A healing writer? No, it's a depressing writer!

Chapter 145: Dragon Clan: Dawn of Fire

In fact, in this day and age, it is quite rare to receive commissions from magazines to write articles?
Times are changing, and so are the ways of reading.

After getting used to information-based and fragmented reading.

It seems that it is difficult for everyone to calm down, quietly and seriously read a book?

Take Jiang Hai’s new work “Xu Sanguan Selling Blood” as an example.

In terms of quality, "Xu Sanguan" is definitely a rising star in the field of traditional serious literature. As a masterpiece of pioneering documentary literature,

Regardless of the thoughts that the book wants to bring to people, or the philosophy of life that readers want to comprehend from reading, "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" can definitely be said to be full of it!
It can definitely be regarded as a rare and excellent work in the field of traditional documentary literature!

But even so, there are still quite a number of people who cannot finish reading this book.

As for the reason, it is simple -

Firstly, this book is too sad, a complete tragedy that makes it hard to read!

Secondly, people with low cultural literacy simply cannot understand the ideas the author wants to express!

The third and most important point is that in today's era of fragmented information reading——

How many people can calmly and attentively read a book from start to finish?

Jiang Hai frowned when he saw the letter from a magazine called "Youth Foreword" in his mailbox asking him to contribute to a magazine.
"A request for an article on sentimental literature about youth?"

Although the current environment is indeed quite impetuous, there is obviously one group that is not included in it——

That's the student body!
Adults have to work due to the pressure of life, so they cannot spare a whole piece of time to read.

But students are obviously different!

What is the student’s job?
It’s reading!
It's learning!
Compared to fragmented information-based reading, most people in their student days are actually able to calm down and read a book quietly from beginning to end!

This is why we have entered the information age, in an era when paper media is generally declining.

Is there any reason why magazines can still survive in this highly competitive and cruel era?

Because the student was locked up in school, he couldn't use his cell phone at all!

In fact, before this, Jiang Hai had thought about turning a tragic work like "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" into a novel.

Promote it in schools!
However, it is indeed very helpless, similar to the realistic works such as "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" -

It is really impossible to resonate with students who are in adolescence and have great ambitions and ideals!
These students are in the third year of junior high school and the third year of high school. The older students are only about 17 or 18 years old.
How can you tell students of this age group about the tragic life of an ordinary man named Xu Sanguan in the 1950s and 1960s?

How can this be substituted?
I have never experienced the cruelty of that era, and you want me to put myself in Xu Sanguan's tragic and heavy life in the book?
This is obviously unrealistic!
It was precisely because of this situation that Jiang Hai had no choice but to place the main battlefield of "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" in major bookstores across the country.

The target readers of "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" are middle-aged people who have experienced many vicissitudes of life and have long been beaten by society!
The target readers of "The Injustice of Dou E" are those elderly people who are over 60 years old, do not like reading or studying, but love watching dramas and operas very much!
Since middle-aged people and the elderly have become Jiang Hai’s potential target readers, Jiang Hai’s next target is——

Naturally, they are students who have not yet entered society, have good intentions, have sincere expectations and wishes for the world, and still have the best years of their youth!
"Since I'm going to be depressed, I must take care of it." Jiang Hai didn't know why, but when he saw the letter about the magazine's invitation to write, he felt inexplicably excited. "It doesn't matter whether it's money or not. The most important thing is that I like writing books."

Try to imagine this scene -

In a happy and complete family.

My grandparents cried as they listened to the drama "The Injustice of Dou E".

My father, who was still teaching at a university and was also a high-level intellectual, was holding a copy of "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" in his hand and smoking one cigarette after another, unable to stop.

At this time, the children who had just entered junior high school secretly read the youth-themed novels serialized by Jiang Hai in magazines at school, and they were sad.
When Jiang Hai thought of this scene, he felt inexplicably excited?

Without much hesitation, Jiang Hai decisively contacted the editor-in-chief of the "Youth Preface" novel magazine who was responsible for commissioning articles through the contact information left in the email:
"Hello, Editor Mo, I'm Jiang Hai."

There is an essential difference between commissioning articles for magazines and submitting articles to online fiction websites.

Generally speaking, authors who can make magazine editors actively come to them to invite them to write articles are well-known and capable authors in the industry.

Obviously, after the release of the two books "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" and "No Longer Human"——

Jiang Hai has already gained the qualification to have editors approach him to ask for manuscripts.

"Youth Preface" is a short story magazine that integrates youth documentary literature and youth sentimental literature.

Their main target readers are students aged 13 to 18, who are in adolescence and are fragile and sensitive.

In the field of youth sentimental literature——

"Preface to Youth" is quite famous in China?

The previously popular magazines such as "Fireworks", "Aige" and "Zuixin Xiaoshuo" were the predecessors of "Youth Foreword". With the closure of a large number of domestic magazines, magazines such as "Fireworks" and "Aige" that describe the theme of youth and sentimental literature have disappeared in China.

