Chapter 576: I don’t write novels anymore, what will the people read?
The newly established Popular Literature and Art Publishing House occupied part of Lin Weimin's work energy. Since there was no independent planning office, the publishing direction and content of the publishing house could only be discussed by Lin Weimin and several young editors in occasional meetings.
Because it was just established and has few staff, the atmosphere in the editorial department is quite relaxed.
At present, the main focus of several young editors is still on the collection of Jin Yong's works, but at the same time, Lin Weimin has also set goals for them, asking them to contact more domestic martial arts novel masters during this period. In the next six months, the publishing direction of Popular Literature and Art Publishing House will revolve around martial arts novels.
Now that the team has just opened and has a weak foundation, specializing in martial arts novels is the wisest choice.
In the 1980s, with the continuous rise of cities, the expansion of the urban middle class, the development of mass media, and the increasing demand for cultural consumption in society as a whole.
In the early 1980s, the development of popular literature in China was mainly based on the introduction of works from Hong Kong and Taiwan, such as Qiong Yao's romance novels, Jin Yong, Liang Yusheng and Gu Long's martial arts novels, and TV series such as "Huo Yuanjia" and "Chen Zhen".
Then there was the flourishing of publications. In July 1981, Legends of the Past and Present was launched, in January 1985, Chapter Fiction and Selected Legendary Literature were launched, and in November 1985, Chinese Stories was launched...
A series of works such as "Yu Jiaolong", "The Great Hero of Tianjin Huo Yuanjia", "The Legend of Thief Swallow Li San", "Chronicles of the Jianghu", "Criminal Police Captain" and "Black Temptation" are widely welcomed by readers and are in great demand in the domestic book market.
However, because ideology still occupies a central position in recent years and pure literature still holds a strong voice, these popular literatures, although developing vigorously behind the scenes, are difficult to be accepted by the mainstream ideology and pure literature and are often singled out for criticism.
By the mid-to-late 1980s, as the country and the people gradually shifted their focus to economic development, the development of popular literature continued to accelerate, and it had gradually established itself in the literary world, forming its own independent circle, and rapidly occupying the mass culture market.
The sales volume of "Story Club" in Shanghai was 6.5 million copies per issue, the sales volume of "Legends of the Past and Present" in Hubei was nearly 2 million copies per issue, the sales volume of "Woodpecker" in Yenching was 1.75 million copies per issue, and the sales volume of "Folk Literature" in Shanxi was 1 million copies per issue. There were also various street tabloids, and their sales volumes ranged from hundreds of thousands to one or two million copies. All this information was collected by Lin Weimin during this period.
Compared with the vast majority of pure literature publications that find it difficult to break the sales ceiling of one million copies, popular literature publications almost crush them in terms of sales.
Even the sales volume of Contemporary, the absolute leader in the field of pure literature in China, seems mediocre when placed in the market of popular literature publications.
Now that we have just entered the 1990s, popular literature is still unstoppable in the domestic literary field, especially when piracy continues to erode the pure literature market.
Guowen Publishing House has restored the Popular Literature and Art Publishing House as its subsidiary publishing house. If we do not participate in it and take a piece of the pie, it would be a waste of what heaven has given us.
Lin Weimin also has the idea of publishing a martial arts novel magazine. Although martial arts novels have gradually declined in Hong Kong and Taiwan in recent years, they still have a huge audience market in the mainland and can reap the market dividends for at least another decade.
There are currently no real martial arts fiction publications in China. Magazines such as "Wulin" and "Jin Gu Chuan Qi", which have content that is similar to martial arts fiction, are not pure martial arts fiction publications. Establishing a martial arts fiction publication can quickly open up the market for Tongwenshe and identify a certain readership group.
Unfortunately, Tongwen Press has too few authors and manuscript resources now, so this idea can only be implemented slowly.
After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, it is March in the Gregorian calendar.
After a snowfall a few days ago, the temperature in Yanjing City began to gradually rise.
Yu Hua has been in the editorial department of Tongwen Press for a week. His entry procedures have just been completed and he has now officially become a member of Guowen Press.
Well, Tongwen Society is a subsidiary of Guowen Society. In theory, he is a member of Guowen Society.
These days, he reads Jin Yong's martial arts novels at work, and wanders around Yanjing City after get off work. He is happier than when he was studying at the National Academy of Literature a few years ago. After all, he still had to study during the day.
That afternoon, when it was almost time to get off work, Yu Hua was thinking about where to go for the evening, but was called to the office by Lin Weimin.
"Have you adapted to work these days?"
"Adapt, so adapt!"
"That's good. How's your progress?"
Yu Hua hesitated for a moment and said, "The proofreading should be completed next week."
Lin Weimin nodded and reminded, "This is Jin Yong's first attempt at a martial arts novel, so we don't require you to be fast this time. You need to be more efficient next time. It will take several people nearly two months to complete the ready-made materials, which is too inefficient."
Yu Hua was not unhappy at all after being criticized by Lin Weimin. Instead, he felt guilty instinctively. He had been in the editorial department for a week and was very familiar with the current atmosphere in the editorial department.
Everyone says they are proofreading manuscripts at work, but in fact they are just reading novels. Sometimes they forget about proofreading while reading and are so excited.
"knew."
Yu Hua honestly expressed his opinion and asked, "Teacher Lin, Jin Yong's work will be finished soon. Whose novel should we edit next? How about Gu Long?"
