The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Mike Lauer Book Company is indeed a small publishing house with a serious shortage of distribution capacity.

The first printing of "The Rise of Great Powers" is only 5,000 copies, which can only be seen in major cities in the eastern United States. On average, the circulation of each city is less than 1,000 copies.

As we said earlier, the 1920s was a prosperous period for the American publishing industry, and the sales of best-selling works were often in the hundreds of thousands. The initial print run of 5,000 copies of "The Rise of Great Powers" seems very pitiful. However, this situation belongs to the mainstream of the publishing industry. Publishers dare not print too many newcomers and second- and third-rate authors.

Like "Gone with the Wind", the first print of a newcomer's new work is 100,000, the highest daily sales volume is more than 50,000, 1 million copies are sold in half a year, and 2 million copies are sold in a year.

The golden catwoman secretary hurriedly knocked on the office door, and her joy was beyond words: "Boss, distributors in several cities have sent telegrams to inform them that it is out of stock, and "The Rise of Great Powers" needs to be reprinted."

"Give me the list," Mike Howard said.

There is no way, for a small publishing house like this, everything has to be done by the boss himself.

Mike carefully studied the list and found that the shortages were in cities with well-educated education, such as Ivy League universities and famous high schools nearby. It seems that "Rise of Great Powers" is very popular among intellectuals.

Especially in a big city like New York, where there are many educational institutions and high-level intellectuals, the distribution of 1,500 volumes will soon be sold out in less than a week.

Mike Howard thought about it, and finally gritted his teeth and said, "Print another 20,000 copies!"

"Twenty thousand copies?" The female secretary said in surprise, "It's too much, what if it can't be sold out?"

Mike laughed and said, "Judging from the current situation, it will definitely be sold out. In addition, if you help contact the booksellers in the western region and send the sales status of "The Rise of Great Powers" in the eastern part, they should be interested."

In this way, the reprinted 20,000 copies of "The Rise of Great Powers" were quickly replenished, and most of the buyers were senior intellectuals, students and history buffs.

As for ordinary Americans, hehe, they don’t even know where Asia is, so how could they be interested in this kind of academic works—although "The Rise of Great Powers" has been written quite popularly.

The reason why "The Rise of Great Powers" caused a sensation is precisely because it took the route of the upper elite. Congressmen of the US federal and state governments, as well as various politicians and scholars, many of them bought and read this book.

What is good at the top is effective at the bottom.

Seeing that officials love to read "The Rise of Great Powers", government employees also read it, almost forming a fad.

Sales were strong in the eastern US, and booksellers in the western US quickly followed suit. However, at this time, the west was still relatively backward, and the literacy rate of the people was not as high as that in the east, and the sales volume was barely half of that in the east.

When February of the New Year came, another 10,000 copies of "The Rise of Great Powers" were printed, and the previous 25,000 copies were almost sold out.

It's a pity that there is no "best-selling book list" in this era, otherwise "The Rise of Great Powers" would definitely rank among the top 20 best-selling books in the United States in January.

The New York Times, as a benchmark for high-end and serious newspapers in the United States, also wrote a recommended book review on the cultural page: "This is a magical historical work. It uses easy-to-understand language to analyze and describe the rise of the world's major powers. and decline. Ordinary people can understand it, and even use it as a pastime reading to increase knowledge while killing free time; professional scholars are even more fascinated by it. It analyzes history from a very comprehensive and objective perspective, and the data are extremely detailed. It has a very high status in the field of modern history, and it is almost becoming a must-read reference book for students majoring in history...Of course, this book is not perfect. For example, it predicts that the United States is about to break out of the economic crisis. This view is very ridiculous and naive. It It also predicted that the Soviet Union would rise in the 1930s. Although the book has rigorous arguments, it does not rule out that the author is trying to please the public. The author’s various speculations about the future have seriously reduced the academic quality of "The Rise of Great Powers", which I feel very much regret."

After "The Rise of Great Powers" sold 40,000 copies in the United States, its daily sales dropped significantly, and it was almost impossible to sell. However, as an academic work, it has a long lifespan, and there is no need to compare it with those commercial works. Every year, students and scholars pay for it.

The real wild sale of "The Rise of Great Powers" came after the outbreak of the economic crisis in 1929. Americans recalled the prophecies in the book, and they immediately praised and worshiped it. Even economists began to study the book.

Even though it has only sold tens of thousands of copies and cannot be called a "bestseller" at all, "The Rise of Great Powers" still caused a sensation in the American Chinese circle. Because this book is highly respected by the American elite, it is said that even President Coolidge of the United States is reading it.

And Hoover, who is running for president and has a great advantage, also mentioned "The Rise of Great Powers" many times in his speeches. He highly praised the academic quality of "The Rise of Great Powers", but refuted Zhou Hexuan's views on the economic crisis. He told his voters that as long as he was the president of the United States, there would be no economic crisis in the United States, and the US stock market would not collapse. He wants all Americans to be able to eat turkey for dinner and drive a car when they go out!

The voters shouted in their hearts: Long live President Hoover!

Shi Zhaoji, the former staff member of Zhang Zhidong and the current Chinese Minister to the United States, mentioned in a private letter to Gu Weijun: "Recently, the book "The Rise of Great Powers" has aroused heated discussions among American elites. Mr. Roosevelt, who is running for governor of New York State , although his legs are disabled, he is very knowledgeable, especially loves to read history and biographies. When he met with me, he heard that I was Chinese, so we chatted about "The Rise of Great Powers". Mr. Roosevelt praised this book greatly In his original words, after reading "The Rise of Great Powers", there is no need to study history. American political officials highly respect the author of the book, Zhou Hexuan, and now the United States is planning to negotiate with China to return the autonomy of tariffs. I suggest inviting Mr. Zhou to join the negotiation team, his presence should be of great benefit to the negotiations..."

Gu Weijun had resigned at this time and retired to Tianjin as an apartment. After reading the letter, he mocked himself and smiled bitterly: "Who else can I recommend? I would like to recommend myself. It's a pity, a pity, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to withdraw tariffs will be given by the domestic war. buried."

The Americans are indeed determined to return China's tariff autonomy, not only because of political reasons, but also because of the oversupply of American goods in their own country, and they are eager to open up the Chinese market. However, China's market share is firmly controlled by Japan and the United Kingdom, and it is difficult for the United States to get in. Returning tariffs can win the support of the Chinese government and people, which is a great thing for the United States.

It's a pity that China can't take care of this at this time.