An employee who has worked in the bookstore for a long time.
No one can underestimate the impact of a good promotional poster on book sales.
The proportion of readers who choose a book based solely on its cover appearance is higher than most people imagine.
In an era of proliferation of electronics, people who are still willing to buy books in physical bookstores and read paper books have a collection-like feeling for books.
When they buy books, they are not only buying words, but also buying a beloved collection.
Especially when you are wandering around in a bookstore with no purpose, drinking coffee, and posting on Instagram to show your petty bourgeois lifestyle. A beautiful and lovely book is an indispensable ornament for those young men and women.
Even in the display cabinet of Waterstones Bookstore, they like to place two books with beautiful covers in prominent positions.
It doesn’t matter if the writing is rough, it’s the debut novel by an unknown author that no one has ever heard of, or it’s a very obscure stream of consciousness or spiritual book.
As long as the cover painting has enough style and artistic conception.
I always sell a few copies every week.
Over the course of a year, Ling Ling Zong Zong was able to sell to both young and old.
In the book circle, these books belong to the category that rely on their "appearance" to make a living.
"Perhaps the long-term sales of "The Little Prince" are higher than many people imagine!" This idea came to the staff's mind.
"But Miss, if you are willing to wait until the book signing is over in the afternoon, you can take this poster away." He turned to look at Kelly and shrugged casually: "Anyway, Waterstones Bookstore keeps it and needs to deal with it. Dropped."
"Thank you then."
Kelly nodded with satisfaction.
She tilted her head and teased her best friend: "Maka, just prepare to have a platonic relationship with your boyfriend for a month."
"The painting may be okay, but if you say it can impress my sister, it's not that good."
Maka snorted hard.
She had to say that the effect of Detective Cat's cover illustration was really a bit beyond her expectations.
But from the beginning of this agreement, Maka was invincible.
Whether you have the urge to buy a book or not is not up to you - it’s just a fairy tale book, so what’s so great about it!
I won’t buy it if I don’t want to buy it.
Maka tilted her head proudly and looked away from the weird promotional poster.
"You think you're beautiful because you don't have good aesthetic skills. The world's most qualified art critics all think Detective Cat's works are poor."
She quietly recited this sentence in her heart.
In order to strengthen her inner belief, Maka even took out her mobile phone and entered this website address.
This is a portal website that collects art consultation that professors recommend them to pay attention to.
It does not produce any art reviews, but it collects news links and content summaries from various mainstream newspapers and periodicals to facilitate readers to read relevant information.
Maka typed in the name "Detective Cat".
Immediately, a large number of related art reports appeared on the screen.
[Why the new version of "The Little Prince" is a work destined to fail: Abandoning the original illustrations is the worst decision Scholastic Group has ever made. 】--"Art room"
[Non-mainstream “art speculators”? The wonderful road to fame of internet celebrity illustrator Detective Cat]——"London Art Duel"
[“From Internet gimmicks to commercial hype, it’s time to put an end to this farce caused by unprofessional art critics and third-rate painters.”]——The latest report from “The Moon” on De Jong Vandoorne interview.
[What is knife painting? Detailed explanation. Is it really an art form...]
…
In these news newspapers, whenever the name of Detective Cat is mentioned, more than 90% of the media have negative views.
Very strange.
It seems that every art criticism media can’t wait to tear apart “The Little Prince” and its illustrator with their pens before it is released.
Some of the media outlets who made comments can understand.
In the past half century, the total annual average shipment volume of "The Little Prince" has almost never been less than one million copies. Newspaper mouthpieces controlled by Scholastic Group's old rival Townsend Mann are naturally sardonic about competitors trying to get a piece of this cash cow.
"The Moon" and Van Dorn have always scorned Detective Cat, so it's normal to jump out and apply eye drops at this moment.
Just newspapers such as "Art Space", "London Art Forum", and "Literary Sunday".
They are all veteran art criticism media that are well received by readers.
usually,
No matter how much the writers of these newspapers hate a painter, they are not willing to publish such fierce and clear-cut comments before actually seeing his paintings.
