Chapter 67: The Manuscript Thief
"Contemporary - Spy War Album" is a fresh attempt for "Contemporary", and it is also new to domestic readers and newspaper industry.
More than a dozen outstanding writers from the National Literary Association's Literary Research Institute created works based on the same subject matter and the same dramatic core. Anyone who reads it will have to say that it is original.
On the third day after the album was released, discussions about this album appeared in local newspapers in Yanjing, and the Yanjing Daily published a review article entitled "This is a beneficial attempt."
“In the past, our literary creation always focused on ideology and literary quality, and it was easy to ignore the essence of literary creation, which is text and technique.
Skills are close to Tao, this is what our ancestors left us. Any art, before reaching a certain threshold, is the superposition and accumulation of skills.
This brave attempt by the editorial department of "Contemporary" broke the comfort zone of writers and allowed readers and many literature lovers to get a glimpse into literary creation.
..."
With the appearance of this review article, more and more comments have been made on this album of "Contemporary".
There were many praises, but there was also criticism, with the focus on the similarities in content and the suspicion of showing off.
Among them, Lin Weimin is particularly noteworthy. He has previously written a novel called "The Hidden Corner" and now he has written another one called "The Cliff". Although it does not seem like plagiarism when you read it, for some picky readers, it is a mistake for a writer to repeat himself.
There were even radical readers who wrote to denounce Lin Weimin as a "royalty thief". He wrote the same story twice and had the nerve to publish it in a magazine. Isn't that a royalties thief?
In the editorial department, Lin Weimin was the person in charge of opening letters. When he saw this letter from a reader, he was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
Xiao Yao, who was standing by, glanced at the content of the letter. Within a day, Lin Weimin's reputation as a "royalty thief" spread throughout the back building, and then to the front building. Lin Weimin became famous within the Guowen Society.
This letter and this nickname became a laughing stock in the Chinese Literature Society for a long time.
The mixed comments from the outside world did not affect the sales of this issue of the spy war album of "Contemporary" at all. On the contrary, due to the criticism and praise from everyone, the sales of this album continued to rise.
Within a week, 300,000 copies of the magazine were sold out, and bookstores and post offices from all over the country called to request more prints. The readers were so enthusiastic.
Meng Weizai and Qin Chaoyang spent two days collecting data reported by bookstores and post offices from all over the country, and finally sent an astonishing figure to the publishing house.
"Three hundred thousand copies?" Wei Junyi looked at the total number, her eyes full of disbelief.
"Old Meng, you are kidding me, right? The sales of your last issue were only a little over 300,000. Now 300,000 plus 300,000, that's 600,000 copies."
Meng Weizai's face showed a mixture of excitement and trepidation. "The data are compiled based on reports from various places. We added a little margin, but not much. There will definitely not be a big discrepancy."
Seeing Meng Weizai's confidence, Wei Junyi exclaimed: "Oh my God! You guys really launched a big satellite for Contemporary Magazine!"
After that, she couldn't sit still, "No, I have to tell Wen Jing."
She took Meng Weizai to the office of the editor-in-chief Yan Wenjing, and learned that the sales of this issue of "Contemporary" had nearly doubled. Yan Wenjing was also very pleased.
The publishing house has already decided to revise the edition of "Contemporary" next year. The sudden increase in sales of this issue is definitely a major good news for next year's revision.
In the 1980s, it was not uncommon for best-selling magazines to sell millions of copies per issue, but those were popular literary magazines.
For example, Legends of the Past and Present, which was only published in 1981, achieved a sales volume of 2.78 million copies in just five years, setting a record for the highest circulation of literary journals in China that year. Story Club, a must-read book for train passengers at that time, sold more than one million copies per issue. Popular Movies once achieved a record of 9.6 million copies per issue in the 1980s.
Compared with the above-mentioned magazines that have been loved by readers for many years, the background of "Contemporary" is mainstream literature, and it does not have the ability to spread trends among the masses. At its peak in the mid-1980s, it only achieved an achievement of 500,000 copies per issue.
But no one expected that with the release of just one album, "Contemporary" would boost its sales by nearly 100%.
In the early 1980s, new magazines and newspapers were published across the country every day, and this was a time when sales of all kinds of magazines and newspapers in the country soared.
There are many mainstream literary magazines and periodicals with monthly sales of more than 100,000 copies. Harvest is considered to have the highest sales, with sales this year just exceeding 500,000 copies.
Nowadays, when people talk about mainstream literary magazines and journals, they always put together "October", "Contemporary", "Zhongshan" and "Huacheng", four literary magazines that are quite popular among readers, and call them the "Four Famous Dan".
However, when mentioning "Harvest", it is placed in a unique position, which shows the status of "Harvest" in Chinese literary world at that time.
Compared with "Harvest", which was founded more than 30 years ago, "Contemporary", which was established only more than a year ago, is inferior in every aspect. However, "Contemporary" broke the sales gap between them and "Harvest" with just one album.
Yan Wenjing was not dissatisfied with "Harvest", but when he saw that "Dangdai" broke the sales of "Harvest", the big brother of the mainstream literary magazine, in just one year, he couldn't help but feel very happy and waved his hand.
"Print more! Three hundred thousand copies!"
After this sales surge, Yan Wenjing and Wei Junyi are full of confidence in the revision of Contemporary Magazine next year. They encouraged Meng Weizai, "Meng, you guys have had a good ending this year. Strive to create more brilliance next year!"
"Of course! Of course!" Meng Weizai said happily.
The magazine has good sales, and as the head of the editorial department, he not only looks proud but also speaks with confidence.
Now, he can hold his head high and say that Contemporary has lived up to the hard work of Guowen Publishing House over the past year and has now become a reality!
The printing factory was very efficient in reprinting, and 300,000 copies of the magazine were shipped to all parts of the country in less than three days.
The surge in sales of this issue of "Contemporary" made the editorial department excited. The two leaders Meng Weizai and Qin Chaoyang praised Lin Weimin in front of everyone, and also conveyed the president Yan Wenjing and editor-in-chief Wei Junyi's praise for Lin Weimin, which made colleagues look at Lin Weimin with envy.
This guy has only been in the industry for less than two months, and he hadn't even joined the editorial department of Contemporary Magazine when he was planning this album.
It's so enviable!
(End of this chapter)
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