Became an American Retro Novelist - Chapter 174



Only Noblemtl

174.

It took at least a day for the initial run of ‘Country of Losers’ to sell out.

It was a late afternoon when I received a call from Simon about the stock shortage, so it would be safe to assume it was a day, considering that after-work office workers would stop by the bookstore and wipe out every last book left.

We also anticipated that we would run out of stock sooner or later, and went straight into printing the second edition even before the first edition was distributed, but ‘unfortunately’ the speed at which the book was sold far exceeded our expectations.

‘Just one day.’

It was an extremely natural virtue for the company to supply the products that consumers wanted on time and ensure smooth sales.

However, a situation was created where readers who wanted to read ‘Country of Losers’ were unable to buy it and were just stamping their feet.

Of course, unexpected things always happen, and a wise person would not see it as a failure, but rather an opportunity to leap forward.

Rather, it was more profitable to turn to marketing at times like this.

‘The fact that it was a single volume that wasn’t serialized anywhere seemed to have worked.’

Until now, readers first encountered my work in newspapers or magazines, and tended to buy the books out of fandom or because they wanted to read them again in a neatly bound volume.

But this time, we took a completely different approach.

‘Country of Losers’ was a work that had not yet been released to the world in any form. For those who liked my novels, it was like finding a gold mine. That alone made the stagecoach rumble.

In addition, the initial quantity sells out in one day, so additional printing is hastily undertaken?

Even people who aren’t necessarily my fans, but are interested in novels, would be extremely curious and want to buy the book. They thought, if not now, then when will they get a chance to get their hands on a rare book.

Although the two newspapers did incur additional advertising costs, the marketing effect was so great that it was worth it.

······Well, the readers who are waiting will probably go crazy and jump for joy, but I have thoroughly prepared for that.

‘You just have to hide for a few days.’

I was worried that if I went to the comic book store I would get attacked by zombies(?) who couldn’t buy the books right away, so I planned to just go back and forth between the store in Koreatown and my house.

I couldn’t help but admire my own wisdom(?) in not even making an appointment for that.

······But even so, I couldn’t completely escape the readers’ attacks(?).

One by one, those who had not been able to buy books entered the store.

“······.”

Alexa ‘The Black Mamba’ Flare.

“······.”

Jiwoo ‘The Bassist’ Jang.

“······.”

To Doofus ‘The Cowboy’ Kingston.

Since today was the weekend, the day after the book release, everyone gathered at about the same time.

Standing before three people who were seriously frozen, I tilted my head and opened my mouth.

“Everyone, what’s going on? This early in the morning.”

“book.”

“huh?”

Alexa glared at me.

“Why isn’t the book in the bookstore? Denzel said he hasn’t received it yet.”

“What book?”

“Of course it’s ‘Country of Losers’. What happened? I can’t find the book in any bookstore.”

“······It was the 501st.”

“Huh? What do you mean? Scalp?”

“I was the 501st person standing, so the last book was taken out in front of me. I even used my annual leave.”

“······.”

“I understand. Scalp.”

My friends and readers who comfort each other when we can’t find books.

Even when Doofy bought my book at the Kittens Comic Book Store, I was so grateful that everyone, as friends, could have said, “Just give me a book,” but didn’t do it out of fear of putting pressure on me.

So I also prepared a ‘gift’ for them.

“Alexa, erase, scalp.”

“what?”

“huh?”

“What’s going on?”

“Of course I anticipated this situation and prepared for it.”

Smiling confidently, I took out the three copies of ‘Country of Losers’ that I had already gotten through Simon from inside the counter.

At that moment, color spread across the faces of the three people.

“god······!”

“Are you giving it to us?!”

“Then, even if other people don’t know, I have to take care of these three.”

“Thank you, God!”

“You’re the best, oppa!”

“Okay, scalp. You take that too.”

“······.”

After handing a book to Alexa and Jiwoo, whose faces were red, I handed the book to Doopi last. However, Doopi did not accept it, thought about it for a moment, and then took something out of his pocket.

It was a car key.

Probably Dorian’s.

“It looks like this guy found a new owner.”

“······I will gratefully accept your kind words.”

But even so, isn’t it placing too much meaning on just one book?

***

Just a book.

God thought so, but as his sinister scheme went on, books became so scarce that they could not be sold, and readers’ desire and expectations for purchasing soared to unimaginable heights in an instant.

Readers who found out that they could not buy ‘Country of Losers’ tried to relieve their frustration by talking to people around them or going in various directions to get the book.

Some of the more impatient ones even called Hardboiled Publishers, the publisher of Country of Losers, to see if they could get a copy.

But there weren’t many ways to find out the phone number of a fledgling hard-boiled publisher.

Usually, in such cases, people would check the publication information or phone book on the copyright page of the previous issue, but unfortunately, this was the first publication by Hardboiled Publisher, and it was not yet listed in the phone book. In that sense, people who had already bought the book knew the number, so it was a truly paradoxical situation for those who had not been able to get the book.

