Chapter 256 This name is good
Lin Weimin could not have imagined that the editor-in-chief of an authoritative literary magazine could do such a cruel thing just to save some royalties.
"A few days ago, you invited dozens of people to travel, eat, drink and have fun. But you have no money left when you come to me?"
"That's all for the magazine. Weimin, you are different from them. You are the son of our magazine!"
"The biological son has to eat coarse food? The second marriage has to live a luxurious life?" Lin Weimin's face was filled with grief and indignation.
Lao Tan almost nodded, "That's not what I meant. You are one of us, you have to consider the magazine! Your current fee is too high, and this is a long novel. Once your fee is paid, we won't make any money."
Lin Weimin was furious. "Old Tan, I am also a member of our editorial department. Don't you feel guilty when you say this?"
"Contemporary" now has a stable sales volume of over one million copies per issue, and the magazine is priced at one yuan. In the past, with sales volume of millions, Lin Weimin would only receive a few thousand yuan at most for publishing a long novel.
"Lower it! At least lower it a little!"
At this moment, Old Tan seemed to be possessed by Master Tang, muttering to himself over and over.
"What are you doing? I heard you two making a fuss outside!" Meng Weizai asked, sticking his head out.
Lin Weimin saw his savior and hurriedly said, "Lao Meng, come here and judge. I wanted to publish my novel in our magazine with good intentions, but Lao Tan actually wanted to deduct my royalties!"
Meng Weizai glared, "Is this true?"
"Of course not!"
"Old Tan, I'm not saying anything bad about you. Weimin is our comrade. How can you treat him like this?"
Meng Weizai said something to Qin Chaoyang and then turned to Lin Weimin.
"But for the sake of the people! You have to understand Lao Tan. Your current royalties are really too high. If the editorial department really gave you such a high royalty, other authors would definitely say something weird!"
Lin Weimin instantly became alert, "What do you mean?"
"Lower it a little! Even a little!"
Lin Weimin was furious, "You two... are birds of a feather!"
"You can't say that. We are all doing this for the public good!"
When Meng Weizai said this, Lin Weimin wanted to spit in his face.
Seeing Lin Weimin's stern look on his face, he swore to die rather than obey.
Meng Weizai changed the subject and said, "Then let's do this. Reduce your royalties and I'll get you some other benefits!"
"What benefits?"
Meng Weizai looked at Tan Chaoyang and said, "Let Old Tan go to the meetings from now on!"
this……
Lin Weimin admitted that he was moved.
Qin Chaoyang looked at Meng Weizai, whose face was filled with surprise and grief at being betrayed by his own comrade.
"Old Meng..."
Before Qin Chaoyang could open his mouth to refute, Meng Weizai waved his hand.
"Weimin is so busy at work, Lao Tan, you have to be more considerate of him. After all, the editorial department doesn't belong to him alone!"
At this moment, Lin Weimin just wanted to laugh out loud.
Justice will come to you, retribution will come to you!
Lao Tan, you have come to this day?
But when the corners of his mouth were halfway stretched, Lin Weimin suddenly realized that something was wrong!
Isn't this a case of the fisherman benefiting from the conflict between the snipe and the clam?
Looking at Lao Meng again, Lin Weimin couldn't help but sigh in his heart: What a great leader! He is worthy of being a leader!
"Please assign me another assistant!"
Meng Weizai was stunned. "Assistant? I, a director, don't even have an assistant."
"That's because you're not busy enough. You and Lao Tan throw all the work to me all the time, and I have so much work to do!"
Lin Weimin's words were convincing. Meng Weizai hesitated for a moment and said, "There is no precedent in our company!"
"Assistant is just a term! You definitely can't say that to the agency. Just give me one of those college student volunteers the agency recruits."
A few months ago, Lin Weimin’s suggestion was adopted by the Guowen Publishing House, and the publishing house did accept a group of college student volunteers.
But almost all of them were assigned to the typesetting and proofreading room, binding and design room, labor union and other departments to do miscellaneous work. Because the work in each editorial office was too professional, no dedicated person was assigned. If an editorial office needed people, they would call two people to help.
