Chapter 12: Small Fire
After returning to Beijing, Liu Hongmin went to Beijing University Press as soon as possible. Before returning to Beijing, he only brought ten yuan with him except for the ticket money.
The Beijing University Press had already been established, but their main business was publishing teaching materials. Liu Hongmin was a little worried and found Li Huanfang.
Li Huanfang comforted him, "Don't worry. Although our main business is teaching materials, we will also publish other books. The publication of Shao Bao has been confirmed. I will take you to the finance department to collect the royalties."
Liu Hongmin was naturally very happy. Only after receiving the royalties did he feel at ease.
"Brother Li, do you have time? Let's have dinner together tonight."
"Forget it! We've been super busy lately, we'll have time later."
Peking University Press has a lot of teaching materials to publish, and the typesetting alone is enough to keep them busy.
Liu Hongmin did not force it, "Okay, when Brother Li has time, we can have dinner together."
After leaving Beijing University Press, Liu Hongmin went to look for Zou Shifang. Zou Shifang had not returned yet, but his family had a direct bus to Beijing, so he could leave in ten days.
Back in the dormitory, Liu Hongmin continued to write "The Mystery of the Hermit Village". The outline was already written when he was at home, except for the lack of Ling Chuchu and those messy emotional scenes, the rest was left untouched.
With the experience of "Famous" and "Blood Altar", Liu Hongmin wrote very smoothly this time. Ten days later, Liu Hongmin finished writing "The Mystery of the Hermit Village" and after a little polishing, it was finished.
When Zou Shifang came to see Liu Hongmin, he was stunned by the three manuscripts in front of him.
"You wrote all this during the winter break?"
Liu Hongmin smiled and said, "Almost! Before the winter vacation, I had finished half of "Blood Altar", and the remaining half was written after I arrived in Checheng. I wrote "The Mystery of the Hermit Village" after I returned to school."
"You can do it! So efficient?"
"Articles are naturally formed, and they are created by a skilled hand!"
Liu Hongmin said proudly: "These things are already in my mind, I just wrote them down."
Zou Shifang was speechless, "Just brag!"
Liu Hongmin spread his hands and said, I am telling the truth, if you don’t believe me, forget it.
Zou Shifang first picked up "Blood Sacrifice Altar" and "The Mystery of the Hermit Village" and glanced through them. "They are in the same vein as "Famous All Over the World". As long as the story is fine, it can be published. What is this? "My Brothers and Sisters", is this your new novel?"
"Yes, take a look at it first."
Zou Shifang took the manuscript and started flipping through it, reading more and more seriously.
After he finished reading it, he looked at Liu Hongmin in disbelief, "Did you really write this?"
"Nonsense!" Liu Hongmin looked at him unhappily, "If it wasn't written by me, did I steal it? Stop talking nonsense and give me some advice."
Zou Shifang put the manuscript back and said, "You really think highly of me. I don't have any objection. In my opinion, your novel is very well written and perfect. I can't find any fault with it. Let me show it to Zha Jianying. She has the best vision among all editors."
Liu Hongmin: "I want to submit this novel to a magazine outside the school."
"I know." Zou Shifang picked up all three manuscripts. "These two should be submitted to Unnamed Lake, right?"
Liu Hongmin nodded. The Shaobao series had no market outside, so he could only invest in Weiming Lake. Although Weiming Lake was a bit of a pitfall, the remuneration was not small after all. He planned to walk on two legs, earning a living at Weiming Lake and becoming famous in magazines outside.
Writers of this era, like future stars, need fame. With fame, the novels they write can make money. Without fame, they can only rely on talent.
Talent is as mysterious as luck. The phrase "Jiang Lang's talent has run out" is not just a saying. Many writers have failed because of this.
Therefore, relying on fame is much more reliable than relying on talent.
Two days later, Zou Shifang came to Liu Hongmin with the manuscript of "My Brothers and Sisters". "Cha Jianying read your manuscript and praised it. She also thought that you should try working in a magazine outside the school. Maybe you can become famous in one fell swoop." Hearing this, Liu Hongmin became much more confident.
"Old Zou, do you have the contact information of the magazine outside the school?"
"I'll ask for you. Many people in our school have connections with magazines outside of school. It should be easy to ask."
"Thank you, Lao Zou."
"You're welcome!" Zou Shifang said, "By the way, Hongmin, Shao Bao's single volume is selling very well!"
Liu Hongmin looked at him in surprise, "The single volume has been published?"
"do not you know?"
"I've been working on my paper here these days. Professor Tao said that the paper I wrote last semester was pretty good and could be published in the school journal after a few minor revisions."
Zou Shifang immediately became envious, "You have both a thesis and a novel, you have achieved great success!"
"It's just an on-campus journal, there's nothing to be envious of. Professor Tao even thought it was a practice piece and helped me add a lot of content."
"I also want a practice piece like yours."
Liu Hongmin changed the subject and asked, "Where did you hear that the single volume sold well?"
"I saw it in the bookstore." Zou Shifang said, "It was put on the shelf these two days. I asked the staff, and they bought about 200 to 300 copies. All of them were students from nearby universities."
Liu Hongmin did some calculations. There are thousands of bookstores in the country. Even if only a thousand of them were selling the books, let alone 200 or 300 copies per store, even if each store had 100 copies, that would be 100,000 copies.
With this calculation, the sales volume is quite good.
"Please stop smiling, your smile is too lewd."
Zou Shifang couldn't stand his smug look, and immediately said, "Don't be too complacent, that bookstore sells well because there are many universities nearby. There is a certain threshold for selling small packages, and the target audience is basically college students. Other bookstores don't have such sales. I estimate that it would be good if they can sell 30,000 copies in total."
"Thirty thousand?"
"Thirty thousand copies is a lot. Think about it, there are so many students in the Chinese Department who haven't published a novel yet. You are already far ahead of them."
Liu Hongmin looked at him with disdain, "Why don't you talk about yourself? Why are you talking about the Chinese department?"
Zou Shifang shamelessly said: "I am from the philosophy department, it is normal that I can't write novels."
Liu Hongmin really wanted to give him a middle finger. This guy was too shameless.
The next day, Liu Hongmin went to Peking University Press again and found Li Huanfang.
"Brother Li, I heard that Shao Bao's book has been published?"
"That's right!" Li Huanfang took out a list, "This is the sales data I received this morning, take a look for yourself!"
Liu Hongmin took the sales order and quickly found the data on the missing packages.
"Five thousand six hundred copies, Brother Li, how about this number?"
Li Huanfang: "Not bad! According to the experience of other publishers, the monthly sales volume can be about 30,000 to 40,000. However, considering the audience of the small package, our guess is 20,000."
"So how's the result?"
"That's great. If your sequel can maintain this level, you will be considered a well-known writer in the future."
Liu Hongmin raised his eyebrows. Am I considered a little famous?
(End of this chapter)
