Rebirth 08: Equipment God

Chapter 118 It’s hard to imagine the author’s mental state!

Chapter 118 It’s hard to imagine the author’s mental state!
Early morning, Jinling.

The office building where Phoenix Media Group is located.

This publishing group, which is often confused with the Hong Kong media because of its name, has already entered work mode. State-owned units have strict attendance checks and are busy early in the morning.

A postal EMS express from Dongyang County was sorted out by the front desk, and because the editor-in-chief had instructed it, it was delivered to Lou En's office as soon as possible.

When Lou En opened it, there was a manuscript and a letter of explanation.

Five minutes later, the manuscript was taken away by his subordinates to be copied, bound and numbered.

Half an hour later, some of the heated copies were kept on file, and the rest appeared in a small conference room.

There were seven or eight people sitting in the conference room. Except for Lou En, who was the one who promoted the project, the others were all staff members prepared for "The Long Journey".

Planning, responsible editor, marketing editor, illustration editor, content design, binding design, etc.

The publication of a book, in addition to the flesh and blood provided by the author himself, professional "packaging" is also indispensable. A good book cover, typesetting, and even catalog are all part of "quality".

Lou En took a sip of tea from the thermos cup and said, "Today is the reading session for The Long Journey. We read the first half a month ago, so you shouldn't have forgotten everything, right?"

The "text designer" is a pretty lady in her early twenties with delicate makeup. She smiled and shook her head: "How could that be? I have read it more than once myself. Teacher Zhai's writing style and delicate emotions are really so captivating."

Another person said: "I have read it several times as well."

As people from a publishing house, they have handled a lot of works, but this book is still good enough that people can't help but open it outside of work.

Lou En nodded: "That's good, the second half is not long either, more than 80,000 words, let's read it together first, this is my first time too."

Silence returned to the small conference room, with only the occasional sound of turning pages.

Handwritten manuscripts are usually a bit tiring to read, but Zhai Da's handwriting is neat and beautiful, so it won't cause any reading difficulties. It's only a few tens of thousands of words, and anyone who is a professional can finish reading it in two or three hours.

Half an hour later, noise began to be heard in the conference room.

"Chuck!"

Everyone looked up and saw an old man with unshaven beard and red eyes. He stood up and took the tissue paper on the table and blew his eyes.

"What did you see? Why are you crying like this?"

Although everyone's expression was a little sad, it didn't stop them from making a joke.

The elder brother sighed and said, "Lin Manman's father cannot match his daughter's kidney donation. I feel so helpless and helpless. I think of my daughter."

An hour later, the front desk received a notice to deliver two more packs of tissues to the conference room.

An hour and a half later, smoke began to appear in the conference room and someone lit a cigarette inside.

Two hours later.
The small conference room was already filled with smoke, like a fairyland on earth.

The beautiful young lady in her early twenties who seemed full of energy just now now has her eyeliner completely smudged by tears.

Like a death rock dancer in a nightclub, she lay on a seat with a cigarette in her hand.

I feel like I won't love again.
In the conference room, almost all the female comrades were crying miserably. The men were slightly better, but they also had red eyes and smoked to relieve their sorrow.

Lou En was the oldest, but he was also feeling uncomfortable, so he stood up and opened the window to let in fresh air.

If there is no ventilation, he will cry because he is suffocated by the smoke!
"Ah~ Although I expected it wouldn't be a happy ending, this is too sad."

The death rock lady stared at the flickering cigarette butt in a daze, her voice hoarse as if she had been screaming all night long, "I'll Love You Until I Die":

“Although the ending pattern is not uncommon, the emotions conveyed by Mr. Zhai’s writing are so real.”

We are all insiders in the industry and have seen too many things, but we still cannot resist it. Teacher Zhai’s words seem to have magic.

It's even a bit weird!
It is hard to imagine what state of mind he was in when he wrote it.
Another person said: "It's so strong, I can't believe this is a romance novel. It makes me, an old man, feel uncomfortable."

"No, it's more like a 'realistic novel' in the guise of a 'romance novel'. It's too real and too specific."

Although from a professional perspective, works that can bring tears to people's eyes, have a strong lasting effect, and are profound are more likely to gain fame and sales, they still have the idea of persuading Teacher Zhai.

Be a human being! Give me a good ending!
You have to know that the main audience of this book is young people, especially young women. It is hard to imagine how those young girls who are just beginning to fall in love feel after reading it.
Lou En wiped his face, barely breaking free from the emotions of the work, and felt a little more excited in his heart.

He felt that he was not doing Lu Zetao a favor, but that Lu Zetao was giving him a lottery ticket!
When everyone had recovered, Lou En, as the editor-in-chief, took the initiative to promote the progress of the meeting and said, "I have another good news to tell you. Teacher Zhai's estimated score for the college entrance examination is 450 points. Do you know what this means?"

Some people were surprised, while others didn’t care much about the college entrance examination. Lou En didn’t keep them in suspense and explained directly:

"I asked a teacher at Jinling University and was told that this is a chance to get a chance to become the top scorer in the provincial college entrance examination, which will be a great boost to the promotion of this book."

