In the history of American business, a great year was 1886.
This year, when New York book salesman David McNee was selling "The Selected Works of Shakespeare", he was pleasantly surprised to find that the perfume he gave along with the book was very popular among customers, so he named "Avon" after a river in Shakespeare's hometown.
Founded the AVA fragrance company;
This year, Coca-Cola was born in Atlanta. Its products were very weird in both shape and taste, but they were quickly accepted by the market;
This year, the famous George Eastman developed the first automatic camera and named it "Kodak"...
If we were to look for a year in China's contemporary history that was similar to 1886 in the United States, it would definitely be 1984.
In this year, many great companies were born.
On New Year's Day a few months ago, the old man who had been sitting in Yanjing suddenly decided to go to the south for a visit. The old man's move to inspect the south spread through the country in the form of news.
Subsequently, the central government made a major decision and announced that "14 coastal cities and Hainan Island will be opened to foreign investors." China's opening up has expanded from point to point, forming a pattern of opening up the entire coastal area. This has set off the first wave of reform and opening up since the reform and opening up.
The next big business wave.
In such a restless and enthusiastic year, the word "going to the sea" has become the most common word on the lips of all young or not-so-young people when they meet this year.
The craze for nationwide business is coming. "One billion people, 900 million are down, and 100 million are still looking for it." This jingle will start from this year and sweep across the entire land of China in the next few years.
"Those who repair their brains are not as good as those who shave their heads", and "those who make missiles are not as good as those who sell tea eggs" will also become the most commonly heard complaints in society.
Tao Yucheng belongs to the group of people who are not young but are young at heart. When he saw the young men in the work unit resigning and going to work, he couldn't help but be ready to make a move.
In such a reckless era, there are many people who hold ideas like his. In fact, they may not have any intention of making a lot of money, they just want to join in the fun.
Tao's father always talks little at home, and he rarely scolds his children so mercilessly. What's more, Tao Yucheng is almost forty now.
This also shows how opposed he is to Tao Yucheng's ideas.
Although Tao Yucheng was usually heartless, but now in front of so many people in the family, especially with several children, his father's reprimand really made him a little embarrassed.
Seeing his expression changing, Lin Chaoyang interrupted and said, "Brother, are there many people going to the sea now?"
After taking the steps, Tao Yucheng's face looked better and he said, "I can't say too much, but it's not too much. There are more or less one or two people in the units that I have contact with."
"This trend is spreading really fast!"
Listening to his words, Tao Yucheng seemed to have suddenly found a soulmate, "That's right! I think it will definitely become a trend after going overseas. Just like Du Feng, who can earn tens of thousands of yuan a month, who still works!"
"That's not the case. There aren't too many people who can really make money and stick with it for a long time."
When Lin Chaoyang said this, he saw that the atmosphere at the dinner table became much more relaxed, and said to Tao Yucheng: "Brother, going into the sea is a big deal, and we need to consider it in the long term."
Tao Yushu also said at this time: "Yes, you and your sister-in-law are the only ones working. If you resign, what if you fail?"
"Bah, bah, bah! Crow's mouth!" Tao Yucheng looked at his sister with disgust, "Can't you say something nice?"
"Good things to say but bad things to say. You can't carry it on your shoulders or lift it with your hands since you were little. Doing business in the sea is not as easy as you think."
Tao Yushu continued to pierce his heart, making Tao Yucheng feel more and more uncomfortable. In the end, he couldn't eat any more, so he went out to hide for a while angrily.
After leaving Tao's house after dinner, Lin Chaoyang said to Tao Yushu: "Save some face for eldest brother, Xiwen and Xiwu are both older now."
"He dares to open a dyeing workshop if he has enough color. I'm really afraid that if he gets mad, he will lose the money for my parents' coffins."
"Everyone knows that you mean well, but you can't ignore his face at all."
Listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, Tao Yushu also began to reflect on himself, "Do you think my life has been too comfortable in the past two years? So I have a tendency to want to take care of everything?"
