The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 454 New Industries and Market Standardization

Zhu Jianxuan finalized the business model of the novel magazine on his own and informed the authors and screenwriters around him of this model.

This immediately triggered a series of surprises and discussions that lasted for several days.

Most authors and screenwriters never imagined that novels and stories could work this way.

Everyone was very satisfied and grateful to Zhu Jianxuan for the royalties and conditions he arranged for them.

You only need to write a paragraph or tens of thousands of words and it can be published, and you will start to receive royalties after it is published.

If you write a lot and make a collection, you can get another share of the money. The key is to share it in proportion, rather than setting a fixed fee.

This makes them instinctively hope that their works will become more and more popular, rather than just being finished after they finish writing and submitting the manuscript, so that they no longer care about sales results.

But most people can’t help but worry, can such a business model really make money? Can it really have good results?
The publication of short stories should be feasible, but can ordinary people accept the publication of long stories in segments?

However, this model was proposed by Zhu Jianxuan, and even though the authors had doubts in their hearts, they did not raise any questions.

They all directly expressed their acceptance of this arrangement and thanked Zhu Jianxuan from the bottom of their hearts.

Based on his experience in his previous life, Zhu Jianxuan knew that before the Internet platform matured, serializing in magazines and newspapers was the best way.

You can refer to various newspapers and magazines in China before the Internet era, and refer to comic magazines in Japan and the United States.

Ordinary readers can accept this solution, mainly because there is no better option.

Updates are usually published serially in magazines, and collections are revised and formally published regularly.

After Zhu Jianxuan notified all the creators, he began to personally organize the editorial department and management structure of the new magazine.

Directly choose someone who is relatively good at communicating and cooperating with others and, most importantly, can understand your intentions from among the people around you to serve as editor of the magazine.

Together with these editors, I selected the first batch of articles suitable for publication from the works of authors who were good at writing.

Over the past year or so, Zhu Jian has frequently communicated with these authors.

I have basically explained to them my past life experiences, mainly the writing mode that is purely for readers.

The authors have created a number of new stories in accordance with the direction proposed by Zhu Jianxuan.

Although after the author and screenwriter circulated it internally, many people felt that although the story was indeed very attractive, some of the content was a bit too cliché.

But Zhu Jianxuan reminded them that literary and artistic creation must have a wide enough coverage and must include various types of stories.

Especially now that there are a huge number of scholars, they are no longer just people who make a living by taking the imperial examinations. There are also a large number of businessmen and ordinary craftsmen.

Therefore, when writing a story, one should not only think about highbrow culture but also consider the common people, otherwise the audience will be very narrow.

Stories for the general public should be as simple and straightforward as possible.

We should learn from Bai Juyi.

At the same time, according to Zhu Jianxuan's arrangement, all stories were divided into six major categories, and the newly opened magazine will also be organized into six parts.

In the future, depending on the popularity of each category, separate supplements may be published for specific categories.

The first type of myths are similar to the myths of Journey to the West and Investiture of the Gods.

With existing traditional folk tales and myths as the background, it mainly describes grand stories dominated by mythological characters, with very few participation of ordinary mortals.

The second type of immortals and mortals are similar to the typical sword-fighting, fairy-fighting, and fantasy stories of later generations.

With reference to folk legends of demons, ghosts, Buddhas, witches, monsters, etc., a brand-new fictional world environment and background is created, mainly describing the stories of mortals coming into contact with the extraordinary world and participating in it.

The third type of knight-errant is similar to modern martial arts novels.

With reference to the long-standing and constantly evolving martial arts stories in history, this modern martial arts novel is adapted from the ideas and directions provided by Zhu Jianxuan.

The fourth type of history is historical stories that take place in a specific historical period.

It includes historical novels without supernatural powers, as well as novels that simply describe the lives of people from different classes in ancient times.

The fifth category is suspense, including ancient or contemporary criminal case novels, detective novels, and suspense novels.

You can write horror and weird novels, but they must not involve the appearance of supernatural powers. Horror and weird novels that involve supernatural powers should be placed in the second category, the immortal and mortal category.

The sixth category is urban life, which describes contemporary urban, rural and overseas life, various folk entertainments, customs and travel.

Most of them are the types of stories that are already very popular nowadays.

It’s just that Zhu Jianxuan injected new creative logic and methods into them, which have a faster pace and stronger dramatic conflicts than existing traditional novels on the market.

The name of the magazine was decided to be "Legends of Ancient and Modern Times", which is easy to understand.

