Chapter 520 Author Interview
A few years ago, Lin Weimin was an unknown person in the United States and had no right to negotiate with publishers. At that time, whatever book Random House chose would be published.
But now it is different. Lin Weimin's reputation in the United States is getting louder and louder. Although he is not known to everyone, he is at least well-known in the mainstream literary and theater circles of the United States, as well as among many readers and audiences.
With his current fame, he can negotiate the conditions and publish some of his books that do not seem to suit the U.S. market and readers' tastes here.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a box office hit or not, as long as more people can learn about that period of history.
Lin Weimin made his attitude clear, and Roger Strauss no longer hesitated. After all, Lin Weimin's request was not excessive. He only needed to choose one of the three and publish a book.
There was no strict requirement on the print run number. As long as it was not too outrageous, Lin Weimin could accept it. Roger Strauss agreed to Lin Weimin's request.
The two chatted for more than two hours and had almost finished discussing the matter. Roger Strauss invited Lin Weimin to dinner to celebrate Lin Weimin's first collaboration with FSG Publishing.
Today's meeting is just the beginning of the cooperation. During this period, FSG Publishing House will learn about several of Lin Weimin's works and finally decide on the works to be published. Then there will be a series of procedures such as translation of the works, application for edition numbers, binding design, typesetting and printing, etc. It will take at least a year and a half to complete. If the translation is not good, the time may be even longer.
When he returned home in the evening, Lin Weimin received a call from Qiao Sen.
"Lin, why didn't you tell me you were coming to the United States?" As soon as the call was connected, Qiao Sen's complaints rushed into Lin Weimin's ears.
In recent years, Qiao Sen would almost always mention the book signing event every time he called him. Over the years, Lin Weimin's works have accumulated a large number of loyal readers.
Lin Weimin is the first writer in the history of Random House whose works are so popular today but has never held a book signing event in the United States.
"If I hadn't seen the interview in The New Yorker, you would have almost run away!"
There was a hint of relief in Qiao Sen's complaints.
"Qiao Sen, I'm here for my honeymoon."
"You promised me!" Qiao Sen said resentfully.
Lin Weimin knew he was in the wrong, and at Qiao Sen's pleading, he finally agreed to go to the Random House headquarters tomorrow for a detailed discussion.
The next day, at the invitation of Qiao Sen, Lin Weimin came to the headquarters of Random House in New York.
The Random House Building, also known as the Empire Park Apartments, is located on Broadway and is both the headquarters of Random House and a high-end residential building.
The apartment and Random House have independent entrances. The entrance of the apartment is on 56th Street, while the entrance of Random House is on Broadway Avenue. When Lin Weimin arrived at the door of the building, he saw Qiao Sen.
Qiao Sen warmly pulled Lin Weimin to the elevator. The office of Random House was on the 27th floor. He took Lin Weimin on a tour and met with several senior executives of Random House. Then they went to the conference room to talk about Lin Weimin's activities during this period.
Lin Weimin had not contacted Qiao Sen for more than a month since he came to New York, but he still learned about Lin Weimin's visit to New York from a report in The New Yorker, and naturally felt resentful towards Lin Weimin.
But even though he complained, Qiao Sen had not been idle since he contacted Lin Weimin last night. He had finally managed to get Lin Weimin to New York, so he had to fill his interviews, speeches, and book signing sessions to make up for Lin Weimin's slackness in publicity work in recent years.
Lin Weimin looked at the itinerary that Qiao Sen had drawn out for him. If he continued to work at this intensity, he would be busy for at least a month.
"Too much! Too much!"
Lin Weimin snatched the pen from Qiao Sen's hand and scribbled on the itinerary. Qiao Sen took it and looked at it, and broke his bone.
Qiao Sen said anxiously, "Lin, this is too little. You haven't participated in any activities since you published your works in the United States. How can these few activities be enough?"
Lin Weimin waved his hands. "It's not like I'm trying to build momentum for an award. There's no need to organize so many activities. Besides, I came to the U.S. for my honeymoon, not for work."
Seeing Lin Weimin's tough attitude, Qiao Sen felt regretful. "Okay, let's leave it at that for now. Next time you come to the United States, you must give me more time and tell me in advance!"
Seeing Qiao Sen's expression of a resentful woman, Lin Weimin nodded helplessly.
Then he remembered his collaboration with Roger Strauss, and he had to talk to Qiao Sen about it for both moral and practical reasons.
When Qiao Sen was told that Lin Weimin was going to cooperate with FSG Publishing, he was shocked.
"Lin, are you dissatisfied with your cooperation with our publishing house?"
"Well... I can't say I'm dissatisfied. The main reason is that Mr. Strauss is willing to publish my works that have not been published in the United States."
Qiao Sen instantly understood why Lin Weimin agreed to cooperate with FSG Publishing House. This was indeed an offer that was difficult to refuse.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help feeling regretful.
Random House should have signed an exclusive cooperation agreement with Lin Weimin at the beginning. Now, FSG Publishing has suddenly appeared. Although it is only publishing a few works left over by Random House, cooperation will always happen again after the first time.
Who knows, someday they will pull Lin Weimin over to their side. By that time, Random House will suffer a huge loss!
While Qiao Sen was feeling remorseful, he couldn't help but curse at the senior executives who made the decision when signing the agreement with Lin Weimin.
