Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 279: A Rich Mine of Literary Theory Research
Spending 15,000 yuan to buy a courtyard house is a luxury for most people in this era, but it is no big deal for Lin Chaoyang.

In the past two years, as his creative achievements continued to accumulate, the royalties he received became more and more generous.

Not only do newly published and published works receive royalties, but previous works will also receive some royalties from time to time.

When Tao Yushu returned home in the evening, he counted the couple's current assets. In terms of fixed assets, they included a residential unit in the Overseas Chinese Apartment, a two-story courtyard house in Mianhua Hutong, a three-story courtyard house in Xiaoliubukou Hutong, and a motorcycle.

"The motorcycle can't be counted, right? It will be worthless in two years." Lin Chaoyang interrupted.

"Don't interrupt!"

Lin Chaoyang shut his mouth obediently, and Tao Yushu continued to calculate.

"I have paid for the house in Xiaoliubukou Hutong. I still have RMB 2 and HKD 5 in foreign currency in the bank.

We still have 2 foreign exchange certificates and 1 overseas remittance certificates in our hands."

After settling the accounts, Tao Yushu felt much more at ease.

"Wife, you haven't counted the royalties from the publication of "The Chess Master" and the script of "High Mountain"."

"You haven't received it yet? Wait until you receive it."

"My collections must also be included. They will be worth a lot of money in the future."

"I can't sell it now. I'll wait until I can sell it later."

……

Lin Chaoyang didn't have to wait too long for the script fee for "The Garland under the Mountain". The fee bill arrived the next day after he finished talking about it, adding another 9 yuan to the couple's savings. However, there seemed to be no progress in the publication of "The Chess Master".

Originally, Liu Xinwu said that the novel would be published in mid-April, but now the deadline has come and there has been no response from the publishing house.

Lin Chaoyang had planned to ask Liu Xinwu about this matter when he had time, but he didn't expect him to come first.

Talking about the publication of "The Chess Master", Liu Xinwu became emotional.

"You should blame yourself. We underestimated the appeal of Shutter Island. The last issue, October, has sold 110 million copies so far. Do you know what that means?"

"What concept?" Lin Chaoyang asked casually.

Liu Xinwu said with a serious expression: "The sales of this issue are heading towards 150 million copies."

Lin Chaoyang didn’t feel anything about the sales volume of “150 million copies” because the publication of his works had helped the magazine reach this number more than once.

But he also understood that this sales volume should be very important for "October".

"This is not about increasing sales from 100,000 or 200,000 copies to 300,000 or 400,000 copies, but about increasing sales from 600,000 or 700,000 copies to 1.45 million or 500,000 copies. The difficulty is incomparable," Liu Xinwu emphasized.

Lin Chaoyang nodded and understood the difficulty. The higher the sales volume, the more difficult it would be to make further progress.

"One issue of October accounts for one-third of our paper usage this quarter. The next issue of October will be published in May, and the printing paper usage for this quarter has exceeded 5% again.

Now many of the topics in the agency have been put on hold, either waiting for the next quarter or for the agency to coordinate again.

Your book "The Chess Master" will surely sell well after publication, so I can only postpone my plan."

"October" has more pages and content than other literary magazines, which can be seen from its pricing. As two influential literary magazines, "Yenching Literature" is priced at 32 cents, while "October" is priced at one dollar.

Magazines at that time were all real, with high prices and naturally rich content, otherwise one issue of "October" would not be able to accommodate a long novel.

After listening to Liu Xinwu's explanation, Lin Chaoyang remained silent. In recent years, the printing paper supply in the domestic publishing industry has always been in short supply. The difficulties faced by Yenching Publishing House are also faced by many of its peers. This kind of thing has no impact on him.

Liu Xinwu sighed and said, "We really didn't expect that your movie Shutter Island would become so popular!"

This issue of "October" has been on the market for more than a month, and its sales have repeatedly exceeded the editorial department's expectations, and "Shutter Island" has made a great contribution to this.

If you look closely, suspense genres are not the most popular genres among all the major categories of novels, and because of their popularity, many works are not highly regarded in the literary world.

The success of "Shutter Island" is due to its own quality, Lin Chaoyang's accumulated reputation over the years, and the reading tastes of the readership at that time.

From the late 1970s to the mid-to-late 1980s, literary and artistic works with strong plots and suspense themes were loved by hundreds of millions of audiences, both in the literary and film fields.

Take movies as an example, "Shark Tank" in 1978, "Secret Service" in 1979, and "Murder Case 1980" in 405. In recent years, there has been a suspense movie that shines almost every year.

The hundreds of millions of moviegoers demonstrate the appeal of such works among the general public.

Unfortunately, this type of film later frequently caused some social incidents, which led to the Film Bureau's increasingly strict review standards for this type of film, and the glory of suspense films was no longer there.

From a literary perspective, during this period, the works of many famous writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Conan Doyle were introduced into the country in large quantities, and almost every work achieved impressive sales.

A combination of factors has contributed to the current popularity of Shutter Island.

Not only that, more than a month after its publication, there were more and more comments on this novel in the literary world.

Unlike many suspense works that are not well received by the literary world, "Shutter Island" has been praised by many people in the industry, especially in the circle of literary theory research. This novel has received unanimous praise and recognition from many experts and scholars.

Lin Chaoyang followed Liu Xinwu's words and joked, "Then you have to increase my royalties next time!"

"It's still going up?" Liu Xinwu's eyes widened, and he said in fear, "If it keeps going up, will we be able to survive?"

"Pretend! You're pretending with me! I don't believe you can't figure this out. How much money did my novel make for your magazine?"

