That's right, at the beginning, Cao Zhiqiang never thought that a poem could make him popular all over the country.
This was completely beyond his scope of thinking.
He had written so many short stories that were famous in later generations.
For example, "Tower of Babel" and "The Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang in his previous life.
Although these two short stories received good responses, they did not have the sensational effect caused by the poem "Seeing and Not Seeing".
It's like, no one appreciates what you've worked hard to write, but you plagiarize it on the spur of the moment but it's extremely popular.
What a hell.
However, what he didn't know was how powerful the charm of poetry was in early 1983.
He didn't even know what kind of effect a later Internet celebrity poem like "Seeing and Not Seeing" could have in this year of 1983.
A sensation, a real national sensation!
How sensational is it?
Poetry magazine actually reprinted it five times in a short period of time because of this poem!
This is not enough, far from it.
It is said that the sales are going crazy all over the country and they are asking for more copies.
Even though many people couldn't buy it, they actually circulated and copied this poem everywhere, causing the capital to become expensive.
It is of course an exaggeration to say that paper in the capital is expensive, but it is true that it was copied everywhere.
As for real feedback in reality...
Anyway, not long after, the poem "Seeing and Not Seeing" began to be praised in the streets and alleys. Even if many young people could not memorize it, they knew one or two lines from it.
For example, "You may see me, or you may not see me. I am right there, neither sad nor happy."
Or "You love me, or you don't love me. The love is there, neither increasing nor decreasing."
Many people know lines like this by heart, and it has even become a code to identify whether you are an educated youth.
If you can recite this poem completely, you are a real educated youth.
If you can't, you are just a fake literary youth.
If you know nothing about this poem and have never heard of it, then you are a fool.
By the way, Qiangzi's name also became an instant hit, and he became a newly famous modern poet in China.
Gu Chenghaizi is just enjoying himself at this time. Even Bei Dao is not as influential as his poem at this time.
There is no way, the charm of later Internet celebrity poems, in 1983, was the power of an atomic bomb explosion.
In fact, this is normal, because the way of writing in later generations is completely different from this era.
After all, people in later generations are in an era of knowledge explosion, and the threshold is already very high. Poems that can stand out in later generations, if they are available now, will of course be at the level of a nuclear bomb explosion.
In short, many people say that the poet Qiangzi is the new generation king of love poetry after the reform. Many people have written letters asking about Qiangzi's true identity. There are even tens of thousands of love letters, including both men and women.
There is no way, Qiangzi is just a pen name, his identity has not been disclosed, and no one knows whether he is a boy or a girl.
Taking advantage of this trend, Qiangzi decisively came to Poetry Magazine in person, and under the warm reception of the editor-in-chief, he wrote his second Wang Zha poem - "The Farthest Distance in the World".
That's right, it's the same poem that was published in a bunch of later generations, and the one given is the Chinese and English version.
Yes, this time, because of the huge success of the previous "See and Not See" and the fact that Qiangzi has already gained a certain degree of popularity, Cao Zhiqiang is no longer a newcomer, but has certain bargaining power.
In addition, this new poem is also expensive, and the artistic conception is quite good.
So after bargaining, the editor-in-chief made the final decision and decided to win the song "The Farthest Distance in the World" with a cap price of 1,000 yuan.
The price is quite high, but it is actually quite normal.
After all, "The Farthest Distance in the World" has a lot of words and lines, plus there is a follow-up story, so the overall length is quite large.
The most important thing is that if the previous song "See and Not See" can once again create a sensation and sell more magazines, the money can be easily recovered.
The magazine didn’t lose money at all.
Moreover, magazines like Poetry Magazine, whose circulation can easily exceed one million, are not short of such a small amount of money.
However, the editor-in-chief of the magazine still had some unfinished ideas.
After all, this poem is so good. If it were to be supplemented, only one poem would be too few.
But what if we don't take advantage of the popularity of "Seeing and Not Seeing" and Hadron's fame to issue a supplement immediately.
