Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 340 The battle for "Homeland" officially begins!

"That's really his style." Murakami Haruki shook his head, but he didn't want to have any conflicts with anyone in the Japanese literary world, so he didn't say anything more.

Kenichi Sato was a little disappointed. Although he was Murakami's good friend, as a reporter his instinct was to secretly hope that Murakami could say something to refute his remarks.

"Okay, let's stop talking about Zhang Chaojun's works. I feel much more relaxed!" Haruki Murakami put away the coat draped over the back of the chair, stood up and was about to leave.

"Ah, there is one last question..." Sato Kenichi suddenly remembered something and said quickly.

Murakami Haruki said: "Oh? Go ahead."

Sato Kenichi took a deep breath and said, "This year's Nobel Prize in Literature..."

Haruki Murakami scratched his head when he heard these words, and then interrupted: "Again, this question... I've said before that I'm not interested in winning awards. For a novelist, there is no objective evidence for the evaluation criteria of awards. Isn't it more important to have the feeling of creating meaningful works and the legitimate evaluation of readers?"

After saying that, he said goodbye to Sato Kenichi, who looked disappointed, and returned to his apartment.

The Nobel Prize in Literature is usually announced on the second Thursday of October every year, which is just over a month away. As a literary journalist and columnist, Kenichi Sato is naturally concerned about this matter.

Although Murakami had been rumored to have been nominated many times before, he ultimately did not win the award.

In the past two years, Haruki Murakami has been regarded as the strongest contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He has won the Franz Kafka Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the 1st Waseda University Tsubouchi Shoyo Literature Award.

The Japanese literary world is quite ambiguous about whether Murakami can win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

On the one hand, as a representative of Japanese writers who are “not Japanese enough”, if Murakami wins the award, it will be like obtaining a license that grants him immunity from criticism, which will make many people feel painful.

On the other hand, after Kenzaburo Oe won the award in 1994, Haruki Murakami is almost the only writer in the Japanese literary world who is competitive for the Nobel Prize considering his age, the level of his works, and his international influence.

Although people like Tawada Yoko and others are also good, they have obviously not yet entered the mature award-winning cycle.

All of this stems from the complex psychology of the Japanese literary community towards Nobel Prize literature. Winning the Nobel Prize means that Japanese culture is recognized by the Western evaluation system, which has a considerable uplifting effect on the literary world and can even drive a wave of sales of literary books.

However, there is a certain mutual exclusion between the unique "aesthetics of mono no aware" of Japanese literature and the "universal narrative" preferred by the Nobel Prize. For example, Yukio Mishima once publicly questioned the Nobel Prize criteria, believing that its essence is "Eurocentric cultural assimilation."

In post-World War II Japanese literature, there is still a struggle between the "redemption narrative" and the "national narrative." Kenzaburo Oe won the award in 1994, and his work "Personal Experience" was interpreted by Western book critics as "post-war reflection."

Many people in Japan criticized it for deliberately catering to the "victim perspective" favored by the Nobel Prize. This value rift has influenced the Japanese literary world for decades.

This complexity essentially stems from Japan's special situation as a non-Western cultural entity: it wants to use the Nobel Prize to achieve cultural exports, but it also needs to be wary of having its subjectivity eroded by the Western discourse system.

But Murakami doesn't care about these things. It doesn't matter to him whether he wins the Nobel Prize in Literature or not. For him, who has already accumulated billions of yen in assets and has an international reputation, it's better for the Nobel Prize to be given to those "poor" writers.

At this moment, he suddenly understood another reason why his old friend recommended Zhang Chao to him, and why he really had a different opinion of Zhang Chao - he became famous at a young age, and achieved financial freedom early, so he could write just for his own interests...

Zhang Chao, who was far away in China, had not yet felt the strong wind blowing from Japan. He had just completed the novel "Homeland" and began looking for a suitable publishing house.

Generally speaking, Zhang Chao no longer needs to find a "publishing house", but the publishing house finds him.

Moreover, there are relatively fair precedents in the industry regarding the first print and royalties of his new works:

The first print run of Zhang Chao's pure literary novels is usually no less than 50 copies, with royalties no less than 15%, and a tiered royalty system that can increase to as high as 20%.

The first print run of Zhang Chao's popular literature novels is usually no less than 80 copies, and the royalties are no less than 18%, which can reach a maximum of 22% after a step-by-step increase.

As for the adaptation rights, don't even think about it. They have their own literary agency. If you want it, go talk to "Tide Culture".

But no matter how much it is, it is a business that is sure to make money, so publishing houses will naturally flock to it.

