Chapter 283: The Coming Crisis

Jingfan-sha in this world, as one of the four major publishing houses, had great similarities with the Kadokawa Shoten Group in Akiwara Yuto's past life.

Kadokawa Shoten was established in 1945, initially taking the publication of Japanese literary works as its main business.

Until the 1970s, the chairman promoted the Yokomizo Seishi series to the general public and entered the film industry, implementing the "Kadokawa Strategy."

The so-called "Kadokawa Strategy" meant combining publication and film/television adaptation, using publications to drive film box office, and using film box office to drive the sales of publications, thereby achieving a win-win for both.

This approach was very common in later generations, but in the Japanese publication market at that time, it was the first person to eat crab.

Through the Kadokawa Strategy, Kadokawa Shoten ruled the Japanese detective publication field through Yokomizo Seishi's "Kindaichi" series.

But success also relied on detective fiction, and failure also relied on detective fiction.

When Shueisha, Kodansha, and Shogakukan began to start up and monopolize this field relying on manga magazines, Kadokawa Shoten's strategic transformation was many steps late.

After all, compared with the sales of manga that easily exceeded 100 million, the market range of detective fiction of 10 million copies was pitifully small.

So much so that later on, Kodansha, Shogakukan, and Shueisha were called the three major publishing houses in Japan by the people, while Kadokawa Shoten couldn't be ranked at all.

Until the new century, with the explosion of the light novel field and Kadokawa Shoten successively establishing three major light novel libraries, Kadokawa Shoten finally surpassed and ranked second in the industry.

Jingfan-sha in this world also had great similarities with Kadokawa Shoten and occupied a ruling position in the detective field.

Although their detective magazine *Literary Spring* was not the number one in sales, the publishing house had a very large number of various detective and literary standalone books for sale.

Last year, their sales reached more than 8 million copies, occupying nearly 70% of the market share.

However, Akiwara Yuto completely changed this status quo by constantly transporting "masterpieces" from his past life while guiding the wind of public opinion to promote sales.

Tokyo, Chiyoda Ward, Jingfan-sha Headquarters Building.

In the large conference room on the 3rd floor, a meeting specifically aimed at the half-year results was held.

And this time, all management levels above middle management attended, from the president to the vice president, from department heads of all levels to executive personnel of all departments.

Even the editor-in-chief of *Literary Spring* could only sit in the position below.

After President Honda Kohei announced the opening of the meeting and introduced the theme, a department head responsible for data statistics stood up and reported the results.

"In the publication sales statistics for the first half of the year, the total sales of detective standalone books were 7 million copies, our company's sales were about 3.4 million copies, occupying 49% of the market share; it is expected that the sales in the second half of the year will be about 4 million copies, a year-on-year decline compared to last year..."

After he finished reporting, the editor-in-chief of the detective magazine *Literary Spring* also stood up and reported the sales decline and the half-year sales of about 900,000 copies, which was not up to 70% of last year's level.

Even the inconspicuous traditional literature department reported that due to the decrease in popular works, the half-year sales were less than 500,000 copies.

Listening to the results being announced one after another, Honda Kohei's face became increasingly gloomy, and even other senior management felt a kind of pressure.

At Jingfan-sha, management rights and ownership rights were not unified; he, as the president, was directly responsible to the board of directors.

And in the standards responsible for assessment, financial report results were a very important factor.

The loss of the detective literature publication business, which was a cash cow, undoubtedly greatly affected Jingfan-sha's performance.

If this continued, the gap between Jingfan-sha and the other three major publishing houses would only get bigger and bigger, and even Honda Kohei himself would face impeachment because of this, and even lose his position as president.

After the department reports ended, Honda Kohei stood up, frowned, and shouted: "Managing Director Tomioka, what is the main reason for the decline in market share? Who is the competitor?"

A middle-aged man stood up tremblingly and spoke the truth: "It's Anjiu Bookstore."

Honda Kohei pondered slightly, quickly remembered this name, and asked again: "Isn't this the publishing house that cooperates with Akiwara Yuto?"

Because of the previous storm between Akiwara Yuto and Mantansha, the major publishing houses in the industry basically knew him relatively well, and Jingfan-sha was one of them.

And this name, Anjiu Bookstore, also entered Honda Kohei's field of vision at this time.

Otherwise, with the status between the two, Honda Kohei wouldn't have noticed this kind of publishing house that could be seen everywhere.

The middle-aged man lowered his head and continued to report: "In the current market, all of Akiwara Yuto's works are handed over to Anjiu Bookstore for publication. In the first half of this year, the total sales of Anjiu Bookstore's publications reached more than 3 million copies, occupying 42% of the total market share of standalone books."

"The market share we were snatched away was also mainly caused by Akiwara Yuto's series of works."

Honda Kohei frowned and thought for a while, discovering that he really couldn't blame the business department; after all, he himself was also a reader and knew the quality of Akiwara Yuto's works.

The other party constantly published a high-quality novel every few days, and even occasionally got on related hot searches and news.

Looking at it this way, the works snatching the market share of his own publishing house was very feasible.

He thought for a while and continued to ask: "Since that is the case, can we negotiate with Akiwara Yuto and get the reprint copyright of his works, such as *The Devotion of Suspect X* and other popular works?"

In the publishing industry, the same work is often published by different publishing houses because of different editions.

In Honda Kohei's view, since Anjiu Bookstore relied on Akiwara Yuto's works to snatch market share, then just take away Akiwara Yuto's copyright.

The middle-aged man sighed and said again: "President, we have negotiated with Akiwara Yuto's agent, and the other party proposed a very high royalty requirement, so we could only refuse."

Honda Kohei was confused and asked: "How much?"

"50%!"

Hearing this number, Honda Kohei was surprised.

Royalty is directly the pricing of the book, and writers in the industry generally take 30% royalty.

Publishing a book, the publishing house's own net profit is less than 30% royalty, and it might even be less than 10% profit because it doesn't sell well.

If 50% royalty is delivered to Akiwara Yuto, then Jingfan-sha is equivalent to working for someone else.

Not only that, even other writers who cooperate wouldn't be able to accept it, right!

He pursued: "Can Anjiu Bookstore give so much?"

The middle-aged man nodded and introduced the cooperation model between Akiwara Yuto and Anjiu Bookstore.

That is, Anjiu Bookstore is responsible for channels and sales in all aspects, Akiwara Yuto takes away the absolute net profit, and then returns a part to Anjiu Bookstore.

So, Anjiu Bookstore is completely working for Akiwara Yuto.

Honda Kohei was speechless; he had only heard of such a publishing house that works for writers.

Looking at it this way, getting copyright from Akiwara Yuto is absolutely impossible.

He continued to ask: "Managing Director Tomioka, as the person in charge of literary business, what is your plan?"

The middle-aged man heard this question and stammered for half a day without saying a word.

Honda Kohei could only look around the audience and discovered that everyone avoided his gaze.

Just then, a female voice rang out.

"President, I suggest acquiring Anjiu Bookstore!" ===== CHAPTER 284 =====