1980 My Literary Era.

Chapter 660 Before It Comes Out

"What's going on?" Lin Weimin asked puzzled.

Cheng Zaochun was so angry that he couldn't speak well. After walking a few steps, he slapped the newspaper in his hand on the desk, "What's the matter with this essay call?"

Lin Weimin turned his eyes to the newspaper, "Hey! You said this, isn't this what the two of us agreed a few days ago, to hold a million-dollar essay solicitation for the 'Buhu Tiger Series'? Didn't you also agree?"

Cheng Zaochun shouted, "When will I..."

In the middle of his words, he looked at Lin Weimin, like a duck whose throat was pinched, and stopped abruptly.

Three days ago, the image of Lin Weimin talking endlessly in the office flashed through his mind, and Cheng Zaochun thought of the 10 minutes when his memory "disappeared".

"You...you mean, I agreed that day?" Cheng Zaochun asked in disbelief.

"Yes, you agree!" Lin Weimin said confidently.

"Do I agree?"

"agreed."

"Really agree?"

"real."

……

Silence, anger, embarrassment, and powerlessness, Cheng Zaochun fell into a long silence like an elementary school monk facing the test paper.

Comrade Cheng taught us a truth with blood lessons: You must listen carefully in class!

After a long time, his mouth opened and he wanted to say something, but he didn't know what to say.

In the end, it turned into a long sigh, "This newspaper...why did it get published?"

"Since we want to do it, we must do it as soon as possible! This is also a good start for the past 93 years. You don't know, it's only this morning, and the phone calls in our agency have been blown up..."

When Lin Weimin talked about the feedback on the call for papers in the "Literary Story Newspaper", he was in a good mood, but in Cheng Zaochun's ears, it was rubbing salt on his wounds.

"Don't let yesterday sprinkle salt on your wounds arrogantly
It hurts when you touch it, and it hurts when you think about it..."

Humming a little tune, Lin Weimin sent away the sad looking old Cheng.

Before leaving, Lao Cheng was still talking about it.

"How did I agree?"

"How did I agree?"

Lin Weimin fully understood Lao Cheng's mood.

After all, the remuneration is 150 yuan per thousand characters. Although the term "millions of remuneration" is a bit exaggerated, once the publishing work of the Buhuo series starts, it may not be a big deal to spend hundreds of thousands within two years.

With Lao Cheng's miser-like character, it's only natural to feel distressed.

However, Lin Weimin has always believed that there is something to be gained if you give it up. The sky-high remuneration paid by the Guowen Society is not for nothing. As long as the writers can contribute wonderful works and the works sell well, then all this is worth it.

The cloth tiger series has published dozens of novels and essays. As long as a work is selected into the cloth tiger series, the cumulative sales volume is rarely less than 10 copies, and works with a sales volume of more than 30 copies can be found everywhere.

These works are not only rushed to order by the Xinhua Bookstore system, but also listed as the preferred bibliography by secondary channel booksellers.

In the 90s when pure literature was in decline, Chunfeng Literature and Art Publishing House insisted on opening up a territory of its own in the Chinese literary world by virtue of the Buhuo series, and at the same time established a "golden signboard" in the book market.

There are such successful cases before Lin Weimin was full of confidence in the publication of the Tiger Series by the Guowen Society.

The "Call for Papers" on "Literary Stories" only took half a day. With the gimmick of "millions of manuscript remuneration", the fledgling "cloth tiger series" has shocked the entire Chinese literary world.

Lin Weimin can be sure that in the next month, the Chinese literary world will continue to be shaken by this "cloth tiger series".

Writing a novel costs tens of thousands of dollars in manuscript fees, and a large publishing house like Guowenshe is willing to spend money on marketing, starting with a printing volume of [-] copies. No writer can resist this temptation.

Jin Yinggui is the deputy head of the Provincial Literary Association, and well-known female writers in the country can't wait to call to ask about it, let alone someone else.

Outside, the sensation caused by the call for papers on the "Literary Story" is still fermenting.

At the time point of 93, people's awareness of propaganda was not so strong, and the gimmick of "one million manuscripts paid for essays" by the Guowen Society was enough to impress most people in the literary world, and even many ordinary people paid attention to this matter.

In the next few days, many media immediately contacted "Literary Story" to reprint the call for papers, and published articles to comment on the matter, which boosted the popularity of this call for papers.

All of a sudden, people all over the country knew the name of "cloth tiger".

The cloth tiger series became popular before it was released!

January 1, the 18th day of the twelfth lunar month.

"Editor-in-Chief Lin, fortunately, he did not disgrace his life!"

Zhu Miaochun returned to Lin Weimin with the documents obtained after more than ten days of hard work. He is the earliest lawyer engaged in intellectual property rights protection in China.

It is the first time in the Chinese literary and publishing circles to introduce commercial operation into the field of literary publishing by means of trademark registration.

After receiving this job, Zhu Miaochun did his best and successfully registered the trademark of "Cloth Tiger Series" in less than half a month.

He knew that there would be another brilliant addition to his professional resume.

Lin Weimin took over the trademark registration document, and after reading it carefully, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

"Thank you for your hard work!"

"Editor Lin, you are too polite. It's my job to be hired by someone."

Trademark registration is to prepare for a rainy day and lay the foundation for better commercial operations in the future.

It has been nearly ten days since the "Literary Story" published the "Cloth Tiger Series Books Call for Papers for Millions of Manuscripts", and the domestic literary circles have been exposed for days. There are not only writers from all over the country, but also many media.

The call for papers in newspapers is only a few hundred words long, and the simple and loose requirements do not allow everyone to understand the whole picture of the "Cloth Tiger Series". Not only the writers are curious, but the media are also curious.

