Tokyo Mystery Writers

Chapter 162: Royalties Disbursed, New Inspiration

Chapter 162: Royalties Disbursed, New Inspiration

Looking at the somewhat surprised Noma Genjiro, Maishiro Kyosuke smiled and said, "President Noma, now you know what story 'Two Bottles of Seasoning' is about."

"In fact, this is a very common classic misdirection, plus a strong twist and an Origen-esque ending."

"6

"However, describing Lord Lord Dunsani's fate as an 'Euryhen-esque ending' doesn't seem quite right either."

"Because Lord Lord Dunsony and Orihim were contemporaries, his influence on horror, weird, and adventure novels was also enormous."

Noma Genjiro held chopsticks in his hand, with a piece of pork with alternating layers of fat and lean meat on them.

But the piece of meat was not put into Noma Genjiro's mouth for a long time, obviously because he was frightened by Mr. Lin Lai's last words!

Thinking of this, Noma Genjiro couldn't help but shudder. He put his chopsticks on his plate, seemingly unwilling to bring up this so-called wonderful aftertaste again. He changed the subject, skipping over the topic of "Two Bottles of Seasoning": "Besides this precious manuscript, which was a gift for Teacher Maishiro, I have brought a second gift for Teacher Maishiro today."

Maijo Kyosuke knew that people like Noma Genjiro, who didn't read mystery novels often, would have a lower tolerance for such heavy-handed plots.

So naturally, they stopped talking about "Two Bottles of Seasoning" and followed up on Noma Genjiro's words, saying, "Oh? President Noma has a second gift?"

"What is it? Tell me."

Upon hearing Maishiro Kyosuke's words, Noma Genjiro smiled and pulled out a long list from his pocket: "It's less of a gift and more of a reward that you, Maishiro-sensei, deserve, although it was originally supposed to be given to you at the end of the month."

"But since it's such a joyous day, I'll do you a favor and send it to you in advance."

Noma Genjiro unfolded the list and said, "According to detailed statistics from Ito's finance department at Kodansha, the book 'The Tokyo Zodiac Murder Mystery' has sold 200,000 copies of the new edition, 200,000 copies of the paperback edition, 35,000 copies of the collector's edition, and 200,000 copies of the collected volume."

"The new edition is priced at 2,000 yen per book, the paperback edition at 1,000 yen per book, the collector's edition at 5,000 yen per book, and the single-volume edition at 3,000 yen per book."

"As clearly stated in the agreement that I signed with Mr. Maishiro on January 16, most Japanese mystery writers' royalties, or manuscript fees, are currently between 10% and 14%."

"As a guest author under my Kodansha, your royalties are naturally at the highest level, which is 14%. In addition, I promised to increase your royalties by 2%, so Mr. Maijo, your royalty rate is one in a million, even in the Japanese mystery fiction world!"

"Based on the figures I just mentioned, the 'New Book Judgment' edition of *The Tokyo Zodiac Murders* brought you 64 million yen in royalties, the 'Paperback Edition' 32 million yen, the 'Collected Volume Edition' 96 million yen, and the 'Collector's Edition' 28 million yen."

"After deducting taxes, Ms. Maijo earned a total of 132 million yen from her book, 'The Astrological Murder Mystery'!"

After Noma Genjiro finished speaking, he took a bank card out of his pocket and handed it to Maishiro Kyosuke.

After Maijo Kyosuke accepted the bank card, Noma Genjiro continued, "Next is the sales figures for 'Summer of the Ubume,' which is easier to calculate. The 'Summer of the Ubume' new book sold 200,000 copies, each priced at 2,500 yen. The 'single volume,' thanks to Shigeru Mizuki's unique bookmark and its bundle with 'The Tokyo Zodiac Murders,' also sold 200,000 copies, each priced at 4,000 yen."

"

"Therefore, the royalties for the new edition of 'Summer of the Ubume' are 80 million yen, and the royalties for the collected volume are 128 million yen."

"After deducting taxes, the book 'Summer of the Ubume' earned a total of 124.8 million yen!"

After Noma Genjiro finished speaking, he took out a bank card and handed it to Maishiro Kyosuke.

With two bank cards worth over 100 million yen in his hand, it was absolutely impossible for Maijo Kyosuke not to be excited.

Even if he had risked his life in his previous life, he could never have earned so much money, let alone achieved sales in the millions.

But in this life, he was able to rely on classic detective novels from later generations to obtain such high royalties and gain such popularity and status in just over a month!

This caused Maijo Kyosuke's brain to freeze for a moment.

Because this sales figure is simply too outrageous.

Although Maijo Kyosuke wrote works that became hugely popular in later generations, based on the situation in his previous life, these works should have needed time to mature before they could gradually break through the million-level sales mark.

The rapid achievement of total sales in the millions was somewhat unexpected for Maijo Kyosuke, far exceeding his expectations.

However, after thinking about it for a moment, Maijo Kyosuke felt that there wasn't really any major problem.

Because of the resources they possessed, they had a game-changing advantage over the Japanese mystery fiction scene in 1980!

