"King of the Fairy Tale" Zheng Yuanjie is listed 2nd, with 19 million yuan in royalties in 2014. [Photo by Mei Jia/China Daily]

Entertainment influences choices and online writers became richer

Another obvious trend among Chinese readers is that their book choice is influenced by the entertainment business: books having TV, film or game adaptations are poised to sell huge numbers of copies.

That is further supported by another list regarding top royalty earners among foreign writers in the Chinese book market. With The Kite Runner's Khaled Hosseini gaining the top spot with 7.6 million yuan in China, this list indicates that the Chinese love to buy original works that became famed screen adaptations, including House of Cards, A Song of Ice and Fire and the Harry Potter series.

Online literature writers continue to shine with influence and fortune as the genre is embracing maturity in its second decade. Tangjia Sanshao gained 50 million yuan from copyrights of books in print and adaptations including film, comics and games, as another listing, the Online Writers Rich List, revealed.

He published 14 books in 2014, totaling 3 million words.

"My secret is that you need to keep writing, and write fast," the author of the fantasy novel, The Douluo Land, said.

He is well-known for creating a maximum of 8,000 Chinese characters a day and for writing daily for a nonstop 86 months to do his series.

He even has a premium keyboard that is specially designed to fit his typing speed and help him keep up with the ideas running in his head.

"When you see daily trifles, I, as a writer, see stories, scenes and plot, which happen every day. So you see how much I collected," he said, explaining how his mind catches up with his typing.