Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 112: Xinlang Blog's Big Pie
In early March 2005, the manuscript for the first issue of "Youth" magazine was finally finalized.

With the help of the popularity Zhang Chao brought to the "New Concept Essay Contest", the submission mailbox of "Youth School" received nearly 2000 manuscripts. For a newly established literary magazine with a strict age limit for submissions and a relatively serious tone, this is not easy.

If Ma Boyong had not joined the company in time to help, he would not know how long it would take to review these manuscripts. Although the "New Sprout" magazine sent two young editors to assist, they were obviously not as sensitive to words as the prince.

However, Zhang Chao does not plan to publish the first issue in March because there is too much preparation work to do.

The first step is to contact the authors whose manuscripts have been accepted one by one, and ask them to send a photo as soon as possible so that the magazine can design cartoon images for them.

In addition, we also need to make revision suggestions for some manuscripts. Young people's articles always have problems of one kind or another. Some authors are still high school students and cannot be contacted for a while.

In addition, a subscription poster and a founding poster need to be designed for the magazine. Huang Jiefu has already contacted Bei Tasman to discuss cooperation on the subscription poster, and it would be best if it could be included in the book list sent to members every month.

The inaugural poster is of course inserted in the inaugural issue, making sure readers feel a sense of ceremony.

For this purpose, Zhang Chao specially recruited two more art designers and handed them over to Xia Da for management. Xia Da no longer lives in the office. Her income has given her a sense of security. She rented a small one-bedroom house in the community.

With the addition of the finance staff that Huang Jiefu had just hired, the small two-bedroom apartment is now packed full.

The first article in the first issue of Youth is definitely Zhang Chao's The Great Doctor. He wrote nearly 3 words in one go, which took up 20 pages.

A considerable number of the winners of the 7th New Concept, such as Shuang Xuetao and Gong Wanying, have also sent in their manuscripts. Of course, not all of them, some authors are still waiting and some do not have time.

What Zhang Chao feels very sorry about is that Ma Boyong is "overage". If he could contribute to "Youth", it would probably attract many of his online fans.

The most controversial one was the youngest winner, Li Ruichao. He sent a work called "Temple Talk". There was no complete storyline in the whole work. It was just a funny conversation between a master and a disciple named Chedan and Kongzhou in a temple. For example:

[“Master, every time I wake up from a nap I feel dizzy.”

"You are too obsessed."

"What should we do?"

"...Don't take naps anymore."】

Li Ruichao wrote more than a dozen such conversations.

The two editors of New Sprouts insisted that this was not a literary work, at best it was a mood diary in QQ space.

Ma Boyong believes that these works are very interesting to read and can balance the serious style of "Youth" magazine, and are an indispensable seasoning.

After reading it, Zhang Chao personally called Li Ruichao and told him that if he could send him so many pieces of "Temple Words" every month, he would start serializing them.

The young Li Ruichao agreed immediately. So Zhang Chao asked him, "It would be best if you could give this work a more interesting pen name... Do you have a pen name?"

Li Ruichao thought for a long time and said, "This is the first time I publish a work. I really haven't thought about it."

Zhang Chao pondered for a moment and said, "The dialogue between the master and the apprentice you wrote has a certain absurd flavor, so your pen name is called, it's called..."

Li Ruichao craned his neck on the other end of the phone.

"Let's just call him Li Absurd!"

Li Ruichao said helplessly: "...Okay...Okay..."

Zhang Chaole said, "Okay, no more jokes. Then remove the word 'absurd' from 'absurd'."

Li Ruichao then said happily: "Okay!"

After finalizing some important matters for the first issue of Youth, Zhang Chao turned his attention to Ma Boyong's novel The Wind Rises in Longxi. He had recently finished writing the entire novel, which totaled nearly 30 words. Zhang Chao read it piecemeal over three days before finishing it.

Ma Boyong asked Zhang Chao nervously, "How's the writing?"

Zhang Chao said: "Overall it's pretty good... but there are some flaws."

Ma Boyong's expression changed.

Zhang Chao said, "Relax, it's not a big problem. In your novel, you described Hanzhong's geographical environment as the Loess Plateau. In fact, Hanzhong has lush vegetation and fertile soil, and is known as the 'Little Jiangnan'. You can search for pictures online." Ma Boyong's face suddenly turned red, and he hurriedly said, "Okay, I'll find some information and change it."

Zhang Chao continued, "Hurry up and finish revising the novel. I will send the novel to the editor of the publishing house in the next two days. Since this is your first time publishing a novel, it is difficult to predict sales. Have you decided whether to take royalties or manuscript fees?"

Zhang Chao really wasn't trying to trick the prince. No one knew whether the popularity on the Internet could translate into sales of physical books. It would take at least ten years for the prince to become truly popular. God knows how many sales his first book had.

However, Ma Boyong said firmly: "I want royalties!"

