Chapter 264: A Simple and Effective Method

"Is the manager of Shimoda Bookstore like this?"

Akiwara Yuto raised his head and asked Ankyu Tsugaoichi who was standing in front of him, and the latter revealed a wry smile, just nodding.

In the past five minutes, Ankyu Tsugaoichi had told Akiwara Yuto all the ins and outs, including the claim of "fraud" against readers.

Akiwara Yuto had a headache, not expecting it to be like this...

Some traditional Japanese store managers were often very stubborn and determined that their profession had "sacredness".

Once they determined a claim, they often wouldn't easily change it.

Wanting to persuade them was often very difficult.

However, Akiwara Yuto hadn't intended to accept the suggestion of changing his pen name from the beginning.

In his past life, some writers indeed liked to use different pen names for different works.

For example, Otsuichi, besides the name "Otsuichi", also used the two names Nakata Eiichi and Yamashiro Asako.

Especially the last name, even some readers who didn't know the situation thought he was a female author.

However, the reason he used multiple pen names was that he wanted to try works of different styles.

When reprinting later, some books were even changed back to the original name "Otsuichi".

The reason was because this pen name had the greatest fame and sold books the best.

Besides Otsuichi, Lu Xun also used 140 pen names, such as "Xunge, Fengsheng, Zungu, Baren, Moushengzhe, Haizi, Xuezhi, Zishu, Gengchen, Suozi, Suoshi, Shuren, Lingfei", etc.

But these pen names of his were often related to the era.

After all, that era was rampant with warlords, and if some articles offended warlords, it would often lead to death.

In Akiwara Yuto's view, he was just using a pen name to publish "pure literature", so if this was considered fraud, it was too much!

He pondered for a while and suddenly realized a possibility.

"President Ankyu, please bring a book over."

"Now!?"

Ankyu Tsugaoichi was a bit puzzled, but still ordered his subordinates to run to the warehouse, take a new book that had been printed and sealed, and handed it to Akiwara Yuto.

Akiwara Yuto lowered his head and started to size up this new book of his.

The outer packaging of the book was very simple; besides a cover with heavy snow flying, there were only the words "Snow Country" and "Akiwara Yuto".

But on the outermost layer, there was still a layer of "transparent packaging bag"!

Seeing this packaging bag, Akiwara Yuto was stunned for two seconds, and immediately realized.

That's right, single volumes are different from journals.

If some bookstores didn't have trial reading copies, readers couldn't tear open this layer of transparent packaging bag at all when buying books!

This also meant that they might buy the book home and tear it open, only to know that this work was a pure literature work! Not detective fiction!

After all, on the cover, there was no mention of words related to "pure literature" or "traditional literature" at all!

After seeing the reason, Akiwara Yuto's expression relaxed.

By this step, he already knew how to avoid causing misunderstanding to readers without changing his "pen name"!

"Akiwara-sensei?"

Ankyu Tsugaoichi asked puzzled; he found that Akiwara Yuto was looking at the book in his hand, his face changing back and forth.

Akiwara Yuto put down the book, raised his head to meet Ankyu Tsugaoichi's gaze, and said seriously, "President Ankyu, postpone the release date, and then change the cover."

"Change the cover?" Ankyu Tsugaoichi became puzzled.

He didn't understand what this meant; after all, this cover was designed by inviting a famous master, and was approved by Akiwara Yuto before.

"That's right, I hope to add a line of 'Pure Literature Work' on the basis of the original cover, and mark it with a specific color."

After seeing the words "Pure Literature Work", if there were still readers who thought this was detective fiction and bought it home, then it wasn't his problem!

Ankyu Tsugaoichi revealed a wry smile, "Akiwara-sensei, 50,000 copies have almost all been printed, are you sure you want to do this?"

The sentence "change the cover" sounded simple, but in reality, it had to be operated manually by hand, taking off the covers one by one and changing them into new covers.

This would make the printing factory have complaints.

Akiwara Yuto waved his hand and said directly, "No problem, we will also find them to print our books later."

He didn't take this to heart and didn't think the printing factory would refuse.

After all, the economic crisis was still fermenting now, the publishing industry was overall sluggish, and these printing factories were at the stage of being very happy to have work to do.

And as the party of the first part, he naturally had the right to require them to do more work; at worst, give some hard work fees.

Seeing Akiwara Yuto's determination, Ankyu Tsugaoichi could only accept it.

"By the way, how much inventory was ordered in this trial reading meeting?" Akiwara Yuto asked another question.

Ankyu Tsugaoichi hesitated for a while and reported a number.

"20,000 copies."

Hearing this number, Akiwara Yuto was a bit surprised; he had thought there might not even be 10,000 copies!

However, he thought about it again and found that he might have thought wrong.

There were bookstores like Shimoda Bookstore that considered the interests of readers, so naturally there were bookstores that only cared about interests and ignored readers!

He now had no small fame after all; putting books on the display stand could attract many readers.

Facing such interests, many bookstore managers might still choose to order.

After all, even if they found they bought the wrong book, these readers would often only scold him, not the bookstore!

Thinking like this, he still had to thank that Shimoda Bookstore owner, thank him for this "kind" reminder to him!

However, he still had to find a way to spread the book's channels!

Akiwara Yuto's brain didn't turn for long before he put forward a request.

"President Ankyu, after the cover is changed, please place this batch of 50,000 copies of books in Shimoda Bookstore without collecting advance payments. As for the bookstores that have already collected advance payments, return them to them first."

But after hearing this request from Akiwara Yuto, Ankyu Tsugaoichi was shocked!

Not collecting advance payments, what kind of operation is this!

The current industry rule for Japanese bookstores is to collect advance payments first, and then send books. If the books can't be sold, the advance payments will be returned to the bookstores, and the unsold books will be recycled.

Akiwara Yuto looked at Ankyu Tsugaoichi's expression and didn't have the idea of explaining.

For him, "money" is secondary, and "fame" is primary.

And this set of operations is also very normal.

Currently, it still looks a bit ahead of its time, but in the future, as the book market gets worse and worse, many publishers have implemented it.

After all, if advance payments are not collected, bookstores don't have capital pressure and will naturally accept them enthusiastically!

After all, at worst, it's just using some inventory and manpower!

In short, there's no need to worry too much about the 50,000 copies of the first edition!

The rest is just "creating momentum" for this book of his!

With influence, the public will surely pay attention.

By then, no matter how the traditional literary circle boycotts him, they must come out and say two sentences, right!

And his other purpose must also be implemented well at this time! ===== CHAPTER 265 =====