Chapter 175
Chapter 175 (Thanks to Alliance Leader Chi Mengshuo and Shan Guiting)
In addition to reviewing and other business tasks, learning and self-improvement are also an important part of the editorial department's work, especially for young editors like Yang Yin.
As the print media market gradually shrinks, considering future career development, we need to constantly think and summarize, and strive not to become the "eight" in the 80/20 rule.
Yang Yin drew a line under a minor typo in a magazine with a hint of gloating, then closed the magazine and put it aside. The notebook beside him was already filled with a page of new words and good sentences. He lowered his head and sorted them out before picking up "Getting" on the top of another pile of books.
Studying other magazines is part of learning. You should read the good ones as well as the bad ones. You should be inclusive. For the top magazines in the industry like "Get", you need to study them carefully.
Typesetting and binding are the last things to learn. The most important thing is to learn other people's vision for manuscript selection and accumulate more names for your own author database.
There are a lot of people in China who can write, but only a handful of them can really write clearly. In the current Chinese literary world, there are only a few at the top, and several magazines are vying for their manuscripts.
As the editor-in-charge, Yang Yin's biggest headache is not the painstaking work of reviewing and correcting typos, but the collection of manuscripts. To collect good manuscripts is like picking up a mountain and boiling the sea - picking a treasure from the vast mountains, or taking a grain of sand from the vast ocean.
Therefore, he must discover more people who can write to fill his own pool of authors.
It is not enough to just review the manuscripts, but you need to take the initiative to invite authors to contribute. Other magazines are a channel to get to know the authors.
Yang Yin opened the magazine "Get".
The first thing Yang Yin did when he opened Obtain was to flip through the table of contents. He fixed his eyes on the author column and scanned it from bottom to top. This was his working habit.
He has a reason for this work habit - he reads the author first when reading Get, in order to find out if there are any new names, so that he can know the primary target first. New authors who appear in Get are usually ranked at the back, so reading from the back to the front is the most efficient way.
Shan Xuetao and Bi Feiyu, well, they are famous artists, no need to ask; Xu Haofeng and A Yi... these are also familiar faces; Gu Zao, regrettably, missed the opportunity...
In fact, it is not cost-effective to find new authors in Get, because it rarely publishes works by non-famous authors. Famous authors have to wait in line for their submissions, let alone new authors?
However, Yang Yin has never considered finding a new author from "Obtain".
Even if he didn't consider it from the perspective of work, he would be happy to read "Get". It is better to say that he chose this job with high investment, low return and doing wedding clothes for others because he saw that he could read other people's works here to his heart's content. Reading "Get" is both his task and his benefit.
After reading the table of contents, Yang Yin was about to turn to the second page. Halfway through, he suddenly frowned and turned the page back.
He stared at the top of the catalog, rubbed his eyes, and then stared hard, as if he wanted to see the blank paper blurry.
At the top of the catalog, a line of words was printed in a grand and unmistakable manner:
Fire in the Stone——Wang Zixu.
Before Yang Yin realized what he had seen, his heartbeat began to accelerate and the hot blood rushed to his head uncontrollably. When he regained consciousness, he found that he had stood up by pressing on the table.
"What's wrong?" asked the colleague next to him.
Yang Yin waved the "Get" in his hand, but he couldn't utter a word for a long time. After a while, he threw the magazine on his colleague's desk and pointed at the first line of the table of contents to show it to his colleague.
The colleague looked at him puzzledly, then read along with his finger:
"Fire in the Stone, Wang Zixu... Oh my god! Isn't this the manuscript you received?!"
Yang Yin was still speechless. His colleague patted his arm and said, "Is it the same person, the same manuscript? Why don't you open it and take a look!"
He reminded Yang Yin. Yang Yin quickly turned the pages of the catalog, his hands shaking uncontrollably as he turned. After turning the page roughly, he saw the familiar beginning.
"It's him, it's him..." Yang Yin sat down dejectedly, holding "Obtain" in his hand, wanting to cry but without tears.
“Oops!” a colleague yelled in regret, “You let Get’s headline run away!”
The colleague yelled, which startled several other colleagues behind him, and they leaned over to look over here.
"what happened?"
Yang Yin said angrily: "No matter what, let's be clear, I didn't let Wang Zixu escape! Everyone knows what happened!"
My colleague said, "Don't be impatient. Now is not the time to settle accounts. Take a look at his manuscript first to see if it has been revised. Should it be published in full?"
Yang Yin flipped through a few pages, looked up and said, "It has been changed, a lot has been changed, it is not the original manuscript that I brought over."
My colleague breathed a sigh of relief: "If he changed it, then it's fine. It's the same manuscript as the one we received before. This way, we will be less responsible for losing the manuscript."