This makes them seem unprofessional and biased.
In the unlikely event of a slap in the face, it would be no fun to be caught and attacked by competing media.
The formation of such a trend of public opinion is more due to the influence of the shareholders of "Oil Painting" magazine.
The art circle is a big spider web woven by connections.
The shareholders of "Oil Painting" magazine are the big spiders in the center of the web.
Their disciples, disciples, disciples and old disciples are all over the entire art criticism system.
Shareholders can convey their ideas from inside to outside through spider threads, and implant negative expectations about Detective Cat in advance into the hearts of every enthusiast and collector who pays attention to the art field.
Therefore, Sir Brown is also nicknamed the "Pope of Art" in the chats of some artists.
He is the spokesperson of the Muses on earth.
The major shareholders of Oil Painting Magazine are his Cardinals.
Lower-level magazines such as "Art Space" and "London Art Forum" are the priests of various small churches who use personal connections as bridges.
Perhaps deep down in their hearts, each of these art media has the ambition to replace Oil Painting magazine, but generally they don’t have the courage to go against the grain.
Don’t say anything else.
Guang was caught every day by Oil Painting magazine scolding him for his poor artistic vision. It was a kitsch magazine catering to Middle Eastern buyers and oil nouveau riche who engaged in art speculation.
This is enough to destroy the credibility of these newspapers in the eyes of collectors.
Sir Brown has such influence that he can use his own will to make some art magazines that were originally cautious and cautious to let go of their integrity and form a unified rhetoric against Detective Cat and Anna behind it.
These magazines don't care what competitors come to find fault.
Anyway, you are scolding, and your competitors are also scolding, so why are you afraid of capsizing?
For example, "Art Space" and "Literary Sunday" are competing newspapers whose main reader groups are in the British Isles, and there have been many conflicts with each other in the past. In the past, they were tit-for-tat media outlets that disliked each other regarding concepts such as avant-garde art, Dadaism, and trendy toys.
But when it comes to Detective Cat, the tone retains a high degree of consistency.
On the contrary, "Oil Painting" magazine itself has remained silent on this issue.
Except for the video of the resolution of the shareholders' meeting, the daily official publication does not mention anything related to Detective Cat.
Silence is the highest form of contempt.
"Oh, Detective Cat, I actually admire her. Who doesn't have the right to pursue their own hobbies? It's just that she was pushed to an inappropriate height by the wrong person at the wrong time. That's all, not Personal vendetta.”
A few days ago, Ole Kruger, the equity representative of Kruger Brothers Bank, officially replaced Miss Irina and became the executive director of "Oil Painting" magazine at the welcoming ceremony.
Sir Brown told reporters who raised this issue: "We are an authoritative and serious media magazine. Unfortunately, the level of online painters is not within the scope of our normal work."
Unlike the roommate who was fascinated by the detective cat.
There is a reverence for authority in Maka's character.
When she was designing clothes in her class, she would spend a long time studying the artistic language of luxury brand designers such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton this year, and then follow them step by step to express them in her own designs.
Art critics hold a lot of weight in Maka's heart.
From the first moment she saw the media article, she was a loyal supporter of these arguments.
Every time she argued with Kelly and criticized Detective Cat, Maka felt as if there were countless senior masters standing behind her, speaking out with her.
Reading these words at this time.
Gradually, the charming attraction that the strange illustration of Detective Cat had just created in her heart was expelled from her heart again.
"Please, I'm a student at the Royal College of Art. I don't want to be like those tasteless bastards who buy some works by Internet illustrators and put them on the bookshelf. They have no style at all!"
Maka curled her lips vigorously.
She spoke a little loudly this time. Actually, she wasn't mumbling to her best friend Kelly, but to herself who was inexplicably shaken.
When she saw the promotional poster, she really fell in love with the painting.
Damn it!
Maka was very angry that her artistic taste was so far behind the masters.
"The autograph session has almost started."
