3
Chapter 3
Shall I Check?
[ I contacted you immediately after seeing the announcement you posted. Are you really resuming the serialization? ]
The first thought that came to my mind upon hearing his voice was embarrassment.
On Glpia, contracts could be offered starting from Chapter 10.
The day I uploaded Chapter 10.
Just as if he had been waiting for it, I received a contract proposal from him.
[ Hello, Author Min Seong-yoon. ]
* I am Ji Hyun-woong, a PD on Glpia Management's web novel team. I was deeply impressed after reading your work [ Still
my NO.1 ], and I am contacting you because I would like to work together with you.
At first, I was surprised.
A top-tier management company in the industry.
It was one of the management companies that many writers posting on Glpia wanted to join.
Signing with a management company directly operated by Glpia came with many advantages in terms of fees and promotions.
I knew this too, so I was happy when I received the contract offer.
And I was delighted when Ji Hyun-woong told me that my work had commercial potential.
Without much hesitation, I signed the contract, and just as he had said, I successfully monetized the novel.
In fact, I earned quite a bit of money while serializing it all the way to Chapter 200.
I used the money I earned to get married.
A traitorous bastard who doesn't even know gratitude!
Even if the editor cursed at me like that, I would have nothing to say in my defense.
But he didn't.
During the year before we lost contact, he often sent me messages.
I still had those traces on my phone.
* Author, it's your birthday today. Happy birthday!
* It's gotten really cold. Take care not to catch a cold!
* I was promoted to team leader! It's all thanks to you, Author. ^^
He must have been stressed too when I suddenly stopped the serialization.
It wasn't even his fault. It was entirely the author's fault.
What is the most unfair thing about working a regular job?
Getting cursed at while cleaning up someone else's mess.
Right. I had to apologize to him now.
“Yes, I'm going to resume the serialization. You must have suffered a lot because of me during all this time. I'm truly
sorry.”
Holding the phone in my hand, I lowered my head.
He couldn't see me, but I wanted to do it anyway.
[ Ah... No. It's okay. But are you feeling better now? ]
The editor asked in a worried tone.
That's right. The reason for my hiatus that he knew about was worsening health.
* Editor, I'm feeling sick, so I think I'll have to take a break from today's serialization.
I had been both an irresponsible writer and an immature boy who cried wolf.
‘I've got quite a lot of karma to pay for...’
When I repeatedly took breaks in the past, I couldn't tell him that I was meeting my girlfriend.
So I used being sick as an excuse.
No, I really was sick back then.
A fever of love.
My love cells blocked the activity of all the other cells so they couldn't function unless I met her.
I couldn't sleep because I was constantly thinking about her, so I developed insomnia.
My heart wouldn't stop pounding from excitement.
When I was alone, loneliness killed my appetite, and sometimes I even felt pain in my chest.
Lovesickness.
Yes, I had been sick.
Thinking about it now, I really hadn't been in a condition where I could write.
That's probably why saying I was sick came so naturally to me.
After repeatedly taking breaks and eventually stopping the serialization, it was only natural for the editor to think
that I had discontinued the series because I was ill.
“Yes, I'm fine now.”
I couldn't bring myself to admit that it had been a lie.
Besides, I figured that since I was resuming the serialization now, there was no need for him to dig into the past.
[ That's a relief. I was really worried. ]
“Yes, thank you for worrying about me.”
[ When are you planning to start the serialization? ]
“I'll start tonight.”
Before I stopped the serialization, my regular posting time had been 10 p.m.
I planned to upload Chapter 201 at that time.
[ Ah, so you built up a stockpile during your break. ]
Ouch.
A dagger to the chest.
No, a stockpile had flown straight into my heart.
But don't worry. My hands are faster than my eyes.
“I'm planning to start writing now.”
---
At Author Min's words, Ji Hyun-woong was dumbfounded.
He wasn't simply continuing a work he had been writing.
It was a work he had stopped.
And not just recently, but three years ago.
Yet he was going to write it today?
Was that even possible?
One-stroke writing.
Occasionally, great masters of the literary world demonstrated this kind of ability.
Then an old memory he had forgotten came back to him.
* Author, have you finished today's manuscript???
On Glpia Management, unlike other companies, authors uploaded their writing themselves.
So they normally didn't check deadlines like this.
There was no way to keep track of the upload status of more than fifty writers.
But this was a newly debuted rookie writer.
Since he had signed the contract only recently, Ji Hyun-woong checked his deadline every day.
But the response he received was unusual.
* Not yet.
Well, that could happen.
When writing, it was common to run a little late.
* Are you finishing up??
* No, I just turned on my computer.
At the author's words that he was only just starting work, Ji Hyun-woong panicked.
A crisis.
Today's chapter was in danger.
Keep the promise made to the readers!
A quest had suddenly appeared.
‘What is this? Is he stuck on the plot? Should I give him some feedback?’
* Are you having trouble writing? Would you like some help?
Right, he had overlooked the fact that this was a rookie writer because his performance had been so good.