The marketing editor put out his cigarette and said, "So amazing? Even if Mr. Zhai didn't become the top scorer in the college entrance examination, with this score and this book, he would be more famous than the top scorer!"

Lou En nodded. "I think we can skip the question of whether to publish or not, and just move forward with the actual work. We have already done a lot of preparations. We need to prepare everything before the college entrance examination scores are released, and we can even print it out in advance."

"When Teacher Zhai's score comes out, we will print the result on the 'waistband' so that we can start selling it as soon as possible. The content of the waistband will be determined according to Teacher Zhai's specific score."

The death rock lady opened her laptop and showed Lou En the Bed Explorer blog.

"According to the prior agreement, Mr. Zhai has been updating the content of his blog. Currently, there are two blogs with a cumulative serialized word count of more than 3000 words, but the number of readers has exceeded 20. And it has been posted on the homepage of the blog. I think it seems that 'Xinglang' and Mr. Zhai have some kind of exposure cooperation, which is also a very beneficial publicity force. The suggestions made by Mr. Zhai at that time were really effective."

The planner said, "I think the original plan of printing 5000 copies can be increased, such as copies." Lou En shook his head and said, " is still too little. Let's go to copies! Let our channels put it in the most prominent position. Every bookstore should have enough stock."

As a state-owned enterprise group with 13 subordinate publishing houses, even the "Xinhua Branch" in Zhejiang Province is their joint venture subsidiary. It is hard to say about the farther ones, but their influence and coverage within Zhejiang, Shanghai and other regions are very strong.

Lou En stood up, walked to the window, and stared at the tall buildings outside with high spirits.

The 21st Century Publishing House discovered Han Han, and Chunfeng Literature and Art discovered Guo Jinming. In terms of literary quality, the two were not to Lou En's liking, but their works are indeed bestsellers.

The main force of physical book consumption now is young people, even students.

Then why can’t Phoenix Media have a “Zhai Da”?

A micro-novel contest champion, a literary genius, and a high school student
Even, a top scorer in the college entrance examination?
Why can’t “The Long Journey” be the sales champion in the physical book market this year?
----

"Really? As long as Editor-in-Chief Lou likes it, I'm very confident about this book."

At home in Sanmao Community, Dongyang, Zhai Da was packing his schoolbag while answering the phone.

"Have you read the letter? It's just an immature idea. I know the ending is too sad, so I just had this sudden thought."

"Many movies have dual or even multiple endings. In different versions, "Long Journey" can also have dual endings, but whether it is feasible depends on your professional opinion. If it is a bit excessive to release two physical versions, you can also choose to release the second ending online."

"I understand. Don't worry. I'll send you an email address later. We can discuss the book cover, illustrations, recommendations, etc. there. Yes, I have internet access at home, haha."

After hanging up the phone, Zhai Da nodded with satisfaction. Editor Lou was really capable. The editor-in-chief was already the second or third in command in the publishing system, and was also the head of the "business segment". When he chose to directly intervene in specific work, it could be said that "a single word could make the decision."

Lou En was very confident and gave a lot of preferential treatment.

For example, the first print run was super doubled.

For example, royalties will be paid based on "print volume" rather than "sales volume". Generally, this condition only appears in the terms of famous old authors, and will also make the print volume conservative.

For example, the settlement of royalties does not need to wait for sales data because it is related to the "printing volume". It can be settled in advance every time additional printing is done.

This is important, as it means he will likely receive his first royalties in a few days.

With the settlement method based on sales volume, if you are unlucky and have to wait for half a year or a year to be settled, it may take them “the books have not been sold out”.

This will be of great help to Zhai Da's other summer plans.

After organizing his thoughts, Zhai Da zipped up his bag and walked out of the room.

There are no books in my schoolbag today, only snacks.
Because he was going to attend a class reunion.

The QQ group had been discussing ways to have a class reunion for a long time, starting before the exam. Zhai Da did not participate in any of the discussions and just waited for notification.

The result was really different from his previous life.

In the previous life, we just went out for dinner at night and then sang all night long. In this life, it was probably because Zhai Da flapped his wings, or everyone paid more attention to the results, or maybe the conversation went off topic and we didn't get back to it, so we added a daytime project.

On a village-level hill in the suburbs of Dongyang County, there is a small Taoist temple called "Shahe Temple", which houses a statue of Confucius.

It’s not Kong Yiji, but the one who is 2.22 meters tall and who “can find out the way to his enemy’s house in the morning and his enemy will be dead in the evening.”

Many people in the class urged us to go and pay homage to Confucius before the results were released!

Zhai Da was speechless about this, but it didn't matter where he went, it was just a formality.

By the way, look for employees for the summer vacation campaign.

I pushed the door open and heard some confusing conversation coming from the small room.

"Really not? There's still time to change your mind now."

"No, I like being home."

"Okay, go to my room if you want to read."

After Zhai Da left, he forgot to close the window in the room.

The summer breeze blows occasionally, making the curtains sway like waves.

A piece of A4 paper was blown and fell to the ground.

There were some formulas written on it, and in the most eye-catching position, a large number:

457.