Literary Master 1978

Spending fifteen thousand yuan to buy a courtyard house is a very luxurious expense for most people in this era, but it is nothing to Lin Chaoyang.

In the past two years, as his creative achievements have continued to accumulate, the royalties he has received have become more and more generous.

Not only newly released and published works have royalties, but also previous works will receive some royalties from time to time.

After returning home in the evening, Tao Yushu calculated the couple's current assets. In terms of fixed assets, they include an overseas Chinese apartment, a two-entry courtyard house in Mianmian Hutong, a three-entry courtyard house in Xiaoliubukou Hutong, and a motorcycle.

"Can't we forget about motorcycles? They won't be worth anything in two years." Lin Chaoyang interjected.

"Don't interrupt!"

Lin Chaoyang shut his mouth obediently, and Tao Yushu continued to count.

“After paying for the house in the courtyard house in Xiaoliubukou Hutong, I still have RMB 25,000 and HKD 6,060 in foreign exchange in the bank.

We also have 2,011 foreign exchange coupons and 4,080 overseas remittance coupons in hand. "

After settling the accounts, Tao Yushu felt much more at ease.

"Daughter-in-law, you haven't calculated the royalties for the publication of "The Master of Chess" and the royalties for the script of "High Mountain"."

"Have you not received it yet? Let's wait until you receive it."

"My collection should also be included, it will be worth a lot of money in the future."

"It can't be sold. Let's wait until it can be sold later."

…

Lin Chaoyang didn't have to wait too long for the script fee for "Garland Under the Mountain". The fee bill arrived the next day after he finished talking about it, adding another 9,000 yuan to the couple's savings. However, the publication of "The Master of Chess" failed. There seemed to be no movement.

It turns out that Liu Xinwu said that the novel would be published in mid-April. Now that the time has come, there is no response from the publishing house.

Lin Chaoyang originally planned to ask Liu Xinwu about this when he had time, but he didn't expect that he came first.

Speaking of the publication of "The Master of Chess", Liu Xinwu became emotional.

"You have to blame yourself. We still underestimated the appeal of "Shutter Island" before. The last issue of "October" has sold 1.1 million copies so far. Do you know what the concept is?"

"What concept?" Lin Chaoyang asked casually.

Liu Xinwu said with a serious expression: "The sales volume of this issue is going to reach 1.5 million copies."

Lin Chaoyang has no feelings about the sales volume of "1.5 million copies" because the publication of his works has helped the magazine reach this number more than once.

But he also understands that this sales volume should be very important to "October".

"This is not an increase in sales from 1.2 million copies to 3.4 million copies, but an increase in sales from 6.7 million copies to 14.5 million copies. The difficulty is different." Liu Xinwu emphasized.

Lin Chaoyang nodded and understood the difficulty. The higher the sales volume, the more difficult it would be to go further.

"One issue of "October" accounts for one-third of the paper used in our agency this quarter. The next issue of "October" will be released soon in May. This quarter's printing paper consumption has exceeded 100%.

Now many topic selections in the club have been stopped, either waiting for the next quarter or waiting for further coordination with the club.

The sales volume of your "Chess Master" publication must be good, so we can only postpone the plan. "

"October" has more pages and content among literary magazines. This can also be seen from the pricing. As both influential literary magazines, "Yenjing Literature" is priced at 30.2 cents, and "October" is priced at 30.2 cents. 》The price is one dollar.

The magazines at this time were all real, with high prices and rich content, otherwise one issue of "October" would not be able to accommodate a full-length novel.

After listening to Liu Xinwu's explanation, Lin Chaoyang didn't say a word. Printing paper in the domestic publishing industry has been tight these days. The difficulties faced by Yanjing Publishing House are also faced by many colleagues. This kind of thing does not matter to him. Influence.

Liu Xinwu sighed and said: "We really didn't expect that your "Shutter Island" would become such a hit!"

This issue of "October" has been on the market for more than a month, and its sales have repeatedly exceeded the editorial department's expectations, among which "Shutter Island" has contributed most.

Upon closer inspection, suspense themes are not considered to have a broad audience among the broad categories of novels, and because they are highly popular, many works are not highly rated in the literary world.

The success of "Shutter Island" is due to its own quality, Lin Chaoyang's years of reputation accumulation, and the reading taste of the readers during this period.

From the late 1970s to the mid-to-late 1980s, suspense-themed literary and artistic works with strong plots were loved by hundreds of millions of viewers, whether in literature or film.

Take movies as examples: "Shark Fighting" in 1978, "Gunshots from the Secret Service" in 1979, and "405 Murder" in 1980. In the past few years, a suspense-themed movie has shined almost every year.

The hundreds of millions of movie-viewing times prove the appeal of this type of work among the public.

Unfortunately, this type of movies often caused some social incidents, which led to the film bureau's increasingly strict review standards for such movies. The glory of suspense movies has since ceased.

In terms of literature, during this period, a large number of works by Edgar Allan Poe, Conan Doyle and many other famous figures were introduced into the country, and almost every work achieved good sales.

Many factors have come together to contribute to the popularity of "Shutter Island" today.

Not only that, more than a month after its publication, the literary world has received more and more comments on this novel.

Unlike many suspense works that are not well received by the literary world, "Shutter Island" has been praised by many people in the industry, especially in the circle of literary theory research. This novel has been praised and unanimously recognized by many experts and scholars.

Lin Chaoyang followed Liu Xinwu's words and joked, "Then you have to increase my royalties next time!"

"More?" Liu Xinwu widened his eyes and said in fear, "If you increase it again, will you let me live?"

