As early as January of this year, Lin Chaoyang's interview appeared in the "Paris Review", and he entered the attention of the American literary world. However, at that time, he was still known as the winner of the new French Renaudot Literary Prize.
Known.
"The Truman Show" was released almost at the same time as the current issue of "The Paris Review," and it initially only attracted attention in the American literary world.
Later, Random House had a certain effect in promoting the novel, and many ordinary readers also noticed the novel. Only then did everyone learn that the film adaptation of the novel had been released in the United States the year before, and had also won a lot of awards as a non-English film.
Common achievements.
The sales of "The Truman Show" gradually started due to this kind of attention.
Many people in later generations always have a misunderstanding. When they see slogans such as "The New York Times' best-selling works" or "The New York Times' works that have been on the list for 20 consecutive weeks", they will subconsciously think that the sales of a book
Huge sales were achieved.
In fact, book sales in the United States follow a common sales curve, with fiction sales typically peaking two to six weeks after release, and nonfiction sales usually peaking at some point in the first 15 weeks.
.
Although many people believe that gold always shines, and those neglected good books will slowly attract readers,
It ended up being a classic, but in fact there are very few cases like this.
Most of the time, if a book is not well received by the market when it is first released, it will most likely be submerged in the endless sea of ​​new books.
In such a market environment, sales performance in the new period is particularly important.
When "The Truman Show" was first released, it was the off-season for the American book market, and three or four thousand copies a week were enough to make it onto the bestseller list.
But as luck would have it, the weekly sales of novels are always a little behind.
As time goes by, the American book market becomes more and more popular, and it will normally reach its peak season in November and December. At this time, the standard for being on the bestseller list will also increase to about 10,000 copies per week.
So although the sales of "The Truman Show" continued to rise in the following months, it was still a little short of being on the best-seller list.
It was not until June that the novel finally made it onto the New York Times bestseller list.
In addition to the film adaptation and the author's award-winning influence, the most critical thing is the fermentation of the novel's reputation.
What is the story of "The Truman Show"?
The protagonist Truman was raised in a huge studio by fists since he was a child. All his relatives and friends around him,
His life experiences are all false. He seems happy and contented, but in fact he has lost his freedom since birth.
When he discovered the truth of this world, he rushed to the other side of freedom without hesitation.
Pursue freedom at all costs!
For American readers, the explicit views expressed in "The Truman Show" fit their values ​​too well.
From one word to ten, and from ten to hundreds, the reputation of "The Truman Show" spread little by little among American readers. Good literary works have such a communication ability.
According to statistics, 25% of new books on the New York Times best-seller list will only briefly appear at the bottom of the list in the first few weeks of their release, and then disappear a week later. Less than 40% of the books will be on the list.
Stayed on the order for more than 5 weeks.
"The Truman Show" has been on the list for five consecutive weeks, which has surpassed most of the best-sellers on the list.
Although the sales volume is not explosive, it makes Random House even more optimistic, because based on their experience, only books with sales trends like this that continue to rise and are on the list are truly popular works with a long tail effect.
Many of the books that have explosive sales as soon as they are published are hyped, and may quickly exhaust their potential after the first few weeks of explosive sales.
The hot sales of "The Truman Show" made Random House pay more attention to Lin Chaoyang, and the royalty settlement was naturally happy.
In the American book market, professional books have always been expensive, often costing hundreds of dollars. On the contrary, fictional books such as novels are relatively affordable.
Especially when a novel is reprinted many times, the price will become more affordable.
"The Truman Show" was published in the United States at a price of $19.9, and sold 92,000 copies in half a year. According to the contract signed by Lin Chaoyang and Random House, after tax was deducted, he received about $150,000 in royalties.
It may not seem like much, but after all, this is just the royalties of a novel in a single country for half a year.
You know, "The Truman Show" is not only published in the United States.
Since the beginning of this year, the publishing royalties of "The Truman Show" have been settled once in France and Japan.
