Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 341 Backing Out
In early autumn, BJ has lost the heat of midsummer. It is quite cool to sit under the shade of trees, especially in the morning and at night. Zhang Chao also prepared comfortable and wide rattan chairs for everyone to read.

With the chrysanthemum tea, Arctic Ocean soda, fruits and snacks placed everywhere on the small coffee tables in the yard, if the editors had not come with a mission, they would have thought they were on vacation.

Zhang Chao pulled out a bamboo lounge chair and leaned on it like an old man, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan in one hand and reading a book by Cao Naiqian, "I Can't Help Thinking of You Until the Night," in the other, leisurely.

The editors were whispering to each other at first, but soon they all fell silent. In the yard, apart from the sounds of wind blowing through the leaves and cicadas chirping among the branches, the only sound was the rustling of the pages of the manuscript.

Since it is a "trial reading session", it will be different from previous publishing contract negotiations. The editors may have to talk about their opinions on the novel "Homeland", and only those that Zhang Chao can understand will allow for further discussion.

"Homeland" brought them difficulties from the very beginning.

Zhang Chao said that this is a "science fiction novel" and threw out a lot of science fiction settings and descriptions at the beginning of the novel, but the core is still pure literature. In particular, the fragmented memory narrative creates a reading threshold, which is a certain challenge for professional editors, let alone ordinary readers.

Secondly, immigration themes lack collective memory resonance in China. Although the Chinese have a long history of migration, it does not mean that domestic readers can empathize with overseas Chinese, because there is a general lack of cognitive basis for overseas Chinese communities.

In the eyes of the editors, these are all important factors related to sales.

But if they put aside their concerns about sales, "Homeland" is a very fascinating novel for them.

Professional literary editors read a huge amount. There are not many novels in the world that can bring them surprises and freshness. "Homeland" undoubtedly achieves this.

It's not that they haven't read works about Chinese Americans, Chinese workers and Chinatown. As early as 1936, Lin Yutang published a novel called Chinatown. The novel is set in Chinatown and tells the story of the life and struggle of Chinese people in the United States, showcasing their cultural traditions and values.

Later, in the 80s, Chinese-American writer Maxine Hong wrote an English novel, "The Chinaman," which, by telling the stories of Chinese men, showed the identity and cultural heritage issues of Chinese Americans in American society. It was later translated and published in China.

It can be said that writing about Chinese people, Chinese workers, and Chinatowns is a must for many Chinese-American writers or Chinese writers studying in the United States who want to enter the American literary world.

But without exception, these themes focus on the painful state of mind that Chinese people suffer when they are oppressed by external forces, attempting to show a "beauty of difficulty."

In other words, although these novels also focus on the ethnic identity of "Chinese" and the cultural characteristics displayed in the process of discrimination, oppression, misunderstanding, and struggle, they are still specific landscapes viewed from the perspective of Western, or white, culture.

Zhang Chao's "Homeland" is completely different.

As a spiritual "intruder", he did not use the survival squeeze of the white society on the Chinese and Chinatown as the anchor of the novel's contradictions, nor did he deliberately use the "Chinese spirit" as some kind of ultimate salvation.

He cleverly used "Lin Xiaohai", a special "second-generation immigrant" who had never been to the United States but had a close connection with the United States because of his father, as the focus of the narrative, completely deconstructing a certain expression paradigm that shrouded the immigration narrative.

The novel constructs a spiritual core that connects China and the West and spans time and space through the intertwined narration of the perspectives of three generations: Gu Feng, Lin Xiaohai, and Lin Rongsheng. It also uses literary language to answer the ultimate question that almost no one has ever touched upon:

What exactly is hometown?
Precisely because of the obsession with "hometown", even though every trip becomes a kind of exile, people still have to call back the soul of their hometown in a foreign land, and even bury the "corpse" of their hometown in a foreign land and build a magnificent mausoleum on it.

So in addition to the breakthrough in narrative structure and the creative transformation of common immigrant cultural symbols, these literary qualities of the novel, like the details on the carved lintel of the old courtyard house in front of us, gradually emerge under the professional scrutiny of the editors.

When Zhu Yanling read about Gu Feng repeatedly entering Lin Xiaohai's memory to look for moments that could be edited and preserved, she seemed to smell the salty smell of the sea breeze in the ink on the A4 paper - she realized that this was a literary moment that could not be framed by any type of label.

