Du Caige looked at the calendar display on his phone.

31 May, 2008.

Looking back on the past May, what impressed him the most was not that "Ghost Blows the Lantern" broke many records in a row, not the fascinated eye contact at Duan Xiaochen's concert, nor the recognition of the little cute Caiwei's father and daughter.

It was yesterday's book signing.

Because the selection committee of the Poplar Literature Award finally announced the list of shortlisted works for the 2008 Poplar Literature Award, "The Old Man and the Sea" is impressively listed.

At this time, Sprout Publishing House finally put on sale "Zhu Xian", which had been covered for a while.

"Topol Literary Award Author Ernest Hemingway's latest masterpiece!"

"The strongest music songwriter crossover work!"

"The strongest voice on the Internet in 2008!"

"Ten years of life and death, an adventure, an unforgettable love, the origin of the immortals!"

"The bell is swallowing, the flowers are withering, and the figure is getting thinner and the temples are like frost. Affectionate bitterness, lifelong bitterness, infatuation is only for ruthless suffering. 2008's most sadomasochistic Xianxia masterpiece is coming!"

Du Caige did not interfere with these promotional copywriting.

After all, although he used to be the owner of Sprout Publishing House, now the boss of Sprouts, including Zhizhen Culture, is his daughter Xiao Caiwei.

The specific managers are hired professional managers.

Judging from the information that Du Caige has learned from the current contact with the management of Xinya Publishing House, they don't know that Cai Wei is their daughter, and even only a few limited executives know that the real boss is Cai Wei, and most people don't know who the boss is.

It's just that based on the resume of that professional manager, it is speculated that Zhizhen Culture has a relationship with Yuanguang Group.

Du Caige also has no intention of showing off the relationship between him and Cai Wei, although Zhizhen Culture is very profitable now, JUMP magazine is a hot seller, and every year he can always find some hot-selling books to publish, and the profit is very high.

But the toys that Du Caige gave to his daughter will never be taken back.

Du Caige didn't want to complicate the relationship too much.

I'll write a book in peace, and you can publish it for me honestly.

Even if the account period is shorter, even if it gives me face, everyone else's mind, don't get involved too much, do business, it's better to be pure.

It is estimated that the management of Sprout Publishing House thinks the same way.

If Cai Wei is the queen who has not yet ascended the throne, Du Cai Ge is the emperor who has made Zen.

The emperor, generally speaking, is actually the most difficult to serve.

The people at Sprout Press were actually quite apprehensive before.

For fear that the former boss would point fingers.

The former boss is the most embarrassing thing to point fingers at or something, do you listen, where is the current boss?

After all, Sprout Publishing House is only a department of Zhizhen Culture, and a large group of the middle and high-level of Zhizhen Culture are the former boss's old departments.

So after discovering that Du Caige was quite good at talking, the people at Sprout Publishing House were almost ecstatic.

Then the capitalist attribute prevailed, and several executives arranged a grand signing meeting to desperately squeeze Du Caige's surplus value.

The signing session that day, placed at the door of a large mall, was really crowded.

Not only local fans of "Zhu Xian" and "The Old Man and the Sea", but also many book lovers from all over the country.

The signing will start at half past two in the afternoon, first of all, some entertainment activities, and invite some 18th-tier stars to sing and dance.

Then after Du Caige arrived at 4 o'clock, he almost fainted because of dense phobia.

That's at least 3, 4,000 people in line!

And as the signing session progressed, the number of people in line not only did not decrease, but increased!

Many people originally just came to visit the mall, but when they saw that many people were blocked here, they came to inquire, and it turned out that the cutting-edge writers who had been shortlisted for the Poplar Literature Award were holding a signing meeting, and they bought one ("Zhu Xian") and got one ("The Old Man and the Sea") and signed it.

The psychology of the Chinese people who watched the excitement and took advantage of it took advantage of it, and many people who had never even heard the name of "Zhu Xian" also came to line up.

It was a hot day, and after a while, Du Caige was soaking wet.

Finally signed one or two thousand copies, he shook his hand that was a little swollen, looked up, and almost fainted.

However, the queue for autographs was longer.

There was a person from Xinya Publishing House next to him who laughed and encouraged him in a low voice: "Haida, if you continue on this posture, you have to sign and sell 10,000 books today." At this rate, our first printing of 220,000 copies may be sold out in a week or two, so we have to reprint them as soon as possible. It's all money!"

Du Caige almost rolled his eyes.

Is this encouragement? This is urging!

After signing more than 1,000 copies, I was about to suffer from heat stroke and go to the hospital, and if I signed 10,000 copies, I couldn't go directly to the morgue!

By 6 o'clock, Du Caige had signed 3,000 books, and he was so tired that he didn't want to move his fingers, but there was still a long queue behind him.

Fortunately, some book lovers and people who watched the excitement couldn't help but be hungry and ran to eat.

Du Caige rested a little, drank some electrolyte replenishing drinks, and continued to sign the sale.

While signing, I calculated.

A hardcover set of 5 volumes, priced at 299 yuan.

A set of 5 volumes in paperback edition, priced at 199 yuan.

He takes 14% of the royalties.

So if all the 220,000 sets of the first printing can be sold out within two weeks, the total sales of 20,000 hardcover editions will be 6 million, and the total sales of 200,000 paperback editions will reach 40 million.

He will be able to share 6.44 million in royalty income.

Of course, you have to pay 20% tax, and the actual amount is a little more than 5 million.

