I am a literary giant in Japan

On this day last month, "Kitagawa", which serialized "Asakusa Red Group" for the first time, topped the sales list of pure literature magazines with an astonishing performance of 79.1 copies on the first day of printing.

It was not until the release of "Wenyi" that it was pulled down from the top of the list.

From September to mid-October now, "Beichuan", which has firmly occupied the second place, has been far ahead on the list, and the sales gap with "Xinwenxiang", which ranks third, has opened up nearly 200 million copies!
In the past, this sales gap was an unimaginable chasm in the industry.

Before Kitagawa Hide's debut, there were only a handful of pure literature magazines that had monthly sales of over one million, and those that could achieve this were all legendary publications.

But at this time, in addition to "Beichuan", "Wenyi" and "Dazhong", "Xinwenxiang" jointly published by old-school writers and major publications under the six major consortiums have all reached this sales milestone.

This does not include the sales of these publications overseas.

Kitagawa Hide has made an indelible contribution to the prosperity of the Japanese literary market.

However, those who benefit from this do not think so. They now just want to kick the leading "Wenyi" out of the market and divide up its share.

October 1998, 10, the day when the October issue of "Beichuan" was released.

Seikado Bookstore, near Asakusa Station, Taito Ward, Tokyo.

".Ban the sale of all books related to Mr. Beichuan?"

Yumiko and Meggie widened their eyes and looked at the bookstore clerk in disbelief.

"Are you crazy? Beichuan is being sold all over the country, but your store is being special and refusing to sell it?"

"That's right, if your bookstore wasn't the closest to my home, I wouldn't come to your crappy store to buy books!"

"Mr. Kitagawa's book is an 'educational' book promoted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. What qualifications do you have to not sell it?"

A large group of readers standing at the door were also very angry.

Some of them are nearby residents, some are office workers who just got off the subway and are planning to buy a copy of "Beichuan" to kill time before going to the company, and there are even die-hard book fans who have come from remote areas where books are not available.

When several store clerks repeatedly told them that the bookstore did not sell any novels related to Kitagawa Hide, these people became completely furious.

"Why don't you sell Mr. Beichuan's books? Do you know how far I came from to buy the books?"

"Asshole! I'm going to cancel your lifetime membership of Seikado Bookstore now!"

As more and more readers became noisy, all the staff in the bookstore came out and tried their best to maintain order on the scene.

In front of Yumiko and Meggie, the female clerk who was obviously a college student working part-time also looked apologetic and kept bowing and apologizing to them.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Bookstores are prohibited from selling books related to Mr. Beichuan. This is an order from headquarters.

We are also confused and puzzled, please understand our difficulties. "

Seeing that the female clerk was about to cry, Yumiko and Meggie were too embarrassed to continue making trouble, so they had to leave Seikado Bookstore, squeeze out of the crowd, and go to the nearby Jiacheng Bookstore.

"That's weird. Seikado Bookstore is the best and largest bookstore near Asakusa Shopping Street. There's no reason why they wouldn't sell Kitagawa."

Meggie scratched her head, unable to understand the bookstore's strange operations.

The last issue of "Kitagawa" had a huge amount of traffic. Riding on the popularity of "Asakusa Red Group", their work "We Living in Asakusa" was also very popular and squeezed into the top ten most popular novels in the last issue of "Kitagawa", avoiding the embarrassing situation of being cancelled as soon as it was published.

The two knew that the reason why their novels attracted many readers was largely due to "Asakusa Red Ball" written by Mr. Kitagawa.

Whether the novel can survive in the fierce competition of Beichuan will have to wait and see in the next few issues.

Therefore, they paid special attention to the sales of this issue of "Beichuan" and kept an eye on readers' reactions.

I didn't expect to encounter such a thing when I came to Seikado Bookstore early in the morning.

“It’s not just Beichuan, it’s all the books related to Mr. Beichuan.”

Yumiko frowned and looked back at the still noisy Seikado Bookstore.

With more and more readers expressing their dissatisfaction, it looks like Seikado Bookstore will have trouble doing business today.

Even so, they still refused to give in. They would rather haggle with readers, play Tai Chi, or even allow old customers to cancel their membership, rather than sell the magazine.

"None of the physical books of "Wenyi", "Dazhong", "MOE", "Beichuan" and Mr. Beichuan were placed on the bookshelf.

This is a 'guaranteed profit' product that will make many private bookstores and newsstands without distribution rights jealous. "

After leaving the Asakusa community, Yumiko and Meggie planned to save some money to open a small newsstand.

This not only allows you to earn extra income, but also allows you to keep an eye on market changes and understand readers' real feedback.

In addition, they have some small ideas -

Mr. Kitagawa’s books are so popular.

As long as he can sell newspapers, magazines and physical books related to him, it will be a sure-win business.

