Hikigaya wants to be a novelist

After Hikigaya signed a contract with Bungeishunju Publishing on Sunday , he received two bank account notifications the next day. The first was the prize money for the All Readings Newcomer Award, which totaled 450,000 yen after deducting income tax; the second was the first month's payment for Confessions, which will begin serialization next week, totaling 270,000 yen after deducting taxes.

" I suddenly have money ..."

His daily pocket money was less than a fraction of Komachi's, could not help but sigh. But he soon began to feel bad for the 80,000 yen income tax that had been confiscated before they even met. He also knew that neither the current income nor the tax amount was comparable to the amount after the publication of "Confessions".

Hikigaya began to do some calculations in his mind:

Assuming that the first print run of the "Confessions" volume is 100,000 copies after publication, based on a selling price of 1,500 yen per volume and a royalty rate of 13%, he can directly get 19.5 million yen. This number does not require consideration of how many books are actually sold to readers. Even if not a single book is sold, he can still collect 20 million yen in pre-tax income.

In Japan, where book prices are ridiculously high, paperback editions, which are cheap and easy to carry, often sell several times more than single-volume editions. This is especially true in the shorter mystery novel field, where paperback sales have even been ten to fifty times higher than single-volume edition sales.

"Confessions" is no exception. He does not expect the single volume of "Confessions" to sell well, but its paperback edition will definitely sell well, which will be the main source of future royalties income.

" Forget it, these are all next year's things. "

Hikigaya shook his head. He was now more focused on the things at hand, such as the fact that he needed a thin and light laptop, so that when he wanted to type outside of home, he would not have to use a small and difficult-to-press flip phone all the time.

As for the typewriter he had thought of before ... after Hachiman looked up the input method of the Japanese typewriter, he immediately gave up the idea of using it. It was too complicated. His goal was not to become an Auto-Memories Doll.

A week of classes passed quickly, and it was Saturday. Hikigaya decided to go shopping for a laptop. Speaking of shopping, in this era when thin and light laptops are not yet popular, a laptop that is both high-end and portable is something that he knows well, as the fifth generation of MacBook Air has already been launched .

Hikigaya came alone to the Apple store on the first floor of a Ginza in Chiba City. After expressing his intention to buy, he began to try out the products. The clerk followed him closely and talked a lot of nonsense.

He had plenty of money, so he paid the bill and walked out of the store amidst the continuous bows of several shop assistants. He then walked into a cafe next door and sat down in a secluded place. Adhering to the spirit of using the product immediately after purchase, he decided to use this brand new laptop here to start his new work.

Hikigaya is rather hesitant about the plan for a new work. Because the writing style and overall style of "Confessions" are too special, he does not want the style to deviate too far from the next book, and the content of the book must be exciting enough to be suitable for serialization ...

" Malice".

He typed the title of the book on the screen. This novel is a work of Keigo Higashino in the early and middle period. From the perspective of more than 20 years later, this work has undoubtedly achieved great success. Commercially, this book has at least three versions of single volume and paperback edition. In terms of word of mouth, "Malice" is widely regarded as the best work of Keigo Higashino in the early and middle period, one of his representative works of social reasoning, and one of the must-see works on many folk lists.

But in the past, Malice did not receive the attention it deserved for a long time after its publication. In 1997, when it was published, the " This Mystery Novel is Really Great " selection even ranked Malice only 24th. It was not until a few years later that Malice was reprinted and published by the publishing giant Kodansha that the book gained widespread popularity and its status continued to rise.

He is not worried that Malice, written in this era, will repeat the past life of being underappreciated. Nowadays, information on the Internet circulates extremely quickly, and word of mouth ferments very quickly. Not to mention the strong marketing power of Bungeishunju Publishing House, which will not allow such a work to be buried.

Malice is also a novel that is very suitable for serialization. There is almost no useless description from the beginning, and it enters the case very quickly, which is enough to attract readers' attention in the first serialization.

Hikigaya believes that Malice is somewhat inferior to Confessions in terms of commerciality. Both are social mystery novels, but Malice hardly touches on any social topics and has no intention of exploring them. Its essence is the most typical " police solving a case " mystery novel. As popular literature, Malice is far less entertaining than Confessions.

" Malice" and "Confessions" are also obvious. For example, the core of these two books is carefully planned revenge; the last chapter of these two books reveals all the mysteries in one person's monologue, and there is not a single word describing the murderer's reaction after the truth is revealed. This huge blank space is his favorite writing technique.

" This book may not achieve very good commercial performance, but its reputation will definitely not be inferior to Confessions. "

This is his final conclusion about Malice. However, he thinks it is too early to start writing now. He only needs to plan the general serialization framework of Malice. The book in his previous life was not serialized, but directly published as a single volume, so there is no experience to learn from.

The next week, on Monday, October 22, the first chapter of Confessions, " The Priest , " was published in the new issue of All Readings. Bungeishunju used the most prominent method to promote this Rookie Award-winning work. The unanimous praise from five judges, a rare achievement in history, a fifteen-year-old author, a new masterpiece of the social school, and a profound analysis of social hot issues all came together to give all readers a sensational first impression.

Having raised the banner, the next step is to rely on the excellent quality of "Confessions" itself to completely win over the readers, which is actually the least worrying thing for Bungeishunju.

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