Chapter 6: The Real Explosion
Domestic online literature should have started in 97. Companies like NetEase provided free space, providing a material basis for the development of early book stations. In that era of universal internet access, many netizens who liked to read books set up their own personal websites. For example: In March 1998, "Literary City" was launched; in May 1998, "Golden Book House" was launched online; on July 10, 1998, "Book Road" was officially established, and so on.
However, at that time, the Internet was still in its early stages and there were no formal websites for publishing. The places where most netizens gathered were various forums. China's forum construction began in 1991, and after seven years of development, it finally passed the incubation period and entered the popularization period by 1997!
Su Jian searched online for a while and finally found his target, the Four Communications Forum! This name is not impressive now, after all, it's just a forum that was created in 96, but in later generations, anyone who knows the history of internet development will be familiar with it! It is the predecessor of the later web!
Su Jin found the cultural salon of Sitong Lifa, casually registered a username, and chatted with the administrator of the cultural section for a few sentences. He said he wanted to upload a book on the forum and hoped he could take care of it. The administrator was very happy, and at this time, Sitong Lifa was not as overbearing as in later generations. The traffic was not much, and among many forums, it was barely considered average. Now Su Jin wants to upload a book, which is also an attractive topic for the forum, and a win-win model for both parties. Although the administrator did not have high hopes for Su Jin's quality, he still agreed to add his post to the featured section after uploading, but only for two days. After that, it would depend on the quality of his posts.
Su Jin felt no pressure at all, he believed that his absolute strength was enough to sweep everything away, and two days were already sufficient!
Su Jin still underestimated the charm of "The First Time" on the internet. Without needing two days, in just one day's time, his post truly exploded across the entire site, with a click rate of over 10,000! Don't underestimate this number, for posts in later generations, if the click rate isn't in the tens of millions, it's not considered popular. But you have to consider the current situation, where the daily traffic on Four Communications and Benefits is only a few thousand people. This data shows that not only did all the existing tourists on Four Communications and Benefits watch his post, but even tourists from other forums came after hearing the news!
The forum owner was greatly excited about this, immediately contacted Su Jin, lavishly praised him, and asked him to post the next chapter as soon as possible. He promised to pin his post at once!
"The First Time" has a total of ten chapters, and Su Jing decided to upload four chapters. This way, the plot would just reach the point where the protagonist meets Qing Wu Xiang, and the story would start to take off. Su Jing posted one chapter per day, with each chapter in a separate post, for four consecutive days. At this point, his posts no longer needed to be pinned to the top by the administrator, as they were already far ahead of other posts, thanks to the support of visitors and members.
Every time tourists open the Four Tongli Fang Forum Education Salon, they can see four identical posts at the top! In the last post, Su Zhen wrote at the end of the article: This book has been published and is restricted by the publisher, so it can only be updated to this point. The next chapter will continue to be published in a month, and those who are interested can go to the physical bookstore to buy the physical book. Address: Regular bookstores in various ancient cities!
It wasn't until then that the moderators of 4TianLiFang realized that this guy was here to advertise! However, they didn't have time to get angry now. Within just four days since the publication of "The First Time", the forum's traffic had skyrocketed to around 50,000, a number that thrilled the moderators. According to their predictions, as netizens spread the word, the fame of "The First Time" would grow and more visitors would come.
But there is a premise, that is, "The First Time" must be published here! You know, in today's online environment, there is no such thing as pirated or genuine versions. Usually, once a website has a popular post, it will spread everywhere immediately! Right now, they have already found the post of "The First Time" on other forums!
Two hours after Su Man posted his fourth post, the forum administrator sent a notice saying that the forum owner wanted to have a talk with him.
The host of Sitong Lifa is named Chen Tong, Su Jin knows this person, of course, he knows him, but he doesn't know him! After all, this person is also a great god in later generations! In the following year, Sitong Lifa was officially renamed Wang, and Chen Tong became the first editor-in-chief of Wang. Later, he even became the global executive vice president!
But Su Jin didn't show any fear towards him, after all they were just talking online and not meeting in person. Moreover, now it was the other party who needed something from him, so he had even less reason to be afraid!
Chen Tong said, very politely, first of all, to thank Su Nian for posting on the Four Communications Forum, which attracted popularity for Four Communications. Then he said that he hoped Su Nian could continue to release subsequent chapters on the forum, as for the time, considering that Su Nian had already released a physical book, it would be fine to follow what he said in the post, one month later!
Su Jin agreed without much hesitation, after all, he had used the four-way benefit to advertise this time. Now that the four-way benefit was not only not angry but also came to discuss with him in a polite manner, he felt a bit embarrassed. Besides, everyone had cooperated quite happily before, and it's better to do business with familiar people.
……
Li Yan was lying idly on the counter, and the large bookstore seemed deserted. It was also a big noon time, who would come to the bookstore!
Next to her, two sales clerks were chatting idly, while the other sales clerks were mostly dozing off at their counters! Unfortunately, she had slept too well the night before and couldn't fall asleep. She could only stare blankly out the door with wide eyes.
Suddenly, two young men who looked like students walked in from the entrance. "Not sleeping at noon, what are you doing running to a bookstore!" Li Yan complained in her heart, but still went forward with a smile and said: "Two classmates, what book do you want?"
One of his classmates glanced around the bookstore and asked, "Do you have Su's 'First Intimate Contact'?"
"It's there!" Li Yan pointed to a rather conspicuous location in the center of the bookstore. He was quite familiar with this book "The First Time", which had been put on shelves more than ten days ago and had sold well, with over a hundred copies sold in the past two weeks.
"It's it, no mistake, exactly the same as what's online!" The student who had walked quickly to the bookshelf let out a cry of surprise, standing out starkly in the quiet bookstore.
