Tokyo Literary Godfather

"Mr. Itagaki, this is Fujiwara." Kei Fujiwara did not make this call from the phone booth on the roadside. Instead, he hurried home and called Itagaki Kazuhiko from his home landline phone.

"Fujiwara-kun, there is good news and bad news, which one do you listen to first?" Itagaki Kazuhiko's voice rang on the other end of the phone.

He was still in the mood to joke, it seemed that the good news was going to overwhelm the bad news. Fujiwara Kei said: "Listen to the good news first."

Itagaki Kazuhiko was silent on the other end of the phone: "How about hearing the bad news first?"

Fujiwara Kei smiled and said, "Well, what's the bad news?"

"Unfortunately, "White Night Journey" failed to pass the serialization meeting of "Spring and Autumn Literature Appreciation". Your work cannot be serialized in this magazine."

Kei Fujiwara felt a "thump" in his heart. Since there is no way to serialize, isn't everything in vain? How much better can the good news be?

"Then... what's the good news?"

"Although it failed to pass the serialization meeting of "Spring and Autumn Literature Appreciation", the editor-in-chief decided to have this book serialized in "Qiankun Chunqiu", a supplement of "Spring and Autumn Literature Appreciation". In other words, Fujiwara-kun, congratulations, you have been serialized. Qualified."

""Qian Kun Chunqiu"..." Fujiwara-kun has some impressions of this set of magazines. It has been officially published for about a year. It is a newborn magazine.

Both in terms of reader base and popularity, it is incomparable to "Spring and Autumn Literature Appreciation". Most of its readers are diverted from this magazine, and its monthly sales are only less than one-third of this magazine. .

Fujiwara Kei was a little disappointed and didn't know how to answer for a moment.

Seeing that Kei Fujiwara was silent, Itagaki Kazuhiko sighed and said, "Sure enough, this is actually not good news."

"It's nothing, Mr. Itagaki, thank you for your hard work these days..."

"The sales volume of the supplement is indeed not as good as that of this journal, but one advantage is that the vast majority of authors in this journal are not unknown writers or new writers..."

"You should know that the data on the readership table during the magazine's serialization period is very important, which determines how much attention we attach to the book when it is released as a single volume. For novels that perform well in data feedback, we will come up with more Resources are used for publicity and distribution, well-known writers will also be invited to recommend, and the first printing will be more."

"If you publish in this journal, you have no previous works and no fan base. Compared with well-known writers, you will have an inherent disadvantage. In the supplement, all authors are almost on the same starting line."

"Although the sales of "Qiankun Chunqiu" are not as good as "Spring and Autumn Literature Appreciation" for the time being, the magazine has high expectations for this set of publications. Its sales are also increasing every month, and it is a publication with great potential."

"Mr. Itagaki, it goes without saying." Fujiwara Keidao, "I have no intention of looking down on new magazines. On the contrary, I have been rejected repeatedly because I am a newcomer. How could I reject a magazine with potential and responsibility for the same reason?" Where’s the editor?”

Itagaki and Yanxi said: "I knew... Fujiwara-kun, if you are free tomorrow, please come to our editorial department and let's talk about the details of the serialization."

Kei Fujiwara agreed, and chatted with Kazuhiko Itagaki for a while, and after hanging up the phone, the two breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

Kei Fujiwara said: It is indeed qualified for serialization, but it is slightly different from the initial expectation.

But it doesn't matter, the arrangement of manpower is always difficult to match the fate of heaven, whether it is a mule or a horse, let's take it out for a walk.

When Itagaki Kazuhiko was at home, he read "White Night Journey" carefully again. No matter how you look at it, this is a unique and good book. To produce such a level of work in his debut, Fujiwara Kei is undoubtedly a genius.

Is it just the identity of a newcomer, coupled with the subject matter that is temporarily out of place with the market, that makes the pearl dusty?

In fact, this is not only his opinion, even Minister Kawaguchi seems to appreciate this "Bai Ye Xing".

When "White Night Walk" was first presented to Kawaguchi Nobu's desk, Kawaguchi Nobu didn't seem to care too much, but Itagaki Kazuhiko would run to him every few hours to ask him where he had seen the book, which made his boss very upset. In desperation, I had no choice but to read "White Night Journey" first among the many books that need to be reviewed.