"That's a nice thought. Do you think you can write anyone's novel you want?"
"I'm just asking!"
Lin Weimin said: "Gu Long's novels are too diverse and there are too many publishers involved. It will take a long time to coordinate. Next, we will focus on famous Hong Kong martial arts novelists."
After being scolded, Yu Hua didn't dare to ask any more questions and muttered in his heart: Then it's Liang Yusheng!
He was right. Lin Weimin’s next target was indeed Liang Yusheng.
But the prerequisite is that the collection of Jin Yong's works can be published as soon as possible, and then we can decide whether to continue introducing it after seeing the effect.
"How are you guys contacting the novel's author?"
"I contacted Nie Yunlan and Canmo. Nie Yunlan said that he is in poor health and has stopped writing. Canmo's fee is a bit high."
"How much?"
"Fifty yuan per thousand words."
Even though writers have started to receive royalties because of Wang Shuo, that is a matter of pure literature and has little to do with popular literature writers.
Most of the time, this group of people contribute articles to publications, and the pay ranges from ten to several dozen yuan per thousand words.
Nie Yunlan is the author of "Jade Jiaolong". Many people should be familiar with this name. It comes from Wang Dulu's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and "Jade Jiaolong" is the novel written by Nie Yunlan adapted from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
Speaking of Nie Yunlan's rewrite of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", there is a public case involved.
After he rewrote "Yu Jiaolong" based on "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", he published it in "Legends of the Past and Present" in 1983, under the name of Nie Yunlan, but did not indicate which novel or whose work it was rewritten from.
After the publication of "Yu Jiaolong", it was warmly welcomed by the readers. After the serialization of this novel ended, Nie Yunlan continued to work hard and rewrote Wang Dulu's "Iron Cavalry and Silver Bottle" into "Spring Snow Bottle" and continued to serialize it in "Legends of the Past and Present".
The serialization of these two martial arts novels caused the circulation of "Legends of the Past and Present" to soar from 410,000 copies to 2.73 million copies.
Afterwards, the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Publishing House published separate volumes of "Yu Jiaolong" and "Spring Snow Bottle". Within a few years, Nie Yunlan became a well-known martial arts novelist in the domestic popular literature circle, gaining both fame and fortune.
In 1987, Wang Dulu's wife Li Danquan learned about Nie Yunlan's rewriting and negotiated with Nie Yunlan through letters.
Nie Yunlan wrote back to apologize, and finally, with the mediation of "Legends of the Past and Present" magazine, Li Danquan did not pursue the matter further.
"Nie Yunlan is old and has not published any new works in the past few years, so don't look for him. Canmo can agree to his conditions, and Wuji can contact him again. I heard that the old man can still write 100,000 words a month, so give him 50 yuan per thousand words."
Can Mo started to publish martial arts novels in 1982. In recent years, he has written works such as "Shenzhou Lei" and "Blood Splattered on the Mandarin Duck Tent", and his works have been widely popular.
Wu Ji was originally the deputy editor-in-chief of Foshan Literature and Art. In order to help Foshan Literature and Art get out of the trough, he began to try to create his first martial arts novel "Wulin Legend". Unexpectedly, he became famous in one battle and he couldn't stop from then on.
Many works such as "Legends of Jianghu", "Legends of Shenzhou" and "Legends of Qixia" were published one after another, making him one of the most popular martial arts masters in China today.
The three people mentioned by Lin Weimin and Yu Hua are all the leading players in the domestic martial arts novel circle. He wants to organize a martial arts novel magazine, and recruiting famous writers to serialize their novels is the best shortcut. It is worth it even if he has to pay more royalties for this.
"Okay, we'll contact each other later." Yu Hua said.
After finishing the conversation, Lin Weimin asked, "It's been half a year since I finished writing To Live. Do you have any ideas for a new novel?"
Yu Hua's face turned bitter, "Teacher Lin, I've been a little busy with work recently."
"Busy! Do you think I don't know? You guys are yelling and making noises in the office all day long. Are you busy with work?"
Yu Hua shrank his neck after being scolded by Lin Weimin. He didn't find a good excuse, so he could only say, "I don't have any inspiration for now. When I have time, I will go out and collect some inspiration. I should have some soon."
Lin Weimin stared at Yu Hua for two times. This guy really didn't blink when he lied!
"Work is work. Don't forget why you came to Yanjing. If you are satisfied with being an editor, I think you might as well go back to Jiaxing."
Yu Hua said depressedly: "You are right, I understand."
After he said that, he seemed a little unconvinced. You’re just talking about me. Haven’t you written a novel for a long time?
He glanced at Lin Weimin secretly and whispered, "Teacher Lin, do you have any new works recently? I'll go to you to find some inspiration."
"I write mine, you write yours. What's the matter? You can't write a new novel if I don't have one? Are you trying to blackmail me?"
After being scolded twice more, Yu Hua became even more depressed and secretly complained to himself.
It looks like he has no inspiration and is taking it out on me!
Yu Hua left feeling depressed, while Lin Weimin was thinking about the novel.
Yu Hua is actually right. After writing "Not One Less" in 1989, he has not released any new works for a year and a half.
This is the first time in his creative career that there is such a long blank period.
During this year or so, I have been busy with my married life and work.
Lin Weimin stroked his chin and thought that he should find some time to write something recently.
He is only in his early thirties this year, which is the time when he has the most energy. If he stops writing novels, what will the people read?
(End of this chapter)
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