1980 My literary era

The newly established Popular Literature and Art Publishing House occupied part of Lin Weimin's work energy. Since there was no separate planning room, the publishing direction and content of the publishing house could only be discussed by Lin Weimin and several young editors in occasional meetings.

Because it had just been established and there were only a few staff, the atmosphere in the editorial department was actually very relaxed.

At present, the main focus of several young editors is still on the collection of Jin Yong's works, but at the same time, Lin Weimin also set goals for several people, asking them to contact more famous martial arts novels in China during this period. In the next six months, popular literature and art The publishing direction of the publishing house will focus on martial arts novels.

Now that the team has just opened, the foundation is too weak, so specializing in martial arts novels is the wisest choice.

In the decade of the 1980s, with the continuous rise of cities, the growing citizen class, the development of mass media, and the increasing demand for cultural consumption in society as a whole.

In the early 1980s, the development of domestic popular literature was mainly based on imported works from Xiangjiang and Wandao, such as romance novels by Qiong Yao, martial arts novels by Jin Yong, Liang Yusheng, and Gu Long, and TV series such as "Huo Yuanjia" and "Chen Zhen".

Then came the blooming of publications, including the first publication of "Modern and Ancient Legends" in July 1981, the first publication of "Zhanghui Novels" and "Legendary Literature Selection" in January 1985, and the first publication of "Chinese Stories" in November 1985...

A series of works such as "Yu Jiao Long", "Jinmen Hero Huo Yuanjia", "The Legend of the Thief Swallow Li San", "The Legend of Rivers and Lakes", "Captain of the Criminal Police", "Black Temptation", etc. are widely welcomed by readers and are in the domestic book market. Both purchases and sales are booming.

However, because ideology still occupies a central position and pure literature still has a strong voice in these years, although these popular literatures have developed vigorously behind the scenes, they have not been able to reach the level of elegance and have to be excluded from mainstream consciousness from time to time. The form and pure literature were brought out for criticism.

By the mid-to-late 1980s, as the energy of the country and its people gradually turned to economic construction, the development of popular literature continued to accelerate. It gradually formed a climate in the literary world and formed its own independent circle, quickly occupying the popular culture market. .

"Story Club" in Shanghai sold 6.5 million copies in a single issue, "Legends of Modern and Ancient Times" in Hubei sold nearly 2 million copies in a single issue, "Woodpecker" in Yanjing sold 1.75 million copies in a single issue, and "Folk Literature" in Shanxi sold a single issue. The sales volume is 1 million copies, and there are various street tabloids, with sales ranging from hundreds of thousands to one or two million copies. This information was collected by Lin Weimin during this period.

Compared with the vast majority of purely literary publications, which have difficulty breaking through the sales ceiling of one million copies, popular literary publications almost crush them in sales.

Even the sales of "Contemporary", the absolute leader in the field of pure literature in China, are mediocre in the market of popular literary publications.

Now that we have just entered the 1990s, popular literature is still unstoppable in the domestic literary field, especially as piracy continues to encroach on the pure literature market.

The Chinese Literature Society has restored the popular literature and art publishing house as a sub-brand. If you do not participate in it and get a share of the pie, it will be a gift from God.

Lin Weimin still has the idea of ​​starting a martial arts novel publication. Although martial arts novels have gradually declined in Hong Kong and the Bay Island area in recent years, they still have a huge audience market in the mainland, and they can reap market dividends for at least ten more years.

At present, there is no real martial arts novel publication in China. "Martial Arts" and "Legends of Modern and Ancient Times", which are closely related to martial arts novels in terms of content, are not pure martial arts novel publications. If you can establish a martial arts novel publication, you can quickly become a general public. The company opens up the market and delineates a certain group of readers.

Unfortunately, Tongwen Press currently has too few authors and manuscript resources, so this idea can only be developed slowly.

After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, it is March in the Gregorian calendar.

After the snowfall a few days ago, the temperature in Yanjing City began to gradually rise.

Yu Hua has been in the editorial department of Tongwen News Agency for a week. His entry procedures have just been completed and he has now officially become a member of Tongwen News Agency.

Well, Tongwenshe is a subsidiary of Guowenshe, so theoretically, he is a member of Guowenshe.

These days, he reads Jin Yong's martial arts novels at work, and wanders around Yanjing City after get off work. He is happier than when he was studying at the National College of Liberal Arts a few years ago. After all, he had to study during the day.

That afternoon, when it was time to get off work, Yu Hua was thinking about where to go for the evening, but Lin Weimin called him to the office.

"Are you getting used to work these days?"

"It's so adaptable!"

"That's good. How's your progress?"

Yu Hua pondered for a moment, "The proofreading should be completed next week."

Lin Weimin nodded and reminded: "This is the first time I try Jin Yong's martial arts novel, so I don't ask you to make any progress this time. To improve the efficiency next time, we will bring over ready-made things and a few people will do it." It will take nearly two months to complete, which is too inefficient.”

After being criticized by Lin Weimin, Yu Hua was not unhappy at all, but felt guilty instinctively. He had been in the editorial department for a week and was very aware of the current atmosphere in the editorial department.

Everyone said they were proofreading manuscripts at work, but in fact they were just reading novels. Sometimes they forgot about proofreading while reading, and they were so excited.

"knew."

Yu Hua finished his statement honestly and asked: "Teacher Lin, Jin Yong's work will be finished soon. Whose novel should we edit next? How about Gu Long?"

"It's a beautiful thought. Do you think you can write whoever's novel you want?"

