Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 413: Severance
Tian Geng really didn't expect that Lin Chaoyang and Huacheng Publishing House actually had such an agreement, and he didn't expect that Huacheng Publishing House would be so determined.

Isn’t this price gouging?

Although he complained in his heart, Tian Geng trembled with heartache when he thought that the publishing rights of "The Chess Master" would be taken away by Huacheng Publishing House in the future.

Why? It was obviously their Yenching Publishing House that came first!

Moreover, "The Chess Master" has been published for nearly three years and has sold over three million copies. Especially with the recent release of the "The Chess Master" movie and the whirlwind of the China-Japan Go Challenge, in just less than three months, the single volume of "The Chess Master" has sold nearly 70 copies.

The craze for watching the movie "The Go Master" has gradually passed, but the momentum of the China-Japan Go Tournament is still blowing. Over the past period of time, the popularity of the Go sport in China has been increasing.

As the China-Japan Go Tournament continues, Go is likely to become the most popular competitive sport in recent years. At that time, Go novels such as "The Go Master" may become must-read works for Go enthusiasts.

In a country like Japan with a population of over 1000 million, there are more than million Go enthusiasts. What about China?
Therefore, Tian Geng believes that the potential of "The Chess Master" has not yet been fully tapped.

Of course, he knew that such an idea was definitely idealistic, but even if the ideal situation was reduced by 70%, it would probably be a very scary number.

On the one hand, there is the risk that the royalty payment system may be taken too far, and on the other hand, there is the terrifying sales potential of "The Chess Master". Tian Geng is weighing the pros and cons in his mind.

Observing his expression, Lin Chaoyang did not urge him, but chatted with Liu Xinwu for a while.

Liu Xinwu's main job is editor, and he writes part-time and studies "Dream of the Red Chamber" in his spare time. He has not neglected anything.

He just finished writing "Bell and Drum Tower" this year, and it was recently published in two issues of "Contemporary".

“I originally planned to submit it to Harvest, but Harvest’s manuscript schedule was too full, and publishing it in two issues might take over the New Year.

You also understand that publishing across years will definitely have an impact on the response to the work, so I handed the manuscript to Mr. Qin. "

Lin Chaoyang smiled and said, "It's their loss that Harvest didn't get your manuscript. I read the novel and it's very well written."

Liu Xinwu quickly said a few humble words. It was okay for others to praise him, but he really couldn't accept Lin Chaoyang's praise.

The reading craze for "Crossing the Guandong" lasted from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, and its sales after publication were soaring, leaving others far behind.

The two chatted about their respective works, and Liu Xinwu naturally turned the topic to the Mao Dun Literature Prize.

Before we knew it, more than two years have passed, and the evaluation activities for the new Mao Dun Literature Prize have officially started in the second half of this year.

Today, the Mao Dun Literature Prize is awarded every three years, and the selected works are novels published between 1982 and 1984.

In recent years, both the number and quality of novels published have made great progress compared with previous years. Nearly 450 novels were published in the past three years alone.

Some time ago, Xie Yongwang of the Writers Association took over the organization of the second Mao Dun Literature Prize, and has sent out a notice recommending outstanding novels to the whole country, to the provincial and municipal writers' association branches, relevant publishing houses, and large literary journals.

As of March 85, works recommended by various places have been submitted to the Mao Dun Literature Prize Judging Office one after another.

According to this year's award rules, the word count for a novel is still defined as 10 words, following the first award method. Multi-volume works that were published or released during this period and can be written as an independent book are also eligible for the award.

According to this standard, Lin Chaoyang's works "Shutter Island", "The Boat" and "Crossing the Guandong" created in the past three years all meet the recommendation conditions.

Among them, "Shutter Island" was published by Yenching Publishing House, and "Crossing the Guandong" and "Crossing the Guandong" were published by Huacheng Publishing House.

Liu Xinwu mentioned the Mao Dun Literature Prize because Yenching Publishing House has decided to recommend "Shutter Island" to participate in the selection of this year's Mao Dun Literature Prize.