After waiting for a month, the next issue will be released. The previous heat has passed and the superimposed effect is gone.
Yes, the editor-in-chief during this period was also quite flexible, and also knew that popularity is directly proportional to sales.
People in this period also know how to ride on the popularity.
Therefore, the editor asked if there were any new poems.
Even if it's not as good as these two songs, it's okay, just use his fame to make up for it and issue a special supplement.
At this time, Cao Zhiqiang immediately calmly took out a booklet.
There are fifty poems in this booklet, all of which have not appeared yet but will be very classic Internet celebrity poems in later generations.
For example, the song "Of course" in the booklet is a plagiarism from a later song "Tsangyang Gyatso's theory".
This "Tsangyang Gyatso Says" may not be clear to many people in later generations if I mention the name alone, but if we talk about the verses in it, such as the beginning -
"I am all the men in the world, and you are all the women in the world. I love you, of course."
Yes, if you mention the poems in it, many people may have an impression.
The author of this poem and the author of "Seeing and Not Seeing" are actually the same person, very talented.
But helplessly, the other party lives in the Internet era. Although her literary talent is good and her poems are very popular, she herself is not very popular. This is the helplessness of later generations of poets.
Poetry is dead, and paper is burned when something happens.
This is the current situation of poetry in later generations.
And the poets of later generations were basically not popular, and it was difficult for them to become famous.
But in 1983, the twilight era of modern poetry, things were different.
Dusk is always particularly beautiful, it is the last crazy era.
Sure enough, when the editor saw this booklet, especially the opening chapter "Of course", he couldn't put it down immediately.
Looking at the poems at the back, I am even more mesmerized.
After only reading ten poems, he simply decided not to publish a supplement and to publish a separate collection of poems for Cao Zhiqiang.
This is a serious published book with an ISBN.
The editor-in-chief of that publishing house was also very optimistic about Cao Zhiqiang and wanted to buy him out at a high price, or pay a high price for the manuscript.
But Cao Zhiqiang just disagreed, and he was too strict about copyright. He just didn't want the publisher to buy out the publication exclusively, and he just wanted to publish it at his own expense or share it proportionally.
The reason is simple. At that time, he had almost scraped together the money to publish a book at his own expense. It might not be enough to publish a martial arts novel, but it would be no problem to publish a collection of poems with very few words and pages.
After much discussion, an editor surnamed Yu came up with a suggestion. He believed that one should not lose big for a small gain. In order to attract Cao Zhiqiang, instead of letting him go to other places to publish books at his own expense and gain popularity with other publishing houses, we should simply give him the publication directly. Forget about tax royalties.
By playing with the royalty system, at least the magazine and the publishing house can get a share of the pie. Otherwise, if Cao Zhiqiang is asked to publish books at other small publishing houses at his own expense, no one will be able to make a profit.
So that's how it was settled.
It is said that this royalty sharing with writers is the first of its kind in the domestic publishing industry and has never happened before.
In the history of Cao Zhiqiang's previous life, the first person in China to play with the royalty system was a ruffian writer named Wang, and that was back in the 1990s.
But here, if he is really paid royalties, he will be the number one royalty producer in the country.
The so-called royalties and royalties.
To put it simply, the Writers Publishing House bought out the exclusive publishing rights of the book "Hadron Poems" for five years.
During this period, the book could not be published by other magazines, and could only be published by Writers Publishing House.
At that time, the Writer's Publishing House will pay the royalties for this book to Cao Zhiqiang in the form of royalties.
After a long discussion, the publisher finally set a royalty rate for this poetry collection, or Cao Zhiqiang’s share, of 6%.
Therefore, the royalties that Cao Zhiqiang can get are the number of copies of "The Collected Poems of Qiangzi" × the distribution price of a single book × the royalty rate (6%). The amount of money derived from this is the royalties for Cao Zhiqiang.
Moreover, the royalties are settled monthly.
Assuming that "The Poetry Collection of Qiangzi" is priced at two yuan and the monthly circulation is 100,000 copies, then the remuneration that Cao Zhiqiang can receive that month is 2×100000×6%, which is equivalent to 12,000 yuan.
