Chapter 178 A Gift from Random House
Random House invested millions of dollars in this publicity campaign, and Stephen alone was paid $1 million.
However, the money was well spent. The sales of "The Curse of the Black Pearl" continued to rise, from 200,000 to 300,000 copies per day to 600,000 to 700,000 copies per day.
Afterwards, they just spent a little money to have some newspaper writers from various countries publish articles about "The Curse of the Black Pearl" in newspapers from time to time, all of which were stereotyped as benchmarks for "The Lord of the Rings".
People are just fooled by this, and as soon as the article is published, it will immediately cause a war of words. The Lord of the Rings is very famous in European and American society, and Tolkien's fans are too many. Anyone who dares to challenge the status of The Lord of the Rings will be beaten to death by them.
In this way, there will be popularity. With popularity, people will want to buy "The Curse of the Black Pearl" to see if the book is really that good.
The point is that The Curse of the Black Pearl is not bad. If you insist that it is not as good as The Lord of the Rings, it is hard to say.
Like Stephen, anyone with a little vision would not evaluate them together.
This situation has resulted in a good reputation for The Curse of the Black Pearl. Although it was influenced by The Lord of the Rings, its sales are still good.
The total sales in the first month were over 1300 million, only slightly lower than "Lies".
"Lies" was a one-time deal, but "The Curse of the Black Pearl" is a long-term business. Liu Hongmin planned to write a trilogy. If the first part is well-known, the next two parts will not need to be promoted.
It can be said that this is the money spent on one novel to promote three novels. So, Random House spent the money very happily.
In the second month, the popularity of "The Curse of the Black Pearl" remained and sales were still very high.
This good news made Liu Hongmin very happy, and he was smiling all the time during the New Year.
After returning from the United States, Liu Hongmin asked someone to keep an eye on the old man surnamed Wang and others.
Sure enough, during the days when Liu Hongmin left China, this group of people started to make trouble. They changed their routine and stopped talking about things before the founding of the People's Republic of China. Instead, they started bragging about foreign countries.
Many of them have been abroad for exchanges and have written some articles about foreign countries before, but they used to write more about cultural surprises. Now, they write directly about the economy, the system, and even some fictitious things.
Why do they say that the Japanese streets are clean as new? The Japanese are well-mannered and never litter. Even if there is garbage on the street, the Japanese will help pick it up after seeing it, so the Japanese don't sweep the streets.
The benches in American parks are covered with covers to provide shelter for homeless people from wind and rain.
Ms. Deng nodded solemnly after seeing the list. "I will hand it over to Xiyuan, but you should also be prepared that they may not be punished."
Liu Hongmin's expression changed. "Don't worry, Ms. Deng. I firmly support Xiyuan's decision. If there is anything you need me to do, don't be polite to me."
Ms. Deng smiled and said, "If I need your help, I will definitely not be polite to you."
Sure enough, just as Ms. Deng said, those people were not punished.
Liu Hongmin was somewhat disappointed, but also somewhat expectant. Xiyuan should be making a big move, but he didn't know what the specific content would be.
This made him a little depressed, and he felt that he might not have a good New Year. But when the good news from Random House came, Liu Hongmin's mood suddenly improved. After a happy New Year, Liu Hongmin prepared to go to Hong Kong.
Just before Liu Hongmin left, he received another call from Richard.
"Congratulations, Mr. Liu, the sales of The Curse of the Black Pearl has exceeded 20 million copies."
Liu Hongmin looked at the date, February 2. It took 12 days for The Curse of the Black Pearl to sell over 23 million, and now it took 42 days to sell over million, which is much faster.
"Richard, this news is my best New Year's gift, even though this year is over."
Richard smiled and said, "Mr. Liu, how can this be considered a New Year's gift? Valentine's Day is coming soon. Random House has prepared a gift for you and will give it to Miss Li in your name." "Thank you very much!"
Liu Hongmin didn't care much about it, it was just a gift. He helped Random House make so much money, so a gift from Random House was nothing.
The next day, Liu Hongmin packed up some things and flew to Hong Kong immediately.
Li Lizhen had been waiting at the airport to pick up Liu Hongmin, and immediately rushed over when she saw him.
"Honey, I miss you so much!"
Liu Hongmin hugged her and said, "I miss you, too."
He said to Zou Shifang who came to pick him up at the airport, "Please book me a seat at the Peninsula Hotel for tomorrow afternoon."
Zou Shifang nodded, "Understood!"
"Are you still going to the company?"
“Wait until after Valentine’s Day!”
Liu Hongmin took Li Lizhen and headed straight to the Repulse Bay Villa. They hadn't seen each other for several months, so how could they care about other things?
February 2, 14:11, Mid-Levels Hotel.
Liu Hongmin and Li Lizhen took their seats. Because they made reservations late, the seats at the Mid-Levels Hotel were already full. However, Tomorrow the Film Company was a regular customer of the Mid-Levels Hotel, so they specially added a seat for them.
But this seat is not very good. It is in the middle and there are people everywhere. There is no privacy at all.
Li Lizhen didn't care. She wasn't going to do anything with Liu Hongmin here, so why did she need so much privacy? She just ignored the surprised looks around her, and only had Liu Hongmin in her eyes.
Liu Hongmin didn't care about these looks. As long as they didn't want to harm him, he would ignore them.
"Who is this? How could he ask the Peninsula Hotel to add an extra table?"
"It seems to be Liu Hongmin, the famous writer who founded Tomorrow Film Company."
"It's him? No wonder!"
Some people recognized Liu Hongmin and nodded to him.
Liu Hongmin raised his glass and greeted the people around him as a return gesture.
Just as he put down his glass, the door of the Peninsula Hotel opened, and several foreigners in suits and leather shoes came over with trays. They glanced around and immediately walked towards Liu Hongmin.
Several foreigners lined up in front of the table, "Ms. Li, this is Mr. Liu's Valentine's Day gift for you."
They lifted the red cloth on the tray one by one, revealing the dazzling diamond jewelry inside.
Among them was a diamond ring with a large diamond, about one centimeter in size.
(End of this chapter)
