Chapter 97: Ready

Time passed quickly, and two weeks flew by. With the preparations of everyone at President Anjiu Bookstore, the various tasks for *The Devotion of Suspect X* were proceeding in an orderly manner.

The initial proofreading work was completed by President Anjiu Jin Gangyi and handed over to Satake Maki and others for the second and third proofreads. Besides directly modifying textual errors, other inappropriate parts were modified by Akiwara Yuto.

After connecting with Gongcheng Fumeihui regarding the cover plan, a black-dominated cover design was selected, and the designs for the front cover, back cover, spine, inserts, and book jacket were determined, ensuring the coordination and consistency of the entire book's main color tone.

The printing work was handled by Xidao Youhui, who connected with the plate-making factory, printing factory, and logistics warehouse, ensuring that 30,000 copies of the book could smoothly circulate in the publishing market.

As for the sales and promotion plan, currently only a proposal had been made, but the preliminary plan was that besides distributor channels and bookmarks, they would make slight concessions on the book's pricing discount for bookstores, increasing the average profit for bookstores selling the books.

Besides that, they were also preparing to arrange personnel to go and lobby, ensuring that bookstores increased displays on posters and exhibition stands.

However, personnel were scarce after all, so even if special personnel were arranged for promotion, the effect on overall sales might be limited.

President Anjiu Bookstore, second-floor office.

Satake Maki handed a book to Akiwara Yuto, "Teacher Akiwara, this is the sample book of *The Devotion of Suspect X*. Please take a careful look. If there are no other problems, it will be submitted to the printing factory later to begin large-scale printing."

Akiwara Yuto took the book, placed it flat on the table, and began to look at it carefully.

Besides the trial reading session, other work was basically finished. The next step was to push this book to the market and obtain a sum of funds to resolve his current predicament of being short on money.

He felt a bit emotional; he had experienced quite a few setbacks to get to this point. From failing to win the award to learning the truth, from leaving Mantanshe to deciding on self-publishing, from financial setbacks to persuading President Anjiu Jin Gangyi...

While thinking, he carefully checked every design detail of this sample book to ensure there were no errors or omissions.

After all, once large-scale printing began, there wouldn't be much room for changes.

From the cover to the copy, from the inserts to the obi, he checked them all carefully and found no problems.

Seeing that Akiwara Yuto still seemed a bit worried, Satake Maki took the initiative to say: "Teacher Akiwara, I have already checked all the details several times. As for the possible typos in the text, I carefully proofread it again last night."

Hearing this, Akiwara Yuto looked up at her.

After all, it hadn't been long since they received the sample book, so proofreading it carefully would take quite a bit of time.

Sure enough, on Satake Maki's face, one could faintly see significant dark circles.

Akiwara Yuto sighed in his heart, but didn't show it on the surface, only saying: "Editor Satake, you've worked hard."

"Hehe, it's my job, what's there to be troubled about." Satake Maki waved her hand, then said as if she remembered something: "Teacher Akiwara, it's lunchtime."

"I'm not hungry yet."

"That won't do. Only with a healthy body can you continue to work well," Satake Maki shook her head and said stubbornly.

Are you a mother hen? Akiwara Yuto nodded helplessly and took the bento box handed over by the other party.

Seeing Akiwara Yuto take it, Satake Maki showed a happy smile, said "I'll come to get the bento box later," and left, stepping on the "creaking" stairs.

Akiwara Yuto placed the sample book on the side and opened the bento box.

In this bento, half was rice, and the other half was chicken wings, cherry tomatoes, octopus sausages, shrimp, and green vegetables, and these materials were specially arranged into a cat pattern.

Akiwara Yuto wanted to complain a bit in his heart; he wasn't a child, was it necessary to arrange it into such a cute shape like a children's bento?

However, he still started eating. To be honest, although the dishes looked simple, the taste was quite good...

While eating, he began to think.

During this period, besides completing the signing work arranged for him by President Anjiu Bookstore, he had also gone to internet cafes and libraries in Chiyoda Ward several times, collecting public information and contact methods for many media outlets on the market, including newspapers, television, and radio.

Obtaining this information naturally had his purpose.

After all, based on the experience of *New Novel*'s bestseller status, no matter how well a book is written, it needs to be known by readers; otherwise, it often ends up being critically acclaimed but not selling well, and it's not excluded that it might only be noticed by book reviewers long after.

You have to know, even though *New Novel*'s sales were poor at the time, it still had barely 30,000 copies. Under the halo of being a Mantanshe member, it would still be noticed by some book reviewers.

But for President Anjiu Bookstore, the scale was limited after all, and most of the books published were based on practical life, so it didn't have much influence among literary critics, that is, book reviewers.

But if that's the case, it might very well be ignored by book reviewers, thereby affecting the sales of the first 30,000 copies.

According to the agreement he signed with President Anjiu Bookstore earlier, if the sales of the first edition were poor, the copyright of *The Devotion of Suspect X* would be mortgaged.

By that stage, he could only go and ask teacher Seto to help redeem this copyright.

Akiwara Yuto finished his meal quickly, put the bento box away, and took a piece of paper out of the drawer to look at. On this paper was a price list corresponding to various media outlets.

In this price list, the most expensive cost was undoubtedly television programs. Even for programs on small local stations, the cost started at several million yen, not to mention large television stations, where prime time might cost around 20 million yen.

Next was newspapers, where costs varied, and depending on the scale of the newspaper and the size of the layout, the cost ranged from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of yen, but the effect of book reviews also varied depending on the target audience.

Ranked last was radio, with costs averaging from one million to several million yen. But then again, besides drivers, how many people listen to this stuff long-term?

Akiwara Yuto pondered for a long time and found that under the current situation, he could only consider promotion after the first edition of the books were sold.

After all, President Anjiu Bookstore's funds were limited, and President Anjiu Jin Gangyi's previous plan was only based on distributor channels and bookstores.

Money, money, it really is a good thing... How did he think that having enough money was fine back then...

Forget it, forget it, let's see the effect of the trial reading session; maybe it can sell a few more copies.

If he remembered correctly, according to what Satake said, tomorrow is the trial reading session hosted by President Anjiu Jin Gangyi, right?

I hope those bookstore owners can recognize the charm of the book *The Devotion of Suspect X* and increase their orders! ===== CHAPTER 98 =====