Chapter 65: Second in Sales?!

On Wednesday morning, Akiwara Yuto used the microwave to heat up the bread he bought last night. After eating, he changed into sportswear, ready to go out and run a few laps along the street.

He had already let go of his worries about the unsatisfactory sales of the last issue of his serialized work. After all, the fact was already set, and he couldn't just hand out banknotes to make Tokyo citizens buy a copy, right?

He believed that instead of worrying about past achievements, it was better to think about what works to write in the future. After all, always placing one's emotions in a kind of failure and frustration was undoubtedly a very wrong decision.

He walked to the entrance downstairs and was just about to change into his sneakers to go out when he heard the sound of the phone ringing. He just picked up the receiver and heard Asano Aiko's voice: "Akiwara, hurry up and watch the morning news on Tokyo TV!"

Asano Aiko's voice had a sense of urgency, completely devoid of the gentle feeling she usually had. Akiwara Yuto was a bit confused for a moment, but still replied "Yes," then placed the receiver on the table, walked to the room next to the entrance, and turned on the TV.

To be honest, although entertainment means in this world were scarce, he had never had the habit of watching TV because of the habits formed in his past life, and only passed the time by reading novels in this world.

So he basically hadn't used the TV in the house.

He turned on the TV, picked up the remote control, and switched to the Tokyo TV channel. He saw a picture—a beautiful female reporter in a dark gray suit was holding a microphone and interviewing a middle-aged man who looked quite old, asking him about his confidence in the filmed work.

Akiwara Yuto watched for a few moments, still a bit confused, so he returned to the entrance and picked up the receiver: "Hello, Asano, what exactly do you want me to see?"

"Akiwara, you missed the shot just now, watch it first."

Hearing these words, Akiwara Yuto had to put aside his doubts, go back, and start staring at the screen carefully. After some polite exchanges between the two people on TV, they finally talked about the key content.

"As a director, I am very grateful to Tōshō Film Co., Ltd. for handing over such a popular work recently for me to direct. I think Teacher Akiwara Yuto's work has a very unique charm..."

Akiwara Yuto suddenly realized. He already understood what was going on. It turned out that the film company had announced the decision to adapt the work into a film.

He was a bit surprised in his heart, but didn't think too much about it, guessing that the film company might want to shoot it as soon as possible to get profits from the box office and other aspects.

He thought for a moment and was still ready to hang up the phone and go for a run. He decided to start exercising today to avoid getting sick from staying at home every day, so he turned back and picked up the receiver: "I saw it, it's good news, but it won't help with the current sales, right? I'll first..."

But before he finished speaking, Asano Aiko interrupted him: "Akiwara, you are wrong, this is very helpful to us."

She added: "And if you see it, then readers, bookstores, and distribution companies will naturally see it too."

Akiwara Yuto hadn't thought of this, but after pondering it carefully, he found that what she said was indeed reasonable.

This report from the TV station would make many people curious about what kind of work would be adapted into a film. Under such curiosity, a part of these people would inevitably convert into readers who buy *New Novel*.

Besides, some bookstores and distributors that hadn't purchased *New Novel* were also very likely to introduce a batch of inventory to see the effect of the distribution.

But as for how much the sales of this issue of *New Novel* would increase, it still depended on how large the influence range of Tokyo TV was.

But in any case, this was good news worth celebrating!

Thinking of this, his mood was much better, and he joked with Asano Aiko for a while before hanging up the phone.

The serious business was discussed, and he could go for a run.

By the way, how many meters should he run on the first day? How about running 3 kilometers first?

As one of the five core TV stations in Nihon, Tokyo TV covered more than 20 million households in the entire Tokyo area. Even for very short morning news, at least millions of households were watching.

So when Akiwara Yuto was running breathlessly along the street, the distribution bureau of Mantanshe had already started to be busy.

Almost every 10 minutes, a phone call would come in, and the content was almost the same: "Bancheng Bookstore newly ordered 50 copies of *New Novel*," "The *New Novel* at Ueno Bookstore is sold out, requesting replenishment," "Nagasawa Distributor hopes to arrange priority shipping."

A man in glasses wearing a loose suit put down the phone and muttered to himself: "Didn't they say the sales of this issue were not good? Why is it still selling so well?"

He didn't see the news released by Tokyo TV this morning, so he really didn't understand the current situation.

As an old employee of the distribution department, he had worked in the Mantanshe distribution bureau for almost 13 years. In these years of work, he had rarely seen a work that became popular in a short time like *New Novel*!

In order to understand the reason for the explosion of *New Novel*, he specially studied the previous book reviews and read all of Akiwara Yuto's articles.

After this, he had his own understanding.

That is, the explosion of *New Novel*, Akiwara Yuto only accounted for half of the reason, and the other half had to be attributed to the group of book reviewers who hyped his work.

So after the release of the latest issue, he made his own judgment based on the decrease in the number of book reviews on the market and the level of Akiwara Yuto's existing works—the sales of this issue would definitely decline!

Although he was not sure how much the decline would be, it was undoubtedly difficult to reach the big sales level of 140,000 copies in the previous issue. So in the previous meeting, he proposed to reduce the number of first printings of *New Novel*. It was just because of the protest from the *New Novel* editorial department that this proposal was rejected by his superiors.

However, as he expected, after the release of this issue of *New Novel*, because of the decline in promotional heat, the sales on Monday were not as good as the same period, and the sales on Tuesday were even worse, with a feeling of lack of stamina.

This made him feel very happy, after all, who told the *New Novel* editorial department to reject his proposal.

But he didn't expect that when he was waiting to see a joke, *New Novel* ushered in a reversal on Wednesday. In just one morning, a large number of phone calls came in.

Among them, Tokyo was the main one, but many also came from all over the country, all of which were requests for additional purchases, making him full of confusion.

So, what exactly happened?

While the man in the suit and glasses was full of doubts, the sales of *New Novel* continued to move forward.

The distribution volume on Wednesday reached 32,000 copies, the distribution volume on Thursday reached 35,000 copies, Friday even broke through 40,000 copies, and Saturday and Sunday sold 25,000 copies and 22,000 copies respectively.

By the following Monday, the statistics section sent the data, which shocked Kikuchi Tai, Akiwara Yuto, and others—this issue sold a full 200,000 copies!

The number 200,000 not only far exceeded the 150,000 of *Tokyo Literature*, but also exceeded the 180,000 of Jingfan Press's *Literature Spring*, second only to the 250,000 of Toei Press's *Tokyo Youth*.

It can be said that in terms of sales of this issue, *New Novel* has become the NO. 2 literary journal in the entire Nihon, and it is only one step away from reaching the top!

Kikuchi Tai and others were in a great mood, and the people in the *New Novel* editorial department applauded again to perform the ceremony of celebrating the reprint.

On the other side, Takei Kohei's mood was not calm at all. He gripped the sales report in his hand and decided to speed up his plan! ===== CHAPTER 66 =====