1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 394 Worthy of being a place to communicate with foreign countries

Jiang Xian was silent for a long time.

Su Chen had no idea that in just a few words, a pioneering literary novel was born in Jiang Xian's mind.

Seeing that Jiang Xian remained silent and seemed to be worried, Su Chen thought that Jiang Xian was just unable to let go of his pride.

After all, Jiang Xian is known as the number one young writer in China.

If he were asked to write a novel following Ma Yuan, he would probably feel that he was just repeating what others had said.

“The rise of a literary trend cannot be achieved by one author alone. Only when various wonderful works are continuously produced and authors continue to exert influence on the readership can a literary school be born.

There is no need to worry about the order. If we judge the quality of literary works by order, then what depth do we pursue in literary creation? Just treat it as a 100-meter race and pursue speed."

Su Chen tried to persuade Jiang Xian earnestly, but he didn't know that Jiang Xian was completely focused on the novel in his mind.

“Lao Su, I was thinking that the form of a novel like LS River Goddess is very new in the Chinese literary world, but it is not uncommon in the West.

Although I haven’t read this novel, I can probably tell from your description that this is actually the aftertaste and echo of the somewhat outdated postmodern literature in the West in China.”

Su Chen's expression turned serious.

He just thought that Jiang Xian had some concerns, but he never thought that Jiang Xian was thinking about these things.

He is worthy of being the number one young writer.

Jiang Xian's vision is truly broad and tolerant, several times better than many older authors.

"You are right. The development of domestic literature is complicated and sluggish. Novels like LS River Goddess are nothing more than a vortex of postmodernism that is thrown into Chinese literature."

Jiang Xian nodded.

"That's right. But having said that, I don't think the emergence of this type of novel is meaningless. This avant-garde literary form can fully innovate the main style and aesthetic appearance of contemporary literature and no longer succumb to the inherent literary creation conventions of the past.

In my opinion, the emergence of this kind of avant-garde literature is seeking an aesthetic breakthrough outside the mainstream tradition of modern and contemporary Chinese literature, and practicing a revolution in the aesthetics of novels.

Su Chen listened quietly to Jiang Xian's story, agreed with his point of view, nodded frequently, and keenly caught a word that Jiang Xian kept mentioning.

“Avant-garde literature?”

Su Chen's eyes lit up. "It's an appropriate and beautiful term to describe this type of novel."

As for Jiang Xian, although he said it was accidental, it was also somewhat intentional. And although he said it was intentional, it was also somewhat accidental.

In short, this is a dish of nine-turn large intestine.

Whether intentionally or accidentally, Jiang Xian showed off his prowess in front of others again, introducing the term "avant-garde literature" to Su Chen, and then using Su Chen to promote the name of avant-garde literature.

When we discuss this literary trend in the future, Ma Yuan was the initiator and Jiang Xian was the namer, and both of them will be recorded in history books.

Su Chen continued to discuss the term "avant-garde literature" with Jiang Xian. The more he discussed, the brighter his eyes became, and the more excited he became.

"Jiang Xian, looking around the country, there are probably very few writers with such literary vision and literary awareness, except you. I have gained a lot from discussing with you today. How about I write a literary theory article and publish it after I go back?"

"Okay, I have no objection." Jiang Xian said.

That's all there is to it. Although many of the opinions were expressed by Jiang Xian, there was no need for him to argue with Su Chen about intellectual property rights.

Too petty.

As long as Su Chen can help him spread the name of "avant-garde literature", Jiang Xian will be satisfied.

After the two finished talking about this, Jiang Xian reminded him, "Old Su, you guys at Huacheng are really difficult to deal with. In the past, magazines asked me to write articles, but you guys are different. Not only did you ask me to write articles, you also gave me a topic. This is also considered a 'topic composition'. It's not easy to write such a novel. It's not easy to write. It's really not easy to write."

Su Chen became anxious when he heard this.

But when he thought about the fact that he had been talking with Jiang Xian for so long and he hadn't said anything final, Su Chen knew that there must be some chance.

"Commander Jiang, Comrade Jiang Xian, how can we write this?"

"That depends on how you treat my novel." Jiang Xian suggested in a joking tone.

In the United States, Jiang Xian can proudly say that he is a rich man.

However, his account is in the United States and he has not brought it back to China, so he still has to earn the royalties.

In addition, for Jiang Xian, publishing novels in magazines has long lost its appeal.