To be fair, Tao Yushu's current attitude is indeed less smooth than that of previous years.
"Maybe it's because I'm getting older and my personality has become more and more calm." Lin Chaoyang's words were very reserved.
Tao Yushu rolled his eyes at him, but did not refute him, but seriously reflected on it.
"Actually, I feel a little bit about what you said. Especially when it comes to treating family members, I seem to be becoming more and more domineering. This is indeed wrong, and I have to change it."
The expression on her face was serious and cute, and it suddenly reminded Lin Chaoyang of the time when the couple were newly married, and he couldn't help but reveal a somewhat relaxed smile on his face.
Two days later, Lin Chaoyang received the publication fee for "Crossing Guandong" from Huacheng Publishing House.
The full text of "Into the Guandong" is 645,000 words, which is considered a proper tome in this era. The remuneration standard was 50 yuan per thousand words agreed upon early on, and the total publication fee was 32,250 yuan.
The number of words is large and the standard of remuneration is high. Such an amount of publication fee is almost unique in the current Chinese literary world.
This is also the third royalties of more than 10,000 yuan that Lin Chaoyang has received this year. The other two are royalties for the publication of "The Ferrying Story" and "Wreaths Under the Mountains".
Since its publication in November last year, the total sales of "Crossing the Boat" have exceeded 1.55 million copies.
According to the publishing contract between Lin Chaoyang and Huacheng Publishing House, which stipulates a royalties of 7% for each print run of 10,000 copies, Lin Chaoyang received a full 41,260 yuan when settling the first royalties in March, setting a record for the largest single royalties since his writing.
.
As for the single book fee for "Wreaths Under the Mountain", affected by the popularity of the movie, it has sold 2.1 million copies again in recent months, and the total sales have exceeded the 10 million mark in record time.
This record is much slower than the sales record of later original works. Within two years of its publication, "Wreaths Under the Mountain" was quickly adapted into dramas, TV series, movies and other art forms, and became popular all over China.
.
Because of this all-round adaptation, this novel has achieved a miracle of sales of tens of millions of copies in less than three years.
But after that, the sales and influence of the novel took a sharp turn.
In this time and space, Lin Chaoyang was not eager to reach an adaptation cooperation. In addition to cautiously agreeing to Xie Jin's film adaptation request, he chose to reject all other cooperation units that came to him.
The reason he did this was that frequent adaptations would overdraw the vitality of a literary work.
Instead of enjoying the short-term glory like a raging fire, it is better to extend the timeline of adaptation, abandon those low-quality adaptations, and use high-quality adaptations so that the work can continue to gain new readers.
It now appears that Lin Chaoyang's choice was correct. The sales volume of "Garland Under the Mountain" was a bit slower than that of later generations, but its stamina is much stronger.
At least in the past few years, with the influence of movies, the sales of novels will still grow rapidly.
This novel, which has been published for four and a half years, has once again brought Lin Chaoyang 15,746 yuan in royalties in recent months.
In addition to these three large amounts of income, Lin Chaoyang's previous works have also continued to generate income, ranging from three to five thousand yuan at most, to tens or hundreds of yuan at least.
Only one quarter has passed since 1984, and Lin Chaoyang's writing income has already reached an astonishing 60,000 yuan.
The manuscript fee from Huacheng Publishing House has arrived, which also means that the publication of "Crossing Guandong" is approaching.
April 20th is the day when the second issue of "Flower City" magazine this year is released.
Since the release of "The Story of a Ferry" last year, which set a terrifying sales volume of 2.08 million copies in a single issue, the sales of the subsequent issues of "Flower City" have dropped a lot.
As of the first issue of the magazine this year, the sales volume has been fixed at around 850,000 copies. Compared with the previous sales of 600,000 to 700,000 copies per issue, it should be said that there has been a great improvement.
Prior to this, the sales of "Flower City" had been stagnant for a long time, so people in the publishing house and the editorial department knew that the additional sales of more than 100,000 or 200,000 copies were inseparable from the sales of "Crossing the Boat".
of influence.
