Chapter 310: Dublin Literary Award

Akiwara Yuto was not clear about Jingfan Publisher's misgivings.

And even if he knew, he wouldn't care much.

After all, everything he was doing now was a conspiracy based on successful commercial cases from his past life, so he didn't think others could see anything,

And most importantly, the funds were all in place one after another.

By early December, *Memories of Murder* was officially taken off the screen, and the final box office of this film reached about 5.2 billion yen, much more than the expected 4.5 billion yen.

As an investor, Akiwara Yuto finally successfully obtained one-third of the box office revenue, which was 1.7 billion yen in funds.

However, this money hadn't been warmed up yet, and it was deposited into the Tsutaya Bookstore account along with the sales payment for the third quarter to support the development of the second-hand chain bookstore.

Because of the box office success, Takuto Utsumi and many of the actors also received quite a few benefits.

As the director, Utsumi Takuto naturally didn't need to be mentioned; the movies he shot before were low-cost R-rated violent theme movies, and because of poor box office, the investors suffered heavy losses.

But because of the box office surge of *Memories of Murder*, many film companies took a fancy to him and sent him invitations, hoping that he could direct the filming of movies.

As the lead actor, Kotaro Hiraoka also reaped quite a few benefits.

Previously, because of his appearance and age, the best roles he received were the second or third male leads in TV series, and these TV series were basically not popular ones.

But because of his "excellent performance" in the movie, some big-production crews soon extended an olive branch, inviting him to participate in the audition for the male lead.

Many other participating actors, although the benefits were not that great, after having exposure, they also got rid of the status of third-rate actors and moved up a step in the entertainment industry.

Tokyo, Minato Ward, Akiwara Yuto's home.

He sat on the sofa, looking at the recent financial statements, and subconsciously frowned.

Because of the "actions" of the distributors, starting from the fourth quarter, the publisher's sales outside Tokyo began to fall further.

At the same time, Jingfan Publisher, relying on a series of promotions and "price reduction offensives," further occupied no small market share.

"Akiwara, the funds in the account still have a large surplus," Asano Aiko looked at Akiwara Yuto's frowning brows and took the initiative to persuade.

In her view, Tsutaya Bookstore being able to do this under the suppression of Jingfan Publisher, one of the four major publishers, was already very not easy.

If it were other publishers, it is estimated that they would have given in and closed down long ago.

Akiwara Yuto looked at her, found that her face was full of worried expressions, and knew she wanted to comfort him, so he smiled and said.

"Asano, I am not worried about the publisher's problem, I am just thinking about how to completely defeat Jingfan Publisher."

Asano Aiko was stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted, feeling that Akiwara Yuto was joking.

After all, although Jingfan Publisher ranked at the end of the four major publishers, it was still a behemoth.

Although sales in the detective publishing field had been poor in these two years, they also had no small market share in other publishing fields, such as girls' magazines, romance books, manga magazines, etc.

And Tsutaya Bookstore being able to maintain its market share in detective publishing in the future would already be a great success.

She thought for a while, and also joked with a smile: "Then what do you want to do?"

Akiwara Yuto also saw her indifference, so he didn't intend to explain, just responded casually.

In his view, Jingfan Publisher was now following the path of Kadokawa Shoten in his past life.

And as long as he occupied its path before it, it would undoubtedly be considered a success.

At that step, with the depression of the traditional publishing industry, Jingfan Publisher might have to abandon many bad assets itself.

However, the explosive development of light novels still had to wait a bit; he still had to focus on the detective field first, be NO. 1 in this field, and then consider other things.

Just as the two were talking, the doorbell rang.

Akiwara Yuto opened the door and discovered that the person standing outside was Maki Satake.

However, seeing Akiwara Yuto and Asano Aiko alone, she showed an unhappy expression on her face.

But this expression flashed away, so Akiwara Yuto didn't notice, just asked: "Satake, is there anything?"

Satake came back to her senses, smiled, raised her head and said: "Akiwara, your work has been nominated!"

"Nominated? Uemura Prize?" Akiwara Yuto looked at her puzzled.

This matter had passed for 1 week, Satake Maki should have known it long ago.

"No," Satake Maki took out a fax and handed it to Akiwara Yuto, "It's a document sent by the Dublin city government, *Snow Country* has been nominated for the Dublin Literary Award."

Hearing this, Akiwara Yuto was a bit surprised.

The Dublin Literary Award, hosted by the Dublin city government, is the world's highest-prize literary award, and the winner can receive 100,000 euros.

Although this money didn't count for much to Akiwara Yuto, the meaning behind it could not be underestimated.

This meant that the effort he put into traditional literature finally paid off, and he began to move from domestic Japan to the international stage.

"However, I remember that the overseas sales of *Snow Country* don't seem to be very good, why was it nominated?" Akiwara Yuto raised this question.

Traditional literature in Japan, generally speaking, due to the difference in literary nature, is difficult to open up in the European and American markets.

After all, the "sorrow" and "beauty" inside can only be understood by the East Asian cultural circle.

Therefore, whether it is *Snow Country* or *Personal Matter*, the current sales in the European and American markets are less than 10,000 copies.

But if sales are not good, how did the judging committee of the Dublin Literary Award discover this work?

Could it be that some judge discovered it inadvertently and nominated this work?

Satake Maki shook her head, she didn't know about this, after all, she also just received the fax. And although Akiwara Yuto was puzzled, he didn't know who to ask for a while.

Just as he was thinking, the phone rang.

Akiwara Yuto picked up the phone and discovered that the person calling was Goichi Akutsu.

Akutsu Goichi smiled and said: "Akiwara, congratulations on being nominated for the Dublin Literary Award."

Akiwara Yuto was a bit puzzled how the other party knew so quickly, but still replied: "Thank you, but I don't know the final result yet."

He paused and tentatively asked the question in his heart, wanting to find out if Akutsu Goichi and the judging committee had any relationship.

Akutsu Goichi laughed loudly and then said: "Akiwara, you have a shortcoming, which is that you think too much about everything. As a writer, you only need to focus on your own creation!"

Akiwara Yuto laughed dumbly and could only agree.

Regardless of whether he won the award in the end, this matter could be considered a surprise to him, so he didn't need to know so clearly.

It seems that he should do the work at hand first.

But he didn't know that after *Snow Country* was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award, he received even greater attention from the outside world... ===== CHAPTER 311 =====