Has the trend of online literature IP spread to “dinner-friendly dramas”?

Nowadays, popular IPs have revitalized half of the film and television industry, online writers survive in the cracks, and online IPs make "indirect profits" through short dramas. This article explains online IPs from different perspectives and analyzes the current status and development of online IPs. Let's take a look.

As the weather turns cooler, the ratings war for the summer TV series has come to an end, and the online drama "Longing", adapted from Tong Hua's novel of the same name, is undoubtedly one of the dark horses of this year's domestic dramas. Data shows that "Longing" topped the Lighthouse Network's TV series broadcast market share list on the day of its premiere, reaching a peak of over 25%, and the final ratings reached 22.94%, and received a high Douban score of 8.6.

TV series and movies adapted from online literature works, such as "Longing", are becoming more and more common. Online literature has also gradually washed away its grassroots temperament, from being questioned to becoming a mature industry. However, while online literature IPs have nurtured a large number of popular TV series and popular actors, the dividends of film and television adaptations cannot benefit every author.

As the majority in the world of online literature, mid-level authors are still struggling to make ends meet. When the excitement and grandeur of the downstream industry has nothing to do with them, where will online literature and IP adaptation go?

1. Popular IPs “support” half of the film and television industry

In this year's film and television drama market, online literature adaptations continue to be popular, and online literature is still one of the important IP sources for film and animation creation. Some time ago, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced the filing and publicity of the filming and production of TV series, online dramas, and online animations in July this year, of which TV series adapted from novels accounted for about one-fifth.

In terms of TV series and online dramas, Qi Wu Gou's "Steel Forest", Ding Mo's "Exclusive Possession", and novels such as "Winter Solstice", "Fox Spirit Matchmaker Bamboo Industry Chapter", and "Strawberry Print" will all be adapted into films and TV series. In the field of online animation, classic IPs such as "Fights Break Sphere" Annual Edition 3, "The King's Avatar" S3, "The Great Lord", and "Douluo Continent 2" all have the latest production plans.

In recent years, the number of works adapted from literature to film and television has increased significantly. According to incomplete statistics, from 2020 to the first quarter of 2023 alone, there were more than 70 film and television adaptations from platforms such as Yuewen, Jinjiang, Qidian, and Fanqie. Among the top 10 film and television dramas on the three major long-video platforms iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent Video in 2022, nearly 50% were adapted from online novels. Film and television IP has become a new wealth-making machine for online platforms and authors after paid reading.

Regarding the copyright of online novel IPs, there has always been a saying in the online literature market that "Qidian for men and Jinjiang for women". Among them, Jinjiang Literature City, which started with female-oriented culture, has always been at the top of the film and television adaptation track. In 2022, Jinjiang's film and television adaptation IPs reached 33, and the platform's well-received works in previous years were countless, such as "Do You Know? It Should Be Green, Fat, Red and Thin", "Why Sheng Xiaomo", "The Legend of Zhen Huan", etc., which are all known as popular original works.

Take "Do You Know?" as an example. When the first volume was published in 2012, it received a high score of 8.5 on Douban. It has topped the list of excellent novels for four consecutive years and is the most watched costume drama in the past five years. In 2020, it was selected into the "2019 China Online Literature IP Influence Ranking" and won the second Pan-Chinese Online Literature "Golden Keyboard" Award for Film and Television Adaptation. It is a veritable online literature work with a large fan base and good reputation.

Although it is still a drama about a female protagonist, it is different from the previous hit dramas such as "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and "Story of Yanxi Palace". "Do You Know" is a typical slow-paced drama about family intrigues, with feudal ethics as the social background, and condensing the opposing classes in the family. In addition, the production team is also trying to stay close to the tone of the original IP during the preparation process. Whether it is the low-saturation color tone of the whole drama or the details of the clothes of pedestrians on the road, it seems that ancient life is embedded in every detail.

Unlike Jinjiang, which is dominated by female-oriented novels, Qidian.com is famous for its "male-oriented" IPs such as "Battle Through the Heavens", "Joy of Life", and "Martial Universe". Although the number of male-oriented novels is lower than that of female-oriented novels, their popularity and attention have remained high. From the early "Legend of Sword and Fairy Series" to the popular "Joy of Life" and "The Son-in-law" in the past two years, they have brought a new way out for male-oriented IPs that have been in a dilemma for many years.