In the last settlement cycle, "The Truman Show" sold 312,000 copies in France and 185,000 copies in Japan, with the total settlement royalties reaching US$830,000.
If we also include the royalties from Lin Chaoyang's other novels published abroad in the first half of the year, he has earned millions of dollars in royalties from overseas publishing alone in this half year, and this does not include royalties from Xiangjiang.
Last year, Lin Chaoyang went to France to receive the award and signed a bunch of publishing contracts. This year, "The Truman Show" will be published in various European countries one after another, which will also bring him a lot of royalties.
Previously, in order to surprise Tao Yushu, he helped Tao Yushu acquire the Yulang Institution with his swollen treasury. His pockets were empty. Now, only half a year later, the treasury is full again.
Lin Chaoyang thought happily that although writing a book is not as profitable as starting a company, it is worse than running a steady stream of money.
Unexpectedly, on the third Friday of July, Yulang Institution announced a plan for a private placement of new shares.
The number of additional shares issued this time accounts for 15% of the total share capital. In addition to setting up an option pool to reward employees, these shares
Others are private placements rather than raising funds from the public.
In this way, it avoided negative effects on its own stocks, and Yulang Institution also successfully raised nearly 100 million Hong Kong dollars in funds.
Although the investment strategy of Yulang Institution has been a little more radical in the past two years, the development momentum of the industry has remained good, with steady progress, and it is actually not short of this small amount of funds.
The targets of Yulang Institution's private placement of new shares include Bank of East Asia and TVB. Among them, Bank of East Asia's investment is reciprocal, and the other two companies are strategic investments to expand distribution channels for animation products under Yulang Institution.
This operation not only solved the problem of concentrated shareholding ratio of major shareholders, but also introduced powerful shareholders.
On the day of Yulang Institution's announcement, the stock price rose in response. As of the close of the day, the stock price had soared 34%, and the market value directly exceeded the HK$1 billion mark.
As the major shareholder of Yulang Institution, Lam's Pictures held more than 80% of the shares before the issuance of additional shares, worth HK$570 million.
After the additional stock issuance, the shareholding ratio dropped to about 70%. The value of the stock not only did not decrease, but also increased sharply to 70%.
billion Hong Kong dollars.
This is the beauty of capital operation!
Looking at the high-spirited photo of his wife on the cover of the newspaper, Lin Chaoyang felt that his little treasury suddenly lost its flavor.
It’s hard to code words, it turns out that money comes quickly without money!
In the afternoon of this day, several guests came to Lin Chaoyang's home. The first one was Dong Qiao, an old acquaintance, followed by an old couple who were over seventy years old.
"Mr. Xia, long time no see!"
"Hello, Ms. Lin!"
This old couple is Xia Chengying and Lin Haiyin from Wandao.
As early as last year, Lin Haiyin asked Dong Qiao to take the lead, hoping to introduce Lin Chaoyang's works to Bay Island.
As a result, Lin Chaoyang stayed in the mainland for several months at the beginning of the year and never returned to Xiangjiang, so the matter was dragged on.
Lin Chaoyang had met Xia Chengying in his early years. When Xia Chengying visited Yanjing with a student delegation from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he had a pleasant conversation with Lin Chaoyang, who was a librarian at the Yanjing University Library at the time.
"The Death of Van Gogh" was first introduced to Xiangjiang, which was led by him.
When we meet again today, there is a sense of joy in seeing each other again after a long separation.
After greeting each other for a few words, Lin Chaoyang said politely, "I should be the one to visit you two."
Lin Haiyin said with a smile: "Lin Sheng is overly modest. You have won awards overseas and have greatly brought glory to our country. I came here to show my sincerity."
After some polite remarks, Lin Chaoyang first had a little chat with Lin Haiyin and his wife.
Xia Chengying was born into a family of officials in Yanjing. In his early years, his father Xia Renhu served as Secretary-General of the State Council of the Beiyang Government. He studied at Peking Normal University, the predecessor of Yanjing Normal University, and was an alumnus of Tao Yushu.
