In his short web novel writing career, Aiden had realised that authors were far more connected with each other in web novels.
Writing for the sa website, they would all have groups where they would talk with each other. As Aiden's stature had grown, he was also invited into one of these groups.
There, he had talked to a few authors but had found out that there were three types of authors. The first one that would try to be friendly with him just because his novel was doing good — The bootlickers.
The second one would act like they don't care about talking nicely and would be in their own space like 'Soulless', the top ranker and the third kind were the genuine ones that would talk about things nicely and won't have hidden intentions in their heart.
The third ranked author 'Dragon Eternal Sunshine' was the third kind.
He was a very talkative person and would often talk about how he had started out with web novels. During college and how he had stuck with it due to the money.
Aiden knew him much better than any other author, so he naturally asked him about the problem he was facing.
Using his pen na 'The Drear', he texted him.
[The Drear: Hey, Dragon, I need a bit of help.]
A minute later, the reply ca.
It was fast but expected. 'Dragon Eternal Sunshine' was soone who was always in front of the screen. Either writing novels or reading one. He had no life outside this which Aiden always felt was a bit sad.
[Dragon Eternal Sunshine: What's up, Drear? Been a long ti since we talked? I heard your novel is about to end? I'm reading it daily and you have done a great job.]
[The Drear: I have been good and yeah, it's ending. I just wanted to ask you sothing. Is there a way I could defeat 'Soulless'?]
Aiden went straight to the topic but there was no reply for a few seconds. It was only after a minute passed that a reply ca.
[Dragon Eternal Sunshine: I have already tried a lot to be honest but it's hard to beat him. I thought you would be able to but I guess there's no way when soone is burning money to advertise his novels day and night.]
'Advertisent? What advertisent?'
Aiden thought about reading the whole sentence.
He had not seen any kind of advertisent for 'Soulless' novel on the website or anywhere for that matter.
He quickly asked what he was talking about.
[The Drear: What advertisents are you talking about?]
A reply ca soon after he asked that.
[Dragon Eternal Sunshine: Ah, it seems like you don't know but 'Soulless' does heavy marketing of his novel online by using ads. You are watching a video and the ad for his novel will start. Apparently, he had studied online marketing before this, so he's a master of knowing what type of people would read his novel. A few other authors tried it too but they failed as it was too much money to push for a web novel. They weren't making a profit.]
Reading the whole paragraph, several questions ca to mind.
He understood that 'Soulless' was marketing the novel pretty hard and that's why he would always get new readers. But if the whole thing was not profitable, how was he able to keep doing it?
Was he earning that much from his published novels? Or was it sothing else.
There was only one answer that Aiden felt was the right one.
'He must be pretty rich.'
There was no other way around it. 'Soulless' was soone with a lot of money laying around and he didn't mind putting it in his novels until he could see them at the top.
From the start, he wasn't in it to earn money.
[The Drear: Thanks. I didn't know 'Soulless' had that much money lying around.]
[Dragon Eternal Sunshine: There are rumours that he's the son of so multinational company owner and other stuff. Anyway, I advise you to give up on thinking that you could beat him. It helped and I'm very satisfied with my third rank these days.]
Being content with what you have achieved — That wasn't bad advice but Aiden's reply was completely opposite of it.
[The Drear: Thanks but I feel like I know a way to defeat 'Soulless'. An easy way actually.]
Saying that, Aiden bid goodbye to 'Dragon Eternal Sunshine'. The third ranked author was confused by Aiden's answer but he didn't try to think too much of it.
Finishing his talk, Aiden felt like it would be pretty easy to defeat 'Soulless' now.
His mindset had completely changed.
After all, if 'Soulless' could market his novel, then why couldn't he? Until now, Aiden had hidden his identity as writing hit its peak and stabilised, he was sure that it wouldn't pose another threat to his top spot.
But he had never thought that the competition was far from over.
On a Saturday morning, when 'Soulless' woke up and opened up the website to check the rankings, he felt shocked to see it.
For a minute, he felt like he was seeing things.
He refreshed the page. Not once but five tis but it wasn't a glitch. In front of him, his novel was not on the first place like everyday but on the second place.
The rank was decided on the basis of views and ratings and suddenly,
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