Chapter 129: Topping the Bestseller List

"Is every secret manual a story? What kind of story is 'The Tathagata Palm'?" a reader asked loudly.

Zhang Tan smiled and said, "It is a story of justice triumphing over evil. A poor boy obtains 'The Tathagata Palm,' eradicates evil gangs, and protects the villagers."

"What about 'The Nine Yang Manual'? Is it a pair with 'The Nine Yin Manual'?"

"They aren't a pair, but they are related. Please keep paying attention to my novels," Zhang Tan revealed. "I am an author who loves writing long-form stories. Whether it's 'The Four Great Constables' or the current 'Legend of the Condor Heroes,' these are creations with long, winding narratives and grand backgrounds. I wrote two books for 'The Four Great Constables,' but that only established a rough background. 'Legend of the Condor Heroes' is 1.2 million words long, telling one story, and there are even more exciting stories to come."

As for what those more exciting stories were, Zhang Tan just smiled without saying anything; he wanted to maintain a bit of mystery.

After chatting, interacting, and taking a break, he continued signing books. By four o'clock in the afternoon, the book signing session had reached its scheduled end time. However, there were still one or two hundred people who hadn't received Zhang Tan's autograph and were unwilling to leave, pleading for him to extend the time so he could sign their books.

Hosting his first book signing, Zhang Tan couldn't bear to refuse, so he nodded in agreement and continued to bury his head in signing.

By four-thirty, he finally finished signing for the remaining hundred-plus people. Amidst the farewells of his readers, he left the venue.

He had to go have dinner with several leaders from the Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House; this was expected and unavoidable. Fortunately, it was just a small gathering, with few people, a pleasant atmosphere, and no pressure to drink. While eating, there happened to be a television in the private room that could pick up Hefei TV.

Li Yan turned on the television early, locked it to Hefei TV, and by the time they reached eight o'clock in the evening, the "Evening News" had begun.

After some trivial news passed, they finally saw the report on Zhang Tan.

"This afternoon, our city's famous best-selling author and martial arts novelist, Tan Zhang, held an autograph session at the Yuanyi Times Square, and the scene was incredibly popular. Zhang Tan is a native of Gangji Town, Changfeng County, in our city. Born in 1986, he is currently in his second year of high school and is hailed as a representative of post-80s writers. Now, let's watch the report brought back by our reporter from the scene."

On the television screen, it looked very lively because the queue of people waiting for autographs was truly long. There were also many onlookers gathered around to join in the excitement.

After the voiceover ended, the female reporter appeared on screen and began to interview Zhang Tan.

Zhang Tan didn't look at the camera; his eyes were clearly fixed on the reporter. After all, he wasn't used to being on television and didn't know he should look at the lens. Zhang Tan's answers were unremarkable, so they were quickly skipped over, followed by interviews with readers—full of various praises, exaggerations, excitement, and enthusiasm.

All in all, it served as a great way to highlight Zhang Tan from a different perspective.

"Xiao Zhang, you look very photogenic," a director surnamed Zhao said, pointing at the TV with a smile.

On the screen, Zhang Tan did look quite good; at the very least, he had the scholarly, refined temperament of a fair-faced intellectual. Clothes make the man, and since Zhang Tan wasn't bad-looking, had fair skin, and wore designer labels, his aura naturally wouldn't be lacking.

"Just average, just average," Zhang Tan said modestly.

"Haha, looking at it this way, you even look a bit like a star."

After just a few words of banter, the news report ended. It seemed the female reporter hadn't made a big deal out of it; it was just a routine report.

The group didn't dwell on the news report for too long; after all, the Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House had arranged the television appearance, so it wasn't exactly news to them.

The dinner table conversation mainly focused on the publishing and distribution of "Legend of the Condor Heroes."

"The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was to be published in eight volumes. To compete with piracy, the price wasn't set very high, and it was sold at a discount in many places, so the actual revenue per copy was slightly lower. Currently, the combined sales of the first five volumes reached a full four million copies, and the royalties in Zhang Tan's pocket amounted to two or three million.

It could be said that the money earned from this one book alone would allow Zhang Tan to squeeze into the top ten of the annual author royalty list.

This speed of earning money already made him the top post-80s writer, surpassing Han Jingming, who was hyped to the heavens, and whose new book this year, "Like a Youth Racing," had taken the number one spot on the national annual best-seller list. However, "Legend of the Condor Heroes" counted the combined sales of five volumes, while "Like a Youth Racing" was just a thin single book.

From this point of view, the audience for youth literature among young people was much larger than that for martial arts novels.

However, martial arts culture was very strong in places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. This year was a bumper year for Zhang Tan. The traditional Chinese editions of "The Four Great Constables" and "Legend of the Condor Heroes" were also incredibly popular within the Southeast Asian Chinese community. Contemporary martial arts masters like Zhang Feifan and Li Tiebi usually saw their traditional edition sales reach about two to three hundred thousand copies per volume.

Zhang Tan's "The Four Great Constables Meet in the Capital" had already sold 180,000 copies per volume, while "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" had sold an impressive 350,000 copies per volume.

It felt like the return of the peak era of martial arts fiction from the 60s and 70s.

...

It was New Year's Day, and various data points had begun to be calculated, book sales being no exception.

Li Yan was a very competent assistant and had long since organized the data released by major media outlets, handing it over to Zhang Tan.

On the mainland side, in the best-seller list for literature, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" naturally ranked first, with "Like a Youth Racing" in second. But when it came to weekly book sales, neither "Legend of the Condor Heroes" nor "Youth" could rank, as a book written by a foreigner, "Who Moved My Cheese?", had been dominating the top spot on major media best-seller lists for over a hundred weeks.

Zhang Tan had heard of this book but hadn't read it; he didn't know what kind of charm it had to cause such a global stir.

Meanwhile, Zhang Tan's other book, "The Four Great Constables Meet in the Capital," ranked sixth on the literary best-seller list, thanks to the combined sales of its three volumes, which totaled over 900,000 copies.

In Taiwan, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" won the annual martial arts novel sales championship, and in Hong Kong, it also took the annual martial arts novel sales championship. In Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand—countries with relatively large Chinese populations—"The Legend of the Condor Heroes" also squeezed into the best-selling book lists.

By the end of the year, when the book payments were settled, Li Yan estimated that Zhang Tan had at least four million in royalty income.

This was much higher than Zhang Tan had expected.

The main reason was that "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was just too popular, catching the last glorious moment of the martial arts genre. Combined, the simplified and traditional versions had sold over a million copies per volume, an incredible figure that topped the charts for recent martial arts novelists. Jin Yong had spent over two years writing such a book, while Zhang Tan had managed to churn it out in half a year, significantly shortening the creative cycle.

Releasing one volume a month greatly ignited the enthusiasm of the readers; it was satisfying to read, so naturally, people bought more.

With the books selling so well, Zhang Tan was overjoyed, feeling that his quality of life could be improved once again: "Sister Li, help me urge the publishers to pay up. I want to get the money as soon as possible; the thing I hate most is people owing me money."

"No problem, I will communicate with the several publishing houses. Your novels are very popular right now, and the publishers still want to continue working with you, so they shouldn't withhold the payments."

"That's good."

Sitting in the passenger seat, Zhang Tan held the back of his head with both hands, resting against the seat back, humming a little tune indistinctly: "I'm making money, I'm making money, I don't even know how to spend it. I have a Nokia in my left hand, a Motorola in my right..."