Just when Maijo Keisuke and Uyama Hinodeomi were drinking happily in the "Yangmei no Yu".
Little did they know that at this time, the entire publishing industry in Japan was in dire straits!
Because today is Tuesday, January 15, 1980.
Kodansha's president, Genjiro Noma, asked the head of the sales department, Yasunori Okoshiba, to quietly put 300,000 printed copies of the first issue of "Top Hat" magazine into the market very early in the morning!
Because "Top Hat" magazine published Maijo Kyousuke's famous article "A Platycodon Flower".
This will make many readers who have grabbed Maijo Kyousuke's "Astrology Killing Magic" have the desire to buy a copy of "Top Hat" magazine for collection.
Likewise, the initial release of "Astrology Killing Magic" was so small, only 50,000 copies.
This has caused many people to wait for the reprint of "Astrology Killing Magic" and can only use "A Platycodon Flower" in "Top Hat" magazine to get a glimpse of Maijo Keisuke!
The clerks at major bookstores in Tokyo all know from newspapers that Maijo Keisuke has become the "recently known figure" in the Japanese mystery world due to his arrogant speech at the Edogawa Rampan Dragon Award and the excellent quality of his works. The King of Topic”.
But I never expected that Maijo Kyousuke's popularity would reach such a terrifying level!
Because "Astrology Killing Magic" has been sold out since yesterday.
Every few minutes, a customer will come to the bookstore and say the words that make all the bookstore clerks’ ears almost grow numb.
"Hello, may I ask? Do you have the book "Astrological Killing Magic" by Mr. Kyousuke Maijo?"
The bookstore clerk would patiently explain to customers at first that there were only 50,000 copies of "Astrology Killing Magic" in the first release, and they were quickly sold out as soon as it was put on the shelves!
If you want to watch "Astrology Killing Magic", you have to wait for Kodansha to print it.
Unfortunately, more and more customers asked this question, and the bookstore clerks gradually lost their patience. As long as they heard the words "Dance City" mentioned, they would respond mechanically like a conditioned reflex:
"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. Our store doesn't have Mr. Wucheng's "Astrology Killing Magic". Not to mention it's not available here, I'm afraid it's not available even in the whole of Japan..."
Unfortunately, usually before the bookstore clerk finishes speaking, he will hear the customer complain and say:
"What! There isn't one here either!"
"Makijo Keisuke-sensei is so popular right now, why don't you bookstore buy more goods... Really!"
In the end, the guests who returned disappointed could only complain and take away the "Top Hat" magazine with the "One Platycodon Flower" printed by Maijo Kyousuke.
In this strange atmosphere and under the influence of Maijo Kyousuke's fame, 300,000 copies of "Top Hat" magazine were quickly sold out in one morning!
The bookstore clerks also laughed bitterly at this situation, because they had no idea what the hell Kodansha was doing.
Why not take advantage of the fact that Maijo Kyousuke's popularity has not subsided and print "Astrology Killing Magic" to increase the sales of the work?
Why are you still printing those "Top Hat" magazines that don't make money?
As everyone knows, this is a big game played by Kodansha!
Because Kodansha not only uses "Top Hat" magazine to occupy a huge share of the Monday magazine market.
He also used the popularity of Maijo Kyousuke and the remaining influence of "Top Hat" magazine to continue to disrupt the magazine market on Tuesday!
Genjiro Noma's move is obviously incomprehensible to ordinary people.
But in the eyes of other publishing houses and magazine departments, he is extremely vicious!
Because Genjiro Noma's disruption this time not only caused sluggish sales of old short story mystery magazines such as Hikari Bunsha, Bungeishunjusha, and Takarashimasha.
Even Shinchosha's literary magazine "New Wave", Shogakukan's comic magazine "Big Comic Original", and Shueisha's comic magazine "Weekly Young Jump" were not spared from this business war!
All on Tuesday, sales plummeted like a cliff!
The main reason is that Noma Genjiro did not do any publicity for the printing of "Top Hat" magazine.
I just secretly handed over the "Top Hat" magazine to newsstands and bookstores, as if I couldn't sell all the magazines, I would still disgust you to death!
When all the magazines saw such a vicious business war, they wanted to eat Genjiro Noma's flesh and drink his blood!
Among them, the worst one is Baodao Society's "Novel Mystery". Originally, "Novel Mystery" was squeezed out by Guangwen Society's "Novel Gems" and Bungeishunqiu Society's "ALL Readings" in the short mystery magazine market. .
Now "Top Hat", a "rambling train of terror", has appeared. Not only has its sales been cut in half from the original 400,000 copies to 200,000 copies, but it has also received a large number of negative review letters.
After all, all the mystery novels in the entire "Novel Mystery" magazine are not as good as a petal of "A Platycodon Flower"!
But so what?
With the current popularity of Maijo Keisuke, even if the best-selling mystery writer Akagawa Jiro is invited to invite manuscripts, it will not help!
What's more, this is only part of Genjiro Noma's plan, or the appetizer.
Because the real business war has just begun from now on!
At the same time, Eryumi's side also became busy due to the influence of Maijo Keisuke.
After the Edogawa Ranpo Dragon Boat Festival ended, Edome's beautiful magazine department began to receive short story submissions from all over the country.
Most of these submissions come from third-rate mystery writers.
They require neither royalties nor any other form of remuneration.
They have only one purpose for submitting this article.
That is, I want a chance to compete with Kyousuke Maijo in "Top Hat" magazine!
Their idea is simple and direct, they just want to destroy the arrogance of Maijo Kyousuke, an arrogant new writer!
Although Eryumi clearly knows that Maijo Kyousuke's "The End" has far surpassed these submissions.
But as the chief editor of the magazine, Jiang Liumeili did not ignore the manuscripts submitted by these writers.
Because Eryu Meimei knows that one must be fair and equitable in life and work, in order to leave a good reputation for Maijo Kyousuke.
Although I am in the same boat as Maijo Kyousuke, we are in the same boat.
But we cannot ignore any writer who submits a contribution.
Because only in this way will everyone understand that Maijo Kyousuke relied on hard power to gain his current status.
It's not the so-called backing and eating soft rice!
Thinking of this, Jiang Liumei distributed piles of manuscripts.
Have all staff in the magazine department cross-reference.
If the quality of the manuscript is good enough, it will be published in the second issue of Top Hat magazine.
If the quality does not meet the requirements for publication, you must not throw the manuscript into the trash can as usual.
All editors must provide every writer who sends a manuscript with the exact reason why the manuscript cannot be published.
Maijo Kyousuke's arrogance outside is his personal pride, but Eryome is a loyal fan of Maijo Kyousuke.
It must be truly fair and just, completely open and transparent, and no critic, no mystery writer, no reader can have any objection to this "Top Hat" magazine's "Challenge Competition"!
