Tokyo Literary Godfather

but……

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

According to Kei Fujiwara's investigation in advance, in the decades since the publication of "Chunqiu Bunshang", only thirty or forty writers who have not won awards have been qualified for serialization, and half of them have had their works cut in half.

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 am recommending the manuscript from myself." Keimao Fujiwara added, "I have already 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 made a call. After saying 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.

A short-cut man in a suit was reading carefully with a manuscript paper. Sitting opposite him was a slightly fat young man wearing glasses, who was looking at him with some anxiety.

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!"

"I'm sorry. Although it can be seen that you have worked hard to revise it, the story is still not interesting. You are writing a mystery novel, right, but the murder plot is too naive. Readers can guess the method of killing at a glance, Can such a trick make readers patient enough to see it 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 was holding the manuscript in his hand, Kei Fujiwara was sitting behind him, he could hear the sound of sobbing faintly, and saw the man stand up slowly and leave with a disappointed face.

Fujiwara Kei 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.

"Hi, I've been waiting for a long time, it's Fujiwara-kun, right?"

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

Shimada sat on the chair across from him, "You're a self-recommended manuscript, right?"

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

Kei Fujiwara handed over the kraft 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 Reasoning and suspense, 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 rang 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 Naito finished reading 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 context of the entire story. The plot direction was clear at a glance. Shimada looked at it, but couldn't help but frown.

"May I ask 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 socialist school that pays attention to the description and analysis of human nature and reflects social issues;

As well as those 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 the socialist school." Kei Fujiwara replied.

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

Fujiwara Kei did not speak, but 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 emerging writer Watanabe Ikema or our ace author Mika Miyano, they are all authors of novels of the genre-changing genre. This is what readers want 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 author, you can't just work behind closed doors. You must always pay attention to the readers' preferences."

"What do readers like to read now? A pervert with a distorted personality, a handsome detective, or a crime with super powers. If it is a realistic theme, there must be a trick that makes people scratch their heads and can't see through it. Wait until the answer is revealed and then suddenly realize the trick. OK."

"But in your book, there are no such best-selling elements. Hmm... The villain as the protagonist may be a new idea, but readers may not like such an idea. And the trick design in your book is too simple."

"The deceased died in a locked building from the inside. Only a narrow ventilation duct could pass through, and adults could not pass through at all. As soon as readers saw these reminders, they would immediately think: Could it be a child who did the murder? 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 it only to this extent? What kind of novels are such people writing... Haha, don't mind, after all, some readers really say that. I have seen many vicious comments in letters from readers. No matter Whether you want to be an author or an editor, you need to have a big heart."

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

But before coming here, Kei Fujiwara was also mentally prepared not to be recognized. Even if "Bai Ye Xing" is a great success in the parallel world, it may still be unpopular.

Although "White Night Journey" achieved extremely high sales and frequent praise at the beginning, Keigo Higashino had already had best-selling works before writing "White Night Journey".

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 Kei Fujiwara's original world.

In the original world, because of the appearance of the socialist mystery novelist Matsumoto Seicho in the Japanese literary world, the mystery literary world was ruled by the socialist for thirty years.

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

But in this world, in the development of Japanese mystery novels, there is no such a strong man as Matsumoto Seicho, and there are no particularly outstanding social novels.

So now, the socialist school is still a virgin land that no one has explored, which makes many people take it for granted that the socialist school has no market and is not popular with readers.

Reasoning The thirty years of Matsumoto Seicho's rule in the literary world is a history that never existed for these people, but for Kei Fujiwara, it is a real thing that happened.

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

Socialism must have a lot to do! It was with this idea in mind that Kei Fujiwara chose "White Night Journey" from among the novels in his mind.