Starting as a Manga Editor-Chapter 27: The Editor’s Job

To be honest, the thing Tang Yao worried about most in her game plan…
was always promotion.
Of course, that didn’t mean everything would fall into place as long as promotion was done right.
No.
What she meant was—promotion was the foundation for everything else to go smoothly.
After all, even good wine fears a deep alley—
Let alone a brand-new game type, during the early stages of the mobile internet, with no market validation.
Why was she drawing Fate/Zero in the first place?
Because she was worried this kind of “new game” would slip under the radar, simply because too few people knew about it. And that would lead to failure—becoming nothing more than a stepping stone that gave others inspiration while she was left with the title of “founding pioneer” and nothing else.
But that led to a new problem—
After Fate/Zero was drawn… how was she going to promote it?
Yes.
It was like Russian nesting dolls—now she had to worry about how to promote the work that was supposed to promote the game.
She couldn’t serialize it—because then the rights wouldn’t belong to her anymore.
But if she didn’t serialize it… how was she supposed to get readers to even see this manga?
Online comic platforms in this world weren’t well-developed—otherwise, Shang Tao wouldn’t have had such a hard time launching his web manga site.
At first—
Tang Yao planned to use an alias and rely on the Manga Award to make a name for herself, then release Fate/Zero afterward.
But there was an obvious issue with that:
Could a single short entry for a Manga Award really attract enough readers?
Fate/Zero couldn’t participate in the Manga Award. Not to mention the rights issues—it was a serialized work.
So she’d been stuck.
But just now—
She found the solution.
That’s right.
It was to take advantage of this opportunity and sw—
No, persuade the New Media Director in front of her to help her out.
On her own, she had no way to get a large number of readers to see her work. But the publishing house was a different story—especially for the New Media Department, which was actively trying to attract manga readers to its new website.
As long as the Director of New Media believed in her plan, he’d definitely do everything he could to bring the Manga Award’s best works in front of readers—to boost the site launch.
And Fate/Zero would be served alongside them.
On top of that—
Even if her intentions weren’t entirely pure… she wasn’t talking nonsense either.
This current drama could indeed bring massive exposure to both the site and the Manga Award.
Exposure!
That’s what Tang Yao wanted more than anything.
Sure, it’d still be tricky to convince the New Media Director to promote a still-unfinished serialization…
But that was part of why she agreed to try convincing Ou Congquan to change his mind—it would give her more leverage.
And now, she’d taken the first successful step.
“…Then I’ll leave Mr. Ou to you. I need to go this.”
Shang Tao had been fully convinced by Tang Yao. The more they talked through the details, the more solid it all seemed. Unable to sit still, he glanced at his watch, then said, “If you make any progress, let me know immediately.”
“No problem.”
“Let’s exchange contact info. If things move forward on my end, I’ll update you right away.”
“Sure.”
They swapped contact info.
Then, Shang Tao left, full of excitement. Compared to how anxious he’d looked coming in, he was practically glowing as he walked out.
Clearly, he’d realized that—if handled properly—this controversy could be a golden opportunity for the website.
Tang Yao watched him leave, then turned her chair back toward her desk.
…She needed to pick up the pace too.
This rare opportunity—if missed—might not come again. So no matter what, she had to finish the Fate/Zero opening chapter in the next few days…
First, she’d break it down and draw it based directly on the anime.
Then evaluate how it turned out.
But before that—
Tang Yao glanced at the latest issue of big comic sitting on her desk.
She had to deal with Mr. Ou first.
After all, what Director Shang said was he’d it—he didn’t say it would definitely get approved.
Most likely, the plan to capitalize on the current drama, using it to build momentum for the Manga Award and release preview chapters ahead of time, would need top-level approval.
In fact—
Shang Tao probably wouldn’t have even shown up at the content department if it weren’t for someone high up giving the nod.
And one thing Shang Tao had said was right:
In a publishing house, content is king.
If they had to throw one of their flagship series under the bus for the sake of an award or website, the higher-ups definitely wouldn’t agree.
Unless—things went the way Tang Yao had described…
Unless that AORI tagline came true, and this chapter’s chaotic plot became a set-up for an explosive follow-up.
Even if she couldn’t pull that off, she at least had to make sure Ou Congquan’s “condition” improved.
Which meant—there was no way he could be allowed to do whatever he wanted next issue.
“What a pain.”
She muttered quietly, frowning as she thought about what she had to do next.
Then, she opened her drawer and pulled out a draft… or more accurately, a proposal.
While she personally didn’t like Mr. Ou—
Actually, she kinda straight-up disliked him, especially after seeing that arrogant attitude during her later visits—
Still, dislike was dislike. Tang Yao didn’t let personal feelings cloud her judgment… and definitely didn’t bring that into her work.
Unless… the person was someone like Editor-in-Chief Ding.
But Ou Congquan clearly wasn’t the same type as Ding.
Yes, he was arrogant. He was cocky.
But if he was just arrogance and no skill, he wouldn’t be able to draw a flagship manga.
In terms of both technical skill and creative ideas, he was decent.
Tang Yao had once taken the time to read through his entire serialization from beginning to end. The plot was a bit cliché, but his passion and love for manga showed clearly.
His arrogance mainly stemmed from overconfidence in himself—
And a lack of trust in Tang Yao, who, in his eyes, was way too young to be an editor.
But that didn’t stop Tang Yao from doing her job—
Or more precisely, up until last week, it hadn’t.
Because she was an editor. She wouldn’t half-a** her work over personal grievances.
Once she accepted the reality of transmigrating, she also accepted this job.
That was why she read Ou Congquan’s work in the first place.
She actually understood why he’d written such a controversial arc—what he was trying to express.
It’s just… the way he did it was dumb as f***.
Tang Yao had tried both verbal persuasion and written proposals to get him to pivot.
But Ou Congquan clearly had way too much faith in himself. If he’d even glanced at the proposal Tang Yao handed him—just looked at it once—they probably wouldn’t be in this mess now.
And after that last failed attempt, with Ding Yilong refusing to help at all—
Tang Yao had gotten pissed.
She’d washed her hands of it completely.
But at least she still held onto the plan… That AORI line was actually meant for the revised plot.
“Hope you wake up a little when you see the reader feedback.
If not…
Then just go die.”
Tang Yao took a deep breath, grabbed the proposal, and stood up—ready to head out.
…Just consider it her shot at earning that first bucket of gold.
Also—
With the proposal in hand, she looked toward Ding Yilong’s area, eyes narrowing slightly.
She had a strong feeling that that Editor-in-Chief was going to cause trouble.
This would be a good chance to confirm where Ou Congquan actually stood.
If things really started going in the direction she least wanted to see—
If the two of them tried to dump all the blame on her—
Then she wouldn’t mind switching to Plan B.
At the same time.
Shang Tao had already left the editorial department and gone to see Vice President Zhao Fangsheng.
He was so fired up, he blurted out Tang Yao’s entire proposal the moment he walked in.
Zhao Fangsheng sat calmly behind his desk.
After hearing everything—
He went dead silent.
I told you to ask about the manga…
And you come back to me with this?