When publishing in a literary journal, you only earn a one-time basic fee, but when publishing, in addition to the basic fee, you will also receive additional fees for the number of copies printed.

Publishing is the way to maximize profits.

Moreover, the sales of novels published in literary journals will also be affected after the novels are published.

In short, if literary journals want to invite Jiang Xian to submit his manuscripts, they must give Jiang Xian a sufficiently attractive reason or temptation.

After hearing what Jiang Xian said, Su Chen immediately said:

"We'll publish your novel as a headline, and if the content is long enough, we'll publish it in a special issue."

The conditions offered by Su Chen were very generous.

There were countless literary journals at that time, but Huacheng was able to stand out and become one of the strongest in the country, which shows how attractive Huacheng was.

The first issue of Huacheng was published in April 1979. The first printing reached 4 copies, and it was reprinted twice afterwards, with a total print run of 20. Soon after its launch, it set a circulation record of more than 25 copies.

This achievement is quite dazzling when looking at literary journals across the country.

For any writer, it would be hard to refuse the word "reject" if they were given such treatment by Huacheng, an important base of modern Chinese literature.

But for Jiang Xian, this treatment was already commonplace and nothing new to him.

Nowadays, even if Jiang Xian doesn't even need to mention it, his novels will probably be given the front-page treatment by the editors even in the royal journal "People's Literature".

So after listening to Su Chen's words, Jiang Xian just looked at him with an unsatisfied look, as if his eyes were saying:
"That's it?"

Su Chen also immediately had an idea, "We can also give you a raise on the manuscript fee. As long as your manuscript can pass the review, we will give you 20 yuan per thousand words."

"20 for a thousand words?"

Jiang Xian smacked his lips.

It is worthy of being a place to communicate with the outside world.

Last time, he haggled with Renwen Press for a long time, and finally Renwen Press discussed and discussed again internally, and finally they made an exception and gave him a raise for his manuscript fee.

What about "Flower City"?

Su Chen directly raised the manuscript fee from 10 yuan per thousand words to 20 yuan per thousand words without blinking an eye.

"30 per thousand words," Jiang Xian said in a deep voice.

"30 for a thousand words?"

Su Chen frowned.

This number is three times the "recommended" standard above.

But when he thought about the manuscript he was asked to write for Jiang Xian, he finally gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, let's do as you say. As long as the manuscript can pass the review, we will give you a fee of 30 yuan per thousand words."

Jiang Xian felt relieved.

When he heard Su Chen say "20 yuan per thousand words" just now, his eyes couldn't help but light up.

Not because of the number.

But it was the message released by Su Chen.

We at Huacheng can add money!

So he quickly raised the number to 30 per thousand words.

I didn't expect Su Chen to agree. The publications in the south are indeed bolder, especially those in Guangdong.

Take newspapers for example. Some newspapers and periodicals in the south, such as Guangzhou Old Newspaper, Southern Weekend and Yangcheng Evening News, have raised their own standards for manuscript fees in recent years, which have increased several times based on the above standards.

The generosity of "Flower City" made Jiang Xian's face smile like a chrysanthemum.

"Okay, it just so happens that I once conceived a novel similar to postmodernism. Now that I think about it, it's actually the type of 'avant-garde literature' we just talked about. I just happened to find some time to write it and send it to you to see if it works."

Su Chen was overjoyed. "Oh, this is such a coincidence. What does this mean? It means that our Huacheng and your novel are destined to be together. This novel was created for Huacheng.

What is the novel about? Is it a short story or a long one?

"It's a short story, so the word count shouldn't be too many, probably around 10,000 or 20,000 words."

"So little?" Su Chen felt a little regretful when he heard it.

We negotiated the fee for so long, raised the price twice, and in the end it’s just a short story?
Although one or two hundred yuan is not a small amount, Su Chen still feels that this price is a waste of time.

Just as I was thinking about it, I heard Jiang Xian say:

"Editor-in-Chief Su, you see, the royalties for this novel have been raised quite a bit, so what about the royalties for my previous two translations?"

"."

Su Chen was stunned.

So she was waiting for him here?

It was not enough that the royalties for the manuscript were doubled, and finally the price was raised to three times the price stipulated above.

Then what about the royalties for the translation?

Three times as much?
Wow, Jiang Xian’s novel has few words, but his two translation manuscripts have quite a lot of words.

"Commander Jiang, you are going to empty the granary of our Huacheng." Su Chen said half-jokingly.