Then they were told that if they wanted to sell such books, they must have many business qualifications and sign a strict three-party contract with Beichuan Entertainment.

Most private bookstores and newsstands fail to meet the minimum standards.
And now, Seikado Bookstore, which has the license to sell books, has openly banned the sale of all books related to Mr. Kitagawa!
There must be a demon in the abnormal situation.

Yumiko and Meggie hurried to the nearby Jiacheng Bookstore.

"What? You said you also banned all books related to Mr. Kitagawa?"

As soon as they stepped into the bookstore, they were told by the clerk that Jiacheng Bookstore did not sell "Beichuan" either.

This place is slightly better than Seikado Bookstore, with relatively fewer readers causing trouble, but there are still a large number of readers wandering around the store, demanding a clear answer from the staff.

"Yes. This is an emergency order sent by headquarters last night. We can only execute it as usual. I am really sorry."

The manager of Jiacheng Bookstore was also there. He bowed 90 degrees to the readers, and the helpless expression on his face did not seem fake.

Everyone knows that Mr. Beichuan’s new books are always in short supply, and no bookstore wants to give up such a stable and huge cash cow.

However, the headquarters has issued an order, and no matter how unwilling they are, they cannot disobey the iron order of the group company's board of directors.

"What's going on? I've been to three bookstores in a row, and none of them sell Beichuan. Is there something wrong with Mr. Beichuan?"

"Now that you mention it, it seems that Mr. Beichuan has offended the Nobel Prize in Literature officials, and they are planning to sanction and hide Mr. Beichuan?"

"Are you kidding me? No matter how powerful the Nobel Prize officials are, they can't affect our country's literary institutions, right?
A while ago, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Machimura Nobutaka, publicly praised the writing of "Tokyo People"! "

"That's true, but the fact is that we can't buy Beichuan anywhere."

"Have you tried the online purchasing channel of Beichuan Entertainment? I heard from my classmates in the Department of Science at the University of Tokyo that all of Mr. Beichuan's books can be purchased directly there."

"Online? That's not so good. I pay for the book with just one click. What if they don't give me the book?"

"Yeah, even though computers are becoming more and more popular nowadays, that kind of thing is still too risky, right?"

"How about we wait and see?"

"It seems like this is the only way."

In the crowd, readers were chatting with each other while walking out in disappointment.

Not to mention them, even Gongzi and Meggie, who had run from two houses in a row, didn't want to continue running.

What if the nearby big bookstores don’t sell "Beichuan", then wouldn’t it be unfair for them to leave?

As for online sales channels.

A home computer now costs about 30 yen, which is indeed more than half cheaper than the 70 yen three years ago, but it is still a large-scale consumption that is out of reach for ordinary families.

After buying a computer, you still have to purchase various supporting facilities. You can only dial up to the Internet, and the Internet fee is also a considerable expense.

Anyway, computers are not a luxury that Meggie and Yumiko can afford now.

"If you two really want to buy "Kitagawa", in addition to online sales channels, I recommend you to go to the bookstore near Tokyo Station to have a look."

The clerk who was in charge of receiving them came over and whispered.

Yumiko looked at him in confusion and asked, "A bookstore near Tokyo Station? Do you mean Maruzen Marunouchi Bookstore?"

That bookstore is so big and so popular that many people go there not only to buy books but also to make a "pilgrimage" - it is said that Mr. Beichuan's first book became popular here.

Now most readers don’t dare to go there unless they want to join in the fun.

"Any other bookstore will do. As long as there's no Mitsubishi or Sumitomo logo outside the store, that's fine."

The clerk's voice became even lower. He glanced at the Industrial Central Bank logo on the door and whispered a reminder.

"I see. Thank you for your reminder." Yumiko thanked him softly, then looked at Meggie and quickly left Jiacheng Bookstore.

"What should we do? Do we really have to rush to Tokyo Station?" Meggie looked at her girlfriend.

Tokyo Station is dozens of kilometers away from here. It is now the morning rush hour. It will probably take two or three hours to get there from here.

After the two lived together, Meggie changed her previous irritable temper.

He knew that he was the type of person with a simple mind but strong limbs, so he basically entrusted all the thinking work to Gongzi.

Gongzi pondered for a moment and looked towards the public telephone booth not far away.

"Let's call Editor Xunzi first. This matter doesn't seem that simple."

"it is good."

The two reached a consensus and immediately set out for the phone booth.

Yumiko stuffed a few 100-yen coins into the coin slot and the call was quickly connected.

"Moshi Moshi, this is the customer service department of Beichuan, my employee number is 0987, and it's my honor to serve you.

What can I do for you? "

"Can you put me through to editor Kaoru in the editorial department? I'm Yumiko and Meggie, one of her writers."

"Okay, I'll connect you to Editor Xunzi's personal phone number right away. Please wait."

