Sanmao's letter is an extremely sudden thing, for this writer he loves, Govin can stop his work and use a letter to remember the green years of his previous life, or he can take the trouble to reply to the letter with a faint secret advice and even encouragement.

But after all, this is just a small episode in life, the reply has been sent, and I don't know when Govin will be able to receive Sanmao's reply again, but life still has to go on.

At the end of April, the manuscript of "Soldier Assault" was completed, and after spending two days refining and revising the manuscript again, the next thing was very simple to seek publication.

Yes, "Soldier Assault" is dedicated to the veterans of the Hard Sixth Company, to the retired soldiers of the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, and to all the Chinese people who have no regrets and shed blood and sweat to defend China.

Since the beginning of the Republic of China, Shanghai has been an important political, economic and cultural center of the whole of China, during the Republic of China, Shanghai literati gathered, elite clusters, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, it is still an important city in the field of Chinese culture. Although the turmoil of the past decade has greatly damaged the cultural atmosphere of Shanghai, with the beginning of reform and opening up, Shanghai, as one of China's largest cities, has once again rejuvenated and revitalized, with economic prosperity and a hundred blossoms in the cultural field.

There are many publishing houses in Shanghai, such as Shanghai People's Publishing House, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, Shanghai Education Publishing House, Shanghai Music Publishing House, Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Publishing House, Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, Fudan University Press, etc.

Founded in 1897, it is the most famous and longest-standing modern publishing institution in Chinese history, and is known as the twin stars of modern Chinese culture along with Peking University. It is a pity that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Commercial Press moved to Beijing.

Founded in 1951, the Shanghai People's Publishing House is a comprehensive book publishing organization that publishes academic monographs and popular books in philosophy, social sciences, politics, law, finance, management, history and other disciplines.

Shanghai People's Publishing House was formerly known as East China People's Publishing House, formerly known as the editorial department and publishing department of Xinhua Bookstore's East China Main Branch. Initially, it was a comprehensive publishing house, and it became a publishing house of philosophy and social science books according to the division of labor. Shanghai People's Publishing House is a comprehensive publishing house that mainly publishes books on philosophy and social sciences, and the Shanghai People's Publishing House adheres to the propaganda of Marxism-Leninism, Deng Xiaoping Theory, carries forward the excellent national culture, introduces the advanced ideological and cultural achievements of mankind, and disseminates new knowledge of philosophy and social sciences, and has made important contributions to promoting and developing the construction of socialist spiritual civilization and enriching the people's spiritual and cultural life.

And Govin wanted to publish his own "Soldier Assault": "The first thing that comes to mind is this publishing house.

At this moment, he was standing outside the gate of the Shanghai People's Publishing House, and after registering the information in the guard room, Ge Wen followed the instructions of the security guard and walked directly to the reception room of the department dedicated to receiving books and publications.

In fact, the publishing house is not much different from the magazine, the same quiet and full of strong cultural atmosphere, but when Govin knocked on the door and walked into this office, he realized that there was a difference between the two.

In the office, there are two middle-aged people, a man and a woman, who are knitting sweaters, and the man is holding a copy of today's newspaper and reading it intently.

Seeing Govin come in, the woman in the sweater who shouted to come in just looked up at him, and then lowered her head again and went about her own work.

"Hello, I want to publish my own book............." Govin took out the manuscript of "Soldier Assault" from his chair bag, and walked up to the middle-aged woman and asked politely.

"The minimum for self-funded publication is 2,000 yuan. Before Govin could finish speaking, the middle-aged woman interrupted Govin carelessly.

"Uh............" The middle-aged woman's words were stunned for a moment, and then he quickly explained, "I am a contributor, not a self-published publication. ”。

"Same.".

The middle-aged woman's indifferent attitude" made a trace of anger swell in Gowen's heart all of a sudden, but he still managed to hold this anger back into his stomach, he understood what was going on.

For a long time, in such a specific planned economic environment, "China's publishing industry has no risks and no competition under the protection of special state policies, and it is really "the emperor's daughter does not worry about marrying" and "even after the policy is opened up, publishing houses are still regarded as public institutions, but they are required to implement enterprise management." Only after China's accession to the WTO and its integration with the international publishing industry will it take the initiative to adapt to the market and consumers as the transformation of the market economy intensifies.

And the attitude of the middle-aged woman in front of her is exactly the expression of public institutions in a typical planned economic environment.

Looking at the woman who had not stopped making her sweater, and turning her head to look at the man who had been reading the newspaper without saying a word, Govin knew that he could not communicate with these two men at all. He tucked the manuscript back into his chair bag, turned around and left the office.

