Chapter 719: Do you feel uncomfortable watching this?
As the editor-in-chief of Guowen Publishing House, Lin Weimin bears primary responsibility for the content of all publications, followed by the president Cheng Zaochun, the editor-in-chief and the responsible editor.
The biggest problem with "The Golden Age" lies in QS. Although everyone who has read it knows that QS is by no means the theme of this novel, some people are always accustomed to complicating simple issues.
Publishing the collection of novels "The Golden Age" was a certain risk for Lin Weimin.
Wang Xiaobo has worked hard over the years to publish his works and has approached many publishing houses, but no one is willing to publish his works.
It’s not that no editor discovered his talent, the problem is that no one dared to take the risk of publishing the novel.
Therefore, Wang Xiaobo was even more grateful to Lin Weimin and Guowen Publishing House.
The novel collection "The Golden Age" includes a total of five novels written by Wang Xiaobo in recent years. It was not difficult to edit and the novel collection was printed just after the May Day holiday.
The first print run was 20,000 copies, which set a record for the print run of Wang Xiaobo's works, although this was only his second book.
On the day when the novel collection "The Golden Age" was released, Wang Xiaobo took Li Yinhe to the China Bookstore near his home.
He already had sample books from Guowen Publishing House, but he still bought his own books in the bookstore to feel a sense of ritual.
The couple entered the bookstore, but they were not in a hurry to buy books. Instead, they walked around and looked around, paying special attention to see if anyone had bought "The Golden Age".
The newly released novel collection still exudes the unique smell of ink and paper. It is not conspicuous on the bookshelf. Compared with the obscure "The Golden Age", the numerous books in the Ragnarok series on the bookshelf next to it are the focus of readers entering the store.
Two boys who look like high school students are trying out Jin Ying's "Rainless City", which is Jin Ying's first attempt at commercial writing after signing the contract with the Bu Lao Hu book series.
It tells the story of the new official Pu Yunzhe who met a female reporter from "Star Scout" magazine by chance and fell in love with her.
After his wife found out, she secretly took pictures of them together. These pictures accidentally fell into the hands of a citizen, who took the opportunity to blackmail Pu Yunzhe.
It happened that Pu Yunzhe was faced with a rare opportunity for promotion. Between his future and love, he chose the former, and thus fell into a series of troubles.
After the publication of "The Rainless City", the literary community did not give this novel a high evaluation. Many critics criticized Jin Ying for being self-degrading and completely losing the touch and reserve of an excellent writer.
But who knows?
That huge amount of royalties is really good.
"City Without Rain" sold 200,000 copies in the first month after its release, and sales reached 500,000 copies in three months.
"The Rainless City" is mixed with many elements such as officialdom and romance. Its readability as a novel is unquestionable. Coupled with the brand effect of the Buhuhu series of books, it is natural that it can achieve such results.
The royalties from Guowen Publishing House are paid every three months. In April, Jin Ying received 300,000 yuan in royalties, which was worth it even if she had to endure a lot of criticism.
The two high school students read "The Rainless City" for a while. The white boy with relatively fair skin took a copy, and the two continued to search on the bookshelf.
Another dark-skinned black boy flipped through the bookshelf for a while and found "The Golden Age" next door.
He picked up the book and looked at the cover. The cover was a solid color with only two intertwined curves. The black boy looked at the two curves and a strange thought flashed through his mind.
With some curiosity, he opened the book.
After a moment, the dark face turned red, the black boy's body tensed up, and his eyes lit up.
"Hey, what are you looking at?"
The white boy's shout startled the black boy. He looked at his classmate, breathing rapidly, and whispered, "I'll show you something good!"
He pulled his classmates aside mysteriously.
Good brothers should share good things together.
After more than half an hour, the two high school students completely lost the joy they had in reading at the beginning.
I came here to see the color, but why do I feel uncomfortable after looking at it?
"Be an honest person first, and a happy person second."
“People live in this world to endure torture. If you understand this until you die, you can be calm about everything.”
“Happiness is for feeling life, not for comparison. Life is for managing, not for calculating.”
"That day I was twenty-one years old, in the golden age of my life. I had many extravagant wishes. I wanted to love, to eat, and to turn into a half-bright, half-dark cloud in the sky in an instant.
Later I realized that life is a slow process of being hammered. As people age, their extravagant hopes disappear day by day, and finally they become like a cow being hammered. "
The white boy said to the black boy, "I feel upset. This crappy book is not good."
The black boy nodded, "It's not good. Buy a copy!"
The two high school students stayed in the bookstore for more than half an hour and then left. From beginning to end, Wang Xiaobo and Li Yinhe silently watched them.
Wang Xiaobo said to Li Yinhe: "In fact, most people can understand what I am saying!"
There was great comfort in his tone.
In the second week of May, Jin Ying ran from northern Hebei to Yanjing.
Her father, Jin Yang, is a famous writer. He was an undergraduate student at the Stage Art Department of the Central Academy of Drama in the 1960s. His works are collected by the National Art Museum of China and art museums in many countries in Europe and America. This month, he is holding a solo exhibition at the National Art Museum of China.
Jin Ying not only came to Yanjing to support her father, but also invited classmates in and near Yanjing to show their support. Lin Weimin was among those she invited, as well as Jiang Zilong and Qu Xiaowei.