"I'm just asking!"

Lin Weimin said: "Gu Long's novels are too complicated, and there are many publishing houses that deal with them. It will take a long time to coordinate them. Next, we will mainly focus on famous martial arts novelists from Hong Kong."

After being scolded for a few words, Yu Hua didn't dare to ask random questions anymore and muttered in his heart: Then it's Liang Yusheng!

He was right, Lin Weimin's next target was indeed Liang Yusheng.

But the premise is that the collection of Jin Yong's works can be published as soon as possible. Only after seeing the effect can we decide whether to continue to introduce it.

"How is your contact with the novel author going?"

"I contacted Nie Yunlan and Can Mo. Nie Yunlan said that he is in poor health now and has stopped writing. Can Mo's fee is a bit high."

"How much?"

"Fifty yuan for a thousand words."

Don't look at it because of Wang Shuo, now writers have begun to receive royalties, but that is a matter in the field of pure literature and has little to do with popular literature writers.

Most of the time, this group of people contribute articles to publications, which cost anywhere from ten yuan to dozens of yuan per thousand words.

Nie Yunlan is the author of "Yu Jiao Dragon". This name should be familiar to many people. It comes from Wang Dulu's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and "Yu Jiao Dragon" is Nie Yunlan's adaptation of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". .

Speaking of Nie Yunlan's rewriting of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", there is a public case involved.

After he rewrote "Yu Jiao Long" based on "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", he published it in "Modern and Ancient Legends" in 1983 and signed it as Nie Yunlan, but did not indicate which novel it was adapted from or whose work it was. .

After "Yu Jiao Long" was published, it was warmly welcomed by readers. After the serialization of this novel ended, Nie Yunlan continued his efforts and rewrote Wang Dulu's "Iron Cavalry Silver Vase" into "Spring Snow Vase" and continued to serialize it in "Legends of Modern and Ancient Times".

The serialization of these two martial arts novels caused the circulation of "Legends of Modern and Ancient Times" to soar from 410,000 copies to 2.73 million copies.

Later, the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Publishing House released single volumes of "Jade Dragon" and "Spring Snow Vase". Within a few years, Nie Yunlan became a well-known martial arts novelist in the domestic popular literature circle, gaining both fame and fortune.

In 1987, Wang Dulu's wife Li Danquan learned about Nie Yunlan's rewriting and negotiated with Nie Yunlan through letters.

Nie Yunlan wrote back to apologize, and finally, with the mediation of "Legends of Modern and Ancient Times" magazine, Li Danquan did not pursue the matter further.

"Nie Yunlan is getting older. If there are no new works published in the past few years, don't look for him. Can Mo can agree to his conditions. Wu Ji will contact him again. I heard that the old man can still write 100,000 words a month. , and also gave him a price of fifty yuan per thousand words."

Can Mo has been publishing martial arts novels since 1982. Over the years, he has written works such as "The Legend of Shenzhou" and "Blood Splattered in the Mandarin Duck Tent", which are very popular.

Wu Ji was originally the deputy editor of "Foshan Literature and Art". In order to get "Foshan Literature and Art" out of the slump, he began to try to create the first martial arts novel "Legend of Martial Arts". Unexpectedly, he became famous in one battle and has been prosperous since then. tidy.

Many works such as "Legend of Jianghu", "Legend of Shenzhou" and "Legend of Qixia" have been released successively, making him one of the most popular martial arts masters in China.

The three people mentioned by Lin Weimin and Yu Hua are all leading players in the domestic martial arts novel industry. He wants to organize a martial arts novel publication, and recruiting famous writers to serialize novels is the best shortcut. For this, even if he pays more royalties, it is worth it.

"Okay, we'll contact you later." Yu Hua said.

After chatting about the business, Lin Weimin asked again: "It's been half a year since you finished writing "Alive". Do you have any ideas for a new novel?"

Yu Hua looked bitter and said, "Teacher Lin, I've been a little busy at work recently."

"You're so busy! Do you think I don't know? You guys are yelling in the office all day, are you busy at work?"

Yu Hua shrank from being scolded by Lin Weimin. He couldn't find a good reason for this, so he had to say: "I don't have any inspiration at the moment. When I have time, I will go out to collect ideas. I should have it soon."

Lin Weimin stared at Yu Hua twice. This guy really didn't even blink when he told lies!

"Work is work. Don't forget why you came to Yanjing. If you would be satisfied as an editor, I think you might as well go back to Jiaxing."

Yu Hua said depressedly: "You are right, I understand."

After he finished speaking, he felt a little unconvinced. Just talking about it, haven't you also not written a novel for such a long time?

He secretly glanced at Lin Weimin and whispered: "Teacher Lin, do you have any new works recently? I'll go to you for inspiration."

"I write mine, and you write yours. What's wrong? If I don't have a new novel, you can't write it? Are you trying to blackmail me?"

After being scolded a few more times, Yu Hua became even more depressed and cursed secretly.

It looks like he definitely has no inspiration, so he’s taking it out on me!

Yu Hua left feeling depressed, while Lin Weimin was thinking about the novel.

Yu Hua is actually right. After writing "No One Less" in 1989, he has not published a new work for a year and a half.

This is the first time in his creative career that there has been such a long gap.

For more than a year, there were reasons for life after marriage and also reasons for being busy with work.

Lin Weimin rubbed his chin. He should find some time to write recently.

He is only in his early thirties this year, which is when he is most energetic. If he stops writing novels, what will the people read?