Chapter 94: Ninty-Sixth Chapter: Obi Copy

Seeing Akiwara Yuto’s confusion about what a "preview meeting" was, Agutsu Goichi took the initiative to explain.

As a publishing house that had been in business for many years, Ankyu Bookstore, despite its small scale, had established cooperative relationships with over 30 bookstores. In order to encourage these bookstores to increase their orders, whenever Ankyu Bookstore released specific titles, they would rent a venue in a nearby shopping street, invite the managers of the partner bookstores, and have them preview the relevant works.

Akiwara Yuto nodded; he was not surprised and expressed his support for holding the preview meeting. After all, in his view, increasing promotional channels was far more useful than giving away some random, messy freebies.

However, he was still a bit puzzled.

"President Ankyu, when will the preview meeting be scheduled?"

"That depends on when the proofreading and cover design are finalized; it will probably take about two weeks."

"How much of an increase in sales do you expect?"

Agutsu Goichi hesitated for a moment, then said in an uncertain tone, "That depends on whether they believe this book will be a bestseller. If they all place orders, we could probably resolve about 3,000 copies."

Akiwara Yuto rested his chin on his hand and began to ponder carefully.

3,000 copies, spread across 30 bookstores—that’s about 100 copies per store. It seems most of them are just small bookstores.

Oh well, something is better than nothing; I’ll just consider it opening up the market. But what about the other 27,000 copies of the first edition?

Before he could raise this question, Agutsu Goichi took the initiative to explain, informing him that these books would be handled by distributors and that they were seeking cooperation with other bookstores.

Just then, the office phone rang. Agutsu Goichi, who was sitting at his desk, picked it up: "Hello, this is Ankyu Bookstore..."

"Oh, is that you, Miyagi-sensei? We should come over tomorrow afternoon, is that right?"

"Yes, yes, thank you very much!"

Seeing Agutsu Goichi hang up the receiver, Akiwara Yuto asked curiously, "Has the cover design proposal come out?"

"Yes, Miyagi-sensei wants us to go over tomorrow afternoon. Besides that, there is one more thing, and it concerns you, Akiwara-sensei."

"Hmm?" Akiwara Yuto was a bit confused.

"Miyagi-sensei said she wants to apologize to you."

"Eh?!"

The following afternoon at two o'clock, at Miyagi Design Studio.

"Akiwara-sensei, President Ankyu, it was truly rude of me to have you leave in such a rush last time because something came up."

Facing the seated Akiwara Yuto and Agutsu Goichi, Miyagi Fumie bowed slightly and spoke in a sincere tone.

She had her own reasons for saying this. After finishing *The Devotion of Suspect X*, she combined it with her assistant's reaction and immediately understood the immense commercial value of this work.

This meant that, thanks to this work, this writer named Akiwara Yuto might be able to secure a place in the literary world.

And she, too, could leverage the cover design for this work to receive more orders from large publishing houses.

Therefore, she needed to take this opportunity to build a good relationship with Akiwara Yuto. As for Agutsu Goichi, he was just an afterthought.

Seeing Miyagi Fumie's gesture, Akiwara Yuto and Agutsu Goichi also stood up immediately, bowing hurriedly in response.

After some polite exchanges, Miyagi Fumie's assistant, Nishijima Kyoko, who was wearing a kimono, pushed open the sliding door and entered the room, stepping forward to pour roasted green tea for everyone.

While pouring tea for Akiwara Yuto, she stole several glances at him from the corner of her eye.

So this is the author who wrote that story about sacrificing for love; he’s truly young to an excessive degree... and he’s actually a bit handsome, too; I didn't even notice last time...

After satisfying her curiosity, she bowed and left.

Miyagi Fumie picked up her teacup, took a sip, then stood up, brought over two colored drafts, and laid them gently on the tea room table. "These are the two cover design proposals I have created for *The Devotion of Suspect X*. Please take a look, both of you."

Akiwara Yuto nodded and began to examine the two covers carefully.

The first image was a scene with a black-and-gray background, with white lines outlining a long staircase and three people; one person was walking down the stairs, while the other two were walking up. However, the top of the staircase grew narrower and narrower, eventually leading nowhere. The book's title was placed directly above this image.

The second image had a white background, using gray tones to outline three people: a larger person standing in front of the other two, using his body to shield them from the incoming torrential rain. However, his body had limited surface area and could not block all the raindrops.

Akiwara Yuto hesitated for a moment and lowered his head to think. The intent of both design proposals was very clear: Ishigami wanted to help the Hanaoka mother and daughter but failed to do so. But in terms of color, one was black and white, and the other was white and gray.

"President Ankyu, which proposal do you think is more appropriate?" After thinking for a while, Akiwara Yuto decided to ask someone else.

Agutsu Goichi hesitated for a moment and replied, "How about the first proposal? The black color will make it look more stylish."

Akiwara Yuto was speechless upon hearing this suggestion. It wasn't a book being sold to business professionals, so what was the point of it looking "stylish"? If it was aimed at readers, it would be better to make it look unique.

Right, unique...

"President Ankyu, could you take me to a nearby bookstore? I want to see the literary books currently on the market."

Agutsu Goichi was a bit puzzled, but he agreed nonetheless.

After apologizing to Miyagi Fumie and setting a time for their next meeting, the two left the design studio and drove to a small bookstore.

After entering the bookstore, the two walked straight to the literary section and began observing the books on the display stands and shelves.

Looking at the covers of these books, Akiwara Yuto pondered carefully. It seemed that most of them had white or gray-toned covers. Seen in this light, if they adopted the second white-and-gray proposal, once the book was placed on a shelf, it might be completely ignored by readers.

In this view, the first proposal was more appropriate after all. After all, in a pile of white-covered books, a single black book would surely attract readers to take a closer look... I'll discuss this idea with President Ankyu later.

As he was thinking, his eyes suddenly caught a book on the display stand titled *The Searching Footsteps*, with Kadowaki Yuma written under the title. On the book's obi (the paper band around the middle of the book cover), it read, "Winner of this year's Mantansha Literary Award Gold Prize."

Akiwara Yuto picked up the book, looked at it for a few moments, and felt a bit conflicted.

If not for those unexpected events with Mantansha, according to the original plan, his own single-volume book should have been released by now...

If that were the case, the book placed here should have been his *Zoo*, and this line of text on the obi should have been his own.

Agutsu Goichi did not know about the grudge between Akiwara Yuto and Mantansha. He walked up and, seeing Akiwara Yuto holding the book and remaining silent, assumed he was studying it.

He also took the opportunity to pick up a copy of *The Searching Footsteps*, looked at it for a few moments, and clicked his tongue in wonder at the line "Winner of the Mantansha Literary Award Gold Prize" on the obi.

After all, he was not a person from the literary world and had not published many literary books. Upon seeing this honor, he felt it was quite impressive.

Right, how could I have forgotten about the obi?

"Akiwara-sensei, do you have any suggestions for the copy on the obi for *The Devotion of Suspect X*?"

Akiwara Yuto lowered his head, pondered in his mind, and then made a suggestion.

"Sometimes, just by living, a person is enough to save someone else."