Novels taking center stage

Photos show scenes from the popular drama Young and Bloody, which is adapted from Kong Ergou's successful online novel, Once Upon A Time in the Northeast. Photo provided to China Daily

Others include Gui Chui Deng, or Ghosts Blow Out the Lights, a best-selling mystery-adventure tale about grave robbers that's regarded as the first of its kind in China, and The Legend of Zhenhuan, a historical novel. The TV drama based on the latter that screened in 2012 remains one of China's highest-rated period dramas.

The stage drama based on Gui Chui Deng premiered to a full house on Oct 31 in Beijing. A stage show based on The Legend of Zhenhuan is slated for 2015. Acclaimed drama director Tian Qinxin is its producer.

About 87 percent of seats were sold out for the 23 performances in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen of the drama adapted from 2007's To Our Youth That Is Fading Away, a best-seller by online writer Xin Yiwu, whose real name is Jiang Chunling.

"The novel's readers are mostly aged 18 to 35 and are our target audience," says Beijinger Jiang Ting, whose company, Beijing White Horse Time Publishing Co Ltd, coproduced the stage show.

"We had confidence in the drama's market potential when we decided to create it."

The book about university students coping with their new lives and transition into adulthood has remained a best-seller for years, selling millions of hard copies. It returned to the limelight when it was adopted into the film So Young by actress Zhao Wei as her directorial debut.

The first installment of the drama based on the novel Secrets of a Grave Robber cost 3 million yuan ($490,000) to make but sold 35 million yuan worth of tickets during 77 shows nationwide, media report.

Promotional posters for a TV series adapted from the book got 100,000 forwards, nearly 20,000 comments, and more than 52,000 likes when it was posted on the serial's official Sina Weibo micro blog account in late October.

The online novel is the first in a series by Naipai Sanshu (pen name), who has more than 9.2 million followers on Sina Weibo. It was first uploaded on the Internet in 2006 and began coming out in hard copy in 2007. The series' nine books have sold more than 12 million copies.

The second installment of the drama has been touring the country since July. The two installments have earned more than 100 million yuan, Shanghai's Xinmin Evening News reports.

The producers plan more installments, following the novel series through to its end, media report.