At the end of the month, Silver Blue Bookstore officially announced the five winners of this year's Supernova Awards. Lin Yuan also received a notification from Yang Feng and saw "The Prince of Tennis" at the last place on the list.
"The novel will be published tomorrow."
Yang Feng gave Lin Yuan a shot of prevention: "But you don't have to worry too much about the sales of your novel. After all, sports competition is a niche subject, and sales are not the only way to prove your work. Anyway, congratulations on officially becoming a novelist."
Lin Yuan said: "Thank you."
Yang Feng smiled and said, "I'll hang up now. The company has a publishing meeting to attend. When the novel is officially published tomorrow, we will send you a few copies for free. You can also go to major bookstores to check it out. The novel will be officially available in major bookstores in Qinzhou tomorrow."
"Okay, bye."
After the call ended, Yang Feng put away his phone and entered the conference room. At this moment, the editors in the conference room were discussing the results of this year's Supernova. "I don't know how the sales of this year's Supernova will be. I am very optimistic about the first place "Demon King of Another World". The protagonist's identity after traveling through another world is a demon king that everyone hates. This creative direction is quite unique, at least it is more interesting."
"I'm more optimistic about the second one."
"The second-place author, Dalong, is a veteran. He has been a novelist for a long time. He just used a pseudonym to get the newcomer spot. However, the novel he wrote this time is really interesting. The protagonist was actually summoned to another world by a princess."
"… "
Everyone was discussing enthusiastically.
Some people are optimistic about the first place, some are optimistic about the second place, and some think that the third and fourth are also good. However, "Prince of Tennis" has the least discussion because all the editors of the Silver Blue Book Library know that the fifth place was forcibly added by the editor-in-chief in order to enrich the market themes.
Everyone can understand this.
The homogeneity of subject matter in the novel market is indeed somewhat serious, which is not conducive to the overall development of the novel circle. Therefore, starting this year, major publishing companies including Silver Blue Books have made attempts to promote new themes, thereby achieving the purpose of guiding the diversification of market creative directions in disguise.
After the Supernova award results were announced.
The official website has an introduction to the award-winning works and a survey on readers’ expectations. Many specially invited old readers filled out the questionnaire, and the results showed that the top three Supernova winners had the highest readers’ expectations!
This is not surprising.
Because the top three are all from other worlds.
The fifth-placed "The Prince of Tennis" had the lowest expectations. Readers seemed to have an innate lack of interest in tennis. Even though the official website kept emphasizing that this was a sports novel that could be understood even if one did not understand tennis, it still did not change the results of this survey.
Some people even protested on the official website!
This is a reserved item after the Supernova results are announced every year. There are always some self-important authors who were eliminated and feel that the Supernova award judging is unfair, especially the selection of "Prince of Tennis" this year, which has irritated the nerves of many eliminated authors.
"Why?"
"Qinzhou has never had a precedent of a sports-themed novel becoming a big hit, let alone a novel about tennis. It is really disappointing that Silver Blue Library forced such a work to be ranked fifth in order to make the subject matter more diverse."
The first four are all popular topics.
The fifth one naturally became the target.
However, Silver Blue Books will not pay attention to these protests. In the editorial department's view, even if the subject matter of "Prince of Tennis" is indeed a bit niche, the quality of the novel itself is definitely not as bad as the outside world judges.
"It's just a pity for He Mingxuan."
An editor suddenly shook his head.
He Mingxuan is a debuted novelist. This time he submitted his work to Supernova under a pseudonym, and his work received good reviews. After reading his work, many editors proposed that He Mingxuan's work be selected as the fifth place in this Supernova essay contest.
But unfortunately he encountered "Prince of Tennis".
The editor-in-chief's reason convinced everyone: "First, the market needs diversified guidance. Second, He Mingxuan is an old man after all. Although there are old people wearing vests every year, I don't think this is a good phenomenon. We should give more opportunities to newcomers."
He Mingxuan was therefore eliminated.
The editor who had a good relationship with He Mingxuan even comforted him: "If it weren't for the purpose of enriching the market topics, you should have been ranked fifth this time. So your failure this time is not because of your lack of ability, but just because of your bad luck."
…
Although He Mingxuan is the so-called sixth supernova, he did not participate in the protests of some losers against "Prince of Tennis" because when he first debuted, some people also made similar protests against his works, so he knew very well what it felt like to be protested by losers, and he would never become the kind of person he once hated the most.
The editor is right.
He also felt that he was unlucky this time. After all, he encountered a special situation. What's more, he was not a newcomer. It was not glorious to snatch the opportunity of the newcomer under a vest. It was natural that he gave in to the newcomer in the end.
“Maybe I’m not cut out for writing books.”
He Mingxuan had some self-doubt. He debuted as a novelist five years ago, and his novel sales even won the quarterly championship. But after finishing that book, he wrote several books in a row that all failed, so that now few publishing houses are willing to publish his works.
This made He Mingxuan very painful.
If it weren't for this reason, he wouldn't have the audacity to participate in the Supernova award for newcomers. For every novelist, competing with newcomers for opportunities is proof that they have failed.
He Mingxuan tossed and turned in bed that night.
The next morning, He Mingxuan walked into the nearest bookstore in a daze and subconsciously looked at the first row of bookshelves.
This bookshelf was once filled with his works.
But today, the works displayed above are all the top five works of Supernova.
As he ranked sixth, he did not receive any medal of honor.
There are many people reading books in the bookstore, most of them are young readers, and they all come here for this bookshelf—
As in previous years, readers are looking forward to Supernova's award-winning works.
But it is not easy to get them to pay for books.
Few people will buy a book directly. Most people will pick up the book and flip through it first, find a quiet corner, and read a few thousand words.
Readers will only pay for the story if they are sure that it is a story they like.
He Mingxuan once did something that seems stupid in retrospect.
He sat in the corner of the bookstore for the entire day, doing nothing but observing readers buying books.
Whenever someone bought his, He Mingxuan's, book, he would secretly get excited and ecstatic.
today.
Enter the bookstore.
He Mingxuan also observed it subconsciously.
Not surprisingly, the first books everyone picked up were the bookstore’s top recommendations, which were the top three supernova titles.
However, what surprised He Mingxuan was that the purchase rate today was not high. Many people picked up the book, read it for a while, and then put it back.
However, the payment rate of one book was beyond He Mingxuan's expectations.
This book is "The Prince of Tennis" which caused He Mingxuan to fall to sixth place.
In fact, there are very few readers who pick up "Prince of Tennis" to read.
Compared to the top four, the number of people interested in "Prince of Tennis" is pitifully small.
In sharp contrast to this pity is—
Most readers who picked up "The Prince of Tennis" to watch ended up buying the book!
He Mingxuan even counted them specifically for this purpose.
From the moment they entered the bookstore, there were only eighteen readers who were willing to pick up "Prince of Tennis" and read it.
but!
After watching "Prince of Tennis", there were fifteen people who were willing to buy it!
"this… "