Lin Haiyin moved to Yanjing with her parents when she was young, and did not return to Bay Island until 1948. She also has simple and deep feelings for Yanjing.
"Yanjing City has changed a lot now, but it is mainly outside the Second Ring Road. Nanliu Lane is still there, and my father bought a yard there. It should be roughly the same as before."
When Lin Haiyin was a child, he lived temporarily in the Fujian Yongchun Guild Hall in Chunshu Hutong and the Guangdong Jiaoling Guild Hall in Hufangqiao Street. The longest place he lived in was Nanliu Lane at the west entrance of Liulichang West Street in Xicheng District.
Nowadays, the Yongchun Guild Hall in Fujian and the Jiaoling Guild Hall in Guangdong have long since changed. Only the courtyard house in Nanliu Lane is still alive.
When asked about old memories from childhood, Lin Haiyin couldn't hide the smile on her face as she listened to Lin Chaoyang's narration.
"When I was a kid, my favorites were dry steamed buns dipped in sugar and noodles with soybean paste. I could drink three big bowls of hot soybean juice in one meal.
My mother couldn't understand it at that time, and she always frowned and said:
How can you swallow this dry food?
How can you chew that hard, thick noodles?
Bean juice is almost like water!
She is a native of Bay Island, but she has a Yanjing stomach like me."
Lin Haiyin spoke with a look of nostalgia on his face, and Lin Chaoyang said with a smile:
"It just so happens that the weather has been hot recently. I will make you some authentic Lao Yanjing fried noodles later."
Hearing this, Lin Haiyin expressed joy, with a bit of expectation on his face.
Today, Lin Haiyin and his wife came here to discuss the publication of Lin Chaoyang's works. It was obvious that no one mentioned this matter after meeting. Instead, they talked about common things and reminiscing about the past became today's theme.
Lin Haiyin and his wife started chatting, and talked about their studying experience in Yanjing, and the various experiences they had in Yanjing when they were young. Although the past events were long ago, they seemed to be vividly remembered.
Seeing that it was almost noon, Lin Chaoyang was getting ready to cook. Dong Qiao teased Lin Haiyin and his wife, "Chaoyang's cooking skills are outstanding. If I hadn't come with you two today, I wouldn't be so lucky.
"
Hearing this, Lin Haiyin and his wife could not help but feel a little more hopeful.
Today, the Tao Yushu sisters went to work, and the two younger ones at home have also gone to kindergarten. The nanny Adi is still there. Lin Chaoyang specially asked her to buy some ingredients early in the morning.
She wanted to help with the cooking, but was only assigned to wash the dishes.
The kitchen in Jiahuiyuan was designed with full consideration of the Xiangjiang people's eating habits of combining Chinese and Western food. It can cook both Chinese and Western food.
Lin Chaoyang stood in the spacious kitchen, as if he had an aura of his own.
When northerners eat noodles, making noodles is the first step.
The snow-white flour was left in the basin, a little salt and egg liquid were added, and then warm water was added. Lin Chaoyang stirred with chopsticks while feeling the amount of water.
When he felt that the ratio of water to flour was just right and the flour became flocculent, he put down his chopsticks, held the basin with one hand, and kneaded the dough with the other hand, with a soothing and harmonious rhythm.
The texture of the flour after being lumped into a ball will be slightly dry and hard, which will make the noodles more chewy.
After resting for half an hour, the dough became soft and elastic. Lin Chaoyang began to roll and cut the dough.
Lin Haiyin, his wife and Dong Qiao watched with great interest. The hard work of cooking seemed to become a kind of enjoyment under Lin Chaoyang's hands.
It is a kind of enjoyment not only for the cook, but also for the viewers.
The noodles and the sauce were cooked at the same time. When Lin Chaoyang saw the water in the noodle pot gurgling, he first picked a few noodles and put them into the pot.
On the other side, the fire was slightly blue. He first stir-fried the diced pork belly to produce oil, then added minced ginger and star anise and stir-fried until fragrant.