Yang Yin raised his voice and said, "He was able to revise a work that could be published in Get, which means that if it is further polished, it can also shine in our Yangtze River. I just hate why I was not the one who asked him to revise it? Why didn't our magazine give him this stage?"
My colleague said, "Look at you, you're anxious again! Is now the time to think about this?"
Several colleagues gathered around and heard the whole story. Their expressions changed dramatically: some were anxious, some sighed, and some gloated.
Yang Yin turned the pages faster and faster until he reached the last page. He pinched all the content between the first and last pages of "Fire in the Stone" between his fingers. It was a thick stack that almost accounted for half of the entire "Gain".
"So much content, 200,000 words, Obtain published a full 200,000 words of Wang Zixu's work!"
As Yang Yin spoke, his face gradually turned red.
He recalled the various opinions that the department had expressed in rejecting his manuscripts before, and one of them was that "the number of words is too large".
He got angry when he thought of this. There were too many words. No matter how many words there were, "De Dao" published 20 words in one go, which was equivalent to publishing a book for someone! What kind of status does "De Dao" have? They have such courage. I wonder why they are still hesitating!
Another reason for rejecting the manuscript before was that “Ancient City also rejected it.” So what if Ancient City rejected it, so what if Yangtze River rejected it? Wouldn’t Dedao publish it anyway? In the future, people will only remember that it was Dedao that published “Fire in the Stone,” and the rejections of Ancient City and Yangtze River will only be mentioned as a joke!
Yang Yin was completely furious. He was now disappointed with Editor-in-Chief Wu, the editor-in-chief, the editorial department, and himself.
It wasn't because his own author had gone to another company. It was normal for authors to give their manuscripts everywhere. What made him angry was that this work had a chance to be preserved, but he took it and made a mess of it, and it was lost. This feeling was more painful than anything else.
Thinking of this, he picked up "Get" in anger and walked towards the office.
"What are you doing?" asked a colleague.
"I'll show it to Editor-in-Chief Shen."
When Yang Yin pushed open the door of the editorial office, Editor-in-Chief Shen was still smiling. He had just invited an article and was in a good mood. When he saw Yang Yin walk in with a grudge, he asked in surprise, "What's wrong?"
Yang Yin slammed the copy of Get on the table and said, "Wang Zixu's Fire in the Stone is now on Get."
Editor-in-Chief Shen's expression became serious and he took out his glasses from the table and put them on.
"Is 'Fire in the Stone' the manuscript you brought over last time?"
"Yes. The text has been changed, but it is indeed the same work."
"How did you publish 60 words?" "The first issue had 20 words, so it should be divided into three issues."
"Did you tell Wang Zixu after you rejected the manuscript? Did you know that he submitted it to Get?"
Yang Yin smiled bitterly: "Since he rejected the manuscript with that reason, how could I have the face to go to him? He just said he wanted to revise it. I gave him some suggestions, and then he didn't send any news for a long time. I asked him but he didn't reply to me."
Editor-in-Chief Shen sighed deeply and stared at Fire in the Stone for a long time. Yang Yin did not dare to disturb him. Then Editor-in-Chief Shen stood up and said:
"Let's go and report to the editor-in-chief."
Editor-in-Chief Shen took Yang Yin and spread out "Get" in front of the editor-in-chief, and repeated what Yang Yin had just said almost verbatim.
The editor-in-chief remained calm after listening to this. He picked up the magazine with both hands, read it for a long time, then put it down, picked up the landline on the table and made a call.
"Tell Chief Editor Wu to come to my office!"
Soon, Chief Editor Wu knocked on the door and came in: "Editor-in-Chief, you want to see me?"
The editor-in-chief pointed at De Dao and said, "I'll just say one thing. Listen to me. Wang Zixu's Fire in the Stone was published in De Dao. It was the headline article. The full text was published. The first issue had 20 words."
Editor-in-Chief Wu listened to the editor-in-chief in a daze before asking:
"Editor-in-Chief, excuse me, can I ask who Wang Zixu is?"
Hearing what he said, the three people in the office couldn't hold back any more. Yang Yin was particularly annoyed and shouted, "It's the manuscript that was submitted to me last time and rejected by Ancient City. Remember?"
Although he was angry, he was able to control his emotions and did not say to my face, "It's the manuscript you insisted on rejecting last time!"
Editor-in-Chief Wu was sweating a little: "That article? Oh, that article was published in Get? How did it get published? Yang Yin, do you have any news?"
The editor-in-chief waved his hand and said, "You guys go out, Editor-in-Chief Wu stay."
Editor-in-Chief Shen and Yang Yin went out and closed the door. Soon, angry curses were heard from the office.
