"Qingshui, what do you know about the book publishing process?"

“The publishing process…”

Kiyoshi Kiyoshi recalled the words he got when chatting with other editors and said, "It is usually the author who provides manuscripts to the publishing house, and the publishing house sends them to the bookstore for sale. In the end, readers buy books from the bookstore. Is that true?"

"It's basically right," Kishida Masaaki nodded slowly, "but you missed one thing, in fact, it's the five levels of author, publisher, middleman, bookstore, and reader."

"What does the middleman do?" Shimizu Tetsuki noticed the difference in his statement.

"Simply put,... it's a bit similar to a postman. You also know that there are more than 10,000 bookstores of all sizes across the country. It is impossible for any publishing house to establish a direct sales channel with so many bookstores. At this time, middlemen are needed."

"They contacted the bookstore and established a sales network across the country. The publisher had books to publish and handed them directly to them. Then they would provide as many books to each bookstore as possible through their own channels."

"The middleman is like the one who delivers newspapers to newspapers and readers, and the middleman is like the one who delivers newspapers."

After sorting out for a while, Shimizu Tetsuki probably understood what he meant.

"So, it is actually very necessary for middlemen to exist."

"Absolutely," Kishida Masaaki took a big sip of coffee, his red eyes full of helplessness. "It's okay for a large publishing house, but its reputation is there. There will always be bookstores willing to purchase their books. Small publishing houses like us can't survive without middlemen. After all... if I were the owner of a bookstore, I wouldn't easily purchase books that I had never heard of as a publisher."

Shimizuchi nodded slowly.

"So that's the case...but what does this have to do with Hayami Study's dilemma?"

"Of course it's related," Masaaki Kishida sighed, "There are many middlemen, but in fact, there are only two, Tokyo Sales Co., Ltd. and Japan Publishing Sales Co., Ltd.. These two companies together control 80% of the intermediate market. Small publishing houses like ours rely on these two middlemen to sell books."

"And these two middlemen were established by major publishing houses, you can guess who is their largest shareholder."

Speaking of this level, the answer is self-evident. Shimizu Tetsuki spit out a name: "Kotanshe?"

"That's right," Kishida sighed again, "As the largest publisher in Japan, Kotanshe has long been no longer a simple publisher. The printing factories, papermaking, downstream middlemen, bookstores, and even novel adaptations of film and television dramas are involved. Compared with it, Kotanshe is like ant and an elephant."

The image of a giant appeared in his mind, and Shimizu Tetsuki asked tentatively: "Then this time... Kotanshe did it through intermediaries, right?"

“It’s not just that.”

Kishida subconsciously took out the wrinkled cigarette case from his pocket, remembering that he put it back indoors, and tickled.

"The printing factory we used to work with was owned by Kotanshe. Last week, I sent a document saying that due to the limitation of printing capabilities, I will not accept new printing orders next month. The two middlemen also said that there was a problem with their accounts recently, and the sales payments owed to us cannot be settled recently, and they cannot issue new books through them, saying that they have to wait until the accounts are cleared. Who knows when they will wait."

Printing cannot be carried out, and sales channels have been cut off. As a publishing house, Hayami Study Room was undoubtedly caught.

Kishimizu Tsuki originally thought these two moves were enough to be fatal, but Masaaki Kishida on the opposite side was still talking.

"The most cruel thing is not this...Qingshui, do you know what is the most important thing for a publisher?"

Before he could answer, Kishida gave the answer.

"It's a book. Or, it's a writer who can write books like Qingshui. We, Hayami Shui, mainly publishes literary books, and rely more on writers than publishers that focus on other categories."

Looking back at the phone call from the Huandong Club, Shimizu Tetsu suddenly realized the main direction of Kotanshe's attack.

Kishida did not stop explaining there.

"In fact, printing factories can be found again, and sales channels can also be thought of. But without writers, we would have lost the meaning of existence as soon as we saw the study."

"For small publishing houses like us, except for newcomers like Shimizu, most of the writers who come to publish books are based on their relationship with the president and other editors. It is because of these people that we had seen the study room before we could not go bankrupt."

"Kotanshe also took this into consideration and vigorously promoted the news that we had lost our publishing ability in the circle, and at the same time encouraged other publishing houses to come to us to poach people. Haha, it was quite accurate."

After probably understanding what he meant, Shimizu Tetsu couldn't help but sigh.

In the face of actual interests, what can friendship be considered? To be fair, as a writer, if it weren't for his special relationship with Hayami Study, Kiyomizu would not have handed over the works he had worked hard to create to the rumored publishing house that was about to close down. In addition, the deliberately attracted other publishing houses, the choices of those writers can be imagined.

"We can't blame those writers," Kishida took his last sip of coffee. "Since we got their manuscripts through friendship, we can't drag them to death for the sake of friendship. We can only say... Kotanshe's trick is really cruel."

Faced with such a desperate situation, even though Qingshui Chok had no way to solve it, he could not think of any way to rescue him. However, just watching the study went bankrupt, Qingshui Chok felt that he could not do it.

"Kishada, in this situation now...is there any way out?"

"Is there a way out?"

Masaki Kishida smiled bitterly, forcing his energy to cheer up, his exhausted face full of helplessness.

"It's not that there is no. Either I expect Kotanshe to suddenly find out his conscience and stop these methods. Or I can only find ways to restore the confidence of those writers in us."

"Restore confidence? What should I do specifically?"

"The best way is to confront each other. Since it is rumored that we have lost the ability to publish, we should publish a book in turn. Not only should we publish it smoothly, but we should also sell it so well that we can be so popular that everyone knows."

In the world of books, books themselves are the most effective method. If they can be achieved, they can indeed help Hayami study get rid of its current predicament, but this is also expected by Kotanshe.

“But now…”

"Yes. Without the help of middlemen, if we want to sell books, we can only find bookstores to sell them one by one. But few bookstores like us who are unknown to us will agree. Unless we give them a reason to agree."

"The reason I had to agree...If I could have a reputation as Keigosan Higashino..."

“…or the quality of the book is good enough to make everyone feel like it will be a big seller.”

Kishida replenished the rest of Shimizu and spread his hands out again.

"How can I find this situation now?"

Without responding to his words, Shimizu Tetsu looked at the manuscript on the table and realized something.
Chapter completed!