I am a literary giant in Japan

The popularity of the final chapter of "Snow Country" was both reasonable and unexpected.

Everyone knows that the April issue of "Wenyi" will definitely sell well because of the completion of Mr. Kitagawa's new book.

But on April 4, 18 million copies were sold on the same day, a horrifying statistic that still scared countless people in the industry.

If Oricon had not never falsified data, people in the publishing industry would have suspected that this was a deliberate "guilt by the underworld" plot by Kawaide Shobo.

The popularity of "Snow Country", like the hot sales of "The Dancing Girl of Izu", made the previously unknown Niigata Prefecture become the most attractive tourist destination in Japan in the first half of 1998.

After Izu became popular last time, the tourism economy of the entire Izu city grew hundreds of times, making the senior officials of the city government smile from ear to ear.

It is said that now Minamiizu and Kitaizu each have erected a statue of Kitagawa Hide. In order to compete for the ownership of "The Dancing Girl of Izu", the politicians of these two places fought each other and they even wanted to post Kitagawa Hide's book directly on the gates of their own governments!
Niigata Prefecture also took advantage of this wave to launch a tourism offensive, including charging for chartered cars and accommodation, and temporarily opening a large number of travel agencies. In short, with the support of the local government, dozens of travel agencies sprang up like mushrooms after a rain and divided up all the profits.

Of course, they did not forget Mr. Kitagawa, the biggest contributor to all this.

After arranging for a guard team to protect the graves of Komako and Yoko day and night, the governor of Niigata Prefecture made a special phone call to Kitagawa Hide to "take credit" and hoped that Mr. Kitagawa would bring "Snow Country" to Niigata Prefecture for tourism promotion a few more times in the future.

If Kitagawa Hide had not already signed a contract with Izu, Niigata Prefecture would definitely have invited him to be a tourism ambassador - it doesn't matter whether he comes or not, it's just a matter of paying money and improving his favorability!
Wave after wave of readers made pilgrimages to the small mountain village in Niigata Prefecture. The dilapidated village gradually came back to life, and the silkworm house that was burned down by the fire became another special "pilgrimage site."

The "grave destruction" incident that Hide Kitagawa was worried about did not happen.

On the contrary, within a few days, the silkworm house and the graves of the two girls were filled with all kinds of flowers and tributes.

Over time, praying for the innocent victims who died in the fire on April 4th has become a new traditional custom in Niigata Prefecture.

These events were also reported by local television stations and the six major television stations in the Tokyo area.

Everyone is saying that Mr. Kitagawa’s readers are indeed more qualified than ordinary readers—especially better than the readers of a certain guy who claims to be “the best in the world”!

Ichiro Tanizaki never expected that after being thrown into prison, he would be dragged out and criticized. If he had known this, I wonder if he would regret having to compete with Kitagawa Hideichi.

Kitagawa Hide's influence continues to grow, and "Snow Country" has also been elevated from the original literary work of the aesthetics of mono no aware to a quasi-documentary literature that reflects social history and current conditions.

Some of his previous works, such as "Confessions" which is specifically directed at Shinichiro Azuma, have been included in the must-read books for students in all major high schools and junior high schools.

Among them, "Confessions", "No Longer Human" and "Norwegian Wood" were included in the high school Chinese textbooks by the Ministry of Education;
"The Dancing Girl of Izu" and "Snow Country" are included in the Chinese language textbooks for both high schools and junior high schools, and "Snow Country" is a required course in all textbooks.

All those who had previously questioned the Tokyo University Faculty of Literature's decision to use "Snow Country" as the initial test topic for doctoral students have shut up, and more and more universities have quietly followed suit, using Kitagawa Hide's novel as a required topic for the Faculty of Literature test.

The controversial Takeuchi Osamu became a well-known figure in the university academic circle, was regarded as a leading figure in the literary academic circle, and his historical status continued to rise.

Even Takeuchi Osamu himself was amused.

The original intention of taking this risk was to give Kitagawa Hide a push so that he could successfully enter the most closed academic circle.

Because only someone with his ability and influence can bring new energy to Japan's literary and academic circles in the future.

it's good now.

Instead, I became the ultimate beneficiary because I promoted "Snow Country".

This wave of reversal made Takeuchi Osamu laugh and cry, and the subsequent changes also made him a little worried.

After reaping this wave of fame and fortune, Kitagawa Hide did not continue to stir up the academic circle, but instead devoted himself to what he called "Internet electronic reading."

Beichuan is the first literary magazine in the publishing industry to have its own physical website. Its model of offline sales plus online paid subscriptions shocked the publishing industry.

