Chapter 587 Do It Yourself
Lin Weimin's idea of organizing the awards was not a sudden idea; it had been in his mind since Meng Weizai came to him.
In addition to the idea of competing with the Yanbing Literature Award, the idea of genuinely organizing an award ceremony also accounts for a part of the idea.
The Zuo Zhuan says: "The highest is to establish virtue, the next is to establish merit, and the next is to establish words. Even if they are not abandoned for a long time, this is called immortality."
To establish virtue, to make achievements and to make statements, these are the three immortalities that Chinese literati pursue throughout their lives, and Lin Weimin is no exception.
However, Mr. Wan's advice served as a warning to him. If he could not keep a fair mind in doing this matter, it would only end up in chaos. It would be better not to do it.
The establishment of the Yanbing Literature Award, in addition to Mr. Yanbing's last wish and the considerable royalties he left behind, the most crucial factor was Ba Lao's dedication and the cooperation of the Literary Association.
When Lin Weimin organizes an award, he naturally wants to make it a big one. If his own influence is not up to par and there are interferences from external factors, there is a high probability that this award will not be successful.
It would be better to do as Mr. Wan said, and develop slowly for a few years, use the platform of Guowenshe to strengthen one's influence in the domestic literary world, and then wait two years before taking action.
After eating at Mr. Wan’s house, Lin Weimin and Tao Huimin returned home.
The next morning, Tao Huimin was preparing breakfast when there was a knock on the door.
Lin Weimin went to open the door and found Cheng Ximi pushing Shi Tiesheng standing outside.
"Why are you two here so early? What's the emergency?"
Shi Tiesheng said anxiously, "Something happened. Meiying is seriously ill. The hospital determined that he has advanced cancer. The treatment was ineffective and he was discharged, but there is no place to take him. Weimin, don't you know someone at Union Hospital? Can you help?"
Zhou Meiying was an editorial board member of Today, and Lin Weimin met him at Shi Tiesheng's home.
After hearing what Shi Tiesheng said, Lin Weimin didn't even bother to eat. He started the car and took Shi Tiesheng and his wife to the hospital.
Arriving at the hospital, Lin Weimin saw Zhou Meiying lying in the hospital corridor with a hole in his belly caused by an intestinal fistula. He was in excruciating pain, and his face was grim because of the long-term severe pain. It was obvious that he was fighting the pain with great willpower.
Zhou Meiying was accompanied by his wife Xu Xiao and two friends. When they saw Shi Tiesheng and Lin Weimin coming, they came forward and Xu Xiao asked with a sad face, "Weimin, can you help Meiying find a hospital that will accept him?"
Lin Weimin and Xu Xiao learned about Zhou Meiying's condition, and then said, "Don't worry, I'll make a phone call and ask!"
After he finished speaking, he left the hospital, found a public telephone booth, called Yu Junli, and explained Zhou Meiying's situation.
"It does sound like colon cancer. In his case, without previous medical records, it is difficult for us to confirm the diagnosis. Forget it, send him here first, and then quickly ask the family to collect his medical records over the years. Then we can find a way to find out the cause of the disease."
Yu Junli has been promoted to vice president in recent years. Zhou Meiying's condition is very difficult, but for Lin Weimin's sake, she still asked him to send the patient over first.
Lin Weimin thanked him and hurried back to the hospital. When Xu Xiao heard that Union Hospital was willing to accept Zhou Meiying, he bowed to Lin Weimin repeatedly, and he quickly helped Xu Xiao up.
"Don't be polite. Send Meiying to the hospital first. You go and handle the formalities first."
After a whole morning of trouble, Zhou Meiying was finally sent to Union Hospital.
Yu Junli called two professors from the hospital for consultation and preliminarily ruled out the possibility of colorectal cancer. However, due to the lack of support from previous medical records, they were unable to make a final judgment and asked Xu Xiao to collect as much medical records of Zhou Meiying as possible.
After being busy for most of the day, we finally got some good results and everyone felt much more relaxed.
Zhou Meiying was admitted to the hospital and no longer needed everyone's care for the time being. Lin Weimin and Shi Tiesheng and his wife left together. Xu Xiao saw them out and thanked Lin Weimin profusely with tears in her eyes.
"I've thanked you so many times, don't be so polite. If you encounter something like this, you must help if you can."
After chatting for a few words, Lin Weimin drove Shi Tiesheng and his wife home first, and then went to the Chinese Literature Society to check in.
After staying in the office for a short time, as it was almost time to get off work, Lin Weimin came to the editorial department of Tongwen Press.
The collection of Jin Yong's works has been successfully published, and several young editors in the editorial department of Tongwen Publishing House have focused their main energy on compiling manuscripts for martial arts publications.
Guowen Publishing House specializes in the field of pure literature and has no accumulation in the field of popular literature. Its author resources all rely on the code of a few young editors.
People are not very familiar with many authors of martial arts novels, so the work of compiling manuscripts is difficult and bumpy.
Today, Yu Hua saw Lin Weimin and happily handed him a manuscript, "Teacher Lin, Can Mo's manuscript has arrived, please take a look!"