Lin Weimin felt that his suggestion was purely a favor to the commune, and he felt a little unbalanced.
"this……"
Meng Weizai hesitated for a long time before asking, "How much can you lower?"
"One dollar?"
"Can you be a little sincere?"
Lin Weimin yelled, "What's the matter? Reduce the price by one yuan for every thousand words. This is a long novel, it costs several hundred yuan!"
"Five dollars!" Meng Weizai was merciless.
Lin Weimin was shocked. "You are asking for too much! No! Two dollars at most, no more."
"You don't understand how difficult this is. If you become the editor-in-chief, I can even give you an editor-in-chief's office.
The problem is that your current level is not high enough, and it would be very difficult to assign someone to do odd jobs for you..."
Meng Weizai began to lament the difficulty of operating this matter, and at the end, the truth was revealed, "Four pieces!"
"Three dollars! Just three dollars!" Lin Weimin's face was full of pain.
Meng Weizai slapped his thigh and said, "Okay, three dollars is three dollars!"
When "The Horse-Trapping Man" was published, the publishing house paid Lin Weimin a basic remuneration of 15 yuan per thousand words.
But now the general standard for most writers of "Contemporary" is less than ten yuan per thousand words, and the maximum is ten yuan.
If we suddenly offer a high price of 15 yuan per thousand words, there is a risk of disrupting the manuscript fee standards set by the editorial department.
This is also the reason why Qin Chaoyang and Meng Weizai kept asking Lin Weimin to reduce his royalties, not because the editorial department could not afford it.
If it is reduced to 12 yuan per thousand words, everyone can accept it.
For Contemporary Magazine, this fee is definitely a bit high, but after all, it is Lin Weimin's work.
Lin Weimin was not short of this little bit of royalties, so it was not excessive to assign him an assistant to do odd jobs. Now he was responsible for most of the chores and administrative affairs of the editorial department, and he also did the daily reviewing work, which was indeed a bit hard.
Both parties got satisfactory results and the atmosphere in the office was harmonious.
Only Qin Chaoyang shed tears silently. When he thought of the large and small meetings in the society, his heart was filled with regret.
I'm such a chatterbox, really!
Lin Weimin left Qin Chaoyang's office happily. A few hundred yuan in royalties was nothing to him.
The task of holding meetings in the society was assigned to Lao Qin. Apart from the necessary meetings, he could save at least two days every month in this regard.
With a young man who can help with odd jobs, the deputy editor-in-chief's life will be so wonderful!
I laugh out loud just thinking about it!
The next day, not long after Lin Weimin arrived at work, Meng Weizai called him to his office, where a young man was standing.
"Director, what's the matter?"
Meng Weizai pointed at the young man and said, "What I promised you yesterday."
Lin Weimin's eyes suddenly lit up, and he almost went straight to the dentist. These were all top-notch animals...fresh troops!
A closer look reveals that he is actually quite handsome. Of course, compared to Mr. Lin, he is still a little behind.
"What's your name, young man?" Lin Weimin asked with a smile.
The young man wore a pair of glasses and had a bookish air. "Hello, Teacher Lin. My last name is Tong, Tong Zhonggui. I am currently a junior at Yanshi University and will be a senior when the semester starts."
The young man ignored Lin Weimin's nonsense and started talking.
Lin Weimin looked at the young man and felt that he looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he was for a moment.
"Where is your hometown?"
“From Suzhou.”
"From Suzhou? Suzhou is great. There is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below..."
Meng Weizai interrupted Lin Weimin and said, "Okay, stop making small talk. Xiao Tong will be your soldier from now on. He is on summer vacation now, so he can come to the commune every day to report for duty.
Once school starts, it’s no longer possible. You can only come three and a half days a week, depending on their class schedule.”
Lin Weimin nodded, "No problem."
Leading Tong Zhonggui out of Meng Weizai's office, Lin Weimin asked, "Do you write regularly?"
"Write. Write poetry."
"Oh, poet!"
Tong Zhonggui looked a little shy. "There are 40 people in our class, 35 of them call themselves poets, and the other five call themselves writers."
Lin Weimin couldn't help but laugh. What a humorous guy!