No one believes that anyone would subscribe to magazines online.

If you have money but don’t buy physical books, you’d be crazy to subscribe to the electronic version online and read it!
The electronic version has no collection value, and even if the price is ridiculously cheap, no one will buy it.
Many people think so, and they also think that Mr. Beichuan might be a little crazy about money, so he came up with such an outrageous thing.

In fact, Beichuan has quite a few online subscribers, with over 1.3 people paying for subscriptions in that issue, far exceeding their imagination.

However, the price of the electronic version of the magazine is only one-tenth of that of the physical book, and the total number of subscribers is only 1.3, which means that only 1300 physical copies of "Beichuan" were sold, and this sales volume is almost negligible.

Therefore, the industry was only slightly shocked and did not think that Mr. Kitagawa's strategy was successful.

They were just a little surprised that someone actually paid for the electronic version.

Only Kitagawa Hide and a few high-level people in Kitagawa Entertainment knew how outrageous and exaggerated this data was.

First of all, Beichuan is a pure literature magazine with a relatively small audience, and most of its current readers are readers of physical books. They buy the physical book first and will definitely not buy the electronic version later.

Secondly, there was no publicity for the electronic paid version, relying purely on spontaneous subscriptions from readers of the website. It was already terrifying to sell 1.3 copies without any publicity.

Finally, in 1998, home computers were not yet popular in Japan, and people who read novels on computers only accounted for a small part of the Internet population.

People in the data department have calculated that there are about 5 real online readers of "Beichuan", and now 1.3 of them are willing to subscribe to the electronic version. The subscription ratio is less than 4:1, and the payment rate is ridiculously high!

These implicit data tell Kitagawa Hide that the electronic version will inevitably become the largest medium in the literary industry in the future, just like in the past!
With the rise of Internet e-reading, light novels are bound to replace traditional literature and become the most profitable novel genre!
While many people were still talking about Hide Kitagawa's "Snow Country", time quietly came to the end of April 1998.

Ma Yueran, who was far away at the Swedish Academy, was surprised and angry when she received an inquiry call from Beichuan Xiu.

The annual Nobel Prize in Literature selection campaign has begun again.

He and Knut and others had gone to the Academy of Literature with great enthusiasm to participate in the evaluation, determined to make Kitagawa Hideshi deserve the honor this time.

After all, Kitagawa Hide was so prolific last year, from "Remembrance of Things Past" to "One Hundred Years of Solitude", and then to "Norwegian Wood" and "The Old Man and the Sea".

Among these works, except for "Norwegian Wood" which has a Japanese style, the other three works are pure world literature style.

In particular, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" has now become the best-selling book in the six civet cat countries. It is also popular in America and other places, and is sought after by countless readers.

"Remembrance of Things Past" is also very popular, not to mention in France. Some masters of French literary world have already claimed that "Remembrance of Things Past" surpasses all the famous French literary masterpieces of all ages. It is "the longest river and the highest mountain"!
Even though this book is still in its serialization stage and looks like it will take several months to be completed, it does not affect French readers' love and pursuit of it at all.

The Chanel Group also gained a large number of loyal customers, and Olivia's own perfume brand became one of the best-selling luxury perfume brands in 1998 thanks to the endorsement of Yumeko and the promotion of Hide Kitagawa.

The recently completed book, The Old Man and the Sea, is also remarkable. Santiago’s story has spread all over the West Coast and is also being told in Los Angeles, Hawaii and other places.

The most outrageous thing is that someone found the prototype of the protagonist of the novel, the old man Santiago.

Americans were particularly shocked by the fact that Kitagawa's stories seemed to be based on reality, rather than fiction.

The best-selling of "The Old Man and the Sea" in the United States also boosted the book "Border".

The love story of Hatsu and Shimamoto was told again and again, and then the American version of "Border" came into being, which caused a great response in the American literary world.

These books are also popular in various parts of South Korea. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" saved the Wengmun Village Publishing House from the abyss, and the subsequent "Norwegian Wood" further ignited the Korean literary market, adding a touch of warmth to South Korea, which was in the midst of an economic depression.

Now I heard that Kitagawa Hide has written another book called "Snow Country", and its response in Japan is even greater than that of "The Dancing Girl of Izu".

Ma Yueran and others didn't have time to see it.

But those four works alone are enough for Kitagawa Hide to be shortlisted, and winning the award is not impossible.

But unexpectedly, the final result was that Kitagawa Hide was not even shortlisted!

The reason for being blocked was unclear. Among the 18 lifetime judges, eight abstained, three were in favor of the nomination, and seven were against it.

Ma Yueran and others were very puzzled, but they did not get any substantive answers after arguing with other judges several times.

