People in Tokyo, the world is clear

"That being said, Mr. Greedy is not slow in collecting money."

While stuffing the banknotes into his wallet to conceal his wealth, Lin Sen heard more details from Sasagawa Rimei.

It's said to be a reprint of the debut novel by a rather mysterious new author. Because it was sold out, they urgently printed it.

And if we talk about this writer, there is much more to talk about.

It was rumored that there was a connection to a major publishing house behind the scenes. Although the novel didn't win any major industry awards, it was hyped up at almost any cost, and even won every possible literary award it could "find."

With high-cost publicity and promotion, the sales of this book are almost comparable to those of several current masterpieces in the industry.

While chatting, Lin Sen found that the woman next to him was looking at him.

Look at each other.

Her face was calm, staring only at herself.

After a while, he turned his head back.

"Itsuki-sensei didn't show any envy at all."

"I thought you wanted to say 'look at them'."

Lin Sen's jokes also made Sasagawa Rimei sure that the other party really had no emotional fluctuations.

She sighed and relaxed.

"I've never been the kind of vulgar and unreasonable person. I'm just worried that Mr. Itsuki will become like the person you just mentioned who claims to be talented but keeps failing, and because of this incident, he will deny himself again."

"Wow. Editor Sasagawa is such an amazing woman."

"Is Kouhuahua-kun starting to feel disgusting again?"

"You were here first. Why are you being so sentimental and elaborate?"

After returning to the normal bickering mode, we got back to talking about the book.

"Actually," the female editor smacked her lips, "I really don't like these kinds of deliberately hyped books. I have a physical aversion to them. So I'm not even interested in buying them."

qun㈨⑤０①㈧零⑨０9

"I'm quite interested. Maybe there's something to learn from it."

"It's probably impossible to replicate. Because our book could never live up to that kind of hype. I really can't accept it."

"That's fine. Just consider it an experience."

"whatever."

Sasagawa Rio sighed and stuffed the banknotes into her bag.

"If you're willing to waste your time, I don't mind. Anyway, I won't even look at it."

Chapter 64: Eating Melons and Enduring the Day

Lin Sen supported his chin with his hand.

"That is, Editor Sasagawa. Can you perform that again?"

"what?"

"That one, that one... [Anyway, I won't even look at it]."

"."

"Okay, okay, just keep quiet and pretend to be dead, okay?"

"."

"Then you are invincible."

Lin Sen was too lazy to tease Flamingo, who had already started to quietly flip through the book. He just stood up and left the reading area in the small bookstore.

Go to the corner of the bookshelf and find your new work that has just been put on the shelf.

The books with simple cover designs lie quietly in the corner against the wall at the knee level. If you don't pay close attention, you can easily miss them.

Market competition is brutal and realistic. Works written by unknown authors with no achievements are something that even bookstore owners are unwilling to bother to give good placement to.

Then, it becomes an ultimate vicious cycle of no one paying attention, a sudden failure on the shelves, poor performance and no fame, and continued sudden failure.

Faced with this situation, there are two ways out.

The first type is that the publishing house is optimistic about the film, helps to hype it up, and spends money on publicity and promotion.

The second type is to be favored by top literary awards. Once you win the award, you will become famous for life.

But for ordinary, inexperienced writers, both of these are fantasy.

Seeking the favor of a publishing house? Without connections or background, and without the approval of a senior editor, if you rashly make such a request, the only response you will get is "Send it to someone else."

Winning awards is even more challenging. First, one must possess solid literary literacy—this is the most basic of all. Secondly, one must at least find a way to become a literary insider. After all, the few masters who qualify to be invited to judge awards all have close connections, students, and successors. These young people possess unique resources, and their abilities are undoubtedly not inferior. For outsiders to rashly compete with these people, they will only face certain death.

To sum it up, one word is difficult. Another word is send.

Therefore, the field of literature is not something that many people can try their hand at, which is why Lin Sen does not have any special expectations.

But it’s not that there is no solution.

For example, build good relationships with those book ruffians, ask them to help with promotion occasionally, and try to develop some sinking markets yourself.

For example, you could leverage your Flamingo-backed advantage to publish a few more books, striving to win by volume. Even if it remains lukewarm, you can still earn some hard-earned money.

The most difficult thing for a person is not to endure the pain of failure, but to be able to calmly and seriously think about the solution after that.

Lin Sen was probably a shameful time traveler. He wasn't like his counterparts in the novels he'd read in his previous life, who had such delightful beginnings and adventures.

But he didn't want to continue to embarrass himself like this. He thought of a way, a way to pull the lever and make his life, which was probably sinking, rise again. It would be more decent and a way to fight back against the fate that was overestimating his own abilities.