Then pour the mixed dry yellow sauce and sweet noodle sauce into the pot in batches. Be sure to stir-fry the sauce until it becomes fragrant, shiny and sticky after each addition, until the fried sauce is fragrant and fragrant.
The smell made several people standing by the kitchen move their index fingers and their eyes shine.
The fried sauce was fried and the noodles were cooked. Lin Chaoyang poured water according to his personal taste. Considering the age of Lin Haiyin and his wife, the noodles were still warm after being soaked.
After doing this, Lin Chaoyang's forehead was sweating slightly, and he smiled at the three of them and said:
"Mediocre food, a few Haihan!"
Although the fried noodles are simple, they are cooked by the owner Lin Chaoyang himself, not to mention that this is the taste that Lin Haiyin and Xia Chengying have dreamed of for many years.
While they were chatting and joking, they each filled their bowls with noodles, spread fried sauce on their bowls, and added dishes.
Gently stirring with chopsticks, the aroma of fried sauce overflowed, and at the same time, the aroma of noodles and vegetables was stimulated. The compound smell penetrated directly into people's noses, instantly arousing the greed in the stomachs of everyone present.
"Try it, you two, and see if it tastes like the old Yanjing?"
Under Lin Chaoyang's urging, Lin Haiyin and his wife took the noodles to their mouths. The noodles were wrapped in brown meat sauce, glistening with oil, attractive in color and fragrant in fragrance.
The mouth is strong and elastic, and the salty aroma is delicious, which instantly conquered the taste buds of both people.
"That's what it tastes like!"
Lin Haiyin only said this happily, and then stopped talking. The only sound in the restaurant was the sound of noodles being sucked into his mouth.
Within a few minutes, everyone's bowls of noodles were all gone, and they couldn't help but grab a bowl each.
After finishing two bowls of noodles with soybean paste, Lin Haiyin and his wife did not dare to eat any more. They were over seventy years old and their digestion ability was far inferior to that of young people.
I can only watch Lin Chaoyang and Dong Qiao's mukbang eagerly, with eyes full of salivation.
"After all these years, I finally got a taste of Yanjing again." Lin Haiyin said with emotion, his face full of nostalgia, and he was satisfied that more of his long-cherished wishes had been fulfilled.
"Now that cross-strait relations have eased, if you two have time, you might as well go back to the mainland for a visit." Lin Chaoyang suggested.
Lin Haiyin nodded, "I will definitely do it."
After lunch, Lin Haiyin spontaneously chatted about the writers of the new era that had emerged after the humanitarian flood that she had begun to pay attention to in the past two years.
When talking about the literary craze in mainland China in recent years, Lin Haiyin cannot hide his envy.
Her own literary name is not unknown. She founded the Pure Literature Magazine and later the Pure Literature Publishing House. She discovered and cultivated quite a number of Bay Island writers. She has a high status in the Bay Island literary circles and has a certain attitude towards the development of Bay Island literature.
A natural sense of mission.
Lin Chaoyang's views on the literary craze of the 1980s are consistent and have never changed. This is just an explosion after a long period of suppression and is not the norm.
The decline in sales of literary magazines in the past year or two also supports his point of view.
Listening to Lin Chaoyang's point of view, Lin Haiyin felt that it made sense.
Following this topic, they talked about the literature of the seventeen years after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Lin Haiyin is very familiar with these famous writers who became famous before the founding of the People's Republic of China, and some writers who became famous after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Because of cross-strait relations, they are not familiar with each other, and she is not familiar with them.
"Shen Congwen is such a pity——"
Talking about those old writers, Lin Haiyin felt sorry for Shen Congwen. The old comrade passed away just two months ago.
In the 1960s, Lin Haiyin took a risk and published Shen Congwen's works on the Bay Island. Shen Congwen was one of the rare well-known writers who was not favored by officials on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
"Mr. Shen Congwen's evaluation in the domestic literary circle has improved a lot in recent years. In the end, literary history will give him a fair evaluation." Lin Chaoyang said in a low tone.
