Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 117 Zhang Chao's Tricks
In April 2005, apart from attending classes, Zhang Chao's most important task was to work on the inaugural issue of Youth Magazine.

According to the plan, the first year's "Youth Party" will be published as a supplement to the "New Sprouts" magazine of that month. The full name of the magazine is "New Sprouts·Youth Party", but the word "New Sprouts" is so small that you have to squint to see it.

However, this would allow the same publication number to be used as New Sprouts, avoiding the cumbersome procedure of applying for a new publication number and delaying the publication of Youth.

If the sales of the first three issues of "Youth" are good, then "New Sprout" magazine will apply for an independent new publication number for "Youth" - of course, the application procedures are very complicated, the process is cumbersome, and the success rate is not high - mainly because new publication numbers are rarely issued in the country.

If this approach does not work, New Sprout will apply to its local superior department to use the publication number of a publication that has basically stopped being published, and then complete the shell change operation by changing the name of the journal.

The editing work of the two magazines is also divided into different parts. Zhang Chao is responsible for the column setting, manuscript review, art design, etc. of the entire magazine, while "New Sprout" is responsible for proofreading, typesetting, printing and channel distribution.

This can be considered as the "survival" exploration of "New Sprout" magazine after its sales plummeted. After all, the president Zhao Changtian no longer wants to go back to the days when monthly sales were less than 1 copies and he couldn't even pay salaries.

However, the cooperation with Zhang Chao to publish the supplement "Youth" did achieve initial success. After the news bombardment of the "New Concept Composition Competition" in January and the pre-sale promotion of "New Sprouts" magazine and the Beitasman member book list in March, the pre-order volume of the first issue of "Youth" has reached 1 copies.

For a literary journal that does not charge authors for publication fees but still needs to pay royalties, this has already crossed the break-even line. The extra retail sales are the profit part.

Moreover, after the promotion, even the retail sales of "New Sprout" magazine have recovered to more than 5 copies per issue.

If it weren't for the turmoil last month, Zhao Changtian even felt that "Youth" could be ranked alongside the "New Concept Composition Competition" as the two most correct decisions in his career.

Early that morning, Xu Minxia, ​​who was in charge of connecting with Yanjing, hurried to Zhao Changtian's office and said worriedly, "President, Zhang Chao has failed to deliver."

Zhao Changtian almost spit out his tea. He had been startled by Zhang Chao's troubles during this period. The magical incident of "Youth" dying and coming back to life last month made him physically and mentally exhausted.

He has already figured out how to apologize to readers in the April issue of New Sprouts.

Zhao Changtian hurriedly asked, "What's going on?"

Xu Minxia said: "Look, this is the magazine cover designed by Zhang Chao!" After that, she placed a piece of paper in front of Zhao Changtian.

Zhao Changtian took it and looked at it, then looked at Xu Minxia in confusion: "Isn't this just a piece of white paper?"

Xu Minxia said: "Zhang Chao said - no design is the best design."

Zhao Changtian's eyes went dark, and he started to curse: "Little bastard! What's wrong with your brain!"

Zhao Changtian agreed to cooperate with Zhang Chao and set up the supplement "Youth", which put his reputation in the industry on the line. The poor sales of "Youth" actually didn't matter, it just meant that this road was not working and it would be fine after two or three issues. The biggest loss was actually on Zhang Chao's side.

If Youth Magazine had such a "scandal", he would be embarrassed, which Zhao Changtian could never accept. What is a magazine without a cover?
So he immediately picked up the phone and called Zhang Chao, almost yelling, "What are you doing? A blank cover, a stele without words, are you Wu Zetian?"

Xu Minxia was shocked. She had been in the community for more than a year and had never seen Zhao Changtian behave so out of control.

I don’t know what Zhang Chao said to Zhao Changtian on the other end of the phone. His expression gradually changed from anger to confusion, and finally he whispered: "This...will this work?"

Zhang Chao talked a lot on the other end of the phone, and Zhao Changtian finally said as if he had made up his mind, "Then let's do as you say..." and then hung up the phone.

Xu Minxia asked cautiously: "President, then..."

Zhao Changtian said: "He is in class now. He will call you later. Young people, your brain..."

Now it was Xu Minxia's turn to leave the office with a puzzled look on her face.

On April 4, the inaugural issue of the new journal "Youth Pie" which Zhang Chao and New Sprouts magazine had jointly prepared for three months was officially released along with the current issue of New Sprouts magazine.

