I am a literary giant in Europe

Chapter 366 Poaching?
The next day, the sun shines brightly.

Melissa and Liu Jin were woken up by the ringing of the phone.

It was Melissa on the phone.

Rick and the others have arrived...

"Amos, I'm going to pick up Rick and the others. We'll be staying at the hotel together tonight. See you at the library tomorrow."

She looked calm, as if nothing had happened.

Liu Jin felt something was off.

She was so enthusiastic last night!
"I send you?"

"Forget it, didn't you have an appointment with someone this morning?"

Oh, and Nicole Krauss.

Liu Jin mentioned it briefly last night, and I didn't expect Melissa to remember it.

He got out of bed wrapped in a bath towel, while Melissa was already dressed.

"Do you drive?"

Melissa laughed, “Come on, this is New York. If this were Paris, I would drive, but in New York… don’t worry about me, I know how to handle it. By the way, did you bring a dress? It would be best to wear a dress to the ceremony tomorrow.”

"If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten!"

"I'm leaving!"

Melissa carried her backpack and dragged her suitcase as she walked out.

As she was leaving, she suddenly smiled and said, "Amos, you did a good job."

"what?"

"I mean, you're awesome!"

After saying that, she smiled and closed the door.

When Liu Jin opened the door and looked outside, Melissa had already gotten on the elevator.

amount……

What kind of?
I know I'm great, but I always feel like you're flirting with me.

Liu Jin couldn't help but laugh!
……

At 10 a.m., Liu Jin met Nicole Klaus in the apartment lobby.

Well, I'd say she's a beauty!

But it's not exactly beautiful...

He had long brown hair and was wearing a silver-gray suit.

She is very capable, with a scholarly air about her.

She didn't go upstairs, but waited in the lobby.

When she saw Liu Jin, she stood up to greet him and shook hands with him.

"Mr. Amos, it is a great honor to meet you and to accompany you to the Pulitzer Prize ceremony."

When Susan told me the news, I was ecstatic!

"Nicole, thank you for helping me. I was having a headache about tomorrow's ceremony."

You know, this is my first time attending a ceremony like this.

Liu Jin asked the butler in the lobby to bring him two cups of cappuccino coffee.

Nicole's act of waiting in the lobby shows that she is a woman with a very strong sense of boundaries.

She will be Liu Jin's assistant tomorrow.

The so-called assistant is actually responsible for introducing the precautions for the ceremony.

After she sat down, she took out a notebook from her bag and said with a smile, "The ceremony will start at 10 a.m. tomorrow. We need to meet at the Columbia University library first and then take a group photo. After that, we will enter the rotunda for the awards ceremony."

Mr. Amos must have attended many entertainment industry events.

The Pulitzer Prize award ceremony doesn't have many rules; its main purpose is to announce the awards.

The entire awards ceremony will last an hour and a half because there are many awards. Your literary prize will be announced around 11:20, followed by the Pulitzer Prize for Documentary Feature, which is the investigative journalism award and the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism.

After the awards ceremony, there will be interviews with reporters.

The interview and ceremony are over... There will be a banquet at 8 PM tonight, attended by many celebrities.

Nicole got straight to the point, without the slightest hesitation.

Liu Jin listened and took notes.

It doesn't feel any different, except that there's no red carpet walk involved.

That's normal, after all, they're not celebrities...

After finishing her business, Nicole took a deep breath and said softly, "Mr. Amos, besides discussing tomorrow's ceremony with you, I'm here today to talk about the Scholar Publishing Group... I don't know if you've heard of it."

Scholastic Corporation
Liu Jin had certainly heard of this publishing house.

It has two translations: Scholars Publishing House and Scholastic Group.

However, Liu Jin felt that the name "scholar" sounded better.

"of course I know."

Liu Jin smiled and nodded, looking at Nicole with a puzzled expression.

Nicole blushed slightly and said softly, "It's like this, Editor-in-Chief Tasia would like to invite you to dinner."

"what?"

"Yes, Mr. Lauren Tasis of Scholar Publishing has asked me to invite you to dinner tonight."

Liu Jin was stunned.

But I immediately realized what was happening.

In America's publishing world, there's a saying about the "Big Six".

These include Hachette Book Group, Penguin Random House and Random House, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, and Simon & Schuster Publishers.

These six publishing houses are the largest and most powerful.

Below the top six, there are many other powerful publishers.

They may not actually be inferior to the Big Six, they just don't have the same prestigious reputation.

For example, McGraw-Hill, founded in 1888, publishes more than 1500 books a year and owns the publishing rights to more than 20,000 books.

John Willie & Son Publishing is another strong publisher, but it mainly focuses on academic publishing and has a renowned reputation in academic circles.

Scholars, too, have a long history.

