Mo Yan (No.2 main list) Photos: CFP, IC

The eighth China's Richest Writers List was released by Huaxi Metropolis Daily last week, showing that online writers are not only getting more respect from the world of mainstream literature, they are also now earning more money than their more-established counterparts.

Fantasy writer Yang Zhi, who writes as Jiang Nan, topped the list with 25.5 million yuan ($4.2 million) from copyright royalties, beating Nobel laureate Mo Yan and children's book writer Zheng Yuanjie, the previous No.1.

It is the first time that a fantasy author and previous online writer topped the list. No.4 on the list is also an online fantasy writer, Lei Ou Huan Xiang.

"The whole industry of online literature is growing fast, and that guarantees authors like us will benefit," said Zhang Wei, also known as Tang Jia San Shao, who came first on the newspaper's Richest Online Writers List, earning 26.5 million yuan, more than Yang.

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.

Zheng Yuanjie (No.3 main list)

Fantasy rising

Besides the main Richest Writers List, there were four other lists released this year: Richest Comic Book Authors, Richest Online Writers, Richest Foreign Writers and Richest Scriptwriters. With the exception of scriptwriters, the first place of all the lists is occupied by fantasy authors: comic book author Zhou Hongbin, Zhang and JK Rowling.

Yang, who tops the main list, said in an interview with the paper, "Fantasy stories have a very strong foundation within Chinese traditional culture."

He pointed out that Chinese ancient literature such as Classic of Mountains and Seas and Journey to the West show that fantasy stories cannot be neglected in Chinese history. And in Western countries, fantasy novels such as the Harry Potter series and A Song of Ice and Fire are always on the bestseller lists.

One of Yang's bestselling series, Dragon Raja, tells stories about a student studying in America who goes on an adventure to find out the mysteries behind dragons. It's mainly based on Western legends. Another of his series, Jiu Zhou, focuses on ancient Chinese myths.

But despite its success and enduring popularity, not everyone is impressed by the fantasy genre.

Typical of the mainstream's dismissive attitude is this commentary from the Shenzhen Economic Daily: "Compared to traditional writers, online writers like Zhang show a virtual world which is totally different from reality with their impressive thoughts and creativity. But online literature is fixated on fantasy. Authors are continuing their own work, and few of them are trying to change."

Wang Hailing (No.12 scriptwriters list)

First time for scriptwriters

The Richest Scriptwriters List is new this year, calculating authors' income in the last five years from movie or TV drama scripts. Huaxi Metropolis Daily says the list aims to make people pay more attention to script writers.

The average age of scriptwriters on the list is 54, while the average age on the online writers list is 32. The top 12 on the list are TV writers and the final three are movie scriptwriters.

Gao Mantang, the script writer of Chuang Guan Dong, was selected as the top of this category, earning 30 million yuan. But Gao told the newspaper he is unsatisfied with the state of the industry. "There are so many shocking TV dramas because we lack good scripts. These dramas are not close to the public's lives. We have to think about why they can still earn high audience ratings."

Wang Hailing, ranking 12 on the scriptwriter list, said the total income for a top level scriptwriter like Gao in five years is not a very high figure. But she added it is a good sign that scriptwriters were getting their own list, because it means their work is gaining acceptance and recognition.