Chapter 98: Trial Reading Session

The next morning at 8:00 AM, Tushan Shopping Street.

Fujilong Zhi, wearing a suit, arrived at the destination according to the address on the invitation in his hand—the entrance of an izakaya.

He was the operator of a bookstore, and his purpose for coming here was to attend a trial reading session organized by President Anjiu Bookstore.

The so-called trial reading session, also known as a bookstore decision-making meeting, is a meeting organized by a publisher, inviting representatives from various bookstores to trial-read and decide on the number of books to purchase.

To be honest, he didn't have much interest in this trial reading session.

After all, the organizer of this trial reading session was President Anjiu Bookstore, and this publisher, which operated under the bookstore banner, although it had always maintained cooperation with the bookstore he operated, had never had any books that could sell hundreds of thousands of copies.

And he heard that because of the poor business situation, the other party's main business in recent years had even been placed on self-publishing.

"Tch, really degenerating." Fujilong Zhi shook his head, put his hands in his pockets, and walked into the izakaya's main door.

Quite a few people were already sitting at the scene. Fujilong Zhi scanned it and found that many were familiar faces. He found an empty seat and sat down.

"Yo, Fujilong, didn't expect you to come, and dressed so seriously." A man wearing simple casual clothes next to him said in surprise.

"What does that have to do with anything." Fujilong Zhi curled his lips in disdain, then continued: "Is President Anjiu Bookstore planning to return to its original business?"

The man in casual clothes shook his head, "I'm not sure either, but it's said that they are going to publish a literary novel this time."

"Literary novel? You must be joking." Fujilong Zhi was a bit surprised; he had originally thought this trial reading session was again to see books like *Business XX*, *Home XX*, etc.

He was a bit curious in his heart, but more of it was disdain.

In his view, this move by President Anjiu Bookstore was too reckless. After all, there is a specialty in every trade; if it's not a comprehensive large publisher, it should focus on the fields it is good at.

Thinking of this, Fujilong Zhi sighed in his heart, then turned to ask the man in casual clothes: "How many copies is your bookstore planning to order this time?"

The man in casual clothes shrugged and said indifferently: "For the sake of being partners, let's order 50 copies first. Anyway, if it doesn't sell, it can be returned."

"That's true." Fujilong Zhi nodded.

According to the industry rules of the Nihon publishing industry, in order to protect the interests of bookstores, books ordered by bookstores from publishers can be returned to the issuing publisher if they don't sell, and a refund of the order payment can be requested.

Fujilong Zhi pondered for a while and also prepared to order 50 copies first to see.

Although this number was a bit small, it was within a reasonable range and wouldn't make the other party's face too embarrassed.

Having made this decision, he chatted with others about the situation of bookstore operations.

Just as he was chatting, President Anjiu Jin Gangyi, wearing a formal suit, walked to the front of the izakaya holding a microphone that looked a bit inferior. The izakaya, which had been a bit noisy, quieted down.

President Anjiu Jin Gangyi bowed to everyone and said in a sincere tone: "On behalf of President Anjiu Bookstore, I thank everyone for being able to come to the trial reading session organized by President Anjiu Bookstore this time. The purpose of this time is to ask everyone to take a look at the new book *The Devotion of Suspect X* published by President Anjiu Bookstore."

"Then I won't say much more. Please, everyone, trial-read this work. Satake, distribute the sample books to everyone."

Satake Maki, standing on the side, nodded after hearing this, turned around and walked out the door, then came back in holding a stack of books. With the help of another staff member, she placed the books in front of everyone in batches.

Fujilong Zhi was naturally no exception. He picked up the book in front of him and aimed at it carefully for a few glances.

*The Devotion of Suspect X*, the name of this book is so strange, but it should be a detective novel, right? And this cover, one person going down, two people going up, what exactly does it mean? Could it be related to the content of the book?

His curiosity was hooked, and he opened the book.

Besides him, the man in casual clothes next to him, and other bookstore operators sitting in the izakaya, all carefully flipped through the books.

For a moment, only the "swish-swish" sound of books flipping remained in the bookstore.

President Anjiu Jin Gangyi watched everyone's expressions, feeling a bit worried in his heart. Although he thought *The Devotion of Suspect X* was a good book, sometimes, it's not that the better the book, the higher the sales.

He had been in the publishing industry for so many years and had seen many books that were critically acclaimed but didn't sell well. These books often didn't even get bookstore operators willing to purchase more.

To him, today's trial reading session was a threshold.

If he could successfully sell more than 4,000 copies, no, 3,000 copies of books to more than 30 bookstore operators at this trial reading session, then it would further prove that this book had the potential to be a bestseller.

Conversely, if the sales of this book didn't even reach 2,000 copies, then he would have to reconsider his cooperation with Akiwara Yuto.

Time passed quickly, and soon it was noon. President Anjiu Jin Gangyi arranged for the izakaya staff to serve dishes to entertain everyone for a meal, but to his surprise, only a very small number of people put down their books and ate.

Most people were reading while eating a few bites. Some even didn't move at all regarding the lunch in front of them, just reading carefully.

President Anjiu Jin Gangyi saw this scene and was a bit happy; this meant the story in the book successfully attracted this batch of bookstore operators, making them unable to even care about eating.

However, when he thought about it again, his mood worsened a bit.

Damn it, if I had known, I should have booked a cheaper family lunch shop; maybe I could have saved 100,000 yen in entertainment expenses.

Satake Maki, standing next to him, showed a bright smile on her face. As a loyal reader of Akiwara Yuto, she was very happy about the scene in front of her.

Teacher Akiwara, your work is indeed the best!

After lunch, it was supposed to be a rest time, but everyone at the scene refused to rest and continued reading. It wasn't until 4:30 PM that everyone closed their books one after another.

And at this time, nearly 8 hours had passed since the 8:30 AM start of the trial reading session.

President Anjiu Jin Gangyi saw everyone at the scene put down their books, coughed, and said in a slightly higher voice: "I won't say anything more. Please decide on the number of books you want to order and fill it in on the form distributed by the staff."

Satake Maki went down again and distributed the order intention forms.

Fujilong Zhi looked at the blank space for the order quantity on the intention form and fell into thought.

How many copies should I order? ===== CHAPTER 99 =====