second month after publication.

At the beginning of the month, when Lin Mu proposed the concept of "internal strength" and the first chapter of "Lian Cheng Jue" was published mid-month, all the domestic publishing houses seemed to be collectively hit by a "silence spell" and did not release a single martial arts novel!

Even as time passed, only a few subpar novels were released in the second half of the month, and none of the established authors published any new works!

The countless martial arts fans across the country who were waiting for new books were all stunned, thinking it was just a local issue. However, after asking around in their social circles, they found out that this was the case in most parts of the country.

It was as if all the established authors in the country had collectively gone to Dongguan to experience the local culture and were caught by the police doing unspeakable things!

It wasn't until a piece of news spread virally on the internet that the martial arts fans learned the reason!

Internal strength!

Lin Mu's introduction to internal strength also appeared in countless re-posts, spreading to every computer screen through the internet!

When the martial arts fans saw this news, they were shocked, and then their bodies became hot with excitement, wishing they could find the fiercest and most aggressive Husky to vent their inner heat.

Although "Martial Arts Story" is nominally sold nationwide, it is actually only heavily distributed in a few nearby provinces, and book fans in other areas cannot buy the magazine at all!

However, even so, the subscription volume of "Martial Arts Story" increased day by day. Every day, the subscription phone at the magazine office rang non-stop, and everyone in the office, except the receptionists, was immersed in joy.

The same was true for "Martial Arts" magazine. Since He Shuo was already serializing in the magazine, he could only rush to write new chapters and could not calmly rethink the story. This made "Feng Ye Seven Curses" have a stiff plot, but it still gained a large number of new subscriptions and firmly held the lead over "Martial Arts Story."

At this point, if the vast number of martial arts fans still didn't know the reason, they would have wasted their time reading so many books.

Clearly, those domestic masters were no longer willing to waste energy on their previous old books. Such books, even if they won the sales champion this month, would inevitably be overshadowed by the internal strength novels next month, leading to a loss of their reputation.

Stopping the sale of books would also cause the publishing houses to suffer significant losses, but they all knew that increasing investment in old books would only waste the publishing house's resources. At this time, the martial arts fans who had learned about the internal strength setting had no interest in these old-style novels.

Therefore, only a few already printed novels were on the market, and their sales were abysmal.

The magazine offices were frantically contacting various collaborating authors to inquire about the status of their new manuscripts.

And those authors who considered themselves to have some strength and status were almost in seclusion, conceptualizing a martial arts world with internal strength. Although various creative ideas emerged in their minds, building a reasonable and orderly martial strength hierarchy was clearly not something that could be accomplished overnight.

...

"Editor Lin, I have a suggestion. What do you think?"

In the evening, Lin Mu chatted idly on the Lianxin platform.

On the other side of the network, Lin Shuiqing glanced at the message and put down the author he was chatting with.

Lin Shuiqing: "What suggestion?"

Lin Mu: "I think 'Martial Arts Story' can open a 'Reader Feedback' column after my novel. It can be one or two pages, or even longer, to collect the feedback on 'Lian Cheng Jue' from the internet and the letters received by the magazine office."

Lin Shuiqing frowned and replied: "This would increase interaction for 'Lian Cheng Jue,' but it would also increase the magazine's costs. I don't think it's necessary."

Lin Mu smiled slightly and typed quickly: "The feedback can have a threshold, for example, readers must include the book number of 'Martial Arts Story' with their letters to have a chance of being published."

Lin Shuiqing's eyes lit up: "Interesting, continue!"

Lin Mu: "I've noticed that many people share one magazine among several people. So, although 'Martial Arts Story' has a large audience, its sales are only a fraction of that. For example, in our school, basically one class buys only one copy."

"Thus, if we adopt the method I mentioned, those book fans who want their names to appear in the magazine might be willing to spend five yuan to buy a magazine, which is only ten yuan a month, not too high."

"Even if only one-tenth of the people are attracted, it would be enough to double or even triple the sales of 'Martial Arts Story'!"

"Therefore, in my opinion, the feedback should not be too long. Even a short sentence can be used. The important thing is that the feedback should be concise and interesting, and it could include a brief introduction of the reviewer's address, or even send the reviewer a sample of the next issue of the magazine..."

"Regarding the total length of the feedback, the magazine office can use various subscription data to decide, which should not be difficult."

"After the sales increase, the magazine office can expand its distribution areas or even set up a branch in another province to cover the surrounding areas. I believe that in a very short time, we can see profits and 'Martial Arts Story' will become the industry leader!"

On the other side, Lin Shuiqing was already breathing heavily. This idea was highly feasible!

After some thought, Lin Shuiqing asked: "This suggestion is great! But once it is launched, I believe 'Martial Arts' will also implement it. With its stronger resources, how can 'Martial Arts Story' turn the tide?"

This was a test for Lin Mu. This suggestion would undoubtedly bring significant benefits to the magazine office. Lin Shuiqing asked this question just to see if Lin Mu had more detailed ideas.

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