But that's just the beginning.

If it is true that 220,000 copies can be sold in 2 weeks, then the total sales of this book will be 8 million, or even 10 million copies.

This is not a book worth a dozen or twenty dollars!

This is a paperback book priced at 199 yuan, a very expensive set of books!

And if the sales of "Zhu Xian" can really exceed 5 million in the next few years, or even reach 10 million, then the social attention it brings is enough to support the box office of a fan-oriented movie, and you won't lose money if you shoot it with your eyes closed.

Even if Du Caige is actually not so keen on money, after thinking of those numbers, he can't help but feel his heart beat faster, feel his vitality return to his body, and his swollen wrist doesn't hurt anymore.

The book signings lasted until 10 p.m., and a total of 8,500 book signings were sold.

There were some hiccups along the way, but there were no major incidents.

By the time the signing was over, Du Caige's hands were shaking, and he felt that he wouldn't want to eat with chopsticks for the next 3 days.

And the clothes he was wearing had already changed several times, and each time it didn't take long to get soaked.

Fortunately, the organizer was considerate and prepared a few more sets of clothes for him, otherwise he would have to be seriously ill.

Du Caige is really scared, he has never been so tired from running roadshows in his previous life.

He didn't want to do it a second time in his life.

When he returned, he fell asleep, and slept until three o'clock in the morning.

When I got up and looked at my phone, my hands were still shaking and sore.

Because the phone was turned to silent, although there were dozens of missed calls and countless text messages, it didn't wake him up.

The text message is nothing more than congratulating him on the hot sale of "Zhu Xian", and Sprout Publishing House also sent him the latest sales statistics of "Zhu Xian".

In Azure Star Dahuaguo, the physical sales statistics of books are mainly judged through the sales of bookstore chains "Dahua Bookstore" and "Huaxia Infotext" and several large supermarket chains, as well as the sales data of e-commerce websites "WOI" and "Tanbao".

According to statistics, in the "Dahua Bookstore" alone, the national sales of "Zhu Xian" yesterday exceeded 80,000 copies (because some of the book buyers do not buy the full set, so the "volume" is used to measure). The hardcover edition can only be purchased as a complete set, but the paperback edition can be purchased in separate volumes).

The total sales volume online and offline, plus the 8,500 sets sold at the book signing, has reached 380,000 copies.

The largest sales volume is not the offline channel, but the online channel.

Specializing in books, similar to the "WOI" network of the earth's "Dangdang Network", the sales volume of "Zhu Xian" exceeded 100,000 copies.

On the comprehensive e-commerce website, "Treasure Hunting", which is controlled by Yuanguang Group, the first-day sales of "Zhu Xian" also exceeded 70,000 copies.

Only 220,000 copies, or 1.1 million copies, were printed for this first printing, so a little bit of the stock was cleared in a day.

Of course, "Zhu Xian" is actually more fan-oriented, and it is far from being comparable to classic masterpieces.

Therefore, Du Caige estimates that in the next 10 years, its sales will be fixed between 5 million and 6 million sets.

Thinking of more than 6 million sets is unrealistic.

Unless movies and TV series are released in the future, the word of mouth is very good, driving some fans of dramas and movies to buy books and collect.

On the first day of its release, it topped the top 3 of the best-selling lists of "Dahua Wencui" and "Southern Literature", and the top 10 of the best-selling list of "Mingde Daily". Mr. Du, please reply as soon as possible, we want to buy the physical publishing copyright of your "Ghost Blowing the Lantern", and then discuss the printing of "Zhu Xian". At the same time, the headquarters called, and also wanted to put "Zhu Xian" on the 'FINDER' for sale, hoping to discuss this topic. ”

This message was sent by Lei Qifeng, the general manager of Sprout Publishing House.

Du Caige ignored him for the time being.

If you want to talk about the conditions, Brother Fan will also talk about it, and he will definitely not be able to go into battle by himself.

He learned a little that "Dahua Wencui" and "Southern Literature" are both best-selling newspapers in Dahuaguo, and these two newspapers will count the best-selling lists of literary books.

As one of the top 10 newspapers in China by circulation, Mingde Pao's ranking includes all book categories, not just literary books.

Comparatively speaking, the best-selling list of "Mingde Daily" is more authoritative.

IN ADDITION, "FINDER" IS AN E-READER, SIMILAR TO THE EARTH'S "KINDER", WHICH WAS RELEASED BY SUPREME CULTURE, AND IT IS ALSO AN E-READER THAT CURRENTLY OCCUPIES 80% OF THE E-READING MARKET.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, ZHIZHEN CULTURE BELONGS TO CAIWEI, SO EVEN IF THE CONDITIONS ARE POOR, DU CAIGE WILL AGREE TO SELL THE ELECTRONIC VERSION OF "ZHU XIAN" ON FINDER, AND THE PUBLICATION OF "GHOST BLOWING THE LANTERN" WILL DEFINITELY GIVE PRIORITY TO SPROUT PUBLISHING HOUSE.

Fertilizer and water don't flow into outsiders' fields.

But he didn't intend to be too eager. Let Brother Fan go and talk about the conditions.

The royalty of "Ghost Blowing the Lamp" has to be talked about 18%.

This is not his daughter's wool, he is also waiting for the rice to go to the pot.

If you want to achieve financial freedom as soon as possible and bring money into the group to shoot movies, you must not be soft on the money you should earn.