A good work that can be passed down will have a huge impact on a publication.
Therefore, when "Crossing Guandong" was about to be released, the publishing house and the editorial department had high hopes for this work.
During working hours early in the morning, Li Shifei was not in a hurry to go to work, but went to the Xinhua Bookstore near his home.
The bookstore hasn't opened yet, but readers are already queuing up.
There are so many people who love to read these days. Whenever some well-known classics are put on the shelves, long queues at the door of bookstores are commonplace.
Li Shifei followed the queue and chatted with the people in front. As expected, these people were all queuing up to buy "Flower City".
In the last issue of the magazine, the editorial department had already announced the publication of "Crossing Guandong". This 645,000-word masterpiece will be published in "Flower City" in two issues.
If Li Shifei had his way, he would really like to release the full text of the novel and create a special issue.
Unfortunately, this can only be his wishful thinking. The content of one "Guandong" is almost equivalent to 2.5 copies of "Flower City".
No matter from the perspective of the publisher, readers, or author, this is not a good choice.
Li Shifei walked out of the queue and looked at the queue. He knew very well that a large number of people lined up because of Lin Chaoyang's name.
Among today's contemporary writers, Lin Chaoyang's appeal can be said to be unique.
Thinking of this, he became even more grateful that his two trips to Beijing had successfully secured such a powerful writer for the publishing house and "Flower City".
Li Shifei didn't need to buy a magazine, he just came to see the queue, and after understanding it, he went to the unit.
He rode his bicycle and passed by a newsstand less than 500 meters away from the publishing house, and found Lin Xianzhi standing opposite the newsstand and looking around.
"What are you doing?" Li Shifei stopped and asked.
Lin Xianzhi greeted him and said to him: "Let me see how the magazine is selling."
Li Shifei also became interested after hearing this and asked: "How is the sales going?"
"Twenty minutes after it opened, five copies of "Flower City" have already been sold." Lin Xianzhi replied excitedly.
"Ouch! That's a lot of sales. The quota will be sold out in a day or two, right?"
"I definitely won't last a few days."
The two of them were talking with joy on their faces, and walked towards the publishing house while chatting.
When we arrived at the editorial office, the office was unusually noisy.
The publication of each issue of the magazine is nothing special for the editorial department, but the difference today is that the magazine publishes "Crossing Guandong".
Since the manuscript of the novel was delivered to the editorial department two years ago, colleagues in the editorial department have read it one after another, and their evaluations of the novel have been overwhelmingly high. This situation is extremely rare in the history of "Flower City".
The overall artistic tone of "Crossing Guandong" is dignified and tragic. When reading it, one can't help but deeply lament the unpredictable changes of life and the ruthless vicissitudes of history.
For the professionals of "Flower City", such works are full of attraction.
That kind of aesthetic touch and heaviness will inevitably make everyone deeply touched after reading the novel. They can also feel a kind of excitement and happiness based on professional evaluation and feeling of branches and leaves.
When thinking that they have participated in the review work of such a huge work that will surely occupy an important position in the history of contemporary literature, everyone in the editorial department will unconsciously feel a sense of supreme honor and achievement.
Just as Li Shifei said at the first editorial meeting after the beginning of the new year: If we still make mistakes in basic evaluation and judgment of such a manuscript, we will undoubtedly be confused and blind.
Therefore, in the editing, reviewing, and proofreading of "Crossing the Guandong", the editorial colleagues worked extremely hard and did not dare to slack off.
They are afraid that their tiny mistakes will bring flaws to this almost perfect work, which is undoubtedly a blasphemy to the author's talent and hard work.
After nearly three months, "Enter Guandong" has finally been released, and everyone is looking forward to the outside world's feedback and evaluation of this work.
Writers, editors, critics, scholars, readers... everyone who cares about literature should read this novel. It will not disappoint everyone. It is destined to leave a mark in history!
Chapter completed!