1980 My literary era

Lin Weimin never imagined that the editor-in-chief of an authoritative literary magazine would do such a crazy thing in order to save manuscript fees.

"A few days ago, you invited dozens of people to visit the mountains and rivers, eat, drink and have fun. When you come to me, you have no money?"

"That's all for the magazine. Weimin, you are different from them. You are the biological son of our magazine!"

"Does the biological son have to eat chaffy vegetables? Does the second marriage have to eat hot and spicy food?" Lin Weimin's face was filled with sadness and indignation.

Lao Qin almost nodded, "That's not what I meant. You are one of our own, you have to think about the magazine! Your current manuscript fee is too high, and this is a long novel. If you pay your manuscript fee, we can No more money will be made.”

Lin Weimin was furious, "Old Tan, after all, I am also a member of our editorial department. Doesn't your conscience hurt when you say this?"

"Contemporary" now has stable sales of more than one million copies per issue, and the magazine is priced at 1 yuan. In the past, when sales were in the millions, Lin Weimin's royalties for publishing a full-length novel would be a few thousand yuan at most.

"Lower it! Just lower it!"

At this moment, Lao Tan felt like he was possessed by Master Tang and kept talking about it.

"What are you doing? I heard you two making trouble outside!" Meng Weizai asked, leaning his head.

Lin Weimin saw the savior and hurriedly said: "Lao Meng, come here and comment. I kindly want to publish the novel in our magazine, but Lao Qin actually wants to deduct my royalties!"

Meng Weizai glared, "Is this the case?"

"That's not the case!"

"Old Tan, I'm not talking about you. Weimin is our own comrade, how can you treat others like this?"

Meng Weizai said something to Qin Chaoyang and then faced Lin Weimin.

"It's just for the people! You have to understand Lao Qin. Your current manuscript fee is really too high. If the editorial department really paid you such a high manuscript fee, other authors might say some weird things!"

Lin Weimin immediately became alert, "What do you mean?"

"Lower it! Even if it's just a little bit!"

Lin Weimin was furious, "You two... are in the same boat!"

"You can't say that, we are all serving the public good!"

When Meng Weizai said this, Lin Weimin wanted to spit in his face.

Seeing Lin Weimin's cold expression, he vowed to refuse to obey.

Meng Weizai changed the topic and said, "That's it. You lower the royalties, and I'll get some other benefits for you!"

"What benefits?"

Meng Weizai looked at Tan Chaoyang, "Let me go to the next meeting!"

this……

Lin Weimin admitted that he was moved.

Tan Chaoyang looked at Meng Weizai, whose face was filled with surprise and grief at being betrayed by his comrade.

"Lao Meng..."

Before Tan Chaoyang could refute, Meng Weizai waved his hand.

"Wei Min is so busy at work, Lao Qin, you have to be considerate and considerate of him. After all, he is not the only one in the editorial department!"

Lin Weimin just wanted to look up to the sky and laugh.

The cycle of heaven and earth brings unsatisfactory retribution!

Lao Qin, do you have this day too?

But just as the corners of his mouth curled halfway, Lin Weimin suddenly realized that something was wrong!

Isn't this a snipe and a clam fighting, with the fisherman benefiting?

Looking at Lao Meng again, Lin Weimin couldn't help but sigh: So high! You are worthy of being a leader!

"Assign me another assistant!"

Meng Weizai was stunned, "Assistant? I don't even have an assistant for any director."

"That's because you're not busy enough. You and Lao Qin leave work to me all day long. I have such a heavy workload!"

Lin Weimin spoke plausibly. Meng Weizai pondered for a moment and said, "There is no precedent for this in our society!"

"Assistant is just a way of saying it! You can't say that to the club. Just give me one of the college student volunteers recruited by the club."

In the past few months, Lin Weimin's suggestions were adopted by the Chinese Literature Society, and the society did accept a group of college student volunteers.

But almost all of them are assigned to the layout room, binding design room, trade union and other departments to do miscellaneous work. Because the work is too professional, each editorial office does not assign special personnel. Whichever editorial office needs people, they are called two. Someone comes to help.

