I am a literary giant in Japan

After seeing Jabami Rei's reaction, Kitagawa Hide had a rough idea of ​​the quality of "The Little Prince".

After breakfast, he called Keiko Shimamura (she had held a secret wedding with Mr. Shimamura a few days ago and was officially together) to come home to look after the two little ones, and then drove Jabami Rei to Toho Co., Ltd.

In order to avoid being photographed by paparazzi and causing unnecessary trouble, Jaburi Rei got off the car one thousand meters away from the company.

Seeing that she was covered up tightly and looked around every time she took a step, Kitagawa Hide felt infinite emotion.

It’s not easy to be a popular actress!
It’s better for a national-level writer like me to be free!
After sending Jabami Rei off, Kitagawa Hide directly asked Saito Rena for some information about the editor-in-chief of children's literature magazines.

He called them one by one to consult, and finally decided on one of them and invited him to a nearby cafe.

At noon.

"Teacher Kitagawa! I would like to ask you a question. Did you only write these five chapters of The Little Prince? There should be a sequel, right?"

In a high-end coffee shop in the Hong Kong area, a middle-aged man with a slicked-back hair and a well-tailored suit sat upright.

After reading the manuscript handed over by Kitagawa Hide, he tried his best to suppress his excitement and asked this.

His name is Iwaya Kohashi, and he is the editor-in-chief of the famous Japanese children's literature magazine "MOE" picture monthly.

Modern Japanese children's literature began in the Meiji era (1868-1911), two hundred years later than European children's literature and several decades earlier than other Asian countries.

Its iconic work was "The Golden Pill" in 1891, which was serialized in the children's literature magazine "Young World" founded by the largest publishing house at the time, Hakubunkan.

Times change and time flies. After several reforms and mergers, "Young World" has now been renamed "MOE".

"MOE" is currently the only magazine in Japan that uses picture books as its main serialization format, and it is still in the extremely niche children's literature track.

Now that the children's literature market is dominated by a large number of overseas children's literature works, almost no publishing house is optimistic about "MOE".

The core equity of "MOE" is currently owned by Hakusensha, a subsidiary of Shueisha.

This is a small publishing house that mainly publishes girls' comics, but the most famous manga it has published is Kentaro Miura's "Berserk".

Hakusensha also had a very negative attitude towards "MOE", providing it with almost no resources and leaving it alone throughout the entire process.

Although not favored by the market, "MOE" is extremely tenacious. It has survived 43 years despite a lot of doubts and is becoming more and more "young and energetic".

Three years ago, the board of directors of Hakusensha nominated Iwatani Kohashi as the editor-in-chief of MOE and made a bet with him on sales of 10 billion yen in three years.

If Iwatani Koba can achieve a total sales of 10 billion yen for "MOE" within three years, he will be made an exception and be included in the board of directors of Hakusensha.

If he fails, Iwatani Koba will have to pay a high penalty of about 5 million yen in total!

5 million yen is the life savings of him, his wife, and even their parents.

But in order to cross the class and become a true "Tokyo citizen", Iwatani Koba gritted his teeth and signed the gambling agreement.

In the past two years, Iwaya Kohashi has made major reforms to "MOE", making the fairy tales serialized in it more imaginative and story-telling.

In order to attract more high-quality fairy tale literature creators, he also regularly organizes various story writing competitions with prizes, and is nicknamed "Story Uncle" by the industry.

Even so, the total sales of "MOE" in two years is still only 1.5 million yen, which is far from the agreed 10 billion yen.

1998 is the third year, and almost half of this year has passed. The total sales of "MOE" are still only 1.2 million yen. Although it is getting better every year, the gap with the goal is still too far.

Looking at the huge gap of 8.8 million yen, Iwatani Koba was extremely desperate.

Then at this moment, a phone call came in that he could never have imagined.

After confirming again and again that the other party was Mr. Kitagawa, Iwaya Xiaobo suddenly felt that his chance to turn things around had come!
After reading the first five chapters of "The Little Prince", he could almost conclude that this short fairy tale would become a hit throughout Japan!
He asked this now because he wanted to confirm whether this was just a spur of the moment idea on the part of Mr. Kitagawa or whether he really wanted to try writing some children's literature.

After all, Mr. Kitagawa is currently writing two books.

One is "Hanzawa Naoki", which is popular all over Japan and is loved by men, women, young and old; the other is "Tokyo People", which has resonated with countless Tokyo residents.

