Chapter 62 I am an editor of Contemporary Magazine
The sky was gloomy, the north wind was howling, and snowflakes were falling heavily. This was the first snow in Yanjing this winter.
Lin Weimin parked his bicycle in the carport, hunched his arms, and ran into the red brick building with his black briefcase in hand.
"Ptut, put!"
The thick door curtain kept the wind and snow out. Lin Weimin exhaled a few times, as if he wanted to spit out the wind and snow that filled his mouth.
"This damn weather! It's so damn cold! My feet are numb."
He ran up to the second floor and pushed open the door of the editorial office. "Hey, don't let me go to get the manuscripts anymore. This weather is too harsh!"
Several senior editors who were busy reviewing manuscripts looked up and saw his kind smile on his face.
Lin Weimin understood the subtext of these people: You are a newcomer, don’t you know how to behave yourself?
Newcomers have no human rights!
Lin Weimin put his briefcase on the desk, picked up the enamel pot, picked up the thermos and poured himself a glass of water. After drinking the warm water, he finally felt a little warm.
He took out the manuscript he had just received and prepared to take a closer look at it.
The manuscript was written by an old Yenching writer who had been writing since the 1950s. He had just joined the editorial department of Contemporary Magazine and was still in the learning stage. Apart from amateur authors, there were basically no commissioned manuscripts. So the editorial department assigned him two old writers to help him get familiar with the business first.
Lin Weimin had an appointment with the old writer to pick up his manuscript today, but it snowed heavily in the morning, so Lin Weimin suffered a lot on this trip.
Looking at the contents of the manuscript, he frowned, feeling that all the suffering he had endured today was in vain.
He kept his eyes on the manuscript, and sighed as if he had a toothache after reading each page, causing others in the office to stare at him.
"I mean, is it that necessary?" Xiao Yao, the one without a name, from the table across from him asked him curiously.
"I don't know if it will happen, but this novel has too many problems. Every step of the development is like an eight-part essay, with no surprises."
Xiao Yao said: "Cliche doesn't mean it's bad."
"That's true, but the problem is that people can guess the ending at a glance, which makes it boring. Who wants to read such a lukewarm article?"
"Show it to me."
Lin Weimin handed the manuscript in his hand over and looked out the window.
It is snowing heavily, which is rare in Yanjing in November. It seems that next year will be a year of bumper harvest.
His mind couldn't help but think of his hometown in Northeast China.
After the Institute of Literature and Art graduated in October, the job transfer order of Contemporary Magazine was sent to Northeast China. He went back and spent half a month to complete the transfer procedures.
The house in his hometown was in a dilapidated state because no one had lived in it for many years. Lin Weimin asked his neighbors if anyone had written to him or sent him a telegram, but they said no.
Lin Weimin was disappointed. His parents had passed away, but he should have had an older sister who was still alive. However, they had lost contact over the years and he could not get in touch with her.
He sold the old house for 800 yuan. Well, it can't be said to be sold in this era, but it was exchanged for 800 yuan and returned to Yanjing.
He had no place to stay in Yanjing, so the editorial department arranged a separate room for him on the second floor of the guesthouse as a dormitory.
Since then, Lin Weimin's work and life have been locked in this red brick building at No. 166 Chaonei Street, and he occasionally goes out to meet with friends.
The atmosphere in the office was quiet. Steam was rising from the hot water in the enamel pot on the table. Xiao Yao's sudden voice interrupted Lin Weimin's thoughts.
"The content is indeed unsatisfactory. I will go back and talk to the old comrades to see if it can be revised."
Lin Weimin shook his head. "That's terrible. As a writer, the most terrible thing is not that the writing is bad, but that the thinking has fallen into a fixed pattern, and no matter how you change it, it's still the same thing."
Coincidentally, at this moment, Qin Chaoyang walked into the office with a magazine in his hand.
"What are you talking about?"
Lin Weimin stood up and said, "Director, we are discussing the manuscript we just received."
Qin Chaoyang nodded without commenting, "You should be patient with the old comrade. He has already told me that you are being disrespectful to him."
"Leader, you can't just listen to the old comrade's one-sided words. I just discussed with him the direction and method of novel creation. There is no disrespect for the old comrade!"
"Okay, don't get excited. The old comrade didn't say anything to you. Don't act like a thief and feel guilty."
Lin Weimin said with a lack of confidence: "I don't have it."
At this time he noticed the magazine in Qin Chaoyang's hand.
Qin Chaoyang put the things on the table and said, "Take a look. The sample issue of the album is out."
Lin Weimin's face was immediately filled with surprise. He picked up the sample issue and saw the familiar solid-color cover of "Contemporary" with a subtitle on it, "Contemporary Spy Novel Album".
The album title was not the one originally suggested by Lin Weimin, but that did not stop him from being excited.
It took more than four months from the time the idea came up in his mind to the time the sample issue came out. Not only did he wait impatiently, but his classmates also waited impatiently. Some of them even wrote to him to ask about this matter a while ago.
This time there is finally an explanation!
Lin Weimin flipped through the sample issue and liked it more and more.
"This is the first time our magazine has published an album, and it's also the only time before it becomes a bimonthly magazine." Qin Chaoyang sighed.
Lin Weimin raised his head and asked, "Director, has the bimonthly publication really been decided?"
Other colleagues in the office also cast their concerned glances.
Qin Chaoyang nodded, "It's settled. Starting from January, we will officially switch from quarterly to bimonthly."
"Contemporary" was a quarterly magazine when it was first published. The first issue was published in June 1979 and was warmly welcomed by readers. 70,000 copies of the first issue were printed and sent to bookstores, where they were quickly sold out.
The second issue was reprinted with 100,000 copies, which were also sold out quickly.
Seeing that bookstore sales could not meet the readers' growing subscription needs, the publishing house decided at the end of 1979 to switch to postal distribution starting in 1980. After implementing the postal distribution policy, the circulation of "Contemporary" continued to rise. By the third issue of this year, the circulation had exceeded 300,000 copies.
Over the past year, we have had a steady stream of readers writing in to say that they find reading the quarterly magazine unsatisfying and that waiting three months is too long. They have been giving suggestions to the editorial department and requesting that the publication period be shortened.
Recently, the publishing house and the editorial department have been discussing the possibility of shortening the publication period, and now it has finally been decided.
The change from a quarterly to a bimonthly meant that the editors' workload suddenly increased by half. However, when they heard the news, no one was dissatisfied at all. Instead, they all showed joy and excitement.
The popularity of the magazine means that the work of everyone has been recognized by the readers. The higher the sales volume, the better the benefits of the company, and the more valuable their work is.
In the early 1980s, people's ideas were still simple.
I received a temporary notice from the editor at night. In order to avoid the risk of review, the names of the characters and organizations in the book need to be modified. I worked until two o'clock in the middle of the night and finally finished the modification. From now on, the names of people and organizations will be based on the new ones. If there are any mistakes or omissions, please help point them out.
(End of this chapter)
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