In the end, it was Kitagawa Hide's inquiry phone call that answered their doubts.

They also heard about the Arnaults' private club and the decadence in the Norwegian and Swedish literary circles.

However, each circle is not very clean after gaining certain resources and power.

They rely on the circle and the influence of the circle to make a fuss, so if things are not big, they will turn a blind eye.

Ma Yueran and the others never imagined that Arnault's private club had become so rampant!
They blatantly manipulated the shortlist for the Nobel Prize in Literature and had connections with the government and the United States.

These powerful people united together to put pressure on each other, and there were certain tricks in the selection of not only the Nobel Prize in Literature, but also other Nobel Prizes.

The only award that has been controversial throughout history is the Nobel Peace Prize, but everyone who understands the nature of this award understands it, and no one will touch the core interests of those politicians.

But the Nobel Prize in Literature is different!

Looking at the motto stone tablet outside the School of Arts, Ma Yueran and others began to feel nauseous.

Unfortunately, no matter how much they objected, their words were few and far between.

In May, Arnault’s private club will “leak” the shortlist, and then people in the literary world around the world will know that Kitagawa Hide was not selected.

It is hard to say how people in the literary circles of other countries will view such a big joke.

Anyway, Ma Yueran had a vague feeling that if this matter was not handled properly, the reputation of the Nobel Prize in Literature might be seriously damaged!
After several discussions, five lifetime judges including Ma Yueran and Knut submitted applications for temporary resignation, intending not to continue participating in the award selection activities within 5-10 years.

This was the first time that a member of the Swedish Academy voluntarily applied for temporary leave, and the matter soon alarmed the governments of Sweden and Norway, and members of the royal family also cast their eyes on it.

With the help of the Arnault couple, the temporary separation crisis was quickly resolved.

However, overseas media have begun to pay attention to this interesting incident.

There are still five months until the Nobel Prize winners are announced.

At this stage, it should just be the shortlist that has been released, and it has not yet reached the final selection stage. At this time, a lifetime judge has left. It is obvious that there is a big deviation in the shortlist and many people disagree.

The media who smelled the scent dug up all kinds of information, and after investing money and using connections again and again, they finally caught a key clue - the matter was most likely related to Kitagawa Hide who missed the award last time.

While overseas literary circles began to speculate on the shortlist for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Japan was calm and had not yet caused any waves due to the matter.

After receiving a general reply, Kitagawa Hide was neither sad nor happy, and continued to work on the things at hand and continued to write "Tokyo People" and "Hagane Naoki".

These two books are what he cares most about at the moment.

For him, the best outcome was that Rena Saito did not go to Stockholm.

Rena Saito herself felt very guilty and always thought that it was because of her that Kitagawa Hide failed to win the award.

Shizuko Kawaide stood firmly on Kitagawa Hide's side on this matter, and persuaded Saito Rena not to worry about it - even though Kitagawa Hide didn't have the Nobel Prize, he was still the "number one in the world" in Japanese literary circles and a world-famous great writer.

But Kitagawa Hide is gone.

Does the Nobel Prize in Literature really have such high value?
Thinking of the once-mighty Tanizaki Prize and Akutagawa Prize, Shizuko Kawaide really didn't think that she could sit back and relax and win the Nobel Prize in Literature over Mr. Kitagawa.

Anyway, the thing hasn't happened yet, so they didn't care too much. In the end, they just responded to each move as it came.

Time flies and it is already May.

The weather in Tokyo is gradually getting hotter, and the hearts of readers are also becoming restless.

The April issue of "Wenyi" was printed one after another. Along with the publication of the physical books of several other books, the publication of the physical book of "Snow Country" was talked about by countless readers.

This time, readers also specifically called on Kawade Shobo to publish the most expensive hardcover paperback edition!
Money doesn’t matter, the main thing is that it must have collection value!
Kawaide Shobo also wants to publish "Snow Country" as soon as possible, but now the copyright fees for each of Kitagawa Hide's physical single-volume books need to be renegotiated, and the copyright department is still stuck on "The Old Man and the Sea".

Going further up, the book that has just been signed for publication is "Norwegian Wood". The contract states that Kitagawa Hidekazu will receive 35% of the sales profits, and the copyright fee for 10 years is 75 billion yen!

The price of "The Old Man and the Sea" is likely to be higher, but considering Kawaide Shobo's current financial situation, it is difficult to offer a price of 100 billion yen.

As for the currently popular "Snow Country", Shizuko Kawaide thinks that 150 billion or even 200 billion is not excessive.

But she can't afford it! (End of this chapter)