It is hard to imagine that while he was creating these two excellent works, he still had the energy to write some children's literature.

If he suddenly stopped writing and only published one or two issues of The Little Prince, it would be difficult for him to achieve his sales bet target.

“As for the sequel, I will hurry up to make up for it. The story of The Little Prince mainly tells about his travels on six planets, and the total length will not be too long.

I hope that after your company is willing to accept the manuscript, you can invite some top painters in the painting world to provide illustrations. "

Kitagawa Hideru said truthfully,

“The reason why I finally chose your publishing house is because you are very famous in the picture book industry and are related to children’s literature, which is very consistent with my needs.”

"I see! Don't worry, Mr. Kitagawa! As long as you are willing to serialize "The Little Prince" in "MOE", we will definitely do our best to find the best painter to cooperate with you!"

Iwaya Xiaobo was so excited that he wanted to stand up and bow, but he finally restrained himself and kept nodding to express his determination and perseverance.

What "MOE" lacks the least is high-quality painters.

Because Japan's comics industry is very developed, many painters will never be able to debut through the newcomer award of a comic magazine in their entire life, so they have to flow into the picture book industry.

Illustrators are the largest group of workers in the picture book industry.

They moved around various magazines, making a living by taking on one illustration after another.

Some of the more famous illustrators can sign guarantee contracts with fixed publishing houses. Generally, once they have cooperated with a book or magazine, they can provide them with paintings for a long time.

Most illustrators are just like new writers who keep submitting their works. They cherish the dream of becoming famous, but run into obstacles again and again until their passion runs out, their tears dry, and they face reality.

For a work like "The Little Prince" that will become a hit at first sight, illustrations are needed not only during the serialization period, but also for the physical book after publication.

If an illustrator can work with such top-notch works, his life will be secure.

Iwaya Xiaobo's mind is now filled with the idea of ​​keeping Mr. Kitagawa first, and then gathering all the painters in the company for interviews one by one, until Mr. Kitagawa is satisfied!

Kitagawa Hide's personal demands are not that high. He already has some pretty good illustrations of "The Little Prince" in his mind, and he just needs to find someone to copy them or make some slight modifications.

With this kind of successful case in mind, he would never be arrogant enough to choose a new model to start over.

"You want to work with an illustrator? Of course that's no problem! I can arrange a large number of illustrators to interview right away!"

Iwaya Xiaobo reached out and took out his business card and handed it over respectfully.

"I'm sorry I haven't handed you my business card yet! Please forgive my offense!"

"Ah, it's okay, it's okay." Kitagawa Hide took the business card, read it out in front of him, and then solemnly put it in his shirt pocket.

This is part of Japanese social etiquette. Reading a business card after receiving it is a sign of respect for the other party. He did not have a business card, so he quickly wrote down a string of contact information and handed it to Iwaya Xiaobo.

"This is my home phone. If you can't get through to my personal cell phone, you can call my home."

Kitagawa Hide sometimes enters a "flow state" of writing, during which all his cell phones are put into silent mode.

He can only be reached through his home landline.

"Yes! I will keep it well!" Iwaya Xiaobo stood up and took the communication paper with both hands, holding it tightly in his palms like a secret treasure.

"As for the copyright fees and serialization fees, you can contact the financial department of Beichuan Entertainment directly and just follow my market price."

Kitagawa Hide glanced at the gold Rolex watch on his hand.
"I'm almost home, so call me if you have anything."

"Okay! I'll see you out!" When Iwaya Xiaobo heard Kitagawa Hide say that he would buy it according to the market price, his heart skipped a beat, but his expression was still full of joy, and he stood up and saw him out of the cafe.

After Kitagawa Hide left, he quickly took out his cell phone and reported the good news to the vice president of Hakusensha.

Iwaya Koba is one of the vice president's direct subordinates, but because "MOE" is not within the core company of Hakusensha, even though he has been the editor-in-chief for two and a half years and has rich experience in the industry, he still has no hope of squeezing into the board of directors of Hakusensha.

Becoming a board director means a complete class leap, which is something he has been competing for all his life!

When the vice president heard that it was the famous Mr. Kitagawa, he immediately became alert and told him to make sure to protect Kitagawa Hide and not let Mr. Kitagawa run away to other magazines.

The case of Kodansha playing a good hand badly has been regarded as the most classic negative example in the industry.