After some detailed investigation, many media participated in the report of the behind-the-scenes planning of Buhuo Series.

Cloth Tiger Series, as the first major move of the Guowen Society in 1993, took the lead in opening a precedent for the commercial operation of domestic book publishing in the Chinese literary world.

The solicitation of millions of manuscripts is just the beginning. The solicitation of essays does not strictly require that writers have unpublished works to participate in it. They can also sign up without unpublished works, but it is limited to writers whose fame and strength have been recognized by expert reviewers. The writers of the Tiger series must be well-known and powerful pure literature writers.

Secondly, the Buhuo series implements the author's contract system. This kind of contract is signed in advance, locking the author's publishing right, and also has the priority publishing right of the author's follow-up works.

After signing the contract, Buhuo Books will carry out all-round packaging around the content of the work. Compared with the publicity method in which the publication of the works in the early years was only published in newspapers and magazines and book reviews, the packaging and publicity methods will be fully upgraded.

As the inside story about the Buhuo series was continuously disclosed, more and more people paid attention to it, and various voices began to emerge.

There has always been an irreconcilable contradiction between pure literature and commercialization. Many people think that Guowen Society's way of operating branded books in purely commercial means is a blasphemy against pure literature, and it is also leading the Chinese literary world to a wrong path.

This group of people published articles in newspapers and magazines criticizing the Guowen Society and the new Buhuo series, and won the support of many literature lovers.

But there are also many people who have seen the decline of pure literature in China and realized that the traditional passive operation method of "the smell of wine is not afraid of deep alleys" has long been outdated.

Pure literature in the new era cannot rest on its laurels, it should have this kind of daring to be the first in the world.

Others believe that Guowenshe's pace is too radical. After all, it is a state-level publishing house and has a decisive influence in the Chinese literary world.

Such blatant advocacy of commercialization is out of the style of a big society, and it has set a bad example for many publishing houses.

The heads of several publications in the agency got together these few days, and they would complain about Lin Weimin if they had nothing to do.

"At the meeting, we were scolded bloody, saying that reforms are not allowed. We are more radical than us when we reform ourselves. Only state officials are allowed to set fires, and ordinary people are not allowed to light lamps!"

"Isn't it! After spending so much money, Lao Cheng's heart aches for the past few days, and he doesn't like anyone!"

"Can you not be distressed? That's a million-dollar remuneration! Weimin really dares to release satellites. If such a sum of money is paid for salary, it will be enough to pay for three months."

……

Whether it's various voices from the outside world, or the internal discussions of the Guowen Society, it doesn't matter to Lin Weimin.

What he wanted was the effect of publicity, and it was obvious that the wave of "Calling for Papers with Millions of Manuscripts" perfectly achieved his goal.

The name of Cloth Tiger Series has become popular all over the country in less than half a month.

This is enough!

On the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, there is only one day left before the Chinese New Year.

The streets of Yanjing City are full of festive atmosphere, and the interior of the Guowen Society is also surrounded by a festive and lazy atmosphere.

Today, the New Year's benefits were distributed in the club, and the employees were all chatting and fishing.

I've been busy for a year, and it's finally the Chinese New Year, so of course I need to take a good rest.

The young man from the editor-in-chief's office rang Lin Weimin's office, came in and asked, "Editor-in-chief, your welfare is ready, will it be loaded into your car?"

Lin Weimin pondered for a while, "Farewell, move to the guest house and send it to Jia Pingwa."

"Yes."

Lin Weimin's family has never been short of New Year's goods. The Chinese Culture Society, People's Arts, Dramatists Association, Chinese Literature Foundation, China Youth Education Development Foundation, each unit will send a New Year's goods before the New Year.

Some time ago, Jia Pingwa went to Yanjing to retreat and write, and Lin Weimin locked her in a small black room in the back building. It has been more than a month now, like an ascetic monk, she does not go out of retreat every day, writing diligently, and the year is approaching. There was no intention of leaving the customs at all, and Lin Weimin couldn't bear it anymore.

What a seedling this is!

Mr. Lin is a black-hearted person, but he hasn't been black-hearted after all.

Sending a new year's goods is also a condolence to Comrade Pingwa's hard writing these days.

After Lin Weimin ordered his subordinates to deliver New Year's goods, he continued to be busy with the work at hand.

The commercial operation of the Buhuo series is the first attempt in the Chinese publishing industry. For this purpose, Lin Weimin consulted several senior publishers who have cooperated with Roger Strauss, Joson Williams, and Gary Young. After a while.

The publishing houses they work for are all large publishing houses. With this group of think tanks, Lin Weimin has become clearer and more confident about the planning and development of Buhuo Series.

"Dangdangdang!"

When there was a knock on the door, Lin Weimin thought it was a subordinate who was going to deliver New Year's goods and came back, so he lowered his head and said "come in".

"teacher LIN!"

Lin Weimin raised his head, but unexpectedly it was Jia Pingwa.

After nearly [-] days of retreat, Jia Pingwa looked haggard but energetic.

Lin Weimin thought he came here specially to say thanks, but just as he was about to speak, Jia Pingwa put a stack of thick manuscripts on his desk.

"This is……"

"The manuscript has just been finished. Just now you asked a colleague to give me New Year's goods, I thought I would come to say hello to you first!"

When Jia Pingwa spoke, there was a smile on her face, which was the satisfaction after creating a work.

For a writer, completing a work not only has a sense of accomplishment, but also the joy of ending the "cage life".

Lin Weimin stood up in surprise, flipped through the manuscript, and said a word. Jia Pingwa's expression was surprised and full of surprise.

(End of this chapter)