At the end of the chat, Lin Haiyin finally mentioned the introduction of Lin Chaoyang's works, and the two parties quickly reached a consensus.
"The Crossing Boat" is the first Lin Chaoyang work to be introduced to the Bay Island.
Afterwards, the Pure Literature Publishing House run by Lin Haiyin will continue to introduce many works such as "The Death of Van Gogh", "Shutter Island", "Entertainment", "The Truman Show", etc.
In fact, Lin Haiyin's idea was to publish a collection of Lin Chaoyang's works, but considering that it was the first time that Lin Chaoyang's works entered the Bay Island market, he chose a conservative approach.
After briefly talking about the introduction and publication of the novel, Lin Haiyin and his wife said goodbye and left.
In the blink of an eye, it was the last weekend of July. Maggie Cheung, who had not been seen for a long time, appeared in Jiahui Garden. As soon as she entered the door, everyone could feel her joy.
After asking carefully, it turned out that Cathay City's stock price, which had been held for almost a year, had finally returned to its peak.
But at this time, the problem arises again. The stock price has finally come back. Should I sell or keep the stocks in my hand?
Guhai Mingdeng·Zhang fell into a dilemma again. He took Tao Yumo to discuss for a long time and felt that he should ask the "stock god" for his opinion.
Facing her question, Lin Chaoyang shook his head firmly. He would not give this idea.
If you sell it, what should you do if it goes up? If you keep it, what should you do if it goes down?
Not getting the answer she wanted, Maggie Cheung was extremely entangled. After much thought, she decided to sell.
"The current share price of Cathay City is a bit too high and there are risks. I have to change to a safer stock."
The "safer stock" she calls is Yulang Institution. Since becoming a director of Yulang Institution last year, Maggie Cheung plans to buy Yulang Institution's stocks.
Unfortunately, she had been short of money in those two months. In the past six months, she had made a lot of money. By selling Cathay City's stocks, she could raise about 1.2 million, and planned to use the money to invest in Yulang Institution.
Tao Yumo listened to her thoughts, his face wrinkled like the old lady's heels.
"The stock price of Yulang Institution has doubled from the beginning of the year to now. You should have stopped buying it."
"I have no money!"
"If you sell Cathay City's stocks and buy Yulang Institution, the money will rise and you will still make money."
Maggie Cheung shook her head, "Didn't I lose money if I sold it? Look, isn't it back up now?"
Tao Yumo stared at her blankly, and finally covered his head and had nothing to say.
Tao Yushu reminded: "You are now a director of the company. You can buy stocks, but you cannot do short-term trading, otherwise it will be illegal."
"It doesn't matter. I have confidence in you, Sister Yu Shu, and you will support your own people!"
Zhang · Chives · Silly Daring · Manyu said this.
Tao Yumo muttered to himself: "If you want to buy it, why don't you buy it earlier? The stock price has risen by 60% in a week, and you are just thinking about getting on the bus. If you don't lose money, who will lose money!"
Since the issuance of additional shares, the stock price of Yulang Institution has been rising. Although the stock price has fluctuated slightly this week, it has overall led the Hang Seng Index to rise.
It has also become one of the few listed companies that is expected to recover its peak stock price within this year since the 1987 stock market crash.
Tao Yumo’s complaints are also reasonable.
The summer season in July and August is one of the most popular periods in Hong Kong every year. In August this year, two powerful films in the Hong Kong film industry will meet on a narrow road.
One is "Police Story Continues" produced by Weihe Films, and the other is "The Gambler" produced by Classic Pictures.
According to the production companies of these two films, they are not considered big companies.
But in fact, Weihe Film and Television is a film company established by Cheng Long with the support of Jiahe, and Classic Pictures is one of the satellite companies of Lin's Pictures.
This summer vacation seems to be a competition between films produced by two small companies, but in fact it is a tit-for-tat confrontation between the two giants of Hong Kong film.
When New Art City was caught in internal strife and unable to succeed, the Hong Kong film industry finally ushered in the era of two heroes competing for hegemony.
