TURNING IN MILLIONS OF WORDS PAID OFF

ZhangWei, popular Internet novelist [Photo/China Daily]

In the past five years, Zhang Wei has racked up 177 million yuan ($28.53 million) by just moving his fingertips.

For two consecutive years since 2012, he has topped the list of wealthiest Chinese Internet novelists, with an income of 33 million yuan in 2012.

The 33-year-old Beijing native, better known as Tangjiasanshao online, was the only online writer to be listed on the 2014 Forbes "Chinese Celebrity List".

Zhang presumably has the biggest number of Chinese readers among all authors, but he admits that making a living as an author was beyond his dreams.

After graduation with a degree in law, Zhang had worked in several different jobs, including an IT position. He was laid off by his last employer before he "accidentally" tried online writing and eventually created a whole new world for himself.

Zhang had been reading online novels for six years when he started writing his own.

The first work was immature, Zhang admits. Yet it brought in a small income and for the first time Zhang realized it's possible to make money writing novels.

In fact, he spent eight years leading a life which is typical for most online writers. It has been an essential part of his life to sit before the computer, busy typing and posting. The readers pay cents for every thousand words, sometimes offering "tips". It's how such writers earn money.

It took him six months to finish his second novel, a fantasy of 1.5 million words. The 2004 novel brought in 4,000 yuan, but made him well-known as an online writer.

Zhang says when he was writing the book, Wild God, he was so motivated by the flow of inspiration that he would write over 10 hours a day. The imagined characters kept talking to him in his head, and he sometimes had to take up to four showers to cool down and fall asleep, he recalls.

Now he has delivered 12 novels - more than 30 million words - on different themes. His works are read by hundreds of millions.