Great god, craftsman or code word worker? ——Yesterday, today and tomorrow of online literature writers
China's online literature has gone through more than two decades of development.
Today, when we talk about the professional identity of "Internet writer", the image that emerges in our minds is completely different from what it was 20 or 10 years ago.
Twenty years ago, when people mentioned online literature, they were mostly talking about "Wenqing-style" writing on platforms such as Rongshuxia and Qingyun Academy. Topics of gossip always revolved around Baby Annie, Murong Xuecun, Jiangnan and Jinhe Zai. Wait for the "grass, grievances and hatred" of well-known authors to unfold.
Ten years ago, when people talked about online writers, most of them were half envious and half contemptuously enumerating the top "great gods" such as the Three Young Masters (Tang Family Three Young Masters), Potatoes (Ceremonial Silkworm Potatoes), Tomatoes (I Eat Tomatoes) and so on. The brilliant achievements of "Xiao Baiwen" on VIP subscription as a footnote.
When people today talk about online writers, they are mostly concerned about whose work is adapted into an IP drama about to be released, and whose IP is sold at an amazing price.
In the past two decades, the living conditions and evaluation system of online literature creators have undergone multiple and complex changes.
1 Image sequence of well-known online writers
Around 1996, with the rise and popularization of the Internet in China, the first batch of mainland Internet writers began their respective online creative careers.
During this period, most of the college students or urban white-collar workers who were able to access the Internet and have the conditions to write online.
Some of these people who eventually became famous, such as Baby Annie, left the public with the impression of "artistic youth".
Their writing is deeply influenced by the literary traditions of the mainstream literary circles and the popular literary atmosphere at the end of the century. For example, under the influence of the narrative of the "Westward Journey" of Stephen Chow's "Western Journey" series of films, Jin He Zai created what is called "the No. "Book" of "Wukong Biography".
The online novels they wrote were very similar to popular novels under the traditional paper publishing system, and were quickly captured and accepted by mainstream literary circles.
The first batch of famous online authors were quickly absorbed by the physical book market and became the most popular best-selling authors at the beginning of the century.
Among them, it also includes a group of earliest romance authors.
The creative enlightenment of these authors mainly comes from the best-selling romance books of Hong Kong and Taiwan "Xiaoyan".
When they started to publish novels on the Internet, they naturally inherited the writing resources of the Hong Kong and Taiwan romance "pocket books" and transformed them into online romance narratives that are more suitable for mainland Chinese audiences.
Their works have also entered the book market without any obstacles, and have become the hottest “romantic queens” in the bestseller market, such as Ming Xiaoxi, Gu Man, Bite Me Cun, and Xin Yiwu.
Whether it is a "literary youth" or a "romantic queen", these first famous writers who moved from the Internet to physical publishing have left the public with the first and most profound impression of the "Internet writers".
Their works were also first adapted into film and television dramas. Long before the IP market matured, dramas such as "Summer of Bubbles" (Ming Xiaoxi) and "It's too late to say I love you" (Bad I want to save) were already idol romance dramas. The appearance of the TV audience has entered the field of vision.
In the public's cognition, they often even forget the "Internet writer" status of Ming Xiaoxi, Jiangnan, Cang Yue and others, linking them with the creation context of youth novels born in the 1980s and new martial arts novels from the mainland.
After that, the next batch of online writers who entered the public's field of vision were the "great gods" authors in the VIP paid reading system such as Tang Family Sanshao, Tiancan Tudou, and I Eat Tomato.
Their creation generally began after 2005, when the VIP paid reading production mechanism of online literature was maturing, and the online literature industry as a whole entered the commercialization stage.
The online novels of these authors are presented to readers in the form of ultra-long serials, often exceeding one million words in length, leaving a gap with traditional paper books.
Not only that, but the themes of the novel have also changed from youth, rebellion, and literary sadness to "sweet text" narratives such as the escalation of fantasy and the counterattack of diaosi.
This kind of narrative later became the absolute mainstream of male frequency online essays, and these "great" authors, as representative figures of online literature, have gradually been recognized and accepted by mainstream literary circles.
Among them, as the top author of "Xiao Bai Wen", Tang Jia San Shao not only reached the top of the "Rich Chinese Writers List" with Tian Can Tudou in 2018 (Tang Jia San Shao ranked first with 130 million royalties, and Tian Can Tudou ranked second with 105 million). Becoming a member of the Presidium of the Chinese Writers Association signifies that this generation of online literature "great" is highly recognized in the commercial market, and at the same time it has been accepted and valued by the mainstream literature.
However, with the exception of a very small number of top "great gods", the popularity and influence of these top authors in the online literature circle are not enough to truly achieve "out of the circle".
Only after entering the IP era, the name of the author of "Great God" has become an important part of IP.
