Thursday, September 6.
The first issue of [Southern Weekly-Literature] was distributed nationwide, with a total of 2 million copies being printed for the first round and put onto the national market.
The good news was that the 2 million copies were sold out in only five days. But unfortunately, both Xu Guoqing and Jiang Dejun underestimated the expectations and hype around [Kunlun].
Many had long been looking forward to seeing the new book by Bright Moon plus this was different from buying physical books like [Stories About The Ming Dynasty]. This was a magazine. The price was only 5 RMB. The average person could afford it. And even if you couldn't buy one, you could buy it with your friends and then read in shifts.
As a result, the sales of [Southern Weekly-Literature] were greatly accelerated, all the copies were sold out within five days, and urgent reorder applications were sent from book stands and kiosks from various places for more copies.
Facing such a situation, Xu Guoqing was ecstatic : "Hahaha print more! We're printing money, pure profit!"
Southern Weekly once again set to work doing overtime on overtime, and batches of 500,000 copies were being printed and shipped to all parts of the country. It took days for the national market to gradually saturate.
In the end [Southern Weekly-Literature] sold 3.5 million copies with its first issue! Setting a new record for magazine sales!
All of this in large part due to Jiang Cheng's [Kunlun].
Seeing an inaugural magazine actually achieving 3.5 million sales in less than a week, aroused the attention of many media outlets.
However, as expected by Jiang Cheng, although the sales volume for [Southern Weekly-Literature] was high due to [Kunlun], reactions after reading the first issue of [Kunlun] - [The Kunlun Prequel: Pride of Iron-Blood] was mixed.
…..
[Kunlun] is one of the best martial arts novels in recent years. From its predecessors, it clearly absorbs the strengths of many martial arts novels by the likes of Jin Yong, Gu Long and Liang Yusheng. The grand war scenes are full of whimsy. The new martial arts setting, the collision between national pride and love, the book is very novel and unique. Especially the ending:
"No matter who wins or loses, the people who suffer will be the citizens on both sides."
Liang Wenjing (Liang Xiao's father) actually sees past the addictiveness of war and power when his subordinates desire to make him emperor. He chooses to drift away and live in seclusion, no longer asking about the affairs of the world. This idea of thinking completely from the standpoint of the people, such compassion is something you can't find in other martial art novels. Just the prequel shows the sharp edge of [Kunlun], I can't wait for the main story. Hurry up, Bright Moon!"-——Netizen Zhong Bai, Tianya Community.
"Although it still hasn't completely broken apart from the traditional model, there are still innovative elements in the book, it's worth reading, but I hope that the actual story is better." ——Netizen Yan Yubo, Tianya Community.
....
Two weeks later, on September 20, the second issue of [Southern Weekly-Literature] was published, which once again set off a sales craze. In just one week, sales actually reached a terrifying 4.2 million copies! 700,000 more copies than the first issue!
The sales for the second issue of [Southern Weekly-Literature] didn't disappoint Jiang Cheng or Southern Weekly Publishing. As the days went by, the sales figures for [Southern Weekly-Literature] only got better and better.
Xu Guoqing and Jiang Dejun had listened to Jiang Cheng's suggestion, so each issue wasn't just a couple of chapters from [Kunlun]; instead they split the volumes into quarters and published them in sections.
The first issue directly published [The Kunlun Prequel: Pride of Iron-Blood] in order to allow readers to enjoy it and help the magazine gain popularity. Anyway in the future they could still re-release [Kunlun] as stand alone paperback volumes, for readers who wanted to read [Kunlun] without the other stories in the magazine and all the ads. Plus not all the volumes of [Kunlun] were going on [Southern Weekly-Literature]. Jiang Cheng was saving several volumes for the launch of Starting Point Literature.
Entering university again had made Jiang Cheng sigh, but he didn't let his past life affect him too much, and he began the life of an ordinary college student, commuting to class, eating lunch at the canteen, studying at the library etc.
After learning about the sales numbers for [Kunlun], Jiang Cheng behaved indifferently, but Hu Ge, Yuan Hong, and Sun Xiao were utterly surprised. Especially after reading [Kunlun], they had even more admiration for Jiang Cheng even often bothering him to get information about [Kunlun].
So Jiang Cheng, familiar with them now, knowing that they weren't the type of people to spill secrets, after being harassed by them, gave in and told them a couple of spoilers.
Experiencing such a level of trust from Jiang Cheng, the group grew closer.
After learning that Hu Ge had signed to Shanghai Tangren, Yuan Hong and Sun Xiao were envious but offered their blessings.
It was a pity that after Yuan Hong and Sun Xiao had asked their parents about signing, they were told not to sign to Shanghai Tangren and not to act rashly.
At this, Jiang Cheng and Hu Ge could only express their regret and hope that they would have the opportunity to join Shanghai Tangren in the future.
As for themselves, Jiang Cheng and Hu Ge, they would no longer be as free as before. After all, the contract had been signed, so the company's arrangements needed to be followed. Jiang Cheng, in particular, hadn't done anything since signing more than two months ago and having spent the last few months working on his own projects, he felt embarrassed. Especially considering the sky-high contract they had given him.
But what surprised Jiang Cheng was that the first arrangement for him and Hu Ge by Shanghai Tangren was actually going straight into acting!
And he was very familiar with the production he was being put in, [Autumn's Concerto], the very script he had written himself.