1980 My Literary Era.

Chapter 584 New Publication

Albert Mondadori was just a little talkative, but when Lin Weimin wanted to talk about business, he immediately became serious.

In the past few years, after receiving awards from France, the United States and other countries, Lin Weimin has gained a considerable international reputation, so Albert Mondadori knows Lin Weimin a little bit.

Coupled with the introduction of Roger Strauss in the middle, the two had a very pleasant conversation.

Albert has already collected some English editions of Lin Weimin's works, and knows that he is a prolific writer, and the publishing house likes him the most.

After discussing the cooperation, as long as a book can become famous in Italy, there is basically no need for too much investment in the future, and it will continue to bring cash to the publishing house.

There was only one intention to discuss on the phone. Albert and Lin Weimin agreed that next week he would go to China to talk to Lin Weimin in detail.

But a week later, Lin Weimin did not wait for Albert, and four or five days later, Albert appeared in the Guowen Society.

Albert explained that he was late because he wanted to wait for their dog to give birth before going on a business trip.

This reason made Lin Weimin speechless. It seems that Jie is still a dog lover!
Apart from the dog-loving label, Albert is quite normal, especially when it comes to Lin Weimin's works, he is very excited.

Albert's English is fluent in reading and writing. He has read all the English novels published by Lin Weimin abroad, and he is full of praise for these novels.

"Lin, you are a genius novelist! It's hard for me to imagine that so many wonderful and magnificent novels with different styles come from the same writer!"

Albert's rainbow fart made Lin Weimin a little vigilant, this Italian guy, could he be giving me ecstasy soup?

Sure enough, when discussing the issue of royalties after agreeing on the published bibliography, Albert almost yelled "8%" to break the floor price, and Lin Weimin almost didn't serve tea to see off the guests.

"Albert, you really know how to joke! My works are published in any country in the world, and there is no royalties lower than 15%."

Asking prices all over the sky, and paying back the money when they land, who wouldn't!

"Lin, you have to know that our Mondadori Publishing Group is the largest publishing house in Italy. Cooperating with us means that your works can be spread throughout Italy. It is absolutely impossible for you to cooperate with ordinary publishing houses. to this effect."

"Albert, the sales volume of a novel depends on the work itself, and the channel is only one factor. Besides, you know that my novels are published in English-speaking countries and French-speaking countries, and have a large audience. And you Italian, with only a small population, even mud It’s even worse than boom, if the sales cap is placed there, how much royalties can there be?”

Lin Weimin's tone made Albert want to hit someone, but he had learned about the publication of Lin Weimin's works, and knew that Lin Weimin earned millions of dollars every year with the royalties from overseas publishing of his works.

The two fought back and forth for a long time. After Lin Weimin reduced the royalty share to 13%, he refused to lower it any more. Albert was soft-spoken, and finally settled on this figure.

After the negotiation, Mondadori Publishing House obtained the publishing authorization of seven works including "Lover", "Farewell My Concubine", "The Horse Man", "Chasing the Murderer", "Burning", "Anyway, Life is Beautiful" and "Hunting".

According to the contract, the Mondadori Publishing House must publish these seven works within two years, and the publishing authorization will be withdrawn after the expiry date.

Albert played in Yanjing for a few days and then returned to Italy.

After seeing off Albert, Lin Weimin was in a great mood, no matter how small a mosquito's legs are, it's still meat!

Fast forward to the beginning of May, and Shi Tiesheng's "Ditan and I" has been published for a month. During this period, it has aroused considerable repercussions among domestic literary circles and readers.

Shi Tiesheng's style is different from most of the domestic writers in this era. He is a unique writer with his own unique personality charm and writing style.

From "My Distant Qingping Bay", "The Story of Jumping the Line" to "I and the Temple of Earth", his style is in the same line, between novels and prose, which often makes readers feel a little dazed, wondering whether they are reading novels or prose.

But this is not important, whether it is a novel or prose, readers can touch Shi Tiesheng's soft heart through these works, and can feel his rich emotions and transparent philosophical thinking.

Over the past month, thousands of letters have flown to the editorial office and Shi Tiesheng's home.

Before "The Temple of Earth and Me", Shi Tiesheng was a well-known writer in domestic literary circles, but after "The Temple of Earth and Me", Shi Tiesheng completed a transformation, and he truly became the kind of popular writer that is well-known to every household.

For a long time, novels have always been the mainstream genre in domestic literary circles, and prose is not popular. Except for the works of the old batch of prose writers, almost all of the very few excellent prose works since the new era have been taken over by the writers of Bay Island .

However, the rise of Shi Tiesheng broke this situation. Only the article "I and the Temple of Earth" brought the field of domestic prose to a new height.

Among the letters from the readers of the editorial department of "Contemporary" this month, the voices of readers demanding to increase the length of the prose column are getting louder every day, and many radical readers hope that the Guowen Society can create a literary journal with prose as the mainstay.

He Qizhi even approached Lin Weimin with these letters from readers, hoping to persuade him.

