Chapter 5 The First Intimate Sales Contact

  On October 5th, taking advantage of the last two days of National Day, "First Intimate Contact" started to be on shelves in bookstores.

  Boss Pang's approach is indeed extraordinary, and everyone gives face. All bookstores in the ancient city have placed "The First Time" in a prominent position. Even Xinhua Bookstore, the leader of the national book sales industry, has specially reserved a book spot in the center of the store!

  Unlike other authors who use a pen name, Su Jin directly printed his own name on the cover of the book. On this point, Pang Zong had a special discussion with Su Jin, saying that using a pen name can play a role in hiding one's identity, being flexible and convenient, even if some more sensitive views are expressed in the book, it can also play a buffering role when responding to criticism!

  However, Su Jin decided to use his real name after careful consideration. Firstly, this way more people can recognize him and it's convenient for gathering followers. On the other hand, Su Jin thinks that many authors in the past used pen names because of political needs, such as scholars during the feudal era or before the founding of the country, were all influenced by this factor. But now it's rare to see someone getting into trouble for speaking out. As far as Su Jin knows, there are many angry youth on the internet who scold the country and the government, but he hasn't heard of anyone being arrested. Besides, if the government really wants to catch you, what can a pen name do to help?

  Moreover, many new generation authors no longer use pen names. Think of Han Han and Guo Jingming, who all used their real names. So Su Wei finally decided to use his own name!

  The sales of "First Time" can be described as lukewarm, not particularly hot but not too bad either. On the first day, about 300 copies were sold, on the second day, about 500 copies were sold, and on the third day, due to students returning to school, it dropped to around 200 copies. In a week, about 2,000 copies were sold.

  "Haha, this result is not bad at all. After all, it's just the sales performance of a single ancient city. If we expand nationwide, selling 100,000 copies in a year shouldn't be a problem. This has already reached the standard of a bestseller! Su, my younger brother, looks like I need to prepare a celebratory banquet for you!" Fat General said with a smile.

  "This doesn't seem right, this book should be popular among students, why is the sales so lukewarm?! What's wrong?" Su said with a furrowed brow.

  "Hehe, Little Su, you're being a bit too optimistic, don't blame me for saying this, but when it comes to your own writing, of course, you'll think it's great no matter what. It's like looking at your own child - everything about them is perfect. But not everyone shares the same opinion as you! As they say, 'different strokes for different folks', that's just how it is. You've already done quite well to achieve this much with your first book!" Fat General comforted him.

  Su Jin didn't respond to Fatong's comfort and continued to sink into her own thoughts. "The 'First Time' of my previous life was published online, viewed by many netizens, and wasn't published in print until two years later, yet it still achieved sales of 400,000 copies per year. Logically speaking, since Cai Xian was also published online and viewed by many netizens, some readers should have been lost, but it still achieved sales of 400,000 copies per year. Now that I haven't gone through online dissemination and am directly publishing with the publisher, theoretically, the results should be even better!" Su Jin pondered the difference in sales between her previous life's 'First Time' and this life's, when suddenly a lightbulb went off in her head, and she exclaimed, "Ah, I know! It must be like that!"

  "What's wrong? Have you thought of something?" Doubtful Boss Huang turned his head to look at Su Zhan.

  "Haha, nothing, I just thought of why 'The First Time' sales are so lukewarm!" Su Zhan said confidently.

  "What reason? What reason?" Hearing Su Jin mention this, Pang Zong also became interested and asked curiously.

  "The reason is that we haven't done enough publicity, and his corresponding readers haven't received the news of its appearance yet." Su said with certainty.

  "Publicity? We've done a lot of publicity, and the news of the release of "The First Time" has been published in various book magazines. All major newspapers have also advertised for us, and on influential newspapers such as Ancient City Cultural News, Ancient City Youth News, and Ancient City People's News, we even hired commentators to write articles. Is all this publicity still not enough?" Fat Zhang was getting a bit angry, and it was true that he had gone all out to buy Su Xingfeng's favor, using up all his connections and spending tens of thousands of yuan on advertising fees alone, not to mention the various favors he owed people. It could be said that "The First Time" being able to reach its current sales level was largely due to Fat Zhang's publicity efforts. Now, even though "The First Time" had shown signs of becoming a bestseller, if it only became a book that sold 100,000 copies per year, Fat Zhang would barely break even. He had done all this for Su Xingfeng's sake, and now Su Jing was saying that his publicity efforts were not enough? Even with Fat Zhang's usual composure, he couldn't help but feel a surge of anger.