During the magazine's founding stage, Zhu Jianxuan personally served as editor-in-chief for all editors, reviewing the works that had been screened by editors and authors.

As for the printing, typesetting and sales of the magazine, they will be handled by the Royal Industrial Group's original printing and distribution agencies, and the post station system will also provide magazine subscription and delivery services.

After several months of busy preparation, the magazine was officially published on February 1, the 33rd year of Tiangong, with two issues published at a time, and it was said that if you bought one, you would get one free.

At the same time, the book is advertised through television, radio, and cinemas, and sold directly in cinemas and existing bookstores.

Because of the influence of the Royal Industrial Group and the support of the official court, and the key was sufficient publicity, the publication and sales went very smoothly.

The 100,000 copies prepared in advance were basically sold out within ten days, and there were polarized reviews among the public.

Many readers find the content of this magazine very interesting and can’t wait for the second issue to be released, wanting to read the so-called serialized follow-up stories.

Because traditional folk storytelling is originally told in segments, but it is usually told continuously every day.

Original folk novels were also published in segments, but not in so many segments. Usually one book had tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of words.

As long as the story content is interesting, readers who can accept traditional storytelling and novels can also accept this kind of magazine.

But there are also many readers who find this book incomprehensible and cannot accept the content of the book, mainly because most of the stories are too straightforward and even vulgar.

At various folk gatherings, intellectuals have complained that some of the content in this magazine is not bad, but most of the stories are disgusting.

Of course, these people did not dare to attack Zhu Jianxuan directly, but only said that the emperor must have been bewitched by these villains who made up stories.

There were even groups that wrote letters to magazines, attacking authors who wrote vulgar stories.

But just as Zhu Jianxuan expected, ordinary people like simple and straightforward stories, and fiddling with the writing style and pretending to be profound are not popular.

The target group of the magazine planned by Zhu Jianxuan is the ordinary citizens, not high-level intellectuals.

So even though public opinions are polarized, Zhu Jianxuan doesn't care.

At the same time, editors and authors are reminded not to simply look at one-sided public reviews.

In this era without the Internet, ordinary people could not quickly post their comments.

Most of the reviews that magazines get are hearsay.

If we dig deeper into its origin, we will find that it is usually said by upper-class people with extensive social connections during entertainment and social gatherings.

Zhu Jianxuan asked editors and readers to pay more attention to sales volume and sales speed.

Customers will vote with their wallets and feet to determine whether a product is good or not. Sales volume is the most intuitive and truest evaluation.

The magazine of the 2nd month of February, which is the second issue, was already prepared when the first issue was released, and the print quantity was the same as the first issue.

If the sales speed is slower than the first issue, it means that the public's evaluation is really polarized. It means that many people don't want to watch the second issue after watching the first issue.

The actual result was that the second issue of the magazine was sold out in just five days after it went on sale, and many people still came to look for the first issue.

The few remaining magazines from the first issue were also completely sold out along with the second issue.

The editors and authors were greatly encouraged.

Zhu Jianxuan immediately ordered that an additional 100,000 copies of the first and second issues that had already been sold be printed, as well as an additional 100,000 copies of the third issue that was ready to go on sale.

Starting from the fourth issue, the printing quantity increased to 300,000 copies.

Soon, the restocks of the first two issues and the third issue, which was released at the normal time, were all sold out before the end of February.

The fourth phase of 300,000 points, which started in March, was also sold out within ten days.

The printing quantity of the fifth issue has increased to 500,000 copies, and it was also basically sold out within ten days.

The sales growth far exceeded expectations, and the printing factory had to continuously adjust the production line to accommodate the printing of this special magazine.

Zhu Jianxuan looked at the reports from all sides and was basically satisfied with the reaction.

The Ming Dynasty's newspaper and magazine market and new cultural and art market are really vast enough.

In the past, ordinary manufacturers just messed around in this area and found someone to make up some stories and print them out, and they could do very well.

Zhu Jianxuan's new magazine has the business philosophy of a modern magazine and provides creative guidance for market-oriented novels, so it will naturally be more popular.

Zhu Jianxuan felt that based on the current situation, he no longer needed to keep a close eye on it.

As long as the magazine publishes its titles on schedule, sales should continue to rise on this trend until the market is basically saturated.

By that time, the circulation of a single issue should have been in the millions.

Zhu Jianxuan gave a general order to the relevant departments, asking the editorial department, distribution department, and printing department to work together.

The scope of distribution was continuously expanded, gradually extending to the entire territory of the Ming Dynasty and even to places with large populations overseas.

