Chapter 95: Sales of

Mantanshe Headquarters, Editorial Bureau Conference Room.

"Department Head Kihara, the first-week sales of the standalone volume of *Searching Footsteps* published by teacher Kadowaki Yuzhen have exceeded 5,000 copies. According to the Statistics Division's estimates, monthly sales could surpass 12,000 copies."

A man wearing glasses stood up and reported to everyone in the conference room.

If Akiwara Yuto were present, he would recognize him as Kadowaki Yuzhen's editor-in-charge, and also the new editor-in-chief of *New Novel*, Songdao Kazuhiro.

At the center of the conference table, Kihara Daigo nodded, "This result is not bad."

Just as Songdao Kazuhiro breathed a sigh of relief, Kihara Daigo coughed and pressed further: "Editor-in-chief Songdao, can you explain why the recent weekly sales of *New Novel* have been continuously declining?"

"If I recall correctly, a month ago, the weekly sales of *New Novel* still exceeded *Tokyo Literature*, but now it doesn't even reach half of *Tokyo Literature*."

Hearing this, Songdao Kazuhiro broke into a cold sweat.

But to be honest, he had been prepared for this questioning from the department head.

In the month since Akiwara Yuto stopped his serialization, the sales of *New Novel* had been on a downward slope.

In the first two weeks, readers, out of habitual reading patterns and expectations for Akiwara Yuto's work, continued to buy *New Novel*. Therefore, the sales decline wasn't obvious, and it managed to stay around 150,000 copies.

But by the third and fourth weeks, the readers' patience was quickly worn out, and sales began to slide significantly. As of the latest data released by the Statistics Division, it showed only about 120,000 copies.

According to the collected reader feedback and bookstore reactions, the subsequent trend remains precarious, and it wouldn't be surprising if it fell below 100,000 copies after another period.

Facing the questioning from Department Head Kihara Daigo, Songdao Kazuhiro could only bow deeply: "I am deeply sorry for the downward trend in *New Novel*'s sales."

*Slap. *

Kihara Daigo slammed his palm heavily on the table, "I want a remedy. Editor-in-chief Songdao, I recommended you as the new editor-in-chief of *New Novel* not to listen to you apologize here."

Hearing this, Songdao Kazuhiro felt very disdainful in his heart; I only obtained this position because Kikuchi Tai was used as a scapegoat.

If he had known he was taking over such a mess, he wouldn't have agreed.

Long before the Mantanshe Literary Award was announced, Songdao Kazuhiro had been called into Kihara Daigo's office, where he expressed his favor for him.

At the time, Songdao Kazuhiro was very excited, thinking he had found a powerful backer. As long as he had support from above, replacing Kikuchi Tai as editor-in-chief of *New Novel* would only be a matter of time.

But the facts were unexpected. While he was still thinking about how to climb up step by step, a series of events suddenly occurred—Kadowaki Yuzhen replaced Akiwara Yuto to win the Gold Prize, Asano Aiko was transferred to the Proofreading Force, and Kikuchi Tai was exiled to the Shikoku region.

Immediately after, a transfer order came down, and under Kihara Daigo's recommendation, he was recommended to serve as the new editor-in-chief of *New Novel*, taking over Kikuchi Tai's position.

Logically, after obtaining this position he had been longing for, he would undoubtedly be overjoyed.

But he felt no excitement in his heart, only suspicion that he had been dragged into some factional struggle. After all, everything was too strange.

Soon, rumors related to Takei Kohei spread within Mantanshe, and he was also instructed by Kihara Daigo to manage the *New Novel* Editorial Force and prevent anyone from discussing it in private.

However, these things didn't have much to do with him; currently, what gave him the most headache was undoubtedly the continuous decline in *New Novel*'s sales.

If he didn't handle it well, he would undoubtedly become the next Kikuchi Tai.

Songdao Kazuhiro maintained his bowing posture and replied: "Regarding the sales decline, the *New Novel* Editorial Force has already formulated a relevant plan."

Kihara Daigo frowned, "Explain it briefly."

"Understood." Songdao Kazuhiro straightened his body and continued: "In addition to existing writers, we are increasing our excavation of new writers. Besides that, we hope the Editorial Bureau can increase its support for *New Novel*."

"Increase support?"

"Yes, we hope that on top of the existing 1.5 pages of newspaper promotion, an additional 15 million yen can be allocated for promotion in bookstores, on the radio, and by book reviewers."

After finishing this sentence, Songdao Kazuhiro bowed again, "I hope the Editorial Bureau can reconsider."

This proposal of his was actually a bit of a lion's share. But he was helpless in saying this; after all, finding a genius writer like Akiwara Yuto and then making *New Novel* a bestseller was undoubtedly a pipe dream.

After all, geniuses aren't cabbages; you can't just find one anywhere.

So he made this suggestion, the subtext being: if you don't give me support, I have no way to make it work.

Sure enough, upon hearing this request, Kihara Daigo immediately understood his intention. He rubbed the stubble on his chin with his palm, did not respond, but instead asked: "Editor-in-chief Songdao, is there still no word on teacher Akiwara's new work?"

"Sorry, teacher Akiwara stated that he has no inspiration."

Although Songdao Kazuhiro appeared respectful, he was very disdainful in his heart.

In his view, because of these actions by Kihara Daigo and Takei Kohei, if Akiwara Yuto were to continue writing for *New Novel*, it would undoubtedly release a signal to the outside world—that even if he received unfair treatment, he would feel it didn't matter.

But would Akiwara Yuto accept that?

After all, he had his own confidence. As the biggest contributor to the surge in *New Novel*'s sales, some book reviewers had already called him a genius writer.

And because he had been slow to release a new work, there were even rumors outside that his cooperation with *New Novel* had developed cracks.

According to his understanding, the literary journals of the other three major publishers currently all had people wanting to contact him, and even poach him away.

Kihara Daigo was very dissatisfied with this answer; after all, the decline in *New Novel*'s sales also had a significant impact on him. To be honest, if he had known there would be such serious consequences, he should have considered it more carefully at the time.

"Editor-in-chief Songdao, please inform teacher Akiwara that as long as he continues to serialize works, the standalone volumes of the *ZOO* series will be released as soon as possible. Additionally, manuscript fees and royalties will also be appropriately increased."

Songdao Kazuhiro nodded, indicating he would go and talk to Akiwara Yuto.

Kihara Daigo told him to sit down, then turned his head to the side and said: "Deputy Editor-in-chief Takei, please report on the sales situation of *Tokyo Literature* this week."

"Received. Looking at this week, the sales of *Tokyo Literature* are 210,000 copies, slightly higher than last week..."

Songdao Kazuhiro didn't continue to listen carefully to the subsequent topics; he was thinking about the problem of how to connect with Akiwara Yuto.

According to the report from the editor-in-charge newly assigned to Akiwara Yuto, the other party was often not at home, and couldn't even be reached by phone.

So the question arises, what exactly is Akiwara Yuto doing recently?

(PS: There will be another chapter later) ===== CHAPTER 96 =====