Tokyo Literary Godfather

After a heavy rain, the sun rose and the temperature rose sharply. Itagaki Kazuhiko, who was wearing a sweater, had a thin layer of sweat on his forehead.

With his briefcase under his arm, he drove from Chiyoda District to Minato District. Before getting off the car, he took off his sweater and packed lightly... Huh, it's much cooler.

Summer seems to have come a little early this year.

Itagaki Kazuhiko walked into a snack bar, and then found a secluded corner to sit down casually. When he looked up through the door, he saw a huge poster of "Hanzawa Naoki" posted on a street billboard.

"Sir, would you like something to eat?" The boss who was cooking asked, holding two shovel-like kitchen utensils.

"Sorry, I'll wait for my friend to come before ordering." Itagaki Kazuhiko said politely.

The boss followed Itagaki Kazuhiko's line of sight and looked out, and saw the poster of "Naoki Hansawa". He suddenly became a little proud and said: "This guest, do you know? Naoki Hansawa is Came to my restaurant for dinner."

"ah?"

"It's the actor who plays Hansawa Naoki. Because Fukuyama TV is not far away, so people there often come to my place to eat." The boss said, "Including the screenwriter of "Hansawa Naoki", his name is Fujiwara. , Oops, I don't have a good memory, but I've seen him a lot on TV lately."

"Kei Fujiwara." Itagaki Kazuhiko reminded.

"Yes, yes. That's the name. You see, I even took a photo with him." As he said that, the boss pointed to the nearby photo wall with the shovel in his hand, which was densely covered with photos of many actors and celebrities. photo. One of them is Kei Fujiwara. The photo was taken with a Polaroid. It can be seen that Kei Fujiwara was chewing something in his mouth when he took the photo, and his lips were still shiny.

"Oh, it's amazing." Itagaki Kazuhiko exclaimed.

"Isn't that right?" The boss was very proud.

Itagaki Kazuhiko glanced at his watch with a smile, then continued to wait quietly.

"Hansawa Naoki" set off an unprecedented upsurge of discussion among the public, but this enthusiasm obscured another work that came out at the same time as "Hansawa Naoki".

"The Devotion of Suspect

But after all, it has not been officially completed, nor has a single volume been released, and the publisher's promotional resources have not been spread out, so the popularity is much lower than that of "Hansawa Naoki".

Although novels and TV series have different art forms, in terms of the story quality of the work itself, "The Devotion of Suspect X" is definitely no worse than "Naoki Hansawa", or even better. It is expected to refresh readers' understanding of mystery novels again. Known works!

Kazuhiko Itagaki, who had read the entire "Devotion of Suspect X", said in his heart.

The serialization of "The Devotion of Suspect

Kei Fujiwara currently has a heavy filming workload. He is often involved in supervision and screenwriting on the crew. He is even responsible for the budget and sponsorship as a producer. Because Mizuhara Yui is too busy alone, he sometimes interferes. They were too busy to touch the ground, so Itagaki and Yan simply went to find him near the TV station.

After calling in advance, Kei Fujiwara made an appointment with him at this small restaurant.

The interior structure of the restaurant is a very classic Japanese style, with an open kitchen and a stove. The boss cooks inside, and there is a circle of tables outside. There is an iron plate in front of the table, and the boss cooks noodles directly on the iron plate in front of you. Food, prepared and clipped straight to your plate.

It's not a restaurant yet, but people are already coming in to order food one after another. The smoke in the restaurant is very heavy, and the people who come in to eat will inevitably get the smell, so there are not many girls coming in groups.

At this time, one hand lifted the curtain, Fujiwara Kei walked in, and greeted with a smile: "I'm really sorry, Mr. Itagaki, I've been waiting for a long time."

"I'm just here too." Itagaki Kazuhiko said with a smile, "Sit down, Fujiwara, I'm still waiting for you to recommend dishes to me."

"Haha, I want two pan-fried pork chops with double cheese, and one fried noodles. For drinks, I want rice wine juice. Mr. Itagaki doesn't seem to be able to eat spicy food."

"A little bit."

"That one is slightly spicy, and the other one is my usual spiciness. Put more rice in the rice wine sauce."

"It turns out he is a friend of Mr. Fujiwara!" the boss said boldly, "Haha, in that case, I will give you another side dish for free."

"The boss is such a handsome guy." Kei Fujiwara gave a thumbs up.

"Haha, that's natural. When I was young, I was on par with you, Mr. Fujiwara!"

"Fujiwara, there is one more issue of "The Devotion of Suspect A design you like."

As he spoke, Itagaki Kazuhiko took out a bound book from his bag and flipped through the pages for Kei Fujiwara to choose.

Fujiwara Kei glanced at the bound volume, stretched out his hand and poked at a few pages, "I personally like these two. As for the cover design, I mainly adopt the designer's opinion. My opinion is for reference only. "

"Okay." Itagaki Kazuhiko nodded.

This is exactly why he likes to deal with Kei Fujiwara. He is not arrogant and believes in the principle of specialization in the art industry. He leaves professional matters to professionals and only insists on where he should insist.

At the beginning, he saw the prospects of the socialist school and resolutely chose this school. Despite the pressure of repeated rejections and the editor's disapproval, his attitude was firmer than anyone else's. But for matters other than content, such as cover, poster design, and book promotion and marketing strategies, the opinions of other professionals will be respected to the greatest extent possible.

Itagaki Kazuhiko put away the bound volume and chatted with Fujiwara Kei about the paper material, first printing number and pricing of the new book.

As a new work in the popular mystery series [Genius Detective Mitarai Kyoshi], "The Devotion of Suspect There are 250,000 copies.

Compared with the first volume of "Detective Mitate Washiyoshi", the number of copies has increased by 100,000.

A book can sell 250,000 copies. Even if it is a super bestseller, the first printing number of "The Devotion of Suspect X" can be regarded as a handful in the entire Japanese publishing industry.

As for the price, Shunqiusha actually planned to add an additional 300 yen to the price of "Genius Detective Mitaraike", but Kei Fujiwara firmly rejected this and even claimed to talk to Kawaguchi Nobu in person. Itagaki Kazuhiko hurriedly said that he would renegotiate the pricing with the editor-in-chief.

In fact, the price of "Genius Detective Mitarashiyoshi" has already been increased once based on "White Night Journey". Japanese books are already expensive, and the price increases one after another... This will make many readers unable to cope with their needs. Japan's piracy industry is underdeveloped. People who can't afford books can only rent or buy second-hand books, but the rental and second-hand markets are unlikely to have a big impact on sales.

If the price is raised again, readers will immediately scold Kei Fujiwara for his insatiable greed. The price of two or three thousand yen per copy is already expensive enough, let's rest.

If Kei Fujiwara does not agree to continue to increase the price, then the price will not increase. It seems that Minister Kawaguchi will be disappointed... Kazuhiko Itagaki slandered in his heart.

At the same time, he said, "By the way, is your novel version of "Naoki Hansawa" finished?"