Li Yan was taken aback and thought to herself: "What does this have to do with being online?"
Before she could think much, the student who had picked up the book came in front of her and said: "How much is this book? We'll buy it!"
"Oh, fifteen!" Li Yan smiled and said.
Li Yan, who had just sent off the students, didn't continue to dwell on this episode and continued to lean on the counter, pondering whether she should buy a skirt for her daughter or not. Yesterday, she had been nagging herself about it for half a day.
Just then, Wang, who was in charge of answering phone calls at the bookstore, suddenly shouted: "Li Yan, it's your daughter on the phone!"
"How could his daughter call herself at this time? Did something happen at home?" Li Yan thought hastily and quickly picked up the phone.
"Mom, you're at the bookstore!" A clear voice came from the phone.
"What's going on at home?" Li Yan hastily asked as soon as she heard it was her daughter.
"Nothing's wrong, I just asked if you have a book called 'First Intimate Contact' in your bookstore!" the daughter continued to ask in her clear voice.
"Ah, this is it!" Li Yan said with a sigh of relief.
"Then bring me back a book after work! I won't ask you for a skirt anymore!" the daughter said hopefully.
"Wow! This determination is really big, for this book, even the skirt is not wanted! Is this book so attractive?" Li Yan smiled and teased her daughter.
"Mom, you don't know, this book is so popular now, it's all over school! Everyone's talking about it, if I don't buy a copy I'll be left behind, can you bring one back for me? Please?" The daughter said with a pout.
"Nonsense! If it's really that popular, how would I not know? And there aren't even many people buying it in this bookstore!" Li Yanyan scolded.
"What I'm saying is true. Before, nobody bought it because it was serialized online, but now that it's not serialized online anymore, everyone can only buy it at the bookstore!" The daughter said seriously.
"Really?" Li Yan was a bit skeptical, after all she had never been online and didn't know what the situation was like on the internet.
"Honestly, can I still cheat you? Just bring me one back!" The daughter coquettishly said.
"Alright, alright! I'll bring one back for you after work!" Li Yan could only agree, unable to resist her daughter's coquettishness.
"Great, thanks mom!" A cheer came from the other end of the phone.
Li Yan hung up the phone and walked out of the office. The manager came over with a smile and asked, "What's going on? Why did you call at this time?"
"Hey, the little kid insisted that I bring her a book back, can't wait for a moment, and must have me call her right now!" Li Yan said with a smile.
"What book is it? Why so urgent?" The manager asked curiously.
"It's that one, 'First Intimate Contact'. " Li Yan said, pointing at a bookshelf in the center of the bookstore.
"Okay, then you'd better give her that one first!" The manager said anxiously.
"It's okay, no rush, anyway there are still over a dozen left, it's the same if I take them later!" Li Yan said nonchalantly.
After exchanging a few pleasantries with the manager, Li Ying walked towards the main hall. As soon as she returned to the main hall, Li Ying was shocked by the crowd! The originally spacious bookstore hall was now packed to the brim with people. She took a closer look and saw that most of them were dressed in student attire, while some were young adults who had just graduated. The crowd was noisy and chaotic, with someone shouting "Give me that book!" and another saying "Hurry up, give it to me first, I came here first!" A few people who managed to get their hands on the books were calling out "Salesperson, hurry up and ring us up!"
Li Yan didn't understand what was going on for half a day, until the deputy manager on one side saw her coming in and hastily called out: "Li Yan, hurry up and inform the manager to stock up quickly! 'First Intimate Contact' is sold out, let her first stock up 100 copies, no, 200 copies will do, these people are all here to buy this book!"
"Are you all here to buy this book?" Li Yan was shocked and hurriedly said, "Okay, I'll go inform the manager right away!" As she turned to run towards the manager's office, Li Yan couldn't help but reveal a wry smile in her heart: "Looks like I'll have to break my promise to my daughter today!"
It's not just the store where Li Yan is, but all the bookstores in the city that sell "The First Time" are like this. The swarms of people rushing to buy the book have finally let the bookstore staff see what it means to be a hit and what it means to be sought after! This scene, which usually only appears in movies and TV shows, has finally appeared in real life!
At the same time, Pang Zong was immersed in a sea of flames. When he agreed to contact the printing factory for reprints, it was just a perfunctory attitude. He thought Su Jing's words made some sense, but he didn't think they would have much effect. Maybe they could promote current sales to some extent, but he had never expected the current situation!
So he also communicated with the printing factory in a more perfunctory manner, just to give Su Zhen an explanation later. The printing factory naturally understood his attitude and didn't take it seriously, which is why there are now many phone calls coming in, but Boss Huang can't produce so much goods!
At this time he was deeply impressed by Su Zhen, constantly contacting various printing plants to continue printing, while calling Su Zhen.
"Su, my little brother, this time I'm really impressed by you! Your sales plan is absolutely brilliant, it's made me sell out completely! What? You're asking why I didn't order more prints? How could I not have ordered more prints? I did order more prints, but they weren't enough, and now the new batch is sold out too! Don't worry, though, I've already contacted all the printing factories and told them to put aside their other jobs and prioritize ours. Don't worry, I'm familiar with them, they'll give me face!"
On the other end of the phone, Su Jin naturally understood the subtleties involved, but he didn't spell it out either. He simply urged Fat General to expedite the printing and hung up the phone. After all, when he first proposed the idea, his words carried little weight, and the method was untested, so Fat General's skepticism was normal. However, from now on, Su Jin believed that Fat General would no longer take his words lightly. Moreover, for the time being, what mattered most was to deliver goods quickly, achieve greater sales results, and earn more profits. Everything else was just trivial!
