Chapter 597: One Society, Five Journals
The next morning, Lin Weimin went to work with a smile on his face, and he seemed happy to see everyone.
Entering the office of Tongwen Press, "The manuscript has been picked up, and it is still 100,000 words."
He threw the manuscript on Yu Hua's desk with an arrogant attitude, and almost said "Don't bother me if you have nothing to do."
Yu Hua's face lit up with joy. As long as the manuscript was ready, he was not nervous.
"Teacher Lin, is this little Zuanfeng not going to show up?"
"Who knows? As a pure literature author, if people knew that I wrote martial arts novels, my reputation would be very bad."
Yu Hua thought again of the phone call he made to Mo Yan. The two hadn't seen each other for a long time, and Mo Yan was very happy to receive his call.
But when he asked about "Xiao Zuanfeng" and "No. 1 in the World", Mo Yan was completely confused and had no idea what Yu Hua was talking about.
Unlike Yu Hua who loves to read martial arts novels, he didn't even know about the publication "Jiuzhou Heroes".
However, I heard that Yu Hua is now an editor under Teacher Lin, which makes Mo Yan very envious.
A few years ago, when he was about to graduate, he had thought about staying in Beijing, but in the end he couldn't bear to do it and returned to the army.
Working in the army is certainly not a bad thing, but the atmosphere here is indeed very different from that in school. The leaders would talk to him from time to time and ask him to sing more praises when creating.
But he was a stubborn person who only wanted to write negative things, which made him increasingly incompatible with the atmosphere of the army.
Hearing the envy in Mo Yan's words, Yu Hua forgot to ask about the novel. He urged Mo Yan to buy a few copies of "Nine Provinces Heroes" and showed off his current job to Mo Yan.
After hanging up the phone, Yu Hua carefully recalled his daily life with Mo Yan in the College of Arts. He really hadn't read many martial arts novels. He admitted that Mo Yan was very talented, but it was not easy to write about this kind of thing without having read it.
He had no choice but to exclude Mo Yan from the suspects.
Lin Weimin came out of the editorial department of Tongwen Press and planned to go to the back building to talk to Tong Zhonggui. Halfway there, he ran into Niu Han.
Although Niu Han is retired now, he is still a consultant for New Literature Materials and comes two or three times a month.
The two chatted all the way to the back building, where Lin Weimin stood at the door of the Contemporary editorial department, "Xiao Tong, come here!"
Tong Zhonggui stood up and walked to Lin Weimin, "Come with me and have a chat."
The two walked out of the back building, one in front and one behind.
"Do you know about the new publication?"
"It's been spread in the club for a long time, and everyone has been talking about it recently."
Lin Weimin continued, "This matter is arranged by Old He. The publishing house plans to let Comrade Shuguang be listed as an editor, but he will not be in charge. The specific matters will be handled by the deputy editor-in-chief. The new journal will have two deputy editors-in-chief. Rong Peixiang, deputy director of the second editorial office of contemporary literature, will be the executive deputy editor-in-chief. There is still a vacancy for a deputy editor-in-chief. Do you want to go over there?"
Tong Zhonggui hesitated when he heard this. He had been working at Contemporary since graduation, following Lin Weimin.
Before Lin Weimin became the editor-in-chief and organized Tongwen Press, he had talked to Lin Weimin about transferring to Tongwen Press, simply because he wanted to follow Lin Weimin.
But he was rejected by Lin Weimin, and Tong Zhonggui understood that Lin Weimin was doing it for his own good.
This new publication is also a pure literature publication, and he can become the deputy editor-in-chief if he goes there, which is also a good thing for him.
Tong Zhonggui thought for a moment and said, "Teacher Lin, I still prefer novels."
"You don't even consider the deputy editor?"
Tong Zhonggui shook his head firmly.
He has achieved very good results in writing in recent years and has become one of the best young writers in the domestic literary world, so he does not attach much importance to positions.
The reason I wanted to go to Tongwen Society before was simply because I wanted to work with Lin Weimin.
"Okay. Since you think so, just stay at Contemporary for two years and we'll talk about it later when we have the chance."
"Thank you, Mr. Lin."
Tong Zhonggui understood what Lin Weimin meant. There were too many experienced and capable seniors in Contemporary magazine, and they needed to be promoted based on seniority. If he wanted to make progress in his position, he could only wait.
But Tong Zhonggui does not regret it. Compared with essays, he still prefers novels.
The new publication of Guowen Publishing House was separated from the essay column of "Contemporary". The content of the publication is mainly essays, and the name has been chosen.
"Chinese Prose".
This publication can be regarded as a "rich second generation" born with a silver spoon in the mouth in the Chinese periodical industry. Its editor-in-chief is Li Shuguang, the deputy editor-in-chief of Guowen Publishing House who won the title of Contemporary Publishing House. With the help of the best talents selected from various editorial offices of Guowen Publishing House, it is destined to become an important publication in the field of prose in the domestic literary world.
Tong Zhonggui is his own man, so when something good happens, Lin Weimin will of course think of him first, but he won't force it.
With many inherent advantages, the preparation process of "Chinese Prose" is much simpler than that of "Nine Provinces Heroes".
The only thing worth worrying about is the personnel issue. After all, there is a new publication and a few more positions, so there are too many people and too little porridge.
Fortunately, after this period of communication, the problem has been almost resolved.
Two days later, the editorial department of "Chinese Prose" was officially established, and its office was located on the third floor southwest of the Guowen Publishing House.
The newly established editorial department of "Chinese Prose" is headed by Li Shuguang as editor-in-chief, Li Xin, director of the Contemporary Literature Editorial Department 1, also serves as deputy editor-in-chief, and Rong Peixiang, deputy director of the Contemporary Literature Editorial Department 2, serves as executive deputy editor-in-chief, with four responsible editors under him.
