I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 46: It is often the cruel iron fist of reality that shatters unrealistic fantasies! (Please read on, please)

Soon, after getting off the subway at Tokyo Station, Kitagawa Hide saw it.

For his fanatical readers, it would be worth it to squeeze through the crowd and sit on the Marunouchi Line as long as they could get a postcard with various famous quotes from "Hear the Wind Sing" printed on it when they bought the supplement!

When the subway arrived at Tokyo Station, the dozen or so originally full carriages were suddenly filled like a flood, with hundreds of readers from all districts of Tokyo pouring out and rushing towards Maruzen Marunouchi Bookstore like crazy.

Kitagawa Hide and Saito Rena were frightened by the terrifying crowd. Worried that the relatively short Saito Rena would be swept away by the crowd, he had to use his body to protect her and ran to the convenience store next to the bookstore.

"Huff, huff, huff—this is too horrible!" Saito Reina was still in shock, holding onto the wall and panting softly, "Didn't they say that everyone was afraid to go out because of Aum Shinrikyo?"

"Miss, you are right. But even if we are filled with fear, as long as we think that today is the second serialization day of Mr. Kitagawa's new book, we will be unable to suppress the impulse in our hearts and come to the bookstore to buy books even if it means we will die."

The cashier at the convenience store looked at the long queues of citizens outside and couldn't help but sigh,

"After all, no one wants to be spoiled before reading the book, right?"

"That's true. Please give me two cups of Americano and a ham sandwich. Mr. Saito, have you had breakfast?" Kitagawa Hide took out a few coins with a face value of 500 yen and 100 yen and handed them to the clerk with a smile.

"Ah, I've already eaten at home, thank you, Kita." Saito Rena was still catching her breath. She had run too fast just now and suddenly realized that her physical condition was far worse than when she was in college. She was panting so heavily after running anaerobic for a while.

Looking at the terrifying crowd, she was suddenly very glad that Kitagawa Hide had not yet revealed his true appearance, otherwise he would be discovered by so many fanatical readers.
I dare not think about it!
"The clerk seems quite happy?" Kitagawa Hide was eating a sandwich and sipping hot coffee. He saw the clerk's face lit up when he talked, so he asked with a smile.

"Of course I'm happy! Because of the damn Aum Shinrikyo, our convenience store business has plummeted. Fortunately, we have Teacher Kitagawa, otherwise..." The clerk became furious when he mentioned the cult and started to complain to them.

The most disgusting thing about Aum Shinrikyo is that it likes to deceive the elderly, women and children into committing crimes and committing suicide. It has absolutely no bottom line.

After they finished complaining, the clerk learned that the two were also going to the bookstore to buy Kitagawa Hide's new work, so he smiled and waived the money for their coffee, saying that it was just a way to thank Mr. Kitagawa for the positive influence brought by his excellent work.

Kitagawa Hide walked out with Saito Rena, biting a straw, feeling happy.

Although he is just a porter, he still feels a sense of accomplishment when he sees that his books can really bring changes and influence to the lives of many people.

The two continued to walk inside with the crowd, and then they discovered that there were two vertical display boards at the entrance of the bookstore. One was a photo of Oshima Hikari holding the main issue of "Gunzo" with a high-spirited look, and the other was a photo of a black figure holding the "Gunzo" supplement and pointing at Oshima Hikari with one hand, which seemed to be a challenge.

In addition, there is a red banner hanging under the store name sign with the words "The strongest newcomer Kitagawa Hide VS the annual best-selling author Oshima Hikaru".

In order to create the feeling of "male duel in the Showa era", the bookstore even divided the store into two parts with a red and blue dividing line, making it look like a boxing ring.

It has to be said that only in Japan can one see such marketing methods full of "Chuunibyou spirit", which is like a comic scene and quite impactful.

Kitagawa Hide and Saito Rena looked at each other, and seeing her confused look, he understood that this was most likely another trick done by Kodansha's publishing department behind the editorial department's back.

This is how the departments of large companies are. The barriers between departments are so strong that one would suspect that the employees on both sides are not from the same company.

It's obviously an activity that everyone is involved in, but the purpose is to make it so that you are unaware and I am not involved, and it ends up being a mess.

"But to be honest, the sales increase brought about by this kind of marketing is indeed significant." Kitagawa Hide has always admired Kodansha's marketing and advertising capabilities.

But because of this, in his previous life in Japan, Kodansha was always criticized by other colleagues as a shitty place that "only thinks about money" and can't retain writers.

Because Kodansha likes to spread the costs of advertising and marketing among writers, but is unwilling to share the profits with them.

"They seem to have made adequate preparations." Saito Rena has squeezed deeper into the bookstore. It can be clearly seen that the bookstore has given more publicity to Oshima Hikaru.

Moreover, all the way here, you can see various advertisements for Oshima Hikaru's new works everywhere. Even the newspapers in recent days are full of praise for "Tokyo Past in 1973", which has been updated with 8 words.

In comparison, Kitagawa Hidema is just a child raised by a "stepmother", a poor guy who is neither loved by his father nor his mother.

"Yes, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Yasuhara is really rich. It can't be that all this was done with the help of the distribution department." Kitagawa Hide picked up a copy of the official edition of "Gunzo" and couldn't help but sigh at his amazing ability to make money.

