Chapter 246: million sets
On July 9, "Science Fiction World" was published.
This time, they did not make the same mistake as before and directly put Liu Hongmin's name on the cover of the magazine. They also directly notified the bookstore that this issue had Liu Hongmin's new work.
So, with the cooperation of bookstores, "Science Fiction World" became a hot seller.
Two million copies were sold in less than half a month. You have to know that the hot selling period of a magazine is about a month, and although the sales in the second half of the month are not as good as those in the first half of the month, the decrease will not be that much.
Just because of Liu Hongmin's reputation, "Science Fiction World" has become one of the best-selling magazines at present.
Since becoming self-sufficient, about 80% of magazines in the country have been losing money. Some magazines that are not selling well have been discontinued. Among the remaining 20%, few can maintain the sales volume of the early 80s.
This is caused by the general environment. With the development of the economy, people are more willing to focus on making money. As for spiritual needs, they will naturally decrease accordingly.
In the early 80s, everyone was eager to read a good book. At that time, people had high literary pursuits, and a large number of readers were willing to write to the author or the media to express their views on the work.
After becoming self-sufficient, readers’ letters to the publishers became fewer and fewer. The frequency of good works produced by writers during this period became lower and lower. Even some writers who were particularly outstanding in the past few years could not drive sales with their good works. Instead, commercial writers like Liu Hongmin and Wang Shuo were the guarantee of sales.
The manuscript of "Moon" has been received by Beijing University Press. Although the quality of this novella is not as good as "Source Code", it is still possible to sell millions of copies with Liu Hongmin's reputation.
Sanlian Publishing House also received the manuscript of "Moon", but it has not yet been changed into Traditional Chinese. Therefore, their focus is still on "Source Code".
The sales of Source Code are very good, and Hong Kong readers are very receptive to reincarnation novels. In addition, Liu Hongmin's previous work, The Terror Cruise, has very good sales and box office, both in books and movies. Therefore, Hong Kong readers like Source Code very much, and some even called Tomorrow Films, hoping that Tomorrow Films would make Source Code.
Tomorrow Film Company was helpless. Source Code required too many props. Without Liu Hongmin's guidance, they had no idea how to use these high-tech products. Liu Hongmin was now staying in Beijing, so the film could not be shot at all.
Random House has also started publishing Source Code. Foreign readers are the real fans of science fiction. Other types of novels are only related to the quality of the novels, and have nothing to do with any other conditions. But science fiction is different. It is related to national strength. The stronger the country, the more convincing the science fiction works will be.
The reason why Source Code is so popular in China is mainly due to Liu Hongmin's fame. But it is different abroad. Source Code is published by Random House, an American publishing house. The science fiction novels it publishes are naturally convincing.
If it wasn't published by Random House, even if the author of Source Code was Liu Hongmin, it wouldn't have sold much.
However, for Random House, Source Code was just a pleasant surprise. Their main work was the Dark Gate trilogy.
Sanlian Publishing House also published the Dark Portal trilogy, but the sales of the traditional Chinese version of the Dark Portal trilogy were only fair. Western fantasy is not very popular in Hong Kong, and the main readers are foreigners living in Hong Kong. Add in some readers in Southeast Asia who like Western fantasy, and the sales are only a few hundred thousand copies.
In comparison, it’s not even as much sold as in one state in the United States.
In the past few months, Liu Hongmin has been in contact with Richard, and Richard has called Liu Hongmin many times to report sales.
The sales of the Dark Portal trilogy gradually increased from 10 million copies to 20 million copies, 30 million copies, and now to 40 million copies. "Mr. Liu, the sales of the Dark Portal trilogy are basically set, and it is impossible to reach 50 million copies."
Liu Hongmin was not disappointed. After all, Dark Portal was sold as a trilogy, and the price was more than three times that of Strange Tides. If the plot of the first Dark Portal was not suitable for selling alone, Liu Hongmin would not have sold the trilogy together, and he would have lost a lot of money!
However, Liu Hongmin did not expect that the Dark Gate trilogy could sell 40 million copies. According to his estimate, he would be thankful if it could sell 30 million copies.
Forty million copies is a complete surprise!
"Selling 40 million copies has exceeded my expectations. I didn't expect the Dark Gate trilogy to be so popular."
Richard smiled and said, "Of course. If the three books weren't sold together, the sales would be even higher. It's not impossible to sell 50 million copies."
Liu Hongmin shook his head, "That's great!"
Richard asked, "Mr. Liu, you said before that you have already written the outline of the next trilogy. When will you start writing?"
"Early next year, maybe! We have to wait a year anyway! This trilogy is a sequel to Dark Portal. If it's released too close to the present, it might affect sales."
Richard expressed his understanding, "That's true. If it happens too often, it will cause reading difficulties for readers."
After hanging up the phone, Liu Hongmin couldn't help laughing. Forty million copies, he could get $ million in royalties. After deducting taxes, he could get nearly $ million. If you add the money in the charity fund, it would be more than $ million.
He calculated that he already had more than 200 million US dollars in his US dollar account. If he left the money there untouched, it would gradually depreciate.
So, he immediately contacted Feng Kan and said, "I will give you the access to my US dollar account, and you can find someone to help me make some investments."
Feng Kan asked seriously, "Where do you want to invest?"
Liu Hongmin thought about it and said, "We can invest in high-tech and entertainment."
"High technology is easy. Now the Americans are investing in technology as a whole. In the past few days, Future Technology completed the acquisition of Qualcomm and invested 10 million US dollars to speed up Qualcomm's research and development progress. It is estimated that Qualcomm will be able to complete the design of the prototype by the end of the year."
Feng Kan reported, "Based on the information I learned about high-tech companies during the acquisition, many of them are in urgent need of investment. I suggest you set up an investment company to make angel investments in these companies."
Liu Hongmin thought about it and said, "Okay, I'll leave it to you!"
(End of this chapter)
