Douban reading: ideal is very plump, reality is very skinny

Friends from Hong Kong and Taiwan may know that Douban is the holy land of mainland literary and youth, but do you know Douban reading? Douban Reading used to be an idealistic writing website, but it finally fell into reality. This time coincides with the community event "The Internet I Played In Those Years", I took the opportunity to talk about my experience of reading on Douban.

Clear Streams in Writing Websites

When I was young and ignorant, I had a pure literary dream and planned to find an ideal home for my writing (laughs). To put it simply, I have collected a few articles that hurt the Spring and Autumn, and I want to find a place to post them. As a computer professional, the first reaction of course is to build a personal website. However, blogs have long since fallen out of fashion, and even the blog platforms of big companies can’t support it, and my personal website has no traffic, so I still want to post to big websites. The popular writing websites in mainland China are mainly divided into two categories:

First, online novel websites such as Qidian and Jinjiang, the mainstream themes are cultivating immortals and transmigration. Readers should be treated as uncles, and they will become popular on the day of the explosion, and they have to write leave notes with readers when they stop.

The second is the WeChat public account, Toutiao and other self-media platforms. The popular articles are basically "Shocked! XX is actually XX!?" "Top Ten XX You Don't Know!!" XXX".

Don't think about it to know that I'm not accustomed to these sites. Just when I was discouraged, I suddenly discovered Douban Reading, and my eyes lit up immediately!

Douban Reading is an e-reading platform, a bit like a combination of Amazon and Grid. Authors can publish their own original e-books. Don't worry about not knowing how to make e-books. Authors only need to submit manuscripts. The website has a special editor who is responsible for reviewing manuscripts, and artists help to make the cover. The author can also open a column, pay subscription system, and publish it directly as an e-book after the serialization.

In the beginning, Douban Reading mainly promoted novella of 20,000 to 30,000 words, including fantasy, suspense, literature and art, history, etc. There were also many prose columns. Douban Reading regularly holds essay contests, which not only give prize money, but also have the opportunity to publish paper books and sell film and television copyrights.

You must know that piracy is rampant in mainland China, and readers do not have the habit of paying for electronic reading at all. Douban Reading is going against the trend. I believe they really wanted to open up the market and discover authors from the very beginning. In the impetuous environment, Douban reading back then was really a clear stream.

I immediately disconnected the column, feeling that I was about to publish a book and become famous, and I was a little excited to think about it! (puff)

burial text grave

Unfortunately, the good times didn't last long, and I quickly discovered the problem: Huh? How come no one reads my column?

Not only that no one reads my column, but the entire website has few readers! Douban Reading is a typical website with more authors than readers. Now open the Douban reading homepage, and it is also marked in large characters "XX authors are reading and writing on Douban". Back then, it seemed like 20,000 to 30,000 people, but now there are more than 120,000 authors. Excuse me, with so many people busy writing and dreaming of making money and becoming famous, where are the readers?

On the surface, Douban Reading is backed by the mountain of Douban, so it should not worry about no users. However, the user group of Douban is divided, the people who record books and videos, mix with the Douban group, and read the code words on Douban are not the same group of people at all. And Douban doesn't know which rib is wrong in the brain. It seems that the users are not divided enough, and even the APP is divided into several.

All in all, Douban reading is super deserted, and not many people even read the works that are popular on the homepage. When reading e-books on Douban, only a few people read them during the free first month of the new book, and there is no charge at all. I once joined the Douyue author group, and everyone held a group to keep warm. Every day in the group, they sent each other a redemption code (the redemption code can be read for free, but unfortunately few people want it for free), ask for comments and support.

Are there any successful authors in Douban Reading? Yes, any website has a head author. It is said that some authors really made a lot of money on Douban reading, and even sold film and television copyrights. As for whether there is insider trading, whether it is false propaganda created by the website itself, and there are some disputes on the Internet, I will not secretly speculate. All I can say is that 99% of the authors are cannon fodder, all eating dirt.

I don't know whether it is because of poor technical skills or design problems. Douban Reading does not have a reasonable recommendation mechanism. The popular works and editor's recommendations on the homepage are always those works, and they will not change for a few days. As a rookie author without a sense of existence, I cannot get any publicity from the website. Only when a new article is published, it can appear in the "Recent Update" column. This is the only exposure, and it will soon be squeezed out by subsequent new articles. Where are the readers who will watch the "Recent Updates" to discover new works?

