Zhang Wei (No.1 online writers list)

Online dominance

It is the second year the newspaper has compiled a separate list for Chinese online writers, and Zhang took the No.1 place for both years. Last year, the list was based on copyright royalties from 2007 to 2012, while the other categories were based on annual income. This year, both lists are calculated from annual income.

Writing online is not an easy job. Zhang still keeps updating his stories online every day.

"I remember that I was badly suffering from a fever on my thirtieth birthday, and I still typed 6,000 words that day," said Zhang in an interview with the newspaper. "I will feel something is wrong if I have not written anything. The highest speed record I kept was updating 140 words per minute. My hands are totally weak and powerless after one hour of typing like that."

Liu Wei, known as Xue Hong on qidian.com, ranked third on the richest online writers list. He said he spent two hours a day writing online, with a daily output of 12,000 words on average. In the past nine years, he has written 20 novels, including Guang Ming Ji Yuan, which is already over 6.2 million words. (An average English-language novel has about 100,000 words.)

Liu became a millionaire from online writing in 2004, making him a pioneer in the field. He denied rumors that his health is poor due to his extreme output and presumably sedentary lifestyle, telling the newspaper, "I don't have any health problems, and I could sleep for 10 hours every day."

Zhang is composing his latest fantasy story, Jue Shi Tang Men, which has already passed 2.64 million words in length. He is cooperating with games and comics companies doing adaptations of his work.

Many of the well-known authors on the main list, such as Yang, Ren Haiyan (author of Treading on Thin Ice) and Wu Xuelan (author of The Legend of Zhen Huan), published their first works on the Internet.

The social prestige of online writers is clearly rising. Zhang was commissioned to be the director of the Beijing Online Writers Association in October. The national China Writers Association (CWA) is planning to found a branch especially for online writers. Nobel Prize winning author Mo Yan was appointed to be a chancellor for Online Literature University, which mainly helps online authors by offering services and courses.