Inaugural Issue

Gong Xue had gone to Guangdong. Guangdong had always been closely tied to Hong Kong, and its culture of worshipping the gods ran deep. The Chaoshan region in particular was well suited as the setting for Mama, Love Me Once More. The crew was shooting on location everywhere—Guangzhou and Chaoshan both. Guangdong, vanguard of reform and opening up, was steeped in mystery from head to toe, and anyone who had never been there was fiercely curious. Setting aside the ache of parting, Gong Xue was actually quite willing to travel far. She might as well see the sights while she was at it! The front courtyard. Chen Qi had fixed up three offices. There were too few people at present, so they were using only one. The second had been turned into a meeting room, and the third was still empty. At this moment, in the meeting room, World of Wonders was holding its first all-staff meeting. Six were supposed to attend. Six had come. Attendance: 100 percent! There were also two people outside the regular staff, Chen Jianjun and Yu Xiuli. Each person held a sample copy. It was the same size as Story Session, a 32mo. The front and back covers were in color. Dai Hanhan had designed a cover built around the lead actors of Tai Chi. The contents were all in black and white, and the back was marked with the price: 0.25 yuan. That is, two mao and five fen. The page count was an even one hundred. The contents included: An inaugural statement drafted jointly by Chen Qi and Liang Xiaosheng; the serialized novel Five Phoenixes Facing the Sun Saber; the novella Tai Chi; exclusive behind-the-scenes notes and photos from Tai Chi; two Western novels, The Puppet Masters and I, Robot; a serialized appreciation of the classic Journey to the Center of the Earth; an adult fairy tale by Zheng Yuanjie; plus some jokes, bits of popular science, and so on. The Chinese material led with wuxia; the foreign material, with science fiction. There was even a touch of film-and-television entertainment. At this rough beginning it could only be a hodgepodge. Readers weren't picky either. Once things grew, they could specialize. Chen Qi first made a few offhand remarks, then said, "To make sure our inaugural issue does well, we've specially invited two seasoned veteran comrades today to give everyone a talk. A round of applause to welcome Comrade Yu Xiuli!" "Clap, clap, clap!" Yu Xiuli rolled her eyes. "I handle sales at Xinhua Bookstore. I can say this for certain: serious-literature magazines are still the mainstream right now, but popular literature is gathering momentum, and the best loved of all is Story Session. "Popular magazines have also been starting up here and there, such as Guangdong's Wulin and Hubei's Past and Present Legends. "The domestic market is vast. This is exactly a good time to get in. Your contents are full and interesting, and very attractive to readers. You don't need to worry about that. But I think the Western fiction takes up too much space. Readers without much schooling may not care for it. You could add a little survey, ask which story readers like best, and adjust next issue." "Write that down! Write that down!" Chen Qi said hurriedly. "Written down! Written down!" Liang Xiaosheng took up the pen himself and made the notes. Dai Hanhan laid the flattery on even thicker. "We listen reverently to this sacred instruction—it is a flash of enlightenment. We shall study hard, branch out and flourish, and pass it down from generation to generation." Chen Qi grinned. "Then let's do it this way. We'll have readers mail the questionnaires back and run a little drawing. We'll pick ten names and give them some gifts, or half a year of the magazine free. Half a year is only three issues. We won't lose a thing." "That's good. We should take our give-and-take with readers seriously!" Liang Xiaosheng wrote down another line. "All right, all right. Next, Comrade Chen Jianjun, please. Comrade Chen Jianjun is a longtime field-sales veteran for Xinhua Bookstore, rich in experience, out in the wind and rain every day, with no time for his wife and children. He works extremely hard. He's a fine example for everyone to learn from." "Clap, clap, clap!" Chen Jianjun gave a cough and said, expressionless, "Let me go over the procedure. "When a magazine launches, it usually goes on sale through bookstores first. You have to contact the bookstore sales staff and submit a write-up—how good your magazine is, what it contains, and so on. "The sales staff look it over and order according to their own judgment. "Xinhua Bookstore's purchase price follows different standards depending on the publisher and the book. The higher the list price, the higher the rate; the cheaper the list price, the lower the rate. Generally it runs from thirty to seventy percent of the cover price. "Yours is priced at two mao five, an average level, so you'll probably get about fifty percent. "Once you've built up a certain number of readers, you can go through the post office. Of course, on the inaugural issue itself you'll have to state the method and address for subscribing by mail." "So the write-up matters a great deal?" Liang Xiaosheng asked. "Yes. I'll tell you how to write it, and then you turn the whole thing over to me. I'll go contact those salespeople. I've been on the road for twenty years. I won't speak for anywhere else, but I know all of North China." Hiss! The staff sucked in a mouthful of worldly know-how. These two veteran comrades were truly looking after the young people. Look how good they were to our publisher—just like their own flesh and blood! "If it sells well, can we talk price later on?" Liang Xiaosheng asked. "Yes!" "How many copies would the inaugural issue have to sell, in your view, to count as pretty good?" one of the editors asked. "Magazines sell well these days. A few hundred thousand is nothing special. But expectations for an inaugural issue definitely have to be lower. Seventy to eighty thousand would already be an excellent result, because you need time to build a readership." "Can we run ads? Advertise in the newspapers, for instance?" Liang Xiaosheng asked. "Sure, if you've got the connections." "We do, we do! I know people!" Chen Qi raised his hand. Liang Xiaosheng asked again, "Then if we run ads for other people in the magazine, does that break the rules?" "There's no clear word on it. But since the newspapers have already started running ads, if you can pull in sponsors, you can give it a try." "We do, we do! I know people!" Chen Qi raised his hand again. "Settle down. If you won't listen, get out!" Yu Xiuli snapped. "Oh~" Chen Qi drew his neck in and didn't dare make a sound. Yu Xiuli and Chen Jianjun answered every sort of question with great patience. All of them were complete novices, and with that bit of guidance, they felt as if the clouds had suddenly parted. The inaugural issue was already set for January of next year. It was November now, so there was still enough time. Chen Jianjun took the job without a word of demurral, and at once sat down with Liang Xiaosheng to work out just how the write-up should go. Yu Xiuli had nothing else to do for the moment and came out first. Chen Qi wheeled the bicycle out as well. "Yu..." "What?" "Mom!" He chuckled. "The two of you had real presence just now. Good grief, the veteran comrades had them completely overawed. Look at that thirsting-for-knowledge act on every one of them." "Less flattery. Take me back. I still have to get to work!" "Right away. Have a seat!" Chen Qi brushed off the rear seat and rode off with his mother toward Dashilar. Along the way he made a point of passing the Arrow Tower at Qianmen, and he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Comrade Zhanying! Stand right there and don't move. I'll be back in a bit. I've got a big deal to talk over with you—tens of thousands of servings of large-bowl tea!" "What on earth just went by?" Huang Zhanying, busy at his work, had faintly heard someone calling him, and he asked his buddies in puzzlement. "Didn't see clearly. Seemed like someone was shouting!" "Shouting what?" "No idea. They were shouting at you." "Shouting at me?" Huang Zhanying's eyes bulged. Hands on his hips, he said, "Go ask anywhere in the whole of Beijing—who doesn't know me, Director Huang of Qianmen? Catcalling me right in the street. Where'd this stinking mangliu come from? If he dares come again, I'll beat him dead!"