I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 188 The Definition of Genius

Shizuko Kawaide took the water cup handed to her by her secretary, took a sip elegantly, and then closed the data analysis spread out on the table.

Just now she analyzed for all the directors the sales curves of the main issue and supplement of "Wenyi" in June, the readers' opinions on the new novel, and the development of a series of derivative businesses based on the novel.

In general, her company's profitability in the first half of 1996 was encouraging, and it is likely to hit a peak in profits in nearly fifty years. The IP adaptation that she and the board of directors attached the most importance to was also a great success - unlike Kodansha, which lost the copyright it had worked so hard to buy.

The results are good, but Shizuko Kawaide also specifically reminded everyone not to be careless because the tortoise and the hare race is about endurance, not explosive power. If you start to slack off now, you may become the laughing stock of the industry by the end of the year.

No matter when, you must work hard and down-to-earth. The one who laughs last is the big winner!

In fact, Shizuko Kawaide herself has been a lot slack recently. After all, no matter how strong a woman she is, she is only 26 years old this year. After taking over such a large company and being able to achieve such good results so quickly, no one can really stay calm.

She was very fortunate to have Teacher Kitagawa by her side, who was two years younger than her but more mature in his work.

When she was a little proud, during a casual chat, Kitagawa Hide told her a short story from the neighboring big country called "Pride comes before a fall".

Beyond the mountains there are green mountains and beyond the buildings there are buildings.

People and things are constantly changing. Even if everything goes smoothly and you are very proud of yourself at this moment, there is no guarantee that this smooth sailing will last a lifetime.

She agreed deeply with what Mr. Beichuan said, and after doing several self-examinations, she repeated it to other directors at today's morning meeting.

This made everyone panic, and they thought they had done something wrong. On a day that should have been a day of celebration, the atmosphere became extremely solemn.

When Kitagawa Hide tells this story, he is actually telling it to himself.

The physical books of "Border" and "Paradise Lost" have started to sell well across the country, and the various incomes accumulated previously have also poured in.

Coupled with the popularity of "No Longer Human", all kinds of peripheral products are selling out.

He conservatively estimated that after the money was distributed at the end of June, there would be at least 15 billion yen in the bank account.

The luxury house in Qingshan Building will be renovated soon, and after a month of "detoxification period", he and Mengzi will be able to move in with their bags.

Luxurious houses, luxury cars, beautiful women, all the things that he had never dared to imagine in his previous life were coming towards him one after another.

It is inevitable that Kitagawa Hideya will relax.

Recently, when he was writing the second half of "Confessions" in a cafe, he found that there were more and more mistakes, omissions, and illogical points - this was obviously because all the good results had eroded his rigorous work attitude.

That's why he specifically mentioned the story of "Pride goes before a fall" when he was having dinner and chatting with Shizuko Kawaide, and warned himself in his heart that he must never let his guard down before he truly became "the best in the world" and a great writer in the Japanese literary world!
However, thanks to Shizuko Kawaide's words, the atmosphere of the meeting changed from relaxed to serious. When Kitagawa Hide stood up and talked about business planning, they all listened carefully and seriously.

Kitagawa Hideki asked Kawaide Shizuko's female secretary to distribute a pile of newspapers with good sales to all directors. He deliberately only selected the literature section, so although a total of nearly 30 different newspapers were collected, it looked like just a small stack.

"Please read the articles in the literary section of these newspapers."

Kitagawa Hide also asked his female secretary to circle all the review drafts related to "Wenyi" with a red pen in advance.

If you open a newspaper at random, you can see the literature section, and at least half of the space is reporting news related to "Literature and Art".

From this we can also see how popular "Wenyi" and "Confessions" have been in society recently.

Kitagawa Hide had already informed Kawaide Shizuko in advance about the business plan he was going to talk about today.

Those directors were just like her last night, holding the newspaper and patiently reading the literary review, but they didn't get the point and were completely confused. They had no idea what Kitagawa Hide was trying to do.

"Is there any problem with these manuscripts by Mr. Beichuan?" someone couldn't help but ask.

In their view, the literary sections of these newspapers are no different from before.

Naturally, the editorials of newspapers that have a good relationship with Kawade Shobo are mostly praiseworthy and boastful, while some newspapers controlled by rival companies specifically nitpick on minutiae and would force themselves to find some black spots to criticize even if there are none.

Kawaide Shobo's resources in this area have always been weak and cannot be compared with Bungeishunju and Shinchosha.

Therefore, whenever Kawade Shobo showed signs of rising, the other four publishing houses would deliberately discredit it through newspapers and literary critics.

In the worst case, the sales and reputation of "Wenyi" will be directly affected.

Even so, Kawade Shobo had to endure the disgust while seeking reconciliation with the other four publishing houses, begging them to stop attacking them.

This is quite like a defeated country ceding territory and paying compensation in exchange for peace.

But this is the general environment of the Japanese media industry. Newspapers, magazines, television and radio are the three major communication media, and all the information the public receives comes from them.

When newspaper news is flooding everywhere criticizing you, people will no longer care whether the matter is true or false. They will just criticize you together first!
Isn’t that what the publicity war between publishing houses is all about?
The directors thought that Kitagawa Hide was dissatisfied with Kawaide Shobo's weak resources in this area and wanted "Confessions" to be more well-received among literary critics.

But before anyone could ask any questions, Kitagawa Hide waved his hand.

"At present, newspapers are still the most mainstream and favorite medium for literary criticism. But in fact, as the behind-the-scenes groups have more and more control over them, readers have gradually abandoned this traditional medium."

Kitagawa Hide asked his female secretary to distribute a bunch of new folders to the directors.

"In other words, the influence of literary reviews in newspapers on readers is becoming less and less. They no longer believe everything they hear, and no longer like this one-sided way of receiving information."