How many works started out like a conquering hero in the early chapters, only to collapse after monetization?
If the author needed it, Ji Hyun-woong was prepared to offer some advice.
* No, it's okay. I was eating, so I'm a little late.
Right. You had to eat to survive.
Even as he thought that, Ji Hyun-woong was worried that the author might take a break from today's serialization.
* You do know it's 8 p.m. right now, right?
Only two hours remained until the 10 p.m. deadline.
He was indirectly asking whether the author could write it by then.
He wanted to shake off the uneasiness in his heart.
* Oh, it's 8 now? I thought it was 9.
---
[ I forgot about your working style, Author. Then I'll trust that you're resuming the serialization today. ]
“Yes.”
[ Then I'll let you go. ]
Ji Hyun-woong was about to hang up when something occurred to him.
“Wait a moment!”
[ Yes, Author. ]
“There's something I'm curious about. When I went to the settlement page, nothing was showing up. I thought it might be
an error. Why is that?”
Another advantage of Glpia Management.
I could check how much my writing had sold on the settlement page.
After logging in, I had been surprised by the much higher-than-expected number of purchases.
So I wanted to check how much money I had earned during all this time.
But I couldn't see it.
There should have been numbers displayed there, but the space was completely blank.
[ That's probably because of the hiatus penalty. ]
“Ah, I see.”
Readers often called writers who stopped their series midway "runaways."
It meant that they had taken their settlement money and disappeared.
I had heard that insult myself early on.
Of course, it was something I had to accept as the writer who had stopped the series, but there was something unfair
about it too.
Glpia had a policy of withholding settlement payments from writers if they failed to serialize for a certain period,
until the serialization resumed.
Normally, settlement payments worked on a system where money earned from sales in the previous month or the month before
that was paid the following month.
Because of my hiatus, I hadn't received any of the sales revenue from the three years after the month before I stopped
the serialization, all of it being withheld under the hiatus penalty.
[ We have been holding your settlement money. Once you resume the serialization, it will be paid to you normally. ]
Glpia hadn't pocketed the money.
It seemed they had been keeping it as surplus funds, and I was relieved to hear that it would be returned once I resumed
the serialization.
I wasn't someone who chased money.
If I had been, I wouldn't have stopped the serialization in the first place.
Even before I quit being a writer, the novel had been selling quite well.
“Then if I upload today's chapter, when will I receive the payment?”
[ Ah, once we confirm today's chapter and apply to have the hiatus penalty removed, all of it will be deposited together
on the payment date next month. ]
My wife had said she wanted to succeed through writing.
Could success be expressed through an objective measure?
There was fame, of course, but I thought the best way to confirm success was money.
I would make more money through writing than my wife.
I would show her what happens when a man who never cared about money becomes obsessed with it.
Without even realizing it, I had been walking down the road to success for the past three years.
And the result was being kept right here on Glpia.
I had another reason to write.
“Understood. I'll definitely upload the chapter today.”
I was about to hang up when Ji Hyun-woong spoke.
[ If you're curious, would you like me to check how much settlement money has accumulated? ]
I was curious.
Of course I was curious.
“Is that possible?”
[ Yes. I'll contact the settlement department and let you know. ]
“Then please do.”
---
After hanging up, Ji Hyun-woong immediately requested the relevant data from the settlement department.
Works on Glpia were distributed to other platforms once they surpassed 100 chapters.
Min's work, which had reached 200 chapters, had naturally been released on other platforms as well.
And it was selling well.
Ji Hyun-woong waited anxiously for the settlement department to contact him.
Telling the author how much money had accumulated was also a way to motivate them to write, but he was genuinely curious
too.
‘How much could it be?’
Ji Hyun-woong wondered how much Min's settlement money had accumulated over the past three years.
This was information that was difficult to check unless the author specifically requested it.
He waited anxiously, but the settlement department was taking a long time to get back to him.
It would probably take quite some time to calculate the money that had come in from other platforms as well.
‘With this many views...’
Ji Hyun-woong quietly calculated to himself.
Min's work currently had a total of 15 million views.
If he excluded the views from free chapters, that left 12 million.
At 100 won per chapter, the simple calculation put the sales at 1.2 billion won.
Normally, other writers would have to deduct Glpia's serialization fee from that, but writers belonging to Glmae didn't
have to pay a fee.
Another advantage of Glmae.
Simply put, the revenue was divided seven to three between the writer and management.
‘840 million won from Glpia alone.’
That was already an amount that made one gasp, but there were still the other platforms.
Usually, if the ratio between Glpia and the other platforms came out to 1:1, it was considered a good result.
But for legendary works, the sales from other platforms were often higher.
That was what commercial potential meant.
‘Let's put it at one and a half times.’
Ji Hyun-woong tapped away on his calculator, and the number came out neatly.
2.1 billion won.
And just as he finished calculating, the settlement department contacted him.
Ji Hyun-woong hurriedly checked his phone.
And when he saw the number sent by the settlement department, a smile appeared on his face.
‘I'm almost exactly right.’