1980 My literary era

"What's going on?" Lin Weimin asked in confusion.

Cheng Wuchun was so angry that he couldn't speak anymore. He walked a few steps and slapped the newspaper in his hand on the desk, "What's going on with this essay competition?"

Lin Weimin's eyes were on the newspaper, "Hey! Tell me this, didn't we both agree a few days ago to hold an essay solicitation event with a million-dollar contribution for the 'Buhu Series'? Didn't you also agree?"

Cheng Wuchun shouted: "When will I..."

Halfway through his words, he looked at Lin Weimin's eyes, like a duck with its throat pinched, and stopped abruptly.

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

"You...are you saying that I agreed that day?" Cheng Wuchun asked in disbelief.

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

"Do I agree?"

"agreed."

"Really agree?"

"real."

…

Silent, angry, embarrassed, and powerless, like a primary school monk facing a test paper, Cheng Wanchun fell into a long silence.

Comrade Lao Cheng taught us a lesson with blood: you must listen carefully in class!

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

Finally, it turned into a long sigh, "This newspaper... why was it published?"

"Since we want to do it, we have to do it as soon as possible! This can be regarded as a good start for 1993. You don't know, it's only been one morning, and the phone numbers in our agency have been busy..."

Lin Weimin felt happy when he talked about the feedback on the call for essays in the "Literary Story Newspaper", but to Cheng Wanchun's ears, it was adding salt to his wounds.

"Don't let yesterday's arrogance rub salt into your wounds.

It hurts when I touch it, and I feel sad when I think about it..."

Lin Weimin hummed a little tune and sent Old Cheng away with a sad look on his face.

Before leaving, Lao Cheng was still talking about it.

"Why did I just agree?"

"Why did I just agree?"

Lin Weimin fully understood Lao Cheng's mood.

After all, the remuneration is 150 yuan per thousand words. Although the term "millions of remuneration" is a bit exaggerated, once the publishing work of the Buhu series begins, spending hundreds of thousands within two years is really not a big deal.

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

However, Lin Weimin has always believed that if you give up, you will get something. The sky-high royalties paid by the Chinese Literature Society are not free. As long as the writers can contribute wonderful works and the works sell well, then it will be worth it.

Later generations of the Buhu Series published dozens of novels and essays. As long as a work is selected into the Buhu Series, the cumulative sales volume is rarely less than 100,000 copies, and there are many works that have sold more than 300,000 copies.

These works are not only eagerly ordered by the Xinhua Bookstore system, but also listed as the first choice books by secondary channel booksellers.

In the 1990s when pure literature was in decline, Chunfeng Literature and Art Publishing House opened up its own territory in the Chinese literary world with its Buhu series of books, and at the same time established a "golden brand" in the book market.

With such a successful case, Lin Weimin is confident that the Chinese Publishing House will publish the Tiger Series.

The "Call for Essays" in the "Literary Story Newspaper" only took half a day to publish. With the gimmick of "one million royalties", the fledgling "Buhu Series" with no reputation 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 the "Buhu Book Series".

Writing a novel can cost tens of thousands of dollars in royalties, and large publishing houses like the Chinese Literature Society are willing to spend money on marketing, starting with a printing volume of 100,000 copies. No writer can resist this temptation.

Jin Yinggui is the deputy leader of the Provincial Literary and Art Association. Well-known female writers in the country can't wait to call and ask, let alone others.

Outside the world, the sensation caused by the call for essays in Literary Story Newspaper is still brewing.

At this time in 1993, people's awareness of propaganda was not that strong. The Chinese Literature Society came up with a "million-dollar fee essay solicitation" gimmick, which was enough to impress most people in the literary world, and even many ordinary people paid attention to it.

In the following days, many media contacted Literary Story Newspaper to reprint the call for essays and published articles commenting on the matter, which further boosted the popularity of this call for essays.

Suddenly, people all over the country knew the name "Buhu".

Buhu’s book series became popular before it was released!

January 18, the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth lunar month.

"Editor-in-Chief Lin, fortunately you have lived up to your mission!"

Zhu Miaochun came back to Lin Weimin with the documents he had worked hard for more than ten days. He was the earliest lawyer engaged in intellectual property rights protection in China. He was invited by Lin Weimin this time to handle the trademark registration of "Buhu Series".

It is the first time that commercial operations have been introduced into the field of literary publishing through trademark registration. This is the first time in the Chinese literary and publishing circles.

After receiving this job, Zhu Miaochun put in all his efforts and successfully registered the "Buhu Series" trademark in less than half a month.

He knew that he would have another bright spot on his professional resume.

Lin Weimin took the trademark registration document and read it carefully, with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Thank you for your hard work!"

"Chief Editor Lin, you are too polite. It is your duty to be employed by others."

Trademark registration is a precautionary measure and lays the foundation for better commercial operations in the future.

Nearly ten days have passed since the "Literary Story Newspaper" published the "Buhuhu Series Million-dollar Essay Call". The domestic literary world has already been shocked by this news. In the past ten days, the Chinese Literature Society has received thousands of calls. There are not only writers from all over the country, but also many media.

The call for essays in the newspaper only contained a few hundred words. The simple and loose requirements did not allow everyone to understand the full picture of the "Buhu Series". Not only the writers were curious, but the media were also curious.

