I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 31
“The parent company of the Yae-Do Light Novel Network, which is the Shenzhen Network Technology Limited Company, filed for bankruptcy three days ago, as I heard from the security personnel here, and they just moved out yesterday.”
Taking us to the 1002 office, a bald man who introduced himself as the Chief Editor of Yae-Do said with a helpless expression, “It seems the payment for this manuscript might be a bit uncertain.”
“Um…”
Pipi remained silent for a moment and asked, “Why did their funding chain break?”
“Well, there are many possible reasons for that,” the bald man sighed. “For example, their parent company deals with computer hardware components and one day they received a large order, spent money to place orders with a factory, but that factory faced some issues causing a delay in the big order, resulting in a breach of contract. Or they shipped to downstream companies who didn’t pay, or the company itself made a major decision that led to a significant mistake, all of which can cause the funding chain to break.”
“Isn’t Yae-Do a relatively large website?”
Jiang Wei continued, “I remember that the novel that was ranked number one on the website before it closed down had over 300,000 monthly subscriptions, and considering all of us, just the earnings from the top ten authors should be several million, right? Isn’t that enough?”
“It’s not enough,” the bald man shrugged. “You might not be aware, but as early as half a year ago, the management here was considering cutting editor salaries. The website couldn’t even scrape together money for advertising. Your author’s fees being paid on time was already at the limit. Yae-Do was in trouble a year ago, it barely survived this year thanks to its parent company’s support.”
As he spoke, the bald man seemed to notice me beside Pipi and curiously asked, “Pipi, your daughter is already this big?”
“Why does everyone keep saying she’s my daughter? My daughter has just started walking.”
Pipi came behind me, holding onto my shoulders. “Uncle Loves Loli, do you remember?”
“Uncle Loves Loli? Wasn’t that the one under Editor ‘Ai Luodi’? The guy who relentlessly posted 2,000 words every day?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“This young?”
The bald man approached me and asked, “Are you Uncle Loves Loli?”
I awkwardly raised my hand and greeted, “Hello…”
Before, when I was with Yae-Do, my editor was named Ai Luodi, and I wasn’t sure if “Ai Luodi” was male or female. At that time, I had no intention of pursuing this path, so my interactions with the editor were limited to daily work matters, like when to release chapters or when I wanted to make changes to chapters, or asking the editor to correct typos in the background. The editor’s replies were generally “Hmm,” “Ah,” “Oh,” or “Very good.”
As for the higher-up editors and the Chief Editor, I didn’t know any of them.
“During one of the morning meetings, Luodi mentioned you to me. She said this author had some talent but had trouble with consistent updates. She didn’t want to recommend you because she wasn’t sure if you would increase your posting frequency…”
As they were talking, the authors who had taken another elevator also arrived on the tenth floor and quickly found our room.
“Why does it look so desolate?”
The first to enter, “Apatea,” surveyed the enormous office space, which was several hundred square meters, filled with various items and a chaotic mess of trash. “Where is everyone?”
Pipi turned around and said, “They’ve run away.”
“They can run from this? Aren’t there so many things here?”
Apatea walked over to a few large boxes and opened one of them. “Wow, so much sour beef noodle soup?”
The bald man calmly said, “If you want to eat, you can take it with you. They don’t want it anymore.”
“No, no, no, I won’t eat this stuff. Eating instant noodles upsets my stomach.”
“So, did we really come here for nothing?”
Cockroach Bullies, along with his sidekick “Poison Fang,” entered as well. “Hey, Pipi, it was you who said we could get paid that made us come here.”
Pipi turned around, saying, “I didn’t say it was guaranteed.”
Jituto thought for a moment. “Are there any cases in history where authors were able to recover their fees after a website shut down?”
“Yes, you can sue with the contract and apply for enforcement of non-payment to force the boss to pay. But the process of legal action can be very lengthy. If you’re considering it, we’ll get ready to consult a lawyer in the next couple of days.”
The bald man sat down on an office chair with a thud. “Several of our editors haven’t received their salaries either.”
“File a lawsuit with a lawyer? Are you kidding?”