Let magazine sales agencies in other places directly provide feedback on sales information via telegram.

The editorial department arranges to adjust the printing quantity according to the sales speed.

The magazine founded by Zhu Jianxuan was a hit as soon as it was launched, and naturally immediately attracted the attention of private capital.

The difficulty of making this kind of magazine is obviously lower than shooting a drama.

All you have to do is find a group of people to write the stories, then print them out regularly and sell them.

If you don't aim for large-scale distribution and only sell it in a single city where you are located, the cost will be more controllable.

So it wasn't long before various folk story magazines began to emerge.

Some completely copied the model of ancient and modern legends, while others modified it to be more simple and only published one type or even one story.

Zhu Jianxuan knew that even if the new industry he created did not produce good results, it would trigger a trend among the people.

If good results are produced quickly, it will become an investment indicator.

In addition, as the circulation of its own magazines continued to increase, the Royal Industrial Group had already expanded its printing plant on a large scale, and was also expanding its printing equipment factory.

While providing printing agency services to the private sector, it also sells printing machines to private printing companies.

At the same time, Zhu Jianxuan arranged for the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Commerce to jointly issue a document to formally introduce and activate the publication censorship system.

However, this censorship system is relatively simple. It does not list all the rules and requirements drafted by Zhu Jianxuan, nor does it conduct a detailed review of the content.

The core purpose is to clarify the responsibility for publications and to explicitly prohibit any unregistered publication.

All private publishers, whether they want to print any books or publish any periodicals or magazines, must register their distribution companies with the business departments of government offices at all levels.

Any books to be printed and any magazines to be issued must be registered with the business department of the government at the prefecture level or above.

State the type and main content of the book or magazine, the intended unit price and the quantity to be printed.

Pay a handling fee and receive a unique number for your books and magazines.

If any illegal content appears in subsequent related books and magazines, the corresponding publishing company will be punished according to the number.

Any unregistered companies, magazines and books without registration numbers will be confiscated and all related companies and individuals will be punished once discovered.

This management system was not new to the people of the Ming Dynasty. To ordinary people, it was just a remnant of Emperor Chongzhen's new policies. It was not fully used in regular book printing.

In the past, it was only retained in the newspaper distribution industry, and the actual management was not very strict.

In theory, only registered newspaper publishers and newspapers can legally publish and distribute, but there have always been many unregistered tabloids in the private sector.

The imperial court did not have a special agency for daily inspection and disposal.

Whenever these tabloids caused trouble, the emperor would arrange for the Imperial Guard to specifically ban them.

Now that the court has also included books and magazines, people in related industries certainly don't want to accept it, but they have no way to openly resist.

Publishers with large businesses, mainly those that have been operating for a long time and cannot run away, all go through the registration procedures honestly.

However, many small publishers who are already in the gray area do not take this matter too seriously and continue to do what they did before.

This time, Zhu Jianxuan asked the Ministry of Taxation and the Embroidered Uniform Guard to expand the subordinate department responsible for cracking down on tax evasion and tax avoidance, and turned it into an agency specifically designed to crack down on illegal private operations.

All unregistered companies, all unregistered new books, magazines and newspapers will have their business premises closed and all business supplies confiscated upon discovery.

If there is no problem with the operation itself, the operator will be required to go through the registration procedures. If the procedures are completed within three months, the materials and venues can be returned.

If the registration procedures are still not completed within three months, all premises and materials will be confiscated.

Three months later, all companies that opened for business without registration were sealed up and their operating capital and materials were confiscated.

By letting the tax authorities take charge of this matter, small companies, factories and newly opened hair salons and printing companies realized that the imperial court was serious this time.

You should register properly from now on, or just stop doing this job.

As a result, most of the small companies that were operating normally were driven by practical interests to register with the government.

The registration is actually not difficult. It only requires a very low handling fee, and they will also be issued a formal official business license.

If you still don't want to go to a company at this point, it probably means that there are really big problems with the things they are doing.

Then the tax department’s review agency may need to transfer the matter to the Jinyiwei for handling.

This series of actions is also a comprehensive rectification of the Daming market and a reform to formalize market management.

This kind of thing seems to be taken for granted by modern countries.

But in the pre-industrial era, or even when industrialization had just been completed, it was almost impossible to achieve.

It’s still a problem of management costs. Before industrialization, the imperial court did not have enough money to hire enough people, nor did it have sufficient transportation and communication conditions.

Therefore, this reform in the Ming Dynasty has been delayed until now.

(End of this chapter)