Chapter 527: A Confidant in the World

The next morning, as soon as colleagues arrived at work, they surrounded Tong Zhonggui's desk and started talking.

After waiting for a long time, Lin Weimin finally came to work and everyone quickly pulled him over.

"Lin Weimin, what is going on?" Everyone pointed at the comparative data that Tong Zhonggui had compiled with great difficulty and asked Lin Weimin.

Lin Weimin was not surprised by the result of the data comparison. He said calmly: "Didn't you all see it? That's it!"

Seeing that he seemed to have expected this, his colleagues were not surprised. It was Lin Weimin who asked everyone to compare the data yesterday. What surprised everyone was Lin Weimin's reaction.

"Aren't you in a hurry?" Liu Yin asked.

"What's the use of being anxious?"

Lin Weimin sat down and said, "Everyone, please sit down."

Seeing that Lin Weimin seemed to have something to say, everyone returned to their seats.

Lin Weimin picked up the statistics on Tong Zhonggui's desk. The several sheets of paper showed the sales of six mainstream domestic literary magazines, including "Contemporary", "People's Literature", "Zhongshan" and "October", in the past three years.

With a little observation, you can see a phenomenon.

In the past two years, the sales of various publications have been very stable, and some publications have even increased steadily.

But starting this year, sales of various publications have declined to varying degrees, but the decline is not large, generally between 3% and 5%.

If you look at the decline alone, it doesn't seem to be a big deal.

Statistical data will not lie. A decline in sales is not scary. The scariest thing is that it is not the sales of a certain novel that are falling, but the sales of all publications are falling.

Everyone knows very well what this phenomenon indicates.

But everyone still looked at Lin Weimin with hope, hoping that he would say something inspiring.

"Everyone has seen the statistics that Xiao Tong made. The data is here, and you can figure it out even without me saying it.

That’s right! The sales of domestic literary periodicals are declining. The data of one periodical may not mean much, but when the data of so many periodicals are put together, it represents a trend. Our literary periodical market is shrinking! "

Lin Weimin said something contrary to everyone's expectations. Everyone closed their lips and had complicated looks.

"According to my observation, not only our journal market, but also the entire publishing industry will probably enter a downward phase in the next few years, with sales continuing to shrink."

"Not really?" He Qizhi was a little skeptical.

Lin Weimin said slowly, "Think back, it doesn't take long, just three years ago, how many people around you who bought magazines and books all day long still stick to this habit?"

He Qizhi frowned, and the others also recalled.

Everyone thought about it carefully and realized that no one had noticed it before, but after Lin Weimin reminded them today, it seemed that the number of people reading books had indeed decreased in the past two years.

The domestic economy is constantly developing and changing with each passing day. The leisurely and relaxed pace of the people during the planned economy period has been constantly disrupted. More and more people have begun to succumb to economic changes, gradually transitioning from the stage of focusing on spiritual life in the early stage of reform and opening up to the stage of focusing on material life.

The spiritual satisfaction that literature brings to the Chinese people is constantly weakening, and people are beginning to turn to reality, not only ordinary people but also people in the literary circle.

The fact that Han Shaogong led a group of people from the literary circle to Hainan two years ago is proof of this trend. However, these people have not yet experienced the various negative impacts brought about by the rapid economic development and the rapid social leap, and still maintain some ideals and romance in their hearts.

In a few years, this group of people will bow to reality.

"In addition to economic development, which has led the public to pay more and more attention to material enjoyment and ignore spiritual life, another important factor is piracy. I think everyone knows that piracy has become more and more rampant in recent years.

We are better off as a publication publisher, but book publishing has been plagued by piracy in recent years and sales are shrinking.

All these factors combined are indicating that our publishing market is likely to start going downhill in the 1990s. "

Lin Weimin expressed his pessimistic predictions about the future in a calm tone, and everyone looked heavy-hearted and felt sympathetic as he listened.

"Weimin, are you sure it will be like this in the future?" He Qizhi asked.

Lin Weimin smiled and said, "How can I guarantee this? It's just my personal prediction, but the general trend will not change. You can wait and see next year."

Lin Weimin’s meaning was very clear. Market shrinkage is a major trend, and this shrinkage will only become more obvious as time goes by. We just need to observe for a while longer and everything will become clear.

Everyone was in a good mood when they first got to work early in the morning, but after hearing Lin Weimin's pessimistic prediction, they couldn't muster the energy to work at all and their hearts were filled with sadness.

"Weimin, I see you are not worried at all," Yao Shuzhi couldn't help but ask.

"What is there to worry about? Poor sales is not just our fault. If it falls, everyone will fall together. This is due to the general environment, not the fault of war.

Besides, this kind of change cannot be accomplished in a year or two. We will have to fight against this situation for a long time in the future.

I am not in a hurry, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try to find a way to deal with this change.”

When Lin Weimin said this, Tong Zhonggui suddenly said, "Teacher Lin, you are so anxious to release "Dust Settles", could it be..."

"That's about right. The sales of the publication are already showing a downward trend, so we must definitely take some countermeasures.

The simplest and most direct way is to improve the quality of the publication itself.

