Chapter 83

In Akiwara Yuto's original vision, he should maintain his living needs through manuscript fees, and then accumulate his first pot of gold through the royalty publication of the "ZOO" single volume, and then move forward steadily.

But if he still wants royalties, he will inevitably only be able to continue to cooperate with Mantanshe and publish his works on it. But this will still bring a lot of benefits to the magazine sales of Mantanshe, or it will fall into Takei Kohei's trap.

Maybe there is another way, look at the stock market?

He put aside his concerns, walked to the mailbox at the gate of the courtyard, took all the recent newspapers, and began to browse, trying to seek opportunities from them.

But as he looked, he found many problems.

Because of the parallel world, all company names have changed, and he can't even recognize them. Many people and things have changed. Who knows what the specific trend of the stock market will be.

What's more, he studied East Asian literature in his past life, not financial securities.

He sighed and gave up the idea in this regard.

Then, what should he do?

Akiwara Yuto sat on the ground with his legs crossed, frowned, and began to think.

His greatest wealth is undoubtedly the works he remembered in his past life, so his channels for making money should also be based on these works.

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

Then should he write a book and publish it directly, and then make his royalties higher, so as to obtain greater profits?

For example, the royalty he signed with "New Novel" before was 10%, which means he could get 200 yen for a book priced at 2000 yen.

But in fact, writers with slightly more qualifications basically have 15%, and those with more fame have 20%. If it is a recognized bestseller writer in the industry, they can even get royalties of 25% to 30%.

So, if he writes a new work and submits it to other publishers, he should only be able to get 15% royalties.

In this case, a large amount of profit is still taken away by the publisher. After all, many of the books in his memory are well-known works that can sell more than a million copies.

In other words, the more he sells, the more his invisible income loses. At most, he can negotiate with the publisher again when reprinting, but the rate that can be increased is no more than 5%.

Akiwara Yuto stood up and began to walk back and forth on the tatami, thinking while walking.

How can he make the publisher give up more profits, so as to increase his income?

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

In the year before he graduated, a senior brother with a literary dream had been failing to submit manuscripts to publishers, so in a fit of anger, he found a book agency and published it at his own expense, printing 5000 copies to sell.

As a result, because the story inside was relatively sad, quite a few literary young women went to buy it, allowing 80% of this batch of books to be digested, thereby allowing this senior brother to earn a small sum of money.

On the day he got the money, the senior brother invited everyone to have a good meal at the food stall at the school gate.

Speaking of which, can he bypass the publisher like this? Or, listen to other people's opinions?

Akiwara Yuto did not hesitate, walked directly to the phone next to the entryway, picked up the receiver, and made a call: "Imamura, it's me, are you free this afternoon?"

"Not looking for comfort from you, just want to consult some publishing matters."

"Okay, then it's settled."

After agreeing on the time and place with Imamura Yuto, Akiwara Yuto hung up the phone, changed his clothes, and walked out of the house directly.

Chiyoda Ward, Double Cafe.

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

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

Akiwara Yuto rolled his eyes at him, too lazy to pay attention to this sentence, and intended to go straight to the point: "Imamura, I'm here to ask about serious business. Do you know about self-publishing?"

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

Generally speaking, self-publishing is often because the publisher lacks market confidence in the author's manuscript, and the author has publication needs. It is a book where the author pays and the publisher undertakes other publication work.

Because of the subject matter, most of these books cannot be sold and often only end up being ignored.

However, self-publishing authors are often not aimed at profit, but only need the title of an author of XX works.

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

He didn't intend to tell Imamura Yuto the truth. After all, explaining the break between him and Mantanshe is troublesome, and it will also make Imamura have unnecessary worries.

When the right time comes, he will explain it clearly to the other party.

Akiwara Yuto took a sip of coffee and asked indifferently: "Can you tell me about the information related to the industry and self-publishing?"

Imamura Yuto didn't think much, nodded, and began to talk. Akiwara Yuto listened carefully and secretly remembered it in his heart.

Due to the oligopoly phenomenon in the Nihon publishing industry, market share and the most profitable businesses are often occupied by the four major publishers, and other small and medium-sized publishers can only survive in the cracks.

In the era of the economic bubble, because the market situation was good, these small and medium-sized publishers could often live very comfortably even if they were drinking soup. But I didn't expect that when the economic crisis came, the sales of books began to dive.

In order to survive, many small and medium-sized publishers have launched a new business of self-publishing. It is said to be a new business, but it is actually a helpless choice.

Self-publishing is fully funded by the author. The publisher does not need to consider the subsequent sales of the book, does not need to spend any publicity expenses, and the administrative approval is also very simple (no need to worry about the book number), so it can be said that there is no risk at all.

After Akiwara Yuto understood the situation, he had a general idea in his heart and felt that the situation in Nihon was similar to those small and medium-sized publishers who published books at their own expense in his past life. He thought for a while and asked: "Then what is the cost of self-publishing?"

"How many words are in the manuscript the other party wants to publish? How many copies do you want to print?" Imamura Yuto asked back.

Akiwara Yuto weighed it and answered: "About 100,000 words, about 30,000 copies."

These two data were not made up by him. The long detective novels in his memory are generally about 100,000 words, which is a basic number; and the quantity of 30,000 copies is his estimate based on the number of single volumes previously published by Mantanshe.

If 30,000 copies can be published and each copy is priced at 2500 yen, then these 30,000 copies can bring 75 million yen in sales.

It's just that I don't know the cost of printing 30,000 copies.

"So many?" Imamura Yuto was startled. He thought that self-publishing was just used by Akiwara's friend to "gain fame," and printing a thousand copies would be enough.

He struggled for a while, but still gave up the idea of persuading. After all, this matter had nothing to do with him, and the practice of Nihon society is not to manage too many other people's affairs.

He frowned and thought for a while, then answered: "Then it depends on the number of copies printed and the size of the paper. If there are requirements for design, it is estimated that it will cost a lot of money."

"As far as I know, if you want to print so many copies, it is estimated that the cost may go to about 8 million yen, maybe even more."

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

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

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

Even if he got the first usage fee for the film signing, all his savings now were only about 3.5 million yen, of which 1 million yen must be reserved as his living expenses for 3 months.

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

So, how can he make up the remaining funding gap?