Liu Xinwu was exposed and smiled awkwardly. "You can't calculate it like that. Most of the money we earn doesn't reach the editorial department.

The editorial department has certain rules for the annual expenditure of royalties. If we give you more, we will give others less. In the long run, this will be detrimental to the development of the magazine."

"That's something you need to communicate with your superiors. I don't believe that your magazine generates so much revenue for the publishing house, but they are willing to withhold even this little bit of royalties."

When Lin Chaoyang said this, he was still reminiscing in his heart. Old Liu used to be such an honest man, but now he doesn't even tell the truth.

Seeing that he couldn't win the argument with Lin Chaoyang, Liu Xinwu changed the subject and asked, "Have you prepared the content of the lecture?"

Some time ago, Liu Xinwu came to Lin Chaoyang and asked him to be a lecturer at the Yenching Literature Institute.

The literature workshop had already started at the beginning of the month. The first class was taught by Wang Meng, the second by Qin Chaoyang, and Lin Chaoyang was the third. He still had five days before he started teaching the students.

"It's almost ready."

There is actually nothing much to prepare for this kind of lecture. It’s nothing more than drawing up an outline. More depends on the lecturer’s daily learning and creative accumulation.

A few days later, Lin Chaoyang arrived at the Municipal Workers' Cultural Palace early in the morning.

Today is the weekend and also the third public lecture of the novel workshop of Yenching Literary Institute. The auditorium of the Cultural Palace has been bustling since it opened at 7:30 in the morning.

Arriving at the Cultural Palace, Lin Chaoyang met several comrades from the Cultural Association who were specifically responsible for the workshops, including a familiar face.

"Why are you everywhere?" He looked at Li Tuo in front of him and couldn't help asking.

"The unit is short of staff and there are too many students, so they asked me to come and help."

Li Tuo's reason is quite reasonable.

Last month, the Literary Association specifically announced the opening of a novel workshop in the "Yenjing Daily". As soon as the news came out, many literature lovers in Yanjing City flocked to the event.

These people were worried about how to improve their creative abilities, publish their works, and break into the literary world. This class at the Literary Association provided them with a shortcut.

In just less than half a month, the novel workshop had accepted 200 formal students and more than 700 auditors, which was much more than the Writers Association had initially estimated.

But having more people also has its advantages. After holding a class, the Cultural Association received a lot of tuition fees.

The tuition for regular students is 12 yuan, and for auditors it is 7 yuan. The total tuition for so many students is 7500 yuan.

The literary association organizes these creative classes, and apart from paying some lecture fees, the rest is almost all net profit, so it can be considered a good business for generating income.

There are nearly a thousand people in this creative class. I don’t know if there will be anyone who can surpass them, but there are definitely no one who can surpass them.

With so many students present, it would be normal for the Cultural Association to send more people.

After chatting with Li Tuo for a while, seeing that the time was almost up, Li Tuo went on stage first to guide the process.

The auditorium of the Cultural Palace is very large, with thousands of seats. The students of this workshop almost filled the auditorium. After Lin Chaoyang walked onto the stage and looked at the seats, he saw only a sea of ​​heads.

There was a table and chairs on the podium in the auditorium. The table was covered with red cloth, and there were microphones and tea cups on it.

The podium was very large, and the table and chairs looked lonely, especially with nearly a thousand students sitting below, making this small space seem even smaller.

When Li Tuo finished his opening remarks and invited Lin Chaoyang to come on stage, warm applause broke out from the audience.

As Lin Chaoyang walked onto the podium, many of the students who were originally sitting stood up. The podium was some distance away from the audience seats, and the students sitting in the front row could still see Lin Chaoyang's appearance clearly, but those in the middle and back rows could only see a silhouette.

In order to see Lin Chaoyang's appearance clearly, the students in the audience suddenly became agitated, which scared Lin Chaoyang and Li Tuo on the stage.

"Everyone, be quiet! Do not walk around randomly, and pay attention to the venue discipline!"

Li Tuo shouted loudly with the microphone. After more than ten seconds, the students finally quieted down and expressed their welcome and love for Lin Chaoyang with enthusiastic applause again.

Nowadays, without the Internet, writers are full of mystery and have a sacred aura to readers.

Lin Chaoyang's many novels have a strong influence among amateur authors and readers. Most of the students present today are meeting this popular writer for the first time, so it is normal for them to be a little emotional.

After the students in the audience calmed down, Lin Chaoyang officially started his lecture.

"Hello, students! The Cultural Association found me a while ago and wanted me to give you a lecture. I only have one class. To be honest, I don't know where to start so that you can make the trip worthwhile. Today, I will just exchange my creative experience with you."

After a few brief opening remarks, Lin Chaoyang continued:
“People who are familiar with me know that among China’s modern and contemporary writers, Mr. Shen Congwen is the one I admire the most.

Due to some special reasons in the past few years, Mr. Shen’s works were not very well known to the general readers. However, the rapid development of the literary world in the past two years has allowed Mr. Shen’s works to see the light of day again and won the love of many readers.

Today I will boldly talk about it. I will share with you some of my insights and thoughts when reading Mr. Shen’s works. The name of this class can be called "Shen Congwen's Creative Features"..."

Lin Chaoyang spoke eloquently on the stage, and the students below listened attentively.

Later, Li Tuo was chatting with an old man with a thin face and glasses.

"He has studied Shen Congwen very thoroughly!"

"Chaoyang works in a library and reads a lot of books. I haven't found anyone among my friends who reads more than him."

"It's rare to have such a young age!" The old man showed approval on his face.

(End of this chapter)