A Literary Life Starting from the First Year of High School

In March in London, the rain had just stopped, and a thin mist shrouded the Thames, leaving only blurry outlines of the buildings on the opposite bank.

Alan Carter found a Chinese book in a used bookstore on Charing Cross Road. He had been coming to this store every Wednesday afternoon to browse through it for twenty years. Most of the older people in this industry have this quirk. They feel like something is missing if their fingers don't turn the pages, like a smoking addiction. When he got to the third shelf, the cover of a book made him stop.

The book is deep blue, with a drawing of a little boy standing on the edge of a planet, his scarf fluttering in the wind. The title is in Chinese—"The Little Prince." A handwritten English label is affixed to the upper right corner of the cover: "This is the best fairy tale I have ever read. —Chen"

A white label was pasted on the bottom right corner of the cover: £5. Five pounds is not cheap in a secondhand bookstore on Charing Cross Road.

Allen picked up the book. He understood Chinese; he had been an exchange student in China during his university years. That year, he improved his Chinese from being halting to being able to read novels. Although he might not speak it fluently now, reading books was no problem for him.

He sat down on a chair in the corner of the bookstore and began to read.

After reading for about ten minutes, Allen closed the book, not because it was bad, but because he realized that this was not a book to be casually flipped through. The dialogues, the scenes, the quiet tone—he needed to read it slowly in a place where he wouldn't be disturbed.

He stood up, walked to the counter, took out five pounds, and handed it to the shopkeeper, a plump woman in her fifties. The shopkeeper took the money and casually said, "This book was left by a Chinese student who said it was a gift for London."

The role of literary agents in the publishing industry in Europe and America is completely different from that in China.

The domestic publishing system is more direct: authors submit their manuscripts to publishers, editors review them, and once approved, a contract is signed and the book is published. There is no independent "agent" involved. The amount of royalties, royalty rates, and how film and television adaptation rights are divided are either negotiated by the authors themselves or handled by the publisher's copyright department.

In cases like Lin Shubai's, where Chen Yuanshan facilitated the connection and Zhou Mingyuan personally handled the communication, the relationship is essentially a direct "editor-author" relationship, rather than an "agent-agent" model.

But it's different in Europe and America; sometimes a big-name literary agent has more influence than a publishing house editor.

They don't just help you find publishers and negotiate contracts; they also help you plan your entire career—when to publish a book, what type of book to publish, which market to target, who to sell film and television rights to, and how to export overseas rights. They have a huge network of connections, knowing editors at major publishing houses, producers at film companies, and overseas copyright agents.

An agent's income mainly comes from commissions, typically 10% to 15% of the author's earnings. So, if an agent is willing to sign you, it means they believe you can help them make money.

Alan Carter is that kind of person. He has been in the industry for 23 years and has more than a dozen authors under his wing, two of whom have won the Booker Prize and three of whom have been on the bestseller list for years. He doesn't sign new authors easily. The last time he signed a new author was four years ago, a Scottish writer who wrote a crime novel. That book later sold more than 300,000 copies.

He generally doesn't translate works; the market risks for translated books are too great—translation quality is uncontrollable, cultural differences are uncontrollable, and reader acceptance is uncontrollable. But just now, while flipping through that Chinese book in the bookstore, it was as if a devil was tempting him in his heart: "Sign it, sign it!"

Back home, Allen sat at his desk, reopened the book, and read it from beginning to end. He read slowly, rereading some parts several times. After finishing, Allen decided to look up this Lin Shubai. He entered the name into a search engine and was shocked by the results.

Lin Shubai, sixteen years old, a first-year high school student, stared at the screen for two seconds. Sixteen years old? When he was sixteen, he was still pretending to be an explorer. Then he found the sales data of "The Little Prince" in China. In less than two months after its release, it sold more than 100,000 copies.

He continued flipping through the pages and discovered that Lin Shubai had not only written one book, but also a previous book called "Charlotte's Web," which sold over 60,000 copies, as well as many short stories.

Allen compiled all the information into a document, then picked up the phone and dialed a number.

He called a Chinese friend, Liu Dong, a literary editor he met in Beijing ten years ago when Allen went to Beijing for the book fair, and the two had kept in touch ever since.

I answered the phone after it rang twice.

"Allen? What time is it where you are?" Liu Dong's voice carried a hint of surprise.

"11 p.m., I know it's not the right time, but there's something I want to ask you."

"What is it?"

Have you ever heard of an author named Lin Shubai?

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone. "Lin Shubai? Of course I've heard of him. How did you learn about him?"

"I found his book, The Little Prince, in a secondhand bookstore in London, in Chinese."

"That 'The Little Prince'? That book is a bestseller in China, have you read it?"

"I've read it, and after reading it, I wanted to ask you, who exactly is this person? I searched online, but there's so much information, I don't know which parts are true."

Liu Dong chuckled. "What you found out should all be true. This person is just that exaggerated. Oh, by the way, he just finished writing a novel called 'Four Generations Under One Roof,' which was published by our publishing house."

Allen paused for a moment, "Produced by your company? You handled it?"

"No, but I've read the manuscript, and I must say it's very well written." Liu Dong paused, then continued, "Allen, are you planning to send him to England?"

Alan didn't answer immediately. He picked up the book "The Little Prince" on the table, turned to the cover, and said, "I'm thinking about it. The quality of this book is fine, but you know, British readers have a natural wariness of translated works. Also, the British market is different from the Chinese market. British readers have to like fairy tales themselves first before they consider buying them for their children."

"So? What are you planning to do?"

"I'm still considering it, but I plan to have someone check the translation for any major flaws first. If the translation is unacceptable, nothing I say will make a difference."

"You have someone in mind?"

"Have you heard of Julia Green, from SOAS University of London?"

"I've heard of him. He's translated several Chinese novels and has a good reputation in the industry."

"Okay, do you need me to contact Lin Shubai for you?"

Allen thought for a moment, "Not for now, let me ask Julia first."

"Okay, call me anytime if you need anything."

"Thanks, Dong."

After hanging up the phone, Allen glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost twelve o'clock. He picked up the book "The Little Prince," flipped through it again, closed it, and placed it in the most conspicuous spot on his desk.