"I haven't heard the editor-in-chief lose his temper like this in many years," said Editor-in-Chief Shen.
Yang Yin felt that he was even gloating.
"This manuscript was almost saved, if it weren't for Editor-in-Chief Wu... Alas." Yang Yin sighed deeply. He was still regretting the loss of the manuscript.
Editor-in-Chief Shen whispered, "Go ahead and curse him. Cursing a few words at this time won't hurt your manners. I want to curse him too."
Yang Yin finally couldn't help but chuckle, but then he fell into deep regret.
After a while, there was no more noise in the office. Editor-in-Chief Wu came out tremblingly and opened the door for the two of them, motioning them to come in.
The editor-in-chief said to the three people, "I have only one request. You must strive to get Wang Zixu's next manuscript to us. We must get him back in the same way he was lost. Did you hear that, Editor-in-Chief Wu?"
Editor-in-Chief Wu nodded tremblingly. The editor-in-chief looked at Yang Yin, but Yang Yin straightened his back with a cold face and said, "It's a bit difficult."
"how?"
"The last time the manuscript was rejected, I made it clear that part of the reason was because Ancient City rejected it. Wang Zixu was very disappointed with our publishing house."
Editor-in-Chief Wu immediately said, "How can you say that? You are such a fool. How can you just say that?"
Yang Yin looked at him coldly: "Then what else can I say? What reason can I give? Are you going to say that he didn't write well?"
Editor-in-Chief Wu said, "Aren't manuscripts rejected silently now? Why do you have to give a reason? How embarrassing it would be if it got out? Yang Yin, you don't save face for yourself, don't you know how to give the publishing house some leeway?"
Yang Yin said angrily: "Wang Zixu was already very depressed at that time. If he had really rejected the manuscript in silence, perhaps the work "Stone Fire" would have been lost and would not have been published in "Get"!"
Editor-in-Chief Wu wanted to say that was just right, but he didn't say it out loud.
The editor-in-chief said with a straight face: "Stop arguing."
Yang Yin glared at Editor-in-Chief Wu, then turned his head away.
"I'm telling you, get it back the way you lost it. You can come in person or apologize, but you have to get the next manuscript back!"
……
The editor-in-chief must have his reasons for keeping Wang Zixu's next manuscript.
"Fire in the Stone" was lost in a very inglorious way. The reason is enough to make people lose face, because they took the initiative to not want it.
However, if "Fire in the Stone" published "Delivery", it might cause a sensation. To be honest, it is not a problem that Wang Zixu, an author who made his debut in "Yangtze River" did not submit his work to "Yangtze River". But if he submitted his work to "Yangtze River" and it was rejected by "Yangtze River", it would probably cause collective ridicule in the industry if people knew about it.
So the editor-in-chief wanted Wang Zixu to send the next manuscript, even if it was a small piece of tofu, an unimportant article, as long as it was published in "Yangtze River", it would mean that there was no harm in the relationship and the friendship was still there. Rejecting "Stone Fire" would not seem so stupid.
As for the instigator, "Outlander", it didn't take "Fire in the Stone" seriously from the beginning, and it is obviously irreversible. We can only wish it all the best!
Yang Yin learned from Editor-in-Chief Wu that it was Hao Chengliang who withdrew from Fire in the Stone, and that he did it on his own initiative. He knew Hao Chengliang, and after learning about this, he just sneered silently and did not plan to tell him. He planned to call Wang Zixu first to congratulate him.
Before Yang Yin called, Wang Zixu was "watching the guard of honor" at the south gate of Nanjing University.
To say that there was a procession of honor was a bit exaggerated. On that day, the "Yesterday Star" seminar was to be held at Nanyang University, and many big names were coming. Many students ran to the gate to count the cars to see which industry bigwigs and idols would come to support them.
Zhao Peilin was one of them, and he was the one who dragged Wang Zixu here.
In fact, Wang Zixu himself thought this was extremely boring and he would not come. But Zhao Peilin acted as a tour guide, and when a certain car came, he would introduce “This is the editor-in-chief of Modern”, “This is the judge of this Fei Shi”, “This is the winner of the Outstanding Novel Award in the previous session”. It didn’t sound boring anymore when he heard it this way.
Finally, Shi Tonghe's familiar black car slowly drove in.
"He finally came." said Wang Zixu.
Zhao Peilin narrowed his eyes and looked over: "The moon is surrounded by many stars."
"If he doesn't attend the seminar, what identity is he in here?"
Wang Zixu was puzzled. He asked himself, in a different place, he could never be as shameless as Shi Tonghe, who almost played the card to pave the way for his son.
(End of this chapter)