Looking at the vast majority of publishing houses in China, their institutional settings and management models are almost all similar. With the social committee as the highest deliberative body, there are two lines of administration and business, which are administratively divided into publishing, distribution, storage and transportation, and finance, plus an office, and the president is the natural general responsibility; In terms of business, it is divided into an editorial room (department), proofreading, review, and an editorial office, which is of course in charge of the editor-in-chief.

Govin left the reception room and walked straight to the office with the Publications Department on the door. The people below are so slack, and Govin doesn't believe that the same is true for the people above.

He knocked on the door, and when there was a sound of invitation to come from the room, Govin pushed the door open.

The house is about seventy or eighty square meters, and there are a few potted plants in the corner, which is full of greenery.

The office is divided into many office areas with small partitions, "There are people busy in each area, and this scene is very familiar, not much different from the editorial department of "Harvest".

It's a bit of a regular look

At the desk near the doorway stood a chubby young man with glasses, who had spoken earlier. At this time, he looked at Govin at the door and was surprised, and said in surprise: "Who are you?" Who let you in? ”。

Hearing his words, several staff members around couldn't help but stop what they were doing and looked up.

"Hello, I've written a book and want to publish it......," said Gowen, pulling out the manuscript of Soldier Assault from his chair bag again.

"Oh. The man with glasses took the manuscript and asked with a smile, "You have the guts, why don't you go to the reception room for submission?" …”

"Go" It seems that the staff in your reception room are busy and don't have time to talk to me. ”。

"Hehe..."Hearing Govyn's slightly angry reply, the man with glasses smiled slightly, ignored it, and then said, "I'm sorry, we can't publish your book." ”。

"Why? You haven't read my manuscript yet, have you? Ge Wen felt strange in his heart, looking at the attitude of these staff in the office, "Looking at the demeanor of the man with glasses in front of him, the Shanghai People's Publishing House is indeed still like that, but why is the words of the man with glasses so out of tune."

The man with glasses glanced down, and the manuscript in his hand was assaulted?

Said very forcefully.

A simple title of the book made the man with glasses feel the urge to read, but .........

Thinking of the rules of the society, the man with glasses handed back the manuscript in his hand to Govin with some regret, and then he patiently explained to Govin: "The direction of our publishing house is academic monographs on philosophy, social sciences, politics, law, finance, management, history and other disciplines......... In fact, the reception room is a place that rejects newcomers who come to the door by themselves, and it is normal for you to eat behind closed doors. …”

Is there such a statement?

The glasses man's words were stunned, he didn't expect that the Shanghai People's Publishing House would have such a regulation.

This is the publishing house that Govin does not understand at this stage.

Beginning in 1982, China's publishing authorities clearly stipulated that China's domestic publishing houses should implement the mode of enterprise management of public institutions, and made it clear that publishing houses should implement the president responsibility system, which was the influence of the positive factors of the country's reform and opening up. But this also creates a lot of problems, like laymen leading insiders, or arguing with each other......... In short, it is difficult to implement the president responsibility system, which is exactly the case with the Shanghai People's Publishing House.

Due to the nature of public institutions and the special national psychology in China, the president and editor-in-chief of the Shanghai People's Publishing House are colleagues at the same administrative level, which leads to the fact that the social committee meetings of the publishing house are often marathon. In a unit with dozens of people, a simple problem in the work will be delayed for a lot of time, and the section chief will approve it, and it will be reported to the leader in charge, and the leader in charge will approve it, and the president will have to discuss it with the editor-in-chief out of respect for his colleagues or for some other reason, and if the editor-in-chief is not there, he must let it go.

The inefficient publishing system, coupled with the links of book production, is the determination of topic selection, approval, drafting, finalization, release, input and typesetting, proofreading, sampling and quality inspection, printing design, pricing and printing, publicity and advertising, distribution, storage and transportation............ Therefore, it takes at least half a year to publish a book, and sometimes it even takes longer.

As one of the largest publishing houses in Shanghai, the Shanghai People's Publishing House has so many people who come to the door to seek publication, and there are only excellent works, but most of the people who submit their manuscripts are newcomers to this literature, and the level of their works cannot be published at all, which consumes a lot of time and effort of the publishing house staff, so after the president of the publishing house made an important decision a year ago, the Shanghai People's Publishing House will no longer publish those works that come to the door by themselves.

Govin happened to be one of the victims of this decision. (To be continued.)