At the end of the month, Silver Blue Library officially announced the five award-winning titles of this year’s Supernova Awards. Lin Yuan received a notification from Yang Feng and saw “Prince of Tennis” listed as the last entry on the award list.

“The novel will be published tomorrow.”

Yang Feng gave Lin Yuan a heads-up: “But you don’t need to worry too much about the novel’s sales. Sports and competition are niche genres, and sales aren’t the only way to prove a work’s worth. Anyway, congratulations on officially becoming a novelist.”

Lin Yuan replied, “Thank you.”

Yang Feng chuckled, “I’ll hang up now. There’s a publishing meeting at the company. Once the novel is officially published tomorrow, we’ll send you a few copies for free. You can also visit major bookstores; it will be officially on shelves in Qinzhou tomorrow.”

“Alright, goodbye.”

After ending the call, Yang Feng put away his phone and entered the meeting room. The editors inside were already discussing the results of this year’s Supernova Awards: “I wonder how the sales will be this year. I’m quite optimistic about the first place, ‘Otherworldly Demon King.’ The protagonist’s identity as a demon king hunted by everyone after crossing into another world is quite unique and interesting.”

“I prefer the second place.”

“The second-place author, Da Long, is a veteran. He’s been a novelist for a while, just using a pseudonym to compete for the newcomer spot. But his novel is indeed interesting, with the protagonist being summoned to another world by a princess.”

The discussion was lively.

Some favored the first place, others the second, and some even liked the third and fourth. However, “Prince of Tennis” was the least discussed. Everyone at Silver Blue Library knew that the fifth place was added by the chief editor to diversify the market’s genres.

This was understandable.

The homogeneity of novel market genres was indeed a problem, which wasn’t conducive to the overall development of the novel circle. Therefore, starting this year, major publishing companies, including Silver Blue Library, have been promoting new genres to guide the market towards diversity.

After announcing the Supernova Award results, the official website provided introductions to the winning works and conducted a reader expectation survey. Many invited veteran readers filled out the questionnaire, and the results showed that the top three Supernova winners had the highest reader expectations!

This was not surprising.

The top three were all of the otherworldly genre.

“Prince of Tennis,” in fifth place, had the lowest expectation value. Readers seemed inherently uninterested in tennis, even though the official introduction emphasized that it was a sports competition novel understandable even without tennis knowledge. This didn’t change the survey results.

Some even protested on the official website!

This was a recurring event every year after the Supernova results were announced. Some self-proclaimed exceptional authors who didn’t make the cut felt the awards were unfair, especially this year with “Prince of Tennis” being selected, which irritated many who were not chosen.

“Why?”

“There has never been a precedent for a sports competition genre to explode in Qinzhou, let alone a novel about tennis. Silver Blue Library forced such a work into fifth place to diversify genres, which is disappointing.”

The first four were popular genres.

Naturally, the fifth became a target.

However, Silver Blue Library wouldn’t pay attention to these protests. From the editorial department’s perspective, even if “Prince of Tennis” was niche, its quality wasn’t as poor as outsiders judged.

“It’s a pity for He Mingxuan.”

An editor suddenly shook his head.

He Mingxuan was an already debuted novelist who submitted to the Supernova Awards under a pseudonym. His work received good reviews, and many editors suggested it should be the fifth place in the Supernova submissions.

But unfortunately, he encountered “Prince of Tennis.”

The chief editor’s reasoning convinced everyone: “Firstly, the market needs diverse guidance. Secondly, He Mingxuan is a veteran. Although veterans often compete under pseudonyms, I don’t think it’s a good phenomenon. We should give more opportunities to newcomers.”

Thus, He Mingxuan was not selected.

Editors who were close to He Mingxuan comforted him: “If it weren’t for the need to diversify market genres, you would have been fifth. So, it’s not about your lack of ability, just a bit of bad luck.”

…

Although He Mingxuan was the so-called sixth place in the Supernova Awards, he didn’t join other unselected authors in protesting against “Prince of Tennis.” When he debuted, his work faced similar protests, so he understood the feeling of being protested against and wouldn’t become the kind of person he once disliked.

The editor was right.

He also felt it was just bad luck this time, given the special circumstances. Moreover, he wasn’t a newcomer, and competing for newcomer opportunities under a pseudonym wasn’t honorable. Giving way to newcomers was understandable.

“Maybe I’m not suited to writing.”

He Mingxuan was somewhat self-doubting. He debuted as a novelist five years ago, even achieving quarterly sales champion with one book. But after that book ended, several subsequent works flopped, leading to few publishers willing to publish his work now.

This caused He Mingxuan great distress.

If not for this, he wouldn’t have thickened his skin to participate in the Supernova, a newcomer award. For any novelist, competing with newcomers is a sign of failure.

That night, He Mingxuan tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

The next morning, he walked into the nearest bookstore in a daze, instinctively looking at the first row of bookshelves.

Once, this shelf was filled with his works.

But today, it displayed the top five Supernova winners.

As the sixth place, he had no accolades.

The bookstore was crowded with readers, mostly young people, all drawn to this shelf—

Readers, as always, were eager for the Supernova-winning works.

However, getting them to pay for books wasn’t easy.

Few would buy books outright; most would pick one up, find a quiet corner, and read a few thousand words first.

Only if they liked the story would they willingly pay.

He Mingxuan once did something he now finds foolish.

He sat in a bookstore corner for an entire day, doing nothing but observing book-buying readers.

Every time someone bought his book, he would secretly rejoice.

Today.

Entering the bookstore.

He instinctively observed again.

Unsurprisingly, everyone first picked up the heavily recommended books, the top three Supernova winners.

But to his surprise, the purchase rate today wasn’t high. Many people read for a while and then put the books back.

However, one book’s purchase rate surprised He Mingxuan.

That book was “Prince of Tennis,” the one that relegated him to sixth place.

In fact, very few readers picked up “Prince of Tennis.”

Compared to the top four, interest in “Prince of Tennis” was pathetically low.

Yet, in stark contrast—

Almost every reader who picked up “Prince of Tennis” ended up buying it!

He Mingxuan even counted.

Since entering the bookstore, only eighteen people picked up “Prince of Tennis.”

But!

Fifteen of them bought it after reading!

“This…”