  "Hehe, don't be impatient, Brother Pang. Let me tell you slowly!" In contrast to Boss Pang's anger, Su Jin was quite relaxed, after all, he had already found the key to the problem!

  "Alright, then you speak up! I'd like to see what you have to say!" Fatong finally suppressed his anger and prepared to listen to Su Jin's explanation.

  "We really did a lot of publicity, and Brother Pang made a lot of efforts. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks!" Su Jin first expressed his gratitude to Brother Pang for the hard work he put in for the sales of "The First Time". After all, he saw it with his own eyes, if not for Brother Pang's efforts, the sales of "The First Time" would have been a complete failure!

  "Ah, our relationship is like this, saying that makes it seem distant!" The fat general's expression slightly improved.

  "But I have to say that all our efforts haven't been put to good use!" Su Zhen said with a sudden turn, speaking directly and to the point.

  "You haven't used your brain, what's your awareness?" At this time, Boss Huang had really calmed down. After these days of interaction, he no longer treated Su Zhen as a student. During this period, Su Zhen had already shown the thoughts of an adult through his words and actions, and Boss Huang believed that since Su Zhen said so, he must have his reasons.

  "Every book has its corresponding reader group! Fat brother, who do you think the readers of "The First Time" are? Or what is the main reader group?" Su Jin did not directly answer this time, but asked a question to Fat General.

  "Who are the readers? The readers of 'The First Time' should be students, right?" said Pang Zong after some thought.

  "That's right! It's students, or more accurately, young people! Although many adults also come to buy it, its main readers are young people! However, do you think how many young people now read newspapers and magazines?" Su Jin said seriously.

  "This shouldn't be too much, right?" Pang said with some hesitation. As for what young people are into these days, Pang really didn't have a clue. Although he could barely be considered part of the younger generation himself, as someone who prided himself on being an entrepreneurial and ambitious youth, most of the people he interacted with on a daily basis were over 40 years old. Over time, he had become somewhat disconnected from young people today.

  "Not many, I can tell you very certainly, not even one percent!" Su Jian said with absolute confidence. With the rise of the internet, nowadays young people, apart from those weirdos, who would still read newspapers or magazines? One computer can solve all problems!

  "Well, what do you think young people are looking at these days?" asked Pang Zong with a humble attitude.

  "Surfing the internet! With the rise of the web, young people today love nothing more than going online, and it's the things on the internet that they most enjoy!" Su Jin said with certainty.

  "The Internet? That's a new plaything, but what does it have to do with our books? Are you thinking of advertising on the internet? That's not a bad idea!" said Fat Zhang thoughtfully.

  "It's not just about advertising, young people's minds are generally more flexible, they may accept things on the internet quickly, but at the same time, they also have a strong sense of vigilance towards various advertisements on the internet. After all, the current online environment is not standardized, and there are many fake advertisements everywhere, who knows what's real and what's fake!" Su Jin said calmly.

  "So what you're saying is..." Fatong continued.

  "I want to upload chapters directly online!" Su Jin said.

  "Upload chapters? Isn't that leaking the content? This way, people can read it online, who would still come to buy physical books?" Fatong shouted.

  "Of course not all the chapters, I plan to upload only a third of them, so the plot just enters **, if they still want to see the content below, they have to go to the physical store to buy books!" Su said lightly. At the same time, he secretly lamented in his heart: "Such a simple method, I didn't think of it at first, isn't this a common method used in online literature in later generations? It's just that the network devices in later generations are more convenient, and even the step of connecting to physical stores to purchase physical books is omitted. Readers can pay directly online! I'm embarrassed to call myself a seasoned reader of a certain point, but I didn't think of this!"

  "Will this work?" Fatong was a bit uncertain, after all, this was another unprecedented measure.

  "Definitely possible!" Su Jin was quite confident at this time, after all, this was a historical fact that had already been proven, although this history had not yet occurred in this space-time!

  "Since you're so sure, let's do it then. What do I need to do?" Seeing Su being so confident, Pang Zong also stopped hesitating, but he really hadn't done this kind of publicity before and didn't know what to do for the time being.

  "You don't have to do anything, just leave everything to me, anyway, you don't need anything. Just wait for my good news, your main task now is to contact the printing factory and arrange for a reprint of 'The First Time'. I believe that very soon 'The First Time' will achieve truly explosive sales!" Su Jin said confidently.

  "Hehe, okay, then I'll wait for your good news. Don't worry, the books will definitely be enough!" It seemed that Fatong was also infected by Su Nian's confidence and smiled too.