Yue Qingyan has been staying at home in the past few months, occasionally going out or going to the gym for a run, writing "The Legend of the Galactic Heroes" at an average rate of 8,000 words a day, almost one book a month. In March of the following year, the physical books of the first volume of "Dawn" and the second volume of "Wild Hope" were finally published.

Ming Qian opened a booking link on the Internet, hoping to count how much the first edition is printed.

In the past, publishing houses usually distributed books in the so-called one-channel and two-channel routes. The first channel refers to the public channels of Xinhua bookstores, libraries, major university libraries and bookstores, and the second channel is the retail channels such as various private bookstores and newsstands. When book publishing is relatively slow, it is even a long time in advance to send orders to collect statistics to aggregate the number of channels. Combined with the publisher's judgment on the book market, its own sales ability, etc., the number of secondary channels is determined. After that, depending on the situation, add as much as you want on this basis, and make it a whole number, and that is the number of first printing.

For major publishing houses, this number is sensitive and critical. If there is less printing, if it does not cover all the markets that can be sold, and there is a shortage of goods, it is easy to be taken advantage of by competing varieties and even pirated books. If you can't sell it if you print too much, it will become stockable. The books in stock are of no use other than to send them to pulp.

Up to now, due to the decline of the first channel, the Xinhua bookstore channel may still be alive in the third and fourth tier cities, but the first and second tier cities have basically withdrawn from the market. Private bookstores, newsstands, convenience stores, and online channels have become the way to sell new books, and there is also the publishing house's own online store platform. Since the publishing company already has brand awareness, then the book is nothing more than a special brand product. The new translations of the Flower Curtain series of translations, the ideal country series of GX Normal School, the Midnight Library of Nova Publishing House, the Zhanlu Library of CITIC Publishing House, etc., are all product lines of this series of branding. There are also Hou Lang's film and cultural series, which are not only a collection of professional genres, but also a collection of brands, and take another special road of publishing and distribution. Each set of publishing, distribution and sales systems is created by publishing houses and publishing companies by pooling their own superior resources and pouring a lot of effort into it.

Since the beginning of last year, the publication of the Ming Qian Company has been divided into four large series: "Flowers, Moons, Stars, and Clouds", and the main way to distinguish them is the mark at the top of the spine. This mark also appears on the back cover, stacked below the name of the company.

The "Flower" series is mainly women's literature, and it is not only limited to novels, but also includes some chicken soup for growth and inspiration. The "Moon" series is a relatively rigid work such as genre fiction and non-fiction literature. The "Star" series is a fantasy genre that includes science fiction and fantasy. The "Cloud" series, on the other hand, is a collection of various compilations and the like.

The short stories of Yue Qingyan before were collected in the short story collection edited by Jing Zhen, which belongs to the "Cloud" series. And this time, his "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" is classified in the "Star" series.

The company posted the pre-sale information of the two books on the Internet more than a month in advance. This is a bit similar to the sales method of the same book、Picture albums and the like.。 Collect money directly for pre-sales, and print according to the direct sales figure plus a little bit, so that the risk of the publisher is reduced to a minimum. At the same time, this type of sales is also a good way to advertise. After all, publishing companies are still different from doujinben and the like.。 Regularly published books have ISBNs and have a complete process of three reviews and three proofreadings. Of course, the bigger the publicity, the better. Especially now that physical publishing is not easy to mix, the number of first prints is especially important. If a book can be pre-sold for more than 10,000 copies, it is already destined to enter the ranks of bestsellers with more than 50,000 copies.

At the beginning of the pre-sale of the company, everyone was nervous. Including Yue Qingyan himself. I'm an ordinary author, and I'm still a best-selling author, so maybe I'll do it here. If there is still no way to make "Yinying" sell well after investing so many resources before Ming Qian, then, as an author, each of Yue Qingyan's books in the future will be more strictly critical of its market positioning, and the number of first prints will be less...... This pit is something that many authors can't get out of in their lifetime.

However, what made Yue Qingyan overjoyed was that the online pre-sale, and only through the pre-sale of the official website owned by Ming Qian, broke 3,000 copies on the first day. With this kind of digital bottom, JD.com, Tmall, Dangdang, etc. also quickly followed up and began to pre-sell the full amount. Online reservations are available until 10 days prior to the official release. At this time, the full pre-sale figures, the total of several platforms is 67,000 and 22 sets. According to a set of two volumes, there have been sales of more than 100,000 copies. "Eun Young" was an undoubted success.

With this number at the bottom, Lianxingjie considered it all night, and finally decided that the first printing of the first and second volumes would be 150,000 copies. He was taking a big risk in this decision. Although according to the pre-sale figures, it is not a loss to print like this, but it is barely a loss. Once the retail sales of other channels cannot be sold, then his pressure from the printing factory will be wasted. For Ming Qian, their business is doing well, but they can't afford to toss it like this. Still, everyone else has more confidence than he does. In China's book market, if a book can sell 50,000 copies, it is basically impossible to stop the number of 100,200,000. In fact, the market is scarce of good works, and the Matthew effect in the domestic market is very serious.

