Literary Master 1978

Tian Geng really didn't expect that Lin Chaoyang and Huacheng Publishing House actually had such an agreement, and he didn't expect Huacheng Publishing House to be so determined.

Isn't this driving up prices?

Although he complained in his heart, Tian Geng shivered with heartache when he thought that the publishing rights of "The Chess Master" would be taken away by Huacheng Publishing House in the future.

Why? It was obviously their Yanjing Publishing House that came first!

Moreover, "The Chess Master" has been published for nearly three years and has sold more than three million copies, especially the recent release of the "The Chess Master" movie and the whirlwind of the Sino-Japanese Go Challenge. In just less than three months, the single volume of "The Chess Master" has sold nearly 700,000 copies.

At present, the viewing craze of the "The Chess Master" movie has gradually passed, but the wind of the Sino-Japanese Go Challenge is still blowing. During this period of time, the popularity of the domestic Go sport has been increasing.

As the China-Japan Go Challenge continues, Go is likely to become the most popular competitive sport in recent years. At that time, Go novels such as "The Go Master" may become a must-read for Go enthusiasts.

In a country like Japan with a population of more than 100 million, there are more than 10 million Go enthusiasts. What about China?

Therefore, Tian Geng believes that the potential of "The Go Master" has not been tapped yet.

Of course, he knows that such an idea is definitely idealistic, but even if it is 70% off according to the ideal situation, it will probably be a very terrifying number.

On the one hand, there is the risk that the implementation of the royalty payment system may be exaggerated, and on the other hand, there is the terrifying sales potential of "The Go Master". Tian Geng weighed it in his heart.

Observing his expression, Lin Chaoyang did not urge him, but chatted with Liu Xinwu for a while.

Liu Xinwu's main job is editing, part-time writing, and amateur research on "Dream of Red Mansions", so he did not delay anything.

This year, he just wrote "Bell and Drum Tower", which was recently published in two issues in "Contemporary".

"I was originally going to give it to Harvest, but the manuscripts were too full at Harvest, and it might take a year to publish it in two issues.

You also understand that publishing across the year will definitely have an impact on the response of the work, so I handed the manuscript to Mr. Qin."

Lin Chaoyang smiled and said, "It's their loss that Harvest didn't get your manuscript. I read the novel, and it's quite well written."

Liu Xinwu hurriedly said a few words of modesty. It's okay for others to praise him, but he really can't accept Lin Chaoyang's praise.

The reading craze of "Crossing Guandong" swept from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, and the sales volume after publication was even more unmatched.

The two chatted about their own works, and Liu Xinwu naturally turned the topic to the Mao Dun Literature Award.

Unknowingly, more than two years have passed, and the awarding activities of the new Mao Dun Literature Award were officially launched in the second half of this year.

Today, the Mao Dun Literature Award is selected every three years, and the scope of the selected works is novels published from 1982 to 1984.

In recent years, the number and quality of novels have made great progress compared with previous years. Nearly 450 novels have been published in the past three years alone.

Some time ago, Xie Yongwang of the Writers Association took over the organization of the second Mao Dun Literature Award and has issued a notice to recommend outstanding novels to the provincial and municipal writers' associations, relevant publishing houses, and large literary journals across the country.

As of March 1985, during this period, the works recommended by various places have been submitted to the Mao Dun Literature Award Office one after another.

According to the award rules of this year, the number of words for a novel is still defined as 100,000 words, following the award method of the first session. Multi-volume works that were published or published during this period and can be independently published can also participate in the award.

According to this standard, Lin Chaoyang's "Shutter Island", "Crossing the Boat" and "Crossing the Guandong" created in the past three years all meet the recommendation conditions.

Among them, "Shutter Island" was published by Yenching Publishing House, and "Crossing the Boat" and "Crossing the Guandong" were published by Huacheng Publishing House.

Liu Xinwu mentioned the Mao Dun Literature Prize because Yanjing Publishing House had decided to recommend Shutter Island to participate in the selection of this year's Mao Dun Literature Prize.

