Chen Rou couldn't help but sigh and explained to Zhao Feng.
"Currently, the paper we use is the cheapest yellow paper. This paper is very rough. If you use ordinary ink, the writing will spread out and it will be impossible to read it."
“So in order to make our printed fonts clear, we must use a very viscous glue ink. This kind of glue ink is very expensive. A pound of glue ink costs one or two silver! "
Zhao Feng nodded slowly. He had also read the books printed by that bookstore. The paper was the kind of yellowed paper that was very common in this era. If he read it for a long time, he would feel dizzy.
But Zhao Feng didn't expect that there were so many ways to print books.
Chen Rou continued: "And one more thing, we use engraving plates to print books. Engraving engravings is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also the engraving board can only print the same book every time."
"If you want to print other books, you have to destroy the original engraving and re-engrav it."
Chen Rou couldn't help but sigh as she said this.
"But who knew there were so many versions of the annotations of those sage books? Sometimes even because of a change in a sentence, we need to re-carve the engraving."
"As a result, labor costs have also gone up, so we have not made any money during this period!"
Chen Rou said this, looked at the remaining silver coins on the account, raised her head and looked at Zhao Feng aggrievedly.
Seeing Chen Rou's aggrieved expression, Zhao Feng couldn't help but want to laugh, but he still comforted Chen Rou.
"Madam, this matter has nothing to do with your business. The main thing is that the book printing market is already like this. If you want to make a lot of money, you must make changes to this market!"
Chen Rou looked at Zhao Feng with some doubts. She originally chose this book printing business because she thought the books would not get damaged if they were placed there, but she did not expect that these books would not be sold at all.
Even if these books don't break, so what?
People who need these books will not stop buying them just because they are more expensive, and people who don’t need these books will not stop buying them just because they are cheaper than other books.
So Chen Rou really regretted it at this time, feeling that she was not the material for doing business.
Zhao Feng saw that Chen Rou was hit hard and knew that if he didn't intervene now, he might not be able to build Chen Rou's confidence.
After all, this is Chen Rou's first business. If Chen Rou is hit hard in this business, it may make Chen Rou lose her enthusiasm for doing business.
At that time, he would not be able to hand over all his business to Chen Rou.
So Zhao Feng had no choice but to be persuasive: "Madam, think about it carefully, who exactly needs these books?"
When Chen Rou heard this, she couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and then said helplessly.
"Of course the scholars!"
"But how many scholars are there in our county, and most of them are not taking the imperial examination, but just to be able to read more words."
"So there are many people who can read, but not many people actually come to buy these sage books!"
Zhao Feng smiled, nodded, and said to Chen Rou.
"Yes, the books you print now are exclusive products for a certain group, and this group is scholars who plan to take the imperial examination!"
"If you only focus on this group, of course you will need to engage in price wars with other peers to get others to buy the books you print."
"But let's open our minds a little bit. Why should we focus on this group again?"
Zhao Feng smiled slightly, took a piece of paper, divided several columns on it, and introduced it to Chen Rou.
"Madam, if you think about it carefully, there are quite a few people who can read in the county, and some of them are country squires. They have finally finished their hard study, and of course they will not buy these books again. .”
"But if we can print something and make everyone interested in it, then won't it have to worry about sales? It doesn't have to be scholars who want to take the imperial examination to buy this thing. Something!”
When Chen Rou heard this, she thought about it carefully, her eyes suddenly lit up, and she nodded quickly.
"Husband, what you said makes sense!"
Zhao Feng chuckled. Chen Rou just took a fancy to this book club and felt that the books printed by this book club should be those books, so she didn't jump out of this weird thinking circle.
But Zhao Feng knows that not many people actually buy these books. After all, these books are actually equivalent to the teaching aids in the previous life. The only people who buy this teaching aids are those very involuted students.
Otherwise, those who print teaching aids will not cooperate with schools to promote these materials!
If students are asked to buy these things by themselves, they will definitely not buy them!
Seeing that Chen Rou had followed his train of thought, Zhao Feng continued.
"Madam, think about it carefully, what do the people care about most?"
Chen Rou thought for a moment, and then her eyes suddenly lit up.
"Those common people are concerned about the gossip between neighbors and the prices of rice, flour, grain and oil!"
“If there is something they can talk about, it will definitely become a topic of conversation!”
Zhao Feng nodded and used a brush to write down gossip, product prices and other column themes on the paper where he drew the page.
"In addition, what are some people concerned about? For example, those businessmen, most of them can read and write. What they care about is which products are in urgent need and which products have no shortage of sales."
"There are also those scholars. Apart from reading the books of sages, they are most concerned about the affairs between talented men and beauties. If you can fabricate some interesting stories about talented men and beauties for them, they will definitely be more interested."
Zhao Feng wrote all the columns he mentioned on the paper and said to Chen Rou.
"Now you see, we don't need to print a book at all. We only need to print a piece of paper like this to get most people to come and buy it."
"Excluding the price of the raw material itself, even if this piece of paper only sells for two cents, we can still make half of it. More importantly, if the circulation of this thing increases, there will be some unexpected benefits!"
"This thing is called a newspaper!"
Seeing the piece of paper in Zhao Feng's hand, Chen Rou couldn't help but widen her eyes. She didn't expect that Zhao Feng would come up with a solution for him in such a short time.
