1979 Golden Age

"Bang, bang!"

"Woo~~~~"

A train slowly stopped at Chengdu North Station. The heavy body of the train was like a giant beast, and people got on and off from the opening of its body.

Because he missed the train, Liu Wanbao came back a day late. He was holding a briefcase, with an unpleasant smell wrapped around his body, but his face was refreshed and energetic, and he did not forget to wave goodbye to a group of people.

"I'm leaving first, I'll contact you later!"

"I will definitely write to you!"

Oh!

Liu Wanbao actually felt a little unsatisfied, and patted the inconspicuous little magazine in his briefcase. Thanks to this thing, this journey was relaxed and enjoyable, and he also made a car of friends.

Originally, he read it by himself, and then circulated it near his seat, and then the whole car was circulated, and it was almost hidden by a grandson.

Men!

It's inevitable that they are good at fighting and killing, and they are naturally talking about the world.

One said that Ding Mo must not be dead, and he learned martial arts after falling down, another said that Qi Tianyuan was really awesome, and the thirty-six moves of grappling were amazing, and there was also a master in his hometown, who carried two large buckets of water and climbed to the roof in a few steps without changing his expression...

Then they all sighed in unison, there must be hidden dragons and crouching tigers among the people!

China has been around for five thousand years, and there may be a few old gods hiding in the mountains.

This chat was just short of beheading a chicken and burning yellow paper, and they became sworn brothers on the spot. Finally, everyone left their addresses to each other and agreed to write letters to each other, which was much more refreshing than adding WeChat in later generations.

In 1979, Chengdu had only three districts: Dongcheng, Xicheng, and Jinniu.

The first two were in the city, and Jinniu was a large suburb with 13 communes and a large population.

Liu Wanbao was a cadre of the Jinniu District Cultural Center. This time he went on a business trip to Shanghai to learn how others enriched the spare time of the masses. In a big city, he really saw the world.

He got off the train and took the bus home. Something was always stirring in his mind. He seemed to have some inspiration. He kept thinking about the things on the train, the passengers who were so enthusiastic and spitting, and who wanted to laugh and shout when they talked to the climax...

"Martial arts, the masses love it!"

"Hamapi, why did I think of it just now!"

Liu Wanbao suddenly understood, and hurriedly got off the bus halfway and turned to the cultural center.

The function of the cultural center is to spread cultural knowledge and enrich the lives of the masses. Jinniu District is all rural, and the people have low cultural level and can't read those "People's Literature" and "Bud".

"Lao Liu? You just came back?"

"Why did you come directly to the unit? What a smell!"

"Oh, good stuff, I found something good..."

Liu Wanbao took out "Story Club" from his bag and said excitedly: "This is it. We will go to the post office to order it immediately, and then send it to the cultural center of the commune. Find someone to tell stories to the villagers. They will definitely love to listen!"

"Calm down, calm down, let me take a look first!"

The other party opened "Story Club" and read the story silently. After a while, he was more excited than Liu Wanbao: "Good idea! We are worried that there are no suitable literary and artistic works to enrich the lives of the masses!

In this way, each commune can send a small amount to see the response of the masses first. If the response is good, we can order more later."

"Okay, okay, this is the best."

The direct distribution of "Story Club" covers Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui. People from other places can also subscribe through the post office. The address and contact information are on the magazine.

Liu Wanbao was full of energy and still didn't want to go home. After thinking for a while, he sat down and wrote a letter to the author Aqi, which was forwarded by "Story Club".

He expressed his admiration at the beginning, talked about his reading experience of "Kapok Robe", and finally said: "Our Sichuan is also a place of outstanding people and beautiful scenery. Mount Emei, Mount Qingcheng, and Leshan Giant Buddha are famous throughout the country.

You can come to Bashu to visit and we will definitely welcome you.

In addition, if you have this honor, we are very happy to see you write a novel based on the famous mountains and rivers and ancient temples in Sichuan... Of course, this is my personal selfish idea, please don't blame me..."

After writing the letter, Liu Wanbao went directly to the post office to post the letter and ordered 60 copies of "Story Club".

…………

Shanghai alleys are similar to the Beijing courtyards. Several people live in a dozen square meters. There are pots and pans and clotheslines everywhere, and water and toilets are also shared.

Every household has a toilet, and the first thing to do every day is to empty the toilet.

Beijing is particular about it, and Shanghai is no less. Don't look at this small toilet, it is very sophisticated. The poor family just has a wooden barrel with a lid, and the rich family has a copper hoop and gold lacquer, or even carved.

At that time, according to the customs in Jiangnan, a red lacquered toilet must be included in the dowry of a daughter, in three sizes, large, medium and small, called the descendants' barrel, which shows its status.

In the afternoon, school time.

A little boy returned to the alley in a depressed mood.

"Son, who bullied you?" asked the mother who was cooking.

"No."

"Then why are you unhappy?"

"..."

The little boy pouted for a while and said loudly: "Everyone knows how to use the deadly Overlord Spear, but I can't! Everyone plays the Arhat Fist to beat up bad guys, but I can't play it!"

