Chapter 439 Hong Kong Publishing
"The Hunt" was written in a very short time, only about ten days. At 160,000 to 170,000 words, it can only be considered a short novel, but no one dares to underestimate this novel.
Any editor of Guowen Publishing House who has read this novel can see that the birth of this novel symbolizes that Lin Weimin has fully entered the mature stage in his creation.
It should be said that "Hunting" is the best novel written by Lin Weimin in recent years.
Apart from political factors, such novels should be the object of competition among many top literary magazines in the country.
However, given the recent popularity, this novel seems to be a bit of a hot potato.
As the head of the Guowen Publishing House, Cheng Zaochun is actually very conflicted.
Lin Weimin is a member of the Guowen Publishing House, and his novels have always been published by the Guowen Publishing House, and rarely left outside the publishing house.
This is the treasure of the Guowen Society. If anyone dared to confront him, he would have cursed at them and suspended them from work for reflection.
But faced with Lin Weimin's unreasonable demands, he could only scold him a few words and then try to smooth things over.
The novel must be published, but there is still room for adjustment!
I sent it to Harvest because I was in a desperate situation and if Harvest had really accepted the manuscript, the Guowen Publishing House would have been extremely embarrassed.
The publishing house has always wanted to make "Contemporary" the country's top pure literature magazine, and now it seems that the development trend of "Contemporary" has indeed surpassed "Harvest" a little.
But if we can't stand the pressure at this time and hand over "Hunting" to "Harvest", it would be a great shame!
Lin Weimin was the chief editor of Contemporary Magazine, but he didn't dare to publish his own work and had to submit it to his competitors.
I can't afford to lose this person!
Therefore, you definitely cannot invest in "Harvest", no matter what.
It will be published in Contemporary China, but at this time...
"August? Isn't that still four or five months away?" Lin Weimin looked at Cheng Zaochun with dissatisfaction.
"It will be very fast, just a few months. If you wait normally, won't it take two or three months to send it out? It's just one more month to wait!" Cheng Zaochun tempted.
Lin Weimin hesitated. After all, Cheng Zaochun was the head of the community and had already made concessions. It would be inappropriate for him to push him too far.
"Okay then!" Lin Weimin said reluctantly.
Cheng Zaochun smiled when he heard this, "That's right! There's no need to go against the wind and commit crimes."
Lin Weimin instinctively felt that there was something fishy behind Old Cheng's smiling face. He guessed correctly, Cheng Zaochun did have some bad intentions.
Just delay it as long as possible, wait until August first. If the situation is still serious then, we can think of another solution!
If a leader doesn’t even have this little trick, how can he survive in official circles?
After seeing Lin Weimin off with a smile, Cheng Zaochun shook his head.
This kid is really a cause for concern!
After finishing "Hunting", Lin Weimin returned to his normal work.
Upon hearing that the novel "Hunting" would be published in August, my colleagues in the editorial department breathed a sigh of relief. At least it would not be published now, and everyone still had a few months to live a peaceful life.
Yesterday, Mo Yan submitted his latest novella "Joy", which became the focus of review by the editorial department in the past two days.
The publication of "Red Sorghum Family" successfully put Mo Yan half a step ahead of his peers.
The movie "Red Sorghum", adapted from the first chapter of "Red Sorghum Family", successfully won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, making Mo Yan even more famous.
This movie is currently being shown in cinemas across the country. Although Lin Weimin's name is listed first in the screenwriter column, no one can erase Mo Yan's contribution as the original author and screenwriter.
"Joy" is Mo Yan's first novella after "Red Sorghum", so it naturally received much attention from the editorial department.
The plot of "Joy" is not complicated. Yongle, who comes from a poor family, is like thousands of other rural children. He hopes to pass the college entrance examination, escape from the countryside, and get rid of poverty and backwardness.
But I took the college entrance examination five times and failed five times. My hopes were dashed and my efforts were in vain.
He was bored, depressed, miserable, helpless. His mother was very concerned about him, his brother was helpless under the pressure of life, and he was despised by his sister-in-law and everyone else. He had no hope for the future...
Everything was oppressing him, and he was helpless, so he had to run away from home and embark on the road of no return for "happiness".
The editorial review went smoothly. The temperament of "Joy" has some adolescent symptoms. Although it is a bit decadent as a whole, it does not violate any taboos.
Everyone's review opinions were consistent and agreed to publish.
Lin Weimin called Mo Yan to the editorial office again that day and told him the news.
"Your military studies over the past few years have not been in vain. You have slowly developed your own unique style. Your writing is sharp, your stories are innocent and tragic, and you can smell the flavor of the countryside."
Mo Yan was very happy with Lin Weimin's praise.
However, after several years of training, he was no longer as excited about the publication of his works as before, and he turned to talk to Lin Weimin about another matter.
"You want to go to the College of Arts?" Lin Weimin looked a little surprised.
Recently, the National Academy of Literature has teamed up with a key university in Yenching, Yenching Normal University, to jointly run a graduate class for writers. The course lasts two years and will start in the second half of this year. It just so happens that Mo Yan has just graduated from the PLA Art Academy at that time.
According to Mo Yan, he had just graduated from the Military Art Academy and entered the National Academy of Arts. His main purpose was to learn some English.
Looking at Mo Yan's eager face for knowledge, Lin Weimin was speechless for a moment.
As a novelist, why do you need to learn English?
Of course, this cannot be said directly, it has to be more subtle.
“Does learning English have anything to do with your novel writing?”
