Chapter 541: Hunting II

On the second day after the successful seminar on the work of "White Deer Plain", Cheng Zhongshi came to the Guowen Society again. When he mentioned his misbehavior after getting drunk last night, he looked a little embarrassed and ashamed.

Lin Weimin knew his character well, so he ignored the matter and took out the publishing contract.

Cheng Zhongshi picked up the pen and was about to sign the contract, but was stopped by Lin Weimin, "Why don't you take a closer look at the contract?"

"I trust you and I trust the Guowen Society!" Cheng Zhongshi said.

"You should take a look at it. This concerns your vital interests, so you can't be careless."

Lin Weimin asked Cheng Zhongshi to take a careful look at the publishing contract, and Cheng Zhongshi had no choice but to do so. As he was reading it, he found something wrong.

"The time limit written here is three years?" Cheng Zhongshi asked, pointing to a place in the contract.

Lin Weimin nodded and said, "This is the shortest term I can change."

Seeing Cheng Zhongshi's puzzled expression, Lin Weimin explained: "The royalties have changed every year in recent years. If the contract is too long, you will suffer a loss."

Cheng Zhongshi was deeply moved when he heard this, "Thank you very much, for the people!"

"No need to thank me. The relationship between publishers and authors should be mutually beneficial, not one where one party exploits the other. You can get generous royalties, and our publisher will not suffer any loss."

Lin Weimin's generous remarks moved Cheng Zhongshi from the bottom of his heart, and he signed his name on the contract.

Lin Weimin joked, "This is the contract for this version. When you sign the contract next time, maybe you'll get royalties!"

Cheng Zhongshi smiled innocently, "I dare not think about it, I dare not think about it."

The 30,000 yuan in royalties he could receive for the publication of White Deer Plain was already the ceiling of his imagination.

When his wife heard the news, she was so happy that she couldn't sleep until midnight. How could he dare to think about royalties? Those are the rules that only exist abroad, not in China.

"I'll wire the royalties to you after you return to Xi'an. This way it's safer," said Lin Weimin.

After the chat, he sent Cheng Zhongshi out and said, "When you are done with your work these two days, you must take your sister-in-law to have a good time in Yanjing when you have time."

"That's for sure. It's not easy to come to Yanjing."

At this point, Cheng Zhongshi thanked Lin Weimin again. It was thanks to Weimin's arrangement that he was able to bring his wife to Yanjing.

After seeing Cheng Zhongshi off, Lin Weimin returned to the office to review the manuscript.

Colleagues from the editorial department sent me manuscript lists for two books, Revolutionary Road and Eleven Kinds of Loneliness by Richard Yates. It took them half a year to translate from last year to this year, and now they are finally going to be published.

This matter was originally handled by the Foreign Literature Editorial Department, but because Lin Weimin insisted on introducing Richard Yates' works, his name was added to the signature column.

For the publication of Revolutionary Road and Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, Guowen Publishing House paid Richard Yates a royalty of 35 yuan per thousand words. The two books together cost about 15,000 yuan, which is nearly 4,000 US dollars according to the exchange rate between China and the US dollar.

It wasn't much, but for Richard Yates, it was an unexpected income after all.

Lin Weimin asked that two copies of the sample book be sent to him after it came out, and also instructed the finance department to wire Richard Yates's royalties in a timely manner.

After get off work in the evening, Lin Weimin returned home and Han Zhuangzhuang came with his family.

He went to the Berlin Film Festival a few days ago and just came back recently. Today he came to get together with Lin Weimin.

Seeing Lin Weimin, Han Zhuangzhuang was very excited, "Uncle, I have something good to show you!"

After saying that, he took out a book from his bag, acting mysterious.

“Guess whose book this is?”

"No guessing!"

Lin Weimin didn't even give him a chance to keep him in suspense, so Han Zhuangzhuang said depressedly: "You are such a boring person!"

After saying this, he revealed the book cover. Lin Weimin took a glance at it, his face full of surprise.

"Where did you find this out?"

"Where else can I get it? From the street book stalls!" Han Zhuangzhuang replied.

Lin Weimin took the book and flipped through it carefully. The paper was thin and brittle, and the font was small and blurry. He knew it was a pirated book without even looking at the cover.

Tao Huimin came over at this time, and when she saw the title of the book on the cover, her expression did not hold back.

"Who is this? So talented?"

The quality of the book is undoubtedly shoddy. The dark cover doesn't even make the design clear, but the title and author's name are extremely eye-catching.

"Hunting II", a new book by Lin Weimin.

"Will anyone really buy this thing?" Tao Huimin couldn't help but ask.

"If we meet this idiot, we can definitely sell it!" The couple sang in unison, and Han Zhuangzhuang was wronged and humiliated.

"Good intentions don't go unrewarded!" Han Zhuangzhuang said aggrievedly.

After the joke, Lin Weimin asked Han Zhuangzhuang in detail about the pirated book.

In the past two years, there are more and more pirated books sold in street book stalls. Han Zhuangzhuang bought this book from a pirated bookstall.

Lin Weimin's decision to shelve the novel "Hunting" and not publish it within ten years once triggered a craze among readers to buy the current issue of "Contemporary". That issue of "Contemporary" once achieved sales of 3.8 million copies. Looking at the history of "Contemporary" over the past ten years, this sales volume is also unique.

When "The Hunt" was published that year, it sparked great discussion and controversy.