Lu Jinbo was shocked by the destructive power of the future commodity society on traditional ethics as described by Zhang Chao - even the emotions of the dead can be auctioned off, just to allow humans who are suffering from boredom to feel a strong emotional impact. This imagination made him tremble.

Before I knew it, the cicadas in the branches suddenly changed their tune and became mournful, as if someone had torn a sheet of metal in half. The shadow of the archway in the distance shrank below the curb, and the wind blew through the slightly cracked window lattices of the hanging flower door, bringing the aroma of fried noodles with soybean paste and green onions from someone's house in the alley.

The editors had all finished reading the novel, but they also didn't speak. They either exchanged glances with each other, or turned back to the previous page to confirm something, or looked at Zhang Chao who was lying lazily on a bamboo chair.

This young man once again used the tide of narrative to sweep everyone into the deep ocean of literature, but he himself seemed unaware of how much trouble he had brought to everyone.

In this courtyard filled with the fragrance of pomegranates, "Homeland" completed a dangerous literary journey - it proved that true innovation is not only about being different in subject matter or techniques, but also about the ultimate exploration of the complex inner world and group culture of human beings.

But what "price" should Zhang Chao be given for such a novel?

Editors are not literary critics who can praise a writer from an academic perspective. To some extent, they must also be shrewd businessmen who need to carefully conceal their true thoughts in order to bargain with the writer.

Especially for a best-selling author like Zhang Chao, one percentage point may mean millions in profit or loss.

In terms of subject matter, science fiction novels belong to the category of popular fiction. Their sales in the domestic market have been increasing in recent years, especially Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem, which was launched by Youth Grand View last year. After the first volume was published, its sales exceeded 30 copies.

Compared with Zhang Chao, Liu Cixin is definitely a "niche writer". His achievements are so good, let alone Zhang Chao?

But from a narrative perspective, "Homeland" is pure literature, and its reading difficulty may be second only to Zhang Chao's masterpiece "Crime Police Glory" last year, which is a culmination of his skills, and is similar to the complete version of "Star Chaser".

The content is even more unpleasant, and is very different from Zhang Chao’s previous novels - perhaps only readers from his hometown of Fuhai can resonate with it?
The combination of these factors will lead to a discount on sales expectations - selling out the first print run is not a big problem, but the publishing house's expectations for Zhang Chao are far more than just "selling out the first print run", otherwise why would they give him a sky-high royalty of over 20%?
Everyone looked at each other for a moment, and no one was willing to speak first.

Instead, Zhang Chao spread out "I Can't Help Thinking of You Until the Dark Night" and turned it upside down on the coffee table. He stood up from the recliner with a horse stance and said to everyone, "It's past 11 o'clock. Are you hungry? Let's have lunch together and chat while we eat."

The editors nodded, and there was no room for excuses.

Zhang Chao led everyone into the main hall of the courtyard, where two tables of food and wine had been set up, and there were several waiters serving.

These are the reception teams that Xing Youtian hired for a long time in Yanjing City. Most of his courtyard houses and large suites in Yanjing have been converted into clubs. Local relatives who come to Yanjing on business trips don't want to stay in guesthouses, but prefer to stay in his clubs, so there are banquets all year round.

He couldn't offend anyone and had to serve everyone well, so he simply hired a few cooks and waiters all year round in various places to avoid having to hire people on short notice every time. After Zhang Chao bought the courtyard house, he wanted to fire the people, but Xing Youtian said that he couldn't let them be unemployed at the end of the year, and they had to wait until the Chinese New Year, so Zhang Chao had no choice but to keep them.

This came in handy now.

However, the editors were unaware of the situation and thought that this was someone hired by Zhang Chao. Their eyes were shining, thinking that this guy usually pretended to be so low-key, but he had never expected that he would become so arrogant and extravagant...

Zhang Chao probably understood their thoughts, but he was too lazy to explain. Anyway, the argument would be self-defeating once "Chaotide Culture" moved in next year.

The chef of this courtyard is a Sichuan chef. He prepared a delicious, spicy and affordable meal, including shredded pork with fish sauce, Kung Pao chicken, braised beef, boiled pork slices, husband and wife lung slices, mapo tofu, twice-cooked pork...

The meal was rich and delicious, and everyone was sweating and gushing over the deliciousness!
After the five dishes were served, Zhang Chao finally asked, "Does everyone have any doubts about "Homeland"? Tell me now and I will answer them one by one."