Especially in recent years, under the blessing of popular film and television dramas, Mao Gai (author of "The Chance of Fighting" and "Celebrating Yu Nian"), priest (author of "Soul Soul"), Moxiang Tongxiang (the original author of "Chen Qing Ling") ), etc., to become the most shining name in the IP era, with a large number of fans who have broken through the small circle of online literature, and transformed into real economic benefits-each of their works can sell tens of millions of IP copyright.
The public's perception of online writers and online users has gradually changed from the previous "Diaosi" and "Xiaobai" images to the creators of popular IPs.
2 The overall living conditions of online writers
However, no matter at any stage, "Great God" authors are only a few of the online writers.
Not every online writer can support himself by writing novels online, and not every writer who writes online can get financial benefits from it.
According to relevant statistics, as of the end of 2019, the number of registered authors of Chinese online literature reached 17.55 million, and more than 1 million signed authors, of which more than 600,000 were active signed authors.
Among them, the authors who can get economic income do not account for the majority.
There are only tens of thousands of professional or semi-professional writers who can support themselves by writing online.
However, these tens of thousands may account for more than 50% of readers and more than 80% of revenue.
Internet writers are mainly concentrated in developed areas, especially in developed coastal areas.
For example, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Guangdong on the eastern coast are the provinces with the highest concentration of online writers. Not only do they have the largest total number of online writers, but the proportion of "great gods" and key authors is also the highest.
In addition, Beijing and Tianjin are also home to many online writers.
This is related to the scale of Internet users and Internet penetration rate in each province, and it is more consistent with the geographical distribution of several important platforms for online literature.
If you are in a small town in the third and fourth tier, or a city in a remote area, a writer can become a professional or semi-professional writer as long as he can earn a monthly income of more than 1,500 yuan (subsistence allowance) through online writing.
Even so, most online authors are still amateurs.
In more developed cities, this baseline needs to be adjusted upwards.
The daily occupations of amateur writers are very wide, including civil servants, teachers, soldiers, workers, farmers, etc.
Most of these occupations allow employees to reserve fixed leisure time on weekday evenings and weekends, providing feasible conditions and real-life materials for their amateur writing.
Among the tens of thousands of professional or semi-professional online writers, those with an annual income of more than 100,000 can be roughly regarded as "first-line writers". There are about 3,000 to 5,000 of them, and their education is generally slightly higher, reaching a bachelor's degree or above.
The vast majority of the remaining people constitute the mainstream and backbone of the network writer group. Their annual income is generally between 15,000 and 50,000, and their education is relatively low, usually high school or below-because of higher education. Group, may not be satisfied with this level of income.
Many online literary websites in the early years lacked writer training and welfare mechanisms, and many websites could not even guarantee the payment of contributions on time.
Later, with the maturity of the industry, mainstream websites represented by Starting Chinese.com established a relatively sound writer protection system, and introduced policies such as full attendance allowance for writers, support for newcomers, support for specific subjects, and pensions.
For example, as long as you insist on updating for 4 months and publish 100,000 words every month, you can get 1,000 yuan subsistence allowance.
These policies have indeed prolonged the creative lives of some writers, allowing them to continue their online writing career.
A very famous example in the circle is the platinum author's high-rise building at the starting point.
He once opened four novels and "Push Street", but he still insisted on updating, and even received four subsistence allowances every month (all four novels achieved 100,000 monthly updates).
With this 4,000 yuan income, the high-rise buildings survived the difficult period that no one cares about, and eventually became a platinum god with an annual income of tens of millions.
For online writers, economic benefits are not only the material basis for their livelihood, but also recognition from readers and the market.
In the web world with VIP paid reading as the core production mechanism, "good selling" and "good looking" are directly linked.
Readers vote with money to highlight the aesthetic and value orientation of popular literature reading in this era.
Of course, in female channels and some niche types of creative circles, the driving force of fans has always been very strong. As long as fans are willing to read and leave messages to interact with the author, even if they don’t make a cent, the author will Can get enough motivation to continue writing.
In addition to economic benefits and reader feedback, professional honor and identity are also important aspects of online writers.
In the early years, creators who published works on the Internet were generally unwilling to admit that they were "online writers." Everyone felt that writing on the Internet was a bit of a low thing, and they were embarrassed to label themselves as "writers."
With the development and growth of online literature, the professional identity of online writers has also increased. Nowadays, online writers have become a professional identity with higher social acceptance.
In addition to the industry's internal VIP subscriptions, IP copyright and other market achievements, as well as the honor system of "Platinum Writers" assessed by the website, official recognition and encouragement are also very important sources of identity.
The Chinese Writers Association admits online writers into the association every year. The Chinese Writers Association and the provincial and municipal online writers associations have been established one after another, and they have given the network writers the honorary status of "Internet Writers Association members", which provide online writers with a substantial mainstream recognition.
The network writer training class organized by the National Writers Association system trains more than one thousand people every year.
