Chapter 792: US Feedback
Among the many American political magazines that wanted to interview Lin Weimin, the most famous one was Newsweek.
Newsweek is a long-established U.S. political magazine that has won numerous media honors for its outstanding news reporting and commentary articles. It is known as one of the three major U.S. news weeklies along with Time and U.S. News & World Report.
The sales volume in Japan alone is as high as 3 million copies per issue. It is also published in multiple languages around the world, with global sales exceeding 4 million copies.
In the United States, its sales and influence are second only to Time magazine among current affairs magazines, but this is not due to its strength, but because Time magazine is more comprehensive.
It can be seen from the advertising fees that for many years, Newsweek's advertising revenue has exceeded that of Time magazine most of the time.
In terms of style, Newsweek's views are generally more liberal than Time's.
The political ecology of the United States has never allowed centrists to survive, and this also applies to the American media.
Looking around, there are almost no middle-of-the-road members in the American media; they are either left or right.
In the traditional American media world, Newsweek has always been known as "L". It has been at the forefront of many negative news stories such as the Watergate scandal and the Zipper scandal, causing successive governments to lose face. Later, this publication also suffered a lot for this.
If the style of "God Bless America" were placed in the United States, it would certainly be the most L-ish and it completely hits the hearts of senior intellectuals.
"Newsweek" is a representative publication of American liberalism. When they saw "God Bless America", they were like sharks smelling blood and could not control themselves at all.
Lin Weimin communicated with Roger Strauss for more than ten minutes. He was in China and busy with work, so he could not spare much time for interviews. He only agreed to be interviewed by Newsweek, the most influential publication.
It was impossible for him to go abroad, so the reporter from Newsweek had to travel halfway around the world to come to China to conduct the interview.
After the interview was scheduled, Roger Strauss excitedly introduced the sales of "God Bless America" to Lin Weimin.
The novel was released on October 7th. In a little over a month, its sales have easily exceeded 700,000 copies, firmly topping the New York Times bestseller list. The sales momentum of the novel remains unabated this month.
In the first month of its release, sales of "God Bless America" exploded, thanks to strong promotion by major bookchains.
In recent years, Lin Weimin's works have been popular books in many large chain bookstores. In addition, Roger Strauss previously bundled the names of Lin Weimin and Richard Yates together for promotion, which made both of them gain huge fame.
The American public was deeply impressed by that wave of public opinion. At this time, Lin Weimin's new novel was released again, and it was still about American politics. Booksellers have been exposed to Lin Weimin's works for many years and know that this writer has a deep insight into American society. After reading it, they were even more amazed by the content of the novel.
The biggest difference between "God Bless America" and traditional political satire novels is that it is larger in scale, and the actions of the politicians in it have completely broken through the imagination of traditional political satire novels.
The novel is full of jokes because of the various behaviors that break the rules, but at the same time, Lin Weimin's rhythm and bottom line are very good, which makes readers easily believe that the content of the novel is likely to happen in reality.
Overall, the novel maintains a strong sense of irony and absurd black humor while also catering to the general public's reading tastes. It's just short of having the words "sales champion" written on the cover.
After the novel was released, it lived up to the expectations of booksellers and sales exceeded 700,000 copies in the first month. This is the best result ever achieved by Lin Weimin's works in the United States.
In the second month, the sales of the novel continued to grow rapidly, and did not show signs of decline like many best-selling books after the initial publicity and readers' novelty wore off.
On the contrary, in November, many publications published review articles on the novel "God Bless America".
The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic Monthly, The Page…
The review articles published in many first-line literary journals and literary criticism journals have already represented Lin Weimin's current influence in the American literary world.
For most literary publications, promoting their positioning as "intellectual reading materials" is crucial for them.
"God Bless America" is full of ridicule of authority, contempt for power and disdain for politicians when set in the United States. It is obviously a product of the liberal style and completely fits the trends of the American cultural and intellectual circles of this era.
This style is not only pleasing to the eye, but also sells well. They are eager to make Lin Weimin and his novel known to everyone.
"The Gains and Losses of American Democracy from "God Bless America"" "A Brief Analysis of the Political Figures in "God Bless America"" "Is Western Democracy at the End of the Road?" ...
In just one month, more than 10 commentary articles from well-known American critics were published, influencing millions of American readers.
The high praise given to "God Bless America" by these critics has made many readers very interested in the novel. This is reflected in reality, as there is an endless stream of readers coming to bookstores all over the country to buy "God Bless America", and the sales of the novel are rising steadily.
Roger Strauss has been engaged in the publishing industry for more than 40 years and has been deeply involved in the field of literature, but he has never had many best-selling works.
But since he started working with Lin Weimin, popular books have come in like a tide, making him feel unprecedented happiness.
Such a generous reward made Roger Strauss feel lucky more than once that he had licked... and actively promoted cooperation with Lin Weimin.
"Lin, I bet. In two years, just two years, your novel will definitely break the sales volume of 10 million copies." Roger Strauss said excitedly on the phone.
Lin Weimin said calmly, "I hope so."
Roger Strauss's excited attitude was dampened by this sentence. He couldn't help but say, "Damn it! I almost forgot that you already have a work with sales exceeding 10 million copies... No, if you count other countries, it may be more than four or five."
He added with a somewhat annoyed tone: "Oh, it would be great if I also had the publishing rights to Farewell My Concubine! Its sales should reach the 20 million mark in a few years."