Lin Weimin took the manuscript and read it for a short while before putting it down. He said, "The quality of the manuscript is acceptable, but it is not good enough to be the main work of our first issue."
Yu Hua couldn't help but sigh in his heart. In his opinion, Teacher Lin's requirements were a bit too high. Although Can Mo's "The Romantic Beggar" could not be compared with Jin Yong's works, it could also be considered excellent, but it did not catch Teacher Lin's eye.
"Teacher Lin, can we relax a little bit? It's not that we don't work hard!"
Lin Weimin waved his hand, "I understand."
He pondered for a moment, gathered everyone in the office, and said, "I have seen how hard you have worked to compile manuscripts during this period. I know my requirements are a bit high. However, the first issue of a publication is crucial. The quality of the manuscripts, especially the quality of the headlines, determines the future of our publication. I hope you can understand."
Everyone nodded. They certainly understood Lin Weimin's idea, but his request was indeed a bit high.
Because they want to publish a magazine, they have read a lot of martial arts novels and periodicals in the past few months. In their opinion, the quality of the manuscripts they have recently received is almost the same as those published in magazines such as "Legends of the Past and Present", and some are even better. However, not many of them can catch Teacher Lin's eye.
"How about this, Can Mo's "The Romantic Beggar" is of pretty good quality, so just treat it as one of the serialized long stories. As for the serialized works on Toutiao, don't worry about it, I'll find a way."
After Lin Weimin said this, Yu Hua and others breathed a sigh of relief.
Other manuscripts are easy to deal with, but Lin Weimin's review standards for headline works are even more abnormal. Yu Hua and others even suspected that Lin Weimin was using the standards of Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng to find headline works. Asking them to compile manuscripts of such standards is really putting them in a difficult position.
After Lin Weimin left, Li Xuegang, Yu Hua and others started a discussion.
"Hey, you guys think that since Teacher Lin no longer needs our headlines, what channels can he use to get the articles?" Liu Maowen asked.
"Is there any need to ask? They must be commissioning articles from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Teacher Lin is familiar with Jin Yong! I have come to realize that none of these mainland martial arts writers have caught Teacher Lin's eye yet." Qi Xianghua said.
"Nonsense! Do you think it's easy to commission their manuscripts? It's too troublesome to use their manuscripts. We need approval from the agency. And what's the manuscript fee over there? If we use their manuscripts, at what price and how many copies should we sell to make a profit?" said Li Xuegang.
Yu Hua said: "I think that Mr. Lin doesn't look down on these martial arts novelists in our mainland, but he attaches too much importance to the first hit of our publication. The first issue must be a hit."
Li Xuegang nodded, agreeing with Yu Hua's words, "Yu Hua is right. Teacher Lin's high standards are more about hoping to get off to a good start. He knows that if we really follow his standards, it will be a problem whether we can publish the journal."
While a few people were chatting and guessing Lin Weimin's thoughts, Lin Weimin was also thinking about the issue of headline works.
Qi Xianghua's idea of commissioning articles from writers in Hong Kong and Taiwan was actually something Lin Weimin had thought about when he first came up with the idea of starting a magazine, but he quickly gave up the idea.
The reason is very simple: it is too unrealistic.
Just as Li Xuegang said, not only does the use of the manuscript require approval from higher authorities, but the standard of royalties is also too high.
Lin Weimin planned the layout of the martial arts magazine to be 16-mo and 16 printing sheets, with 800 to 1,000 words per page in size 5 font. Each issue of the magazine would have to contain at least 220,000 words, with each issue's catalog containing two long serials and three to four novellas.
For a famous martial arts writer like Ni Kuang, his royalties were as high as HK$1,000 to HK$2,000 per thousand words in the 1980s. Now it is the 1990s, and this figure has increased a lot compared to the 1980s. The royalty fee of any famous martial arts writer in Hong Kong or Taiwan would be at least RMB 1,000 per thousand words if converted into RMB.
Based on the calculation of a 200,000-word long martial arts novel, the royalties are 200,000 yuan, and these 200,000 words will be published in five issues at most. If calculated on each issue, the cost for this long novel alone is 40,000 yuan. Taking into account the royalties for other articles, plus administrative expenses, printing costs, distribution costs, book depreciation, etc., the circulation of the publication must be at least 100,000 copies to break even.
Nowadays, magazines and publications have a sales life-and-death line, which is usually 50,000 copies. That is to say, if sales exceed 50,000 copies, they can survive.
But once the works of famous writers from Hong Kong and Taiwan were used, this life-and-death line immediately doubled to 100,000 copies.
Although popular books have high sales these days, this approach is still too risky for a new publication!
If Lin Weimin were publishing a magazine personally, he might take this risk, but now that he is publishing a magazine for the public, he must be cautious.
Several colleagues in the editorial department have done their best in collecting manuscripts and have contacted all the authors who could be contacted, but the quality of the manuscripts is not something that the editors can determine.
Lin Weimin was extremely picky about the standards for headline titles, but he didn't want to wait any longer.
After thinking for a long time, it seems that the best way at this moment is to do it myself!
(End of this chapter)
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