Chapter 19: Speeding Up

Judging by the newspaper Asano Aiko handed over, the book review for "Koshu and Yoko" was only the size of a palm; if one didn't look closely, one might not notice it at all.

What was even more embarrassing was that the review for "The Searching Footsteps" next to it occupied half the entire newspaper page.

Compared to each other, "Koshu and Yoko" was like a freebie given away during a supermarket sale.

Forget it, it was expected; I might as well see how these two reviews are written.

Akiwara Yuto placed the newspaper in front of him and began to read it carefully. To be honest, he was also curious about how the reviewer evaluated his work versus Kadowaki Yuzen's.

He first examined the layout, glanced at the other party's headline, "Kadowaki Yuzen's Masterpiece: A Crime-Solving Journey in Hokkaido," and then studied it—because this article occupied half the page and reached over 4,000 words, it looked more like a promotional advertisement than a book review.

The entire content was filled with embarrassing phrases like "the author's writing style is excellent," "the atmosphere of the scenery is fantastic," and "the local customs and culture of Hokkaido are described vividly."

He read a few lines and felt a bit jealous. After all, the review for his own article was only about 500 words long, a full eight times less than the other.

However, he was just feeling envious; he was only a new author, and Asano Aiko was also a junior editor, so neither of them had much influence.

After grinding for a few more years, he would naturally have such treatment, just like this article...

Huh, something seems wrong?

To confirm, he returned to the beginning of the article and began to ponder it word by word.

Generally speaking, the purpose of a good book review is to let readers know how successful and interesting a book is, thereby making them interested in purchasing it.

To achieve this effect, a book review must be based on the book, starting from the content to provide inspiration; simply put, the reviewer must convey the information and emotions they have acquired to the reader under their own independent values.

But this review introducing "The Searching Footsteps," while seemingly full of praise on the surface, actually didn't touch upon the core of the story at all.

You must know that for a mystery novel, a book review should mention the various puzzles or difficulties at the beginning as much as possible without revealing the murderer, tricks, key clues, or the truth, thereby attracting the reader's interest.

If even these aren't mentioned, how can it attract core readers interested in mystery? They can't be buying it just to read descriptions of the scenery, right?

Akiwara Yuto pondered for a while, still unable to figure out the reason why the reviewer wrote it this way. He shrugged and decided to continue reading how the review for "Koshu and Yoko" was written.

But harboring doubts about the reviewer's level of skill, he no longer held any hope in his heart.

However, the specific content surprised him a little.

The title of this book review was "A Story from Pain to Rebirth."

The article first recounted a news report about a man whose different treatment of his young son and eldest daughter led to the latter running away from home and disappearing for years. Then, it began to explore human nature, discussing why parents could have different attitudes toward children who were both their own flesh and blood.

After a simple analysis, the article led into the content of "Koshu and Yoko," telling the story of the different circumstances of twins in the same family and describing a series of stories about Yoko being abused, thereby evoking the reader's sympathy.

While guiding the emotions, this article used a narrative trick to return to Yoko, telling how she saw her own corpse downstairs, fully arousing the reader's curiosity. In the end, it recommended "Koshu and Yoko," saying it could be seen in the second column of the new novel magazine.

Akiwara Yuto was speechless for a moment; this review was written much better than the previous one, and even he was interested in buying a copy to see. But what he found strange was why the standards of these two reviews were so different.

He glanced at the author column and found that both were written by a reviewer named Yashiro Toshihiro. He felt some confusion and even suspected that Kadowaki Yuzen had a grudge against the person, but he felt it was unlikely; this kind of commercial promotion couldn't possibly involve personal issues.

Forget it, it doesn't have much to do with me; I should think about what I should do next.

He fell into deep thought again. Asano Aiko saw this and did not disturb him—you never know what's in the minds of writers; if you disturb him, he might say you ruined his inspiration. In short, just pretend not to see it.

Akiwara Yuto did not know Asano Aiko's inner thoughts. After considering for a long time, he decided to continue pushing forward with the adaptation work of foreign mystery works. As for the serialization in "New Novel," he would let it be for now; after all, it wasn't something he could decide.

He picked up his chopsticks and snatched the last piece of hamburger steak from the bento box. Asano Aiko's eyelids twitched at the sight—that was the one she had specifically left for herself, and it had been swallowed by Akiwara Yuto in one bite, which was simply infuriating.

Forget it, hold it in; be reserved, be elegant, I am a lady. Besides, Mom made it for him in the first place.

A few days ago, Mom took the initiative to ask her about Akiwara's specific situation. Upon learning that he grew up in a welfare academy, she was very sympathetic to his plight, not only increasing the portion of the bento but also making many rich dishes.

This made her feel like she wasn't her mother's biological child; you have to know that because the production process for hamburger steak is troublesome, she usually doesn't even get to eat it herself.

Akiwara Yuto finished his meal quickly, put down his chopsticks, and then switched to a newspaper to start studying it carefully.

As the most influential communication channel in Japan today, the role of newspapers cannot be ignored.

In his past life, Japan was one of the world's largest newspaper publishing countries; Japan accounted for four of the top 10 newspapers in the world by circulation.

Among them, the first, "Yomiuri Shimbun," had a circulation of 9.1 million; the second was "Asahi Shimbun," with 6.62 million; and the third was "Nihon Keizai Shimbun," with 2.72 million.

In this world, because the national conditions were the same, there were also newspapers with huge circulations like "Japan Industry Review," "East Japan," and "Chiji Shimbun."

If he wanted to establish himself in the literary world, he had to attach importance to the role of these newspapers, especially the book reviews in them; after all, no matter how well you write, if no one promotes it, it will just rot in the warehouse.

With this intention, he looked for a long time and basically flipped through all the newspapers in the editorial department, only to find that except for "Tokyo Daily News," other newspapers didn't even have a word about the articles in "New Novel," which was simply speechless.

It seems there really is no influence.

Putting aside this line of inquiry, he studied the book reviews related to the literary magazines of the four major publishing houses—although it had little to do with him now, knowing a little more wouldn't hurt.

He watched for a while and found that the struggle between the four major publishing houses had reached the point of bayonet fighting.

In these newspapers, the number of book reviews related to Toei Publishing's "Tokyo Youth" was the highest, mainly revolving around three works: a traditional mystery novel describing modern crime solving, a critical novel depicting social reality, and an aesthetic novel describing romantic love.

Keihan Publishing's "Spring of Literature" ranked second; the book reviews mainly discussed two traditional mystery novels, one about a detective biography in the Edo period and the other about a modern Tokyo police story.

Mantan Publishing's "Tokyo Literature" ranked third; there were two main popular works, a social mystery novel about family ethics and a biography about Japanese people making their way in the United States.

Kejiaoguan's "April Youth" ranked fourth; there was only one popular unorthodox mystery novel, mainly about a nursery rhyme murder story in Japanese folklore.

After looking for a long time, Akiwara Yuto had a further understanding of the current situation—compared to these big magazines, the book reviews for "New Novel" were only the two he saw, which couldn't even be counted as a salted fish lying flat.

But even for this salted fish lying flat, he wasn't considered the most valued author, and his work wasn't the most valued either.

Thinking of this, his brows furrowed.

No, I must speed up!