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Horror novelist puts down his pen for the sake of the environmentPosted by Joel Martinsen, November 5, 2007 3:37 PM
Zhou Dedong is currently one of the most popular horror writers in China. Li Shaohong's movie The Door, released at the beginning of this year, was based on one of his stories, and he has ranked at or near the top in several national polls of horror readers, including one that sought to name "China's Stephen King." In a market where online genre writers gain legitimacy by winning contracts with traditional publishers, Zhou is moving in the opposite direction. Last week, he posted a notice on his blog in which he announced that he was saying farewell to the world of print:
Zhou's probably right that his income will take a hit; a recent Wired article on China's online fiction market noted that author compensation is rising, but even at a royalty rate of just 10% per print volume, Zhou would receive far more on a 150,000 copy print run than he can expect to make on a pay-per-word basis online. On the other hand, if we don't take his "environmental protection" justification at face value, it's not hard to imagine that Sina has made him a more generous offer as part of their campaign to dominate the "eyeball economy." The question of piracy is a little more cut-and-dry. Sure, publishing exclusively online will make bootleg print copies easier to identify, but that hasn't stopped the pirates from downloading and printing omnibus volumes of popular online novelists. Zhou is unlikely to be an exception. Links and Sources
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Comments on Horror novelist puts down his pen for the sake of the environment
The unlimited space online wastes neither paper nor ink—it doesn't consume resources.
Can someone remind me how China generates its electricity?
He wants to save the forests to offset the carbon emissions from his travels around China?
I found this story on Lu Jinbo's blog, where he wrote that he was quite pleased to learn of this news, particularly because he had just purchased the rights to Zhou's collected works - 10 volumes that ought to sell like hotcakes now that fans know there will be no more books forthcoming.