Chapter 83: Self-Publishing

In Akiwara Yuto’s original plan, he was supposed to maintain his living expenses through manuscript fees, then accumulate his first pot of gold through the royalties from the *ZOO* collected volume, and proceed steadily from there.

But if he still wanted royalties, he would inevitably have to continue collaborating with Mantan Publishing and publish his works there, yet this would still bring considerable benefits to the sales of Mantan Publishing’s magazines, or in other words, play right into Takei Kohei’s hands.

Perhaps there is another way—what about stocks?

He set aside his concerns, walked to the mailbox at the gate of his courtyard, retrieved all the recent newspapers, and began to flip through them, attempting to seek an opportunity within.

But as he read, he discovered many problems.

Because of the parallel world, all company names had changed, and he couldn't even recognize them; many people and events had changed, so who knew what the specific trends of the stock market would be like.

Furthermore, what he studied in his past life was East Asian literature, not finance and securities.

He sighed and abandoned the idea.

Then, what should he do?

Akiwara Yuto sat cross-legged on the floor, frowned, and began to think.

His greatest wealth was undoubtedly the works he remembered from his past life, so his channels for making money should also be centered on these works.

In his previous thinking, he could earn a sum of money through royalties.

So, should he write a book and publish it directly, then make his royalties higher, thereby obtaining greater profits?

For example, the royalty rate he previously signed with *New Fiction* was 10%, meaning for a book priced at 2,000 yen, he could receive 200 yen.

But in reality, authors with a bit of seniority basically get 15%, and those with more fame get 20%. If it is an industry-recognized bestselling author, they can even get royalties in the range of 25% to 30%.

Therefore, if he wrote a new work and submitted it to other publishers, he would likely only be able to get a 15% royalty rate.

In that case, a large portion of the profits would still be taken by the publisher; after all, many of the books in his memory were famous works that could sell over a million copies.

In other words, the more it sold, the more his invisible earnings would be lost. At most, he could renegotiate with the publisher during reprints, but the rate of increase would not exceed 5%.

Akiwara Yuto stood up and began to pace back and forth on the tatami, thinking as he walked.

How could he make the publisher give up more profit, thereby increasing his own earnings?

As he thought, he suddenly recalled an incident from his past life.

The year before he graduated, a senior who had literary dreams kept failing to get his submissions accepted by publishers, so in a fit of rage, he found a book agency and self-published, printing 5,000 copies to sell.

As it turned out, because the story inside was quite tragic, quite a few literary young women went to buy it, allowing 80% of the batch to be sold, which earned the senior a small sum of money.

The day he got the money, the senior treated everyone to a hearty meal at the food stalls by the school gate.

Come to think of it, could he bypass the publisher this way? How about listening to someone else’s opinion?

Akiwara Yuto did not hesitate; he walked straight to the phone by the Xuanguan, picked up the receiver, and made a call: "Imamura, it’s me. Are you free this afternoon?"

"I’m not looking for comfort; I just want to consult about some publishing matters."

"Alright, then it’s settled."

Having agreed on a time and place with Imamura Yuto, Akiwara Yuto hung up the phone, changed his clothes, and walked straight out of the house.

Chiyoda Ward, Double Café.

Akiwara Yuto and Imamura Yuto sat by the window, ordering a latte and a black coffee, respectively.

"Akiwara, what publishing issues do you want to consult about?" Imamura Yuto took a sip of coffee and then sighed, "If you need comfort, I can lend you my shoulder."

Akiwara Yuto rolled his eyes at him, too lazy to respond to that, and intended to get straight to the point: "Imamura, I’m here to ask about serious business. Do you know anything about self-publishing?"

Hearing this question, Imamura Yuto looked at him in surprise, "Akiwara, do you have a friend who wants to publish a book?"

Generally speaking, self-publishing is often because the publisher lacks market confidence in the author’s manuscript, while the author has a need for distribution. It is a book where the author pays the money and the publisher undertakes the other distribution work.