Even though it was only 12,000 yuan, this was in 1983 before the RMB depreciated!
With 12,000 yuan, you can now buy a small courtyard house or an imported motorcycle.
Of course, that was just a preliminary negotiation plan, and actually publishing the book would be more profitable than he thought.
In the end, the publishing plan he and his editor finalized was to change the name of the collection of poems to "The Farthest Distance in the World."
This looks more artistic and eye-catching.
The "Collected Poems of Qiangzi" is too vulgar and not literary enough.
As for the price, there are fifty poems in total, and the price is eight yuan per book.
This price is relatively high for this era.
After all, less words, less paper, and lower costs.
What Cao Zhiqiang didn't expect was that after finalizing the publishing plan, Poetry Magazine, or rather, the Writers Publishing House behind Poetry Magazine, would publish books so efficiently.
He discussed the book publishing plan with the editor in the morning and signed the contract. In the afternoon, he got the ISBN. Then he started typesetting overnight that night, started production and printing on the third day, and officially published it on the fifth day.
It took five days to complete the entire process from negotiating the contract to publishing the book. This speed of publication simply shocked Cao Zhiqiang.
Good guy, really good guy.
As expected of a writer's publishing house with people on it.
It is indeed the year 1983 when literary works flourished wildly.
This speed of book publishing alone will be unmatched by future generations.
This was still an era before computer typing and computer printing, everything was typesetting.
Now, this book "The Farthest Distance in the World" has been officially released for more than half a month, but its sales have exceeded 200,000 copies.
That is to say, the printing quota for the first issue of trial sales has been sold out, but Xinhua Bookstores in various places are still urging the distribution of books, saying that too many people want to buy but cannot.
It is said that because the book of poems was selling so well in various places, the printing house began to print more copies, and this time the starting volume was one million copies.
In fact, the sales volume exceeded 200,000 copies in half a month, which has broken the record for a poetry publication published by a writer's publishing house.
So by now, this poetry collection has been a huge success.
In this process, the writer's publishing house certainly made a lot of money, and the poetry magazine had a signature and participated in proofreading and typesetting, not to mention a share of the profits. The most important thing was to earn a reputation.
Especially the editor Yu who proposed to play a royalty-sharing game with Cao Zhiqiang and did not let Cao Zhiqiang run away, was even more generous in his reward.
Of course, Cao Zhiqiang gained both fame and fortune.
Not to mention anything else, even if the sales of this book do not increase in the future, according to the previous payment method, Cao Zhiqiang can still get the payment for the two hundred thousand copies, which is 96,000 yuan!
Ninety-six thousand yuan, what is the concept of this in 1983?
A concept that can scare people to death!
Perhaps it was because of his excellent results that the editor-in-chief found him today and not only paid him his royalties in advance, but also rewarded him with many industrial papers and other related tickets.
That's right, the industrial volumes that Cao Zhiqiang bought for the cassette player were given to him by the publishing house. They were a special reward and were not included in the royalties.
Otherwise, with Cao Zhiqiang's current factory income, it would be impossible for him to scrape together enough to buy the industrial roll of the tape recorder.
After all, industrial coupons, or purchase coupons, are issued in conjunction with your salary at this time. Currently, one is issued every ten yuan, and you receive it together with your salary.
Cao Zhiqiang's current salary of 30 yuan per month is normally only three industrial papers per month. He has been working for less than three months, so it is impossible to buy a tape recorder worth more than 300 yuan.
Not only that, the editor-in-chief also extended an invitation to him to participate in the upcoming "Youth Poetry Conference".
In addition to these, the editor-in-chief also said that he would be recommended to join the National Writers Association and become a formal member.
He also wanted to transfer Cao Zhiqiang to be the editor of the magazine.
It is said that in his situation, it is not troublesome to change jobs. Even if it is troublesome, Cao Zhiqiang can resign first and then go to work at the magazine.