Even worse is the overlord clause. Douban Reading's contract requires five years of exclusive copyright. That is to say, you have written tens of thousands of words or even hundreds of thousands of words, the website does not do any publicity for you, only single-digit readers, but you cannot forward it to other places, these words will be in vain. . Moreover, the contract will be automatically renewed after the contract expires, and the author must remember to cancel it on his own initiative. After writing 100,000 words in the column, I stalked the editor and terminated my contract. (It's not that exaggerated. I just sent a few internal letters to urge him repeatedly. The works of the little author are just used to support the number, and the website simply doesn't bother to care about you.)

Douban reading, which looks beautiful, has finally become a tomb for burying words.

Authors need to learn to market themselves?

I've seen this advice in many places: In the Internet age, authors need to learn to market themselves.

I'm not that naive and I'm not that high-minded, and of course I know that marketing is important. As explained earlier, reading on Douban and simply posting silently is just waiting to die. I broadcast on the main Douban website, recommended myself in the Douban group, and posted on other social networking sites and forums to promote it, and I often called on relatives and friends to help out.

But the problem is: as an ordinary person, I have no marketing ability! If I was really that good at marketing, I would have opened a shop long ago (laughs). It's no wonder that the seven aunts, eight aunts, neighbors' cousins, and classmates' ex-boyfriends that I know can make a splash!

Moreover, the twisted melon is not sweet, and the text is not a necessity. If you are not interested, you will not be able to read it. My mother did not give me a feeling for each article after reading it! Even if I was lucky enough to attract a group of passers-by, how many people would stay? How many people find it annoying to see that they have to register for an account?

Who is to blame?

So, who is to blame for this?

I can't fault the authors. It is not easy for everyone to write on the Internet, and marketing can only do their best. Of course, ordinary people rely on website promotion to be seen. Just imagine if YouTube disabled its recommendation algorithm, saying that every YouTuber has to find their own viewers, and the site is not responsible, do you think it's crazy?

I also don't want to accuse Douban reading. The overlord clause is a fact, and it is also a fact that the website is ineffective, but in the domestic environment, Douban Reading has a conscience better than other websites. After all, websites have to make money, otherwise how can they survive?

After thinking about it, I think the core of the problem is the lack of a market.

Online novels and self-media can make money, because there are indeed readers who love to read them. Regardless of the quality, these words do give thousands of people something to do while waiting for the bus or squatting on the toilet. It is a relaxing pastime to pass the time.

Creators who love to write have higher pursuits, and I also admit that many original works online are as good as regular publications in bookstores. However, the books in the bookstore have long been sold out! Those exquisite books that were carefully planned, written with painstaking effort, and revised and polished through various procedures, didn't they only sell a few hundred copies in the end? If you do the math, there are not as many readers as the journals I wrote on social networking sites.

Everyone says that creation has a price, but unfortunately there is no market for it.

To quote Orwell:

If you most want to be a writer, then, in our society, you are an animal that can be tolerated but not encouraged - like a sparrow under one roof - if you understand from the beginning You will be happier in this situation.

I have accepted this fact.

end

Douban Reading has transformed (or regressed?) into a traditional online novel platform. It mainly promotes long-form serialization, which is no different from the starting point of Jinjiang. With Douban Reading's poor popularity and rudimentary functions, I can't see how it can compete head-to-head with industry giants, and its reading volume is not as good as that of other big sites.

And I came to Matters.

After going through various writing platforms, I have long since lost so much ambition. I just hope that I can meet my friends, write quietly, without censorship for unknown reasons, and without colorful advertisements, that's enough.

Thank you for reading until the end, I will read a few more words. In fact, I am a little hesitant to write this, because the content is a bit sad. Generally speaking, I still like to write positive content. What's the point of writing something unpleasant and there's no solution? But on second thought, this is a real experience after all, and I also admit that my attitude is objective, and it is better to keep a record, maybe someone who sees it will resonate. If you're having trouble writing, at least you can know you're not alone.