I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 130 "South of the Border, West of the Sun" is coming!
Melodious jazz music slowly played in the lobby of the cafe.

A group of readers who came here because of his reputation sat down, drinking coffee and admiring Kitagawa Hide's handsome face and his focused work. Then their attention was drawn to the new song on the record player and Mayumi Aso who ran to the bookshelf to hang banners and posters.

【Teacher Kitagawa's new book is coming! 】

["South of the Border, West of the Sun" - a forbidden love story that starts with an extramarital affair! ]

[Have you also suffered from the "empty heart disease"? Have you ever felt distressed because you are an only child? ]

On the huge poster, a lonely man and woman sit on the beach, leaving only their lonely backs to the readers. The scene of sunset or sunrise makes people feel a little desolate.

The entire title of the book "South of the Border, West of the Sun" written in artistic fonts caught their attention. Coupled with the moving melody of the song, it was as if there was a wonderful feeling of roaring waves and the morning light coming in an instant.

It really is Mr. Kitagawa’s new book!
"It's not a wasted trip today! I actually saw the promotion of Mr. Kitagawa's new book! This style, extramarital affair? Is he going to go back to writing the romantic genre that he is best at?"

"Idiot! Teacher Kitagawa always likes to use the guise of youthful love to express some thought-provoking philosophy. Can those romance novelists compare to this? Don't use this word to tarnish Teacher Kitagawa!"

"But speaking of which, the extramarital affair seems to be for middle-aged people. Is this a novel written for those uncles and aunts?"

Most of the people present were young readers, and the "Youth Trilogy" mainly targets this type of audience. To be honest, just looking at the extramarital affair is like looking at Mayumi Aso's plump back at this moment. Although it is attractive, they always feel that it is not as interesting as the innocent and lovely female classmates in the class.

Middle-aged men like young women who are as ripe as honey pears, while teenage boys prefer young girls who are as sweet as apples.

However, another theme, "only child", is very consistent with their situation.

Those born in the late 70s and early 80s are younger than Kitagawa Hide, who was born in 72. They happened to be born during the poorest period of Japan's post-war era, with a low fertility rate and most of the children being only children.

Later children often have several brothers and sisters.

In short, Kitagawa Hide's novels always attract a variety of readers from multiple angles, and they have never doubted Kitagawa Hide's writing ability.

The cafe was filled with chatter about Kitagawa Hide's new book. It was also written on the poster that the new novel would be serialized directly in the January issue of "Wenyi". They were all a little impatient!
Listening to the discussions of these readers, Kitagawa Hide didn't pay much attention. He asked Mayumi Aso to help promote the new novel and mentioned that the song on this record is called "South of the Border".

Anyway, just raise their expectations to the maximum!
In newspapers, the literature section is already promoting the first issue of magazines of the new year from various publishing houses.

The Japanese attach great importance to "a good start to the year", which is related to their superstitious customs that many things they do are related to ghosts and gods. They believe that if the first business of the "new year" is not good, they will be disliked by Lord Ebisu and it will be difficult to make a comeback in the following year.

Therefore, some industries are even willing to reduce profits in order to get a chance at the jackpot. Kitagawa Hide likes to go shopping during this period of time. The discounts in shopping malls are unprecedentedly large, and it is a sure profit!
Look back at the literature section.

The only dominant magazine, Shincho, has absolutely no interest in the fierce competition among the other three. There is nothing particularly new in the catalog of the first issue released in the new year. The ratio of new generation, middle generation and older generation writers is normal, and no "upper-class writer" suddenly publishes a book to snipe Kitagawa Hide.

Come to think of it, as the most favorite pure literature magazine among politicians, the top priority at this time is to show goodwill to the newly-appointed Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto who took office yesterday.

Tomiichi Murayama was spurned by the chaebols for his severe crackdown on cults and punishment of American soldiers. The Socialist Party suffered its biggest Waterloo in history and was easily defeated by the Liberal Democratic Party, and withdrew from the stage of history forever.

The Liberal Democratic Party has regained control of the political arena after many years. Shincho will definitely put forward a group of writers who are inclined towards the Liberal Democratic Party to express its attitude. How can it have the time to engage in industry struggles with Wen Yi Ye?

"Literary World" and "Group Portrait" have joined forces to put advertisements for a public social fiction writing competition everywhere. There are no restrictions on the age of writers or the length of novels, and it even blurs the line between pure literature and popular literature for the first time.

Kitagawa Hideto was a little tempted by the 1000 million yen prize.

In Japan, ordinary company employees who can get this kind of annual salary are basically at the top of the workers.

In addition to soliciting articles, the new issues of these two magazines also invited many "upper-class writers" to contribute. Among the newly serialized novels, many writers left Hede Shobo.

From planning to implementation to the start of the war, Noma Sawako's experience is far beyond that of Noma Airi. Ueno Toru, a top right-wing element, has many connections in the political and literary circles, and once the war was launched, it really seemed like the real deal.

Shueisha's "Qunshe" also called back its mainstay from vacation. Although it did not say that a new book would be published in the January issue, it was clear that it was very dissatisfied with being overtaken by "Wenyi" last year.

Oricon statistics show that since Kitagawa Hide came, the sales of the last few issues of "Wenyi" have not been less than 50 copies, and it has been pressing the head of "Qunxing" and rubbing it hard on the ground.

It’s thanks to Kitagawa Hide’s late arrival, otherwise "Wenyi" might have surpassed "Qunxing" in annual sales.

