Read2N Chinese Author Interviews: The Literary World of Mr. Mo (Part 2)

(Continued from the previous part, this is the middle part, let’s continue~)

Avalokitesvara: Thank you.

【Question 4】：

Now there may be many novice creators who have literary dreams, are not famous, and want to publish their own books. Sometimes they pay for the publication of the books themselves. Is this part of the cost much?

Hero Mo: I have never done this.

The difference between the so-called cooperative publishing and self-publishing is that cooperative publishing may only require part of the cost, while self-publishing will cost a little more. Basically, you have to pay for the proofreading fee, the editor's salary, and the printing fee.

But what I actually want to say is: if you really think your work is valuable, or if you want more people to see it, it doesn’t matter if you spend a little money.

I have a friend who is very persistent and wants to join the local provincial writers' association. He has actually published a book, but the provincial writers' association has an unwritten rule that you have to publish two books. This person submitted his works everywhere, and the replies he often received were that he had to pay a certain fee or that he had to underwrite a certain number of books. Then this person was unwilling to publish, and he was actually a very wealthy person. So he dragged his feet for a long time and wasted many years.

By joining the Writers Association earlier, he will have an identity, and this identity will be more conducive to interacting with some people.

So, if you can afford the cost, you can publish the book at your own expense, because in history, there are many famous authors in China and abroad who published their books at their own expense.

Because generally speaking, the market is often of a low level and the aesthetics are backward. The market likes works that are very popular or that booksellers think will sell well. They dare not try something particularly new or something particularly creative.

But if you are convinced that your book is good, you are willing to share it with more people, and you have the financial foundation to do so, you can do this.

The cost also varies from person to person. Some small publishing houses may charge tens of thousands, while some large publishing houses may charge 100,000.

Even my "Diary of a Brave Man - Di Xiaolong" was paid for by the animation company, and he invested more than 300,000 yuan in the publishing house at that time.

Why? Because he wanted to control the copyright of the book, and then he authorized the production of stationery, school bags and clothes. If he signed a contract with the publisher in a normal way, he would probably have to share the copyright, so he would rather bear the cost himself and control the copyright in his own hands.

Guanzizai: OK, I understand. Thank you very much!

【Question 5】：

What are the three things that bother you the most about publishing paper books and e-books through traditional Web2 channels? Thank you!

Hero Mo: Actually, there will be a lot of troublesome things.

First, the number of prints is opaque.

Because it happened to me several times: for example, he told me to print 10,000 copies, but he finally printed 20,000 copies. Because I mentioned before that the manuscript fee is calculated based on the commission, it means that the cost of 10,000 copies was saved.

It is said that this behavior is very common, and it happens to famous authors, such as Anne Baby. And the number of his works that were illegally printed is very huge.

How did I know that at the time?

Once, I was a worker in a printing factory, and someone came to add me. He said it was very interesting to read my book while I was working. Then I asked him how many copies were printed, and he told me a number, but this number was different from the number on my contract, it was more.

There is a similar one later:

An editor accidentally revealed the minimum print run during a conversation with me, and then I realized, why did they print too much this time?

So this is not a good behavior.

If you look at earlier books, or books published by more formal publishing houses, just look in the dictionary, and you will see that it will say at the back which edition and which printing it is. The number of copies printed will also be written on it. For example, if it is the first printing, it will be 1 to 10,000 copies, and if it is the second printing, it will become 10,000 to 15,000 copies.

But if you look at most of the books available now, more than 95% of them were not written by him.

He would only write about the first or second publication, and he would not write down the number of copies printed.

I also find this very strange, because according to the Publishing Law, this must be written down. I don’t know how many copies were printed.

Now they all say that some books may be printed in small quantities and they are embarrassed to print them out;

But from the author's point of view, the number of copies we tell you is the number of copies, and we hope that this matter is open and transparent.

So in fact, every line is very complicated.

There are also some unpleasant points, such as piracy.

At that time, I published a book called "The Flying Camel Man".

This book was serialized on Qidian.com at the time, and then printed into a book;

One day, my friend from another place, Sichuan, told me on QQ that he saw my book outside today, and he even took a picture of the cover.

Then I saw that the cover was different from the cover of the book I got.

