Category: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island (Essays)
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Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #100: What Chapter Lengths Say About the Times
How many characters should a web-novel chapter be?Based on Utsudo’s more than ten years of serializing online and observations from a fiction-platform operator, a web-novel chapter today works best at about 800–1,500 Chinese characters. Once an update goes over 1,500 characters, readers easily lose patience — updating often keeps readers…
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Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #96: The Ills of Local Literary Awards
Are local literary awards worth entering? Yes. They have fewer entrants and fairly high prize money, and many literary talents hone their craft there. Utsudo suggests studying past winners to find your direction and reading the rules carefully. But she also points out a problem: “prize hunters” who submit near-identical…
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Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #95: The Evolution of My Virtual Avatar — a New Channel Is Born!
Why would a novelist become a VTuber? Utsudo once wanted to turn the Ghost Island series into videos and made a virtual avatar, “Tutuzi,” from a program’s built-in assets — but dropped it because it couldn’t be used commercially. As VTubers took off and costs fell, she got a custom…
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Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #94: Taiwanese Light Novels — Buy the Art, Get the Book Free?
How important is a light novel’s cover? The cover is a book’s face and its most eye-catching visual — in an age that values instant impressions, it may even make illustrators more sought-after than novelists. But Utsudo reminds us that a book, from writing and revision through contracts, layout and…
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Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #93: Making Big Money Writing Novels in Mainland China?!
Is it viable to develop web novels in mainland China? The market across the strait has a huge population and many paying readers, but also many creators — even studios that produce novels — so competition is fiercer. Utsudo’s advice: update speed matters more than anything; once your updates and…
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Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #92: Is “Selling Dreams” More Profitable Than “Chasing Dreams”?
Is being good at writing books the same as being good at teaching writing? No. Utsudo has noticed that most authors who teach writing haven’t published many books, while people who excel at writing books are often not good at teaching or speaking. In an age that demands self-marketing, those…
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Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #91: Want to Monetize Your Personal Brand? Conversion Rate Matters!
Can creators monetize just by getting high traffic? Not necessarily. Utsudo believes the conversion rate — the share of true fans willing to pay to support you — is what decides survival. Attention-grabbing stunts only boost clicks briefly and rarely keep real fans; showing what makes you unique within what…
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Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #90: Conquer It — a Strategy Guide to Public Speaking! (Third Tea Party Preview)
How much should you prepare for a talk? For her first talk, Utsudo wrote a word-for-word script and practiced in front of the mirror every day. With experience, she found that over-preparing leaves you unable to adapt, and reading from a script makes the atmosphere stiff. Now she keeps only…
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Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #89: In a Slump — Is It Time to Give Up?
With the print market shrinking, is there still a way forward for novelists? Because a publisher would only accept standalones or two-volume works, Utsudo had two three-volume series rejected without even being reviewed, and fell into a slump of over three months unable to write long fiction. After some reflection…
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Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #88: I’m a Textbook Pseudo-Extrovert!
Are introverts suited to being writers? Naturally introverted and shy, Utsudo chose freelancing and writing to minimize interaction with people — only to find she still had to deal with editors, readers, talks and livestreams. As contact grew, she developed a warm, lively “social mode,” but it drains a lot…