The online literature website k17.com offered 1 million yuan ($165,200) as a year-end bonus last month, saying that if their readers bought a virtual bonus for their favorite author during this period, the website would reward the same amount to the author.

To their amazement, it took only six days to distribute all of the year-end bonus, with 620,000 yuan going to Xiao Qi Xiao and 380 000 yuan to Fengyu Jiuqiu.

These types of bonuses are offered by online literature websites as a way for readers to support their favored authors, and are like wealthy patrons supporting artists in bygone days.

The readers buy the virtual bonuses using credit cards and reward it to the authors. After they have given a certain amount of money, the readers get to vote every month for their author of choice.

The authors then get extra bonuses from the websites when they are ranked highly on the monthly voting list, and of course, the list also gives them a higher reputation among readers.

The numbers can be big. Writer Tangjia Sanshao was given a virtual bonus worth 1 million yuan this month from a single reader, making him the second online author to receive such an expensive present. Mengru Shenji was the first, accepting the 1 million yuan bonus from the website zongheng.com in August last year.

According to Liu Ying, chief editor of the website, most of the revenue for online literature comes from so-called "premium" readers prepared to gift writers large bonuses, but these people only make up a fraction of the actual readers.

Statistics show that the revenue for Chinese online literature reached 4.63 billion yuan in 2013, a growth of 66.7 percent over 2012, and the market is predicted to break  7 billion yuan by 2015. But the percentage of readers willing to pay for online books is just 28.9 percent, and the people who have paid is less than 10 percent.



Money from readers



Liu told the Beijing Business Today that virtual property such as bonuses and voting rights accounted for 30 - 40 percent of the annual revenue of 17k.com in 2013, and the percentage even reached as high as 50 percent in some months. Though Cui Wei, the deputy president of Cloudary, refused to give exact statistics about the virtual property of qidian.com, he admitted that it was very important to the company.

Reader Xiao Kuang is a huge fan of Xiao Qi Xiao, and spent 700,000 to 800,000 yuan in 2013 on bonuses for the writer. "I respect and understand the situation of online authors nowadays. I also wish to bring more attention to the illegal copying of online literature," Xiao Kuang told the Beijing Business Today, adding that he would support all the online books by Xiao Qi Xiao.

"Bonuses from readers are the most direct way to show a writer the value of his work. The author can only pay his readers back by writing better, it forces us to work harder," said Feng Yu Jiu Qiu.

Online author income

When the list of China's richest online authors was released last month, many readers were surprised that some online authors earn much more than so-called traditional literature writers.

Wang Chao, an author on zongheng.com, told the New Culture Daily that his income from the website is mainly divided into three parts: income from online book subscriptions, a bonus from his high position on the monthly voting chart, and the virtual bonuses paid by his fans.

Wang, 39, who previously worked for a decoration company, quit his job in 2000 to become a full-time online author. In 2005 he was writing about 100,000 words per month and earning an income of 10,000 yuan.

Offline publication is also an important part of some online writers' income, with high royalties offered if their books sell well. And as a new reading platform, mobile phone downloads offer another way for authors to make money. If an author's work is deemed good enough to be adapted for other media, the rewards can be huge. According to Wang, "Female writers' work is more likely to be adapted for movies or TV dramas, and usually sells for between 200,000 and 500,000 yuan."

Fans are the key



Developing a readership has become very important for the online literature industry. "Money from fans is growing and I predict that we will see more news of readers offering huge bonuses of 1 million yuan or more to their favorite authors," said Liu.

"Ten years ago, Chen Tianqiao founded the Cloudary Cooperation from a small website, qidian.com. Now Cloudary is the largest online literature website occupying 72 percent of the whole industry," stated Zhu Haibo, deputy director of the Shanghai News and Publication Bureau, in an interview with Beijing Evening News.

However, other Internet portals are eyeing up this lucrative market. Tencent has invested at least 300 million yuan on poaching promising writers from other websites and purchasing the copyright of books, said Beijing Evening News. Qiu Wenyou, the new CEO of Cloudary, admitted that they are facing a great challenge and the best way to keep hold of their best authors is to ensure they get a decent payment.