Rebirth of Siheyuan starts in the 1980s

Although Cao Zhiqiang's approach is a bit inconsistent and unreliable, who makes him the real founder of the publishing house?

The entire Hongguang Publishing House was built from scratch by Cao Zhiqiang. He also had financial and personnel rights, so everyone could only follow orders.

In this way, following Cao Zhiqiang's order, everyone devoted themselves to the project of publishing "Shattered Void".

Since the original manuscript is already available, you only need to proofread the text and make some illustrations, and then you can take it directly to the printing factory for typesetting and printing.

Among them, the biggest cost comes from the printing cost of the printing factory.

Originally, Cao Zhiqiang thought that the cost of printing would be very high and he was planning to go bankrupt. He even thought of going to the bank for a loan.

But when he actually published the book, he found that the cost was far from as high as he thought, and even so low that he felt it was ridiculous.

A 16-page version of "Shattered Void" with a large number of illustrations.

There is also a copy of "The Farthest Distance in the World" which is also in 16 format and also has a lot of illustrations.

The two 16-karat books are all made of 157-gram coated paper, which was relatively high-end at the time, and the ink is also good. So how much is the total printing quotation for the two books?

The answer is, if the minimum printing limit is 300,000 copies, the combined cost of the two books is only seven cents a book!

That’s right, the cost of two books is seven cents!

Not seven yuan, not seventy cents, really only seven cents!

The average printing cost per book is only 3.5 cents!

As a result, the total initial printing cost of 300,000 sets is only 21,000 yuan!

Seeing that the printing cost was so cheap, not the two or three hundred thousand he imagined, Cao Zhiqiang immediately decided to increase the price and start printing one million copies!

As a result, because the printing quantity has more than doubled, the price has been lowered again, and it only costs 60,000 yuan.

In other words, the average cost of a set of these two books is only six cents a set!

Since a set consists of two books, to be specific, the average printing cost of a book is only three cents!

The reason why printing prices are so low is not only because printing costs during this period were not high, but also because of Cao Zhiqiang’s backend support.

Because the printing factory Cao Zhiqiang found was not an external printing factory, but the internal printing office of Hongguang Machinery Factory.

And for convenience, Cao Zhiqiang first went to the factory director Li before asking for help from the printing office.

Factory Director Li has always been very optimistic and supportive of Cao Zhiqiang.

In addition, Hongguang Publishing House is technically the biological son of Hongguang Machinery Factory. There is no reason for a father not to take care of his biological son.

In particular, this is the first launch since the establishment of Hongguang Publishing House, so we need to increase our support.

Therefore, the printing this time by Hongguang Machinery Factory's printing office is truly cost-price printing.

The so-called "real cost price" is strictly speaking a kind of loss-making printing.

Because the printing office of Hongguang Machinery Factory only counted the cost of paper and ink when printing this batch of books, and other expenses such as labor costs, electricity costs, depreciation, etc. were not included.

After all, what Cao Zhiqiang wants is high-standard 157-gram coated paper. In this era, the price of this thing is still quite high.

In fact, if Cao Zhiqiang did not print at Hongguang Machinery Factory but went to another printing factory, the price would at least double.

For example, when the previous Writers Publishing House published Cao Zhiqiang's collection of poems, the printing cost was five cents per copy.

Looks like a nickel less.

However, the printing paper of Writer's Press uses first-grade 100-gram coated paper. There are no illustrations inside, and the cover is not 200-gram thick cardboard, so the quality is far inferior to the newly printed set of books by Cao Zhiqiang.

Moreover, Writers Publishing House only printed a collection of poems before, and the amount of paper used was less, which is far less than the amount of paper used by Cao Zhiqiang's current set of books.

The paper usage of one "Shattered Void" alone is equivalent to four books of "The Farthest Distance in the World".

Of course, this is also because they are all paperback books.

If Cao Zhiqiang wants to produce hardcover books, the printing price will at least triple.

Since the printing cost is so low, Cao Zhiqiang cannot let the masters work in vain.

So Cao Zhiqiang spent a total of five thousand yuan out of his own pocket to provide subsidies to all the masters of the printing factory.

Needless to say, the power of these five thousand yuan is quite great.

You must know that at this time, the printing office of Hongguang Machinery Factory was an internal unit of a state-owned enterprise. In the past, tasks were assigned according to plans. To be precise, they only obeyed the leadership's orders. You can imagine the enthusiasm for work.

Why did the printing office of Hongguang Machinery Factory only use the cost price of paper and ink to price Cao Zhiqiang?

This is because the workers in Hongguang Machinery Factory’s internal printing office will be paid as usual no matter who they work for, as long as they do not violate the leadership orders from above.