Founded in 1920, it has been around for 83 years. Headquartered in New York, it is the world's largest children's book publisher—not just in the US, but globally—and a multinational publishing company involved in publishing, education, and media. It is very well-known in America.

It owns not only publishing houses but also magazines.

It also extends to the field of comics...

The rapid success of Harry Potter in North America was due to Scholar's Publishers' right to recommend it as supplementary reading material in North American schools. When Warner Bros. acquired the Harry Potter rights, it was also through Scholar that they secured promotional opportunities for supplementary reading materials, which led to Harry Potter's phenomenal success.

To put it simply, this is a publishing house that is no less powerful than Random House, and may even be stronger.

However, due to its focus on children's books and educational publications, it is easy to overlook the strength of the academic publishing group.

Mela initially wanted to find a scholar.

But the scholars were arrogant.

It's kind of like, "If I like you, you're a good book; if I don't, you're trash."

Robert Gottlieb advised Mela not to push the book onto scholars.

The process is lengthy, involves frustration, and may not even be accepted by the students.

In short: scholars only care about established writers and pay no attention to new authors.

But once you become famous, scholars will come to you on their own initiative.

It was under these circumstances that Mela finally agreed to Robert's suggestion and chose Random House.

Of course, Robert also had his own reasons for recommending Langdon.

He had a better relationship with Random House, and with scholars...

Now, scholars are coming to us!
Looking at the uneasy Nicole Krauss, Liu Jin asked with some curiosity, "Nicole, is your book published by Scholar?"

"Yes!"

Nicole Krauss said a little shyly, "It was Susan who recommended it."

"You and Susan..."

"She is my aunt."

That's it!

No wonder Nicole's first novel was published by Scholars.

Susan Sontag and scholar Lauren T.T.S. were college classmates and very close friends.

“Susan recommended you to scholars last year when The Old Man and the Sea was first published.”

Mr. Tasis originally intended to observe further, but your subsequent works created miracles, forcing him to take you seriously.

Mr. Tasis heard that you wrote a new book last year, and the French version will be available this June. He's very interested. He's asked some friends in France, and they speak highly of your book, so he hopes to meet you.

To put it bluntly, it's just poaching talent.

Liu Jin has always had a close collaboration with Random House.

Whenever Liu Jin comes to New York, Random House always gives him a warm welcome.

The reason he didn't appear this time was because Blumenthal had made arrangements in advance, and Random House couldn't interfere.

Even so, Random House showed great enthusiasm for Liu Jin during his time in New York.

The scholars wanted to contact Liu Jin, but couldn't find a suitable opportunity.

and so……

Nicole gradually relaxed and started talking to Liu Jin about academic matters.

Of course, many of these things were heard from Susan Sontag.

In fact, after the success of Harry Potter, scholars realized that they needed to change their strategy.

Previously, there were only so many channels for dissemination, and scholars were able to remain influential thanks to their close relationship with the Ministry of Education.

But last year, Liu Jin published six books in a row, catching scholars completely off guard.

The books originally planned were all overshadowed by Liu Jin's books, failing to achieve the desired effect.

The board of directors of the scholar group believes that scholars should lower their standards and discover more outstanding writers, rather than waiting for writers to become famous before poaching them.

In fact, scholars do just that.

In 2008, they published "The Hunger Games," which was a huge success.

Now, they have set their sights on Liu Jin.

They want to take Notre Dame de Paris!
However, Liu Jin thought of "The Eye of the Ferocious Beast".

Education should start from a young age.

I wonder if "The Eyes of the Ferocious Beast" will be included in the Ministry of Education's recommended extracurricular reading series?
If possible, the influence would be enormous!
He hadn't considered whether sales could surpass Harry Potter... he figured it would be difficult, since Harry Potter is a typical children's book.

but……

He's happy as long as he can disgust people's lives.

"Of course, when and where?"

Nicole was at a loss for words.

He was overjoyed to hear that Liu Jin had agreed to meet.

"Seven o'clock in the evening, Le Bernardin, not too far from here."

"Okay, please tell Editor-in-Chief Lauren Tasis that I will be on time."

"Then, I'll take my leave!"

"It's almost lunchtime, don't you want to come together?"

Nicole said shyly, "No, my daughter is waiting for me at home. I'll pick you up at 8:30 tomorrow, okay?"

"can!"

"Then, see you tomorrow!"

Nicole is clearly not the social butterfly type; in fact, she's a bit socially awkward.

But it must be admitted that her invitation made Liu Jin feel much more favorably toward her.

If Liu Jin were to replace her with a different writer, he might not like her... Nicole, as a writer, is more in line with Liu Jin's understanding of writers.

Of course, it must be admitted that she is not bad-looking.

After seeing Nicole off from the apartment, Liu Jin called the housekeeper and asked him to prepare two suits for him.

Then he returned to his room and dialed Mela's number.

……

(End of this chapter)