"Look at what you said. I, Jiang Xian, am not a money-loving person. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, forget it."

Jiang Xian's words put Su Chen in trouble again.

Su Chen hesitated for a while, then gritted his teeth when he thought about the promotion and influence that Jiang Xian's article brought to the magazine.

"Okay, triple it too."

Nowadays, the translation price is 8 yuan per thousand words. If we triple it, it will be 24 yuan per thousand words.

This amount even exceeds the basic remuneration plus print royalties that many writers receive after their novels are published.

After all, not everyone can print as many copies as Jiang Xian.

"There's a reason why Huacheng is doing so well," Jiang Xian sighed.

I wonder how many writers' creative passion will be stimulated by the freedom to continue to increase their royalties.

Jiang Xian chatted with Su Chen about the content of this manuscript again.

Su Chen listened very attentively and gave some opinions and ideas from time to time.

Jiang Xian also took all these suggestions into consideration. After all, the "avant-garde literature" novel in his mind was still the immature work of the original author when he was young, so there were inevitably some flaws that needed to be supplemented.

Su Chen and Feng Xiaoshuang were on the afternoon train. Before leaving, Jiang Xian reminded them, "Take the manuscript with you when you go back. Don't lose it."

It is not uncommon for manuscripts to be lost in the literary world.

Take the novel "The Last Hun" that Jiang Xian had copied before. The manuscript of this novel was lost.

At that time, 30 words had been written. The original author Gao Jianqun gave the manuscript to a friend for some advice. A few days later, the friend told him that the manuscript was lost.

This almost drove Gao Jianqun crazy.

It is said that it was stolen by a thief. After being caught, the thief said that he looked at the black leather bag and thought it contained money. After stealing it, he found that it was actually a pile of manuscripts, so he simply threw them into the toilet.

Later, Gao Jianqun did nothing every day but block manure trucks on the street. Whenever he saw a manure truck, he would go up and ask if the truck had seen his manuscript.

After saying goodbye to Su Chen, Jiang Xian did not rush to start writing this novel. After all, he still had one more chapter, "War Horse", to finish.

Of course, these are not the most important things at the moment.

After resting at home for such a long time, it is time for him, a "reserve cadre" of People's Literature, to report to the magazine.

Wearing a mask and riding a bicycle, I ran through several alleys in the yellow sand and finally arrived at No. 2 Shatan North Street, where People's Literature is located.

After parking the car under the carport and walking inside, Jiang Xian felt a strange feeling.

In the past, I came here either to submit a manuscript or to revise it.

This time when I came back, I had already become a member of People's Literature.

The mood is completely different.

Turning into the hanging flower gate, I ran into a man with messy hair. The two looked at each other and the other smiled.

"Is it Comrade Jiang Xian?"

"you are?"

"My name is Zhu Wei."

The other person naturally extended his hand, "Editor-in-chief of People's Literature."

"Hello."

“You are here today.”

"Come and report."

Jiang Xian smiled and said, "I have also been transferred to People's Literature, but I have been studying abroad for the past six months."

"Oh, I remember now."

Zhu Wei slapped his thigh and said, "Oh, look at my memory. When I first saw you, I only remembered that you were a writer and forgot that you had this other identity."

"it's okay no problem."

Jiang Xian was not angry. "Is Editor-in-Chief Wang Meng in the publishing house?"

"Yes, Chief Editor Wang is here every day and is very responsible," said Zhu Wei.

Under his guidance, Jiang Xian came to the door of Wang Meng's office, knocked and went in.

Wang Meng was writing something at his desk. When he heard someone coming in, he raised his eyes from a pile of books and saw that it was Jiang Xian. A smile immediately appeared on his face.

"came back?"

"Ah."

Jiang Xian agreed and pulled out a chair and sat down.

"How is things in America?" Wang Meng stood up and poured him a glass of water.

"It's pretty good, everything is prosperous. Sometimes I feel a little annoyed at myself for being a writer instead of a scientist. I can't contribute to the development of my country. I am just a good-for-nothing scholar."

"Haha, isn't the development of spiritual civilization also a kind of construction?" Wang Meng smiled and chatted with Jiang Xian about things in the United States.

After a break, Jiang Xian asked with concern:
"How's it going with People's Literature? Is everything going well?"

Wang Meng was stunned for a moment, then gave a bitter smile.

“There is still a long way to go.”

(End of this chapter)