Zhu Yanling and Zhang Chao were familiar with each other, so she was not so polite and asked first: "This novel is more likely to be written for the overseas market - for example, the Chinese."

Zhang Chao nodded and said, "Yes, the inspiration for Hometown came from my experience in the United States some time ago. Many of the details in it may only be understood by the Chinese in Chinatown.

In fact, while you are reading this book, the editors of Random House and Simon & Schuster are also reading it. But they are much harder than you, not only do they have to stay up late, but no one treats them to dinner. "

A burst of laughter rang out in the hall.

However, Zhang Chao's words gave the editors an idea - the sales of this book in China are difficult to predict, but judging from the writing style and content, its performance in the US market should be very eye-catching.

In addition, the American book review community has paid more attention to Zhang Chao in recent years, so it is not impossible for "Homeland" to win some literary awards in the future. Moreover, this novel will probably become a hot topic in literary research for a long time.

You know, the terminal of book sales is not only individual readers, but also universities and libraries. Libraries often do not buy only one copy of a valuable book, and will replace it after it is seriously damaged.

These are all conducive to the long-term sales of books and can also add luster to the publishing house.

Everyone is optimistic about the sales of "Homeland" again.

Then, Wang Qiaoshan from 21st Century Press asked a question. He was an old friend. When Zhang Chao published his first novel, A Young Man Like You, he had been to Changfu No. Middle School. He asked, "It's not easy to promote this novel. Do you have any ideas?"

This question touched the heart of the editors. Zhang Chao's ability to operate his works is obvious to all. Any publishing house that obtains the copyright of his book must respect his opinions.

Although theoretically, it is difficult for "Homeland" to sell millions of copies like "Better Days", "Your Name" or "Dwelling Narrowness", and it is even difficult to achieve the 100 million sales of "Glory of the Police", but maybe Zhang Chao has some "resurrection" operation?

The editors' eyes became enthusiastic.

Zhang Chao didn't rush to answer the question. Instead, he swallowed the mapo tofu in the spoon, wiped the red oil from the corners of his mouth with a tissue, and then said, "As for ideas... it would be too fake to say I don't have any, but I think it would be more appropriate to talk to the publishing house that finally made the 'deal', right?

And I actually have no idea how “Homeland” will sell, otherwise I wouldn’t have let everyone try it out.”

The editors looked away in disappointment and began to whisper to their companions.

Then Lu Jinbo spoke up - as a prominent figure in the publishing market in recent years, his "special relationship" with Zhang Chao immediately made him the focus of everyone's attention - "I think the sales of this novel in China should still be at least a million, and the upper limit is unknown.

First of all, the quality of the novel is impeccable. Secondly, Zhang Chao's "literary education" for domestic readers in recent years has also been very good, so the sales of pure literary works among young people have been steadily increasing...

Anyway, we at Guomai Culture are confident that "Homeland" will sell well."

The editors sneered in their hearts: "Will it be useful to flatter Zhang Chao like this?"

However, since Lu Jinbo had spoken, other publishing houses certainly did not want to be outdone and asked questions and discussed one after another. Finally, at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, this "trial reading session" ended in a lively manner.

Next came the "bidding" phase. Zhang Chao had played this game before in his first novel, "Youth Like You", so everyone was familiar with it. After fully discussing with their respective leaders, they sent their "bids" to Zhang Chao's mobile phone by text message before 3 pm.

Zhang Chao flipped through the text messages, each of which represented the "level of trust" that different publishing houses had in him.

Huacheng Publishing House: For a first print run of 100 million, the basic royalty rate is 18%. For copies over 100 million, the royalty rate will increase by 10% for every 1 copies, capped at 25%.

21st Century Publishing House: 100 million first print runs, 20% royalties, fixed price.

Wen Yi Chun Feng Publishing House: For the first print run of 100 million, the basic royalties are 20%. For print runs exceeding 100 million, the royalties will be capped at 22%.

Guomai Culture: 150 million first prints, 25% royalties, one price.

……

These are considered to be relatively "sincere", while some publishing houses have clearly backed off and offered quotes even lower than Zhang Chao's average price, clearly not wanting to participate in the competition.

What they didn't know was that Zhang Chao's marketing plan for "Homeland" was wilder than anyone could imagine...

(End of this chapter)