This lineup is much stronger than the two or three cats of different sizes when "Nine Provinces Heroes" was first published.
There is no need to worry about manuscripts, as Contemporary magazine has a steady supply of prose manuscripts. This newly established publication doesn't even know how to write the words "lack of manuscripts".
Yu Qiuyu also sent several essays to the "Chinese Essays" magazine at the invitation of Lin Weimin.
Last month, Yu Qiuyu's essay collection "Cultural Journey" was just published, with an initial print run of 20,000 copies. It seems mediocre among the hundreds of books published by Guowen Publishing House every year.
However, this seemingly mediocre collection of essays, whose author has no reputation in the literary world, was sold out within half a month after it was on the market. Guowen Publishing House had to urgently print 30,000 more copies, thinking that it would at least last for a month.
Unexpectedly, in just over a week, bookstores across the country were running out of inventory again.
This time, the Chinese Literature Society finally believed that the society seemed to have produced a new hit.
The second reprinting saw the print volume soar to 100,000 copies, which finally alleviated the market and readers' demand for this collection of essays.
But what puzzled all the editors of Guowen Press was, on what basis did they do so?
Several senior editors in the book publishing house of "Cultural Journey" have read the manuscript. The writing level of these prose works is very good, but there are also many shortcomings. There are dozens of errors in the use of allusions picked out by the editors alone.
The most important thing is that there has been no precedent of a collection of essays selling well in the domestic book industry for all these years!
Since the New Culture Movement, there have been many great prose writers in the domestic literary world, and many of their works are well known to the Chinese people. Some of their works have even become household names because they have been included in textbooks.
But no matter how famous the writers are, after their works are published in a collection, the initial sales are usually lukewarm, but the victory is that they are long-lasting, so the overall sales are still good. This is referring to famous writers.
The essay collection "Cultural Journey" is different from all the essay collections previously published by Guowen Publishing House. It started out as an unknown publication but became a huge hit in the month of its publication.
Before the so-called "bestsellers" became prevalent, book sales had always been a long-tail effect.
So according to the current trend, as long as this collection of essays does not flop in the future, it will be quite easy to sell one or two million copies.
When my colleagues at the Guowen Press recently talked about "Cultural Journey", they couldn't stop expressing their amazement and disbelief on their faces.
And everyone also knows that this collection of essays was commissioned by Lin Weiming through Yu Qiuyu, which is even more amazing.
If it weren't for the publication of "Cultural Journey", many editors of Guowen Publishing House would not even have heard of Yu Qiuyu in the Chinese literary world.
Not only did Lin Weimin know him, he even asked him to publish a collection of essays.
Now that the sales of the essay collection have exploded, who wouldn't say that Editor-in-Chief Lin has a keen eye and foresight?
No wonder he can become editor-in-chief at such a young age!
Therefore, the editorial department of "Chinese Prose" would definitely welcome Yu Qiuyu's new works with open arms.
"If we include the 'Nine Provinces Heroes' published by your Tongwen Society, our Guowen Society now has five publications!"
When Cheng Zaochun said this, he was not only sighing, but also felt an indescribable pride.
The publications currently owned by Guowen Publishing House include "Contemporary", "New Literature Historical Materials", "Literary Story Newspaper", "Jiuzhou Heroes", and the newly established "Chinese Prose".
In the early years, "People's Literature" was jointly managed by the Guowen Publishing House and the China Writers Association. In the past two years, it has been separated and became a publication of the China Writers Association, and the publishing house has also become the Writers Publishing House.
Contemporary was founded in 1979, focusing on the field of pure literature, publishing a wide variety of works, including novels, essays, reportage, poetry, etc. It started as a quarterly, then gradually changed to a bimonthly and monthly. Its sales have been steadily increasing over the years, and it has been the leader in the field of pure literature in China for many years.
"New Literature Materials" is a quarterly magazine, which was founded one year earlier than "Contemporary". The main content published is articles and memoirs of important representatives of various periods in the history of modern literature. Because it focuses on recording modern literary materials, its sales have always been low, ranging from 100,000 to 200,000 copies, but it is stable, and because of the unique positioning of the magazine, it has a unique position in the domestic literary world.
"Literary Story Newspaper" was founded in 1985. It is a weekly newspaper that mainly publishes literary and historical abstracts. In the past few years, its sales have remained stable at between 400,000 and 500,000 copies per issue.
Then, the first issue of "Jiuzhou Heroes" was published, with sales exceeding one million copies. The second issue has been published for half a month, and the circulation has exceeded 1.4 million. Everyone in Guowen Publishing House knows that it is only a matter of time before this publication breaks the sales ceiling of Guowen Publishing House.
The only suspense everyone has about this publication is whether its sales can exceed the ceiling of domestic popular literature magazines, "Story Club".
If we count the publications that Guowen Publishing House owns now, they have sales, status and influence, so Cheng Zaochun’s pride is justified.
One publishing house and five journals are leading the way in the Chinese publishing industry!
After enjoying the afterglow of success for a few seconds, Cheng Zaochun patted Lin Weimin on the shoulder.
"For the people, we must keep up the good work!"
Lin Weimin glanced at Cheng Zaochun and asked, "Are you still trying to make big promises for me?"
Sensing Lin Weimin's dissatisfaction, Cheng Zaochun awkwardly changed the subject.
"Yu Qiuyu's collection of essays is selling well. I think we can strike while the iron is hot and publish two more collections of essays."
"Well, the planning is already underway."
After failing to change the topic, Cheng Zaochun left the editorial department of "Chinese Prose" in dejection.
(End of this chapter)
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