Chapter 62

Akiwara Yuto did not know that someone was preparing to target him. At this moment, he was holding a bankbook, sorting out his recent income and payments.

In the more than 2 months since he submitted his work to "New Novel," he had received a total of 10 issues' worth of manuscript fees, amounting to about 2.5 million yen. In addition, there was the 300,000 yen for helping Ikawa Akemi create a script, as well as the 2 million yen bonus brought by Asano Aiko, bringing his total income to nearly 4.8 million yen.

This money looks like a lot, but it is just half a year's salary for a high-level white-collar worker in Dongjing.

Not only that, because he had made many expenses such as donations, rent, and living costs, what remained now was just over 2.3 million yen.

If he spends it sparingly, this money supporting him for another half a year is not a problem.

However, he didn't care; after all, as a writer, the fixed manuscript fees from the magazine only satisfy basic needs. The bulk of his real income will undoubtedly still depend on the future royalty income from the single-volume books.

According to the contract signed previously, he can receive 10% of the single-volume book's list price.

And because of the currently hot sales of "New Novel," his first printing will have a circulation of at least 100,000 copies, and the list price will be around 2,000 yen.

This means he can receive an income of around 20 million yen. If compared to the annual salary of the whole of Dongjing, he is completely in the top 10% of the pyramid and can definitely be counted as a high-income class.

According to the current progress, the time he can receive this money will not be too far away.

This afternoon, Kikuchi Tai called to inform him that after the next issue's serialization ends, they will begin single-volume book layout and cover design. If nothing unexpected happens, printing and distribution can take place in a month.

Akiwara Yuto agreed at the time, but he proposed that he hoped to communicate with the personnel responsible for the cover design about the style of the cover to achieve the effect he wanted.

But to his surprise, after hearing this request, Kikuchi Tai instead stammered that it was not very convenient, which made him feel somewhat surprised.

You must know that this was a request so small it couldn't be smaller; it was no big deal, and it would only take 1 or 2 hours to communicate.

Akiwara Yuto was somewhat confused but did not insist; after all, he was not a member of the publishing house, so it was better not to probe too much in this regard.

He thought for a moment and could only tell Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi his design requirements, entrusting him to convey them on his behalf. And he requested that he must personally confirm the final cover effect.

Although he respects Kikuchi Tai, the quality of the cover directly affects the sales of the single-volume book, and the amount of sales is closely related to his bank savings.

So on this point, he absolutely cannot make concessions.

Seeing Akiwara Yuto insist, Kikuchi Tai could only agree to his request. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two ended the call.

Akiwara Yuto tucked the bankbook under his bed sheet, then returned to his desk, sat in the chair, looked at the street outside where people were coming and going from time to time, and fell into deep thought.

Since coming to this world, his goal was to ensure he wouldn't be displaced, and even to be able to support himself and establish a foothold. Currently, this point has been achieved.

But his needs are not static. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, after satisfying basic physiological, safety, and social needs, his needs have changed to the two higher-level requirements of being respected and self-actualization.

In his plan, to achieve these two points, he must continue to move forward on the path of literature.

In addition to achieving sales for his works, he must also add bricks and mortar to his own personal resume, such as first winning the Gold Award of the Mantanshe Sect Literary Prize, then winning the Newcomer Award and Grand Prize of the Mystery Writers Association, and finally winning the highest award in the literary world of this world's Japan—the Uemura Prize.

Only after these awards are all realized can he be considered to have achieved success, and then he can consider his own life problems, such as getting married and having children, or buying a house to settle down.

Perhaps when that time comes, returning to China to be a teacher at a good university would also be a good choice. After all, he has never considered himself a Japanese person; deep down, he still yearns for the life of his homeland.

However, these thoughts can be put aside for now. Currently, he still must achieve his own success in his career.

To achieve this step, he must make good use of the big tree that is the Mantanshe Sect and continue to form a community of interests with "New Novel."

He sees very clearly that most of the awards in the literary world are basically carved up by large publishing houses.

Thinking about it, it makes sense; only award-winning books can be known by readers and sell well, so those giants naturally will not easily let go of the big cake that is awards.

It's not that it's impossible for small publishing houses, it's just that the probability is pitifully small. After all, they have no people, no money, and are small and weak; how could they have the ability to arm-wrestle with those big publishing houses?

He thought for a while and found that the sky outside had darkened, and there were more pedestrians on the street; it seemed it was time to get off work.

At this moment, he suddenly remembered a question.

Next Monday is the final serialization of his work; how well will it sell?

According to the data from the statistics department, the final weekly sales for this issue of "New Novel" are expected to be around 140,000 copies, not far from the 150,000 copies of "Dongjing Literature."

But to be honest, if there are no unexpected events, it would be quite difficult to bridge this 10,000-copy gap relying solely on the work, so he didn't hold high expectations.

But he didn't take it to heart; after all, he believes that as long as he can make good use of the works in his mind, it is only a matter of time before "New Novel" surpasses "Dongjing Literature" and even surpasses "Dongjing Youth," which currently ranks first among literary journals.

Akiwara Yuto put aside his concerns in this regard. He stood up, prepared to go to the street to find a ramen shop to forage for food; eating instant heat-up bento from the convenience store every day was really becoming hard to swallow.

But to his surprise, he had just walked downstairs when he heard the ringing of a telephone.

He picked up the receiver and asked politely: "Hello, I am Akiwara Yuto. May I ask who this is?"

"Akiwara, it's Asano." Asano Aiko's familiar voice came from the phone, but for some reason, her voice sounded somewhat excited.

"Is something the matter?" Akiwara Yuto was a bit puzzled; after all, Kikuchi Tai had only contacted him recently.

Asano Aiko on the other end of the phone took a deep breath, then calmed her mood, and replied: "Akiwara, congratulations to you......"

While Akiwara Yuto was confused, the other party informed him of another piece of news, which made him feel deeply surprised......