Chapter 117: It’s hard to imagine the author’s mental state!
Early morning, Jinling.
The office building where Phoenix Media Group is located.
This publishing group, which is often confused with Hong Kong media because of its name, has entered working mode. State-owned units have strict attendance checks and are busy early in the morning.
A postal EMS express from Dongyang County was sorted out by the front desk. As the editor-in-chief had instructed, it was delivered to Lou En's office as soon as possible.
When Lou En opened it, there was a manuscript and a letter of explanation.
Five minutes later, the manuscript was taken out by his subordinates to be photocopied, bound and numbered.
Half an hour later, some of the heated copies were kept on file, and the rest appeared in a small conference room.
There were seven or eight people sitting in the conference room. Except for Lou En, who was the one who pushed the project forward, the others were staff members prepared for "The Long Journey".
Planning, responsible editor, marketing editor, illustration editor, content design, binding design, etc.
The publication of a book requires not only the flesh and blood provided by the author himself, but also professional "packaging". A good book cover, typesetting, and even catalog are all part of "quality".
Lou En took a sip of tea from his thermos cup and said, "Today is the reading session for 'The Long Journey'. We all read the first half a month ago, so I guess you haven't forgotten everything, right?"
The "content designer" was a beautiful young lady in her early twenties with delicate makeup. She smiled and shook her head: "How could that be? I've read it more than once myself. Teacher Zhai's writing style and delicate emotions are really captivating."
Another person said, "I've read it several times too."
As people in a publishing house, they have handled countless works, but this book is still outstanding enough that people can't help but open it outside of work.
Lou En nodded: "That's good. The second half is not long either, more than 80,000 words. Let's read it together first. This is my first time too."
Silence returned to the small conference room, with only the occasional sound of turning pages.
Handwritten manuscripts are usually a bit tiring to read, but Zhai Da's handwriting is neat and beautiful, so it doesn't cause any reading difficulties. It's only a few tens of thousands of words, and anyone who is a professional can finish reading it in two or three hours.
Half an hour later, noise began to appear in the conference room.
“Slurp!”
Everyone looked up and saw an unshaven old man with red eyes. He stood up, took the tissue paper on the table and blew his eyes.
"What did you see? Why are you crying like this?"
Although everyone's expression was a little sad, it didn't stop them from making a joke.
The elder brother sighed deeply: "Lin Manman's father couldn't donate a kidney that matched his daughter's. The helplessness and sense of helplessness made me feel uncomfortable. I thought of my daughter."
An hour later, the front desk received a notice to deliver two more packs of tissues to the conference room.
An hour and a half later, smoke began to appear in the conference room and someone lit a cigarette inside.
Two hours later.
The small conference room was already filled with smoke, like a fairyland on earth.
The beautiful young lady in her early twenties who was full of energy just now has her eyeliner completely smudged by tears.
Like a death rock dancer in a nightclub, she lay on a seat, holding a cigarette.
I feel like I won't love again.
In the conference room, almost all the female comrades were crying miserably. The men were slightly better, but their eyes were also red and they smoked to relieve their sorrow.
Lou En was the oldest, but he was also feeling unwell, so he stood up and opened the window to let in fresh air.
If there is no ventilation, he will cry because he is suffocated by the smoke!
"Ah~ Although I expected it wouldn't end well, this is still too sad."
The death rock lady stared blankly at the flickering cigarette butt, her voice hoarse as if she had been screaming all night long: "I will love you till I die."
“Although the ending pattern is not uncommon, the emotions conveyed by Mr. Zhai’s words are really
It’s so real.”
We are all insiders in the industry and have seen too much, but we still cannot resist it. Teacher Zhai’s writing seems to have magic.
It's even a bit weird!
It's hard to imagine what his mental state was when he wrote it.
Another person said: "It's so strong, I can't believe this is a romance novel. Even an old man like me is feeling uncomfortable."
"No, it's more like 'realism' disguised as 'romance'. It's too real and too specific."
Although from a professional perspective, works that can move people to tears, have a lasting effect, and are profound are more likely to gain fame and sales, they still have the urge to persuade Teacher Zhai.
Be a human being! Give me a good ending!
It's important to remember that this book's main audience is young people, especially young women. It's hard to imagine how those young girls who are just beginning to fall in love will feel after reading it.
Lou En wiped his face, barely breaking free from the emotions of the work, and felt a little more excited in his heart.
He felt that he was not doing Lu Zetao a favor, but that Lu Zetao was giving him a lottery ticket!
After everyone had recovered, Lou En, the editor-in-chief, took the initiative to move the meeting forward and said, "I have some good news for everyone. Teacher Zhai's estimated college entrance examination score is 450. Do you know what that means?"
Some people were surprised, while others didn't care much about the college entrance examination. Lou En didn't keep them in suspense and explained directly:
"I asked a professor at Jinling University, and they said this is a chance to get a shot at becoming the top scorer in the provincial college entrance examination, which would be a huge boost to the book's promotion."
The marketing editor put out his cigarette. "So impressive? Even if Mr. Zhai didn't become the top scorer in the Gaokao, with this score and this book, he'd be even more famous than the top scorer!"
