1980 My Literary Era.

Chapter 658 Cloth Tiger Series Books
In January 1993, following the "false news" incident of "Nandu Weekend" in the second half of the year, there was another eye-catching event in the Chinese press

——Many central-level newspapers including "Reference News", "Guangming Daily", "Economic Daily", "China Youth Daily", and "Liberation Daily" have revised and expanded their editions. The style of market development.

《参考消息》是1931年11月在瑞金中华苏维埃第一次全国代表大会时创办的一份重要的资讯报纸，在1993年之前一直是四开四版，从1993年1月1日起扩大成四开八版。

"Guangming Daily" is one of the official newspapers of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. It was founded in June 1949. In 6, it proposed the revision measure of "changing science and education newspapers into comprehensive newspapers".

"Economic Daily" was founded in BJ in January 1983. It is the first special newspaper about economic life and information in China. In 1, ten years after its inception, it added a page on the original basis.

From the founding of New China to the end of the 80s, the development of literature and even culture was inseparable from the dissemination capabilities of various newspapers, especially literary periodicals.

From the "weaning" of various periodicals in 84 to the revision of major newspapers this year, it is nothing more than newspapers and magazines that are used to "imperial food" either actively or passively going deep into the market economy.

With the leadership of these central-level newspapers, newspapers at various provincial and municipal levels have also joined in the process of revision or expansion.

In addition to retaining the original style and layout of these newspapers, the biggest change is the establishment of supplements and weekend editions. For example, "China Culture News" established "Cultural Weekend", "BJ Daily" established "Jinghua Weekend", "China Sports Daily" established " "New Weekly", "China Women's Daily" founded "With You", "BJ Youth Daily" founded "Youth Weekend", etc.

These supplements and weekend editions, in addition to publishing necessary news, political comments, ideas, and cultural content, have greatly increased the overwhelming advertising and soft cultural and entertainment content.

This kind of revision and expansion measures, in the jargon of the industry, is "rewarding and rewarding".

In addition to newspapers, the renaming and revision of literary periodicals has gradually become a trend.

The "Literary Critic", founded by the Ludong Provincial Institute of Literature in 1985, was renamed "Literary World", from a purely literary review publication to a comprehensive, informative and interesting publication.

"Hebei Literature" was renamed "Contemporary People"...

And so on, such reform events appear to emerge in endlessly.

I don't know when it started. It seems that newspapers and magazines can't keep up with the trend overnight without changing their names and layouts.

If you don't emphasize the words "comprehensive newspaper" or "comprehensive magazine" in your statement, then you have no market economy mind and no development pattern.

Facing the turbulent changes in the outside world, several publications under the Guowen Society stood still like a thousand-year-old tortoise.

It's not that everyone doesn't want to move. Dozens of newspapers and magazines across the country have revised and expanded their editions. It's impossible for the people in charge of these publications to keep their heads down.

But they just had an idea in their minds. Before they could wait for Zhang Luo, the editor-in-chief Lin Weimin threw several basins of cold water at the meeting.

"It's only people who can't live happily that change the version. Who can change the version if a good person has nothing to do?"

"Is sales falling off a cliff now? Or are readers actively asking for it?"

"The market didn't respond, readers didn't respond, why are you so excited?"

"Watching other people shit, does your own butt itch?"

"Slapping your head and thinking of a bad idea is called reform?"

……

Lin Weimin held his head and scolded him in the conference room, the editor-in-chief of the Guowen Society's publications became more sober, and everyone looked at each other with embarrassing eyebrows.

It is not terrible to be scolded, and it is even less terrible to be scolded by a group of people, which is almost equal to not being scolded.

However, everyone secretly slandered Lin Weimin for two years as the editor-in-chief, and Lin Weimin was becoming more and more disrespectful to the elderly.

After the meeting, Cheng Zaochun came to Lin Weimin's office.

"I heard that you showed great power at the meeting?"

"Who is suing me again?"

Cheng Zaochun shook his head, "No one sued you for your misdemeanor, I just heard about your meeting, so I came here to ask."

No wonder!
A group of people in their 60s and [-]s were trained by this young man for more than half an hour in a meeting. It's no wonder that these people are not emotional.

But I really don't blame him for being angry, "This group of people listens to the wind and rain. Do you think reform is just a play?"

Cheng Zaochun was very relieved by Lin Weimin's words. He has always been cautious about reform. In the past two years, he was worried that Lin Weimin was too young and too aggressive, which would conflict with his ideas.

But now it seems that I have read the right person.

For the people, he is young and mature.

"Governing a big country is like cooking a small dish. Although our Guowen Society is small, we can't just be impatient." Cheng Zaochun said.

Lin Weimin glanced at Cheng Zaochun, he was pointing at me!
"There is no problem with the reform, but it cannot be reformed indiscriminately, let alone follow the trend. It must be targeted." Lin Weimin responded.

Cheng Zaochun knew Lin Weimin too well, and upon hearing this, he couldn't help asking, "What are you planning to do?"

"What is a moth? This is called judging the situation and catering to the market."

"Say it directly."

Seeing that Comrade Cheng was so straightforward, Lin Weimin also said unambiguously, "I plan to launch a 'series of books'."

"Doing a series of books again?" Cheng Zaochun asked with a frown.

