Chapter 526 Abnormal Sales
Lin Weimin is busy introducing the works of American writer Richard Yates, and some people are also busy introducing his works.
One day in mid-August, Lin Weimin was working in the office when Cheng Zaochun called him to the office in the front building.
As soon as he entered the door, Lin Weimin saw that besides him, there was also a fat old man sitting in Cheng Zaochun's office.
Cheng Zaochun stood up and introduced: "Weimin, let me introduce you, this is Mr. Guo Feng from Wandao. Mr. Guo, this is Comrade Lin Weimin."
Guo Feng stood up and shook hands with Lin Weimin enthusiastically. "I have heard of Mr. Lin's name for a long time. It is rare to see him today. He is even better than the rumors."
Lin Weimin didn't understand what was going on and just exchanged a few polite words with Guo Feng.
After he sat down, Cheng Zaochun asked, "Weimin, your works were published in Wandao a few years ago, right?"
"Yes. At that time, I published a collection with several other writers, which was published by Lindbergh Publishing House."
In 1985, Pan Yaoming of Hong Kong Joint Publishing Company took the lead in publishing a collection of works by ten mainland writers, including Lin Weimin, on behalf of Lin Bai Publishing House in Taiwan.
It was a pity that the ban had not been lifted on the island at that time, and Lin Bai Publishing House did not dare to publicize it on a large scale, so the publication did not cause much response on the island at the time.
Cheng Zaochun smiled and said, "Mr. Guo Feng came this time to introduce your works to Wandao in an all-round way. Do you know the set of Contemporary Chinese Mainland Writers Series published by Wandao in 1987?"
“I’ve heard of it.”
Cheng Zaochun said: "The Contemporary Chinese Mainland Writers Series was published by Mr. Guo Feng with his personal financial resources, after obtaining the authorization of our writers, and publishing their works in Taiwan. At that time, Taiwan had not yet lifted the ban, and Mr. Guo dared to be the first in the world, which caused a sensation in the Taiwan publishing industry."
Lin Weimin nodded. The "Contemporary Mainland Chinese Writers Series" published by Wandao in 1987 was two years later than the collection published by Lin Bai Publishing House, but the sensation was incomparable. During these two years, more and more mainland writers were introduced to Wandao through the series, which set off a mainland fever on the island.
"Mr. Lin's works first landed in Wandao a few years ago, which left a deep impression on me. In recent years, Mr. Lin's works have won many awards overseas, and our Wandao readers also feel proud.
The Contemporary Chinese Mainland Writers Series has been published for two years now. This time we hope to publish a special volume on your works to fully introduce your works to Taiwan Island readers. "
Lin Weimin was a little surprised to hear this. "Contemporary Chinese Mainland Writers Series" is a series of books. In the past two years, it has introduced works by more than 20 domestic writers, and is still introducing more works.
The types of works introduced are classified into seven categories: classical literature, literature by female writers, literature by ethnic minorities, poetry, prose, short stories, and literary criticism.
Guo Feng said that publishing a special volume of a series about his works was naturally an unusual treatment.
Guo Feng smiled and said, "I should have contacted you earlier, but in the past two years, I have mostly contacted mainland writers through the Writers Association..."
Guo Feng stopped talking here.
There was no need to continue, Lin Weimin already understood what Guo Feng meant. In the first half of 1988, he withdrew from the Writers Association in anger because of the incident that happened during the writers' group's visit to France, and he has never returned since then.
The Writers Association was severely slapped in the face by Lin Weimin, but due to Lin Weimin's current status in the country, they dared not do anything.
Now Lin Weimin and the Writers Association maintain superficial harmony and decency, but it is impossible to ask the Writers Association to contact him to help him publish in Taiwan.
This time, Guo Feng, on behalf of Wandao Xindi Literary Publishing House, planned to cooperate with Guowen Publishing House to publish the "Wandao Writers Selected Works Series". Taking advantage of the opportunity to cooperate with Guowen Publishing House, he and Cheng Zaochun proposed the idea of publishing Lin Weimin's works.
Guo Feng was a distinguished guest of the relevant department and had made great contributions to the cultural exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Cheng Zaochun naturally would not refuse his request and called Lin Weimin over.
Cheng Zaochun and Guo Feng talked to each other, and Lin Weimin had almost understood the whole story.
He pondered and said, "Mr. Guo wants to publish my work in Taiwan Island, which is of course a good thing for me personally..."
Guo Feng continued, "Mr. Lin's works are popular overseas. As for the remuneration, our publishing house can settle it in the form of royalties according to international practice, with a royalty share of 13%."
For several years, Wandao has published works by mainland writers, and the royalties are mostly settled according to the mainland's way, based on the number of words, because the regional economy is relatively well developed.
Mainland writers who publish their works in Taiwan can receive relatively high royalties, usually around 10 to 20 US dollars per thousand words. Converted into RMB, this is three to four times higher than the domestic standard of royalties.
And the treatment that Guo Feng gives to Lin Weimin is top-notch in the industry.
Lin Weimin was surprised at Guo Feng's generosity and frankness, but in fact he did not understand the public opinion atmosphere in Taiwan.
Don’t underestimate the ice-breaking between the Taiwan Strait and China in recent years, as relations are becoming increasingly harmonious.
However, Taiwan has a history of being pro-American for several decades, and the trend of worshipping America and the West is even stronger than on the mainland. Lin Weimin's works have repeatedly won major awards in Western countries. After several years of continuous publicity in the news media, he has long been an internationally renowned writer in the hearts of the people of Taiwan.
Therefore, Guo Feng did not hesitate when talking about the treatment.
