Chapter 130: This Isn't Right!

Chiyoda Ward, Akiwara Yuto's home.

Akiwara Yuto sat at the table, looking at the increasing number of reports about the "Mystery Writers Newcomer Award" in the newspaper in his hand, feeling a bit uneasy.

Before this, he hadn't paid too much attention to this award; after all, Kikuchi Tai had told him at the time that the Jin Shang of the Mantanshe Literature Award was definitely not a problem.

So he relaxed and just adapted a foreign work and submitted it to this award organized by the Mystery Writers Association.

In his view, anyway, there was a Jin Shang as a foundation at the time; it would be best if he could win this award additionally, and even if he didn't win it, it wouldn't affect the overall situation.

But to his surprise, due to the behind-the-scenes interference of Takei Kohei and Kihara Daigo, he only got a Silver Award for the Mantanshe Literature Award in the end. In this case, he didn't have any titles he could show off.

After all, although the Silver Award is better than the Bronze Award, it is essentially a consolation award.

And this also made many book reviewers' evaluation of him as a "thriller-type literary genius" become extra undeserved.

If he had known this, he really should have taken some works by Miyabe Miyuki or Matsumoto Seicho to try at the time; that way, it would have been stable, instead of worrying like this now.

Akiwara Yuto sighed and let himself put down his worries about this award.

After all, he had already made his choice at the time, and he had to accept it no matter what.

Just as he was thinking, the phone rang.

Akiwara Yuto stood up, walked to the entrance, and answered the phone. He soon heard Anju Jin Gangyi's voice: "Akiwara-sensei, are you free this afternoon? Please come to Anju Bookstore; we are preparing to hold another regular meeting."

"Okay, I understand," Akiwara Yuto replied casually and hung up the phone.

2:00 PM, Anju Bookstore, second-floor office.

Akiwara Yuto pushed open the office door and sat on the sofa.

And the others at Anju Bookstore, including Anju Jin Gangyi, had also taken their seats one after another.

Anju Jin Gangyi coughed and said: "The purpose of this meeting is to report on the results of the two weeks since the last reprint."

"Through the last book review in *Mystery Literature*, *The Devotion of Suspect X* successfully sold 13,000 copies last week, which is double the average level of the previous few weeks. And in the most recent week, sales also reached 6,000 copies."

"According to the current situation, it will only take about 7 or 8 months to clear the 60,000 reprinted copies," Anju Jin Gangyi said with a smile.

For him, everything is slowly getting on the right track. If there are no accidents, after the second batch of 60,000 copies is sold out, Anju Bookstore can also obtain a net profit of about 10 million yen.

Most importantly, because of the word-of-mouth effect of *The Devotion of Suspect X*, more and more people have come to him for self-publishing recently.

Akiwara Yuto was not so happy; his heart was full of doubts.

That's not right. Last week, relying on the book review, there were 13,000 copies sold, but this week only 6,000 copies were sold?!

Isn't this just the speed of publication plus the increase in traffic from the website forum? Why is it so low?

He pondered for a while, and regardless of the meeting schedule, he immediately asked Anju Jin Gangyi: "President Anju, are there any other book reviews recently?"

Anju Jin Gangyi was a bit confused when he heard this doubt, but he still answered honestly: "As far as I can see, there are no relevant reports."

In Anju Jin Gangyi's view, this is normal; after all, book reviews are often hard to come by.

Like the two books *Red Wine* and *Outfit* previously published and distributed by Anju Bookstore, sales have both exceeded 100,000, and the average number of book reviews obtained for each book is only 3.

The sales of *The Devotion of Suspect X* have just been reprinted, and the cumulative sales are only 40,000.

He thought for a moment and took the initiative to comfort him: "Akiwara-sensei, don't be so anxious. After all, it has only been 3 months since it was published."

Akiwara Yuto shook his head and frowned instead.

If it were an ordinary book, according to what Anju Jin Gangyi said, this is indeed the truth; after all, book reviews are not Chinese cabbage, how can they be obtained so easily.

But *The Devotion of Suspect X* is different. In his past life, this book easily sold over a million copies. Although there was the fame bonus of Keigo Higashino, it cannot be denied that this book has real quality.

At least when he and other literature students were reading this book at the time, few people were not moved by it.

But after this book was promoted by the professional magazine *Mystery Literature*, there was no secondary evaluation from other book reviewers. This is not right, it's too not right.

Because Akiwara Yuto's expression was serious, the atmosphere in the office suddenly cooled down. Anju Jin Gangyi opened his mouth and didn't say that the next topic was about the promotion of the book *The Death of a Mystery Novelist*.

On the other side, Sasaki Maki looked at Akiwara Yuto's furrowed brows and showed a worried expression.

Anju Jin Gangyi was silent for a while and said again: "Akiwara-sensei, if you have any questions, why don't we visit Kawada Keiji, the teacher who wrote the book review for *The Devotion of Suspect X* before? He might know something?"

Hearing this name, Akiwara Yuto suddenly remembered the previous book review and asked: "By the way, did that Kawada-sensei say why it was published in *Mystery Literature* instead of the *Chiba Daily News* where he works?"

Anju Jin Gangyi shook his head, but after hearing this question, he was not as optimistic as he was at the beginning, and he felt a bit wrong in his heart.

Akiwara Yuto stood up and said to Anju Jin Gangyi: "Let's do this, President Anju. Please make an appointment with Kawada Keiji. We will invite him to a meal and ask about the specific situation."

"Understood, I will arrange it," Anju Jin Gangyi nodded and replied.

After finishing the matter of the book review, the meeting was able to continue. Anju Jin Gangyi also took this opportunity to announce the publication and distribution of *The Death of a Mystery Novelist*.

The initial proofreading work will be completed by Sasaki Maki, and the second and third proofreading will be completed by Anju Jin Gangyi. After all proofreading is completed, Akiwara Yuto will browse it as a whole.

The cover will be a single-color cover this time, focusing on the title and author's name, without other designs. As for the main color tone, it will be discussed in another meeting.

The printing work will continue to be taken over by Nishijima Sota, and continue to cooperate with the platemaking factory, printing factory, and logistics company responsible for *The Devotion of Suspect X*. As for the number of the first edition, it is also set at about 30,000 copies.

As for sales and promotion, this time Anju Bookstore will not participate in other aspects except for the trial reading meeting and book signing meeting arrangements.

After all the work arrangements were deployed, Akiwara Yuto refused Anju Jin Gangyi's proposal to eat together and walked out of the publisher's door.

He walked to a public telephone booth on the side of the road, inserted coins, picked up the receiver, and dialed a number.

"Asano, it's me, Akiwara. I hope you can help me inquire about some news at Mantanshe..." ===== CHAPTER 131 =====