As the "main publication", "New Sprouts" is still 90 pages long, while the "supplement" "Youth" is a full 120 pages thick.

Shanshan, a senior youth literature reader who just received the first issue of Youth and the April issue of New Sprout, felt the thickness of the two magazines and was a little confused. Which one is the main issue and which is the supplement? What also surprised her was the cover of Youth—it has no cover! It is just a cover at most!
A thick, hard, pale yellow copperplate paper, with no words or pictures except for the faint lines. Only on the narrow spine of the magazine can you see the small, vertical words "New Sprouts Youth Party No. 1".

What does this mean? "Youth" has to start from scratch?
Driven by curiosity, Shanshan immediately threw "New Sprout" aside and opened "Youth" - under the cover was the inaugural poster. When he unfolded it, a gorgeous picture appeared in front of him:

The cartoon characters of more than 20 authors of "Youth" are handsome, cute, adorable, cool, wild and cool, or quirky... forming a matrix; in the middle of the matrix is ​​the name of the magazine "Youth".

Under each author's cartoon image, there are a few lines of small text, in addition to the name/pen name, there are birthdays, zodiac signs, constellations, hobbies, mottos...

Shanshan was attracted by Shuang Xuetao’s cartoon image at first sight—he is handsome, elegant, and handsome, wearing a pair of cool black-framed glasses and with deep eyes, as if he wants to whisper to the readers.

Let's look at the zodiac signs: Virgo - hardworking, careful, cautious, well-organized, and meticulous in doing things...

Let’s look at the motto again: Youth is an imperfect journey, but I will still set off without hesitation.

Shanshan's eyes began to sparkle. Although she hadn't read what he wrote, this image, this constellation, and this sentence had already touched her heart.

I flipped through it again and a color page fell out - was it a problem with the binding quality?

Shanshan picked it up curiously, and saw that on the color page, there were three big words "Youth" in the middle, and both sides had cartoon images of the author, but there were fewer of them and the character designs were slightly different; there were also a lot of small words, which looked like the title of the work.

Is this... another poster?
Shanshan soon discovered something was wrong. Every word, every character, and every embellishment on the coloring page were adhesive stickers that could be peeled off individually.

At this time, she also noticed that there was a small card attached to the coloring page, which read "Message from the Editor-in-Chief" -

Dear readers of Youth:
I once said that Youth Magazine is a supplement that belongs entirely to young people, and I will keep my promise.

The cover of this magazine belongs to every reader...】

Shanshan soon understood that "Youth" was not without a cover, but that the readers themselves designed the cover, and the material was on this color page. If you liked an author or a work, you could put it in the most conspicuous position on the cover, and let other authors and works serve as a foil to it.

In addition, "Youth Pie" will also solicit the best cover design for each issue. Readers who want to participate can scan their own cover and send it to the "Youth Pie" email address, or cut it out and have it laminated in a printing shop and then send it to "New Sprout" magazine.

This way of playing is so interesting!

Shanshan didn't even bother to look at the works now. Instead, she carefully peeled off Shuang Xuetao's cartoon image and the title of his work, and then pasted them in the center of the cover.

Then she called her best friend and said, "Have you bought the first issue of Youth Magazine? Hurry up and buy it. It's really fun..."

This issue of "Youth" was not only placed in front of readers, but also in front of editors of almost all literary journals, especially those focusing on youth literature.

In the office of Xiao Si's "Island" magazine, Xiao Si and the editors were looking at the blank cover and self-adhesive color pages of "Youth" with confusion on their faces.

An editor peeled off a cartoon image of Zhang Chao and casually pasted it on the cover, then folded it twice and said, "It's stuck quite firmly and doesn't easily warp."

Another editor asked in confusion: "This magazine is priced at only a few dollars? The cost of double-sided adhesive and color printing on this page must be several cents. Does he not want to make money?"

The cost of magazines is very transparent. With the general pricing being only a few dollars, the profit of each magazine is squeezed out penny by penny.

Xiao Si was also puzzled, but he was more careful and soon discovered a detail. He reached out and peeled off Zhang Chao's cartoon image again, and actually peeled off Zhang Chao's "body".

The editors were also shocked and quickly began to study them - they discovered that not only the bodies of these adhesive-backed cartoons could be peeled off separately, but even the hairstyles and limbs could be peeled off, and they could even stick the female author's long hair onto Zhang Chao's head.

Xiao Si's face suddenly turned pale. He vaguely understood Zhang Chao's tricks.

(End of this chapter)