People in the film industry see competition in the industry, but ordinary citizens and audiences in Xiangjiang see the peak showdown between Cheng Long, the kung fu superstar, and Stephen Chow, the new generation comedy king.
Since this year, when it comes to who is the most popular in the Hong Kong film industry, Stephen Chow ranks second and no one dares to say that he ranks first.
One "Lucky Star" and the other "The Gambler" grossed 60 million Hong Kong dollars at the local box office. As the leading actor, Stephen Chow became famous.
His unique "nonsensical" acting style is unique in the Hong Kong film industry and has become his exclusive style.
"Police Story Continuation" premiered on August 2, and "The Gambler" was released on the same day. The meaning of targeting each other is self-evident, and the smell of gunpowder is high.
Such a tough schedule conflict also occurred a few years ago when Jiahe and Xinyi City were competing for supremacy. However, after it lasted for two years, everyone found that doing so was more likely to hurt both sides. Later, there was a tacit understanding and the confrontation was reduced.
of intensity.
Nowadays, Lam's Pictures has taken advantage of the trend and taken the place of New Art City. It lacks a hand-to-hand battle to establish its reputation in the Hong Kong film industry.
In the words of Tao Yushu in an interview with the media: Lin's Pictures is in need of a whetstone, try the edge of the sword in your hand!
This sentence may seem a bit out-of-the-box when used in news reports, but unexpectedly it has been favored by many media and readers.
The reason why the media praises it is very simple. The gossips between news figures are popular, and the sales of their publications are high!
And readers sincerely admire Tao Yushu. In just two or three years, Lin's Pictures, a fledgling film industry star, has stood out with unparalleled strength.
Now, he can compete with Jiahe, the giant in the Hong Kong film industry. No matter whether he wins or loses, his courage and ambition alone make people dare not look good.
"Police Story Continuation" stars Cheng Long, and "The Gambler" stars Stephen Chow.
Two strong films and two major movie stars condensed the old-new competition in the Hong Kong film industry, and directly made this year's summer film festival in Hong Kong popular.
Jiale, Jade, Lydia, President, Mandarin --- all Hong Kong theaters are overcrowded.
On the film schedules of these theaters, the two movies "Police Story Continuation" and "The Gambler" account for nearly 90% of the film schedules.
Those movies that were originally being released or had just been released were so good that they were cut in half when a spark hit the earth. Some of them were simply canceled without leaving any bones.
On the first day of release, "Police Story 2" took in a box office of HK$2.61 million, and "The Gambler" took in a box office of HK$2.25 million. It seems that Lam Pictures' performance was slightly inferior.
By the fourth day, the box office of the two movies was basically the same, with a difference of less than 20,000.
In the last two days of its first week, "The Gambler" surpassed "Police Story 2" at the box office in a single day.
On the first day of the second week, the first-week box office of the two movies was released. "Police Story" topped the box office list for the week with 15.49 million Hong Kong dollars, and "The Gambler" had a box office of 14.63 million Hong Kong dollars, finishing at a disadvantage of less than 900,000.
second.
Among the two, the one with the best performance was "The Young Master" starring Chow Yun-fat, with a box office of 4.58 million Hong Kong dollars. This is because this movie was released two days early, and some other movies were even worse.
Counting "Police Story 2" and "The Gambler", there are a total of 16 films showing at the Hong Kong Film Market this week.
Three films were released directly after the release of these two films.
Of the remaining 11 movies, only two, including "The Passionate Son", had a box office of over one million, and the remaining 9 works together could reach the level of "The Passionate Son" at the box office.
The city gate caught fire, affecting the fish in the pond.
The eldest brother and the second child are fighting, and the third child, the fourth child, and the fifth child are all gone.
Faced with such unethical practices by Jiahe and Lin, various film company bosses and directors complained to the media about the miserable experiences of their films, attracting the attention of many Xiangjiang citizens.
However, these news reports did not arouse public sympathy for other film companies and movies, but instead made everyone see the excitement.
Chapter completed!