A group of old classmates were particularly cordial when they met. Jin Ying was the host today and accompanied everyone to look at paintings.
Jin Ying's father specializes in oil painting and gouache painting. Most of his works are based on folk life. They have a strong sense of life and look very friendly.
After viewing the exhibition, Jin Ying teased, "How was it? Editor-in-Chief Lin, I heard that you love collecting calligraphy and paintings. What do you think after appreciating my father's works?"
Lin Weimin replied pretentiously: "The painting is good. I think the one of slaughtering the New Year pig is good. It makes people very appetizing."
"Is that all I feel?"
Lin Weimin smacked his lips and continued, "Not bad, but still a little worse than Xiao Qi's painting."
Qu Xiaowei on the side said, "Who is Xiao Qi?"
"Xiao Qi, it's Qi Baishi!" Lin Weimin said.
Everyone burst into laughter. The elegant venue suddenly fell several levels to see a group of vulgar people standing outside it.
Qu Xiaowei said: "Weimin, why don't you buy a few of these paintings to collect?"
Jin Ying, however, was very discerning. "Our teacher Lin is a wealthy collector. This amount of paintings is not enough for him to buy once. There is no need. Wait until my dad has collected 200 paintings, and then let Teacher Lin make a move!"
Jin Ying used a joke to avoid possible embarrassment.
"The Rainless City" was selected into the Buhuhu series of books, and the news that Jin Ying earned 300,000 yuan in 3 months had already spread among classmates.
For the evening dinner party, Jin Ying chose Donglaishun.
Everyone naturally talked about the dinner party at the Institute of Literature Research. Qu Xiaowei was forced by Lin Weimin to treat the guests, but he made a profit.
Jin Ying felt angry every time she thought about it, and denounced Lin Weimin and Qu Xiaowei for setting a trap for their classmates.
"You can't say that. No one is forcing you to eat, and no one is forcing you to pay."
Qu Xiaowei's shameless performance was unanimously despised by Jin Ying and Jiang Zilong.
The old classmates finally met each other and the atmosphere was warm.
"Xiaowei is great. Now he has even made it to Santana." Jin Ying praised Qu Xiaowei.
With Lin Weimin by his side, Qu Xiaowei didn't dare to get cocky. Lin Weimin knew exactly where he got this Santana.
"Well, I'm just fooling around. How can I compare with a great writer like you? You can earn more money with just one book than we can ever earn in our entire life!" Qu Xiaowei joked.
"That's such a sour remark!" Jin Ying teased.
Jiang Zilong laughed and said, "I feel jealous too. I've been writing books all my life, and I've never made so much money."
"Then you have to find editor-in-chief Lin to sign up. If you catch his eye, Xiaoqu and Xiaojiang, you'll be rich! Haha!"
As Jin Ying spoke, she couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Qu Xiaowei and Jiang Zilong also laughed.
After the jokes, the conversation turned serious.
The Cloth Tiger series of books has been very popular in the domestic book market over the past year or so. Jin Ying tried it out and made a lot of money. Jiang Zilong and Qu Xiaowei were also very curious.
Jiang Zilong asked, "Jin Ying can earn one million from this novel, right?"
Jin Ying said: "How can I earn so much?"
"Why not? Earning one million is just a matter of selling less than two million copies. Your novel has sold 500,000 copies in just three months." Qu Xiaowei said.
Jin Ying acted very rationally, "My novel has a mediocre reputation. It's just taking advantage of the popularity of Boo Hu. Who knows what will happen in the future. But having said that, I'm already very satisfied."
"I would be content if I were you. I made 300,000 in just three months," Qu Xiaowei sighed.
After he finished speaking, he showed an expression of regret on his face again, "If I had known that writing books could make so much money, I should not have given up this path!"
Jin Ying joked, "It's not too late to pick it up now. Cloth Tiger rejects thousands of manuscripts a year, so yours is not a big deal."
Qu Xiaowei looked hurt.
Jiang Zilong also asked about the selection criteria for the Buhuhu series and seemed very interested.
"From a creative point of view, we must pay more attention to the story. It doesn't have to be a popular novel, but the story must be told well. Yu Hua's "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" is a good example for reference.
The novel has a good balance between literary quality and storytelling. Although its sales in the past few months are not as good as Jin Ying's novel, its sales in the future will definitely not be bad, and it may even surpass Jin Ying's novel. "Lin Weimin replied.
"Surpassing Jin Ying? That's also a best-selling book with sales of millions of copies. Your Guowen Publishing House is really exaggerating. It's easy to sell millions of copies!" Jiang Zilong exclaimed.
Qu Xiaowei also felt the same way and said, "Yes, in the past, tens of thousands of copies were considered a lot. Everyone was complaining that pure literature was not selling well, but your Guowen Press went against the trend and directly raised the sales of these books by several levels."
"Sometimes whether a book is a bestseller or not has nothing to do with its quality. Marketing is a very important factor," Lin Weimin said frankly.
"That's true. The publicity for your series of books, "Ragdoll Tiger," is so intense that sometimes when I flip through the newspapers, I find that there's no news about you in several magazines," Jiang Zilong said.
Qu Xiaowei said: "It's no wonder that Weimin is smart and can be featured in Time magazine."
"Time Magazine?" Jin Ying and Jiang Zilong looked surprised.
(End of this chapter)
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