All senior executives of publishing houses must learn from this case to ensure that they and their subordinates do not make the same mistake as the Noma family.

The story of Shizuko Kawaide taking a risk and lowering herself to personally "visit three times at the thatched cottage" to invite Kitagawa Hide, the "Zhuge Liang", has been talked about in the industry for many years.

It can be said that a large part of the credit for Kawaide Shobo's current success goes to Kitagawa Hide.

"Let me check the market price, don't hang up yet!"

The vice president did not dare to take this matter lightly. He stood up and went to the finance department to inquire about the market conditions.

Iwaya Xiaobo watched the time pass by, and his cell phone remained open, because what flowed away were the Japanese yen in his pocket!

Now the Japanese Telephone Corporation is still wrangling with the six major conglomerates and is unwilling to entrust the communications industry to them.

Even though mobile phones and computers are becoming more and more popular, telephone and internet bills are still shockingly expensive.

Many people can afford a mobile phone, but cannot afford to use it like this. Oftentimes, they just say a few words quickly when making a call and then hang up immediately, for fear that the call will drag on and tens or hundreds of yen will be gone in the blink of an eye.

Iwaya Xiaobo waited for ten minutes before the vice president finally responded.

"Moshimoshi, are you still there, Yan Gu-san?"

"Yes, yes, I'm here."

“Well, I just asked the finance department and the marketing department, and they told me that if we just look at the market situation, Mr. Beichuan’s serialized manuscript fee is okay. A copy of The Little Prince is not expected to earn over 100 million yuan.

But if you want to monopolize copyright,

The vice president looked at the astronomical figure in his hand and was speechless.

"Is it very high?" Iwaya Koba had heard a little about Kitagawa Hide's sky-high copyright fees, but children's literature should be lower than mainstream pure literature, right?

"It's more than high. The marketing department estimates that for the full copyright of a short children's literature novel like The Little Prince, we have to pay Mr. Kitagawa at least 50-65 billion yen, and this is for a maximum period of ten years."

"hiss--"

People who work in children's literature magazines have probably never seen so much money in their lives.

"Of course, compared to the 200 billion yen that mainstream pure literature requires now, this is less."

The vice president felt a headache. It was 1998, and only six years had passed since the bubble economy burst. Why did it feel like the market was overheated again?
Weren’t we talking about the major banks going bankrupt and restructuring a few days ago?

Why is it that when we talk about Mr. Beichuan’s copyright fee, it is this price?
"What the company means is..." Iwaya Xiaobo said with a sweat on his forehead.

Currently, the monthly sales of "MOE" are about 20 copies. After Kitagawa-sensei joins, the monthly sales will have to reach at least 160 million copies, so that he can complete his remaining sales target of 8.8 million yen within half a year.

Therefore, the safest way is to ensure that Mr. Kitagawa serializes the novel steadily every month while purchasing the copyright of the novel.

Once the peripheral products such as movies, TV series, anime, music, and games are developed, 8.8 million yen will be just a drop in the bucket.

“MOE definitely doesn’t have enough funds. The Hakusensha headquarters should hold a few board meetings to discuss this.

I understand your situation, Mr. Iwatani, don't be discouraged, please try your best to stabilize Mr. Kitagawa, I will do my best to beg the board of directors to approve this plan! "

The vice president is also a proud person with unlimited goals.

He didn't want to be a vice president under an old man for the rest of his life.

The president will retire in two years at most, and when the position becomes vacant, other executives and managers are also eyeing it.

If he wants to keep his position firmly on the throne, he must produce amazing results.

"The Little Prince" is not only an opportunity for Iwaya Koba to make a comeback, but also an opportunity for him to make a big leap forward!
"Yes! I understand!"

Another one of trying one's best.

Iwaya Xiaobo feels that after the bubble burst, everyone is trying their best.

Japanese society is really just as Mr. Kitagawa wrote: if you want to become a superior person, it is far from enough to just endure hardships.

You need to understand social rules and human nature.

From this point of view, Mr. Kitagawa is not only familiar with these things, but also has extensive research on children's psychology.

What a genius!

"Iwaya-san, you've read The Little Prince, right? This book can really..."

The vice president also gambled everything and felt uneasy.

Mr. Kitagawa is very famous, but even such great writers would cheat small companies without blinking an eye.

"I've read it! Don't worry! The Little Prince will definitely become the most famous in the history of Japanese children's literature. No, I think it may also go down in the history of world children's literature!" (End of this chapter)