These days, Aiden realised the truthfulness of words said by a random actor on his first audition.
He was extremely new back then and was talking to people in an attempt to get more information on what type of role that they were auditioning for.
It was then that he had asked a question from a guy who seemed pretty experienced. Apparently, he was someone who had been going to auditions for a few years.
"Why did you want to be a writer?"
That was the question that Aiden had asked. He was expecting a standard response as to how he loved cinema and wanted to be a part of it.
But the man had simply said.
"Because it has money. I don't need to be under someone and even if I do one or two projects a year, I would be able to live well if I'm smart. Even if a movie fails, you still get your payment. No job is like this. You are your own master in it."
At that point, the man had seemed extremely practical to him. But it was only after all these years that Aiden was able to truly feel what those words meant.
'Life has never been this good before.'
Aiden thought as he took another look at his laptop screen. Half of the chapter was already done and this was his third chapter for the day.
He was extremely relaxed these days. Just taking time off to focus on a few of his hobbies. With money in his bank account and no rush to do any new projects, Aiden realised how much of a good career acting could be.
In no other career could he take a few months off without notifying anyone. This was a blessing for him and he was spending a lot of time on his web novel in this free time.
For his first book, he had felt like it was difficult to write a lot of chapters in a day. Most times, he would only do 1 a day.
One of the reasons was also because he was trying to make it as good as possible.
But for <Archer's Ascension>, he was just writing for fun. The thought of making it as good as possible was there but in the end, it was a fun, simple story with its own tropes and gags.
Aiden was just having fun writing it and that's why he was able to make a lot of progress daily.
In a week, he had written 22 chapters and he wanted to reach the 50 chapter mark by the next week. He still has a lot of arcs and plotlines to explore.
Moreover, as he had started writing, he had gotten a lot more inspiration on how to develop his world more.
He has decided to go for a diverse set of languages which means that there will be confusion regarding it. Moreover, he was also developing different types of monsters for his world.
Aiden felt like this was something that a lot of cultivation novels lack. A diverse variety of beasts and monsters that are present in the world.
How have they developed in the world and how much have they evolved? These questions were something that Aiden was looking for an answer to.
Slowly as he wrote, he got more and more answers to his questions.
His world also looked much more real. And his protagonist was also growing at a rapid pace.
As his protagonist got to know about the world and the value of power, he came to respect it. Cultivation worlds anyway are just that.
If you have power, you are respected. If you don't, then you are no one in the wider context.
One more thing that made Aiden be motivated to write more was because of the increasing amount of comments per day.
For an author, it was the best thing to see people liking his novel. Even during <Behind the Scenes> and <Morpheus>, comments were things that were motivating him.
He had spent quite a lot of time going through every review back then.
It was the same now.
[Little sister smasher: This chapter was nuts. I never saw such a detailed world building in any cultivation novel till now. This is truly one of the best.]
[Young Master's butler: I like the protagonist a lot. He seems better. Someone who knows what's moral and what's not and doesn't hesitate to take the morally bad side. He also faces consequences for it, making the stakes feel real. Props to the author.]
[Master, I'm stuck: Man, this novel's too good. I never thought I would find a gem in a genre I thought was already dead. The release schedule is great but I hope we see more chapters per day but that's just my greed.]
Reading the comments, Aiden felt a warm feeling surge in his heart. People liked his novel and that was great news for him.
Though, he was a bit surprised that he was getting so many readers everyday. He wasn't even promoting his novel, so it was unusual.
But he thought that it was because of the cover that Bruce (The artist of <Morpheus>) had made him.
Aiden had requested him to send him a good cover art for his web novel and he had sent one in just a day. He was surely fast and the cover looked extremely good and attractive.
He knew that cover arts were the best way to attract readers and it had surely worked.
One more thing that had worked in his favour was that the novel had appeared in several lists like 'Rising novels' on the website.
These lists were there just to promote newly released novels and <Archer's Ascension> was slowly moving to the top of it.
'Like this, my web novel might even be among the top rated novels in a few more weeks.'
Aiden thought in his mind and began writing again.
***
As Aiden was enjoying the process of writing, a lot of people were looking at his novel. That includes an editor from a publishing firm that often recruits authors from this website.
As these novels already have a good following on the internet, they are easier to sell. Moreover, the market for ebooks had increased by a lot in recent years and the publishing company, Wiscer Publishing knew how to sell ebooks.
These days, Jeffery, an editor in Wiscer Publishing, had found his eyes glued to <Archer's Ascension>. Whenever a new chapter would drop, he would immediately read it.
And he had noticed that this novel was unlike any other. First of all, it didn't follow a protagonist who was like a caricature. The protagonist was extremely 3 dimensional and had its own interests.
He didn't break his character and stayed true to what he wanted. The world and the supporting cast was extremely good too, especially the detailed description of the world.
Jeffrey had never seen an eastern fantasy that had tried to take the direction somewhere else than the usual 'I want to be an immortal'. It had even developed new areas that would only be seen in western fantasy novels.
It was hard to say how it would pan out in theory but the author had done it with extreme grace and tied it up with the history of the world and the people.
"I needed to get the author to sign a contract with us. With this quality, it could become so much more than just a random web novel."
Jeffery muttered to himself and stood up from his chair and walked up to his assistant.
"Get in contact with the author of <Archer's Ascension>. We need to give him a publishing contract and sign him up before anyone else does."
One worry that Jeffery had was some other publishing company getting the author first. It was really about who could offer a contract first as new authors tend to just sign up at any offer.
"Sir, but he just started posting two weeks ago. Ain't it too early?"
His assistant asked as she looked up at him. Normally, they won't sign up rookie authors. At least until they are really famous.
"It is but it's an exception. The novel is too good to stay under the radar for too long. We need to move fast or it's going to be snatched away."
The assistant just nodded, hearing the confident voice of her boss.
She didn't voice out any of her personal opinions, knowing full well that Jeffery was someone with a good eye and vision.
She got to work quickly and found out everything she could about 'The Dreamer', a pretty simple yet philosophical name in her view.
She sent him an email about the contract and whether he was interested. Normally, any rookie author would jump at the chance.
The assistant was sure that this time, it would be the same but when she got a reply back, the author had rejected the contract.