? ? ?

The mother had a head full of question marks, but she didn't care.

After a while, the father came back and took the toilet paper and went to the toilet. The little boy came over hesitantly and said, "Dad, can your company subscribe to "Story Club"? "

"What "Story Club"? "

"My classmate's father bought it. It's so good. They've all read it. I finally borrowed it for a day."

As he said that, he took out a small magazine from his schoolbag.

"Our unit has a standard for ordering magazines. Oh, I'm going to the toilet first..."

My father couldn't hold it anymore. He took the magazine and rushed into the public toilet, and then he didn't come out.

After a full forty minutes, my father came out trembling, hunched over, rubbing his legs, and said, "Subscribe, subscribe for a year!"

…………

"Where's the editor-in-chief? Where's the editor-in-chief?"

"What's the matter?"

"Something big!"

Not long after the September issue of "Story Club" was published, the comrade in charge of distribution rushed around the small building in a hurry. He finally caught the editor-in-chief in the toilet. He didn't care that the editor-in-chief was peeing, and said:

"Is there any left of the September issue? Shanghai Fire Several newspaper outlets at the station are all sold out. The supply is insufficient to meet the demand! "

"Speak slowly, what's going on?"

"It's sold out, even at the bus station! This issue of the magazine is surprisingly popular. The response from the newspaper outlets is enthusiastic. They are asking us for more!"

"Editor-in-chief! Editor-in-chief!"

As he was talking, another guy ran in: "Hahaha! Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Ningbo, all out of stock!"

"How many are missing?"

"I did a preliminary calculation. At least 30,000 copies are needed!"

"Hiss!"

The editor-in-chief shuddered and sneered six feet high.

Last year, "Story Club" was still called "Revolutionary Story Club", and the monthly sales were only tens of thousands of copies. At the beginning of this year, it was changed back to publish popular novels, and the performance is expected to rise. The current monthly sales can reach about 200,000 copies.

An additional 30,000 copies were ordered at once, an increase of nearly one-sixth.

"Where's the editor-in-chief?"

The third guy ran in, also very excited. This pee was really tortuous!

"Chengdu! Chengdu has subscriptions!"

"A cultural center has directly subscribed to 60 copies, and there are some individual subscriptions, adding up to more than 100 copies."

Copies!

The business has developed to Chengdu. The editor-in-chief pulled up his pants, regardless of whether he had finished peeing or not, and waved his hand: "Meeting!"

Soon, the editorial department of "Story Club" gathered.

When the distribution staff told the situation, the editors were all so happy that their mouths were crooked, "Paper is expensive in Luoyang! Paper is expensive in Luoyang!"

"We only have one new novel, "Kapok Robe", and it is obvious that it has directly caused the increase in circulation. Xiao He, the author is in your charge, and you must handle the relationship well."

"You can invite him to Shanghai as a guest and treat him well."

"Hey, this is a good idea!"

"Comrades!"

The old editor-in-chief was still the calmest, knocking on the table: "We have just come out of the predicament, it is not easy, and now the momentum is good. I think when the circulation exceeds 300,000, we can consider holding a writing meeting or a story speech meeting. In short, we can hold some activities to bring the author closer to us and the readers."

"Yeah, we must hold a writing meeting!"

"Only by holding a writing meeting can we prove that we are a big magazine!"

Everyone talked about it, imagining a bright future.

Aqi drove sales by himself, but no one said that he would increase his royalties.

In this era, the manuscript fee is fixed, and the magazine can treat the author to good food and drink, and can also invite the author to travel, but if you ask for an increase in manuscript fees or even an increase in share, absolutely no talk!

For example, Zheng Yuanjie's manuscript fee was meager in the early days, but he found that as long as the issue of the magazine with his novels published would sell particularly well. He confidently went to the magazine and asked for a raise.

The magazine said, how do you prove that your work caused the increase in sales?

Zheng Yuanjie said, it's simple, you let me contribute alone, and you will know whether the circulation has anything to do with me.

The magazine: Are you sick?

Later, Zheng Yuanjie still fulfilled his wish and founded "Fairy Tale King". He contributed alone, and he was exhausted every day, but he did earn a lot. He bought ten houses in Beijing to store readers' letters.

One of the houses was stolen by a thief and was sentenced to 12 years.

…………

The September issue of "Story Club" was unexpectedly and reasonably popular.

It spread rapidly in the Jiangnan area, and occasionally flowed out of other provinces. And no one realized that "Kapok Robe" was the first martial arts novel to appear in the mainland after the reform and opening up.

These days, writers and authors are very different. Writers must first join the Writers Association, and the Writers Association will organize a group of critics to hold discussions for you, study your works, and what their significance is, and then publish them - you have to go through this process before you can be called a writer.

Otherwise, you can only be called an author.

Chen Qi is just an author, and a popular novelist, so the mainstream doesn't look down on him, so naturally no one will study his works.

"Story Club" and "Kapok Robe" did not cause any splash in the mainstream literary world, and the mainstream literary world would not pay attention to a small magazine - unless they felt threatened.