Chapter 67: Ranking Evaluation (Part 1)
Gongs and drums shook the sky, firecrackers sounded in unison, red flags fluttered, and crowds surged! This was the opening ceremony of Qian Ling's first online literature competition. Since it was an online literature competition, it was naturally held on the internet. Anyone interested could watch it live online.
Put in the future, various conferences and competitions held on the Internet have long been common. But put today, without setting up a real venue, purely online competitions are still rare in China. Unconsciously, Su Jing broke a record.
Of course, it's unexpected yet reasonable. Since it's a web novel contest, where else can it be held if not online? Su Jin believes that mere interest is not enough to produce high-quality works, on the contrary, with great rewards come brave warriors!
So the bonus setting is absolutely an astronomical figure in this era! First prize, one person, 30,000 yuan! Second prize, two people, 10,000 yuan! Third prize, three people, 2,000 yuan!
At that time when ordinary civil servants had a monthly income of over 300 yuan and ordinary citizens' annual income did not exceed 5,000 yuan, this bonus was dazzling to the public's eyes as soon as it came out!
Is Su Jin short of money? To be exact, yes! Internet companies are high-input enterprises, especially during this period. All websites are not profitable and rely on the boss to invest more money. Su Jin is even shorter.
But Su Jing lacked a lot of money, two books plus internet cafes and some scattered income brought Su Jing nearly five million soft sister coins! This amount of money is naturally a drop in the bucket compared to the tens or hundreds of millions of investments in Internet companies, but for giving out tens of thousands of bonuses, it's just a drizzle.
There is gain only with effort! Putting money in hand to earn interest is the most foolish way, Su Jin believes that his efforts will absolutely bring back a hundredfold and thousandfold harvest.
Of course, although Su Jian had made preparations, the final sum of money still didn't let Su out. The generous and majestic Fat General took out a 100,000 yuan check as sponsorship fees for this competition.
It's natural that the Fat General also got an eye-catching advertisement position on the competition webpage and limited publication rights for all award-winning works. The judges of this competition, in addition to Wang Xing, also included Li Bing, Fat General, and Su Jin himself!
The four hold different numbers of votes and can vote to decide on controversial works. Wang Xing and Su Jin each have two votes, while Pang Zhihua and Li Bing each have one vote.
Inviting Wang Xing as a judge for the competition was a deliberate move, on one hand to enhance the public recognition of the online literature competition, and on the other hand to reduce pressure from traditional literary circles. However, as a representative of traditional literature, his values may differ from those of others. If Wang Xing only had one vote, he would likely be thoroughly suppressed by Huang Zhou and Li Bing. Su Jin couldn't let the judge he had painstakingly invited become a mere ornament. At critical moments, Su Jin could use his own influence to help Wang Xing save face.
And Su Jin, as the current leader of online literature, his professional understanding of online literature is not doubted by either Wang Xing or Pang Zong, Li Bing. Let him have two votes to make it easier for him to grasp the direction.
But web texts are just web texts, and overall they still tend to be more commercialized. And Fatong's judgment on whether a book has publishing value is absolutely at an expert level. Li Bing, as the sales director of the largest cultural website at present, also has the top-level identification ability in the country for whether a web text can be welcomed by many online readers.
It can be said that a book, as long as it gets the approval of these two, even if it doesn't reach the level of a bestseller, at least it won't lose money. In comparison, Wang Xing is more troublesome, he considers more the literary value of a book, and his concern for commercialization is far less than that of the other two professionals. Even as a traditional cultural person, he has some implicit rejection of making a profit from books. Under this circumstance, Su Jin can already foresee how sharp the disagreement between the three will be.
If Wang Xing only had one vote, he would probably be completely suppressed by the two of them. Su Zhen couldn't let the judges he had invited with great effort become mere decorations. At the critical moment, Su Zhen could use his own support to help Wang Xing regain some face.
"These are the works that have passed the preliminary selection, a total of 20 books. Three of them are around 200,000 words, seven are roughly between 60,000 to 70,000 words. The rest are all around 30,000 to 40,000 words." Qian Ling listed all the works that had passed the preliminary selection on the screen.
Just like many other competitions, the real work is done behind the scenes and the on-site event only announces the results. In order to ensure the fairness and transparency of this competition, Su Jing decided to publish all the entries online for netizens to view at will. The works that have passed the preliminary selection are also specially marked.
The preliminary works are first voted by netizens to select ten. Then, Su Zhan will organize manpower to select another ten from the remaining works. This way, it respects the readers' demands while ensuring that not too many works are overlooked due to lack of attention.
Up to now, the preliminary round has ended, and Su Jin feels relatively satisfied overall. After scanning the directory of the preliminary works, he was surprised to find that some masterpieces that would sweep the world in later generations had actually appeared!
Looking at the names that once made him fanatical, Su Jing's mood quickly turned from surprise to ecstasy. He couldn't help but feel like Li Shimin, "All heroes in the world are under my control."
Now that the shortlisted works have been confirmed, the next step is to enter a specific comment phase. However, with nearly 1.5 million words in total for the 20 books, it's not a small project to finish reading them, especially when you need to read them carefully and make comments. Fortunately, there are still five days before the final evaluation announcement, which can fully meet the requirements of several judges.
Time passed slowly in the discussion among several judges. Su Jian felt his brain was about to explode. Compared with other judges, he not only had to read these award-winning books but also write his own "Hui Ming" every day. He now felt like he was suffering from split personality, constantly immersing himself in different lives every day. He finally realized that reading a classic was enjoyable, but reading several classics at the same time was torture.
Fortunately, the time was only a few days, and the four-day period passed quickly. Tomorrow is the announcement date. Unfortunately, several judges still disagreed on the ranking of the works. Among the top 20, selecting the top six was easy to decide, and even the top three were easy to judge. "Farewell to Viann", "Lost in the Love between Internet and Reality" and "Triple Door" are the top three winners of this online competition! What really bothered people was the specific evaluation of the top three.
It's not just a matter of ranking, but also recognition, influence and specific bonuses. The bonus amount between the first and second place is as much as 20,000 yuan! In this era, it's absolutely not a small sum, equivalent to two years' income for ordinary people.
Wang Xing chose "Love Lost in the Internet and Reality" as his first choice, Pang Zong chose "Three-Door" as his first choice, while Li Bing chose "Farewell to Vienna" as his first choice.
Three people each hold a vote, and the initial number of votes has lost its meaning. Now it can only be seen from Su Jin's choice, no matter which one he chooses, it will give an advantage to that person.
In fact, it's not just the three of them, even Su Yan has some difficulty making up his mind. He is very familiar with all three books, and in later generations they can all be listed as bestsellers. But if you had to choose one, it would be deserving of first place in this competition. However, since they all appeared at the same time, it's a bit difficult to decide.