At that point, many people gave up on the phone and chose to wait in frustration.

Some of the most desperate of them went to find people who had the book and asked for their numbers, or called the companies that had placed ads for hard-boiled publishers and asked for their phone numbers directly.

And for those who went through that ‘annoying’ process to contact the hard-boiled publisher, there was nothing they could do but hear a polite apology: ‘We are truly sorry.’

This all happened in just one day.

But the problem was different.

Only a very small number of people went through that tedious process, but it would be a different story if you were dealing with that small number alone.

Simon was getting so many phone calls that he couldn’t concentrate on anything else and he was becoming increasingly mentally exhausted.

The biggest problem was that his limited personality was not well suited to dealing with those who were demanding and demanding. He was like a half-orc fighter fighting alone in the abyss. It meant that he was suffering so much that he wanted to die.

And just then, a woman appeared before Simon like a comet.

“Need some help?”

A fantasy woman who asks for help and offers cigarettes.

It was Ms. Brown, who had just left Torrance New Media.

“Miss Brown!”

“I have no one to smoke with.”

“No way, because of that date I mentioned back then······!”

“Shh, don’t get ahead of yourself.”

She came over with a smile and handed me a yellow filter cigarette.

‘There’s no one to smoke with’, he said, but in fact, as everyone knows, it was an ‘excuse’. It was Miss Brown who had been worried about Simon Carver ever since he left Torrance New Media. Simon was one of the few good reporters who looked after him as an equal in a typical company of the time.

Sometimes, it is the psychology of a wise woman to be attracted to such a ‘good’ person.

As if it were a scene from a black and white movie from the 1960s, Simon took a cigarette from Miss Brown······.

“Oh, I quit smoking.”

“?”

“Because the new writer said he hates smoking.”

This crazy writer nerd.

I feel like the number of times I smoke has decreased significantly since I signed a contract with a new writer.

At Simon’s chattering attitude, Miss Brown lightly licked her lips and sighed softly as she said:

“First of all, if it’s a phone call, I’ll take it. You go ahead and do something else. You must be very busy.”

“Yes? But suddenly like this······.”

“I told you to trust me and leave it to me. Just share the situation with me.”

Ring ring ring-.

As soon as she finished speaking, she answered the phone without Simon even having a chance to say anything.

Five years of experience as an accountant at a mid-sized newspaper company. Not only was he capable of managing the company’s cash receipts and disbursements, but he was also skilled at answering phones and entertaining guests.

As it happened, the person on the other end of the phone was Simon’s most difficult person to deal with: an ‘angry customer’.

[Hey, what’s that hardboiled thing?]

“Yes, sir. This is Hardboiled Publisher. How may I help you?”

[I can’t find the book anywhere in California! Aren’t you doing your job properly?!]

“Oh, you’re calling about a problem with purchasing a book we published?”

[That’s right! You didn’t put the book in the bookstore?! You did, right?!]

“Yes, the book was definitely published on April 1st. But······.”

Miss Brown glanced at Simon, smoking a cigarette and striking a match.

He scribbled on the paper. [Out of stock]. Miss Brown continued, exhaling through her nose so as not to make a sound like the smoke from her cigarette.

“Unfortunately, we are currently out of stock at all bookstores. I am truly sorry. I am truly sorry for taking up your time when you came here with high expectations.”

[No, how can there be no books in the bookstore?! How can you handle things like that······!]

“I deeply appreciate your love for Author Shin’s work, and I will work even harder to make sure this doesn’t happen again. It seems like you really like Author Shin.”

[Huh? Uh, uhm. Ahem. What······ That guy’s novels are really interesting.]

“That’s right! The new ‘Kingdom of Losers’ won’t disappoint.”

Country! Country!!

Simon gapes and signals to Miss Brown, who has just arrived and is not sure what’s going on.

But since it was already past, I hastily wrote it down again in pen. [Tomorrow evening, second edition]. In contrast to her seductive posture, sitting cross-legged on the desk, wrapped in stockings, Miss Brown spoke in a very bright and kind voice.

“And you will probably be able to see me again at the bookstore in two days.”

[Oh, really? Just wait for me for two days.]

“We will try to prevent this from happening again in the future. Thank you for your kind opinion.”

And then Miss Brown hangs up the phone.

“I understand the situation, so I will respond like this.”

A thin stream of smoke billowed out from between her red lips.

In front of him, Simon muttered with a blank expression.

“What did I just see······?”

“What the heck?”

I’m a new employee at Hardboiled Publishing.

***

From the general distributor to the wholesaler, and from the wholesaler to the retailers in each region.

In order for this distribution process to proceed as quickly as possible, everyone involved had to work very hard. Even part-time workers were mobilized to pack and deliver the printed books, and it was done in an unusually urgent manner, so that additional distribution of ‘Country of Losers’ was barely possible right after the printing was completed.