The situation is a little different for "Homeland" - it is a pure literary work disguised as a science fiction novel, and it is about immigration themes that domestic readers are not very familiar with, so there is no telling how many copies it can sell.

He also didn't want to keep it a secret and let the publishing house publish blind boxes.

So in early September, before Ma Yueran came to China for a visit, Zhang Chao organized a small internal trial reading session and invited interested publishing houses to send editors to participate.

After he sent the text message to several publishing houses with whom he had more cooperation, it immediately caused a sensation.

In addition to the fact that this was a preview reading of Zhang Chao's new work, more importantly, the news that Ma Yueran specifically wanted to meet Zhang Chao during his visit to China had already spread.

At Zhang Chao's age of only 20-something, it would be impossible for him to even be nominated, let alone win the Nobel Prize in Literature. However, Ma Yueran's "nomination" still gave people endless room for imagination.

It’s impossible when you’re in your 20s, but what about when you’re in your 30s or 40s?
Since ancient times, there has been a good story of "passing on the torch" among Chinese writers. The idiom "to stand out from the crowd" comes from Ouyang Xiu's "Letter to Mei Shengyu": "I should give way to him and let him stand out from the crowd."

The "he" here refers to Su Shi, Su Dongpo.

It’s no secret that Ma Yueran likes to support Chinese writers, but this is the first time he has done so at such a young age.

If we can get Zhang Chao's new book, and hype up the news about Zhang Chao's meeting with Ma Yueran, and add a sentence on the book's waistband: "Highly recommended by the Nobel Prize lifetime judges", we might be able to sell hundreds of thousands more copies.

How can one not be excited about such an opportunity?

Therefore, the places for this trial reading session are almost completely snatched up by all major publishing houses.

Far away in Guangzhou, Zhu Yanling, who had been in charge of liaison with Zhang Chao at Huacheng Publishing House, was almost squeezed out of the quota. If she hadn't argued for her rights, the spot would have gone to another publisher.

"President, please give me some confidence!" Zhu Yanling looked at Xiao Jianguo in front of her and said bluntly, "We don't need to say much about how "Youth·Meteor" is selling." Xiao Jianguo naturally knew that the youth adventure version of "Youth·Meteor" had sold 2 million copies in half a year since its publication in February. It was not only the best-selling literary book of Huacheng Publishing House in recent years, but it also cooperated with "Tide Culture" to launch a comic version, which was also sold out.

So he was determined to get Zhang Chao's new book.

After thinking it over, he said to Zhu Yanling, "The first print run can be increased to 100 million copies. Any more is meaningless. It's just a number. Zhang Chao doesn't mind that. But the royalties can be increased..."

He gritted his teeth and continued, "The starting royalty is 20%, and the highest is 25%. Isn't this a good condition?"

Zhu Yanling's eyes lit up, then dimmed again. She asked, "What if, what if other families have the same conditions?"

Xiao Jianguo was stunned and said in disbelief: "Higher than 25%. Are they not making money?"

Zhu Yanling said: "We state-owned publishing houses have a lot of burdens, but private publishing houses and book companies don't care about that. I heard that Lu Jinbo has already paid 20% of the royalties to Han Han."

Xiao Jianguo asked: "Is it so high?"

Zhu Yanling nodded and said, "This year, the first print run of his "Glory Day" was 60. The royalties are said to be 20%. Lu Jinbo gave him 200 million in one go..."

Xiao Jianguo frowned and thought for a long time, then said: "Let's put it this way, the royalties must not be raised any further. If we raise it any further, we will have to go to the group meeting, which will take a long time and we will miss the opportunity...

How about this, increase the first print run to 150 million copies! This way Zhang Chao’s first print royalties will exceed 500 million yuan! I don’t believe he won’t be tempted.”

Zhu Yanling then happily responded: "Well, then I'll go book a plane ticket!"

Watching Zhu Yanling's back disappear at the door of the office, Xiao Jianguo gritted his teeth in pain - he took out 500 million in one go. If it weren't for the name "Zhang Chao", he would never have dared to say that.

However, Zhang Chao's books, even if they are pure literature, will never sell less than 150 million copies in the long run, so it is still a profitable business, but the cycle is unknown.

Huacheng Publishing House is not the only publishing house that is determined to get Zhang Chao's new work. Lu Jinbo is one of them.

Since publishing Zhang Chao's only collection of essays, Undercurrent, in 2004, Lu Jinbo has "cut off contact" with Zhang Chao. The apparent reason is that Zhang Chao is unwilling to get involved in the "Youth Literature Alliance" organized by Lu Jinbo, and has a bad relationship with Han Han under his command.