"Pretend! You are pretending with me! I don't believe you can't figure out this account. How much money did my novel make for your magazine?"

Liu Xinwu was exposed by him and smiled embarrassedly.

"You can't calculate it like that. Most of the money we earn doesn't reach the editorial department.

The editorial department has certain rules for the annual manuscript fee expenditure. If you give more, you will give less to others. In the long run, it will be detrimental to the development of the magazine."

"That's something you need to communicate with the higher-ups. I don't believe that your magazine generates so much income for the publishing house, but they will even cut off this little manuscript fee."

When Lin Chaoyang said this, he was still nostalgic in his heart. Old Liu used to be such an honest person, but now he doesn't tell the truth.

Seeing that he couldn't win over Lin Chaoyang, Liu Xinwu changed the subject and asked, "Have you prepared the content of the lecture?"

Some time ago, Liu Xinwu came to Lin Chaoyang and asked him to be a lecturer at the Yenching Literature Institute.

At the beginning of the month, the Literature Institute had already started classes. The first class was taught by Wang Meng, the second class was taught by Qin Chaoyang, and Lin Chaoyang was the third one. There were still five days before he went to teach the students.

"It's almost ready."

There's actually nothing to prepare for this kind of lecture. It's nothing more than drawing up an outline. It depends more on the lecturer's daily learning and creative accumulation.

A few days later, Lin Chaoyang came to the Municipal Workers' Cultural Palace early in the morning.

Today is the weekend, and it is also the third public lecture of the novel workshop of the Yanjing Literary Institute. The auditorium of the Cultural Palace has been bustling since it opened at 7:30 in the morning.

When he arrived at the Cultural Palace, Lin Chaoyang met several comrades in charge of the workshop from the Literary Association, including a familiar face.

"Why are you everywhere?" He looked at Li Tuo in front of him and couldn't help asking.

"The unit is short of manpower and there are too many students, so let me come over to help."

Li Tuo's reason is reasonable.

Last month, the Literary Association specially announced the opening of the novel workshop in the "Yanjing Daily". As soon as the news came out, many literary enthusiasts in Yanjing City gathered to follow.

These people are worried about how to improve their creative ability, publish works, and break into the literary world. This class of the Literary Association provides them with a shortcut.

In less than half a month, the novel workshop had 200 formal students and more than 700 auditors, which was much more than the number of students the Literary Association had initially estimated.

However, there were also benefits to having more people. After one class, the Literary Association received a lot of tuition fees.

The formal students paid 12 yuan, the auditors paid 7 yuan, and the tuition fees for so many students added up to 7,500 yuan.

The Literary Association runs this kind of creative class, except for some lecture fees, and the rest is almost net profit, which can be regarded as a good business to generate income.

There are nearly a thousand people in the creative class, and it is unknown whether there will be successors, but there are definitely no ancients in the past.

With so many students present, it is normal for the Literary Association to send more people.

After chatting with Li Tuo for a while, seeing that the time was almost up, Li Tuo went on stage to guide the process.

The auditorium of the Cultural Palace is very large, with thousands of seats. The students of this workshop almost filled the auditorium. After Lin Chaoyang walked onto the stage and looked at the seats, he saw only a sea of ​​heads.

There was a table and chair on the podium in the auditorium. The table was covered with red cloth, and there were microphones and tea cups on it.

The podium was very large, and the table and chairs were lonely, especially with nearly a thousand students sitting below, which made the small space seem even smaller.

When Li Tuo finished his opening speech and asked Lin Chaoyang to come to the stage, there was warm applause from the audience.

As Lin Chaoyang walked onto the podium, many of the students who were originally sitting stood up. The podium was a distance away from the audience seats. The students sitting in the front row could still see Lin Chaoyang's appearance clearly, while those in the middle and back rows could only see a silhouette.

In order to see Lin Chaoyang's appearance clearly, the students below the stage suddenly became agitated, which scared Lin Chaoyang and Li Tuo on the stage.

"Everyone be quiet! Don't walk around at will, pay attention to the venue discipline!"

Li Tuo shouted loudly with the microphone. After more than ten seconds, the students quieted down and turned to express their welcome and love for Lin Chaoyang with enthusiastic applause again.

There is no Internet communication at this time. For readers, writers are full of mystery and sacred aura.

Lin Chaoyang's many novels have a strong influence among amateur writers and readers. Most of the students present today are seeing him, a popular writer, for the first time. It is normal to be a little excited.

After the students in the audience calmed down, Lin Chaoyang officially started the lecture.

"Hello, students! The Literary Association found me some time ago and asked me to give you a lecture. There is only one class time. To be honest, I don't know where to start and make everyone's trip worthwhile. Today, I will just exchange creative experience with you."

After a few simple opening remarks, Lin Chaoyang said:

"People who are familiar with me know that among contemporary Chinese writers, Mr. Shen Congwen is the one I admire the most.

In the past few years, due to some special reasons, Mr. Shen's works were not well known to the general public. In the past two years, the rapid development of the literary world has allowed Mr. Shen's works to see the light of day again and won the love of many readers.

Today, I will talk about it with you. I will share with you some of my feelings and thoughts when reading Mr. Shen's works. The name of this class can be called "Shen Congwen's Creative Characteristics"..."

Lin Chaoyang on the stage talked freely, and the students in the audience listened attentively.

Later, Li Tuo was chatting with a thin-faced old man wearing glasses.

"He has studied Shen Congwen very thoroughly!"

"Chaoyang works in the library and reads a lot of books. I haven't found any friends around me who read more than him."

"You are so young, it's rare!" The old man showed approval on his face.