A twitch appeared at the corner of Cockroach Bullies’s mouth. “Are you suggesting I find a place to live in Shenzhen City and prepare for a long-term battle?”
“Aren’t all of you writers?”
The bald man picked up a pen from the desk and twirled it. “Writers can write anywhere, right? Plus, living here, you have the support of me, the former Chief Editor of Yae-Do, and the editors who resigned. Face-to-face communication and guidance are much faster than reaching out to editors on QQ, don’t you think?”
“No, no, no, it’s not the same. I don’t have any emotional attachment to Shenzhen, and I have a girlfriend. I have to catch a ride back tonight.”
Cockroach Bullies looked around at the authors who had gradually gathered behind. “Are you planning to stay here and fight for your rights?”
Many people shook their heads, and someone almost blurted out, “A month or two of fees isn’t worth it. In that time, I could start a new book and reach the new book period. In the second month, it would be on the shelf, and I’d be getting paid.”
“Yeah, and it’s not clear if you can win a lawsuit, plus we authors didn’t sign labor contracts.”
“I didn’t have high hopes from the start. If it doesn’t work out, let’s just forget about it and treat it like a vacation.”
It was evident that most people didn’t plan to resolve this matter through legal means, and they hadn’t held much hope of recovering their fees before coming here. Therefore, when they heard that they might not get their fees back, they didn’t seem too saddened.
Including me, many authors have become accustomed to this reality. For freelance professionals like novel authors, fluctuating income is inevitable. Sometimes, writing a book can earn you tens of thousands in fees in a month, but during off-seasons when everyone is busy with school and your book isn’t recommended, it’s normal for your income to drop from ten thousand to just a few thousand.
When you finish one book and start a new one, the initial period with tens of thousands of words isn’t lucrative, and you receive no income. You have to persist and write for a month, hoping for the first recommendation. If your book’s data remains dismal, you might need to start a new one again. During these one to two months of starting a new book, authors have no income. If you’re unlucky and your new book doesn’t do well, you might switch pen names and start a new book, which could also fail. Having no income for two to three months is quite normal.
In this field, even editors can’t guarantee that every book they mentor will be profitable. They can only provide a general direction. After all, if writing a book that appeals to readers were so easy, experienced editors would have left their jobs to write and earn more money instead of sticking with a monthly salary of a few thousand yuan.
So, most authors are used to the cycle of having a feast one month and famine the next. They think, “Why spend months fighting for a month’s worth of fees and deal with a bunch of issues, when I can use that time to start another book?”
Furthermore, in the world of online novels, one day certain words are sensitive, the next day you’re not allowed to write certain content, and the day after your book under your name gets taken down because it violates some new review standard. Authors’ attitudes toward life, in a way, have become somewhat apathetic.
In some sense, this group is particularly vulnerable to exploitation.
“I’m just providing a potential approach to recover your fees. Whether or not you choose to fight for your rights is entirely up to you.”
Facing the more than thirty authors, the bald man admitted that he didn’t have any particularly good solutions either. “I haven’t received my editing salary for March and April either. Let’s discuss it. For those willing to stay and fight for their rights, let’s find a lawyer together in the next few days and prepare the necessary materials. If you’re not willing, there’s nothing more I can do.”
“Oh, by the way, are all of you bestselling authors on the ranking list? Pipi mentioned that most of you are owed tens of thousands or even millions in fees. Are there any smaller authors? For example, those with fees of only one or two thousand?”
“Yes.”
Upon hearing the bald man’s question, more than half of the authors present turned their gaze toward me. “She was brought in by Pipi to be our mascot.”
How did I become a mascot?
“Oh, Uncle, I almost forgot.”
The bald man walked over to me. “How much are your fees for March and April?”
“I received the payment for March. For April, I checked around April 25th and estimated it to be a little over a thousand.”
I roughly calculated in my mind, “It should be around 1,300 or 1,400 yuan.”
“A little over a thousand is simple.”
After looking around, the bald man walked over to several large boxes in the corner.
“All these computer accessories here are things they don’t want. Just pick some to take as compensation.”