Accepting these official and mainstream professional trainings is also a recognition and encouragement for online writers.
With the development of online literature to this day, whether it is the scale of users or the influence of works, it can be said that in fact it has become the "mainstream" of contemporary Chinese literature.
Today's online writers are no longer as eagerly eager to be recognized by the "mainstream" like their predecessors.
Their "mainstream" status is self-evident, and the recognition of the market and society has also given them ample confidence.
The core issue facing online writers is still economic income and reader feedback, which are closely related to their living conditions.
3 The new situation facing the author
But becoming a "mainstream" network author still faces the iterative problem of mainstream people.
Currently, the age of online writers is generally between 18 and 40 years old.
Previously, the academic circles generally believed that the upper limit of the age of online writers was 35. However, in recent years, with the increasing popularity of the Internet access environment and the aging of the population, a group of older online writers insisted on creating on the Internet, so that the age of online writers The upper limit has increased to a certain extent, and it may continue to rise afterwards.
Therefore, online literature may not be simply regarded as a youth subculture. It looks like it is mainly aimed at young audiences and mainly created by young people, but it is because these authors and audiences have not grown old.
While the upper age limit of online writers continues to increase, a new generation has also begun a career in online writing.
From 2018 to 2019, the post-85s, post-90s, and post-95s accounted for 74.48% of the total number of contracted writers of China Reading Group throughout the year, and post-90s accounted for the largest proportion, reaching 29.9%.
Although the post-00s and post-95s are not equal to the post-90s in number, the growth rates have reached 113.04% and 40.26% respectively. The new generation of online writers is pouring into the online writing army at an alarming rate and will soon be able to occupy them. Of the world.
Today's Internet authors must simultaneously face the two-way expansion of Internet users and competitors at the same time-both aging and younger.
The user market of online literature has entered a stage that urgently needs further segmentation.
Which age group and interest group readers a work should target are the prerequisites that every author must think about before starting to write.
At the same time, the hottest phenomenon in the online literature industry in recent years is the massive invasion of free reading platforms, which has caused a certain impact on the VIP paid reading kingdom built by China Reading Group.
In the dominant logic of free reading and paid reading, the position of the author is somewhat different.
This is the second choice facing online writers.
If we regard today's online literary creation as a production of literature and cultural consumer goods in the Internet age, then in the large industrial assembly line of genre creation, each author is actually just a "codeworder".
The online novels they produce are a kind of cultural "fast-moving consumer goods" for most readers, and are cultural and entertainment products that are quickly consumed during fragmented reading time.
The behavior of these readers to read online texts is no longer regarded as a participatory literary activity, and will eventually be transformed into data and traffic in the underlying logic of free reading.
From this perspective, web writing is a market-oriented, consumer-oriented, and flow-oriented production. The autonomy and originality of the author is actually not that critical.
But the fact is that most of the web writers didn't want to become "codewriters" when they started writing, they all had literary dreams.
Although web writing has its "big industrial age" aspect, it has always hidden the creation context of the "handicraft age".
There are "code-characters" on the assembly line, and there are also skilled craftsmen who meticulously sculpt their individual will and artistic soul.
There are readers who treat online texts as pure pastimes and don’t even care about the author’s name or the title of the book. There are also readers who expect to obtain literary auras and emotions that cannot be replaced by other literary forms (such as film and television, animation, and games) Experienced readers.
In the era of paid reading, two types of online writing, "large industrial production" and "hand craftsman", have always existed.
Some of the "craftsmen" later became "great gods". The "great gods" have some willful capital and privileges, and the "great gods" also have niche and popular ones.
In addition to the benefits of the VIP mechanism, part of the early context can be absorbed by the entity publishing system, and after entering the IP era, part of it can be tapped by IP capital.
Through these channels, this creative context has been inspired to a certain extent.
In addition, the participatory and fan-oriented characteristics of online articles continue to inspire such creations, allowing these authors to confirm their value.
The intrusion of free reading highlights the "large industrial production" aspect of online writing.
Of course, free reading does not mean that they are not profitable, but their profit does not depend on readers to pay, but on the readers to turn pages and clicks and watch advertisements to create drainage data.
In the free reading platform, the faces of the author and the work are not clear. Not only are readers unable to remember or recognize, but the title of the book is changed in real time according to the trend of the website.
The works displayed on the APP page are also pushes for "guess you like" calculations under big data thinking.
There is no longer a recognized leaderboard, and there is no longer a recognized god.
The author has truly become a "codewriter" on the large industrial assembly line.
The development of internet media and the growth of internet users have brought new opportunities and challenges to internet writers.
Today’s online writers not only need to keep up with the times of their own generation’s new creative trends, and face a segmented market to find their target readers; they also need to recognize their own position in the production of online articles. , Do you want to be a "codeworder" or a "handsman", or somewhere in between.
Written by Xiao Yingxuan (School of Letters, Shandong University)