There was a beep on the phone.

Gongzi looked at the coin balance decreasing rapidly and couldn't help but feel sorry for the phone bill.

It's 1998 now, and the damn Japanese telephone companies still dominate the telephone industry, and the high phone bills are causing headaches for countless people!

Just when the 300 yen was about to run out, Kaoru's voice finally came.

"Moshi Moshi, I'm Kaoru."

"Ah, Teacher Kaoru, good morning, I'm Yumiko!"

"Yumiko-chan? What's wrong? What do you want from me?"

On the other end of the phone, Xunzi was holding the receiver while quickly browsing the various reports that came in this morning.

Today is the first print day of the October issue of "Beichuan", but there seems to be a lot of bad news coming from the "front line".

In the entire Tokyo area, nearly 10 large bookstores and 30 medium-sized bookstores jointly refused to sell "Beichuan"——

They would rather take the risk of breach of contract and resolutely refuse to take the "Beichuan" products from Beichuan Entertainment.

I heard that there are nearly 50 copies of "Beichuan" piled up in the warehouse.

"It's like this, Teacher Kaoru, this morning Meggie and I..."

Yumiko spoke briefly and briefly described the strange things that happened this morning, and then tentatively asked Xunzi for her opinion.

"So that's it. There are no Mitsubishi or Sumitomo logos."

Kaoru looked at the pile of reports, and from Yumiko's words she realized that the situation had become so bad.

Seikado Bookstore is the No. 1 bookstore in Taito District. Only by in-depth cooperation with this bookstore can publishing houses obtain a large market share in Taito District.

Even it has participated in the "boycott campaign", which shows that this is a long-planned conspiracy, not just a whim of an individual bookstore.

"Beichuan" is not "Wenyi". It has a large readership base and a long-term market reputation.

Beichuan Entertainment has only been established for a few years. If it weren't for Mr. Beichuan's popularity and connections, it would never have been able to develop so rapidly.

"Beichuan", which is backed by Beichuan Entertainment, is even weaker.

This is all thanks to the continuous support from Teacher Beichuan, plus the popularity of the "Beichuan Award".

Someone wants to develop "Beichuan", and he has a clear goal and strong strength!
Kaoru immediately made this judgment, comforted Yumiko and the other person, then hung up the phone and immediately called Teacher Kitagawa's private cell phone.

On Gongzi's side, they heard a busy tone in the receiver, so they had to hang up the phone and leave the phone booth reluctantly.

There was something wrong with Teacher Kaoru's voice, it seemed that things were indeed very bad.

But at this point, there was nothing they could do to help.

"Let's go buy some magazines first." Yumiko sighed.

When the big guys fight, the little soldiers suffer.

“At present, the bookstores that are boycotting you are all those who are fully controlled by Mitsubishi and Sumitomo.

In recent years, these two companies have forced their way into the literary market by spending a lot of money.

According to information sent by the marketing department, Mitsubishi and Sumitomo now control about 30% of the well-known bookstores in the Tokyo area, and an estimated 10%-25% of the total market share will be directly affected by them.

If we expand the scope to the whole country, their influence will decrease in turn, but it should not be underestimated. "

After learning about this, Shizuko Kawaide immediately asked her own marketing department to free up staff to assist Kitagawa Entertainment in dealing with this emergency crisis.

Then she called Kitagawa Hide and informed him of the seriousness of the situation.

"Mitsubishi and Sumitomo? It's true that only dogs that don't bark can bite people with great pain."

Kitagawa Hide frowned slightly.

The sudden move of these two major financial groups did catch him off guard.

Sure enough, all the business war online novels I read in my previous life were lies.

Those top financial groups will never inform you before making a move, or make any grand display of power.

The reality is that if you don’t have efficient information channels, by the time you discover a dangerous situation, the battle may already be over.

In the new century, information gap has become the core of business wars!

Kitagawa Hide knew that they might have a backup plan, so he didn't rush into it.

He is different from those businessmen.

In general business wars, everyone will use all kinds of shady tricks with the intention of destroying the competitor to death.

If you encounter this kind of opponent and just sit there and wait for death, there is a high probability that you will actually die suddenly.

But Kitagawa Hide is different from his novels.

In the literary market, quality is ultimately king. Quality comes first, then quantity.

Any tricks outside the game will be of little significance if the basic foundation is solid.

All he has to do is to ensure the quality of the serialized novels while responding to each challenge as it arises.

"If you just want to get a piece of the market, that's totally fine."

Kitagawa Hide already had a plan in mind. With such a large literary market, it was impossible for him to swallow up the whole cake in one go. Giving concessions was the core of long-term and sustainable development.

But if the other party's goal is not only the market, then he doesn't mind letting the Japanese local consortium learn a lesson from the "unreasonableness" of the time travelers. (End of this chapter)