But this whirlwind of work might have been repeated not only for the third edition, but perhaps even for the fourth edition.

So on April 4, a brief apology was published in the Los Angeles Times and Torrance New Media.

“[sorry!]

This is Simon Carver, CEO of Hardboiled Publishers.

We apologize to our readers for the recent shortage of ‘Country of Losers’. The first edition sold out in just 6 hours on the first day of sales, which was unexpectedly fast.

And starting today, you can find ‘Country of Losers’ in each bookstore.

』We will act wisely to prevent this from happening again in the future.

The impact of the apology was strong.

Industry insiders from all over the country laughed in disbelief when they saw the apology.

“The first edition sold out in 6 hours?”

“How well are they selling?”

“It seems like this new work by this new writer is really a huge hit······.”

No one thought, ‘They must have printed a small first edition.’

From the beginning, the paper book market was a ‘laying out’ type of business. Even if books become worn out, they do not rot away like food. There were many cases where books were laid out in various stores through wholesalers such as bookstores, department stores, and stationery stores and later returned, but if they passed the break-even point, which was easier than expected, they did not suffer losses. Publishers with a certain level of system tended to print more than expected sales and manage shipments and inventory.

So, with the current reputation of a new writer, it is impossible for them to print less copies. In the case of popular writers, since the first edition is printed based on the sales of the previous work, it is very rare for the first edition to sell out in 6 hours unless there is a major issue.

Therefore, industry professionals had no choice but to interpret the given information in a distorted way based on the industry knowledge they had accumulated over time.

Of course, if you talk to the people in charge of the printing company, you may quickly find out the truth, but even so, 30,000 copies is not a small number.

And even those who had no such knowledge thought similarly.

‘It looks like it’s selling really well.’

Kate Moore was just such a case.

In her hands, the ubiquitous, or rather, obsessive-compulsive and anxious college student was holding the Los Angeles Times and a copy of “Country of Losers,” which she had just bought at the bookstore.

They said they distributed a second edition, but I had to search three small bookstores to find just one copy.

‘Is it a worthy work?’

As a non-expert, she opened the pages, interpreting the reason the book was selling well as meaning that there must be something great about the work rather than the value of the name of God.

Since I was planning to go for a run while I was out buying books, I sat down on a park bench and started reading the book without thinking much about it.

‘The weather is nice, I should read a little and then go for a run.’

Now I want to enjoy reading under this warm sunlight.

“People ended up knowing too much.”

A novel that begins with a first sentence that feels somewhat esoteric.

As Kate knew about the concept of the ‘Internet’ through her college entrance exam preparation and university studies, she read the following content and devoted herself to understanding how the concepts she knew were connected to the future vision presented in the work.

So how did humans, who have access to so much information on the Internet, end up living such unfortunate lives comparing themselves to one another?

“······.”

As I read the novel, Kate Moore’s breathing gradually became quieter.

It was a sign that I was starting to concentrate deeply.

Kate, barely blinking, traces the letters engraved on the paper through her glasses and falls into the ‘land of losers’ presented by God.

As she became more and more immersed, her reading speed also increased, and thoughts that she had not previously thought of began to prickle her mind like fine needles.

Naturally, my mind was bound to become overloaded.

At some point, the green eyes roughly scanned the letters along the rows and columns as if a fuse was burning, and then the eyelids barely managed to press the brakes.

My eyes were heavy.

Kate, who had barely come to her senses by touching her forehead, took off her glasses and placed them next to the bench, feeling as if her head was going to burst from all the thoughts swirling around behind her corneas.

And for a while, I rubbed the area around my closed eyes and thought about the life presented in this novel.

I haven’t even finished reading the novel yet.

We haven’t even reached the final twist in this novel yet.

Still, she felt a sense of bewilderment.

Definition of happiness, definition of unhappiness.

‘You’re unhappy because you know too much?’

Are you saying that struggling for happiness is the cause of unhappiness?

All the steps to make life happy?

This ‘effort’ that I have been pursuing so far?

A while ago, I read ‘About T: College’ and I wanted to live like Alice and be happy by adding my own satisfaction to this life.

But now, the writer ‘Shin’ seems to be denying even that conclusion in this work.

She suddenly thought. This novel might be a piece of writing that denies both the way she had been doing things in the gaps of competition and the life presented through ‘About T’.

Neither is correct.

No, does the correct answer exist in the first place?

‘What on earth do you want me to do······?’

I tried to suppress the emotions that were somewhere between sadness and anger, confusion and emptiness, and close my eyes tightly to empty my complicated mind. It was like a kind of meditation.

And then he raised his head with a sigh.

Before he knew it, the sun had set, and only the streetlight next to the bench illuminated him sadly.

My head was still as complicated as a tangled thread.

But Kate Moore began reading novels again, relying on artificial light.

To find your own answer.