He believed that as long as he could obtain the publishing rights of Lin Weimin's works in Taiwan, all these costs would be worth it!
"Since Mr. Guo is so straightforward, I won't be hypocritical."
Lin Weimin and Guo Feng discussed the publishing issues in detail for a while, and finally agreed that Lin Weimin could receive 13% royalties from the publication of his works, and the print run would not be less than 200,000 copies.
Except for several works involving sensitive content in the series of Lin Weimin's works, Xindi Literature Publishing House plans to publish the remaining works in sets. Two hundred thousand sets are actually at least hundreds of thousands of copies, which is definitely a big deal.
They agreed to sign the specific publishing contract in a few days. Before Guo Feng left, he mentioned his plan to hold an international academic conference on cross-strait literature and invited Lin Weimin to attend.
Lin Weimin decisively rejected his invitation. Such places where literati gathered have always been places of gossip since ancient times, and he didn't want to join in the fun.
After Guo Feng left, Cheng Zaochun said to Lin Weimin, "Mr. Guo has invested a lot of money this time!"
"What's the meaning?"
Cheng Zaochun smiled and said, "You don't know yet, do you? He has published the works of so many domestic writers, and he is now a well-known figure in the domestic literary world. It is rumored that he is very shrewd. When he encounters writers who are shy about negotiating royalties, he will lower the price as much as possible. If they refuse to give in, he will raise it."
"After all, he is a businessman!" Lin Weimin smiled and didn't care.
It is true that Guo Feng is enthusiastic about cross-strait exchanges, but ultimately he is not working for free; his goal is still to make money.
Of course, it’s not right to say that their only purpose is to make money. This is called making money and communicating at the same time.
August 1989 belonged to "Dust Settles". Since "Contemporary" was released at the beginning of the month, "Dust Settles" enjoyed the highest publication treatment in this issue of the publication, which seemed to have foreshadowed the success of this work.
In just one month, tens of thousands of letters from readers poured into the editorial office of Contemporary, and newspapers across the country published a large number of reviews and comments about Dust Settles.
A month after its publication, book reviews about the novel began to appear in various literary review magazines.
Most literary works always receive some negative word of mouth and comments after they are published, and Lin Weimin's works are no exception.
But whether in the mouths of readers or in the evaluation of critics, "Dust Settles" is surprisingly good.
Such excellent reputation also helped promote the spread of "Dust Settles" among the public. The eighth issue of "Contemporary" in August set a sales peak this year.
"Another two million copies have been sold!" He Qizhi said happily.
It has been a month since the eighth issue of "Contemporary" was released. In the previous issues, the printing volume was generally 1.5 million copies. At this time, the sales of the magazine have basically entered the long-tail sales stage, with about 200,000 to 300,000 copies left in the channel, and they will be sold out in two months.
However, because of the sudden appearance of "Dust Settles" in this issue of "Contemporary", the first batch of 1.5 million copies has been sold out. Based on the feedback from bookstores and post offices in various places, "Contemporary" printed another 600,000 copies, which should be able to meet the needs of readers.
Zou Changyi suddenly asked: "Don't you think there's something wrong with the market this year?"
Many colleagues in the editorial department looked at him, and He Qizhi asked, "What's wrong?"
"This is the eighth issue this year, and this is the first issue of our publication to have sales of over two million copies," said Zou Changyi.
Yao Shuzhi disagreed and said, "The quality of the manuscripts this year is good, but there are no influential works. Without top students, the results of our class are naturally not outstanding."
The others nodded, and they all felt that what Yao Shuzhi said made sense.
But Zou Changyi did not say anything, instead he frowned.
"What's wrong? Is there something wrong?"
At this moment, Lin Weimin walked into the office and saw a bunch of colleagues looking at Zou Changyi, while he had a serious look on his face.
Yao Shuzhi said: "Everyone just talked about the problem of our publication sales. Changyi may feel that our sales are a little abnormal."
Lin Weimin asked with a smile: "What's abnormal?"
Yao Shuzhi did not answer his question but looked at Zou Changyi.
After a moment of contemplation, Zou Changyi said, "It feels like the overall sales this year are still down, and it wasn't until August that the first issue of a publication broke the 2 million sales mark, which is not normal."
Other colleagues expressed disapproval, and all believed that the cause of this phenomenon was the quality of the manuscript.
Lin Weimin said in a calm tone: "It is a fact that sales are declining. The most important thing is to find the reason for this situation."
When everyone heard what he said, they looked at him unconsciously.
"What's the reason?" Yao Shuzhi asked what was on everyone's mind.
Lin Weimin said: "You can calculate the sales trend of Contemporary magazine in the past three years, and then calculate the sales of People's Literature, Harvest, October, Zhongshan, and Huacheng in the past three years, and you will know."
After saying this, Lin Weimin left the office, but his colleagues were intrigued by his words.
Lin Weimin spoke so confidently just now, he must know the reason. Since he asked everyone to do the statistics, there must be a reason.
A few people couldn't suppress their curiosity and didn't even bother to review the manuscripts and started doing statistics.
The editorial department of "Contemporary" has the data, but the difficult part is the data of several other publications. We can only shamelessly call them one by one to ask.
After all, they are all in the same circle, and several publications occasionally cooperate with each other. I can't say I know all the editors, but there are always some acquaintances. After a day of hard work, I finally got the sales data of each company for the past two years.
When it was time to get off work, the old comrades shamelessly ran away and handed this glorious task to Tong Zhonggui. He was still working overtime even after everyone had left.
It took Tong Zhonggui half an hour to finally sort out the sales data of several major domestic literary magazines for the past three years. After comparing them, he couldn't help but widen his eyes.
"this……"
(End of this chapter)
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