Unable to resist the enthusiasm, Wen Ying gritted her teeth and signed more than a hundred copies of "Spark" that the woman at the newsstand brought out.
The lady at the newsstand was very capable. She caught Wen Ying who was alone and forced her to hold a small autograph session. Wen Ying could only comfort herself that this was the price she had to pay for conducting grassroots market research!
Little did she know that the lady at the newsstand was very regretful. She only hated that the newspapers had been making such a fuss these days that "Teenage Idol" was almost sold out and the newsstand didn't have much stock. Otherwise, the lady would not only be able to hold Wen Ying down and have her sign more than a hundred copies of "Spark", but also hold her down and have her sign more than a hundred copies of "Teenage Idol".
It took some time to sign over a hundred magazines. Wen Ying had finished her work, so of course she had to continue her grassroots market research. During the break between signings, she asked about the sales of Spark. The elder sister was amused:
"Of course, it's selling like hotcakes. Lots of people have pre-ordered it, most of them students. There's a 200,000 yuan prize for the essay contest!"
The newspapers were arguing all day long, questioning whether the 200,000 yuan prize was justified, and the lady at the newsstand was obviously on the side of the organizer.
Those people are so strange.
They are not asked to pay for it themselves. Someone organized a competition with high prize money. If they don’t participate, they can just pretend not to see it. Why are they criticizing the Spark Cup?
I met the real boss today, so I have to express my opinion:
"You guys are definitely getting some bad press for organizing this competition. I've seen a lot of crappy essay competitions in recent years, and eight out of ten of them are scams for young people. Young people see contest ads in magazines and send their works in with great expectations. Then, after a while, the organizers reply with something like, 'Congratulations, you've made it to the semi-finals,' and ask you to send a certain amount of money to the organizers to claim the prize. Ugh! I think the culture of essay competitions has been corrupted by these idiots!"
Wen Ying gave her elder sister a thumbs up and said, "You see things very clearly."
The eldest sister puffed out her chest with pride.
Of course not!
Those essay writing competitions that are a scam are just a scam. The amount of money they ask contestants to send in is not much, maybe just a few dozen or a few hundred yuan, but many people fall for it.
If one contestant can cheat people out of a hundred yuan, a thousand contestants can cheat people out of hundreds of thousands of yuan. If more than 2,000 contestants can be cheated, an essay writing competition can generate hundreds of thousands of yuan in revenue!
As for the cost, it is just to publish an advertisement on the inside pages of the magazine, and then print certificates in batches and send them to the so-called contestants who have entered the semi-finals. Compared with the revenue, the cost is basically negligible.
The model that my elder sister described is what really ruined the essay competition.
The Tianjiao Spark Cup is different. So far, the Spark Cup has been spending money instead of trying to make money from the contestants. If domestic literature lovers are spoiled by the Spark Cup, and then asked to participate in essay competitions that require them to pay for themselves... those stupid leeks will not be so easy to be exploited.
So what the lady at the newsstand said was right, the Spark Cup Essay Contest did infringe on the interests of some people.
Of course, the newsstand lady hadn't finished speaking yet. The fact that the Spark Cup had attracted so much opposition was not only because it infringed upon the interests of the money-making competition, but also because the Spark magazine that hosted the competition was too high-profile and powerful, which scared some of its peers.
Whoever has circulation and popularity has influence and the right to speak.
One essay competition can only increase the popularity of Spark.
What if Spark is held every year?
Then "Spark" is the second "Sprout" magazine!
One copy of "Mengya" is enough. Its positioning is different from that of ordinary campus youth magazines, so its peers have accepted it - there is nothing they can do if they don't accept it. The New Concept Writing Competition initially allowed many universities to offer admission quotas. Other magazines could not afford to organize such a competition, and they were even powerless to envy it.
"Spark" came out of nowhere and chose to cooperate with film and television companies to use money to increase its popularity, which is a bit unfair.
A rising star wants to become the industry leader by spending money, but his peers naturally do not accept it.
Of course, there is no need to say these words to the lady at the newsstand.
More importantly, Wen Ying had already signed all the magazines and books prepared by her elder sister, so she had to run away quickly.
She was afraid that if she continued to stay there, she would go from being a fish swimming upstream to a fish with broken fins. The newsstand lady would see that she was easy to talk to, so she might bring all the copies of "Spark" from the nearby newsstands to ask her to sign!
Just like that, when Wen Ying left the newsstand, her fins, oh no, her wrists were shaking.
The elder sister looked at the pile of magazines and smiled until her eyes narrowed. She first called her regular customers to tell them that "Spark" had arrived and asked them to come and pick it up quickly.
"There's a signature fish swimming upstream!"
"Fake? Bullshit, I'm not a blind dragon, how could I recognize the wrong person?"
"How did you get it? It's a trade secret!"
"If you're skeptical, I'll just sell it to someone else at a higher price... Oh, you believe it, right? Then come and get it!"
Of course, acquaintances cannot buy more than a hundred magazines. Even if they want to buy them all, the lady at the newsstand will not agree.
We won’t raise the price, but we can keep it and sell it slowly. We need to let customers know that they have signed magazines and that they can get good stuff, so we don’t have to worry about them not coming to the newsstand!
Young people may not have a thick wallet, but they have plenty of time. It is not far at all to take a bus around half of Chengdu to buy magazines at a newsstand.
The magazine signed by Wen Ying is an attractive bait to attract customers.
There are several copies of "Young Idol" signed by Wen Ying, which are really rare items that can be sold at high prices.
If Xiaoyu doesn't hold a book signing event in the near future, the few copies of "Teenage Idol" in his hands will probably be the only signed collector's editions circulating on the market.
This book cannot be sold to ordinary customers, but to Xiaoyu's avid readers.
The lady at the newsstand gave a sly smile.
…
On November 15, 2005, the first issue of "Spark" was released, and sellers from all over the country reported that "Spark" was selling well.
Of course, the promotion of the essay contest is not limited to the Sichuan and Chongqing areas. The promotional video and online publicity on Hunan Satellite TV are aimed at the whole country!
Most of the first people to buy Spark were literature enthusiasts who wanted to know more about the essay contest and get the registration form. After half a month of publicity, it all culminated on the 15th.
On this day, countless literature lovers across the country will excitedly open the plastic-wrapped copies of "Xinghuo" magazine.
Take a deep breath, you can smell the scent of ink and the 200,000 yuan bonus, it smells so good!
Sure enough, after quickly flipping through the first issue of Spark, I found detailed competition rules at the back of the magazine.
The first is the genre of the entry.
The creative essay competition focuses on creativity and storytelling. Compared with prose and poetry, novels are the best genre for presenting stories. Therefore, whether it is the short story group or the long story group, there are restrictions on the genre of the entries, which can only be novels!
This regulation discourages many literature lovers.
Wen Ying didn't even need to go under the banyan tree to guess that some people would be upset.
But it doesn't matter, just jump in. Whoever is the organizer has the final say. For "Xinghuo", Rongcheng Literature and Art Publishing House and Tianjiao Film and Television, good stories are the most valuable. If someone feels that the "novel" genre limits their performance, then they should not participate.
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