But both of them actually know the most fundamental reason. Lu Jinbo likes to package his writers, which involves managing the writers' image and requires a certain degree of "control."

Zhang Chao was completely disdainful of Lu Jinbo's entertainment packaging. Facts have proved that he has far more control over his media image than any other bookseller on the market.

The fundamental reason why Lu Jinbo wanted to reconnect with Zhang Chao three years later was that he found that he was gradually losing control of Han Han, his "cash cow".

Since 2005, Han Han has handed over almost all of his works to Lu Jinbo's Guomai Culture for operation, and the cooperation between the two sides is very pleasant. However, starting from the second half of this year, Lu Jinbo found that Han Han began to contact other publishing houses.

First, he handed over a collection of essays to a publishing house called Hantu Publishing, and then he had close contact with Shanda Literature, seemingly trying to reach some kind of cooperation.

In recent years, Shanda Literature has not only acquired online literature websites such as Qidian Chinese Network, but has also actively explored the physical book market. Shanda, which started out as an Internet company, actually doesn't care about the small profits from physical publishing. They value star writers, IP operations of works, and copyright adaptation.

This is a dimensionality reduction blow to traditional publishers. Even for a forward-thinking publisher like Lu Jinbo, it is very uncomfortable.

So he set his sights on Zhang Chao - as long as he could sign Zhang Chao's new book, the morale of Guomai Culture would be stabilized, and then his negotiations with other writers would be smoother.

Not to mention that there are so many coveted contracted writers under "Tide Culture"...

However, this time, he will no longer look at Zhang Chao with the mentality of "recruiting a younger brother", but will look for an "ally" or even a "backer".

It didn't matter that Zhang Chao didn't invite him, he could have asked proactively - Zhang Chao's reply text message was also simple and concise:
"Welcome, come on."

So on September 2007, 9, Teacher's Day, more than 10 editors from more than a dozen publishing houses across the country gathered in Yanjing and met Zhang Chao in a courtyard. They also saw his new novel -

"Homeland? What a strange name," Zhu Yanling said softly. In her hand was a printed manuscript of A4 paper, a stack of about 50 pages, still warm from the printer.

"Well. This is a science fiction novel. It's the first time I write this kind of novel, so I'm not sure about it, so please come and take a look." Zhang Chao said after sitting under the old pomegranate tree in the yard and sipping a sip of tea.

This is a large courtyard with three entrances, covering an area of ​​about 400 square meters. It is the future office location of "Tide Culture", which can be regarded as the fulfillment of Huang Jiefu's dream.

The subprime mortgage crisis in the United States was already in full swing, but at Zhang Chao's request, Huang Jiefu and his classmates ended the battle in time and made a profit of more than 400%.

Zhang Chao also fulfilled his promise and asked Huang Jiefu to buy a courtyard house from Xing Siyuan's father as the centralized office area of ​​"Chaoxi Culture", so that they no longer had to "fight alone" in the Panjiayuan community.

Xing Youtian was naturally very happy. Since Xing Siyuan was brought into "Chaotidal Culture" by Zhang Chao, she not only published two best-selling books in succession, but also attended various activities as an "outstanding young writer" many times, which earned him a lot of face.

Now he has a stronger backbone than others in the circle of coal bosses in Shanxi - the children of other coal bosses only know how to spend their family's money on wine and women, commit sins everywhere, and then let their families clean up the mess.

As for his precious daughter, not only did she spend less money, she could even bring money to buy things for the family! Although the royalties of two or three million were not a big deal for Xing Youtian, it was the first among the second generation of coal miners.

More importantly, through her identity as a writer, Xing Siyuan completely distanced herself from this place of trouble and began to form a new social circle, which consisted of young writers, cultural figures, and university lecturers from Yenching University...

What he was most worried about was unlikely to happen.

So he originally wanted to insist on giving this courtyard house to Zhang Chao as a thank-you gift - but Zhang Chao refused it resolutely and still paid the money and went through the normal transfer procedures.

Now Zhang Chao sat comfortably in the courtyard, watching the early autumn sunshine flood over the gray brick walls, dyeing the faded peony carvings on the lintel of the courtyard into honey color. The bright door in the southeast corner was ajar, and when the door knocker knocked, a white dove was startled on the eaves;
The old pomegranate tree in the yard has its branches bent by the agate-like fruits, and its cracked red seeds look like cinnabar embedded in them...

What a beautiful scene! But why are the editors of these publishing houses in the yard, who are obviously intellectuals, so tense and ready to fight, as if they are about to go to war?

What a pity!
(End of this chapter)