Lin Weimin felt that his suggestion was purely to make wedding clothes for the club, and he felt a little unbalanced.

"this……"

Meng Weizai hesitated for a long time before asking: "How much can you lower?"

"One dollar?"

"Can you be a little sincere?"

Lin Weimin yelled: "What's wrong? One thousand words off for one dollar. This is a long story, and it costs several hundred dollars!"

"Five dollars!" Meng Weizai showed no mercy.

Lin Weimin was shocked, "Old Meng, you are so big! No! Two yuan at most, no more."

"You don't understand how difficult this is. If you become the editor-in-chief, I can give you an editor-in-chief's office.

The problem is that your level is not high enough now. It would be quite difficult to have someone specially do the chores for you..."

Meng Weizai began to lament the difficulty of this operation. At the end, Tu Qiong said, "Four yuan!"

"Three yuan! Just three yuan!" Lin Weimin's face was full of pain.

Meng Weizai slapped his thigh and said, "Okay, three yuan is three yuan!"

When "The Horse Trapper" was published, the basic royalties paid to Lin Weimin by the publisher were fifteen yuan per thousand words.

But now "Contemporary" generally sets the standard for most writers at less than ten yuan per thousand words, and the top rate is ten yuan.

If you suddenly give a high price of fifteen yuan per thousand words, there is a risk of disrupting the manuscript fee standards set by the editorial department.

This is also the reason why Qin Chaoyang and Meng Weizai kept asking Lin Weimin to reduce the manuscript fee. It was not that the editorial department could not afford the manuscript fee.

It’s reduced to 12 yuan per thousand words, which is acceptable to everyone.

For "Contemporary", this high royalty is definitely a bit high, but after all, it is Lin Weimin's work that is being published.

Lin Weimin is not short of the manuscript fee. It is not too much to give him a helper to do chores. Now he is responsible for most of the chores and administrative affairs in the editorial department. He has not been left behind in the daily review work. Indeed, It's a bit hard.

Both parties achieved satisfactory results and the atmosphere in the office was harmonious.

Only Tan Chaoyang was silent and shed tears. When he thought about the meetings and meetings in the club, he couldn't help but be filled with regret.

I'm so talkative, really!

Lin Weimin left Tan Chaoyang's office happily. A few hundred yuan in royalties was nothing to him.

Lao Qin was given the task of holding meetings in the club. Apart from necessary meetings, he could save at least two days in this regard every month.

Add in a young man who can help with chores, and this deputy editor's little life is simply not too beautiful!

Just thinking about it makes me laugh out loud!

The next day, shortly after Lin Weimin went to work, Meng Weizai called him to the office. At this time, a young man was standing in the office.

"Director, what's the matter?"

Meng Weizai pointed at the young man and said, "I promised you yesterday."

Lin Weimin's eyes suddenly lit up, and he almost went straight to look at the mouth of his teeth. These were all good animals... a new force!

If you look closely, you can see that it's actually quite handsome. Of course, compared with Teacher Lin, he is still a little behind.

"What's your surname, young man?" Lin Weimin asked with a smile.

The young man wore a pair of glasses and had a somewhat bookish air. "Hello, Teacher Lin, my surname is Tong and my name is Tong Zhonggui. I am now a junior at Yanzhou Normal University and I will be a senior at the beginning of school."

The young man didn't use Lin Weimin's nonsense and started talking suddenly.

Lin Weimin looked at this young man and felt that he looked familiar, but he couldn't remember it for a while.

"Where is your hometown?"

"From Suzhou."

"From Suzhou? Suzhou is great. There is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below..."

Meng Weizai interrupted Lin Weimin and said, "Okay, don't stop talking. Xiao Tong will be your soldier from now on. It's summer vacation for him now, so he can come to the club every day to order mao."

It won't work until school starts. You can only come three and a half days a week. The details will be determined according to their course schedule. "

Lin Weimin nodded, "No problem."

After leading Tong Zhonggui out of Meng Weizai's office, Lin Weimin asked, "Do you usually write?"

"Write, write poetry."

"Oh, poet!"

Tong Zhonggui's expression was a bit shy, "There are forty people in our class, thirty-five of them claim to be poets, and the other five claim to be writers."

