godfather of tokyo entertainment

but……

A blank writer who has never won any awards has an extremely low chance of being eligible for serialization.

Kei Fujiwara had conducted a preliminary investigation and found that in the decades since the publication of "Spring and Autumn Literature Appreciation", only thirty or forty new writers who had not won awards had been qualified for serialization, and half of them had their works cut in half midway.

Fujiwara Kei held the manuscript of "White Night Journey" tightly, took a deep breath, and walked into the door of Chunqiu Co., Ltd.

Kei Fujiwara came to the front desk, and the female receptionist looked up at him with a sweet smile: "Welcome, what can I do for you?"

"Hello, I came to recommend a manuscript." Fujiwara Keimichi added, "I have made an appointment in advance. The person who contacted me is Mr. Shimada from your company."

"Edit Shimada? Okay, please fill out the visitor form first, and I will contact you."

Kei Fujiwara lowered his head to write the visitor form. When he saw the "company" column, he hesitated and wrote "Tokyo University of Literature and Art (current student)".

The front desk called and after a few words, he smiled at Kei Fujiwara and said, "Please wait a moment. Editor Shimada will be here soon. Please wait in the waiting room."

Fujiwara Kei walked to the waiting room, which looked like a simple cafe with seventeen or eight square tables. There were already people in the waiting room at this time.

A short-haired man in a suit was reading the manuscript carefully. Sitting opposite him was a young man wearing glasses and slightly fat, who was looking at him uneasily.

Three or four minutes later, the man in the suit put down the manuscript, shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, this manuscript does not meet our serialization standards."

The young man looked extremely disappointed: "If there is any discrepancy, I changed it exactly as you said... Please take another look, please!"

"It's a pity. Although it can be seen that you have tried hard to revise it, the story is still not interesting. You are writing a mystery novel, right, but the murder plot is too childish. The reader can guess the killing method at a glance.

Can such a trick make readers have the patience to read to the end? Let’s study harder!”

After finishing speaking, the man in the suit pushed the manuscript to the young man's chest, stood up, and left without looking back.

The young man held the manuscript in his hand, and Kei Fujiwara sat behind him. He could faintly hear sobbing, and saw the man slowly stand up and leave with a look of disappointment.

Kei Fujiwara watched his figure go away and looked at the other contributors and editors in the waiting room. This kind of thing has probably happened countless times in this waiting room.

"Hello, long wait, this is Fujiwara-kun, right?"

A man with chestnut hair who looked to be in his thirties walked over. Kei Fujiwara stood up and bowed to the visitor: "Hello, I am Kei Fujiwara."

Shimada sat on the chair across from him, "You are self-recommended, right?"

"Yes, these are the first four chapters of my novel, as well as the plot outline of the novel. Please take a look."

Fujiwara Kei handed over the brown paper bag and said.

"Okay." Mr. Shimada took the paper bag, pulled out the manuscript, and glanced down: "Byakuya Xing... Well, the name is a bit like a fantasy novel. I remember you told me that your work is

It’s a mystery type, right?”

"Yes."

"Then maybe the name needs to be changed...forget it, I'll take a look first."

Fujiwara Kei bound the manuscript and outline of each chapter of the novel independently, and Shimada picked up the text of the first chapter and read it.

The sound of the hands of the clock hanging on the wall of the waiting room turning sounded in Kei Fujiwara's ears. Although he had great confidence in the work "White Night Walk", he couldn't help but feel nervous at this moment.

Shimada read the first chapter, but did not continue reading the second chapter. Instead, he picked up the synopsis and plot summary and started reading.

"Ah, it turns out that the protagonist is not Police Officer Sasahara, but the two children?" Shimada was a little surprised, this is a bit novel!

Shimada continued to read, and Fujiwara Kei sorted out the general outline of the story. The plot direction was clear at a glance. Shimada looked at it, but couldn't help but frown.

"Excuse me, what's the problem?"

Noticing the change in Shimada's expression, Kei Fujiwara asked directly.

"Well, there are some questions." Shimada put down the manuscript directly, "Fujiwara-kun, I want to ask a question, what genre of mystery novel are you writing?"