This reminded him of the time when he was writing books in his previous life, when some writers who were obviously not very capable relied on all kinds of evil means such as inflating charts, brushing reviews, and even inflating sales to occupy the market, causing bad money to drive out good money.

Although the means are crude, the effect is significant.

"Although the Cultural Affairs Bureau has imposed restrictions on the promotion of your book, the distribution department will definitely not be so biased." Saito Rena ran over with a copy of "Hear the Wind Sing" and a copy of the "Gunzo" supplement in her hands, and whispered to him.

"I know. Anyway, these tricks won't affect the overall situation. As long as the quality of the book is overwhelming, the sales volume will also be overwhelming."

Kitagawa Hide was not worried about this, but hoped that Yasuhara Akira would spend more money so that his throne would be more brilliant when he stepped on Oshima Hikaru. "Well! I believe in the quality of the book!" Saito Rena, who had read "1973 Pinball" early, was full of confidence, so she did not listen to the advice of the distribution department, but followed Kitagawa Hide's suggestion to release 10 chapters in this issue of the supplement, leaving 10 chapters to be released in the next issue, just in time to serialize to the end, giving readers some small shocks.

This series stops at Chapter 15, which happens to be the most exciting node.

This is the passage at the end of this chapter.

"I walked around the streets in a depressed mood. No one knew where the three 'spaceships' had gone. That's how I stopped playing pinball. When the time comes, everyone has to wash their hands and go ashore. There is no other way."

It was here that "I" ended my game of the pinball machine and my journey to find it.

The next 10 chapters explain the final fate of those characters, as well as the final summary of the theme of "searching", which is the salvation of the readers' souls!

Kitagawa Hide's suggestion was very insightful and opened Saito Rena's eyes.

"Mr. Saito should have a pre-sale version given by the editorial department, right?" Kitagawa Hide couldn't help but ask when he saw her holding two books to check out.

"Hey, please support me." Saito Reina smiled playfully and whispered, "If you can sell as many copies as possible, then the better. Eh? Bei, are you going to buy so many too?"

"Please show your support!" Kitagawa Hide was calm as he held 10 copies of the "Gunzo" supplement in his hands. It's not too much to give away 10 copies to Yumeko, Jabami Rei, the security guard and others, right?

The two looked at each other and smiled, saying nothing.

Kitagawa Hide felt that this was just like when he had taken an exam before.

Even though I know that the results are determined after the exam and cannot be changed, I still can't help but check the answers, calculate the scores, and worry about this and that.

There was a very long queue in front of the bookstore. This time the sale was obviously more popular than the previous one and the one before that. After all, Kitagawa Hideya had established a good reputation. As long as the undecided readers had read the previous issue and did not abandon the book, they would definitely not want to miss this one.

The explosive flow of customers also gave other unsellable books in the bookstore new exposure opportunities. It is estimated that after those writers learned about this, they would not hesitate to praise Kitagawa Hide and others and help promote them in various places.

Books were constantly being taken away from the shelves and then replaced by the frantic clerks.

Before leaving, Kitagawa Hide took another look at the sales. During the time he stayed in the bookstore, almost 10 out of every 3 customers would buy the hardcover paperback edition of "Hear the Wind Sing", and at least 10 out of these 8 came to buy "Group Portrait".

But among the 8 readers who bought "Qun Xiang", only 2 of them bought the genuine edition, and maybe 1 of them was a shill!
"Shopkeeper-san! I don't want this postcard! Can I have the one with the words 'So we don't have life or death, we are just the wind'?"

"How is that possible? If I could choose, I want that one, too!"

"Damn it, I tried three copies and still couldn't get one, store clerk-san, don't give it to him!"

Listening to these readers' words, Saito Rena chuckled softly, and her eyes revealed admiration and emotion when she looked at Kitagawa Hide.

Who would have thought that just by accidentally reading a manuscript handed to me by a security guard in March, I discovered a supernova that was enough to wake up the Japanese literary world!
The conversation with Kitagawa Hide seems like yesterday, and the scenes before my eyes seem like a movie and don’t seem real.

Holding the books she bought, Saito Rena suddenly clutched her handbag tightly. Her heart, which had inexplicably been hanging in the air, stopped beating for a moment. Only when she confirmed that the bag and the manuscript inside were still there did her heartbeat resume.

I thought I dropped my bag while buying books!

"You are really amazing, Teacher Kitagawa." Saito Rena looked at him and couldn't help but whisper.

Kitagawa Hide was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Thank you for your compliment, Mr. Saito, but even if you say so, I won't treat you to an extra serving of fried squid after I pay you the royalties today."

"I know!" Saito Rena didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but she quite liked Kitagawa Hide's occasional "un-Japanese" jokes, which made her feel that the two of them were like friends, without the sense of restraint that often exists between editors and great writers.

Before getting on the subway, she couldn't help but look back at Maruzen Marunouchi Bookstore for the last time.

The torrent of people is like an iron fist that is bound to smash those doubts and unrealistic fantasies of some people!

Thanks

Everyone's monthly ticket

1 Qidian coins reward from a book friend in AD 1500

100 Ways to Detect Men Lying Book Friends' Qidian Coins Reward

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(End of this chapter)