When Random House wanted to publish Lin Weimin's works on a large scale, it had the opportunity to obtain the exclusive publishing rights to all of Lin Weimin's works, including subsequent works.
Everything has its pros and cons. If such an agreement is signed, the price to pay is to publish all the works that Lin Weimin has created.
However, after review by Random House, it was felt that several of Lin Weimin's works lacked appeal to the American public and that publishing them would basically amount to a loss, so the contract was modified immediately.
A few years ago, there was nothing wrong with this idea.
Lin Weimin is just an unknown Chinese writer in the United States. It is almost impossible for his works to enter the U.S. market except through Random House. Random House is in an absolute advantageous position in the cooperation between the two parties, so there is naturally no need to worry.
But no one expected that the direction of cooperation between the two sides would reverse from offense to defense within just a few years.
When Lin Weimin won the Goncourt Prize, Qiao Sen considered whether to renegotiate and sign an exclusive publishing agreement with Lin Weimin, but this proposal was again rejected by senior management.
The reason why the proposal was rejected was very simple. If they wanted to sign such an exclusive publishing agreement halfway, they would have to pay Lin Weimin a fee. Considering the popularity of Lin Weimin's works in the United States today, this fee would not be a small amount, and the company was afraid that Lin Weimin would ask for an exorbitant amount.
Instead of doing this, it would be better to wait for the current publishing contract to expire, change the content of the contract when signing a new one, and then give Lin Weimin some benefits. This way, the cost may be much smaller if things go naturally.
Qiao Sen smiled bitterly in his heart. The company's idea could not be said to be wrong, but there was a prerequisite that no other publishing house would pursue Lin Weimin. The shortcomings of large companies' rigidity and arrogance were fully reflected in the cooperation between Random House and Lin Weimin.
Faced with the current situation, Qiao Sen had no choice but to smile bitterly.
The best thing to do now is to give Lin Weimin some money immediately and then sign an exclusive publishing agreement with him immediately.
But Qiao Sen knew that his idea was almost impossible to realize. The agreement that was not signed at the beginning had to be signed now, and the price to pay would only be greater than before.
This also means that the decision made by the top management was wrong. After so many years in the workplace, Qiao Sen understands that if this situation really happens, he will probably be the first scapegoat.
So, he wisely chose to remain silent.
Qiao Sen was more concerned about the renewal of the contracts for Lin Weimin's works. According to the current trend, Lin Weimin had at least two or three novels that would continue to be bestsellers. As long as he could hold on to the contracts for these novels, his work achievements would not be wiped out.
Facing Qiao Sen's question, Lin Weimin said easily: "Under the same conditions, your publishing house is of course the first choice."
After hearing Lin Weimin's words, Qiao Sen felt a little relieved. The previous contract was signed in this way, but hearing such words from Lin Weimin still made him feel at ease.
It takes a certain amount of time for Random House to prepare for various activities. Lin Weimin waited for a few days, but did not receive any event arrangements from Random House. Instead, he received a call from Roger Strauss.
Roger Strauss's tone on the phone was somewhat excited, "Lin, I want to give you a great gift this time!"
The news that excited Roger Strauss also aroused Lin Weimin's curiosity.
“I arranged an interview for you with a writer from The Paris Review!”
"The Paris Review. I've read their publications," said Lin Weimin.
After Roger Strauss finished telling Lin Weimin the news, he could not help but remind him, "Lin, you must take this interview seriously. You don't understand the importance of this long interview in The Paris Review in the American literary world!"
The name of "Paris Review" contains the word "Paris", but it is actually an American literary quarterly. It was founded in 1953 and publishes mainly novels and poems. The publication is mainly divided into several sections, including art, culture, interviews and literature. Among them, the "Writer Interviews" section is the most popular among readers, and it is also the biggest feature of "Paris Review" that stands out in the American literary world.
Since the EM Forster interview in the inaugural issue in 1953, The Paris Review has invited a contemporary writer for a long interview in each issue. Over the past thirty years, more than 140 long interviews have been conducted, covering almost all the most important writers in the world literary scene in the mid-to-late 20th century.
Among them, there are many writers that Chinese people are familiar with, such as Hemingway, Milan Kundera, Marquez, Haruki Murakami, Stephen King...
The decades-long history of "Writer Interviews" is almost synonymous with the publication "Paris Review".
After explaining to Lin Weimin the importance of The Paris Review and the writer interview, Roger Strauss concluded: "Lin, this interview represents the recognition of your literary status by the mainstream American literary community!"
Roger Strauss's caution is not excessive. The writer interview with The Paris Review may seem like an ordinary interview, but it contains extremely special significance.
In later generations of the Chinese entertainment industry, there is a way of creating stars called "raising the stars", and Taiwanese people are the most skilled at it.
If they want to promote a newcomer with no fame or works, they will choose to invest in a big production and then find a bunch of famous stars to play supporting roles for the newcomer.
When the work is released, the audience will see that so many big stars are playing supporting roles, and they will subconsciously regard the new protagonist as a big star.
In this way, it only takes a few years and a few works to make an unknown newcomer a popular star.
The quality of the writer interviews of The Paris Review will naturally not be that low, and they will not take the initiative to do such a thing, but if Lin Weimin can be featured in The Paris Review, the effect that can be achieved will indeed be similar to "promoting his status".
(End of this chapter)
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