Online writers find path to become millionaires

Online writer Tangjiasanshao (Zhang Wei). [Photo/Xinhua]

Online writer Tangjiasanshao, or Zhang Wei, took the crown again on the latest income ranking list of Chinese online writers.

Receiving 122 million yuan ($18 million) in royalties, the writer comes in at first place for the fourth time.

Born in 1981, Zhang once worked for a small IT company after graduating from Hebei University. He got fired by the slumping company in 2003.

In 2004, Zhang started writing his first online novel, Guang Zhi Zi, or Son of Light. In 2012, the young writer was crowned on the royalties ranking list for the first time.

Many web writers, such as Tiancantudou (Li Hu) and Wochixihongshi also rose to fame because of their work and enviable royalties.

A series of popular TV series, animations and games have been adapted from their writings, including Nirvana in Fire and The Journey of Flower.

However, not every online writer is as lucky as them. Most online writers work 10 hours a day according to a report from Yangtze Evening. And they must always be working hard to create intriguing stories.

Angeloscar from Nanjing began to write for the web as a part-time job in 2006. And he resigned from his stable job to write full time from 2015.

"Many people believe online writers are messy and sloppy, and some even think we wear costumes when writing stories about ancient people. We are not. At least I am not," Angeloscar said.

As a father, the writer has a regular life. And he also spends at least 10 hours on writing each day.

"It's easy to become an online writer, but not that easy to become famous. I suggest people to start part-time writing first," he said.

And only especially skilled writers could write for large internet literature websites, such as Qidian.com.

Yang Chen, chief editor of Qidian.com, said there are tens of thousands of writers creating web stories on Qidian.com.

"There are more female online writers now and some are even teenagers," Yang said.

Martial arts fantasy web fiction is the most popular literature genre online. And many foreigners are also faithful readers.

Wuxiaworld.com, a website sharing English versions of Chinese kung fu and fantasy online novels, is pretty popular in the US.

According to data from Alexa in December 2016, the website ranked 1,525 in the world and 986 in the US. It had more than three million daily page views and 241,211 daily unique visitors.