Chapter 93: Gifts and Customers

Ankyu Bookstore, second floor.

While Fumie Miyagi was pondering how to design the cover, Yuto Akiwara was invited here to attend a promotional planning meeting hosted by Goichi Akutsu.

Because there was no dedicated meeting room, everyone had to make do with holding the meeting in Goichi Akutsu's office; some sat on chairs, some on the sofa, and some simply stood.

As a partner and client, Yuto Akiwara was seated on the sofa, in the position second furthest from the door.

Goichi Akutsu coughed once and began to chair the meeting. He first faced the other five people in the room and introduced Yuto Akiwara: "This is the already-debuted author, Yuto Akiwara."

After finishing, Goichi Akutsu also introduced the five employees beside him, named Maki Satake, Naka Itakura, Kakeru Oka, Teppei Nagao, and Sota Nishijima, who were responsible for proofreading, editing, sales, promotion, and administration, respectively.

Yuto Akiwara stood up, bowed to everyone in the room, and offered his greetings.

Just then, the female editor named Maki Satake stood up and asked tentatively: "May I ask if you are the Akiwara-sensei who is serializing in *New Fiction*?"

Yuto Akiwara was taken aback; he hadn't expected to run into one of his readers here, so he nodded.

Having confirmed his identity, Maki Satake immediately became happy and said with pleasant surprise: "Akiwara-sensei, I am a loyal fan of your work. I have purchased and collected every issue of the *ZOO* series!"

Upon hearing this, the other four people were also surprised and began to whisper among themselves.

Just as Yuto Akiwara was wondering how to respond, Goichi Akutsu at his side gave a heavy "ahem." "Satake, it is meeting time now."

Once the president had spoken, Maki Satake realized she had been too impulsive. She subconsciously shrank her head and then sat down obediently.

Seeing that everyone had quieted down, Goichi Akutsu nodded with satisfaction and said: "Alright, let's get to today's topic."

He looked around and said: "The reason I asked everyone to come here today is mainly to discuss that Ankyu Bookstore and Akiwara-sensei have reached a partnership to publish the work *The Devotion of Suspect X*. Before the release, we need to formulate a detailed plan."

After saying this, he turned his gaze toward Yuto Akiwara: "Akiwara-sensei, for the first batch of published books, we are prepared to cooperate with bookstores to promote them by including free gifts."

"As for the specific form of the gifts, we still need to discuss that."

Yuto Akiwara asked: "Could you tell me what the specific budget is?"

Goichi Akutsu waved his hand: "The total budget is about 2 million yen, and we are trying to keep the unit price under 100 yen. The two books that sold 100,000 copies at our Ankyu Bookstore previously used this method."

Hearing this, Yuto Akiwara began to think.

Ever since signing the contract last time, he had realized that he didn't know enough about the publishing industry, so he had sought out a large number of books to study and had learned quite a bit. Not only that, he had also used sales statistics tables to list all the best-selling books of recent years and carefully analyzed why those books were able to sell well.

To be honest, in his research, the gift method was more suitable for certain magazines aimed at women.

Yuto Akiwara shook his head and said: "President Akutsu, the two books that sold well previously were *Red Wine Appreciation* and *How to Dress Exquisitely*, right?"

"Yes."

"May I ask what the gifts for those two books were?"

Before Goichi Akutsu could answer, Maki Satake snatched the words away and replied in a crisp voice: "They were a bottle opener and a bracelet, respectively."

Yuto Akiwara replied: "I see."

With this premise, he had his own ideas in mind. After a pause, Yuto Akiwara said: "President Akutsu, I do not approve of the gift method."

Goichi Akutsu asked in confusion: "Akiwara-sensei, could you explain why? After all, the previous bestsellers have already proven the success of the gift method."

Yuto Akiwara replied: "President Akutsu, as a publishing professional, you should understand the positioning of books and the segmentation of customer groups better than I do. To give an inappropriate example, which type of person do you think is the main customer group for the book *How to Dress Exquisitely*?"

Although confused, Goichi Akutsu still answered: "Women with dressing needs, or perhaps female white-collar workers."

"Yes, that's right," Yuto Akiwara continued. "For women, suitable gifts often increase their desire to purchase, let alone a bracelet included with a fashion textbook. Therefore, for female groups, the effect of gifts is often quite good."

In his previous life, many Japanese fashion magazines often included a large number of gifts because they sold well; these gifts included bags and jewelry. Sometimes, the value of the gift was even higher than the magazine itself.

However, this method actually had considerable feasibility. Judging from historical data, those few magazines that first implemented the gift strategy all made a fortune.

"Akiwara-sensei, how do you explain the book *Red Wine Appreciation*? That shouldn't be aimed primarily at women, right?" A man sitting by the door raised his hand to speak; Yuto Akiwara remembered his name was Sota Nishijima.

"That's a good question," Yuto Akiwara replied. "May I ask, Nishijima-san, can you tell me the main customer group for *Red Wine Appreciation*?"

"It's business people," Sota Nishijima answered in an uncertain tone.

Yuto Akiwara countered: "Have you conducted a detailed reader feedback survey?"

He held a certain amount of skepticism toward Sota Nishijima's words; after all, there is often a certain discrepancy between a person's subjective assumptions and the facts, and only through investigation can it be confirmed.

Sota Nishijima did not answer, and Goichi Akutsu, who was sitting next to Yuto Akiwara, felt awkward instead. Ankyu Bookstore was only a small publisher; where would they have the extra funds to conduct such surveys?

Seeing that the atmosphere had cooled, Yuto Akiwara continued: "As far as I know, among the group that buys books, business people certainly make up a portion, but there are also more entry-level bartenders and some housewives."

"For these two types of people, an exquisite bottle opener is often what they need. Therefore, when the prices of similar books are not much different, *Red Wine Appreciation* can sell better."

Yuto Akiwara's words actually held back quite a bit. In his view, most business people only need to know the brands of red wine and how to toast. Only a very small number of red wine enthusiasts would study how to appreciate red wine.

Goichi Akutsu also understood Yuto Akiwara's intention: "Akiwara-sensei, are you saying that you believe the audience for *The Devotion of Suspect X* is mainly male, so the effect of gifts would not be significant?"

Yuto Akiwara nodded and then shook his head, explaining: "It is certain that the effect of gifts would not be significant, but the reason I oppose it is mainly because *The Devotion of Suspect X* is a work of literature. Readers' desire to purchase it stems more from word-of-mouth or recognition of the work itself."

Yuto Akiwara took a sip of tea. "Therefore, I think this money should be spent on posters or rebates to bookstores to increase the exposure of the book. Additionally, I suggest that we can send trial reading samples to bookstores everywhere to further open up channels."

Goichi Akutsu expressed his agreement; he felt that what Yuto Akiwara said made sense. The others in the room were even more surprised; they hadn't expected that Yuto Akiwara, as an author, would actually understand the channel knowledge of book publishing.

Goichi Akutsu was silent for a moment and proposed a suggestion: "Akiwara-sensei, since that is the case, how about holding a trial reading event?"

"A trial reading event?"

(PS: I was scolded for the previous chapter being filler, so I rewrote it. It is recommended to refresh and take another look. Also, there is only one update today; the author needs to adjust the outline for the rest.)