Chapter 57: The Small Bookstore and Rental Bookstall

  The so-called "assembly line creation" is, as the name suggests, to divide the original text written by one person into several sections, and then have different people write different sections, which are finally connected together!

  This is something Su Jin had considered long ago, and such creations have appeared in later generations. He was a product of commercialization, once flourishing for a time! Many are relying on assembly-line production!

  One of the earliest applications on the web was in 2004 when a workgroup from Hai Chang University created over 10 million-word novels in just one month. The high efficiency and speed of their creation shocked the online community!

  The most famous one should be the "Pounding Heart Fantasy Series" launched by Oriental Publishing Center of China Publishing Group, which adopts this creation method. This book series plans to publish 100 volumes in the first phase, with 12 volumes released every quarter, all under the unified pen name "Huotianche". "Huotianche" is a shared pen name used by nearly 50 authors, including planners Huang Lu and Liu Wen.

  In fact, the assembly line creation system has been widely used! Many classic works in foreign comics and film and television are products of the assembly line. At home, the most standardized application of the assembly line creation is the creation of screenplays!

  On TV screens, there have been a batch of works such as "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo", "Spring Light Shines on Zhu Bajie" and "Tie Chi Tong Ya Ji Xiao Lan" that are derived from the "assembly line script".

  In fact, the emergence of pipeline creation has been debated in the past, and for some traditional experts and scholars, the emergence of pipeline creation has undoubtedly received their greatest resistance! This is not creation, it's production!

  For emerging online literature authors, as Huang Lu and Liu Wen said, simply pursuing "good-looking stories" is indeed the foundation for achieving all other functions - "Even if a work has educational significance, if children don't love reading it, it's equivalent to zero." Huang Lu said.

  In Su Jian's view, if this kind of collaborative creation is applied to some bestselling novels with tens or hundreds of thousands of words, or to works with strong literary qualities, it would be suicidal! With dozens of authors and different ideas colliding, the book would directly end up in the trash can!

  But if it's used on the web with hundreds of millions of words, then it's worth a try! The internet has an essential difference from traditional media, which is that many online content is not meant for careful reading, but rather for casual browsing. It's fast food culture!

  For this type of reader, there are not many requirements: first, it must be interesting; second, the update speed must be fast! If these two points are achieved, the foundation of a popular online novel is established.

  What continuity, what overall setting is reasonable, what protagonist's character should be consistent before and after, all of these can be ignored! In fact, when readers read tens of millions of words later, they probably forgot what was said in the early stages! Even if there are some general impressions, few people will go to a network novel to pursue rigor.

  However, in the literary world of later generations, this creative approach was still abandoned and cannot be said to have never existed, at least it is not mainstream! Su Man felt that the assembly-line creation model would ultimately harm quality.

  In the later generations of networks, with millions of competitors and intense competition, even a slight gap can lead to a loss of readers! However, in the current era where the network is still relatively underdeveloped and readers' demands are lower, trying out assembly-line creation is not entirely impossible!

  Moreover, in Su Jian's view, if it is a truly well-matched team-created work, although it may not be comparable to the works of later generations' great gods. But compared to some first-rate works, it's still no problem!

  "Boss, I think our next marketing strategy needs to change!" Su Jin said seriously to Boss Huang after explaining the significance of pipeline creation.

  Boss Wang was still immersed in shock at this time, after all, Su Zhen's plan was really too testing his tolerance! Boss Wang is a businessman! This is undeniable! But he is a businessman in the cultural circle! So in some sense, he seems to be a cultural person as well!

  A cultured person may be commercialized to a certain extent, but there is always a hint of nobility! Fat can understand Su Jian's meaning! After all, he is a business elite! But precisely because he can understand, he knows more about the consequences of doing so!

  No doubt! This will likely bring further opportunities for the development of the publishing house! But this will undoubtedly greatly stimulate those traditional scholars, whose eyes have already appeared with overwhelming criticism and abuse!

  He almost anticipated that he would become a cultural figure! Should I do this? On the one hand, there is fame, on the other hand, there is profit. For fame? For profit? "Alas! Fish and bear's paw can't be had at the same time!" Boss Huang sighed in his heart.

  He looked at Su Jian's resolute expression and knew that Su Jian had made up his mind! "Forget it, forget it, let's just do it this way! Anyway, I'm just a private publisher, since I've already taken this path, what reputation do I need!" Boss Huang took a deep breath, raised his head and asked Su Jian, "How to transform?"

  "The works created on the production line, even if I try my best to control it, can't produce any masterpieces! The only thing I can do is make them come up with some popular topics of the time! But as for these books, wanting readers to buy them is probably unrealistic! After all, not many people will buy a book that they'll just glance at and then casually throw aside, and it's even uncertain whether they'll finish reading it!"

  So, I think our next sale in regular bookstores should be pretty bleak! In this case, I think we should shift our attention to some small bookstores or street-side rental stalls!" Su Jinyu said leisurely.

  "Renting a book stall? A small bookstore?" Fatong was somewhat puzzled, as a rising star in the publishing industry, he really hadn't paid much attention to these places! After all, his usual channels for development were some regular large bookstores!

  Like these small bookstores, rental book stalls have almost become equivalent to some retailers! They rarely buy genuine books, and they won't buy too many at a time. In most cases, it's just one or two copies, and even if you add them up, it won't exceed dozens of copies! What role do they play?

  "That's right, it's them!" Su Jin said decisively! Having personally experienced the overall development process of the Internet, Su Jin knew how important these inconspicuous bookstores and rental book stalls played in the development of the Internet.

  It can be said that in the early days when the internet was not yet widespread, the earliest readers accessed the internet through these small bookstores and rental bookstalls! However, at that time, these small bookstores and rental bookstalls were all pirated from Taiwan.

  Su Jin had not paid much attention to these small bookstores and rental book stalls before. But after the idea of creating a streamlined production line, he suddenly thought, could he organize these small bookstores and rental book stalls into a whole?

  These small bookstores and rental stalls may be small individually, but as a whole they are not small at all! Moreover, their influence on some students and young people is very significant.

  After all, the consumption capacity of this group mainly relies on the support of their parents, and they have no consumption capacity in themselves! It's hard to imagine that parents would give their own children who are still buying online!

  So in most cases they would go to small bookstores or rent books from book stalls to read! At least Su Jin didn't do less of that back then!

  "Hmm, okay, since you're so insistent, I'll get someone to contact them!" Seeing Su Jian's confident expression, Pang Zong was half-believing. Fortunately, after such a long time of cooperation, Pang Zong still trusted Su Jian's judgment relatively more.

  "Don't worry, I'm fully confident about this!" Unlike Fatong's anxiety, Su Jin had a confident expression!