"Preface to Youth" sensed the bursting of the market bubble in time, and when the magazine was about to go bankrupt, it promptly introduced a series of well-known writers including the fairy tale king Zheng Yuanjie, focusing on the enlightenment section of teenagers and children, and completely breaking away from the originally sinking literary market!

It is precisely based on this series of operations that "Youth Preface" avoided the same fate as "Fireworks" and "Aige", because it firmly grasped the enlightenment section of youth literature——

This is what allows them to survive in this cruel literary market!

However, survival is survival, and a series of well-known writers such as the fairy tale king Zheng Yuanjie have retired.

Nowadays, "Youth Preface" is in urgent need of change!

Inside a small magazine.

Editor-in-Chief's Office.

The person in charge, Editor-in-Chief Mo, was smoking a pipe and listening to his subordinates' work reports with a worried look on his face:
"Teacher Zheng Yuanjie's serials "Golden Finger" and "Biochemical Nanny" have been announced to be completed next month."

"In addition, Mr. Xiao Hongtao's serialized enlightenment novels "Green Forest" and "He and She" will also be completed in these two days."

No matter when, when establishing a magazine or literary journal, quality is always king!
Editor-in-Chief Mo knows very well that the reason why "Youth Preface" has survived in this cruel market is that it has not been eliminated by the market like other magazines and periodicals.

This is because they have the best authors in the market under their control!
Thanks to the high-quality content created by these authors, they have been able to survive in this market.
However, human power is limited, and a considerable number of high-quality creators have withdrawn.

In addition, a series of works by pillars such as Zheng Yuanjie and Xiao Hongtao have been completed.

The sales of each issue of "Youth Foreword" are almost in an inevitable downward trend, and they are decreasing rapidly.
"Sales in the last quarter decreased by 13.23% compared to the same period last year."

The sales model of the "Youth Foreword" magazine is a bit similar to the original "Novel Painting" and "Story Club". Each issue will launch two or three serialized novels, relying on these serialized novels to attract a fixed flow of people, and then in between, various illustrations and interesting short stories are interspersed.
Before this, "Youth Preface" was doing pretty well with this kind of strategy?
Relying on the serialized novels of several famous teachers, it attracts people, and then adds various interesting stories in it.
This has attracted the favor of many student readers?

It was with this model that the circulation of "Youth Preface" increased from hundreds of thousands of copies per issue to 200,000, 500,000, and even an astonishing 700,000 copies at its peak.
Are the benefits of doing this indeed obvious?
Relying on the popularity attracted by famous writers and works, many students have become loyal readers of "Preface to Youth"!
There is publicity for every issue of "Preface to Youth", and almost every issue is a must-buy!

However, the disadvantages of doing so are also obvious!
Once a long serial novel that attracts and hooks readers is completed, the sales of each issue of the magazine will inevitably plummet!

Just to give an example -

At the beginning, Mr. Jin Yong's martial arts novel "The Return of the Condor Heroes" was serialized in a magazine called "Ming Pao". When "The Return of the Condor Heroes" was serialized, "Ming Pao" had no worries about sales at all, and it once became the most popular novel magazine among readers in Hong Kong!

However, after the conclusion of The Return of the Condor Heroes was announced, the sales of Ming Pao dropped drastically at an almost irreversible rate!
To put it bluntly, readers bought Ming Pao just for The Return of the Condor Heroes. Now that The Return of the Condor Heroes has finished, is there any need for them to continue buying Ming Pao?

And now-

"Youth Preface" is facing the same situation as "Ming Pao"!

With the completion of the works of Zheng Yuanjie, Xiao Hongtao and other teachers, if we can't find one or two serialized novels to replace them before they are officially finished.
Then, presumably, the sales of "Preface to Youth" will continue to plummet from the current level!
These days, to be precise, it is this period of time!

In order to find a long work that can replace these teachers.

Editor-in-Chief Mo has put in a lot of effort and has been crazy about these top domestic writers——

Contact and commission.

Writing is a very mentally taxing activity.

After learning about Editor-in-Chief Mo's purpose of visit, many writers rejected his invitation.

Sometimes, when writing a long serial, it’s not something you can write just because you want to.

Are you going to spend a lot of money to get everyone to contribute?

That's definitely no problem.

As long as the money is in place, I believe most authors will not refuse.

However, when you don't have that much money, you still want everyone to customize a youth reading material for your "Youth Preface" specifically for student readers?

And it’s a long novel?
How can this be!

Not to mention how difficult it is to write this thing, if you don't write it well, you will ruin your reputation.
Isn't this a loss?

It is precisely because the requirements are too strict that Editor-in-Chief Mo has repeatedly run into obstacles when commissioning these authors to write articles.

"Alas" Just as Editor-in-Chief Mo sighed and was at a loss, even he himself didn't know what to do.

Suddenly, he received a reply in his mailbox:
[Dear Editor-in-Chief Mo, hello, I am Jiang Hai! ]

[This is the opening 6,000 words of my new book "Dragon Tribe I: Dawn of Fire". Please review whether it can be approved as promised. Attached is a link to the brief outline.]

(End of this chapter)