Early in the morning, Puran arrived at the publishing house to find his colleagues huddled around the desk of veteran reviewer Motley Evelyn, exclamations and whispers that turned the open office into a marketplace. Poran's face changed slightly, he knew what the reviewers were doing, the publisher was about to release the list of novels that won the Leonard Prize, and for this, he needed to refer to the opinions of the reviewers, and he also needed to count the popularity of the novels.

At present, the publishing house does not have a detailed method of counting the popularity of novels, and the simplest and crude model is to count the number of readers' feedback to determine the popularity of novels.

"Has the number of readers' feedback on the novel been counted? Let me see. Puran squeezed in, and sure enough, he saw a form taped to Motley's desk, but no one was in sight.

A reviewer patted him on the shoulder and said enviously: "Puran, you lucky guy, the novel you are responsible for has won the first place in the readers' popularity ranking, you really should celebrate!" ”

There was also a reviewer next to him who did not hesitate to praise: "I knew that "The Count of Monte Cristo" was a strange and wonderful novel, and I couldn't wait to see the story of the count's revenge." ”

"Hey~ my poor Merses Tess, she is so beautiful and kind, even though Edmund was imprisoned for more than ten years, she took care of his father until he died, oh~ I really wish I could see her get back together with the protagonist."

"I can't pretend that I haven't heard this sentence, the heroine of this novel is not Mercetes, although she is very good as a woman, but she is married to Edmund's enemy, I prefer Haidai, she has a noble background, and the description of her in the novel is really fantastic!"

"Don't be stupid, Haydai is just the Count's tool for revenge, and when the Count was imprisoned, it was Mercertes who gave him the motivation to live."

"Hey! That's Father Faria's credit, and he's the hope of saving the male protagonist from prison. ”

Reviewers blushed their necks and quarreled violently, even though they had their own special works in charge, but instead quarreled over the content of works that did not fall within their scope of responsibility.

Puran finally squeezed into the crowd, tilting his head sideways to look at the data displayed on the table.

The Count of Monte Cristo: 1223 readers' comments.

Wild Rose: 989 readers' views.

His Daughter: 746 readers' comments.

······”

1st place!

Puran felt rightly relieved, and he couldn't help but smile on his face. The Count of Monte Cristo has not been advertised since it was serialized in the Leonard Novels, and Leonard's fiction newspapers have been promoting Wild Roses almost all over the world, knowing that the author of Wild Rose is a member of the Elroy family, and this call for papers is only to highlight his talent and curry favor with him.

The third-ranked work "His Daughter" Puran has also read, the author should be a talented woman, without flowery rhetoric and fierce conflict plots, but a whole novel can give feedback on a woman's strength in the face of today's social environment.

But all of these are not as good as "The Count of Monte Cristo", the peculiar way of writing, the interesting and rich plot, the profound and straightforward truth, until the male protagonist Edmund met Father Faria, the novel's popularity suddenly skyrocketed, the male protagonist obtained the treasure and the revenge plot attracted countless attention, including the reviewers are very much looking forward to the Count of Monte Cristo to complete the revenge, this may not be a noble work, but it is a masterpiece that can move people's hearts and make people applaud!

Thinking back to the first time he met Harvey Adrian, Puran sighed slightly, who would have thought that a famous playboy could create such a wonderful work, of course, now his impression of Harvey has completely changed.

After a brief period of joy, Puran fell into a state of apprehension, and the number one place in the number of reader feedback for "The Count of Monte Cristo" was to add a bargaining chip to win the Leonard Award, and if this was a formal call for submissions, "The Count of Monte Cristo" would undoubtedly be the brightest pearl.

The decision is still in the hands of the top management of the publishing house, and they can even change the results of this statistics with a single word.

Puran gritted his teeth, the situation was very good, he didn't want his "The Count of Monte Cristo" to be surpassed by a mediocre work, out of his own heart as a reviewer, out of the reader's love for words, he had to do something.

······

In the afternoon, Puran went to the door of a separate office of the publishing house, and the wooden door showed the name of the owner of the office, Bellock Leonard, one of the members of the Leonard core family, who was directly responsible for all aspects of the call for papers.

Knocking on the door and entering, Puran saw a middle-aged man with a beard, his skin was well maintained, his hair was well groomed, and the first impression was that he was in order. He glanced coldly at Pullan who walked in, and continued to bury his head in his work, waiting for Pullan's report.

Puran quietly took a breath to calm his mood, and stood in front of him and bowed: "Dear Mr. Leonard, I wonder if you are free now?" I would like to make a few comments about this call for papers. ”

"Oh?" Belloc was finally willing to put down his work, and stretched out his hand to signal him to continue.

"Mr. Leonard, I know the intent of this call, but you should know that there was an unexpectedly good work in this call, which is the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo", which I am now in charge of."

Belloch nodded: "Ah, it's the work of that Harvey Adrian, it's really good." ”

Hearing his praise, Puran was overjoyed, and said in a burning tone while the iron was hot: "Yes, sir, it is this work that has won the first place in the number of readers' feedback counted by Mr. Evelyn with an astonishing number of 1223 opinions, which is undoubtedly a masterpiece, it is very pleasing to readers, and many friends I know and other reviewers have praised this work. I wondered why we should seize this opportunity, this is a work that deserves to be valued by our publishing house. ”

Belloch stared at Puran, crossed his hands and thought, "Do you mean that you want this novel to win the Leonard Prize and have a chance to be officially published?" ”

The novels that won the Leonard Prize in this call for papers not only received a rich prize money, but also the opportunity to be officially published by Leonard Press, and the novels will be printed as hardcover books and then promoted nationwide, so many well-known writers in the city of Elroy want to wade into this troubled waters.

"Yes, sir." Puran replied in the affirmative.

Belloch added calmly: "Even if its author is just an obscure and declining aristocracy? ”

Puran thought in his heart, and bowed his head quietly: "Literature has no distinction between high and low, this is not out of my selfishness. Mr. Leonard, perhaps we could consider awarding a double prize for this essay contest, with "Wild Rose" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" both selected. ”

It was the best compromise he could come up with.

Belloch looked at him expressionlessly and said lightly: "The winners of this call for papers have already decided from the beginning, and there is no such thing as a tie for awards. ”

"But The Count of Monte Cristo deserves the award." Puran stepped forward and spoke resolutely.

Belloch looked at him with disappointment, knocked on his desk with his fingers and asked, "Garcia, don't you understand?" The author of "Wild Rose" is the second son of the Elroy family, and his own identity is already too important to the work, and your idea is good, and it is in the interest of our publishing house. But the approach is too ambiguous, the most basic skill to survive in the social world is to stand in line, not to be unpleasing to both sides, if "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "Wild Rose" are tied for awards, what do you think the outside world will think, and how will the second son of the Elroy family feel, it is precisely because "The Count of Monte Cristo" is so much better than "Wild Rose" that we can't take it out. ”

"Rather than just not winning an award, we have to make it fade out of the reader's view, at least until 'Wild Rose' is out of sight."