The directors opened the folder in confusion and found it was full of printouts of online forum posts and a bunch of incomprehensible data analysis tables.

The Internet, personal computers, forums. Those who hold high positions and control a lot of wealth naturally know about these emerging technological products.

But just like the mobile phones which have not been popularized so far, the number of people who use these high-tech products is still small. Pagers and PHS (Phase-free Handy Phones) are still the most popular ones. The flip phones used by Kitagawa Hide are luxury products that only the rich can enjoy.

"These things, Mr. Beichuan, do they have any connection with the literary criticism circle and newspapers?" Someone asked immediately after taking a quick look at the materials.

"Of course there are. Please take a closer look at these popular posts in the literature section of the forum. Do they look like literary reviews?"

Kitagawa Hide randomly pulled out a few copies of the post and said with a smile,

"For example, this article, "On the specific manifestation of POV writing techniques in the novel [Confessions], and the impact this writing technique may have on the Japanese literary world in the future."

The directors also pulled out the photocopies and were shocked to find that the poster's nickname was "Professor Takeuchi Osamu of the Faculty of Literature at the University of Tokyo."

"Although the Internet is somewhat anonymous, no one dares to post anything in the name of a Tokyo University professor. I also checked with a friend and found that the post was indeed posted by Professor Takeuchi Osamu."

Kitagawa Hide held the copy and talked about it.
"Please see, there is no need to say much about the professionalism of this article. In the past, such articles published by professors were either published in professional academic journals or included in the most well-known newspapers and magazines.

Because of their special nature, the sales of those publications are very average. For example, I believe that almost no one here has read any of the articles written by Professor Takeuchi Osamu.

Everyone nodded. Not only had they not seen it, some people had never even heard of the name Takeuchi Osamu!
"But now. Professor Takeuchi Osamu posted this literary review for free on the forum. Because it does not have the various costs and barriers of traditional media, it quickly appeared in front of most netizens.

Professor Takeuchi Osamu's professionalism also made his article quickly differentiated in quality from other shoddy posts.

This post has more than 8000 replies before I printed it, and it was posted less than two days ago.

Please look at the data in your hands. The person in charge of the Yahoo Japan Forum told me that the ratio of the number of post responders to the number of post viewers is generally 1:20.

In other words, in two days, Professor Osamu Takeuchi's literary review was viewed more than 160,000 times.

The daily circulation of the Asahi Shimbun is about 600 million copies, of which only % read the literature section. And among the dozens of literary reviews in the section, how many people can read them carefully and make comments on them? "

It would have been better if Kitagawa Hide hadn't said anything. After he said that, they suddenly realized how exaggerated the 160,000 post views were.

Moreover, these netizens are different from those who casually read newspapers. Once they get involved, they may spend several days speaking in a post, debating with others, recommending to each other, and so on.

This is still not a popular Internet community.
The directors seemed to understand and grasp something, but also seemed to understand nothing.

“Personal computers became popular in Japan only last year.

The Japanese version of Windows 95, which was released last year, has a graphical interface that greatly reduces the learning cost for ordinary users, which has led to a sharp increase in the number of Internet users.

I estimate that the number of Internet users in Japan has now exceeded five million.

But now, everyone can only huddle in this small place, the Yahoo Japan Forum.

Over a million Internet users actively search for various posts in the forums every day out of curiosity and desire, which is much better than buying newspapers that you may not read and end up using to wipe your butt or cover your walls. "

Kitagawa Hide knows the future prospects of the Internet better than anyone else present.

Especially the epoch-making operating system Windows 1998 released in 98, which brought a real wave of technological change to Japan.

The Japanese version of Windows 98 was popular among countless users on the day it went on sale, and people lined up until late at night to buy a copy.

It was also from that year ago that Japan completely became an Internet country.

If we wait until then to consider Internet-related industries, then Kawade Shobo, which already has a weak foundation, will be doomed.

Traditional paper media will be gradually eliminated, and e-books will come into being. This is also the fundamental reason why comic books and light novels later shattered physical literature.

After becoming a shareholder of Kawaide Shobo, Kitagawa Hide naturally wanted to maximize his own interests.

After being disgusted by other publishing houses and some leading figures in the Japanese literary world, Kitagawa Hideya gradually began to think about controlling online public opinion and forming a new-age internet troll army.

The role of the navy does not stop there.

The "Drunken Rose Saint War" case, which is still in a stalemate, has not been sentenced yet because many people cannot receive information on time due to the closed information channels, and their true feelings and intentions cannot be conveyed.

By the time people in some remote areas learned about this, it had already been a long time since the incident.

Everyone can only criticize Boy A in newspapers, magazines and on television, but no one can hear such voices, and no one will care.

How can we expect members of Congress to get things done?
The same is true of the literary criticism community, which is very unfriendly to Kitagawa Hide.

Print media is their private territory. How can you win if you insist on fighting them on their turf?
The business plan proposed by Hideaki Kitagawa was to urge Kawaide Shobo to be the first to try something new and set up a special Internet department to improve these things.

Based on the Internet, we will create a new literary criticism circle, or even a new public opinion circle.
It's really an incredible idea!
This was the thought that came to the mind of Shizuko Kawaide when she was the first to finish flipping through the folder.

Mr. Kitagawa is a true genius.

At this moment, a group of board directors gradually understood the true meaning of the word genius.

A genius is someone who has talents that surpass ordinary people in all aspects.

One can write a good book at a young age, one can surpass professors in academic fields without ever attending college, and one can possess extraordinary leadership skills without ever running a company.
If I can be so powerful after graduating from high school, then all the books I have read and the work experience I have had over the years seem like a joke?

The group of people were already stunned, not knowing what to say, with only frustration overflowing from their hearts and mouths.

(End of this chapter)