Guo Jingming [Photo/China Daily]

He ranked 53 in Forbes China’s top 100 celebrities list in 2011 and was the only writer listed. According to the China Writer’s Rich list, which has been tracking writers and their royalty gains since 2006, his is estimated to have earned hundreds of millions of yuan.

While his peer Han Han, another iconic Chinese young writer, is undergoing a crisis-triggered transformation, it is interesting to observe Guo’s development but not wise to idolize him. What kind of writer needs a team of four assistants?

Guo is running a publishing company that has signed 80 young writers, including Di An, Luo Luo, and 20 comic creators. The teen-culture empire under Guo’s control is producing an overwhelming amount of original stories and mangas through the ZUI magazines he runs and other publications. In 2011, 25 out of the top 30 bestsellers of the year were his writers, Guo said.

A story written by two of his personal assistants, Being A Top Assistant, was published as a comic book and sold well.

Guo said he has good reason to be focused on a so-called sunset business — publishing — and is not interested in real estate or other more popular businesses. Read more about Guo Jingming’s transformation and the secret of his success in our stories to come, here at chinadaily.com.cn.