Tokyo Tycoon, Start as a Writer

Chapter 67 The boomerang is coming, everyone should apologize!
Keisuke Takahashi is bad, but not stupid.

Previously, at the invitation of Tachibana Toshio, I went to Tokyo and agreed to help suppress a new writer.

In fact, he would have done the same even without Tachibana Toshio's invitation.

In the literary circle, many old friends were dissatisfied with Mishima for daring to break the rules of the game, and Takahashi Keisuke himself was also very disgusted with this behavior of circumventing the system to make profits.

He would have ended up in the game regardless of whether Tachibana Toshio was there or not.

Although it is not necessary to do it yourself to suppress a newcomer.

Most people don't want to be the first to stand out.

But Keisuke Takahashi is different.

He has a special identity and can barely be considered the leader of the Kyoto faction.

He was the first to speak out, and others followed suit, thus consolidating his image as the "boss of the Kyoto faction."

Although the Japanese literary world is not large, it is divided into various schools.

Whichever faction has more people will have a greater advantage in a war of words.

On the other hand, Mishima offended the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and Takahashi Keisuke was the first to attack Mishima in order to consolidate his relationship with the top management of the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

But he never expected that this time he would shoot himself in the foot.

Keisuke Takahashi always believed that those who attempted to overthrow their superiors and break the rules must be taught a lesson.

No matter how good you are, you have to learn lessons.

But he never thought about what the consequences would be when a person is good enough to break the rules...

"How can this Mishima write so well..."

Keisuke Takahashi frowned and flipped through the book in his hand over and over again.

The tone of this book is sweet, pure, sunny and optimistic. It is a rare breath of fresh air in the current Japanese literary world where scar literature is prevalent.

Although he looked at the book with a critical and prejudiced eye, he still had to be impressed by the talent that Mishima displayed in the book.

He knew very well that he would never be able to write such a work.

I want to curse but I can't find anywhere to curse.

Although scholars have looked down on each other since ancient times, it is only understandable if they are at the same level. If one is far inferior to others in level but still stubbornly looks down on them, then he is simply a clown.

Keisuke Takahashi picked up the coffee that had long gone cold and took a sip.

Mouth full of bitterness.

There is nothing wrong with "Tide".

Then, what he said before should be settled...

In fact, starting from the 4th, after all major literary websites gave "Shiosao" a rating of 5- points, people kept asking him to publicly apologize to Mishima because of his previous remarks attacking Mishima.

The other three Akutagawa Prize judges also could not escape the fate of being held accountable.

One of the judges shouted, "As long as I am still a judge of the Akutagawa Prize, I will not give the prize to Mishima." The comment section was full of pictures of Kennedy sitting in a convertible, mocking him and asking him to apologize quickly.

Keisuke Takahashi has realized the seriousness of the problem.

If there is no turnaround, he will have to say goodbye to his position as a permanent judge for the Akutagawa Prize.

His turning point was...

"Master~"

The young maid came in with a landline phone, bowed to him and said, "Tachibana Toshio called again."

From the 10th to now, Tachibana Toshio has called every day.

Keisuke Takahashi never answered the phone once.

He knew exactly what the other party wanted to say, but he couldn't jump out and attack Mishima at this time.

He needs to see the situation before making a decision.

what's the situation?
"Eggs and High Walls" has been a complete failure in terms of word of mouth.

Right now, we can only wait and see how the sales perform.

As long as you don't die suddenly, you still have a chance to turn the tide and win the Akutagawa Prize.

On September 2th, the single volume of "Eggs and High Walls" was officially released, with the first batch of copies printed.

If these 20,000 copies could be sold out in one day, Takahashi Keisuke would still have the confidence to struggle, and could continue to stand on the side of Tachibana Toshio and consolidate the interests of his older generation.

But if the sales of "Eggs and Walls" plummet, then we'll have to cut it off...

"Tell him I'm busy now and don't have time. Ask him to call back in the afternoon." Takahashi Keisuke waved his hand and asked the maid to leave.

Sitting alone on the sofa, occasionally reading a book and occasionally looking at the increasingly fierce insults and accusations against him on the Internet, Takahashi Keisuke spent an extremely torturous morning. At two o'clock in the afternoon, he immediately called a data collection expert in the publishing industry on his private mobile phone.

"Hello? Mr. Takashima, how are sales going?"

“…Not very optimistic.”

"Not very optimistic, how much? Less than 5000?"

"As of noon on the 500th, 'Eggs and High Walls' had been on the shelves for half a day, and sales were less than ."

"..."

Takahashi Keisuke hung up the phone silently.

Trash, trash, trash that can’t be sold for 500 in half a day… The long-established veteran in the literary world cursed in his heart, and at the same time regretted why his vision was so bad at the time that he actually spoke up for such trash!

"Master, Tachibana Toshio called again." The maid came in again.

"Tell him that I'm going abroad on vacation and tell him not to call during this period." Takahashi Keisuke's face turned pale.

"Yes~"

The maid quickly fled out of the living room.

Takahashi Keisuke took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and made up his mind. The situation was urgent, and it was time to sacrifice the car to save the king.

If he delays any further and allows online public opinion to continue to ferment and become uncontrollable, he might even lose his position as dean.

"Mishima, you win this time..."

"You won't be so lucky next time..."

The afternoon sun shone into the living room, shining on the face of this literary veteran, but it made him look a little cold.

■

September 15th.

Where no one was interested, "Eggs and High Walls" was quietly put on the shelves of major bookstores.

Since Shinchosha's publicity and promotion resources have been completely directed to "Chaosao" by Editorial Department 2, this blockbuster that Editorial Department 1 has been pushing hard this year received no publicity when it was put on the shelves, and almost no one outside the circle knew about it.