Among them, "Joy of Life" is known as "the most refreshing novel for men", and the TV series of the same name is also known as the most restored big IP, basically reproducing the author's novel world. Even though the characters and plot of this drama have been adjusted due to the main story line, the intention is still to stick to the original as much as possible. The screenwriter of this drama, Wang Juan, won the Best Screenwriter Award at the 26th Magnolia Award for his adaptation of the original novel "Joy of Life".

For producers, online adaptation is a double-edged sword. The dispute between "original fans" and "drama fans" is an inevitable problem in the process of classic IP film and television adaptation. However, excellent adaptations can often capture the essence of the original work and add points to the content in the form of film and television.

In 2019, the first season of the well-made adaptation of the original novel Joy of Life was a huge hit, and the words "To be continued" at the end whetted the audience's appetite. In May this year, the cast of Joy of Life 2 was announced, and the online reservations alone easily exceeded 5 million after filming began. Whether it is "Knowing or Not", "Joy of Life", or the recently popular "Longing", its success lies not only in its original novel itself, but also in the fact that the producers have truly satisfied both audiences.

2. Online writers surviving in the cracks

As long videos move from their infancy to their growth stage, copyright prices are also rising. Investors are extremely fond of top creators. Behind the hit dramas, the price of IP film and television copyrights of well-known writers cannot be underestimated: the IP price of original authors of contemporary fiction such as Gu Man, Wei Yu, and Fei Wo Si Cun can reach 10 million+, while that of Mo Bao Fei Bao, Ding Mo, and Xin Yi Wu can reach 7 million+.

However, compared with the number of new online novel authors each year, writers who can earn tens of millions are always a minority. The income table of contracted authors released by Zongheng Novel in July shows that there are 13 authors with royalties exceeding 100,000 yuan, and 113 authors with royalties exceeding 10,000 yuan.

The Jingzhe Research Institute searched for "writing novels to earn over 10,000 yuan a month" on Xiaohongshu, and the results showed more than 790,000 notes. Whether it is a high school student with a heavy academic workload, a college student with relatively free time, or a worker, they are all optimistic about the job of writing online novels. It seems that all they need is a keyboard and an outline to get a share of the pie in this industry.

So is it really easy to earn over 10,000 yuan a month by writing novels? Regarding this question, Jingzhe Research Institute interviewed Ayan, a contracted author of Qidian.

"Those who think writing novels is very profitable only see the tens of thousands of yuan in monthly income posted by the big guys, but fail to see how many people behind the scenes don't sign contracts with the platform at all, and even if they sign contracts, they still can't make money. This is just survivor bias. If writing online novels is like picking up money on the street, who would still endure the hardships of life?"

Ah Yan also said that it is the most difficult for new authors to persist, because there is a high probability that their manuscripts will be rejected on a large scale. Many times, it is a problem for new authors to successfully sign a contract. Even if the manuscript is passed and signed, they must update 4,000 words steadily every day. Generally, the website will have 1-2 opportunities to ask for leave a month.

"That is to say, if the author wants to get the full attendance bonus and earn royalties, he or she must complete at least 100,000 words a month. For a novel of about 300,000 words, it takes three months of stable updates. It can be said that the authors feel like they owe readers 4,000 words every day when they open their eyes." In addition, the author may have writer's block. "Generally speaking, the first 20,000 words are the easiest to write. When it comes to 100,000-200,000 words, the character setting and plot will easily break down. At this time, it is difficult to continue writing."

Ah Yan told the Jingzhe Research Institute that for the authors who have signed contracts, especially the mid-level authors, if their works are plagiarized or copied, it is time-consuming and laborious to maintain the copyright of their works. Authors are often powerless to deal with copyright infringement. Most authors have to spend several hours writing every day, and a considerable number of them are part-time writers. They lack the time and energy to fight against copyright infringement. Even if they want to defend their rights to the end, the results may not be satisfactory. Even Ding Mo, an author worth tens of millions, did not receive fair treatment from the platform when his novel was copied by writers on the same platform, and finally chose to leave Jinjiang.

On the other hand, today's pirated free novel industry chain has become quite mature. With the development of AI technology, piracy platforms have become more unscrupulous, using AI technology to split or "continue" the original novels to deceive readers, and both authors and readers have become victims.