When Lianxingjie was entangled, Yue Qingyan, accompanied by Mo Ersheng and A Yue, waited for Lianxingjie's final decision in the printing factory.

For Yue Qingyan, this first time going to the factory is too important. Although the pre-sale figures are satisfactory, the current book market is really terrible.

Ah Yue: "Are you nervous?"

"Sort of. Yue Qingyan said: "It's like waiting for the verdict." ”

"It's not that serious, it's already a bestseller. It's nothing more than looking at the follow-up market. Ah Yue said with relief.

"Yes and no. Actually, for me, 67,000, the number is already a bit unexpected, and the pre-sale can exceed 60,000, I didn't expect it at all. ”

"Then what are you worried about?" Ah Yue said strangely: "Even if this score is like this, it is already the best result for newcomers in recent years." ”

"I'm afraid you don't have faith in me. Yue Qingyan said with a smile. "I write something I have confidence in, however, I don't know what the reader thinks. I don't know what you guys think. But I'm going to work with you for at least three years. ”

Ah Yue didn't speak. He is very confident in Yue Qingyan, but that mainly refers to the quality of writing. In fact, in terms of the quality of the text, "Yinying" is lower than the previous short stories. But this kind of length does not require textual perfection. In terms of content, there are also many elements of adventure. The science fiction theme and the interstellar war theme have never had good data on sales in the domestic market before. The last book of interstellar science fiction that everyone is familiar with is "Flying to Sagittarius". (Yes, I don't copy Mr. Zheng Wenguang's anymore.) He's still there. Yue Qingyan said that even though this "Yinying" takes the path of giving priority to character design and power schemes, and tries to dilute the background of interstellar warfare, this thing is still there after all. The enthusiasm of readers is mainly for the character.

He wouldn't be surprised if "Yinying" only sold 120,000 or 20,000 in addition to the pre-sale figures. Science fiction is a niche theme, and in addition to the core readers, there are few extension readers. If you think about it safely, the first printing is in the 100,000 copies, which is also interesting enough. In order to solve the problem of shares before the festival, almost all the funds that can be used were withdrawn. The company really didn't dare to lose the money.

"I have confidence in Mr. Lian. Ah Yue said, "Moreover, I think it's worth the risk." Even the general manager is only cautious, but not conservative. ”

The master of the printing factory suddenly walked into the workshop and raised his voice: "It's started." 150,000 copies in first printing. Big list, everyone be serious. ”

Hearing this voice, Yue Qingyan breathed a sigh of relief. Ah Yue patted him on the shoulder and said, "I'll say it." ”

Yue Qingyan said, "Thank you." His heart was stirring, and he couldn't think of anything else at the moment. 150,000, it's not a question of money, it's a matter of positioning him. Even if the sales of each book decreased, basically the complete set of ten volumes of "Yinying" would have a total sales of more than 1 million copies. And one million copies, for any author, is a number that is difficult to challenge in a lifetime. And he, at this moment, has basically done it.

Walking along the production line of the printing factory from the beginning to the end, Yue Qingyan looked at the finished book that the workers and masters at the end of the production line had already inspected. The highly automated assembly line has indeed turned the book into an industrial product, from feeding to binding, as long as it is set, it is fully automatic.

The paper is made of light book paper, standard glue-binding, and the cover is drawn by Jin Yuan, with a different LOGO logo on each volume, which looks extremely gorgeous. The cover pictures are all superimposed backgrounds behind the characters, the first is the starry sky, and the second is the command room of the Hyperion, and the content is very relevant. The logo of the first book is the Imperial Army, and the logo of the second book is the Thirteenth Fleet, which is also an interesting setting. (I know it's not that automated, but let's set it up like this, otherwise it's too cumbersome to explain the printer.) ）

In the place where a book was spit out by a huge steel machine, a master saw Yue Qingyan approaching, pulled down a still hot book from the assembly line, opened it casually and shook it, and then handed it to him.

"150,000 copies, a great boy. The master said.

"Thank you. Yue Qingyan said: "Hope is not the only time. ”

The master also knew that the book market was not good, which was really hard to say, and shrugged his shoulders. But Morsheng, who was on the side, blurted out: "No." ”

Yue Qingyan held the book in his hand and asked, "Can you take it?"

"Yes, print 3% more to avoid mistakes, not missing one or two copies. ”

"Thank you. Yue Qingyan could feel the book in his hand quickly cool down. He quickly raised his head, looked at Mo Ersheng and said, "I didn't have the heart to eat just now, and now I'm hungry, accompany me to eat?"

Morsheng nodded. How could she refuse Yue Qingyan's invitation.