Chapter 40: Bestselling Book and Poor Widow
"Mr. Ma Long, you seem not very... happy?"
Three days later, at noon, Adela picked up the thick stack of newspapers that Ma Long had casually discarded on the ground, which still carried the fresh scent of ink, and asked in surprise.
It's really strange, these past few days' newspapers aren't saying that Mr. Ma Long has already become the latest popular best-selling author?
On the morning of the book signing event, a total of 66 deluxe sets, 2,736 ordinary sets and more than 5,000 single books were sold.
On that day and the next, more than 2,000 sets of collections and over 600,000 copies of single books were sold in those bookstores scattered throughout Baisha City.
To know, the deluxe set is priced at a whopping 99 Rands per set! An ordinary citizen would have to go without food or drink for almost two months to afford one set of the deluxe collection! And the plain set costs a full 9.99 Rands too! Individual books are slightly cheaper - averaging 0.99 Rands each.
This data does not even include the 8,437 copies of "The Little Prince" single edition and 10,0620 copies of "The Count of Monte Cristo" that were pre-ordered!
After all, the unexpected White Sand City slave uprising disrupted the Emerald Pattern Press's red-haired Queen Evyna's originally planned publication roadmap for "Malong - The Wanderer, Fairy Tale Series".
Originally, The Little Prince and The Count of Monte Cristo were to be published the week of the slave uprising, while the other fairy tales would follow shortly after.
It's okay, losing in the east and gaining in the west. Although Evonne's original plan was disrupted, after nearly a month of continuous fermentation and hype, readers' expectations for Malong's works seem to have reached their peak.
So, there was a first-time book signing by Ma Long, who had never published a book before, and the scene was so hot that it almost completely blocked the traffic on Banmu Book Street.
This data actually appeared in the major newspapers of Baisha City yesterday, and Ivana, who had thoroughly tasted the huge benefits brought by the high-intensity publicity campaign, would not let such a good opportunity for publicity slip away from her.
Even more so, Evana, under Marlon's suggestion, took the opportunity to play a warm and fuzzy sales card.
In the slave uprising, some prepaid users unfortunately passed away. Although these prepaid users only paid 50% of the prepaid fee, according to convention, if the relatives of the deceased do not come forward to pay the remaining balance, the publisher can consider these pre-orders as non-existent.
Kei Yvonne specially assigned and hired people to send the books subscribed by these deceased readers to their relatives.
These specially made books have white covers, and on the title page of each one is printed a sentence in the same format: "Mr./Ms. So-and-so, although the sudden disaster has caused you to ascend to the spiritual realm ahead of time, the Jade Pattern Publishing House and Ma Long - Wanderer still remember our agreement!"
In fact, the number of pre-order readers who died on the night of the riot was less than one percent of all pre-order users, totaling only about 2,000 books. The cost of refunding and labor costs for Emerald Pattern Press was only over 1,000 Rant, but the effect was extremely significant!
Most of the people who unexpectedly received these books were struck by this warm card printed with jade pattern, hitting the softest spot in their hearts...
So, writing a thank-you letter and going to the publisher in person to express gratitude are both considered light actions. More than 70% of the widows who received the specially made books either went themselves or asked someone to help deliver the remaining prepaid balance.
What moved Ma Long most was a poor widow living in a village on the outskirts of Baisha City.
This poor widow, who had risen from her bed at midnight and walked all day, finally found the Emerald Tablet Press on Bamumuk Street just as the sun was setting.
Then, the poor widow, in front of Evna, with her cracked hands trembling, tore open the tightly sewn corner of her tattered clothes and pulled out two 1-pence notes that had been completely soaked through with sweat, as well as about twenty 1-pull notes.
As she handed the sweaty, crumpled bills to Evina, smoothing them out into a neat stack, the poor widow muttered on: "My son is an idiot, he spent money buying expensive books, how could he not pay enough for the books? You count it, miss, there are forty-nine pul, please give this money to little Marlon, Marlon is such a kind and good person, how can he be taken advantage of..."