Hearing him say this, Lin Chaoyang was calm. Not only Yanjing Publishing House, but Huacheng Publishing House had also submitted "The Ferry" and "Crossing Guandong" to the award office a few days ago.

Liu Xinwu was not surprised at all that the three works "Shutter Island", "The Ferry" and "Crossing Guandong" were recommended for the selection at the same time. After all, the quality of these three works is well-known.

Especially "Crossing Guandong", a work with great epic temperament, can be said to have reserved a seat for this year's Mao Dun Literature Prize, which is a fact recognized by the literary world.

In the process of Liu Xinwu's communication with editors, writers, and critics around him, everyone tacitly agreed to this situation.

Who can compete with it in the Chinese literary world in 1984?

Putting aside "Crossing Guandong", a work destined to win the award, Liu Xinwu believes that the level of "The Ferry" is better than "Shutter Island".

This does not mean that the standard of "Shutter Island" is not high, or that it is poorly written. The most important reason is that the style of "Shutter Island" is too focused on the story.

Compared with ordinary novels, it is not weak, but it is not as good as "The Ferry".

Based on Liu Xinwu's understanding of this kind of award-giving activities, works with strong artistic and philosophical qualities such as "The Ferry" are undoubtedly more popular with the judges.

He even felt that if we only look at the works, Lin Chaoyang has every reason to win two awards at the same time.

Of course, this is just his personal opinion.

For such an important award as the Mao Dun Literature Prize, it is almost impossible for the same writer to win two yolks.

What's more, Lin Chaoyang had already won the award in the first award.

Speaking of this, Liu Xinwu couldn't help but sigh, "How could our Chinese literary world produce such a monster like you!"

This sounds like an insult, but it is a high compliment to Lin Chaoyang.

Among the writers, those with a large output of works do not have the same high quality as Lin Chaoyang; those with high quality works do not have the same influence as Lin Chaoyang; those with wide influence have low output of works.

Writers like Lin Chaoyang who have extremely high output, stable quality, and most importantly, can continue to create intensively for many years are even rarer than rare protected animals in the contemporary literary world.

While the two were chatting, Tian Geng finally came back to his senses. He heard Liu Xinwu and Lin Chaoyang talking about "Shutter Island" and his heart tightened. This is also the favorite of Yanjing Publishing House!

In the past two years, "Shutter Island" has also created sales of more than 1.6 million copies.

According to the current development trend, it is inevitable that this novel will be converted into a royalty contract after the publishing contract expires in the future. This matter is not subject to the will of Yanjing Publishing House.

Thinking of this, Tian Geng sighed heavily in his heart.

The times are constantly moving forward, and economic reforms have begun to deeply affect all walks of life. For Yanjing Publishing House, all they can do is to follow the trend of the times.

"Chaoyang!" Tian Geng interrupted the chat between Lin Chaoyang and Liu Xinwu.

Lin Chaoyang looked over at him, and Tian Geng made up his mind and said, "We can agree to your royalty payment conditions. Both "The Chess Master" and "Shutter Island" must be left to us."

Lin Chaoyang nodded slightly, "Huacheng Publishing House gave me a royalty rate of 12%."

Hearing this, Tian Geng's heart twitched.

What a big deal!

No wonder Lin Chaoyang got hundreds of thousands of royalties at one time.

Tian Geng also understood that if their publishing house wanted to keep "The Chess Master" and "Shutter Island", it must pay more sincerity than Huacheng Publishing House.

"15%!" He hesitated for only two seconds, and then spit out this number decisively.

Lin Chaoyang's calm face finally showed a little surprise. He didn't expect Tian Geng to be so decisive.

A royalty rate of 15%, even in the future, is the treatment that only first-line best-selling authors can have.

However, "The Chess Master" and "Shutter Island" are worthy of such treatment. Even though they have been published for two or three years, the sales of these two novels still crush many recently published works.

Lin Chaoyang was about to agree to Tian Geng, but Tian Geng said: "But I have a condition!"

"What condition?"