The same goes for electricity bills and depreciation charges. Whether they are done or not, they are reimbursed by the factory, and the printing office does not need to bear these costs.

Hongguang Publishing House is also a subordinate unit of Hongguang Machinery Factory. A subordinate unit of a factory works for a subordinate unit, and it is basic not to pay them.

However, Hongguang Publishing House has a special nature and belongs to a contract management system, so it must pay for costs. Hongguang Machinery Factory will not bear the cost of purchasing paper and ink, but it is only these two

Expensed.

However, when Cao Zhiqiang gave out 5,000 yuan, it was not for free, it was actually an incentive bonus.

According to Cao Zhiqiang's rules, if one million sets of books can be printed within three days and the quality and quantity are maintained, all of them will be worth 5,000 yuan.

If it exceeds one day, five hundred yuan will be deducted.

If it exceeds ten days, all bonuses will be forfeited.

Under this kind of incentive policy, who wouldn’t work hard?

It only takes three days of hard work, and each person can get an average of one hundred yuan. Who wouldn't be happy with this?

Therefore, as soon as this policy came out and real money was put into it, the enthusiasm of the printing house workers was instantly ignited.

The reason is very simple. Cao Zhiqiang's overtime bonus is really too high.

Think about it, there are only fifty workers in a printing house.

An average of five thousand yuan means that each person can get an average of one hundred yuan!

This is worth three months' salary of an ordinary printing house worker.

Of course, this must be done on the premise that the task is completed within three days with quality and quantity. If the task is not completed, the payment will be deducted for one extra day.

But normally, if you have enough materials and are willing to work overtime, you can complete one million sets in three days.

This is the director of the printing house. He helped Cao Zhiqiang formulate the rules. How can it be unclear?

So, as long as the money is enough, it is really a blessing for people in this era!

Living like a fool is not what everyone wants, it is because they have no choice but to do so.

If you really work hard and you can earn more money, anyone who doesn't work is a fool.

In this way, under Cao Zhiqiang's incentive policy, the situation of working three shifts of overtime and getting to work quickly appeared again after a lapse of 17 years.

Seeing this situation where all the workers were vying to work overtime made the old director of the printing house burst into tears.

Even Factory Director Li and Secretary Dong were alarmed and came to inspect it.

After seeing the energetic scene of the printing house workers, they also sighed for a long time, and their love for Cao Zhiqi deepened.

Having said that, if printing costs are so low, what should the retail pricing be?

Originally, Cao Zhiqiang wanted to price a set at 25 yuan, but the price immediately frightened everyone.

Because at this price, this book cannot be sold at all, because it is too high, ridiculously high.

After much discussion, the final price was ten yuan per set.

That's right, it's only ten yuan a set, which is only two yuan more expensive than the poetry collection published by Cao Zhiqiang at Writers Publishing House!

This is the result of Cao Zhiqiang's struggle. According to Yu Deli, he originally wanted to sell a set for six yuan.

What made Cao Zhiqiang speechless was that the main reason why everyone agreed to price a set of ten yuan was because this set of books included Cao Zhiqiang’s poetry collection.

You know, during this period, the price of a book was actually very cheap. Books of average quality on the market generally only cost two or three yuan each, and books of inferior quality only cost 35 cents each.

But there is one kind of book that is a special case, and that is poetry.

Poetry during this period was still a high-level writing form. After all, it was more refined and more difficult.

Therefore, during this period, the status of poets was obviously higher than that of other people.

For example, if we are both writers and you say you are a novelist and I say I am a poet, then my status as a poet is higher than your status as a novelist.

This is a common practice and is recognized by the public.

It is precisely because of this that when Writers Publishing House published Cao Zhiqiang's collection of poems, the price was set at eight yuan.

This price is already high, but it is also in line with the pricing strategy of poetry collections.

Because the unit price of poetry collections at this time was indeed higher than similar books.

But in contrast, the sales volume of poetry collections is also very low, and the audience group is too small.

Therefore, it is precisely because the poetry collection is a niche book that the original Writers Publishing House was willing to enter into an internal royalty-sharing contract with Cao Zhiqiang instead of a buyout system.

If it were a novel, the previous writers’ publishers wouldn’t do that.

This set of books sold by Cao Zhiqiang, if it were not for the poetry collection "The Farthest Distance in the World", which also contains Cao Zhiqiang's autograph and preface, as well as many sketches drawn by Cao Zhiqiang himself, would have a very important meaning in itself.

For commemorative purposes, this set of books cannot be sold for ten yuan.