Lin Weimin couldn't help but laugh, the young man is quite humorous!

But what Tong Zhonggui said is true. Which college student these days doesn't have a dream of being a poet? Literary dream?

"I just heard you say that you are from Yan'an Normal University. Coincidentally, I gave a speech at Yan'an Normal University before."

Tong Zhonggui nodded and said: "I know that when you went there, it caused a big sensation in our school. Many people skipped class to listen to your speech."

Lin Weimin smiled and said: "From what I mean, you must not have gone."

Tong Zhonggui looked a little embarrassed, not knowing how to answer Lin Weimin's question.

"It's okay, just joking."

Lin Weimin knows that these days there are many young people who only love poetry and don't think much of other literary categories. I think Tong Zhonggui is also like this.

The two of them talked and came to the editorial office.

Lin Weimin arranged the first job for Tong Zhonggui.

"Xiao Tong, you have become familiar with the work of the editorial department these days. The first task I assign to you is to register all the submissions and then distribute them to the teachers. Is there any problem?"

Tong Zhonggui said loudly: "No problem!"

"Okay!" Lin Weimin patted him on the shoulder, "Let's get to work."

When Lin Weimin led Tong Zhonggui into the office, several colleagues looked at the two of them.

Liu Yin came over and asked in a low voice: "For the people, what's going on?"

"Lao Meng and I are asking for an assistant!"

Liu Yin glanced at him in surprise, "Just you? Assistant?"

"What's that look in your eyes?"

"It's nothing. If you say you want to be matched with Lao Meng, why don't you give me a match?"

"You still don't believe it?"

"It's strange that I believe it. If you treat me like a three-year-old child, Lao Meng would like to use your landlord's livestock as a slave."

What the hell, it’s all clear to onlookers.

Lin Weimin nuzzled at Tong Zhonggui, "It's different. We are still considered long-term workers no matter what. Now, here comes another beast!"

Liu Yin was amused by him, "Your mouth is so mean!"

It's rare for a new person to come to the office, and everyone is very curious about Tong Zhonggui.

Tong Zhonggui had just been working for a few minutes when several people gathered around him asking questions.

At this moment, they are not busy anymore.

After everyone's investigation, Tong Zhonggui's personal situation was revealed, and he even confessed that he had nephritis and septicemia as a child.

Lin Weimin was full of surprise when he heard this. The young man was very tenacious.

Not bad, he must be a good hand at work.

"Like writing poetry? Have you published any works?" Yao Shuzhi asked.

"Published. I published a poem on "Flying Sky" in the first half of the year, and a group of poems on "Stars" last month." Tong Zhonggui replied honestly.

Everyone was immediately interested when they heard it. The college students who can come to the Chinese Literature Society to help are basically literary lovers, but not many of them can publish their works.

"Feitian" was originally called "Gansu Literature". As soon as you hear the name, you know that it is on the same level as "Yenjing Literature".

It was founded in 1950 and resumed publication in 1981. It was renamed "Feitian" and is an influential literary publication in the northwest region.

Not to mention "Stars". There are many poetry magazines in China, but "Stars" is the first truly professional poetry magazine.

Being able to publish works in two publications with such popularity and influence, it can be said that Tong Zhonggui's strength has already left literary enthusiasts and has a tendency to turn into professional authors.

Zhu Changsheng rummaged through his desk, "Hey, I remember reading the two "Stars" books last month."

He rummaged for a while, found two magazines, and handed them to Tong Zhonggui excitedly.

"Xiao Tong, look at which issue your poem was published in? Let us all take a look!"

Tong Zhonggui's face showed a bit of shyness as a young man, he opened one of the issues of "Stars" and pointed to the name in the catalog.

"This is what I wrote."

"Su Tong? What's your pen name?"

Lin Weimin, who was writing a letter with his head down, suddenly looked up.

"Yes. I originally used my real name when submitting articles. Later, I published a poem in "Flying Sky". I thought it was a bit tacky to print my real name directly on the publication, so I chose this pen name." Tong Zhonggui said truthfully.

"Su Tong! What a great name!"

When no one was paying attention, Lin Weimin came over. Everyone heard his words and looked over.