Hearing him say this, Lin Chaoyang remained calm. Not only Yenching Publishing House, but Huacheng Publishing House had also submitted "Crossing the Boat" and "Crossing the Guandong" to the award office a few days ago.

Liu Xinwu was not at all surprised that the three works "Shutter Island", "The Flying Boat" and "Crossing the Guandong" were recommended for the selection at the same time. After all, the quality of these three works is well-known.

In particular, "Crossing the Guandong", a work of great epic grandeur, can be said to have reserved a seat for this year's Mao Dun Literature Prize, which is a fact recognized by the literary community.

During Liu Xinwu's communication with editors, writers, and critics around him, everyone tacitly agreed to this situation.

Who could compete with him in the Chinese literary world in 1984?

Putting aside "Crossing the Guandong" which is destined to win an award, Liu Xinwu believes that the level of "The Crossing" is better than "Shutter Island".

This does not mean that the standard of "Shutter Island" is not high, or that it is poorly written. The most crucial reason is that the style of "Shutter Island" focuses too much on the story.

Compared with ordinary novels, it is not weak, but it is not as good as "The Crossing of the Boat".

Based on Liu Xinwu's understanding of this kind of award-giving activities, works with strong artistic and philosophical qualities, such as "The Boat Crossing", will undoubtedly be more popular with the judges.

He even felt that if we consider the work alone, Lin Chaoyang had every reason to win awards for both works.

Of course, this is just his personal opinion.

For an award as important as the Mao Dun Literature Prize, the probability of laying two yolks for the same writer is almost impossible.

What's more, Lin Chaoyang had already won the award during the first award ceremony.

Talking about this, Liu Xinwu couldn't help but sigh, "How could our Chinese literary world produce such a monster as you!"

These words may sound like an insult, but they are actually high praise for Lin Chaoyang.

Among the writers, those who produce a lot of works do not have as high quality as Lin Chaoyang; those who have high quality works do not have as wide influence as Lin Chaoyang; those who have a wide influence have a low output of works.

Writers like Lin Chaoyang, who have extremely high output, stable quality, and most importantly, the ability to sustain high-intensity creation for many years, are even rarer than rare protected animals in the contemporary literary world.

While the two were chatting, Tian Geng finally came back to his senses. He heard Liu Xinwu and Lin Chaoyang talking about "Shutter Island", and his heart tightened. This was also the apple of Yenching Publishing House's eye!

In the past two years, "Shutter Island" has also achieved sales of more than 160 million copies.

According to the current development situation, it is inevitable that the novel will be converted into a royalty contract after the publishing contract expires in the future. This matter is not subject to the will of Yanjing Publishing House. Thinking of this, Tian Geng sighed heavily in his heart.

The times are constantly moving forward, and economic reforms are beginning to have a profound impact on all walks of life. For Yenching Publishing House, all they can do is follow the trend of the times.

"Chaoyang!" Tian Geng interrupted the conversation between Lin Chaoyang and Liu Xinwu.

Lin Chaoyang looked over at him. Tian Geng made up his mind and said, "We can agree to your royalties payment condition. Both "The Chess Master" and "Shutter Island" must be left to us."

Lin Chaoyang nodded slightly, "Huacheng Publishing House gives me a royalty rate of 12%."

Hearing this, Tian Geng's heart skipped a beat.

What a generous gesture!

No wonder Lin Chaoyang received hundreds of thousands of royalties in one go.

Tian Geng also understood that if their publishing house wanted to keep "The Chess Master" and "Shutter Island", they would have to show greater sincerity than Huacheng Publishing House.

"15%!" He hesitated for only two seconds before spitting out the number with absolute certainty.

Lin Chaoyang's calm face finally showed a bit of surprise. He didn't expect Tian Geng to be so decisive.

A royalty rate of 15% is a treatment only available to first-tier best-selling authors, even in later generations.

However, "The Chess Master" and "Shutter Island" deserve such treatment. Even though they have been published for two or three years, the sales of these two novels still crush many recently published works.

Lin Chaoyang was about to agree to Tian Geng's request, but Tian Geng said, "But I have a condition!"

"What conditions?"

"We want the publishing rights to your new book."