After a detailed investigation, many media outlets participated in reporting on the planning behind the Buhu book series.

As the first big move of the Chinese Literature Society in 1993, the Buhuhu Series took the lead in launching the commercial operation of domestic book publishing in the Chinese literary world.

The call for articles with a million-dollar remuneration is just the beginning. The call for articles does not strictly require writers to have unpublished works before they can participate. You can also sign up if you don’t have unpublished works, but it is limited to writers whose reputation and strength have been recognized by expert reviewers. All participating writers will be invited to participate. The writers of the Tiger Book Series must be famous and powerful pure literary writers.

Secondly, Buhuo Series implements a writer signing system. This kind of signing is signed in advance, locking in the publishing rights of the writer's works, and also has the priority publishing rights of the writer's subsequent works.

After signing the contract, the Buhu Book Series will be comprehensively packaged around the content of the works. Compared with the way in which the early works were only published in newspapers and magazines with notices and book reviews, the packaging and publicity methods will be comprehensively upgraded.

As the inside story about Buhu's book series is constantly being revealed, more and more people are paying attention and various voices are starting to emerge.

There has always been an irreconcilable contradiction between pure literature and commercialization. Many people believe that the Chinese Literature Society’s way of operating branded book series through purely commercial means is a blasphemy against pure literature and is leading the Chinese literary world astray.

This group of people published articles in newspapers and magazines criticizing the Chinese Literature Society and the new Buhu Book Series, and gained support from many literary lovers.

However, 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 aroma of wine is not afraid of the depth of the alley" has long been outdated.

Pure literature in the new era cannot rest on its laurels, but should have the courage to be the first in the world.

Some people think that the pace of Guowenshe is too radical. After all, it is a national publishing house and has a decisive influence in the Chinese literary world.

Such a naked promotion of commercialization is inconsistent with the style of a large publishing house and sets a bad example for many publishing houses.

The heads of several publications in the society have gathered together these days, and they would complain about Lin Weimin whenever they had nothing to do.

"We were scolded at the meeting, saying that we were not allowed to reform. When we reformed ourselves, we were more radical than us. Only the state officials were allowed to set fires, and the common people were not allowed to light lamps!"

"That's right! After spending so much money, Lao Cheng has been feeling very distressed these days. He doesn't like anyone!"

"Can you not feel bad? That's a million-dollar royalties! You really dare to launch satellites for the people. If you use this amount of money to pay wages, it will be enough for three months."

…

Whether it is various voices from the outside world or discussions within the Chinese Literature Society, it does not matter to Lin Weimin.

What he wanted was publicity effect, and it was obvious that the "million-dollar fee essay solicitation" had perfectly achieved his goal.

In less than half a month, the name of Buhuhu Series became popular all over the country.

This is enough!

It’s the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, and there’s only one day left before the Chinese New Year.

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

Today, the company is handing out Chinese New Year benefits, and the employees are all chatting and fishing.

I have been busy for a year, and it’s finally the Chinese New Year. Of course, I need to take a good rest.

The young man from the editor-in-chief's office knocked on the door of Lin Weimin's office, came in and asked: "Editor-in-Chief, your benefits are all ready, can they be loaded onto your car?"

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

"yes."

Lin Weimin's family never lacks New Year's goods during the New Year. Each unit, including the Chinese Literature Society, the People's Arts Society, the Dramatists Association, the Chinese Literature Foundation, and the China Youth Education and Development Foundation, will send a New Year's goods before the New Year.

Some time ago, Jia Pingwa went to Yanjing to retreat to write. Lin Weimin locked her in a small dark room in the back building. It has been more than a month now. Like an ascetic, she cannot go out in retreat every day. She writes diligently. The new year is approaching. There was no intention of leaving the seclusion at all. Lin Weimin felt a little unbearable when he saw it.

What a great seedling this is!

Teacher Lin has a black heart, but he is not completely black after all.

Sending some New Year's goods is a way of expressing condolences to Comrade Pingwa for his diligent 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 Buhuhu series is the first attempt in the Chinese publishing industry. Lin Weimin specially consulted several senior publishers who have cooperated with Roger Strauss, Jonson Williams, Gary Yang and so on. After a while.

The publishing houses they worked for were all large publishing houses. With this group of think tanks, Lin Weimin became clearer and more confident about the planning and development route of the Buhu Book Series.

"Dang Dang Dang!"

There was a knock on the door, and Lin Weimin thought it was his subordinate who had gone to deliver New Year's goods and came back to answer the call. He lowered his head and said "come in."

"teacher LIN!"

Lin Weimin raised his head, but he didn't expect it to be Jia Pingwa.

After being in seclusion for nearly fifty days, Jia Pingwa looked haggard but energetic.

Lin Weimin thought he came here specifically to say thank you. Just as he was about to speak, Jia Pingwa placed a thick stack of manuscripts on his desk.

"This is……"

"The manuscript has just been written. Just now you asked your colleagues to send me New Year gifts, so I thought I would come and tell you the good news first!"

There was a smile on Jia Pingwa's face when she spoke, which was the satisfaction after completing a work.

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

Lin Weimin stood up in surprise, turned over the manuscript, and said something. Jia Pingwa's expression was surprised and full of surprises.