Before she could finish speaking, the poor widow's completely red and swollen eyes couldn't hold back tears again.
"Miss, I'd like to have some dry food with water. Can you give me a cup of cold water? Don't worry, I'll leave immediately after drinking it and definitely won't make the house dirty..."
Wiping away her tears, the poor widow said in a very embarrassed tone that she had been on the road for a whole day and was really hungry and thirsty now. If she didn't eat something and drink some water, she wouldn't be able to make it back.
Yvonne shook her head, then pointed to a new restaurant next to the Golden Rely Publishing House with an extremely resolute tone: "Auntie, I don't have any cold water here, so...I can only invite you to have a simple meal!"
"This can't be, this can't be! How could I let a young lady like you spend money on me? You look just as beautiful as the princess in the painting, while I'm just an old and dirty widow." The poor widow waved her hands repeatedly, feeling that she didn't have the qualifications to enter the high-end restaurant across from them - a place where only someone as lovely and elegant as this young lady had the right to enter.
It was only under Evina's insistence that the poor widow was finally brought into the newly opened restaurant and had the most sumptuous meal of her life, one she had never had before.
In conversation, Evyna learned that the only son of this poor widow had just entered a slave factory in Oshana district last month as an accountant, and he was one of the prepaid subscribers who died on the night of the riot.
At last, under the widow's urgent request, Evina, who had originally planned to keep her overnight, finally had to let Arandell drive her home that night.
The poor widow had to go home for two reasons: first, she couldn't trouble Yevna anymore; second, there were livestock at home that would starve if she didn't return tomorrow.
……
Soon, this touching story was published in the White Sand Morning Post by the sentimental language of Nikolai, a reporter from the Lynx tribe.
In today's Baisha City, as long as it is news related to Ma Long, it will absolutely attract readers' attention and have a strong desire to buy!
So today's "Baisha Morning Post" has the latest big news: the nationwide sales data for the Malong series of children's stories - a total of 2 million sets/volumes, which were first printed and put on the national market, have already sold out half in just two days!
Although this is the total sales data of nine books, and the single sales volume of each book is only around one million, compared to those top-selling authors who have broken millions of copies in the national market, this is not a remarkable figure. However, after all, it's still the national sales data!
That's right, those top best-selling authors can easily achieve sales of millions of copies!
Who made it that in this otherworld, things similar to television broadcasts hadn't been invented yet, and printed books required a printing technician who mastered magical printing techniques to complete, so large-scale piracy was basically non-existent?
To maintain the overall income level, printers established a union of printers thousands of years ago, which would not tolerate private printing, that is, pirated printing.
Uh-huh, and at the same time, it's also impossible for the mechanical printing technology of the earthly world to develop...
For Adela, who had shared weal and woe with Ma Long, she would sympathize with the poor widow, but wouldn't care about the sales of those best-selling authors, nor pay attention to how the printers' union hindered the budding of mechanical printing. The only thing she cared about was——
The data of single-day sales exceeding one million copies means that Ma Long has successfully and smoothly taken the first step towards becoming a national best-selling author!
But why is Mr. Ma Long still looking unhappy today?
Adela, who had put away the newspaper with a questioning mind, found that her previous question seemed to have been ignored by Marlon, who was lost in thought. She stared at him with slightly curious purple eyes and asked again: "Mr. Marlon, you don't seem very happy?"
This time, Ma Long finally reacted. He stretched out his hand and tapped the middle of the topmost newspaper that Adela had organized.
That position has two news articles circled in red, their titles are -
Brest City's Renowned Abolitionist Leader Gunned Down in Aftermath of White Sands Slave Uprising!
"Deputy Director of Tong Magic Research Institute Obtains New Energy Patent and Establishes Carlos-Wilkin New Energy Company!"
Then Adela heard Marlon's slightly regretful muttering to himself: "Miscalculation, didn't think this world would have a patent office too!"