Mo Yan said: "English is a universal language after all, so there is no harm in learning it. Besides, entering the National Academy of Literature is also a kind of learning for my literary creation."
Faced with Mo Yan's eagerness to learn, Lin Weimin felt embarrassed to pour cold water on him, as he was right.
I entered the graduate class for writers jointly organized by Yenching Normal University and the National Academy of Literature, but I didn't just learn English.
"That's good. It's always good to study more, and I'll have more time to create."
There are very few full-time writers these days. Most writers have full-time jobs and write as a part-time job.
Mo Yan went to study in the graduate class for writers. In addition to study time every day, he could free up a lot of time for writing, which was killing two birds with one stone.
Mo Yan was very happy to have Lin Weimin's support. He joked, "This is a good opportunity for me to change my image as a country bumpkin."
If you learn English, you are no longer a "country bumpkin"?
Your "rustic" nature has nothing to do with whether you learn English or not, but has to do with your image. It's the "rustic" nature of a local dog.
In terms of image, Teacher Lin has always had a sense of superiority, especially when facing Mo Yan and Yu Hua.
"This time you should be considered Yu Hua's junior. If this kid knew about this, he would definitely show off." Lin Weimin said with a smile.
Mo Yan also laughed. He knew Yu Hua, and Teacher Lin knew Yu Hua even better. Given his personality, it was absolutely possible that he would have such an attitude.
After talking about his own affairs, Mo Yan started to care about Lin Weimin again. When he came, he had already heard about Lin Weimin's new novel. Hearing that it would not be published until August, Mo Yan was full of regret.
A few days later, Lin Weimin received a letter from Hong Kong.
The person who wrote the letter was Pan Yaoming, the head of Joint Publishing Company in Hong Kong.
In his letter, he first made a few polite remarks, then mentioned that he heard that Lin Weimin's new work "Burning" won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Novel. He congratulated Lin Weimin and said in the letter that this was the pride of all Chinese people.
In the second half of the letter, Pan Yaoming did not forget to mention an interesting thing he had heard recently.
"The Ming Dynasty 1566" was published two years ago. It first circulated in the literary circle of Hong Kong, and then spread to the business circle. It became inexplicably popular, and many businessmen and bosses praised this novel highly.
Some time ago, the manuscript of "The Ming Dynasty 1566" was lost in Hong Kong. When Pan Yaoming was having a party with his friends, he heard that the manuscript was collected by a Hong Kong boss at a high price of 200,000 Hong Kong dollars. The boss who collected the manuscript was none other than Zheng Yutong, the jewelry tycoon of Hong Kong.
Everyone understands the excellence of this novel, but spending 200,000 Hong Kong dollars to collect the manuscript of a living writer is already legendary, and the owner of the collection is one of the most famous wealthy people in Hong Kong.
This incident quickly sparked heated discussions in the literary circle.
As the influence of "The Ming Dynasty 1566" continues to grow in Hong Kong, many readers who have read the mainland version hope that this novel can be published in Hong Kong.
Sanlian Bookstore attaches great importance to readers' feedback. In addition, they have close ties with the mainland, so they wrote to us specifically hoping to publish "The Ming Dynasty 1566".
At the end of the letter, Pan Yaoming did not forget to mention the standard of royalties.
Because of the previous serialization of "Farewell My Concubine" and "The Lover" in Hong Kong, Lin Weimin's works have a large audience in Hong Kong.
In recent years, his novels have been published and sold well overseas, and he has won the Naoki Prize in Japan and the National Book Critics Circle Award in the United States. His reputation has also spread to Hong Kong, and in the minds of Hong Kong readers, he has become a great writer who plays an important role in the Chinese literary world.
Therefore, Pan Yaoming gave a very sincere fee standard, 13% royalties.
Lin Weimin was very satisfied with this and took the initiative to call Pan Yaoming back.
Because the publication of "Farewell My Concubine" and "The Lover" was previously blocked, Lin Weimin specifically asked about censorship.
Pan Yaoming laughed and explained the reason.
There are two reasons why Sanlian Bookstore was confident in publishing "The Ming Dynasty 1566".
Firstly, "The Ming Dynasty 1566" is a historical work and does not involve modern or contemporary elements, so the censorship of the British Hong Kong government is relatively loose.
Secondly, there were a group of businessmen and bosses who contributed to the cause. When they heard that Sanlian Bookstore wanted to publish this novel, several Chinese bosses who were familiar with the British offered to help. This also shows how popular this novel was among the business community in Hong Kong.
Since censorship was not a problem, Lin Weimin readily agreed to the matter. The next step was to wait for the publishing contract in Hong Kong.
Lin Weimin used the phone in the president's office and did not avoid Cheng Zaochun. After he finished the call, the two chatted about the manuscript of "The Ming Dynasty 1566".
The Guowen Publishing House had only lost a manuscript once several decades after its founding, and only one manuscript was lost, which was Lin Weimin's "The Ming Dynasty 1566".
Cheng Zaochun only found out when Lin Weimin called that the manuscript of the novel had actually been lost in Hong Kong and was collected by a boss in Hong Kong at a high price.
This sounds unbelievable no matter how you listen to it!
"Why do they collect your manuscripts?" Cheng Zaochun couldn't help asking.
"Who knows? Maybe he's afraid that I'll die young, so he collects it in advance!" Lin Weimin joked.
"Bah, bah, bah! Nonsense!"
Cheng Zaochun was very unhappy with Lin Weimin, but after all, he was the treasure of the Guowen Society. He wished that he lived a long life!
(End of this chapter)
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