Tokyo Mystery Writers

Chapter 40: Amazing Sales

Jiang Liu Meili truly lives up to her reputation as the daughter of the president of the Futaba Society.

She truly lives up to her reputation as a genius girl.

Since the five writers—Teru Miyoshi, Takao Tsuchiya, Shunshin Chen, Manji Gonda, and Hiroyuki Itsuki—jointly wrote a review for "A Bellflower."

Jiang Liu Meili immediately relayed this good news to the ears of Kodansha president Noma Genjiro!

Jiang Liumei has great ambitions.

Even the president of Kodansha, Genjiro Noma, showed a look of shock!

"What? Miss Jiang Liu? You said you want to increase the magazine's circulation to how many copies?"

Inside the president's office.

Jiang Liu Meili looked at the heavily pregnant Noma Genjiro and once again held up five fingers:

"President Noma! I plan to increase the magazine's circulation from 100,000 copies to 500,000!"

Noma Genjiro slapped his ear hard, realizing that Jiang Liu Meili was not joking at all, and a look of shock appeared on his face:

"Miss Jiang Liu, are you insane?"

"This is the first issue of a new magazine, and you're planning to distribute 500,000 copies right away?"

Do you know what this means?

Jiang Liumei nodded earnestly to the serious-looking Asano Genjiro:

"President Noma, I'm not crazy. I know what I'm doing."

"Otherwise, I wouldn't have come here to tell you my plan."

Upon hearing Jiang Liumei's words, Noma Genjiro's expression darkened, and he tapped his index finger repeatedly on his desk.

"Miss Jiang Liu, you need to understand that I hired you to launch this magazine so that you can get a share of the market for short mystery magazines."

"You're not here to compete with Kobunsha's *Novel Gems*, Takarajimasha's *Novel Mystery*, or Bungei Shunjusha's *ALL Reading Material*!"

"My previous suggestion was to publish it as a weekly magazine, with a circulation of 50,000 copies each time, and if it sold well, to print more copies proportionally."

"We only agreed to print an additional 100,000 copies because we were confident in your abilities!"

"This is the best I can do!"

"Increase to 500,000 copies? Even the massively distributed 'ALL' magazine only averaged one million copies per issue last year!"

"Your newly established magazine doesn't have any heavyweight authors. What makes you think you can sell 500,000 copies?"

Jiang Liumei didn't say anything, but took out the manuscript of "A Bellflower" from her bag and placed it in front of Noma Genjiro.

Noma Genjiro patted the manuscript of "A Bellflower" with his hand and shook his head slightly:

"Teacher Wucheng is indeed a rare genius. I also witnessed Miss Jiang Liu helping Teacher Wucheng win the Dragon Award on stage."

"However, the fact that Mr. Maishiro has won the Dragon Award only proves that he is a qualified writer, but it cannot convince readers that he is a master of mystery."

"In other words, the current dance studio teachers lack appeal and cannot guarantee that these 500,000 copies of the magazine will be snapped up!"

Jiang Liumei remained silent, then took out the comments written by Miyoshi Tetsu, Tsuchiya Takao, Chen Shunchen, Gonda Manji, and Itsuki Hiroyuki for "A Bellflower" from her briefcase and placed them in front of Noma Genjiro.

As Noma Genjiro read the comments from the five masters, his short, thick eyebrows twitched uncontrollably a few times:

"This is……?"

Jiang Liu Meili moved a chair and sat down in front of Noma Genjiro:

"It's true, President Noma. I wouldn't dare to fake something like this."

Noma Genjiro looked at the comments from the five masters in front of him, and his face showed an undisguised joy.

His chubby face began to tremble slightly.

"Three hundred thousand copies! Considering that you, Miss Jiang Liu, received joint comments from five masters, the biggest concession I can make is to increase your magazine's circulation to three hundred thousand copies!"

Jiang Liu Meili reached out and snatched the comment from Noma Genjiro's hand, waving it in the air:

"President Noma, please understand this: I'm not trying to negotiate with you by presenting 'A Bellflower' and the joint comments from five masters."

"I'm just letting you know that I'm going to increase my magazine's circulation to half a million copies."

"Of course you can choose not to add it, but I can also leave with Teacher Wu Cheng's 'A Bellflower' and the comments from five masters."

Upon hearing Jiang Liumei's words, Noma Genjiro's eyebrows furrowed instantly, and his expression turned somewhat unpleasant.

Before Noma Genjiro could speak, Jiang Liu Meili waved the comments in her hand and laughed:

"President Noma, are you willing to take a gamble with me and make my magazine surpass Takarajimasha's 'Fiction Mystery' to become the third best-selling short story mystery magazine in Japan?"

"Are you still planning to hesitate and give up this rare opportunity?"

-

With the "support" of Kodansha president Genjiro Noma.

Jiang Liumei's magazine has been expanded to 500,000 copies.

At the same time, the magazine department suddenly added more than 30 people to be specifically responsible for proofreading and typesetting.

Jiang Liumei originally planned to wait for her sister to get off work early so that she could take her to stroll around the neighborhood and see if she could buy some delicious food and fun things.

Unfortunately, Jiang Liumei is a workaholic.

Once I get busy, I can't take care of her at all.

Helpless, Jiang Liumei could only sit on the printer with "Watson" in her hand, idly picking at her fingers...

-

Five days passed in the blink of an eye.

The first issue of Jiang Liumei's magazine has been fully typeset and printed.

If nothing unexpected happens, it will be in two days.

That is, on January 14, 1980 (Showa 55), my short mystery magazine will be officially launched!

Jiang Liumei tried her best to achieve this, as success or failure hinged on this one gamble.

As for why it was released on January 14th?

The reason is simple: after Jiang Liumei's detailed investigation, it was found that most readers who buy mystery magazines are between the ages of eighteen and fifty-eight.

Their most frequent place to read is on the Shinkansen (bullet train) during their commute to work.

Therefore, the best day to publish a magazine is Monday!

As long as you can get your magazine on the newsstand on Mondays, you'll never have to worry about it not selling!

Jiang Liumei drove her red BMW M1 to Asakusa in Taito Ward, Tokyo.

The reason I came to see Jingjie Maishiro this time was to commission another article.

There is another very important thing to do.

That is to take Maijo Kyosuke to attend the Edogawa Ranpo Ryusho Award ceremony this afternoon.

The reason why the Dragon Award ceremony is scheduled for today is self-evident.

Because Kodansha's president, Genjiro Noma, was very worried that the 500,000 copies of Eri's magazine would not be sold.

Therefore, it was decided to award the Dragon Award to Maijo Kyosuke ahead of schedule.

The goal was to have Maijo Kyosuke win the Edogawa Ranpo Dragon Award, thus providing an extra layer of insurance for the new magazine!