As a result, the next day, Nobuo Kawaguchi came to the editorial department with two dark circles under his eyes.

The first thing I did when I came here was to find Itagaki Kazuhiko and tell him that Kei Fujiwara's book would not be serialized in "Spring and Autumn Literature Appreciation" for at least half a year.

The first is that he does not dare to take risks again and randomly publish socialist reasoning works. He has already failed miserably once. If he fails again, he is afraid that there is a problem with his ability as the editor-in-chief;

The second is that there is no extra space. In the past three months, eight or nine new novels have been serialized. It will take at least more than half a year to finish these novels, and some space will be reserved for well-known writers, so there is no extra space. The paper is given to the newcomer's novel "White Night Journey", so we can't increase the number of pages for it, right?

To sum up, "White Night Journey" seems to have no connection with "Spring and Autumn Literature Appreciation".

But Nobu Kawaguchi seemed to be moved by "White Night Journey", so he decided to give this novel a chance to be serialized in a supplement.

In supplements, it is easier for a newcomer to get higher praise. If Fujiwara Kei is really talented, let him find a way to defeat all his peers and climb up from "Qiankun Spring and Autumn"!

The next day, Itagaki Kazuhiko sat in his seat and looked at his watch from time to time.

Such frequent small movements were immediately caught by Shimada. It was obvious that he was waiting for someone, and it was a very important person.

For an editor, there is only one very important person, and that is a writer who can write a best-selling work. Compared with these writers, the editor-in-chief would leave me alone.

There are few authors who can make Itagaki Kazuhiko so nervous. People like Shimada couldn't help but become curious about the mysterious author.

Shimada turned to the boy in a suit behind him and asked, "Kikuchi-kun, has that guy Itagaki contacted any teacher recently?"

Kikuchi Yohei glanced at Itagaki Kazuhiko, "I haven't heard of it."

The relationship between Shimada Nai and Itagaki Kazuhiko is tense within the company. The two have similar qualifications in the magazine and have a competitive relationship.

He was considered a student from a prestigious school, and he had always looked down upon Itagaki Kazuhiko, who graduated from an ordinary school.

The Japanese workplace pays attention to the sequence of seniority, and often ability does not overwhelm seniority, so if there is a chance for promotion, Kazuhiko Itagaki has an advantage.

In fact, although Kazuhiko Itagaki has a mediocre education, as an editor, he has always been extremely capable. It is not surprising that he has a higher priority than Shimada in the workplace. But the Shimada-like person is still on the edge of his horn, thinking that he only has a competitive advantage by relying on how old he is.

Therefore, he has always had some resentment towards Itagaki Kazuhiko. When he usually interacted with Itagaki Kazuhiko, he did not show any respect from juniors to seniors and never used honorifics. This made the traditional-minded Itagaki Kazuhiko a little angry and felt that he was not respected.

Coupled with a plagiarism incident a few years ago, the relationship between the two has deteriorated. At that time, the co-author of Yoshito Shimada plagiarized someone else's article, and the object of his plagiarism was the author of Itagaki.

The editor naturally sided with his own author, and the two accused each other at the meeting, quarreling fiercely, and the impact was very bad.

Later, although the two authors reached a reconciliation, Liang Zi, the editor, became stronger and stronger.

Last year, Itagaki Kazuhiko's performance was poor. He mistakenly read a work and ranked at the bottom. It is estimated that the single volume will not be sold. If he can sell 10,000 copies, he will be lucky. This also dealt a head-on blow to Itagaki Kazuhiko, who could have been promoted to the team leader, but made Shimada like people applaud.

If Itagaki Kazuhiko couldn't be promoted to the team leader, wouldn't he have a chance with someone with similar qualifications?

So recently, Yoshito Shimada has been working very diligently, constantly contacting well-known authors, asking authors for manuscripts, and reading manuscripts, he is very busy.

But at the same time, in order to avoid making the same mistake as that idiot Itagaki, Shimada also made a ideological stamp on himself, that is, he will never accept the reasoning works of the socialists!