I.
The book has officially gone premium. It feels like this past month has dragged on forever. First, I want to thank my editor, Canaan, for all the support. Having an editor like this is the strongest backing an author could ask for.
Without further ado, tonight at midnight sharp, I'll be posting an update of around 15,000 words.
If you have the means, please do your best to support the first premium chapter. I'm also asking for a wave of double monthly tickets for the end and beginning of the month.
Honestly, I'm quite satisfied with the upcoming premium chapters, especially the identity reveals in the first two. These are the scenes I've always wanted to write (it feels like I've finally reached the finish line after crawling for so long).
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II.
Before starting this book, I actually discussed it with my readers and my editor. Most of the feedback I got was that the audience for this genre is pretty niche, and the ceiling for its success isn't very high.
After all, not everyone can accept a story with such twisted emotional themes, centered entirely on whether or not to kill your own family members.
But in the end, I decided to write this novel anyway. The reason is simple: I just purely wanted to write it.
For the past few years, I've been crawling forward just to chase better stats. It's been a long time since I've typed out words driven solely by the desire to write.
However, considering it's a niche genre, the results for The Extinction Guide surprisingly haven't been too bad so far. At the very least, it topped the new book rankings in the light novel category, and it steadily secured recommendations like the Sanjiang feature and the small megaphone.
That is all thanks to everyone's support.
I'm not an author who excels during the new-book phase. My writing style is a bit of a slow burn; the first few hundred thousand words are mostly spent laying the groundwork and fleshing out characters.
By the time my last book, Incarnating as a Boss, finished its run, it had reached an average of 60,000 subscriptions and earned me a spot among the Yearly Twelve Heavenly Kings. But its initial subscriptions were actually only around 5,000—a tenfold difference from the final average. So, please have a little more faith in me.
Of course, I don't expect this book's stats to surpass the last one. After all, its performance during this new-book phase genuinely doesn't compare to Incarnating as a Boss. Therefore, my only goal for this book is to have fun writing it and to give it my all.
As for the outcome, I'll leave that up to fate.
Although the open-mindedness of someone who is numb is cheap, anyone who is still striving to improve will inevitably feel sadness and anxiety when facing obstacles. So sometimes, even if it's just comforting yourself, as long as it keeps you moving forward on your path, it means something.
Finally, I hope everyone enjoys the read.
Let me reiterate: if you have the means, please do your best to support the first premium chapter. This metric is truly crucial for a new book.
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At the very, very end, let me recommend a few novels. The following are all by authors I look up to, and whose work I stay up late reading every day. Among them are two masters from the Twelve Heavenly Kings:
1. Winter's Return by Lord Xueli Duncha (Currently the highest-subscribed serialized romance light novel; the writing has a distinct Jiangnan flavor to it.)
2. My Older Sister is a Chaebol Heiress by Lord Repentant Witch (A very interesting family-centric light novel. The author is particularly good at writing wicked women.)
3. Gazing at the Vast Sky by Lord Mitian Dasha (A towering peak in the Xianxia genre, a work with 60,000 to 70,000 average subscriptions. It is fully completed and ready to be binge-read.)
4. I Command You to Become the Cult Leader by Lord Dao Rugu (A masterpiece in the esoteric cult genre that once topped the new book charts.)
5. I Logged Into the God Panel by Lord Eyu Shangren (An excellent new release in the high-martial arts genre; the author is a true master of this theme.)
6. My Girlfriend is Actually Myself (You have definitely never seen a slice-of-life romance with this kind of premise. The author is a mysterious romance master from another platform who has dominated the charts there multiple times.)