The Poetry Magazine was a serious public institution at this time, and the official editors there were all professional staff.
In 1983, the enterprise establishment system was already more popular than the worker establishment system, and the identity of the magazine editor was also more respectable.
Basically, in a situation like Cao Zhiqiang's, as long as he agrees, the job transfer can be completed quickly without any problems.
Even if the factory really refused to let him go, Cao Zhiqiang could have forced his resignation first, and then apply for a job at the magazine, just go through this formality.
Don't think this is a scam, it's really not.
In 1983, it was relatively difficult to advance into the agency establishment, or cadre establishment.
After all, this establishment requires cadre status.
Those who could become cadres during this period were either promoted by the army or went to school honestly, such as technical secondary school graduates, college students and above.
But the transition between workers and business staff is relatively simple.
Basically, as long as the counterpart unit wants you and is willing to give you the relevant staff, then everything will be fine, and the academic requirements are not that strict.
For example, in his previous life, a poet surnamed Zhao, whose pen name was Sodao, first worked as a construction worker, and later became famous for writing poems, then became a magazine editor, career editor, and later became a company leader. It can be transferred back and forth, and the organization can be changed at any time.
But no matter how he changes, he will not be able to become a civil servant and become a member of the system. Without him, he will not have enough academic qualifications and insufficient academic ability!
In fact, if he didn't do it himself, he could have lived a very comfortable life, but unfortunately, he became famous too early, his thoughts were too arrogant, and he was too cynical. He thought he was awesome, so he just fought against it, so he fell into it.
Having said that, the career editor is really good, but it's a pity that he doesn't have this ambition, but has his own plan.
In other words, a career-focused magazine editor could no longer satisfy his ambitions.
Therefore, Cao Zhiqiang only agreed to fill out the application to join the Writers Association, but he politely declined the offer to become an editor at a poetry magazine, saying he would think about it again.
Did he tell others these things?
Did he show off?
Is he proud?
Not at all!
He has always done things quietly and never told outsiders.
This proves that Cao Zhiqiang is still a very low-key person.
However, because this was a contract signed by Cao Zhiqiang in person at the Writer's Publishing House in Beijing, rather than a letter submission, when he paid the manuscript fee, he did not give a remittance form through the postal service, but directly made a bank check.
Now, the check for 96,000 yuan is contained in a check holder and placed in Cao Zhiqiang's pocket.
If he took out the check for 96,000 yuan and the third uncle Yan Bugui saw it, he would be frightened and faint.
Not to mention, the royalties for short stories and popular science articles he had submitted to other magazines have now been paid back one after another.
These royalties gradually added up, especially the more than two thousand that Science Illustrated just gave him, and he received a total of more than six thousand yuan in royalties.
All added up, it's more than 100,000.
In this era where a household with 10,000 yuan is a wealthy person.
What is the concept of a household worth 100,000 yuan?
The concept of ten thousand-yuan households adding up!
Good guy, he originally set a small goal and wanted to be a millionaire first.
As a result, I accidentally jumped from a household worth ten thousand yuan to a household worth one hundred thousand yuan.
It can only be said that plans are not as fast as changes.
As for Cao Zhiqiang, it was for Uncle San's good that he didn't tell the truth before and didn't take out the check to scare him.
The remuneration of more than two thousand yuan was enough to shock him.
But having said that, Cao Zhiqiang really didn't expect that writing poetry could be so profitable these days.
He only wrote fifty poems and published a book, which made more money than all the other works he published before combined.
The money he earned from writing so many works together was less than a fraction of a book of poetry!
No wonder those poets in the 1980s were so rich.
If you become famous for writing poetry these days, you will really be rich!
No, the fundamental reason is to publish a book, a popular book.
Therefore, there is no future in submitting articles to magazines. Even if it is a hundred words, it is meaningless. The most you can earn is some pocket money.
Publishing books and earning royalties is the way to go!
Sure enough, in 1983, the most reliable way to make money was by publishing a book!
So for "Shattered Void", I still have to find a way to publish it at my own expense.