Therefore, in this life, he adopted a very aggressive publicity approach. From the moment he stepped onto the stage of the Edogawa Ranpo Ryusho Award ceremony and uttered those bold words, it seemed that his success or failure was already predetermined!

Thinking about all this, Maijo Kyosuke recalled some things.

After raising his glass and thanking Noma Genjiro, Maijo Kyosuke turned to Jiangli Meili beside him and asked, "Ms. Jiangli, speaking of which, in the second issue of 'Top Hat' magazine, I used 'Convergence' to challenge all Japanese mystery writers in the competition?"

"What was the final result?"

"In the blink of an eye, it seems like tomorrow is February 4th, the day the fourth issue of Top Hat magazine will be released."

"I've been busy writing my book lately, so I really don't know how this will turn out. You haven't told me the voting results either."

Jiang Liu Meili was eating fish maw when she heard Mai Cheng Jingjie's words and realized that she had not told Mai Cheng Jingjie about this important matter.

In her haste, Jiang Liumei could only swallow the entire piece of fish maw, fanning her mouth with her hand to try and cool it down, while explaining to Maishiro Kyosuke, "Mr. Maishiro—I'm so sorry—I completely forgot to tell you about such an important matter—"

Looking at Jiang Liu Meili's adorable appearance, Mai Shiro Kyosuke casually poured her a glass of juice and handed it to her, saying, "Drink some juice first to help you settle down. Don't rush, speak slowly."

"Anyway, judging from the current situation, the fact that no one has made a fuss about this matter already proves my victory."

"I just suddenly remembered this and wanted to ask how it went."

Jiang Liu Meili took the juice, took a big gulp, and waited for the temperature in her mouth to drop before looking at Maishiro Kyosuke somewhat embarrassedly and saying, "Mr. Maishiro, not long after the second issue of 'Top Hat' magazine was published, didn't many Japanese mystery writers immediately ask our Kodansha magazine department to reject their work after reading 'The Closure'?"

"From that time on, basically no one dared to say you were undeserving of your reputation. After all, the groundbreaking nature of 'Convergence' and your understanding of reasoning structure had reached the pinnacle!"

"Those who smear the teachers at Dance City are either jealous or want to use Top Hat magazine to get a piece of the pie."

"But what they didn't expect was that they didn't get to eat the cake, but instead bit into a steel plate. Suddenly, no one dared to point fingers at Teacher Maicheng anymore."

"So when we sent people to various bookstores and newsstands to collect voting cards for Top Hat magazine, the data was unanimously in favor of Ms. Maishiro's Convergence."

"In the end, the number of votes for 'Convergence' far exceeded that of the second place by more than ten times. Under such a near-crushing situation, naturally no one dared to question your strength."

After finishing her sentence, Jiang Liumei continued, "As for the recent 'critic war' sparked by mystery critic Mr. Kasai Kiyoshi in the newspapers," it's really just a bunch of jealous people who simply can't stand Ms. Maishiro.

"However—Mr. Kasai Kiyoshi really admires you, Ms. Maishiro."

"Not only did they silence those who were smearing Ms. Mai, but Mr. Kiyoshi Kasai also wrote a 50,000-word commentary specifically for Ms. Mai in the past few days."

"This collection of essays mainly discusses the stories 'The Astrological Murders,' 'A Lisianthus,' 'The Convergence,' and 'The Mystery of the Death Row Inmate,' as well as your understanding of Ellery Queen, Professor Maijo. The collection of essays is titled 'Maijo Kyosuke and the Later Queen.'"

As Jiang Liumei finished speaking, she winked her almond-shaped eyes, as clear as lake water, at Maishiro Kyosuke and said with a smile, "Now, Maishiro-sensei is not only the youngest mystery writer in the history of Japanese mystery literature to achieve a total sales volume of over one million copies."

""

"He's the first mystery writer in Japanese literature to have a collection of reviews written for him by mystery critics less than a month after his debut!"

"You know, even Edogawa Ranpo only received this kind of treatment after he had already achieved great success!"

When Uyama Hideomi, Mikoshiba Yasunori, and Noma Genjiro heard Eri's beautiful words, they couldn't help but laugh.

Because none of them expected that the mystery critic, Kiyoshi Kasai, would admire Kyosuke Maijo so deeply that he would even be willing to live and die with him!

Because it's rash to create a collection of reviews for a mystery writer like Kyosuke Maijo, who is still quite unstable at the moment, if Kyosuke Maijo had a smooth journey ahead, then Kiyoshi Kasai wouldn't have run into any trouble.

However, if something unexpected happens to Keisuke Maijo, causing his popularity to decline and his career to stagnate, then Kiyoshi Kasai, who writes the commentary collection for Maijo-sensei, will probably be criticized so much that he'll be forced to leave the mystery commentary circle.

However, at this moment, Maijo Kyosuke's mind was no longer on this matter.

Seeing the manuscript of "Two Bottles of Seasoning" awakened the story hidden deep in his memory for Maijo Kyosuke!

That story, though superficially similar to "Two Bottles of Seasoning," has a completely different core, making it a truly rare masterpiece!

So—Maishiro Kyosuke plans to quickly write this short mystery story in the next few days.

Then I devoted myself entirely to the creation of "The City That Never Sleeps"!