After hearing Tian Geng's request, Lin Chaoyang was silent for a while before saying, "I had a pleasant cooperation with Huacheng Publishing House before. The publication of the new book..."

Before Lin Chaoyang finished speaking, Tian Geng added: "We can compete fairly with Huacheng Publishing House. The conditions we offer will definitely be more favorable than theirs, and the royalty rate will not be less than 15%."

Having said this, Tian Geng showed great sincerity, and there was no reason for Lin Chaoyang to refuse.

There is not even a shadow of his next work yet, but two publishing houses are already willing to offer him generous royalty contracts.

This is the confidence and strength that Lin Chaoyang has accumulated from the best-selling works over the years.

After finishing the discussion, Lin Chaoyang was seeing Tian Geng and Liu Xinwu off when little Dongdong, who was happily playing in the yard, suddenly burst into tears.

Lin Chaoyang went over to take a look and found that the ice slide he had made had only lasted for about an hour and showed signs of melting.

Although it is the coldest time of the year now, there is plenty of sunshine during the day. It is fine in the morning when the sun has not fully risen, but it will be unacceptable after noon when the sun shines on it.

"It's okay, it's okay. Let's go build a new one under the porch."

Lin Chaoyang realized his problem and suggested building another ice slide for Xiao Dongdong. The daytime temperature has been low recently, and as long as it is not exposed to direct sunlight, it will be no problem to build an ice slide under the corridor for a few days.

But little Dongdong didn’t understand any of this. He only knew that he couldn’t play with the big toy he had just played with for a while anymore, and he cried endlessly.

Lin Chaoyang was annoyed by his son's noise and no matter how he tried to comfort him, it didn't work. Finally, he had to throw him to Tao Yumo, and his ears suddenly became quiet.

In mid-December, the China-Japan Go Challenge Tournament started again.

In the fourth game, the Chinese and Japanese sides switched places and the Chinese player was still Jiang Zhujiu, while the Japanese player was replaced by Awaji Shuzo.

In the previous two games, Jiang Zhujiu won consecutive games. Now he is facing the Japanese opponent again with great momentum.

After the fermentation of the first few games, the public opinion heat of the first China-Japan Go Competition has surpassed that of ordinary Go competitions.

The competition's attention group has also gradually spread from the original Go community and Go enthusiasts to the general public.

In this game, Jiang Zhujiu still maintained his hot hand and the aggressive style of play in the first two games, suppressing Awaji Shuzo throughout the whole game, and finally won three consecutive victories with a 4 point advantage.

After the news came out, needless to say, the Go community in China was jubilant and the media was full of praise.

Even many ordinary people who didn't care about Go before now know that China has produced a fierce Go player named Jiang Zhujiu, who was able to defeat three Japanese national players in a row. He really brought glory to the country!

Facing Japan, an old enemy and rival, Jiang Zhujiu's achievements are naturally worthy of celebration and happiness for all Chinese people.

On the other hand, Japan is in a gloomy mood.

The arrogant speeches of the Japanese team members at the opening ceremony held in Tokyo before the game are still fresh in our minds. However, after four games, the Japanese team fell behind with a huge score of 1:3, and were defeated three games in a row by the opponent. This is almost a shameful record.

At that time, Japan's population was just over 100 million, and there were more than 10 million Go enthusiasts alone.

It is conceivable how much attention ordinary Japanese people pay to this sport. A game that they thought they could easily win turned into such a humiliating situation. No one can stand it!

After the news of Awaji Shuzo's defeat to Jiang Zhujiu reached back to Japan, it caused a huge uproar among Japanese Go enthusiasts. Some radical Go enthusiasts have begun to demand that the losing players commit seppuku to apologize.

Of course, a request like seppuku is impossible to satisfy, but losing the game is indeed a shame.

It is rumored that after this game, a consensus was reached within the Japanese Go community.

If Japan really loses the China-Japan Go competition, all players on the Japanese team must shave their heads and apologize.

When this half-true, half-false news reached back to China, the domestic Go community and ordinary people immediately felt extremely happy!
(End of this chapter)