[Congratulations, Mr. Iwai, your light novel has been adapted into animation.]

Before I saw this news, I was still thinking hard at one o'clock in the morning about how to pass the light novel proposal for this quarter.

When I learned that the above message popped up on my phone, and the user name was still my editor-in-chief, Editor Kawataki——

I was so shocked that the pen in my hand broke through the five layers of paper.

Light novel, extraction, adaptation, animation...

These words have been lingering in front of my eyes, looking straight at them, clearly and as if they were a lifetime ago.

This reminds me of what the editor said to me when I joined the industry: [In this industry, giving up is the most common and common thing].

I didn't quite understand it at the time.

Don’t we all enter this industry with passion and the vision that the characters in our minds will shine in reality?

However, after six years of continuous writing, I gradually understood the actual meaning of the words responsible editor.

In the past six years, the first work, the previous work, the previous work, the previous work, the previous work... are all like sinking into the sea, and each piece of hard work that cannot even be called a wave has been forgotten by the world.

I completely understand that passion cannot be eaten as food.

That kind of suffering, loneliness, and depression instantly made me realize that I was nearly thirty years old and was about to officially enter middle age!

In middle school, high school, and university, every time I attended gatherings and listened to these former classmates talk about marriage, going abroad, children, promotion, starting a company, etc., I felt a sense of powerlessness and haggard.

There is not only guilt for my parents who are far away in my hometown, but also confusion about my future in life, and apologies for each of my characters...

I am almost thirty years old, what have I been doing all these years?!

Yes, I can only earn enough to support myself by persisting in writing to this day.

The price of a single book of light novels is between 600 and 800 yen. Taking into account the number of releases, the royalty you can get is 10%. Some authors who have not improved for many years are 8%, and I happen to be like this.
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Light novel authors do not receive royalties, and all their income depends solely on royalties from publishing and distribution.

According to the average annual income of young people in Japan, which is about 4.4 million yen, if light novel authors want to reach this figure, they must sell more than 70,000 light novels a year. Including taxes, this figure will be even more

More than 10,000 copies!

For a young writer like me who is somewhere between a rookie and a hard-core writer, the initial publication volume given by the publishing house is about 12,000 copies. The second volume will be reduced to 70 to 80% of the first volume, and all subsequent volumes will be estimated in units of thousands.

It is estimated that if it is completed in only three or four episodes, this number will continue to drop...

Judging by the above standards, it is extremely difficult for a light novel to achieve sales of 70,000 copies in a year.

And even if it achieves sales of 70,000 copies, it can barely reach the average annual salary!

The work should not be too long, just calculate it as four episodes a year, that is, one episode every three months.

Every time an episode is released, a plan needs to be written. The plan must be reviewed by the editorial department, and an illustrator must be hired to draw the illustrations. While waiting for the editor's reply, it is difficult to modify the previous text, so we can only wait.
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No matter how much you underestimate the budget time, it will still exceed three months.

If the time comes and you get kicked back again, then all the previous manuscripts will be in vain!

In other words, all the energy and time invested over the past few months have been wasted!

Coupled with the shrinking book market, there are more and more light novel writers. Every quarter, we need to compete with hundreds of light novel writers. Which one is not thinking hard about his own work? Discuss and communicate with the editor?

I think most light novel authors are like this. Either they are gritting their teeth as part-time writers, or they are eating their parents' money while imagining that one day they will become famous.

Even though I know that I only get a few hundred views each time, I still write diligently on Twitter to promote the publication of my new book. While living my life, I pray that my work will not be buried among the hundreds of light novels published every month. Next

One month later, I saw that my book had been removed from the bookstores.

Too many.

So many emotions.

For people like us, it is a dream for our work to be adapted into animation. It is an unattainable dream, and it is also a hope that makes me persevere for a long time.

I want to see my favorite characters loved by everyone, and I want to see the characters I wrote supported by everyone.

I want to see the love shown in the interaction between the characters be understood by everyone.

If all this can really be achieved, I will be full of joy.

Therefore, every time I make an animation, I will give my suggestions very seriously. I would like to thank the readers, the editor, the company, and everyone on the production committee.

To be honest, every scene feels like a dream.

At the dinner, Editor Kawataki patted me on the shoulder and said:

"Um...Teacher, congratulations, but it's still just a proposal, and the animation has not been officially finalized. In other words, there is a possibility that it will not be produced."

"Ah? This...is like this."

"But, the people at the animation production side have told us that the funder has a suggestion that we need to agree to. I wonder what you think, sir?"

"What...could this be a problem?"

"The heroine's dubbing must be a new voice actor designated by the management."

"...Is it going to be okay? And if it comes to voice acting, I probably won't be able to speak..."

"Hey, you can't say that, teacher, your support is also very important! What you write is a love theme. According to the market, you should have heard that the production of this type of animation is only 10 million per episode at most, and one season... .It’s only about 100 million, but do you know how much money the employer gave?”

"How much...?"

Editor Kawataki smiled and held out five fingers.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!

"50 million?"

"Hahaha, cough, cough, cough," Editor Kawataki laughed so hard that he hit me on the shoulder and almost choked on his drink. It took him a while to recover, and he said with a glum smile, "It's 500 million! 5 Billion!"

I was so surprised that I couldn’t open my mouth from ear to ear.

As far as I know, the production cost of an episode of "Bingguo" is only over 11 million.

And if you adapt this novel, the maximum number of episodes per season is 13, right?

The cost is shared evenly, and it is almost close to 40 million yuan per episode!

What is this concept?!

It’s equivalent to the level of funding of Kyoto Animation’s “Violet Evergarden”!

"Of course, because the construction period required by the employer is very short, the work must be spread out more, and it is impossible to achieve the level of "Violet". But even so, the quality level is definitely excellent."

"Teacher, congratulations!"

......

In short, my life during that period was like a roller coaster ride.

That period has been more than half a year so far.

Recently, the animation has also begun to be officially broadcast.

Just like the unexpected hit during the promotion, my animation also became popular on the Internet due to its high quality and the support of a senior animation production company and popular directors and script writers.

Of course, the sales of the original work also skyrocketed.

Once the animation was aired, the novel sold the most in that week.

I used to be able to reply to readers' comments sentence by sentence, but now I can't reply at all.

Every day when I open Twitter, there are countless comments and likes.

Countless questions came to me, and bloggers with many fans began to recommend my books. Even my mother and father, who usually don’t ask much about my affairs, heard the news from somewhere and called me to tell me the good news. .

At present, the time has come for the official release date of the sixth volume.

In order to adapt to the popularity, the library and the production committee decided to jointly hold a release event.

Invite yourself to the stage to talk about your creative thoughts, and invite voice actors to perform on stage.

——When I posted this promotional message on Twitter.

It’s no longer the kind of hundreds of traffic and a few likes.

Instead, there are thousands of likes, countless messages of "I will definitely go there", "To support Hidaka-chan" and other supporting rumors.

There are also character illustrations carefully crafted by animators and illustrators.

These are all for sure!

I see these...

I couldn't help but burst into tears. The emotions I had suppressed for six years seemed to be confirmed at this moment...

As I recall the scenes to this day, all I can think of is gratitude.

There is also a dreamlike and unreal feeling.

——————
To be continued...