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Chen Mingjun: "A man who knows books"

Chen Mingjun: "A man who knows books"

By woodrow portiePublished about a year ago 7 min read
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Chen Mingjun, who always keeps a low profile, is known as "the person who knows books" in the circle. His accurate grasp of the content quality of books and the unique positioning of the book market promotion make the new Classic Culture company create many legends of millions of sales in the book sales market. He has been compared to Bennett Cerf, the founder of Random House, the world's largest publishing group.

Is there still a market for pure literature?

The answer is yes: "The need for literature is eternal." He was a thin, bespectacled man with the cool air of a writer, and a card with an address and a telephone number, no position, no identity.

New Classics Culture Co., LTD., founded by him, achieved incredible success just because of the publication of classic literary works. The Chinese version of One Hundred Years of Solitude, which was exclusively authorized by the author for the first time, sold 800,000 copies in four months. "Tokugawa Ieyasu" has sold 2.2 million copies; 1Q84 sold more than 1.6 million copies; More than 2 million copies of "Journey in the White Night"; The cumulative sales of Eileen Chang's works have exceeded 3.6 million copies, and the cumulative sales of Sanmao's works have exceeded 3 million copies... This is one myth after another in the market for books that sell more than half a million copies.

To Mr. Chen, it is "vulgar" to measure a book's success by sales. "Publishing goes back to the fundamental question, which is doing the book has lasting value and is it worth publishing?" 'This is the most fundamental basis for New Classics to choose whether or not to publish a book,' Mr. Chen said. "Sometimes when it's pure, it's simple."

The classic temperament of the new classic is easily reminiscent of Random House, the world's largest publishing group. It published several monumental works, played a leading role in modern Western culture, and of course, was a great commercial success. Chen Mingjun has been thinking about how to make the new classics a Chinese version of Random House.

Literary youth entrepreneurship

In July 2002, when China's publishing industry, and even the cultural industry as a whole, was in the deepest depression, Chen Mingjun chose to start his own business. He and a few friends "wanted to do something fun" and set up the New Classics Studio. Before this, he has accumulated in the publishing industry.

The people who started businesses together with Chen Mingjun are literary young people, very emotional. "We're not very business-friendly in general, not very business-savvy people," Chen said. These "literary youth" are full of worship classic works, so they have big ideas that are different from those of businessmen. After the establishment of the studio, the first plan was to introduce the three Japanese classic historical works "Tokugawa Ieyasu", "Miyamoto Musashi" and "Sakamoto Ryoma", which had not been published in China for various reasons. To Chen Mingjun's surprise, it took him five years to negotiate, translate and edit the copyright of Tokugawa Jiayyasu, and Ryoma Sakamoto is still being translated. "From a purely commercial point of view, we would never have dared to do these books." "Mr. Chen said.

Copyright negotiations with the Japanese were slow. A keen reader, Chen decided to copyright the book after reading a Taiwanese translation of Korean writer Kim Ha-in's The Fragrance of Chrysanthemum. Korean literature was barely noticed in Korea at the time, so copyright negotiations went smoothly. The book was an instant hit, becoming the first foreign book to appear on the bestseller list, and Korean literature has since become an almost unimaginable phenomenon in China.

"The success of Chrysanthemum Fragrance is due to good luck." "Luck is not more opportunities, but fewer temptations," Mr. Chen said. From the beginning, the new Classics had their value judgment on the choice of books and never followed the hype of so-called bestsellers.

For a publisher, taste and vision are essential. How to discover a writer when he is not popular, dare to try the work that has not been noticed, is a test of the publisher's vision. Random House was successful because it had a legend in the form of its founder, Bennett Cerf, who discovered and published the early works of many of the great writers of the era. In a way, Chen Mingjun is the new classic Bennett Cerf.

In Japanese books, new classics also swept the board. New Classics was the first to introduce the works of Japanese author Higashino Keigo, signing the rights to more than 20 books by him at a time. At the time, Mr. Higashino was unknown in China, where advances for a book ranged from 150,000 yen to 300,000 yen. Now that Higashino Keigo is popular in China, his copyright has been up to 7 million yen a copy. "Seven million won't make any money on the rights."

New Classics has done a lot of pioneering things, such as hardcover picture books for children. This is a kind of children's book composed of simple words, clear comics, full of warmth and philosophy. In 2003, this kind of book, which was already very popular abroad, was not available in China. When Chen decided to import Japanese hardcover picture books of the Cute Mouse Little Brother series, almost all publishing houses thought that "no one would buy such books." The copyright owner received a nominal advance of 50,000 yen, or about 3,000 renminbi, for New Classics to sign the book. Now, the series has sold 2.6 million copies.

"I think publishing is a bit silly." Chen Mingchun said that the children's hardcover picture books that became popular, such as "Cute Mouse Little Brother" and "The Caring Tree," were not easy to sell at first, but they were chosen because they believed they were good books.

Gentle management

From "CHRYSANTHEMUM FRAGRANCE" START RED, THE NEW CLASSIC RARELY HAS THE WORK THAT DOES NOT SELL WELL, THE STUDIO ALSO DOES MORE AND MORE BIGGER. Since 2006, New Classics has entered a stage of rapid development. In August 2007, New Classics and Beijing Publishing Group established Beijing October Culture Media Co., LTD as a joint venture to create a product line of Chinese literature. In May 2008, the new classic shares in Tang Xiaoming's reader company. This complete system has initially had the temperament and lineup of Random House publishing company, for many years without a general manager and chairman.

"My role is editor in chief. I'm in charge of content." Mr. Chen says he spends 90 percent of his energy on editing and content, personally planning and designing covers for important books, and "diverting some of my energy to manage operations." Chen Mingjun is a person who hates rules and regulations, but the company is getting bigger and bigger, and there is no system. Two or three years into the business, Mr. Chen and his management worked out a set of rules that were implemented through the interaction of various departments. Although the new classic is no longer as loose as at the beginning of the business, it still retains the tradition of "culture and youth". The company does not have many regular work meetings, "many important plans are still met in the corridor."

Chen Mingjun is a typical Zhejiang businessman, gentle and low-key, and does not like to be seen in public. According to Li Yao, chief editor of New Classics Foreign Literature, he can't remember the last time Mr. Chen lost his temper, "at least three or four years ago." When Zhang Rui, chief editor of the Japanese and Korean literature section, joined New Classics in 2007, he noticed a man known as "Teacher Chen" reading the cover in the newsroom. He later learned that the teacher was the company's founder.

"Moderate" is a label shared by Chen Mingjun and his team. 90% of New Classics employees are women, and the average age is only 27 or 18. The new classics with a strong literary atmosphere do not advocate a full load of work and pursue to let editors create freely in a relaxed environment. According to employees, Chen Mingjun once called a meeting with the editorial department, and the main content was: "You have been working too hard recently. It's not good. Everyone should be more relaxed."

There are more than 90 editors of the new classics, and about 160 books are published every year. "The number of editors is extraordinarily rich relative to the volume of books they produce." To allow editors to grow up freely in a relaxed environment, Mr. Chen said, "An editor needs to be elegant. Only in this state can we make an elegant book."

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