tokyo writer

Hiroto Akihara stood up and began to walk back and forth on the tatami, thinking while walking.

How can the publishing house give up more profits, so as to increase its own income?

He thought about it, and suddenly recalled an incident in his previous life.

One year before his graduation, a brother with literary dreams failed to submit manuscripts to the publishing house. In a rage, he found a book agency and published it at his own expense. He printed 5000 copies and sold them.

As a result, because the stories in it were rather sad, many young literary and artistic women went to buy them, and 8% of these books were digested, which allowed the senior brother to earn a small sum of money.

On the day they got the money, the senior brother invited everyone to the food stall at the school gate to have a good meal.

Having said that, is it possible to bypass the publishing house in this way?How about listening to other people's opinions?

Without hesitation, Akihara Yuto walked directly to the phone next to the entrance, picked up the receiver and made a call: "Imamura, it's me, is this afternoon convenient?"

"I'm not looking for you to seek comfort, I just want to consult some publishing matters."

"Okay, then it's settled."

Having agreed on a time and place with Yuto Imamura, Hiroto Akihara hung up the phone, changed his clothes and walked out of the house.

……

Chiyoda Ward, Double Cafe.

Hiroto Akihara and Yuto Imamura sat by the window and ordered a cup of latte and black coffee respectively.

"Akihara, which convenient publishing issue do you want to consult?" Imamura Yuto took a sip of coffee, then sighed, "If you need comfort, I can lend you my shoulder."

Hiroto Akihara gave him a blank look, he was too lazy to answer this sentence, and planned to get straight to the point: "Imamura, I'm here to ask a serious matter, do you know anything about self-publishing?"

Hearing this question, Imamura Yuto gave him a surprised look, "Akihara, do you have any friends who want to publish a book?"

Generally speaking, self-publishing is often because the publishing house lacks market confidence in the author's manuscript, and the author has distribution needs.Books that are paid for by the author and the publisher undertakes other distribution work.

Due to the problem of the subject matter, most of this kind of books cannot be sold, and often they can only end up in the end where no one cares about them.

However, self-published authors are often not looking for profit, and all they need is the name of the author of XX works.

Hiroto Akihara replied: "Yes, a friend of mine wants to publish."

He didn't intend to tell Imamura Yuuto the truth, after all, it would be troublesome to explain the break between himself and Mandansha, and it would cause unnecessary worries for Imamura.

When the right time comes, just make it clear with the other party.

Hiroto Akihara took a sip of his coffee and asked pretending not to care, "Can you tell me about the industry and self-publishing related information?"

Imamura Yuto didn't think too much, nodded and started talking, Akihara Hiroto listened carefully, and secretly wrote it down in his heart.

Due to the oligopoly phenomenon in the neon publishing industry, the market share and the most profitable business are often occupied by the four major publishing houses, and other small and medium-sized publishing houses can only survive in the cracks.

In the era of the economic bubble, because of the good market conditions, these small and medium-sized publishing houses can often live well even if they drink soup.But I didn't expect that when the economic crisis came, the sales of books began to plummet.

In order to survive, many small and medium-sized publishing houses have launched the new business of self-publishing.It is said that it is a new business, but in fact it is just a helpless choice.

Self-publishing is completely funded by the author, and the publishing house does not need to consider the subsequent sales of the book, does not need to spend any publicity costs, and administrative approval is also very simple (no need to worry about the ISBN), so it can be said that there is no relevant risk.

After Akihara Hiroto learned about the situation, he had a rough idea in his heart, and felt that the situation of Neon was similar to those small and medium-sized publishing houses in China that published books at their own expense in the previous life.He thought for a while, then asked: "How much is the cost of self-publishing?"

"How many characters are in the manuscript that the other party wants to publish? How many copies do you want to print?" Yuto Imamura asked rhetorically.

Akihara Yuto weighed it, and then replied: "About 10,000+ words, about 3 volumes."

These two data are not nonsense from him. The long mystery novels in his memory generally have 10,000+ words, which is a basic number; and the number of 3 volumes is based on the separate volumes he released before Mandanshe. Quantity estimates.

If 3 copies can be issued and each volume is priced at 2500 yen, then these 3 copies can bring in sales of 7500 million yen.

It's just that I don't know the cost of printing 3 copies.

"So many?" Imamura Yuto was taken aback. He thought that publishing the book at his own expense was just used by Akihara's friend to "get fame", and printing a thousand copies would be enough.

He struggled for a while, but he gave up the idea of ​​persuasion. After all, this matter has nothing to do with him, and the practice of Neon society is not to meddle too much in other people's affairs.

He frowned and thought for a while, then replied: "It depends on the printed book and paper size of the book. If there are design requirements, it will cost a lot of money."

"As far as I know, if so many volumes are to be printed, the estimated cost may be around 800 million yen, maybe more."

After saying this, Imamura Yuto took out his business card holder and handed over a business card. Hiroto Akihara took it, and found that it said "Akutsu Goichi, Yasuhiro Bookstore Co., Ltd.", and below the business card was a string of phone numbers .

Yuuto Imamura waved his hand, "Akihara, this Anjiu Bookstore is a medium-sized publishing house, and it also has a business of self-publishing. You can ask your friend to come to consult the specific business."

Hearing this, Akihara Hiroto expressed his thanks, and then put the business card into his wallet.He looked at Imamura Yuto who was drinking coffee, and thought about a question.

Even if he got the first usage fee of the movie contract, all his savings now are only about 350 million yen, of which 100 million yen must be kept as his living expenses for 3 months.

Therefore, the funds he can use are only 250 million yen, which is far from enough to fill the 3 million yen needed to print 800 copies.

So, how can we make up for the remaining funding gap?

[84.Chapter 84 a letter]

After learning the details of self-publishing from Imamura Yuto, Akihara Hiroto rejected the other party's proposal to play pachinko together, waved his hand and left the cafe.

As he walked, he began to think.

Looking at it now, the funding gap is a full 550 million yen, which is almost equivalent to half a year's salary of a senior white-collar worker.

This money is not too much, and it is not too little.

If you are willing to ask acquaintances such as Imamura Yuto and Seto Yuzhi, you can also borrow it.

But he didn't want to borrow money from the bottom of his heart. After all, once he borrowed money, his relationship with the other party would change slightly.

What's more, because of what Seto Yuzhi said at the award ceremony, I already owed a lot of favors, and I was even more embarrassed to disturb the other party.

Besides, what other way is there?

At this time, he suddenly saw a cowherd billboard on the side of the street. On it, there were 5 men dressed like non-mainstream men, showing their "masculinity" with what they thought were handsome postures.

The corners of his mouth twitched, and he suddenly remembered the reports he had read. It was estimated that the income of RB Cowherd was tens of millions of yen a year, and many people even had millions of yen in one night, which was much more than his own manuscript fee. .

Akihara Hiroto complained in his heart, and then saw a bank under the billboard, a thought suddenly popped up.

By the way, can I get a loan from the bank?

Although because of the contract, his "ZOO" series can only be entrusted to Mantansha for distribution within 3 years, but the copyright of the work is still in his own hands after all.

In other words, he can directly mortgage his copyright to the bank without taking care of Mantanshe, and use it in exchange for the funds he needs.

He lowered his head to think, the more he thought about it, the more feasible it became.