I told my editor that there was a pirated copy and we should deal with it;

The editor said he was not qualified and was not local and did not understand the situation. He said that you should contact the relevant department yourself.

You see, when your copyright is infringed, you are powerless and the publisher can do nothing.

There are actually many such cases. I once joked that I had sued Jack Ma, Liu Qiangdong, and Ma Huateng. This is true.

And I won the lawsuit against JD.com.

Why? He will have many websites that will have electronic versions of your works; whether it is Taobao, Tencent, or JD.com, when you go there to sue him.

It is certain that the thing was sent to the legal representative, that is, to Jack Ma, Pony Ma, etc.

At that time, there was a team of lawyers who were dedicated to helping me protect my rights. They would search all the works on the Internet, and then make a table for me. They would ask me which ones were not authorized, and then send a lawyer's letter to protect my rights.

I won several times later. Thank you!

Guanzizai: Well, but the cost of defending our rights should be relatively high, considering the time and energy you spend.

As a senior person in the industry, if you hadn't told us these things, we, as outsiders, might not really know some of the inside stories. I have really benefited a lot from it. Thank you very much!

I just mentioned some unpleasant points in the web2 publishing industry, such as the lack of transparency in the number of printed copies and copyright infringement and piracy. I think these problems will be improved to varying degrees on the web3 platform, and even greatly improved.

For example, the print quantity is not transparent.

For example, on our Read2N platform, the books above have been minted into several NFTs. This number is very transparent and anyone can see it very intuitively on the platform. This is a unique advantage of our web3 platform.

Guanzizai: I have read your book "Nightmare Comes True" on the Read2N platform. It is really suspenseful and fascinating. Moreover, the idea that "beauty comes from evil" mentioned in it also prompts us to think more deeply.

【Question 6】

How did you come into contact with Read2N? What was your first impression of this platform? What thoughts, hesitations, or even concerns did you have before deciding to publish your work? Thank you!

Mo Daxia: My previous editor introduced this book to me. He told me that there was a new way, so I was willing to try it. I didn’t have too many concerns at the time. I thought new things should be supported.

Later when I saw the introduction of this project, my first reaction was, is this a pyramid scheme?

I studied it very seriously.

Then I asked myself two questions:

The first question: Does the platform have substantial value support?

Later I thought there was.

This platform is different from those useless facial masks and massage devices sold in pyramid schemes out there that are of no use at all.

First, it has a copyright value;

Then, there is a content produced;

Then, there is also an entertainment function;

Another thing is that the platform solves some problems.

I feel like I've seen some books here that I haven't seen anywhere else.

Because no matter whether I read on Baidu or Tencent, there are some books that cannot be found on some domestic websites, so I think that even if it is just a niche market, it can survive.

Because niche things can actually gradually become popular, just like Bilibili.

So based on all this, I think this platform is very promising and will definitely be a trend.

Then when I saw that it had certain financial attributes, I actually communicated with some old users and found that there were a lot of innovations in it.

Just like shared bikes, the parts already existed before, but when you put them together, it undergoes a qualitative change and creates something completely different.

The same is true for Read2N. Whether it is a book, a game, or some of its financial attributes, they all existed before, but it is very interesting to merge all these elements together.

Moreover, in the past six months since its launch, there have been some imitations, but none of them are competitive at all.

So, I think if the overall environment improves in the future and the bull market comes, it is very likely to become a unicorn.

Guan Zizai: Thank you very much for your in-depth analysis of Read2N. I also think that this platform is very accurate in terms of team collaboration, code development capabilities and market entry points! I also like this platform very much.

Mr. Mo: Yes, actually I will tell you a detail. You can look at the cover of the book published by the project party.

I really think what he did was very good. If you look at many big websites like Qidian, Tencent Books, NetEase Reading, etc., their book covers are actually quite average.

When I first saw the cover of Reda2N's book, I felt that it looked like it was done by an artist.

And the design of some pages is definitely not something that could be made by a fake team.

I was thinking about gathering some outstanding people, whether they are code writers, cover designers, graphic designers, or operations professionals. He can bring together some outstanding people, and even if there are some short-term mistakes, they can actually be adjusted because this group of people is right and the direction is right, and we will definitely be able to do it later.

(Due to space limitations, this is the end of the "middle part" of our interview. Please follow me to the "next part", which will be even more exciting~)