Until the dead.

In fact, it is a kind of courage and it is worth being proud of it for a few seconds.

However, before he could execute his thought, a hand suddenly grabbed the clothes on his shoulders.

Turning around, I saw a flamingo that appeared out of nowhere.

His footsteps and expression seemed hurried, as if he had just arrived.

The look in his eyes was even stranger, a rare coldness and anger.

After being together for a long time, Lin Sen could feel that this emotion was not directed at him.

But it also piqued my curiosity.

"what happened?"

"Come here. There's a problem."

He was almost half-dragged back to the desk, and saw the woman sitting next to him.

I was indeed surprised by the sudden intimate action.

The flamingo beside her subconsciously reached out, hooked her arm, and then looked towards her and pulled her a little closer.

When their shoulders were almost touching, the open book was placed in front of them.

While still confused, I heard some short gasps in my ears.

Then, a slender finger pointed at the contents of the book with some trembling.

"I don't even have any shame."

Pulling the young man beside her closer, Sasagawa Rimei closed her eyes and tried to adjust her mood.

Then, open your eyes and focus your attention on the paragraph where your fingertips are touching.

There's no sun in my sky; it's always dark. But I'm not afraid of it, because I have something to replace the sun. It's not as bright as the sun, but it's enough for me. So, with this light, I treat the night as day.

"Did you see it?"

Sasagawa Rio turned her head again and stared at the profile of the person next to her.

Hearing this, the young man's expression gradually became serious.

His eyes moved up and down, and he soon noticed something.

"I'm not sure, but this paragraph seems a bit abrupt. While it serves to enhance the artistic conception and show off the writing style, it feels like forced pedantry."

"Your feeling is not wrong. Because this is not the work of this author."

"?"

Seeing the young man's eyes widen, Sasagawa Rio retracted her fingers and clenched her fists.

Deep voice.

"'Moneyball.' This was a work by Higashino-sensei that failed to win the Ranpo Prize in 1984. Few people paid much attention to it at the time, so few people know about it. I was just lucky enough to have seen it. It wasn't until last year, when Higashino-sensei won the prize again with 'After School,' that it became a hit. However, as of this year, Higashino-sensei has no more works of note, and slowly, no one is paying attention to it anymore."

"you mean."

"This passage is taken from 'Moneyball.' It's only been slightly polished and modified."

"this."

"And it's not just here."

Sasagawa Rimei took another deep breath, turned the book back a few pages, and pointed at the paragraphs marked with a pen.

[I'm not really good at taking photos, but that doesn't really matter. Because, at this moment, his image has already been imprinted on the projector in my mind, and I will never forget it.]

This paragraph really made the young people around me stand up straight.

"What..."

"Yours, right?"

"."

"Don't worry, there's more."

The pages of the book were turned again, and paragraph after paragraph was captured by the eyes that were enjoying the book.

"This is the third paragraph on page 100 of 'The Street Where the Wind Blows', published by the publisher next door. I was deeply impressed. It's from the middle section of 'Take the Last Train to See You.' This is from the end of 'Melody.' By the way, as far as I know, the author of this book has passed away due to a serious illness."

After saying that, Sasakawa Rimei used her right arm to hold the person next to her tighter.

Bow down.

"There are many sentences that I vaguely remember, but they probably weren't written by this author. I'll go back and look through the bookcase; I should be able to find some more."

This conclusion seemed to have greatly shocked the people around him.

half a minute.

“It turns out this guy is more than just hype.”

"This guy is very clever," Sasagawa Rio sighed. "He only chose relatively unpopular and unknown works, so they're hard to detect. If it weren't for that Higashino-sensei currently working at our publishing house, and me being your editor, Itsuki-sensei, I might not even have noticed."

"so."

Seeing the woman's expression of impending disaster, Lin Sen also turned serious. "The so-called new writer who wrote this book is actually just..."

A thief.

Chapter 65: The Complacent Bandits

Literary creation, in essence, is nothing more than a game of words.

The ways of narrating and describing are ultimately limited. It is common for some of the most brilliant and ingenious articles to be borrowed, quoted, and paid tribute to by others.

There is even a term called "using allusions" to describe this technique.

As long as the plot is not completely plagiarized, and only some lyrical passages and small plot segments are quoted and polished, there is actually room for maneuver.

When writing books, Lin Sen occasionally borrowed famous quotes from later generations, and this is not something that should be particularly condemned.

“But the problem with this book is that it goes too far.”

In the study in the old house, Sasagawa Rimei had a pile of books spread out in front of her, and in her hand was still the best-selling book by a new writer.

According to my vague memory, I found the corresponding sentences in each book one by one.