All in all, it took less than half a year from the time this novel was published to the time that issue of Contemporary Magazine was no longer printed.

In addition to the fate of "The Hunt" being shelved, naturally countless readers are curious about the content of this novel.

The rush to buy the issue of Contemporary magazine that published the novel ultimately only sold a few million copies, which failed to satisfy the curiosity of the majority of readers.

In the past two years, Lin Weimin has discovered inferior versions of "The Hunting" printed by pirated booksellers at street stalls. These booksellers copied the content of "The Hunting" from "Contemporary" and then re-typeset, designed, bound and printed it, bringing this shelved work back to the public.

As far as Lin Weimin knows, the sales of the pirated version of "Hunting" are quite good, and a large number of readers have seen the true appearance of this novel.

In fact, not only "Hunting", all of Lin Weimin's novels are severely affected by piracy. According to the estimation of Guowen Publishing House, the sales volume of pirated copies of his novels is at least five or six times that of the genuine ones.

Lin Weimin is not a god. Even if the head of the Press and Publication Administration came, he or she would not be able to solve the problem of piracy.

But aren’t these “Hunting II” and “Lin Weimin’s New Book” a bit too much?

Pirated booksellers publish his old works. After all, readers are still reading his works, but they are using his name to sell things written by unknown people. Isn't this ruining his reputation?

Lin Weimin took a special look at the book "Hunting II", which was pretty much what he imagined. The content was set against the background of educated youth going to the countryside to work in production teams, and it highlighted ** and **. It was probably sold as a pornographic novel.

We can't blame the pirates entirely for this. In recent years, the literature of educated youth, or to expand the scope, scar literature, has been mixed together, and anyone can write it. Among them, a large number of shoddy and inferior works have appeared. These works have no way to be published, but have made pirated booksellers successful.

It's really absurd.

The next day at work, Lin Weimin took the book "Hunting II" to the publishing office.

"Leader, you can't just ignore this! Piracy is fine, but now they're using my name. If these pirated booksellers dare to use my name today, they'll dare to use the leader's name tomorrow. That's going to cause a big mess!"

The leader flipped through the book and couldn't help laughing, "It's really a bit too much!"

The leader was helpless. “Sure, sure, I can’t argue with you!”

He added: "I know about this matter. Let's join forces with the public security and propaganda departments to crack down on it!"

After receiving the leader's reply, Lin Weimin felt much better. He knew that this was the best the leader could do.

This is probably what he can do and what the leader can do.

A few days later, Wang Xiaobo came to visit the editorial office and brought Lin Weimin two of his newly completed works, "At the Age of Thirty" and "Like Water Flowing Years". Lin Weimin took a quick look and found that the style was the same as before. There were not as many descriptions of ** as in "The Golden Age", but there were still many descriptions of * organs.

"Your style is really a headache!"

Wang Xiaobo felt a little embarrassed. He knew that what he wrote was not well received by many people nowadays, but who could blame Teacher Lin for appreciating him? Now that he had finished writing, his first and only choice was Lin Weimin.

"Teacher Lin, there's actually nothing excessive about my two novels," Wang Xiaobo argued.

What Wang Xiaobo said is actually not wrong. Apart from the fact that these two novels always mention *organs, there is nothing excessive about them. Compared with many current "literary" works, they are much more simple.

Lin Weimin put down the manuscript, and Wang Xiaobo looked at him with a somewhat nervous look.

"Let me show it to my colleagues first!"

Wang Xiaobo was delighted when he heard this. This ordinary sentence represented Lin Weimin's attitude. "Thank you, Teacher Lin, thank you!"

"Don't be happy too soon. If the review doesn't pass, I won't plead for you!" Lin Weimin warned.

Wang Xiaobo said happily: "As long as you give me a chance."

Then he added: "If it doesn't work, we can send it to Hong Kong."

Lin Weimin said unhappily: "Then you might as well send it to Editor-in-Chief Liu!"

Wang Xiaobo chuckled and said, "You are so kind to me. I will definitely come to you first when I finish writing the novel!"

"Editor-in-Chief Liu, that's a guarantee, right?" Lin Weimin said sarcastically.

Wang Xiaobo didn't say anything, just smiled foolishly.

"You, I can hear the abacus beads clicking in your mind," Lin Weimin scolded.

Naturally, the conversation between the two was more joking.

After Wang Xiaobo left, Lin Weimin gave the manuscript to Tong Zhonggui.

"Xiao Tong, please review these two manuscripts."

"Okay, Lin..."

Tong Zhonggui hadn't finished his words when he caught a glimpse of the signature on the manuscript and swallowed the rest of his words.

"What's wrong?" Lin Weimin asked.

Tong Zhonggui looked embarrassed, "Teacher Lin, is this Wang Xiaobo's manuscript?"

"You're asking even though you already know the answer. Haven't you been reviewing his manuscript? What? You don't want to review his manuscript? Then I'll find someone else!" Lin Weimin said as he was about to call on other people.

Tong Zhonggui hurriedly stopped Lin Weimin and said, "Hey, Teacher Lin. I'll do the trial!"

Lin Weimin looked at him and said sensibly, "Don't force it!"

"No force, no force." Tong Zhonggui said.

Lin Weimin nodded with satisfaction. "Okay, I'll leave it to you. Review it carefully and write more detailed comments later."

Tong Zhonggui looked at Lin Weimin's back with a bitter face. It is difficult for me to write detailed opinions on this kind of manuscript!

(End of this chapter)