In other words, in the eyes of most people, "The Farthest Distance in the World" is the main sales volume of this set of two books, while "Shattered Void" is a tie-in. Even if "Shattered Void" is a thicker book,

There is also more content.

However, this majority does not include Cao Zhiqiang and Zhao Shouwen.

Because Zhao Shouwen is the main proofreader of "Shattered Void", he is very clear about the content of the book.

In Zhao Shouwen's opinion, the plot of "Shattered Void" is compact and majestic, especially the martial arts concept, which has a fantasy color of returning the pearl to the poster. Anyway, Zhao Shouwen himself likes it very much.

Therefore, Zhao Shouwen believes that this martial arts novel is a rare masterpiece and will definitely be popular once it is released.

Cao Zhiqiang was very grateful for Zhao Shouwen's recognition. Even though he knew that the book was definitely good, he was still a little hurt when others were not optimistic about it.

In fact, this other person mainly refers to editor-in-chief Yu Deli and president Zhou Huaien.

Yu Deli won’t say it anymore. As the editor-in-chief, proofreading and checking is what you should do.

As for the president, Zhou Huaien, Cao Zhiqiang assigned him the role of reviewer.

Because Cao Zhiqiang discovered that publishing houses in this era do not yet have audit management in the true sense.

In this era, there are no first-level review groups, and publishing houses do not need to submit books for review.

Therefore, the content of books published by publishing houses mainly depends on the self-discipline of the publishing houses.

Of course, this freedom is relative. Some obviously reactionary remarks, as well as some authors who have not been rehabilitated, are not allowed to be published.

In addition, although publishing a book is free and easy, once something happens to your book after it is published, such as being reported for various reasons, you will still be held accountable.

But generally speaking, publishing houses in the 1980s were really free and loose, so much so that the publishing house staff of this period were free to let themselves go.

If you don’t believe it, go and look at the books on the market. Even in regular bookstores like Xinhua Bookstore, you can find a large number of very colorful and violent books, and the publishers that publish such books are all regular publishers!

It can be said that throughout the 1980s, various formal publishing houses in the country had almost no review at all and published content very freely. They really relied on self-consciousness and self-discipline.

It is precisely because of this that Cao Zhiqiang followed the principle of waste recycling and asked the mascot-like President Zhou Huaien to do the content review work.

To put it simply, Zhou Huai'en's job is to check whether there are any violations or sensitive content in the books to be published, and if so, revise them quickly.

Zhou Huai'en is an old-school conservative figure. If he can approve the content of the book, there will most likely be no problem.

Fortunately, the content of "Shattered Void" is relatively healthy, and it is pure fantasy popular literature, which is relatively loose.

And amidst the efforts of these people, Cao Zhiqiang himself has not been idle either.

As the general manager, his most important role at the moment is to open up sales channels.

Cao Zhiqiang was no stranger to this. He went directly to Director Chen of the Publishing Bureau, and through Director Chen, he made an appointment with the secretary and manager of the Xinhua Bookstore Head Office, and they all had a meal together.

After the meal, one person was given a cash red envelope worth 1,000 yuan!

With this layer of public relations activities, the effect is overwhelming.

Secretary Gao of Xinhua Bookstore finally made the decision. From now on, Xinhua Bookstore will purchase books from Hongguang Publishing House at a 50% discount.

In other words, in the future, books published by Hongguang Publishing House will be eaten by Xinhua Bookstore at half price, and we will inform you that when books from Hongguang Publishing House are retailed in stores under Xinhua Bookstore, they will try their best to display them in conspicuous places

The place.

Damn, I only spent a total of 3,000 yuan in red envelopes, plus a meal of more than 100 yuan, and I was able to get such a huge discount. It was such a huge profit!

You know, this is the policy of the Xinhua Bookstore Headquarters, which is equivalent to the decision-making of the Xinhua Bookstore Headquarters!

The current book distribution market is still dominated by Xinhua Bookstore, which forms a monopoly with the Post Office.

It's just that Xinhua Bookstore prefers books, while the post office prefers periodicals, with slightly different emphasis.

But after all, this is also a national issuing organization.

This kind of hairstyling establishment can make one click, and its profits are huge.

I just had a meal with someone, and if each person paid 1,000 yuan, they could get a 50% discount. It was really a great deal.

Of course, this also takes up the spotlight in the capital.

Only in the capital city can we have this kind of convenience that affects the whole country at every turn. If it were anywhere else, we probably wouldn't have this kind of convenience.

So, with the full cooperation of everyone working overtime.

It only took a week.

Such a sincere, truly "produced by Qiangzi" "Buy a poetry collection and get a free novel", a collector's edition set with autographs and paintings by "Qiangzi", is now officially on sale in major Xinhua bookstores across the country!