In my opinion, in the next few years, we should at least ensure that our publications should launch one or two influential works every quarter, and one or two widely influential works every year. "

He Qizhi said: "Weimin, your idea is too idealistic. The quality of a work is not positively correlated with the influence it can have after publication."

Lin Weimin nodded and responded: "You are right about this. But it is not irrelevant, right? Everyone should have seen the advertisements broadcast by CCTV every day, right?

The effect of the eyeball economy will become increasingly greater in the 1990s. Whether we talk about influence or popularity, it simply means fame and presence in the eyes of the public. Contemporary is certainly well-known enough, but we must strengthen our presence.

Only if we continue to emphasize our existence, old readers will not forget us and new readers will get to know us. "

Yao Shuzhi frowned and said, "It's getting more and more complicated. Why do I feel like you've already arranged everything we're going to do in a few years?"

Everyone smiled, and the atmosphere in the office became unusually relaxed.

“Don’t make me sound like a conspirator! It’s true that I have some ideas in my mind, but they are also to cope with market changes.

The reason why I told you so much today is actually to give you a shot of prevention.

The past ten years have been the golden decade for the domestic literary world and also the golden decade for the development of our journal industry.

Not to mention people like us, even if anyone publishes a magazine, they don’t have to worry about not being able to continue, but there will be no such good times in the future.”

Lin Weimin said this with a sigh in his tone, and then his eyes became determined, "Only when the tide recedes can everyone see who is swimming naked!"

Although Lin Weimin's words were pessimistic, everyone still felt a kind of unyielding confidence and determination from his words, which gave everyone confidence.

No matter what time, as long as Lin Weimin is the backbone, everyone can feel at ease.

Moreover, from what Lin Weimin just said, it is not difficult to find that Lin Weimin has a full understanding of his pessimism about the future and must have certain coping measures.

"Okay, stop scaring us. I think you just want us to work more!" Liu Yin said easily.

The solemn atmosphere dissipated and everyone smiled happily.

"Okay, okay, everyone just work with peace of mind. If the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up. Everyone should eat, drink, sing and dance as usual!" Lin Weimin said jokingly.

After the small talk, everyone returned to work.

Another day, Lin Weimin received a call from Roger Strauss in the United States, saying that he had contacted Richard Yates.

"Lin, you don't know how much trouble I put into finding him!"

Roger Strauss's words certainly contained some elements of self-aggrandizement, but it was indeed not easy for him to contact Richard Yates.

The old man has been writing all his life, but now he is over 60 and does not even own a property. A few years ago, he was teaching at a university, working and writing at the same time, but later due to alcoholism, lung disease, financial constraints and other reasons, he had several mental breakdowns and was sent to the hospital.

Now Cat lives in a shabby little house in Boston. He still hasn't given up his alcoholism, but he doesn't drink during the day because he has to write during the day. Every night he is always drunk.

Perhaps only in this way can he briefly escape from the pain that life brings him.

When Roger Strauss first talked to Richard Yates about someone wanting to introduce his book to China, he was not interested.

Years of loneliness and miserable life made him a little withdrawn, until Roger Strauss handed him the letter written by Lin Weimin.

Before Roger Strauss went to Richard Yates's house that day, he specially found the newspaper in which Lin Weimin was interviewed during his stay in the United States. In the report, Lin Weimin mentioned several times that Richard Yates was a great writer who had long been ignored by American readers and had been treated unfairly for a long time.

"Lin, he cried, did you know? He cried like a child! He agreed to publish it without even discussing the remuneration. He also wrote you a letter and asked me to pass it on to you."

Roger Strauss was also a little excited on the phone.

It is true that he is a bookseller, but of course he would not be in this profession if it were not for his love of literature.

He fully understood the relief and emotion that Richard Yates felt after reading Lin Weimin's letter.

As the most underestimated and neglected writer in the history of American literature, Richard Yates has long been ignored by American readers. Even though many people in the mainstream literary circle admire him, there are more people who think that what he writes is old-fashioned, backward and not in line with the trend of the times.

It was in this long-neglected environment that a young and famous foreign writer suddenly emerged, saying that he admired his works and was willing to work hard to introduce his works to the other side of the ocean.

If Richard Yates understood Chinese, he would definitely use the word "confidant" to describe Lin Weimin.

"We must pay for the manuscript. Although the manuscript fee for publishing in our country is not much, it is what Mr. Yates deserves. Mr. Strauss, thank you very much this time. In a few days, our publishing house will send someone to talk to Mr. Yates in detail about the publication."

After communicating with Roger Strauss, Lin Weimin immediately went to find Cheng Zaochun. After discussion, Cheng Zaochun planned to entrust colleagues from a sister unit in the United States to discuss publishing matters with Richard Yates.

When Lin Weimin mentioned Richard Yates' current situation, Cheng Zaochun said, "Our domestic manuscript fee standards are definitely not comparable to those in the United States, but I can give the highest standard within our authority."

The reason why Cheng Zaochun was so happy was that he recognized Richard Yates's hidden strength.

After talking with Cheng Zaochun, Lin Weimin finally fulfilled his wish.

(End of this chapter)