Because of the subject matter, most of these books cannot be sold and often end up with no one taking interest.

However, authors who self-publish are often not aiming for profit; what they need is just the title of being an author of a certain work.

Akiwara Yuto replied: "Yes, a friend of mine wants to publish."

He didn't intend to tell Imamura Yuto the truth; after all, explaining the breakdown between himself and Mantan Publishing was troublesome and would also cause Imamura unnecessary worry.

When the right time came, he would just explain it clearly to him.

Akiwara Yuto took a sip of coffee and asked, pretending not to care: "Can you tell me about the information related to self-publishing in the industry?"

Imamura Yuto didn't think too much about it and nodded as he began to speak. Akiwara Yuto listened carefully and secretly noted it down in his heart.

Due to the oligopolistic nature of the Japanese publishing industry, market share and the most profitable businesses are often occupied by the four major publishers, while other small and medium-sized publishers can only survive in the cracks.

In the era of the economic bubble, because the market was good, these small and medium-sized publishers could often live quite comfortably even if they were just drinking the soup. But unexpectedly, when the economic crisis hit, book sales began to plummet.

In order to survive, many small and medium-sized publishers launched the new business of self-publishing. Calling it a new business was actually just a helpless choice.

Self-publishing is entirely funded by the author; the publisher doesn't need to consider the subsequent sales of the book, doesn't need to spend any promotional fees, and the administrative approval is also very simple (no need to worry about the book number), so it can be said that there is not a shred of related risk.

After understanding the situation, Akiwara Yuto had a rough idea and felt that the situation in Japan was similar to those small and medium-sized publishers that self-published books in his past life. He thought for a moment and followed up: "Then what is the approximate cost of self-publishing?"

"How many characters is the manuscript the other party wants to publish? How many copies do they want to print?" Imamura Yuto asked in return.

Akiwara Yuto weighed it and replied: "About a hundred thousand characters or so, about 30,000 copies."

These two figures were not something he made up; the long-form mystery novels in his memory were generally around a hundred thousand characters, which was a basic number; and the quantity of 30,000 copies was his estimate based on the number of collected volumes Mantan Publishing had previously issued.

If he could issue 30,000 copies and price each copy at 2,500 yen, then these 30,000 copies could bring in 75 million yen in sales.

It’s just that he didn't know what the cost of printing 30,000 copies would be.

"That many?" Imamura Yuto was startled. He had thought that this self-publishing matter was just something Akiwara’s friend was using to "buy fame," and that printing a thousand copies or so would be about enough.

He struggled for a while but still gave up on the idea of persuading him; after all, this matter had nothing to do with him, and the way of Japanese society is not to meddle too much in other people’s affairs.

He frowned and thought for a while, then replied: "Then it depends on the number of pages and the paper size of the book. If there are also design requirements, it will probably cost quite a bit of money."

"As far as I know, if you want to print that many copies, the cost might reach about 8 million yen, maybe even more."

After finishing this sentence, Imamura Yuto took out his business card holder and handed over a card. Akiwara Yuto took it and found it written with "Anjiu Gangyi, Anjiu Bookstore Co., Ltd.," and below the name was a string of phone numbers.

Imamura Yuto waved his hand, "Akiwara, this Anjiu Bookstore is a medium-sized publisher and also operates a self-publishing business. You can let your friend go there to consult about the specific business."

Hearing this, Akiwara Yuto expressed his thanks and then put the business card into his wallet. He looked at Imamura Yuto, who was drinking coffee, and pondered a question.

Even with the first usage fee from the film adaptation contract, all his current savings were only about 3.5 million yen, and he had to keep 1 million yen as his living expenses for three months.

So the funds he could use were only 2.5 million yen, far from enough to cover the 8 million yen needed to print 30,000 copies.

So, how exactly could he fill the remaining funding gap?