"We want the publishing rights of your new book."

Hearing Tian Geng's request, Lin Chaoyang was silent for a while before saying: "I had a relatively pleasant cooperation with Huacheng Publishing House before. The publication of the new book..."

Before Lin Chaoyang finished speaking, Tian Geng added: "We can compete fairly with Huacheng Publishing House. The conditions we offer must be more favorable than theirs, and the royalty rate is not less than 15%."

Having said this, Tian Geng showed great sincerity, and Lin Chaoyang had no reason not to accept it.

There is no sign of his next work now, but two publishing houses are willing to offer generous royalty contracts.

This is the confidence and strength accumulated by Lin Chaoyang's works over the years.

After finishing the discussion, Lin Chaoyang was sending Tian Geng and Liu Xinwu away when Xiao Dongdong, who was playing happily in the yard, suddenly burst into tears.

Lin Chaoyang went over to take a look and found that the ice slide he made had only lasted for an hour and showed signs of melting.

Although it was the coldest time of the year, there was enough sunlight during the day. It was fine in the morning when the sun had not fully risen, but it would not work after noon when it was exposed to the sun.

"It's okay, let's build another one under the corridor."

Lin Chaoyang realized his problem and proposed to build another ice slide for Xiao Dongdong. The daytime temperature was low recently. As long as it was not exposed to direct sunlight, it would be fine to build an ice slide under the corridor for a few days.

But Xiao Dongdong didn't understand these things. He only knew that the big toy he had just played with for a while could not be played anymore, and he cried endlessly.

Lin Chaoyang was so annoyed by his son's noise that he couldn't coax him no matter how he tried. In the end, he had to throw him to Tao Yumo, and his ears really became quiet all of a sudden.

In the middle of the twelfth lunar month, the China-Japan Go Challenge Tournament was launched again.

In the fourth game, China and Japan changed places and played again. Jiang Zhujiu played on the Chinese side, while Awaji Shuzo played on the Japanese side.

In the previous two games, Jiang Zhujiu won consecutive games, and now he is facing his Japanese opponent again with great momentum.

After the fermentation of the previous few games, the public opinion of the first China-Japan Go Challenge Tournament has surpassed that of ordinary Go games.

The attention group of the game has also gradually spread from the original Go community and Go enthusiasts to the whole people.

In this game, Jiang Zhujiu still maintained his hot hand and the fierce play of the first two games, suppressing Awaji Shuzo throughout the whole process, and finally won three consecutive victories with a 4.5 point advantage.

After the news came out, it goes without saying that the Go community in China was jubilant and the media was full of praise.

Even many ordinary people who didn't care about Go before knew that China Go had a fierce player Jiang Zhujiu, who could beat three Japanese national players in a row, which really brought glory to the country!

Facing Japan, the old enemy and old rival, Jiang Zhujiu's achievements are naturally worthy of celebration and happiness for all Chinese people.

On the other hand, Japan is in a gloomy mood.

At the opening ceremony held in Tokyo before the game, the arrogant speeches of the Japanese team members are still fresh in our ears, but after four games, the Japanese team fell behind with a huge score of 1:3, and was defeated by the opponent three in a row, which is almost a shameful record.

At this time, the population of Japan was only more than 100 million, and there were more than 10 million Go enthusiasts alone.

It is conceivable how much attention the ordinary people in Japan would pay to this sport. The game that was thought to be easily won turned into such a shameful situation. No one can stand it!

After the news of Awaji Shuzo's defeat to Jiang Zhujiu spread back to Japan, a huge wave of voices was raised among Japanese Go enthusiasts. Some radical Go enthusiasts have begun to ask the losing players to commit seppuku to apologize.

Of course, it is impossible to meet such a request, but losing is indeed a shame.

It is said that after this game, a consensus was reached within the Japanese Go community.

If Japan really loses this China-Japan Go competition, then all the players on the Japanese team must shave their heads to apologize.

This half-true and half-false news spread back to China, and immediately made the domestic Go community and ordinary people feel extremely happy!