Shueisha has been holding back its anger for the entire New Year, and it will certainly not let go of the opportunity to give the fallen dog a beating after the spring comes!

The most difficult issue is the Ministry of Education, which has intervened unexpectedly.

Last year, Kitagawa Hide had a debate with a group of scholars at Kyoto University, and he criticized not only right-wing writers such as Shintaro Ishihara and Sadatsugu Ichiko, but also the forces behind them.

Nikkatsu Co., Ltd. officially declared bankruptcy after filming "Hear the Wind Sing". The Ishihara Group suffered heavy losses and blamed all the faults on Kitagawa Hide. Ichiko Sadajū fell ill. As a member of the Academy of Arts, he represented the highest authority in the literary world and was challenged by a young man. Countless eyes were fixed on Kitagawa Hide, and they would definitely wait for an opportunity to give him a fatal blow.

After being silent for a while, "Ichiro" Takeda Tsuneyasu began to write various literary reviews under his real name to criticize Kitagawa Hide's works.

These people are really not good people. Under such a fierce offensive, if the new novel cannot continue to make great progress, Kitagawa Hide and Kawaide Shobo may fall into a desperate situation.

Kitagawa Hide closed the newspaper and opened the Qiwu.com forum. While searching for interesting news reports, he thought about what novels he could write to continue to enhance his popularity and status in the literary world.

In fact, he has several hidden talents, such as "Snow Country", which won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and "The Football Team of 1901".

But these two books are totally inappropriate now, just like when you are playing a quiz game and someone asks you "yes or no" and you answer "or", which is totally irrelevant.

It is easy for people to think that you are avoiding the challenge.

Kitagawa Hide looked around and found no interesting news, so he had to leave the forum, open the document, and continue writing "South of the Border, West of the Sun".

Before I knew it, another six days had passed.

This week, the fierce competition among the five major publishing houses seemed to have dragged the cooperating bookstores into the quagmire.

Since the release of "Qun Xiang" on January 1, readers have been delighted to find that these pure literature magazines are on sale for the New Year!

"Group Portrait" has given itself a discount. The original price was 800 yen, and the current price is 600 yen, highlighting the large quantity and affordability.

Don't underestimate this discount sales strategy.

Readers, like consumers, have a tendency to seek small bargains. When the discounted price reaches their psychological expectations, they are likely to be willing to spend a little money to buy something that is not practical.

For example, most of the high-level games will be left in the library gathering dust, and the e-books sold in packages are basically never read, etc.

It’s just a small amount of money anyway, so just buy it.

Judging from the feedback from sales data, it is also proved that the desperate move of "Group Portrait" did pull them back from the brink of death.

After its release on January 1, in just three days until January 15, the total sales of "Group Portrait" exceeded 1 copies, with an average of 18 copies per day, as if it had returned to the state when the "Youth Trilogy" was serialized in the past!
The Literary World, which follows closely behind, is not far behind.

This issue serializes new books by six "upper-class writers", including Shintaro Ishihara's new work, "Brother", which was written in memory of his deceased brother and is based on the life of Yujiro Ishihara.

After he and Ichiko Sadatsugu and others were criticized by Kitagawa Hide, Ishihara Shintaro has been silent for a long time. Now he has reappeared as a freelance writer, serializing novels in "Literary World" and participating in interviews, saying that Kitagawa Hide's award-winning "Akudatsu-kun" seriously slandered his younger brother.

We have to say that this outspoken right-wing writer really understands traffic. Ever since he discovered that his writing ability was not good enough and readers were gradually not buying it, he started to eat up the traffic of his dead brother. How shameless!

But this week all these big events had to give way to one person and one book.

That is Kitagawa Hide's new book, "South of the Border, West of the Sun," which was serialized in the January 1996 issue of "Wenyi"!
This novel was posted in the form of a large banner at the entrance of the new headquarters of Kawade Shobo. People passing by Kawade Shobo from a distance could see the title of the book.

In addition, Shinjuku's Kabukicho was inexplicably filled with advertisements for this novel, and one of the themes, "extramarital affair," was specially marked in red, for fear that others would not know about it.

Shigeo Nishiguchi of the Sumiyoshi-kai knows the principle of returning a favor. Mr. Kitagawa gave him his business card, which is a great favor!
He must repay her with all his strength, and then find a way to invite Mr. Kitagawa to have a meal in Kabukicho!

He still doesn’t understand the title of this new book, but he understands the theme of “extramarital affair”!
He immediately ordered his subordinates to help promote the work, making sure that everyone passing by Shinjuku district could see Mr. Kitagawa's new work.

And just like that, January 1th arrived.

In the first month of 1996, all bookstores in Tokyo experienced a terrifying wave of traffic that was comparable to the "great migration" before the New Year!
In order to respond to the provocations from Kodansha and Bungeishunju, Kawaide Shobo also put in its best efforts this time.

Shizuko Kawaide defied all odds and, despite pressure from the board of directors, announced that this issue of "Wenyi" would be discounted in half price, from the original price of 800 yen to 400 yen, and could be used together with other discounts at the bookstore!

At the same time, "Wenyi" was also released simultaneously across the country for the first time, breaking away from the traditional model of being released first in Tokyo and then three days to a week later in other regions.

On December 1th.

Outside the seaside bookstore in Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Tomomi Muramatsu and his lover Rinko Matsubara were frightened by the terrifying long dragon outside the bookstore!
(End of this chapter)