Zhang Chao nodded and said, "Okay. One more thing. Didn't you recently serialize a work on the Internet called "She Died on QQ"? And do you have a few similar supernatural short stories and novellas?"

Ma Boyong was surprised and asked, "Can that be published?"

After finishing the two books of the prince, Zhang Chao was in a very good mood. Almost every one of Ma Boyong's novels has a very high adaptation value. At his peak, he had ten adapted TV series being broadcast or waiting to be broadcast in two years.

Zhang Chao believes that this era may come sooner.

After returning to school, Zhang Chao received a strange phone call. When he picked up the phone, the other party introduced himself politely: "I am Chen Tong, the editor-in-chief of Xinlang.com. Are you available recently..."

Zhang Chao was a little surprised why Xinlang would look for him, but he still agreed to meet at Xinlang's headquarters. After all, it was in Zhongguancun Software Park, not far away.

Chen Tong is in his 30s, not good-looking, wearing a pair of glasses, but quite gentle. As soon as he saw Zhang Chao, he stood up, shook hands with him warmly, and took Zhang Chao to visit Xinlang Company.

As one of the four largest portals today, Xinlang is naturally thriving. The office area is densely packed with cubicles and workstations. Everywhere you look, you can hear the mixed sounds of voices and keyboards. Everyone is walking in a hurry, and it even seems a bit chaotic.

Compared with the "Blog China" office area that Zhang Chao had visited, it can be seen with the naked eye that Xinlang employees' work is more fulfilling and busier.

After walking around, Chen Tong took Zhang Chao to the company's dedicated reception room. After making a cup of tea for Zhang Chao, he said solemnly: "We, Xinlang, will launch our own blog 1.0 system next month. We would like to invite you to join our Xinlang blog and move 'Midnight Tide' here."

Zhang Chao knew that Dongfang Xing and his "Blog China" were about to be finished.

Although he didn't know exactly when Xinlang Blog was launched in history, he still remembered vividly the momentum that swept across the world after its launch.

The person who created a wave of traffic on Xinlang Blog at that time was none other than Han Han, who had met Zhang Chao once but parted ways with him unhappily.

Judging from the fact that they looked for Han Han in the previous life and Zhang Chao in this life, Chen Tong, who was manipulating Xin Lang behind the scenes, had an extremely sharp vision.

Zhang Chao did not agree to Chen Tong immediately, but asked: "Why now? Why me?"

Chen Tong smiled and said, "Isn't this the slogan shouted by your old friend Dongfang Xing? 'Down with Xinlang.' They have come to our door, so of course we have to stop them." (The slogan in history is actually "challenge" rather than "down with.")
Zhang Chao was suddenly speechless.

Chen Tong continued, "I see you haven't posted anything on 'Blog China' for a long time? I think 'Blog China' has been tossing around for more than a year, but it hasn't made much of a splash. It's a complete waste of your traffic."

Zhang Chao said: "You are cutting off the firewood from under the cauldron. How can you be sure that I will come to your heart's content?"

Chen Tong said: "Jeffrey Huang, COO of 'Blog China', resigned from 'Blog China' at the beginning of the year, but ended up joining your 'Midnight Tide'. Since then, your blog has stopped updating..."

Zhang Chao did not deny it, but continued to ask: "You haven't answered another question for me - why me."

Chen Tong thought for a long time before saying, "This is related to the strategic positioning of our Xinlang Blog. Now Wangyi, Sohu, and Penguin are also preparing to start blogs, so..."

Zhang Chao said: "Although the relationship between Dongfangxing, BlogChina and I is not as close as before, we did sign a 'strategic cooperation agreement' a year ago. If your 'strategy' cannot impress me, why should I break up with Dongfangxing?"

Chen Tong thought for a while and finally made up his mind. He said, "Well, I'll tell you about it. Several other companies, including 'Blog China' and 'Blog Bus', all know that they need the 'celebrity' effect to become big.

But their celebrities, mainly stars, are asked to post their daily trivia and gossip on their blogs. This kind of thinking is still in the WEB 1.0 era, that is, using the thinking of a news portal to create a blog.

Our Xinlang Blog was positioned at WEB2.0 from the beginning. It should be a brand-new public opinion field, a public opinion field where thoughts collide with thoughts and opinions clash with opinions, rather than just sharing news or knowledge.

So they poach their stars, and I look for my writers. You are the first writer I want to find, No. 1, so I will come to talk to you personally. I also know that you have fallen out with the Southland recently, but it doesn't matter. Their print media are outdated and they always want to trade you writers like stocks.

We are different. We will give you full writing freedom and traffic support. Do you have millions of fans on 'Blog China' now? Come to our Xinlang, and your fans will soon exceed 10 million! "

Zhang Chao: Oh no, it’s a heart-pounding feeling!

(End of this chapter)