On July 14, Jiang Shan, a post-00s online writer from Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, wrote a video saying that he had only written a novel of more than 200 chapters, but 1,369 chapters were "updated" on the pirated website. Earlier, there were reports that a well-known pirated novel website could earn 6 billion yuan a year just by reposting novels.

Due to the gimmick of "free", pirated websites have been thriving, one after another, and many netizens have said that the quality of novels on legitimate platforms varies greatly, and they may encounter situations where they spend money but step on thunder, so more and more readers choose to read pirated novels instead of paying for legitimate works. Under the bright light of "big online IP", there is a dark side that is difficult for ordinary online writers to detect.

3. Does online literature IP make “indirect profits” through short dramas?

Since it is difficult to break through upward, downward compatibility may be a new way of IP adaptation. Although S-level film and television works have undoubted market appeal, the adaptation of large IPs is often time-consuming and costly due to the volume problem. For example, the shooting cycle of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" reached 132 days. In addition to the large expenses such as actor pay and production costs, film and television production companies and video websites have also begun to try to "improve quality and reduce quantity" and find more flexible content production methods.

For example, short series, which have obvious advantages such as fast pace and low cost, have low initial investment, and are more selective in the selection of roles and IPs, so they do not have to spend too much human resources on purchasing copyrights and role fees. In the first half of this year, innovative formats represented by short series (6-18 episodes) achieved good results.

Tencent Video launched a short drama cluster theater, X Theater, in April. The first work was "The Long Season" by writer Ban Yu, which became a hit. So far, Douban's score is as high as 9.4, setting a new high for domestic dramas in the past 8 years. iQiyi also launched a number of short dramas in the first half of the year, including "Grandma's New World", which was adapted from Kuang Fuyao's work of the same name. It uses the form of a road movie and a unit drama, with the grandmother's departure as the clue and the female perspective as the entry point to connect different stories. The double breakthrough in subject matter and form once again proves the market competitiveness of domestic short dramas.

For mid-level online writers, the possibility of their works being made into a 40-minute TV series may not be very high, but being made into a short drama is a feasible path. In this regard, major platforms have also gathered in the short drama field.

In addition to long video platforms represented by iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video setting up column channels for domestic short dramas, short video platforms represented by Douyin have also taken action. As early as 2021, Douyin joined hands with Tomato Novel to embark on the journey of short drama IP adaptation, and provided financial and traffic support to creators.

More and more popular short dramas have achieved the effect of feeding back to the original works, forming a positive cycle of social effects and market feedback. Take "Mr. Qin's Little Mute" as an example. The original novel was not very popular on the platform where it was signed, but on the second day after the short drama was released, its reading volume increased by 515.3%, driving the author's daily income to nearly 2 times, and won the monthly revenue sharing champion of Kuaishou's "Star Plan".

In fact, the rise of short dramas not only provides a new option for online literature IP adaptation, but also conforms to the current users' viewing habits.

With the accelerated pace of life and the trend of media fragmentation brought about by mobile networks, more and more people have developed the habit of watching videos quickly and in short periods of time. According to the 2021 China Internet Audiovisual Development Research Report, about 30% of users choose to watch videos at double the speed.

In addition, the emergence of online buzzwords such as "electronic mustard" and "dinner drama" also reflects the changes in people's main viewing scenes and their demand for core dramatic conflicts and other content. In the past, poorly produced long-form dramas often had a slow pace, the plot was entirely driven by dialogue, and sometimes an inexplicable emotional line was derived from the main story line, which made many viewers who love domestic dramas complain bitterly.

Therefore, short dramas with short overall length, light plots, and plots that directly focus on the main plot have gradually become popular content in online videos.

Returning to the online literature IP itself, the emergence of short dramas is undoubtedly a boost for online novel platforms and online writers. From the perspective of producers, cooperation with online literature platforms can maximize the use of script resources and avoid copyright issues. From the perspective of creators, short dramas give mid-level authors more opportunities.

In a market where the strong survive, as the market size of online literature and short dramas continues to expand, a fast and lightweight online literature IP adaptation model is constantly being improved. I believe that the online literature IP business will not disappoint truly capable content creators.

Author: Xiaodong WeChat public account: Jingzhe Research Institute