Chapter 663: Flowery and Rainy Season
At the end of last year, the fact that Tongwen Press had surpassed Guowen Press was widely discussed among the people in the press. This catching up was not only in terms of sales volume, but in all aspects.
Even though some data are still slightly different from those of Guowen Publishing House, Tongwen Publishing House was only established for two years after all.
Everyone is convinced that as long as Tongwenshe is given a few more years, it will surpass its big brother Guowenshe without any suspense.
It is precisely because of the brilliant achievements created in a short period of time that Tongwen Society has now become a hot topic in the national literature society.
As soon as the meeting was over, news about the personnel changes at Tongwen Society spread throughout Guowen Society, immediately sparking discussions among many colleagues.
Although it is only a subsidiary company, Tongwen Society's development momentum is now no worse than that of its big brother.
Forget about Li Xin. After all, he was the director of the contemporary literature editorial department before. Even if he doesn't go to Tongwen Publishing House, Lao Cheng is planning to promote him to be assistant to the president.
But at the beginning, Lin Weimin and Li Xuegang and a group of young people were all juniors in the editorial department of Guowen Publishing House. They didn't even have the title of deputy editor-in-chief or deputy director. Now, only a few years later, Li Xuegang has become the deputy editor-in-chief of Tongwen Publishing House.
If I do a better job in the future, and once the position of deputy editor-in-chief of Guowen Publishing House becomes vacant, won't I be transferred back immediately to be the deputy editor-in-chief?
He made the easy transition from deputy editor-in-chief of a subordinate publishing house to deputy editor-in-chief of a superior publishing house, and in just a few years, he became the leader of the publishing house.
Many old comrades feel a little unfair when they think of such scenes. They have worked hard all their lives, but they are not promoted as fast as young people who have worked for three to five years.
Some people are envious, some people are jealous, this is normal.
Cheng Zaochun also received reactions from some people not long after the meeting. These people believed that Lin Weimin was the one who had the final say in Tongwen Publishing House and did not take Guowen Publishing House and its leaders seriously at all. Such an important matter as adding a deputy editor-in-chief to Tongwen Publishing House was decided at an internal meeting.
Even if it was just for show, Cheng Zaochun had to talk to Lin Weimin.
Lin Weimin was of course aware of some of the remarks made in the society in the past two days, but he did not take them to heart.
"Look at you, why don't you communicate in advance? It's just a matter of a word to promote someone," said Cheng Zaochun.
"Old Cheng, that's not what you said at the beginning!"
Cheng Zaochun felt a little embarrassed when he heard this.
When Tongwen Society was first established, it was extremely poor and did not even have an office. Many people were afraid of being transferred to Tongwen Society by Lin Weimin, so they avoided him when they saw him.
At that time, in order to better support the development of Tongwen Society, the society committee headed by Cheng Zaochun unanimously passed a resolution to hand over all personnel matters of Tongwen Society to Lin Weimin. Guowen Society actively cooperated and would never hold Lin Weimin back.
Therefore, as the president and editor-in-chief of Tongwen Publishing House, Lin Weimin has absolute say in personnel transfers within the company.
But now that Tongwen Society is doing well, it is inevitable that some people are starting to become jealous.
"The situation is different now! You are also a big community."
Old Cheng took the initiative to pour a cup of tea for Lin Weimin, and even added some compliments.
The weasel is paying New Year's greetings to the chicken. No, it is a gift to others and must ask for something in return. Lin Weimin looked at Cheng Zaochun warily.
"Why are you looking at me like that? It's as if I want to hurt you." Cheng Zaochun said dissatisfiedly.
"It's not like they're going to harm me, they might as well dig a hole for me."
Cheng Zaochun blew his beard and glared, "You have the heart of a villain."
"Seriously," he said, "I heard you're planning to start another magazine?"
"I have this plan to publish a romance magazine called Red Bean."
“What a nice name!”
Cheng Zaochun flattered him shamelessly, and Lin Weimin didn't know what to say for a moment. Just because Old Cheng was so polite, he was willing to discuss anything as long as he didn't have to step down.
"Is there no suitable candidate for editor-in-chief yet?" Cheng Zaochun revealed his true intentions.
Lin Weimin said honestly: "No, but I plan to choose one from several editors."
"I see. How about considering the people in the club?"
"This... I think the editor-in-chief still needs to have some experience and connections in this area. After all, it's a new publication, and if you want to make a big hit, you need to have some ability." Lin Weimin said frankly. He then asked, "Has Li Xin's report been submitted? There is also a position for deputy editor-in-chief in the popular literature editorial department."
Cheng Zaochun understood Lin Weimin's meaning and said, "Then give him a deputy editor-in-chief position. There are many capable young people in the company now, but the promotion channel is still too narrow."
"How can they get to the top if you guys don't step down?" Lin Weimin muttered.
Cheng Zaochun pretended not to hear Lin Weimin's complaints. Anyway, he had two deputy editor-in-chief positions in his hands, which meant he could shut up those people in the publishing house.
Another deputy editor-in-chief will be taking office this year. With these three positions, it will be enough to stir up the waters of Guowen Publishing House. This year he should not need to worry about personnel issues anymore.
Thinking of this, Cheng Zaochun felt relieved.
After talking with Cheng Zaochun, Lin Weimin started to get busy with his work.
At the end of the year, the call for articles for the Rag Tiger series of books was launched with great fanfare. Although the book's popularity increased, all work was suspended due to the Chinese New Year.
Now that the new year has just begun, manuscripts are pouring in from all over the country.