The staff put all the advertising signs in place.
He checked the time, walked back and took off the "Closed" sign in front of Waterstones Bookstore.
The audience began to trickle in slowly.
Maka followed Kelly to the door of the bookstore without saying a word.
Standing under the black signboard of the store that says "Waterstone's", the moment you are about to step into the black glass door. The girl couldn't help but look back at the advertising illustration in the distance that was facing the crowd.
Again, it looked beautiful.
Just across the street, a primary school student holding a hydrogen balloon pointed at the poster and said something, and then he pulled his father towards the bookstore.
This scene fell into Maka's eyes.
For the first time, Maka felt an uncontrollable wavering about the authoritative views of art critics.
"This painting... really has very low artistic attainments and has indescribable flaws. Is it just because I don't have enough artistic accomplishment that I can't see it?"
"At least, it's not as bad as the media said."
Illustrations that generate such appeal are not good enough.
So,
What did the works of other illustrators she had seen before count? ——
Kelly got a purchase intention survey card from the staff at the door and couldn't wait to walk into the main hall.
The bookstore has been given a new look.
The store area of Waterstones Bookstore on Oxford Street is not small.
They have rich experience in hosting various book signing events. Under the careful arrangement of the staff, it was like entering the fairy tale world of "The Little Prince".
An orange-red planet with a diameter of one meter that looks like a round cheese hangs from the ceiling above the head. This is a model of the asteroid B612, codenamed B612 in the astronomy code of the little prince's hometown.
The surface of the model has chocolate-colored volcanic protrusions.
In the display window next to it, there is a pair of dark leather strap flying glasses and a pen that Saint-Exupéry used when he flew a water reconnaissance plane during World War II.
There is also a 50cm tall wax figure of the Little Prince holding a rose growing in a glass windshield.
Under the spotlight, the little prince wax doll looks lifelike.
Even the wallpaper on the surrounding load-bearing columns has been replaced with the main body of roses.
What attracted Kelly the most was not these, but the display cabinets with books around her.
There are special sections in Waterstones Bookstore, from the best-selling section, children's section, science fiction section on the outside, to the emotional reading section on the inside... everything is available.
Because today is the first day of book signing for "The Little Prince".
So the staff removed the innermost part of the bookstore yesterday and placed an area of R18+ restricted works with pornographic covers such as protruding and exposed girls, which does not fit in with the fairy tale theme.
Four large display cabinets containing physical books of "The Little Prince" were placed next to the door.
Brand-new copies of "The Little Prince" with their covers facing outwards are neatly stacked on the bookshelf, and the scent of ink that just rolled out of the printing factory's assembly line still lingers between the pages.
There are a total of 280 sets of paperback editions of "The Little Prince" and 70 sets of hardcover editions of "The Little Prince" with thicker printing paper and hard covers. Readers attending the book signing can take it easily as soon as they enter the door. arrive.
Kelly couldn't wait to hold a book in her hands.
Oops!
The blonde girl suddenly twisted her neck and couldn't help but exclaimed.
"OMG."
The moment when she and the little prince in the illustration on the cover of "The Little Prince" looked at each other, it was like a hallucination.
The little man sitting on the top of the golden sand dune seemed to blink!
Kelly blinked her eyelids equally hard.
This time, the illustration is still the same static illustration.
The four-dimensional space cannot be broken, and the little prince has not really come to life.
However, the feeling in her field of vision that the little prince was about to walk out of the picture at any time did not disappear at the same time.
It’s really too vivid!
Kelly lowered her head and couldn't help but say hello to the character in the cover painting.
"Hello, Your Excellency, the little prince."
Kelly had seen this outer cover of "The Little Prince" during the publisher's simulated market survey.
Her greater expectations were originally focused on other illustrations in the book.
At this moment, hold the physical book in your hands.
She suddenly felt that the painting in front of her was the same as the photo bound in white text that she had seen before.
They look the same but are different!
I should be able to update it when I get home in a few days.
(End of chapter)