Later generations of "Contemporary" did have a branch in the 90s, and the prose column of the publication was separated to form "Chinese Prose". You can tell from the name that this is a literary publication specializing in prose.

In the early 90s, the popularity of novels in China declined somewhat, because a large number of prose works of Wandao were introduced into China, and famous prose writers such as Shi Tiesheng and Yu Qiuyu rose up. The style of prose ushered in its highlight moment, and it was extremely popular for a while.

In the 90s, there were not many prose journals in China.

In 1980, the Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House in Jinmen hosted the monthly "Prose", in 1984, "Selected Prose" was born in Henan, in 1987, "Prose World" was founded in Yanjing, and in 1989, "Hundreds of Prose" in Hebei was established...

More and more prose publications appear, which confirms the wave of prose development, and these prose publications have developed very well in recent years.

Readers hope that "Contemporary" will increase the length of the prose column, which is unrealistic.There are only so many pages in the publication, more prose, and less other types of works are published. An occasional issue is fine, but most of the readers of "Contemporary" come to read novels, and after a long time, it means catching up with readers.

Therefore, in the face of the voices of some prose lovers, it is the best choice to establish a new prose publication.

Lin Weimin fell into deep thought after He Qizhi finished explaining his thoughts.

The 90s is indeed the golden age of prose, and the most vivid example is Yu Qiuyu's prose collection "Cultural Journey" which sold 150 million copies in just over a year.

In 1988, Yu Qiuyu opened his own prose column "Cultural Journey" in "Harvest" at the invitation of Ba Lao's daughter Li Xiaolin. He published more than ten essays in "Harvest" for half a year, and became popular among the literary circles and readers. It caused a lot of discussion, and also brought Yu Qiuyu, a cultural scholar, a reputation in the literary world.

Calculating the time, it seems that "Cultural Journey" will be published in one or two years. Such a blockbuster work cannot be missed, and I will think about contacting Yu Qiuyu later.

After slipping away, Lin Weimin's thoughts were on prose publications again. He thought for a while and said to He Qizhi: "Now it's just the voice of a small number of readers. I'll do a reader survey in the next issue of "Contemporary". Look at everyone's wishes. If the survey results are satisfactory, you will discuss it when you make a proposal."

Running a prose publication, with the background of the Guowen Society, there is no problem in surviving, but that's all.

After 2000, pure literature publications took a sharp turn for the worse, and this publication might become a burden on the agency.

Therefore, Lin Weimin's attitude is not enthusiastic, but he will not categorically reject it.

Because the existence of the Guowen Society itself is not for profit, it shoulders more of the mission and responsibility of the country's literature development, as long as the results of the reader survey are not too bad, he will support the publication of this publication.

As for making money, it is enough to leave it to Tongwen News Agency to carry forward the burden!
With Lin Weimin's support, He Qizhi was a little excited.

The establishment of a prose publication does not have any great benefits for "Contemporary". On the contrary, "Contemporary" may allocate part of its strength to support the construction of prose publications.

But what he thought of was that the Guowen Society had another literary publication, and the domestic literary circle had another literary publication, and readers would also benefit from it.

After He Qizhi left, Lin Weimin picked up the phone.

"Hey, Miss Xiaolin, I am for the people!"

Li Xiaolin is Balao's daughter, and now she is the deputy editor-in-chief of "Harvest". In recent years, Balao has not been involved in the specific work of the publication, so she is actually the head of "Harvest".

Lin Weimin is a student of Mr. Wan, so he is on the same level as her.

Lin Weimin called her because of Yu Qiuyu's matter. Hearing that Lin Weimin wanted to publish Yu Qiuyu's essays, Li Xiaolin said happily, "I'll contact him for you."

Yu Qiuyu opened up a prose column in "Harvest", which was passed under Li Xiaolin's strong opposition. Now the Guowen Society is publishing Yu Qiuyu's prose collection, which is enough to prove the influence of these prose, and also proves her vision and Achievements.

After the two chatted for a few words, Li Xiaolin hurried to help Lin Weimin contact Yu Qiuyu.

Not long after hanging up the phone with Li Xiaolin, the phone rang.

Before the collection of essays "Cultural Journey" was published and sold well, Yu Qiuyu was most well-known as an official and cultural scholar.

He was appointed as the dean of the Shanghai Theater Academy in 1986. In recent years, most of his works are research works in the field of drama, such as "Drafts on the History of Drama Theory" and "Aesthetic Psychology of Drama".

Since its birth in 1988, the prose column of "Cultural Bitter Journey" has caused some discussions in the literary world.

Since it is a discussion, there are naturally praises and criticisms.

His prose style is unique, different from the previous ones, with a grand layout and broad vision. Those who like it call it "big prose", while those who don't like it criticize it as artificial, and there are many flaws in the article. It's ridiculous.

When Yu Qiuyu heard from Li Xiaolin that Lin Weimin was going to collect and publish his essays, she was very excited. The first thing she said when she called was: "Editor Lin, can my essays really be published?"

(End of this chapter)