In order to solicit articles for the Rag Tiger Series, Lin Weimin specially established an editorial group for the Rag Tiger Series within the Guowen Publishing House, which was mainly composed of people from the Contemporary Literature Editorial Department 1, Editorial Department 2 and the Ancient Chinese Literature Department. In addition, five retired editors were invited to serve as review editors.
The entire editorial team consists of twelve people, and including the editor-in-chief Lin Weimin, it is a strong team.
In the first half month of the new year, the editorial team of the Bu Lao Hu series has received nearly 50 manuscripts, nearly half of which are from well-known domestic writers, and the other half are from new authors who are trying their luck.
Such a huge number of manuscripts is a challenge for everyone in the editorial team.
Almost everyone started working at full capacity right after returning from vacation. Several veteran editors, such as Qin Chaoyang, cried out that they had been cheated. If they had known that the workload of the Buhuhu series editorial team was so heavy, they would not have joined in the fun. In the end, they even blackmailed Lin Weimin into a meal at Xiangjiang Food City before they gave up.
The first book in the Rag Tiger Series has been confirmed to be Jia Pingwa's Wasted City, but Lin Weimin is not in a hurry to launch it. Instead, he is patiently waiting for the editors to continue discovering works with potential. It would be best if they could attract a group of well-known domestic writers and then hold a grand signing ceremony to once again enhance the reputation of the Rag Tiger Series.
After spending more than twenty days, the editorial team finally completed the review of the first batch of nearly 50 manuscripts, and only four novels were submitted to Lin Weimin.
Each work selected for the Buhuhu series will receive a sky-high remuneration of 150 yuan per thousand words, so there is no need for Lin Weimin to emphasize this much, as the editorial team has already set an extremely high threshold for this review work.
But after reading the four manuscripts, Lin Weimin was not very satisfied. He only kept a novel called "The World of Bitterness". The author of this novel was called Hong Feng, whom Lin Weimin knew. He had made quite a name for himself by writing avant-garde literature in the past few years. He was one of the writers who was lured by him onto the big ship of avant-garde literature.
Of course, Lin Weimin was attracted to his manuscript not because of this incident, but because he was impressed by the storytelling ability that Hong Feng demonstrated in "The World of Suffering".
Since the 1990s, pure literature has gradually declined. This is certainly due to the external environment, but the conservatism and self-entertainment of a considerable number of writers is also a very important reason.
Many writers do not even have the basic ability to tell a story in a harmonious way. How can such people's works be considered good works? How can they be liked by readers and accepted by the market?
The biggest difference between the Ragdoll series and all previous domestic series is Lin Weimin’s requirements for this series.
No taboos, story first, readers first choice.
These twelve words reveal the original intention of the Ragdoll series and also represent the criteria for selecting books.
But after reading the four manuscripts that made the final review list, Lin Weimin could clearly feel that the minds of many editors were not as open as he had thought, and they were still reviewing manuscripts from a traditional pure literature perspective.
This can't go on like this.
Lin Weimin first asked people to move all the 45 manuscripts that were eliminated in the first batch into his office. His colleagues in the editorial team didn't understand what Lin Weimin was going to do, but they did it anyway.
Lin Weimin couldn't help scratching his head when faced with dozens of manuscripts. They were indeed too many.
Looking through the registered book list, he found a familiar name after just a few glances.
"Flower Season and Rainy Season"?
Lin Weimin was instantly alert. He was no longer sleepy when he saw the title of the book. Fearing that it was a duplicate, he took a special look at the author's name.
"Yuxiu? Yes, that's the name."
He read the entire novel at a glance, and the content was basically the same as he remembered.
"The Season of Flowers and Rain" is not an ordinary romantic literature or painful literature. If we have to say it, it should be regarded as the ancestor of Chinese youth literature.
Without the bloody elements of so-called "youth literature" in later generations, such as premature love, abortion, and dropping out of school, "The Flower Season and Rainy Season" tells the story of the youth growth process of a group of high school students in the young city of Pengcheng, from the carefree flower season of sixteen to the sensitive and thoughtful rainy season of seventeen. This group of high school students has troubles, happiness, growth, and loss.
The author Yuxiu was only sixteen years old when she wrote this novel. The novel was completed in 1990, but it was not published until 1996.
In 1997, "Season of Flowers and Rain" was published. Not only did it become popular in Chinese campuses within a few months, it also won the National Book Award nomination, the Five One Project Award and other awards. It was then quickly adapted into movies, TV series, comics, etc., and became popular all over the country.
The reason why there was a six-year gap between the completion and publication of "The Season of Youth and Rain" was precisely because many publishing houses were not optimistic about this novel describing the youth growth of boys and girls.
The content of "The Season of Flowers and Rain" is not that of ordinary clichéd romance novels. On the contrary, it has a fresh and bright feeling and can be described as excellent.
But even such a work with positive content and high quality still cannot impress the hearts of many publishing house editors. This shows how narrow and outdated the review standards of many so-called "pure literature" editors are today.
Fortunately, I was careful. Otherwise, I missed this novel. Wouldn’t the concept of “story first, readers first” of the Bu Lao Hu series be empty talk? In the future, if “Flower Season and Rainy Season” becomes popular, the Bu Lao Hu series will become a laughing stock in the domestic publishing industry.
It took Lin Weimin a few more days to read through the rest of the manuscripts as quickly as possible. After making sure that there were no best-sellers that would be familiar to later generations, he notified all members of the Bu Lao Hu series editorial team to come to the conference room for a meeting.
Doesn’t this update deserve a few monthly tickets?
(End of this chapter)
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