Chapter 162: The choice of the next work

7 PM, Chiyoda Ward, Garden family restaurant.

"Asano, regarding the invitation from *April Youth*, do you think I should accept it?"

After finishing dinner, Akiwara Yuto put down the knife and fork in his hand, wiped his mouth, and asked.

Sitting opposite him was Asano Aiko, who had just returned from Anju Bookstore.

After Awazu Hideki made the invitation to him, he didn't agree immediately, but sent the other party away with the excuse of considering it for a while, and came to this family restaurant at the agreed time.

Asano Aiko put down her teacup, thought for a while, and then answered: "Akiwara, regarding this aspect, how do you see it yourself?"

Akiwara Yuto pondered and lowered his head to think.

To be honest, he didn't look up to the manuscript fees and royalties offered by *April Youth* very much right now.

After all, besides the channel of Anju Bookstore, he had also been paid attention to by quite a few book reviewers.

After promotion through channels and book reviews, the income that the works under his name could bring him was much more than working for others.

But if he cooperated with the other party, he could probably gain a favor.

After all, adding flowers to a brocade is far less than sending charcoal in the snow.

Although the sales of *April Youth* had fallen quite a bit, it was still a magazine under the Education Publishing House, which was one of the four major publishing houses.

Seeing Akiwara Yuto still pondering, Asano Aiko continued.

"Akiwara, I think we should modify the contract and limit the scope of cooperation to only serialization, not including other aspects."

Akiwara Yuto was a little puzzled when he heard this, but he quickly reacted.

"Asano, you mean, the rights to the single volume and the subsidiary copyrights such as film and television adaptation should be kept in our own hands."

Asano Aiko nodded and added: "As a large publishing house, the Education Publishing House must have restrictions on royalty sharing. I think 30% is already the upper limit, and it's hard to make further concessions."

"Since that's the case, Akiwara, you only need to serialize. After all, what the other party values most is the work's effect on pulling up the sales of *April Youth*, right?"

Akiwara Yuto nodded. If this was the case, it could barely be justified.

He could completely make a work famous in *April Youth* through serialization, and then publish the work at his own expense through the channel of Anju Bookstore.

According to this operation, he could take care of both the favor of the Education Publishing House and the interests of the single volume.

Asano Aiko smiled.

"Akiwara, besides what I just said, the work on the book *Negligent Homicide* is also progressing steadily. If you intend to release another work, the current publicity resources of Anju Bookstore might not be able to take care of it..."

After listening to this explanation, Akiwara Yuto also showed an embarrassed expression.

He had actually overlooked this point. Generally speaking, writers release single volumes only once every period of time, so that they can make full use of publicity resources.

So if he released a work now, it would be a bit like crashing into himself.

Looking at it this way, accepting the invitation of *April Youth* would instead help him get through this hiatus...

Akiwara Yuto drank some water and said.

"Asano, I know. Then I will contact that Editor Awazu in these two days."

After determining his thoughts, Akiwara Yuto and Asano Aiko chatted simply about other aspects of cooperation with Anju Bookstore.

But what made him puzzled was that Asano Aiko said the employees of Anju Bookstore, although they had a serious work attitude, were all a bit gossipy, which made her a bit depressed.

Akiwara Yuto was a bit puzzled when he heard this. In his impression, those few people shouldn't be like this, right?

Forget it, as long as it doesn't affect his book publication.

Akiwara Yuto shook his head, said goodbye to Asano Aiko, and walked toward his home.

After a 15-minute walk, he sat down at the desk on the second floor again.

What should he write for the next book?

Akiwara Yuto held the pen and looked at the paper on the desktop, falling into thought.

Now he is cooperating with *April Youth*, so there is no need to bring out any particularly classic works.

Since that's the case, should he follow his previous thoughts and continue to adapt a foreign mystery work?

Anyway, *April Youth* only needs him to serialize, and didn't specify what he should write.

Akiwara Yuto nodded and made the decision to use *April Youth* as a test field.

Speaking of which, what should he write?

He held the pen and wrote down the names of 3 mystery works on the paper: *Murder on the Orient Express*, *Witness for the Prosecution*, *And Then There Were None*.

These three works were all works by the Queen of Mystery, Agatha, and this writer was also very popular in Nihon in his past life.

*Murder on the Orient Express* tells the story of a murder on the luxury train "Orient Express," telling the story of the great detective Poirot clearing away the heavy fog on the train full of murderous intent, and finally locking onto the real culprit among twelve suspects.

In his past life, this work was adapted into a native version in Nihon.

Although he hadn't seen the Nihon adaptation version, he only needed to adjust the protagonist's background and era in this story.

So the adaptation difficulty wouldn't be very great.

*Witness for the Prosecution* tells the story of a man accused of murdering a wealthy woman. Although the man repeatedly claimed he was innocent, his wife appeared in court to prove he was the murderer.

It wasn't until the appearance of a mysterious woman that things took a turn...

This story involves the court and jurisprudence, and it's still a bit troublesome to adapt.

In order to do a good job of adaptation, he might have to deeply understand the judicial and legal system of Nihon.

As for *And Then There Were None*, it tells the story of eight strangers invited to Black Island. After they arrived, they were received by a butler couple.

After this, these 10 people began to die one by one...

This story involves nursery rhyme murders, and he needs to go to the folk of Nihon to find if there are similar ballads.

Besides this, it also involves a lot of other social, legal, and medical knowledge.

It seems the adaptation difficulty is still a bit big.

Akiwara Yuto frowned and thought. He suddenly thought of a problem: although these three works are a bit old, they are still very classic. It's a bit of a waste to give them to *April Youth*.

Then what should he do? He can't just write an original one, right?

Just at this moment, a plot suddenly flashed in his mind.

A murder occurred in a closed hotel room: a female photographer was killed, but besides her, there was only her wealthy lover in the room.

After the police rushed to the scene, they quickly controlled the lover and thought he was the murderer.

Faced with the police's accusation, the lover naturally wouldn't give up and brought in a lawyer, claiming he was framed and the murderer was someone else.

But what puzzled the lawyer was that the room's doors and windows were all closed, completely a locked room.

How about this work?

In terms of murder methods and legal knowledge, it seems there is no great difficulty in adaptation?

Akiwara Yuto weighed it for a while and wrote the name of this work on the paper—*The Invisible Guest*.

Immediately after, he buried his head and began to write.

For a time, only the "rustling" sound of the pen tip sliding came from the room... ===== CHAPTER 163 =====