"Series of books are different from series of books. A series of books like "World Literary Classics Library" is a collection of books. This time I want to create a concept similar to high-quality books."

Lin Weimin explained his thoughts to Cheng Zaochun in detail.

The major revision of newspapers and magazines in 1993 was national in nature. Some of these publications were forging ahead and hoped to rejuvenate the publications through reform, but more publications just followed the trend and followed what others said.

If the revision of the publications is still an improvement, then in this year, some actions in the publishing industry can be called large-scale reforms to adapt to the market economy.

In November 1993, Chunfeng Literature and Art Publishing House launched the "Cloth Tiger Series" under the registered trademark name of "Cloth Tiger". This is a brand book carefully crafted by Chunfeng Literature and Art Publishing House. set of books.

After 77, Chinese writers had a very prosperous life. At that time, the remuneration system had just been restored, and most of the writers were part-timers. Apart from their own jobs, they could use their spare time to write.

In addition to having a job, there is also a manuscript fee. In the era when prices have not yet risen, if you can publish a [-]-word short story, you can easily earn a hundred or so yuan, which is equivalent to two or three months of salary. It can be very nourishing all year round.

But so many years have passed, the increase in remuneration is far from catching up with the increase in prices. It is also a short story of 20 words, and the remuneration standard given by many magazines is only about [-] yuan per [-] words, which is not as good as many people. monthly salary.

There are not many publishing houses in the domestic publishing industry that are willing to pay writers high remuneration and high royalties like Guowenshe.

This is also one of the reasons why many writers are willing to cooperate with Guowen Society.

The slow or even stagnant increase in remuneration has brought about a big disadvantage that it is even more difficult for some publications that are already struggling to survive, to receive manuscripts, let alone receive any good manuscripts.

Such a vicious circle, and then rushing to doctors in a hurry, catching up with the trend of newspaper reform, and changing it as if it were a dead horse.

说回稿酬的问题，根据调查：1992年沪上专业作家有17人都是靠文协工资和稿费为生。一级作家工资收入400多块，二级、三级作家的工资则分别是300和200多块。

And this year, the per capita monthly income in Shanghai was 270 yuan.

The salary of a third-level writer is barely equal to the per capita monthly expenditure. If there is no manuscript fee, it is impossible to support a family.

If no work is published, it means that the income will drop sharply, and the income will not be able to make ends meet.

When prices soared and the wages of factories and enterprises were several times higher than before, the writers who could rely on wages and manuscript fees to live well in the past fell into an unprecedented predicament.

For many full-time writers, when their wages have not increased significantly, the increase in manuscript fees cannot keep up with the increase in prices, and their income is equivalent to a disguised decrease, making life difficult.

It should be said that since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the difficulty of material survival has directly affected the group of writers for the first time.

And at this time, "Cloth Tiger Series" came into being.

It attracts well-known writers with high remuneration and high print runs, and it has been extremely popular since its inception. With a brand-new publishing model, it has taken a firm step in the marketization of Chinese literature.

From later generations until the 21st century, there are still many writers who became famous through the "cloth tiger series", such as Guo Xiaosi, Wei Hui and others.

And if we want to study the root of the success of "Cloth Tiger Series", we cannot do without two important factors.

The first is high remuneration and high print runs.

On September 1990, 9, the "Copyright Law" was passed to stipulate that remuneration can be paid according to the contract.

The remuneration system was no longer unified, and the publishing market was gradually liberalized. As a result, Huayi Publishing House became the first publishing house in China to pay royalties to authors, and Guowen Press followed closely, becoming a trend-setter at that time.

But the royalty system is not a "panacea". The introduction of the royalty payment system means that the income of writers is directly related to the sales of books, unlike before.

For some well-known and best-selling authors, this is of course a good thing.

But for more writers, or part-time writers, this is not good.

Chunfeng Literature and Art Publishing House gave up the fashionable "royalties" and turned to attract writers to contribute with high remuneration, which quickly received enthusiastic responses from the writer community.

And the publishing house can also use the high income brought by the high print run to pay the writers high remuneration.

The second is to establish a brand image and strengthen publicity.

Before the "Cloth Tiger Series", it is not that there were no publishing houses that published series of books, including Guowen Society, many publishing houses have gone through this step, but it is difficult to balance sales and influence.

Back then, Lin Weimin launched the "Contemporary Selection Series" in "Contemporary", which sold well, but after all, it was a derivative series of a magazine and lacked influence.

Last year, Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House launched a set of "Cross-Century Series", which had a great influence, but the sales volume was hard to describe.

The brilliance of the "Cloth Tiger Series" is that it has fully utilized market-oriented means and the media power of the new era, and multi-faceted and large-scale publicity has pushed the popularity of the series to a peak, and then successfully converted this popularity into sales. .

In this way, a beautiful picture of both sales and influence has been formed, and a long-lasting brand has been formed.

In the past, Lin Weimin had a good idea in "Contemporary", but the resources he could use were limited. As a result, "Contemporary Selected Books" did not become a brand as he thought.

Now that he has become the editor-in-chief of the Guowen Society, serious literature has gone from bad to worse in the past two years, which just gave him a chance to re-establish a "brand collection".

As long as this series of books can be launched, it will inevitably further promote the great development of the Guowen Society.

(End of this chapter)