Chapter 130: This Isn't Right!

Chiyoda Ward, Akiwara Yuto's home.

Akiwara Yuto sat at his desk, looking at the increasing number of reports about the "Mystery Writers Newcomer Award" in the newspaper in his hands, feeling a faint sense of unease in his heart.

Before this, he hadn't placed too much importance on this award; after all, Kikuchi Tai had told him back then that the Gold Prize for the Mantan Society Literature Award was a sure thing.

So he had relaxed and simply adapted a foreign work to submit to this award organized by the Mystery Writers Association.

In his view, since he already had a Gold Prize as a baseline, it would be best if he could win this award as an extra, but it wouldn't affect the big picture even if he didn't.

But to his surprise, due to the sabotage by Takei Kohei and Kihara Daigo behind his back, he only ended up with a Silver Prize for the Mantan Society Literature Award, which meant he still didn't have any impressive titles to his name.

After all, although a Silver Prize is better than a Bronze Prize, it is essentially a consolation-type award.

And this made many book critics' evaluation of him as a "thriller literature genius" become exceptionally unmerited.

If he had known it would turn out like this, he really should have tried with some works by Miyabe Miyuki or Matsumoto Seicho; that way, it would have been certain, instead of worrying back and forth like this now.

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

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

Just as he was thinking, the telephone rang suddenly.

Akiwara Yuto stood up, walked to the Xuanguan to answer the phone, and soon heard the voice of Anjiujin Gangyi, "Teacher Akiwara, are you free this afternoon? Please come to Anjiu Bookstore; we are preparing to hold another regular meeting here."

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

……

2: 0 PM, Anjiu Bookstore, second-floor office.

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

The others from Anjiu Bookstore, including Anjiujin Gangyi, had also already taken their seats.

Anjiujin 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 book review in 'Mystery Literature' last time, the sales of 'Suspect X' successfully reached 13, 00 copies last week, which is a full double compared to the average level of the previous few weeks. And in the most recent week, sales also reached 6, 00 copies."

"According to the current situation, it will probably only take 7 or 8 months to clear the 60, 00 copies of the reprint," Anjiujin Gangyi said with a smile.

To him, everything was slowly getting on the right track, and if nothing unexpected happened, after the second batch of 60, 00 copies was sold out, Anjiu Bookstore could also earn a net profit of about 10 million yen.

Most importantly, because of the word-of-mouth effect of 'Suspect X', more and more people had been coming to him for self-publishing recently.

Akiwara Yuto was not as happy; his mind was full of doubts.

That's not right. Last week, relying on the book review, there were 13, 00 copies in sales, but this week it only sold 6, 00 copies?!

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 Anjiujin Gangyi, "President Anjiu, are there any other book reviews recently?"

Anjiujin Gangyi was a bit confused when he heard this question, but he still answered honestly, "As of now, there are no related reports."

In Anjiujin Gangyi's view, this was normal; after all, things like book reviews are often hard to come by.

Like the two books 'Red Wine' and 'Outfit' previously published and distributed by Anjiu Bookstore, their sales had both exceeded 100, 00, and the average number of book reviews each book received was only 3.

The sales of 'Suspect X' had only just been reprinted, and the cumulative sales were only 40, 00.

He thought for a moment and then took the initiative to comfort him, "Teacher Akiwara, there's no need to be so anxious, right? After all, it's only been 3 months since it was released."

Akiwara Yuto shook his head and frowned instead.

If it were an ordinary book, according to what Anjiujin Gangyi said, that would indeed be the logic; after all, book reviews aren't cheap vegetables—how could they be obtained so easily?

But 'Suspect X' was different. In his past life, this book easily sold over a million copies. Although there was the fame bonus of Higashino Keigo, one could not deny the true quality of this book.

At least when he and his other literature classmates were reading this book, very few were not moved by it.

But after this book was promoted by the professional magazine 'Mystery Literature', there were actually no secondary evaluations from other book critics. This is not right; it is too not right.

Because of Akiwara Yuto's serious expression, the atmosphere in the office suddenly cooled down. Anjiujin Gangyi opened his mouth, but he didn't say that the next agenda item was about the promotion of the book 'The Death of a Mystery Novelist'.

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

Anjiujin Gangyi was silent for a while and then said, "Teacher Akiwara, if you have doubts, why don't we visit Teacher Kawada Keiji, who wrote the book review for 'Suspect X' before? The other party might know something."

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

Anjiujin Gangyi shook his head, but after hearing this question, he was not as optimistic as he was at the beginning, and he also felt that something was a bit off in his heart.

Akiwara Yuto stood up and said to Anjiujin Gangyi, "How about this, President Anjiu, please make an appointment with this Teacher Kawada Keiji. We will treat him to a meal and ask about the specific situation."

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

……

After finishing the discussion about the book reviews, the meeting was able to continue, and Anjiujin Gangyi also took the opportunity to announce the publication and distribution matters of 'The Death of a Mystery Novelist'.

The initial proofreading work would be completed by Satake Maki, and Anjiujin Gangyi would complete the second and third proofreads. After all proofreading was completed, Akiwara Yuto would browse through it one last time.

The cover this time would be a single-color cover, highlighting the book title and author name, with no other designs. As for the main color tone, it would be discussed in another meeting.

The printing work would continue to be handled by Nishijima Sota, and they would continue to cooperate with the plate-making factory, printing factory, and logistics company responsible for 'Suspect X'. As for the number of the first edition, it was also set at about 30, 00 copies.

As for sales and promotion, this time Anjiu Bookstore would not participate in other aspects besides the arrangements for the reading session and book signing event.

After all the work arrangements were deployed, Akiwara Yuto declined Anjiujin 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 a coin, picked up the receiver, and dialed a number.

"Asano? It's Akiwara. I hope you can help me inquire about some news at Mantan Society..."