In Kei Fujiwara’s memory, the genres of mystery novels are roughly divided into three categories:

The logic-oriented reasoning school is also the most traditional school, focusing on reasoning and solving puzzles;

The social school that pays attention to the description and analysis of human nature and reflects social issues;

As well as the style-changers who focus on describing abnormal psychology, creating a horror atmosphere, and even have fantasy elements.

In Fujiwara Keimoto's world, these three genres emerged one after another, each leading the trend of mystery novels for decades.

However, after the millennium, Japanese mystery novels entered a diversified era, and works of various genres flourished. "White Night Walk" is a work of the diversified era and is a representative masterpiece of the social school.

"It's a socialist." Kei Fujiwara replied.

"As expected," Shimada said, "Fujiwara-kun, with all due respect, there is no market for socialist mystery novels."

Fujiwara Kei said nothing and pursed his lips.

"As we all know, the most popular type of mystery novels at the moment is the genre-changing genre. Whether it is the popular new writer Watanabe Ikema or our ace author Mika Miyano, they are all novel authors of the genre-changing genre. This is the readers' responsibility.

Choice, readers prefer thrilling novels to works that reflect social reality. After all, reading novels is not reading newspapers, right?"

Shimada stacked Fujiwara Kei's manuscripts together and shook them gently: "If you want to be an excellent novel writer, you can't just work behind closed doors. You must always pay attention to the readers' preferences."

"What do readers like to read now? Perverts with twisted personalities, handsome detectives, or crimes with super powers. If it is a realistic theme, there must be a trick that makes people scratch their heads and not see through it, and then they will suddenly realize it when the answer is revealed.

OK."

"But in your book, there are no such best-selling elements. Well... it may be a new idea for the villain to be the protagonist, but readers may not like such an idea. And the conspiracy design in your book is too simple."

"The deceased died in a building that was locked from the inside. There was only a narrow ventilation duct that could pass through, and adults could not pass through at all. As soon as the reader sees these hints, he will immediately think: Could it be a child who committed the murder? This

A ruse that can be seen through at a glance will not arouse any interest in readers, and will also make readers look down on the author of this novel."

"——Please, is this the only level? What kind of novel can such a person write... Haha, don't mind, after all, some readers will really say that. In letters from readers, I have seen many venomous comments. No matter what

Whether you want to be an author or an editor, you must have a big heart."

He was actually being ridiculed... Kei Fujiwara looked at Shimada and thought to himself.

However, before coming here, Kei Fujiwara was mentally prepared to not be recognized. Even if "White Night Walk" is a great success in the parallel world, he may still be unpopular.

Although "White Night Walk" initially achieved extremely high sales and frequent praise, after all, Higashino Keigo had already had a best-selling work before writing "White Night Walk".

The same work may have completely different responses if it is written by a famous artist or by a newcomer.

As for the socialist theory that there is no market, Kei Fujiwara had already anticipated it.

In fact, there are some differences in cultural changes between this world and Fujiwara Kei's original world.

In the original world, the Japanese literary world was dominated by the socialists for thirty years because of the emergence of the socialist mystery novelist Seicho Matsumoto.

It was not until the emergence of Shimada Koji, Ayatsuji Yukito and others that the rule of the socialist faction was ended and the era of change was entered.

In this world, in the development process of Japanese mystery novels, there is no such a strong man as Matsumoto Seicho, nor is there any particularly outstanding socialist novel.

So nowadays, socialism is still a virgin land that no one has explored, which makes many people take it for granted that socialism has no market and is not popular among readers.

The thirty years that the mystery literary world was ruled by Matsumoto Seicho were, to these people, a history that never existed, but to Fujiwara Kei, it was something that really happened.

Moreover, with the bursting of the bubble era, the crime rate in Japanese society has increased, and many social problems that were hidden in the prosperous era have resurfaced. The era is calling for a socialist mystery novelist to appear.

The socialists must have great potential! It was with this idea in mind that Kei Fujiwara chose "White Night Journey" from among the many novels in his mind.