Belloc went to visit Harvey, and after being greeted by Shirley to the living room, Harvey's face was slightly pale and his eyes were dull, because he had been using spells day and night to create "The Count of Monte Cristo".

Self-published novels are different from serialization in that a novel must have a large amount of content, and now the amount of content he has completed before is not enough to fill a volume. Harvey's haggard appearance was a blow to Belloc's eyes, and such a young novelist must have been arrogant, and it must have been a shame that his proud work had not even been published.

Belloc, who was sitting in the living room, didn't even bother to stand up, and looked Harvey up and down with scrutinizing eyes.

Harvey frowned and looked at the uninvited guest and asked, "May I ask who you are?" ”

Shirley had already told him the visitor's name, including his last name.

"It is an honour to meet you, Alexander, Mr. Harvey Adrian, to be exact, my name is Belloc Leonard, the director of Leonard Publishing, and I have come to visit you to discuss your work with Mr. Adrian."

Harvey suddenly said, "Oh, but I've stopped serializing novels in Leonard's publications. ”

"I know that your work is quite good, and we would not be willing to give up a promising work if it weren't for the accident." Belloc stared at Harvey, but did not see the meaning of the question in Harvey's expression. Doesn't he care about the situation of his work?

Harvey came to him and sat down, waiting for his explanation.

Belloc pondered the language: "If I'm not mistaken, are you planning to publish this novel at your own expense?" While your work is excellent, you also need to be aware of the risks you take in publishing at your own expense, and there is no shortage of good novels throughout history, and most of them only became famous after the author's death. Unlike Leonard, we have a lot of contacts and resources, even if you just mention the name of your novel in the morning paper, your novel will be read by more than 70% of the citizens of El Roy. ”

"Puran Garcia is a young and short-sighted reviewer who almost missed your novel, and I kind of can't understand why you worked with him."

Harvey squinted at the gentleman in front of him with a slightly contemptuous attitude, unlike Diana's natural arrogance, this contempt with condescending contempt made him very unhappy, meaning to reply indifferently: "Mr. Garcia has indeed shown immaturity, but he has fully proved his sincerity. ”

"Sincerity doesn't say anything, and it doesn't make your work appear to the reader. If you are willing to leave your work at Leonard, I can promise that after three months I will give you full publicity to your work, and then the whole city of Elroy will remember your name, Alexander, a talented new novelist. Belloc opened his hands and smiled, why paint a beautiful picture of the future.

"Sincerity is at least in front of me, but the future that Mr. Leonard said is even more unrealistic, I chose to write a novel after reading the call for papers from Leonard Press, in fact, you have broken your promise."

Hearing Harvey's words, Belloc's carefully trimmed eyebrows were raised, and he had already said that Harvey didn't buy it for this kind of sake, so he said sharply and sarcastically: "Oh? Do you think that your work can be better than "Wild Rose", so that those celebrities and aristocrats in the social world often talk about "Wild Rose" will not be "Wild Rose" but should be your work. ”

"Wild Rose" is indeed more famous than "The Count of Monte Cristo", and the novels written by members of the Elroy family alone can become a good story for the upper class.

"I do, and so does Mr. Garcia." Harvey smiled calmly, crossed his legs and stared at Belloc in front of him, and said slowly: "That's why we chose to leave Leonard Press, I am not your Leonard Press's dog, just throw it aside and starve, and only feed it [kindly] when I think about it." ”

"But some people are not as good as dogs, and what difficulties do they face when they don't get accepted by mainstream publishers, Mr. Adrian? Or are you going to open a bookstore to sell your work? ”

"Mr. Leonard, you may be a little mistaken."

"Please."

"I've heard Mr. Garcia say that this Leonard Press call for papers is the inside story, and if I were in Mr. Leonard's shoes, I would do that, and the work is a commodity to be used for profit in my eyes."

"Mr. Adrian, then you should cooperate with us, just delay the publication, and we will give you good compensation."

Harvey dismissed it: "But this work must have a lower place in my heart than Mr. Leonard thought, and the reason I created this work was only to make some pocket money." I was more unhappy than being treated unfairly, and the reason I chose not to work with Leonard was not entirely because of unfair treatment, because Leonard Publishing couldn't satisfy my appetite anymore, and I wanted to eat my cake alone. ”

The smile on Belloc's face faded, and the eyes he looked at Harvey became as cold as a viper: "Mr. Adrian is much more interesting than I am, I would be happy to accompany you to play this game, there will be no publishing house in El Roy City willing to print your work, even if you find some small workshops with poor printing quality, I can guarantee that your novels will not enter the bookstore, I would like to see how you market your goods." ”

Belloc reached out and straightened out his gray-black bow tie tied to his suit, stood up and smiled: "Of course, we at Leonard Press always refuse good works, and if Mr. Adrian regrets it at that time, he can always come to me." ”

"I don't think there will be that time." Harvey smiled and gestured in response to the provocation, signaling that he could leave the place at any time.

Belloc walked out of Harvey's mansion and turned pale when he heard the door closing, expecting a possible rejection, but he didn't expect it to turn into a fierce confrontation between the two sides. Boarding the carriage, he thought about what caused the situation to get out of control, and the answer lay in Harvey's attitude, which annoyed him a little from the beginning.

A mere novelist, what capital to maintain a contemptuous attitude in front of the largest publisher in the city of Elroy, it is time to teach these arrogant young people a lesson.

Belloc was in a very unhappy mood, and after returning to Leonard Press in the carriage, he contacted all the publishing houses in the city of Elroy by phone to report the news of the ban on The Count of Monte Cristo. Although the publishing house in the city of Elroy is not monolithic, the part united by Leonard Publishing House is enough to push a work into the abyss.

"Orders continue that all bookstores will not accept the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" into their warehouses, and all bookstores that sell this novel will be blacklisted, and Leonard and partner publishers will not supply these bookstores in the future."

Hanging up the phone, Belloc still felt puzzled, he hadn't met someone who dared to be so rude in front of him for a long time.