Lou En nodded. "I think we can skip the question of whether to publish it or not and get straight to the actual progress. We've already done a lot of preparatory work. We need to have everything ready before the college entrance exam scores are released, even printing it out in advance."
"When Teacher Zhai's score comes out, we'll print the result on the 'waistband' so we can start selling it as soon as possible. The content of the waistband will be determined based on Teacher Zhai's specific score."
The Death Rock lady opened her laptop and showed Lou En the Bed Explorer blog.
"As agreed beforehand, Mr. Zhai has been updating his blog. Currently, the two blogs have a cumulative total of over 3,000 words, but they've already been read over 200,000 times. It's also been featured on the blog's homepage. I think it seems like there's some kind of collaboration between 'Xinglang' and Mr. Zhai to increase their exposure. This is also a very beneficial publicity force. The suggestions Mr. Zhai made at the time really worked."
The planner said, "I think the original print run of 5,000 copies could be increased to, say, 10,000."
Lou En shook his head. "Ten thousand is still too few. Twenty thousand copies! Let our distributors put them in the most prominent places. Every bookstore should have enough stock."
As a state-owned group with 13 subordinate publishing houses, even the "Xinhua Branch" in Zhejiang Province is their joint venture subsidiary. It is hard to say about the farther ones, but their influence and coverage are very strong within Zhejiang, Shanghai and other regions.
Lou En stood up, walked to the window, and stared at the tall buildings outside with high spirits.
Twenty-First Century Publishing House discovered Han Han, and colleagues at Chunfeng Literature and Art discovered Guo Jinming. In terms of literary quality, neither of them was in Lou En's eyes, but they were indeed bestsellers.
The main force of physical book consumption now is young people, even students.
Then why can’t Phoenix Media have a “Zhai Da”?
A micro-contest champion, a literary genius, and a high school student
Even, a top scorer in the college entrance examination?
Why can't the best-selling title in the physical book market this year be "
"The Long Journey"?
————
"Really? As long as Editor-in-Chief Lou likes it, I'm very confident in this book."
At home in Sanmao Community, Dongyang, Zhai Da was packing his schoolbag while answering the phone.
"Have you read that letter? It's just a bit of an immature idea. I know the ending is too sad, so I just had this sudden thought."
"Many movies have dual or even multiple endings. In different versions, 'Long Long Road' can also have dual endings, but whether it is feasible depends on your professional opinion. If releasing two physical versions is a bit excessive, you can also choose to release the second ending online."
"I understand. Don't worry. I'll send you an email address later. We can discuss the book cover, illustrations, recommendations, and other things there. Yes, I have internet access at home, haha."
After hanging up the phone, Zhai Da nodded with satisfaction. Editor Lou was really capable. The editor-in-chief was already the second or third in command in the publishing system, and was also the head of the "business segment". When he chose to directly intervene in specific work, it could be said that "a single word could make the decision."
Lou En was very confident and gave a lot of preferential treatment.
For example, the first print run is super doubled.
For example, royalties will be based on "print volume" rather than "sales volume". Generally, this condition only appears in the terms of famous old authors, and will also make the print volume conservative.
For example, the settlement of royalties does not need to wait for sales data because it is related to the "printing volume". It can be settled in advance every time reprinting is done.
This is important, as it means he will likely receive his first royalties in a few days.
With the settlement method based on sales volume, if you are unlucky and are told that "the books have not been sold out", it may take half a year or a year.
This will be of great help to Zhai Da's other summer plans.
After organizing his thoughts, Zhai Da zipped up his backpack and walked out of the room.
There are no books in my schoolbag today, only snacks.
Because he is going to attend a class reunion.
The QQ group had been discussing ways to have a class reunion for a long time, starting before the exam. Zhai Da did not participate in any of the discussions and just waited for notification.
The result was really different from his previous life.
In the previous life, we just went out for dinner at night and then sang all night long. In this life, it was probably because Zhai Da flapped his wings, or everyone paid more attention to the results, or maybe the conversation went off track and we didn't get back to it, so we added a daytime project.
On a village-level hill in the suburbs of Dongyang County, there is a small Taoist temple called "Shahe Temple", which houses a statue of Confucius.
It’s not Kong Yiji, but the one who is 2.22 meters tall and who “can find out the way to his enemy’s house in the morning, and his enemy will be dead in the evening.”
Many people in the class urged us to go and pay homage to Confucius before the results were released!
Zhai Da was speechless about this, but it didn't matter where he went, it was just a formality.
By the way, look for employees for the summer vacation campaign.
Pushing the door open, I heard a dazed conversation coming from the small room.
"Really not going together? There's still time to change your mind."
"No, I like being home."
"Okay, go to my room if you want to read."
After Zhai Da left, he forgot to close the window in the room.
The summer breeze blows occasionally, making the curtains sway like waves.
A piece of A4 paper was blown and fell to the ground.
There were some formulas written on it, and in the most eye-catching position, a large number:
457.
After an unknown amount of time, a bare hand picked it up and put it back on the table.
Then he sat on the narrow little seat and read quietly.
Don't be anxious or impatient, the summer breeze is warm and cool.
Wherever the curtains dance like waves, where is not a beach?
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