"Roger, don't be so greedy. Random House is also my partner! Isn't the sales of Spirited Away also very good? If you include God Bless America, it's almost on par with Farewell My Concubine."
"I understand that you can't put all your eggs in one basket. You're such a smart guy!" Roger Strauss joked.
Then, he said cheerfully, "I think the combined power of these two works is greater than that of Farewell My Concubine. So, Random House still doesn't make as much money as I do!"
"Random House may make a lot of money, but you will never lose money!" Lin Weimin joked to him.
“That’s right!”
After ending the call with Roger Strauss, Lin Weimin thought for a while, got up and went to Lao Zhou's office to report to him.
The interview with Newsweek was scheduled for next Monday. As the most important current affairs magazine in the United States, a cadre of Lin Weimin's level must report before accepting an interview with them.
Old Zhou was bored, and when he saw Lin Weimin coming, he talked to him for a long time before letting him go.
Seeing that it was time for lunch, Lin Weimin went to the cafeteria to have a meal first. After returning to the office, he was about to take a break when there was a knock on the door.
He said "Come in", and the person who pushed the door open was Feng Xiaogang.
"How come you have time to come here?"
Feng Xiaogang's front teeth showed before he could say anything. "I'm here to report to you on my work."
Lin Weimin was speechless. "Don't say useless things. What work are you reporting to me? If you have something to say, just say it!"
Even after being scolded by him, Feng Xiaogang still had a smile on his face and said, "The post-production of Party A and Party B is complete, and I want to see when you have time to come and take a look. I contacted Mr. Yu this morning, and he said he couldn't reach you, so I said I'll go over there!"
"I was not in the office for a while this morning." Lin Weimin explained and asked, "After the filming of the movie, how would you rate yourself?"
Hearing this, Feng Xiaogang's smile faded a little. "I am just an elementary school student in the film industry. If you ask me to rate myself, I think I should get 6 points."
"Are you so unconfident in yourself?" Lin Weimin joked.
"Well! I dare not say anything nonsense in front of you. But to be honest, I think this movie is well directed." As he said this, Feng Xiaogang showed a smug smile on his face.
Lin Weimin nodded and said, "Okay, since you are so confident, let's go over and take a look this afternoon."
As he spoke, he picked up the phone and called Wenhua Film and Television, asking Yu Dong to bring everyone over to take a look.
Feng Xiaogang was a little nervous when he saw this scene, "There's no need to call so many people."
"What? Are you scared?"
"Hehe!" Feng Xiaogang smiled and his mood was self-evident.
After chatting with Feng Xiaogang for a few more words, the two drove to Yanying Studio together.
When the two arrived at Yanying Studio, Yu Dong had already arrived with Tong Zhonggui and Mo Yan, and they had borrowed a small projection room from the studio.
After a while, Wang Shuo and Peng Xiaolin came with the video.
"Party A and Party B" was invested with 2 million yuan. Yanying Studio was also one of the producers, but it did not contribute any money. To put it bluntly, it only provided the qualification for distribution.
Han Shanping came running over when he learned that Lin Weimin had arrived.
Before the movie started, the lights in the projection room dimmed and everyone talked in low voices.
Lin Weimin was flanked by Yu Dong and Han Shanping on his left and right. Lin Weimin chatted with Han Shanping for a few words. When the two of them were silent, Yu Dong whispered to Lin Weimin, "Teacher Lin, I'm planning to build a screening room for Wenhua recently, so that we don't have to run around and borrow movies from others to watch them in the future."
Lin Weimin nodded slightly, "We should do this. You are the general manager, just make the arrangements."
As everyone was talking, images appeared on the big screen.
With a red background and white fonts, the first picture is the film screening license issued by the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television. The producers are Yanjing Wenhua Film and Television Co., Ltd. and Yanjing Film Studio.
Then, a cartoon mouse appeared on the screen stroke by stroke, and then a line of fonts appeared: I wish all the people in the country good luck in the Year of the Rat.
Yu Dong said to Lin Weimin, "You mentioned the concepts of 'New Year's films' and 'New Year's period' before. We are currently studying the promotional strategy, mainly to create this atmosphere. We have also prepared a lot of materials and found some media to promote it. In addition, we are connecting with TV stations. Mr. Hai helped us contact CCTV's "Zhengda Variety Show"..."
Yu Dong whispered a few words about the promotional preparations that Wenhua Films had recently made for the release of "Party A and Party B". When the protagonist Yao Yuan's narration appeared, he stopped talking.
"My name is Yao Yuan, I am 38 years old and unmarried. I am a 40/60 person, with 6 advantages and 4 disadvantages. I am an actor with no roles to play. In the summer of 1995, I teamed up with assistant director Zhou Beiyan, prop Liangzi, and screenwriter Qian Kang, who were all idle at home, to fill a gap in the service industry. It was called: Good Dream Day Tour."
"A Day Trip to Good Dreams" was the earliest work planned by Good Dreams Company, but unfortunately Feng Xiaogang was too immature two years ago. After more than half a year of hard work, he ended up with only a name but failed to make the movie.
After the training of his directorial debut "Forever Young", Feng Xiaogang was finally able to take the lead on his own. When planning the movie "Party A and Party B", he was thinking about "A Day's Trip", the first failed work in his directorial career, and embedded the name "A Day's Trip" into the movie.
(End of this chapter)
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