Chapter 143 Wei Junyi's Recommendation
Director Wang was very efficient. He spent 1984 RMB to purchase the mainland copyright from Zhang Mingming's company. He also selected songs that were popular with the audience, such as "Unforgettable Tonight" and "Grandma's Penghu Bay", and put together a total of twelve songs. He released an album called "Popular Songs from the Spring Festival Gala."
The album was very popular immediately after its release. Just 100,000 copies were put on the shelves and quickly sold out.
In this era, cassettes were hard to buy. So people basically had the ability to copy their favorite songs onto a cassette. As a result, an industry was born - pirated cassettes!
Since there is no relevant law, this behavior is not illegal, just like some publishing houses publish celebrity books without the permission of the celebrity in order to make money.
Liu Hongmin's books were the hardest hit. If it weren't for the strong strength of Peking University Press, which could put the books on the shelves in bookstores in major cities across the country at the same time and make a fortune before pirated copies came out, the market might have been filled with pirated copies of Liu Hongmin's books.
Liu Hongmin had no way to deal with this, and even if there was a way, he didn't want to organize it.
Piracy is indeed bad, but for authors, it can increase their popularity. Just like LV, it never prohibits fake products because fake products can improve its style. The same is true for piracy. Only when someone pirates your book can it prove that you are really popular with readers.
This is the way many small publishing houses make their living, and it affects the jobs of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people across the country.
Even though they are all state-owned enterprises, once the market is opened up, those small enterprises will soon go bankrupt. At that time, all resources will tilt towards large enterprises, gradually forming an alternative "oligarch". Once these large enterprises lose competition, they will have problems.
Therefore, competition is very important for enterprises.
The same is true when Liu Hongmin writes novels. If it weren't for those people's absurd behavior, Liu Hongmin would not have written a novel like "Lies".
On the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, when everyone else was at work, Liu Hongmin locked himself in his study again. He began to revise the manuscript of "The Kite". "The Kite" couldn't be as casual as "Infiltration", otherwise it would be a bit unfair to the story.
At the end of February, Liu Hongmin finally finished revising the manuscript.
Ge Chaoguang has been keeping an eye on Liu Hongmin these days. "Why did you come out so early today?"
Liu Hongmin tilted his head and said, "I've finished revising the manuscript. I'm exhausted."
Ge Chaoguang couldn't help but laugh when he heard this. After chatting with Liu Hongmin for a while, he was ready to leave to inform He Qizhi and Liu Xinwu.
"Old Ge, wait a minute!" Liu Hongmin stopped him, "Don't tell Teacher Liu about this. I have already promised to give this book to Teacher He."
Ge Chaoguang was a little embarrassed, "You know everything?"
Liu Hongmin smiled and said, "How could I not know you? You always eat the most at every meal."
Ge Chaoguang is the one who eats the most out of all the people. Maybe he was afraid of being hungry before, so he was greedy for food. Liu Hongmin himself is also greedy, so the two have been friends for many years.
"You talk as if you don't eat enough!"
Ge Chaoguang retorted, then said, "Okay, I'll call Teacher He when I get back."
The next day, He Qizhi came to visit as expected.
"Where is the manuscript?"
Liu Hongmin smiled and pointed at the manuscript on the table. He Qizhi immediately rushed over, picked up the manuscript and started reading.
After reading for a few minutes, He Qizhi slapped his thigh and said, "Great! Hongmin, your novel is great, much better than "Infiltration"."
Liu Hongmin was speechless. “Infiltration” is also my novel, okay?
He Qizhi stuffed the manuscript directly into his briefcase and took out the contract.
Liu Hongmin signed the contract without even reading it. As the standard of manuscript fee has not been raised, no matter how well he writes, he can only get 10 yuan per thousand words. So, it doesn't matter whether he reads the contract or not. He Qizhi happily took the manuscript and left. When he returned to the publishing house, he never stopped smiling. When his colleagues saw it, they immediately teased him: "Old He, you have a happy event!"
"Of course!" He Qizhi said proudly, "I got Liu Hongmin's manuscript back."
Everyone was a little surprised. "Didn't Liu Hongmin just publish a novel? How come he has another manuscript?"
He Qizhi: "Have you forgotten that Liu Hongmin is a printing press?"
Of course everyone knows Liu Hongmin's nickname, but isn't this too fast?
“Isn’t it a short story?”
"It's a long novel!" He Qizhi raised his lips. He liked to see his colleagues' ignorant expressions. "It's about 300,000 words."
"so much?"
Everyone was horrified. “If I remember correctly, Infiltration was only written a little over two months ago, right?”
"I heard that Liu Xinwu changed the manuscript before printing, and that Infiltration should have been completed around December 12st. It's only been three months, and he has written 1 words?"
"We also have to add the time for revision!"
He Qizhi turned around and went to Wei Junyi's office, "Editor-in-chief, I'm back."
"Oh? What were you talking about?"
Wei Junyi asked curiously.
He Qizhi said mysteriously: "We are discussing Liu Hongmin's manuscript."
"Liu Hongmin's manuscript?" Wei Junyi was also surprised. "Is it a short story?"
"It's a long novel!" He Qizhi excitedly took out the manuscript. "I read a little bit and I feel it's very good. Although it's a spy novel, the story is full of ups and downs and is very attractive."
"Oh? Really?" Wei Junyi took the manuscript and said, "Let me take a look first."
He Qizhi left the manuscript behind and went out to brag and chat with others.
Wei Junyi opened the manuscript and read it carefully. As she read, the old lady felt her eyes moisten a little, and soon she reached out to wipe away the tears on her face.
The old lady has been working since 36 and has personally experienced the Anti-Japanese War and other periods. The history described in the book is too familiar to the old lady. As a writer, she knows too many stories of unsung heroes. It's just that because of confidentiality regulations, she can't make these stories public. Among them, the deeds of many unsung heroes are very similar to Zheng Yaoxian.
“Well, this novel is so well written!”
The old lady kept praising the magazine and then wrote a recommendation article for "Kite".
She has decided to publish "The Kite" in the second issue of "Contemporary" in 84. Although the length is a bit long, the old lady decided to publish all the manuscripts at once. Such a story cannot be published in two parts, which will affect the readers' viewing experience.
He Qizhi was stunned when he saw Wei Junyi's recommendation article. Wei Junyi said in the article: Zheng Yaoxian is a collection of countless unknown heroes, and also a representative of unknown heroes. They can sacrifice their lives for the beliefs in their hearts. For the motherland in their hearts, they would rather fall into hell than let the motherland bathe in light...
(End of this chapter)