The book reviewers who praised this book highly some time ago no longer mentioned the book at all because editor-in-chief Yamada and Tachibana Toshio failed to renew the contract in time.

The first edition was printed in 2 copies.

After one morning of sales, less than 500 units were sold.

It can be said that the sales volume did not even make a splash and went straight to the bottom.

Only reporters from newspapers and people in literary forums are paying attention to this book. Of course, they are not just paying attention to the book. To be more precise, they are paying attention to the competition between Tachibana Toshio and Mishima.

On Twitter, someone sorted out the context of this competition.

First, it started in July.

In order to build momentum for the fact that "Eggs and High Walls" won the New Trend Literature Award which was presented on July 7, the July issue of "New Trend" published "Eggs and High Walls, Part ".

In three days, the sales exceeded 10 copies, and in three days, the sales exceeded 15 copies, single-handedly reversing the downward trend in sales of "Xinchao".

Just when people thought that the Shincho Prize would definitely be awarded to Tachibana Toshio, something unexpected happened.

Mishima made a strong debut with his debut work "Dancing Girl", winning the Shincho Prize and becoming the biggest dark horse.

This event marked the beginning of the competition between the two authors and their two books, and this war without gunpowder officially began.

The new August issue of "Dancing Girl" was published, breaking the historical record and reaching sales figures in the millions.

Immediately afterwards, the September issue featuring "Eggs and High Walls: Part 10" had sales of only in the first ten days of its release, a direct drop of % compared to the previous month.

On September 5, the single volume of Mishima's new work "The Sound of Waves" was put on sale, creating a terrifying sales volume of 40 copies in days.

In order to recover the declining sales, the September supplement containing the first two chapters of the new work and the return of "Dancing Girl" was also put on the shelves on the same day, selling 36 copies in five days.

In contrast, the single volume of "Eggs and High Walls" was put on the shelves for half a day, but the sales volume was less than 500 copies...

This is a crushing.

There was no mercy or dignity left, and the giant crushed us like an ant.

What does 40 copies in five days mean?
No writer in history has ever sold such horrific numbers.

As of the end of August this year, major publishing houses have published a total of more than 8 first-time single books, half of which are written by emerging writers within three years of their debut.

According to the current physical book sales rankings, "Chao Sao" ranks in the top three among all books.

The first place is a professional book on workplace management, and the second is a children's book. The sales of the two books were 78 and 62 copies respectively. "Chao Sao", which was only sold for 5 days, squeezed into the top three.

And if nothing unexpected happens, "The Tide of Chao" will top the list after the end of September, and then remain the sales champion until the end of this year, ending this year perfectly with the terrifying data of over one million copies sold - unless another historic book comes out in the second half of the year to break its record.

#The winner is decided! Mishima's road to becoming a god is unstoppable! #
#In just five days, the best-selling book of the year has been decided. Will Mishima be the master of the literary world in the future? #
#Burning! The suppression by the Ministry of Culture and half of the literary predecessors could not stop it, Mishima's rise is a foregone conclusion! #
#On why "The Tide" is a masterpiece! #
In the teahouse of the Tachibana family in Tokyo, Tachibana Toshio was watching the rave reviews of Kiyoaki Matsueda on Twitter and major forums. The veins on his forehead became more and more prominent, his eyes were staring, and bloodshot appeared in his eyeballs.

He felt that he was extremely unlucky.

Ever since the writer Mishima appeared, every step he took became a stepping stone for Mishima.

It can even be said that if it weren't for the black traffic he bought, Mishima would never have become so popular... From this perspective, Mishima should thank him.

But this is not his purpose!
asshole!

Tachibana Toshio gritted his teeth and glared.

The three trendy editors in the tea room all had serious expressions, each with their own thoughts.

Before today, the editor-in-chief Yamada of the first part already knew that the situation was hopeless.

He only hoped that the sales of "Eggs and High Walls" would not be too bad. Not to mention half of "Tide of Sorrow", but just one-tenth of it, and it would be good if 10,000 copies could be sold on the first day. Even though this would still be a loss, at least it saved some face for them.

When the time comes, I can explain to the top management that a good performance is necessary, but Mishima has Gundam.

result……

You didn’t even sell 500 fucking copies… Editor-in-Chief Yamada couldn’t help but look at Tachibana Toshio as if he was looking at a mentally retarded person, and at the same time secretly cursed himself for being stupid and blind. Why did he pin his hopes for performance on something like this?

Now, after the disastrous defeat, he finally saw things more clearly.

Why did the July issue of "Eggs and Walls: Part 40" sell copies?

That was all achieved by spending a lot of money on promotion!

If it weren't for the nearly 50 million yen spent on promotion, there's no way the July issue could have stopped its downward trend.

Now that the tide has receded, we can tell who has been swimming naked.

After stopping the money-burning promotion, the sales data of the September issue actually revealed some people's true colors.

This was such an outrageous and complete defeat that Editor-in-Chief Yamada could no longer find an excuse.

The only thing that measures their performance is the bloody sales data. If they can’t sell, they can’t sell. There is no way to refute it with any reason!
The three editors-in-chief of Xinchao all looked unhappy.

My nephew was as anxious as an ant on hot pan.

Brother-in-law, brother-in-law... uh, brother-in-law was dismissed by the Ministry of Culture and is no longer worthy of sitting at this table.

Miho Tachibana held the teapot and refilled the tea for the guests. Looking at their solemn expressions, she couldn't help but wonder if she would also be liquidated...

(End of this chapter)