But what Tong Zhonggui said was true. Which college student these days doesn't have a dream of becoming a poet or a writer?
"I just heard you say you are from Yanshi University. What a coincidence, I once gave a speech at Yanshi University."
Tong Zhonggui nodded and said, "I know that your visit caused a big stir in our school. Many people skipped classes to listen to your speech."
Lin Weimin smiled and said, "From what I heard, you definitely didn't go."
Tong Zhonggui looked a little embarrassed and didn't know how to answer Lin Weimin's question.
"It's okay, just a joke."
Lin Weimin knew that these days there were many young people who loved poetry alone and did not pay much attention to other literary categories. He thought Tong Zhonggui was one of them.
The two of them talked as they came to the editorial office.
Lin Weimin assigned the first job to Tong Zhonggui.
"Xiao Tong, you should get familiar with the work of the editorial department in the next few days. The first task I assign to you is to register all the submissions and then distribute them to the teachers. Is there any problem?"
Tong Zhonggui said loudly: "No problem!"
"Okay!" Lin Weimin patted his shoulder, "Get to work."
Ever since Lin Weimin led Tong Zhonggui into the office, several colleagues' eyes were on the two of them.
Liu Yin came over and asked in a low voice: "Weimin, what's going on?"
"The assistant that Lao Meng and I asked for!"
Liu Yin looked at him in surprise, "Just you? Assistant?"
"What's that look in your eyes?"
"Nothing, you said you wanted to be paired with Lao Meng, so I'll give it to you?"
"You still don't believe it?"
"I don't believe you. You treat me like a three-year-old child. I wish I could use you like a beast in the landlord's house."
Damn it, a bystander sees more clearly.
Lin Weimin nodded at Tong Zhonggui, "It's different now. I'm still a farmhand now. Look, here comes another beast!"
Liu Yin was amused by him, "You are such a mean person!"
It's rare to have a new person in the office, and everyone is curious about Tong Zhonggui.
Tong Zhonggui had just worked for a few minutes when several people gathered around him and asked him all sorts of questions.
They are not busy now.
After everyone's investigation, Tong Zhonggui's personal situation was completely exposed, even the fact that he had suffered from nephritis and sepsis as a child.
Lin Weimin was quite surprised when he heard this. The young man was quite tenacious.
Not bad, not bad. You must be a good worker.
"Are you interested in writing poetry? Have you published any works?" Yao Shuzhi asked.
"Yes. I published a poem in Feitian magazine in the first half of the year, and a group of poems in Xingxing magazine last month." Tong Zhonggui answered honestly.
Everyone became interested as soon as they heard this. College students who could come to the Chinese Literature Society to help were basically literature enthusiasts, but not many of them could publish their works.
"Feitian" was originally named "Gansu Literature". As the name suggests, it is at the same level as "Yenjing Literature".
It was founded in 1950 and resumed publication in 1981, renamed "Feitian". It is one of the most influential literary magazines in Northwest China.
Not to mention "Xingxing". There are many poetry magazines in China now, but "Xingxing" is the first truly professional poetry magazine.
Being able to publish his works in two publications with such popularity and influence, it can be said that Tong Zhonggui's ability has already begun to move away from being a literature enthusiast and towards becoming a professional author.
Zhu Changsheng searched his desk, "Hey, I remember I read those two copies of Stars last month."
He searched for a while and found two magazines, which he excitedly handed to Tong Zhonggui.
"Xiao Tong, take a look, which issue was your poem published in? Let us all take a look!"
Tong Zhonggui showed a bit of young shyness on his face. He opened an issue of "Xingxing" and pointed at the name in the catalog.
“I wrote this.”
"Su Tong? That's your pen name?"
Lin Weimin, who was writing a letter with his head down, suddenly looked up.
"Yes. I used my real name when submitting articles. Later, I published a poem in Feitian magazine. After reading it, I felt that it was a bit tacky to print my real name directly in the publication, so I took this pen name." Tong Zhonggui said truthfully.
"Su Tong! What a good name!"
When no one was paying attention, Lin Weimin came over, and everyone heard what he said and looked over.
(End of this chapter)
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