Fu Xingwen
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Kasuga is the time to read. In the noisy era when paper books are being sung down, independent publishing is waiting for the encounter of confidants. Compared with the large private book companies that emerged around the turn of the millennium and have now formed mature business models and sought capital operations, independent publishing is still "very poor, but very interesting". They "generate electricity with love", move forward alone, and strive to pursue successful publishing at the same time, but also to make publishing a success.
As an independent publishing company, Since its establishment in 2016, Lefu Culture has published acclaimed books such as "Chinese Stories", "Fourteen Poets" and "Autumn Garden". From only one book a year, it has gradually developed to more than 80 books a year.
In an interview with a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily, Tu Tu, the founder of Lefu, said, "Independent publishers are more willing to bring more ideological and cultural resources and find living space for this small piece of new discovery." And in this search process, setbacks are difficult to avoid. At the hardest time, Tu Tu himself did not get a penny of salary, and the company was on the verge of collapse, but his "greed" for books never stopped.
To find the "writer of the future"
On the title page of every book published by Lefu Culture, there is a sentence that reads, "When the heart is full, it overflows from the mouth."
This is an old Ethiopian proverb, Tu Tu said that what Lefu wants to express is "a feeling of fullness", and the writer's heart is full, in order to write a book, to pass it on to the world.
Since its independent publication, Lefu has launched the debut works of many newcomer writers such as "Autumn Garden", "Dialogue with Illness", "Fourteen Poets", "Between the Snowy Mountains and the Snowy Mountains", and "Every Night I Am Holding a Painting Exhibition". Tu Tu admitted that Lefu did not want to make a "debut" brand, but to find "future writers".
"The books published by Lefu Culture should not be classified, each book has an independent life. At the heart of our body is the search for good writing. If we don't talk about literature, if we don't talk about ideals, if we only talk about the market, we must also find these new and excellent writers, they will enter the future reading map, they are future-oriented," Tu Tu said.
Unearthing new writers and putting publishing ideas to life is not an easy task. Tu Tu tells the story of his "fooling" newcomer writer Aaron to write a book.
"Two years ago, many friends mentioned Aaron to me. I went to find him and he really drew very well and I said we could do the book. He said, I painted so badly", did not agree. A few months later, Tu Tu came to Aaron's house and was once again driven away, "He said, how can this thing I painted be a book?" Tu Tu did not give up, and after half a year, Tu Tu met Aaron on the street for the third time, "I mentioned making a book again, he told me that he published a letter to his father on the public account", Tu Tu realized that this letter was already the prototype of a book, "it is both a life in Dali, but also a record and observation of the human world", Aaron was finally made clear.
In the end, the title of the book was finalized as "Every Night I Am Doing a Painting Exhibition", and Lefu sought out the cooperation of the emerging designer Miao Qian, and made a tie sketchbook as a whole, spread out the frame, and just formed a complete picture frame, and each page was framed. After the book was published, it was rated as "the most beautiful book in China in 2021", with a Douban score of 8.0.
In order to publish the good books in his mind, Tu Tu "ran a lot of places" and established a precious friendship with the authors. "But There Are Still Books 2" records the footsteps of Tu Tu's visit: go to Dali, please write a book with Qiao Yang, who has lived with Tibetans for nearly 20 years at the foot of Baima Mountain in Meili Snow Mountain; go to the Gangshan Peasant Painting Society, visit the grandmothers who paint; go to Changsha, ask the picture book artist Cai Gao to come up with folded picture books that have been precipitated for many years; go to Shandong, find the descendants of folk literature collector Dong Junlun and Jiang Yuan and his wife, republish folk tales and legends on the land of Qilu, go to Yangzhou, Jiangsu, Jinan, Shandong, Dongguan, Guangdong... Find stories, listen to stories.
At a time when many editing work can be done online, Tu Tu believes that editors meet the author, ancient, but very important, "in the past, making books is like this, you can meet people to establish basic trust and relationships, if I can't establish a relatively deep relationship with the author, I don't know how to pass this relationship to the reader."
10,000 dollar lies
Lefu culture has experienced an unusually difficult time.
In 2018, under tremendous operational pressure, Tu Tu and general practitioner Hu Bingshuang signed "Dialogue with The Disease: Notes of General Practitioners", a medical essay that combines popular science and fun, and has both psychological and philosophical implications. At that time, the manuscript was still being edited, and Tu Tu visited Hu Bingshuang's home to report on the progress with her.
"If you want to buy some sample books from you, how do you buy them?" During the discussion, Hu Bingshuang suddenly threw such a question to Tu Tu, Tu Tu was a little confused, and did not understand why Teacher Hu himself was a writer and had to buy sample books.
"I have a student who heard that I was going to publish a book and wanted to buy 500 books for 10,000 yuan," Hu explains.
Tu Tu knew that this was a white lie, "We were very difficult at that time, but I never told Teacher Hu. She was a psychologist, and she was so clever that she realized my difficulties and immediately made up a lie. I also heard it at the time, she just wanted to give me 10,000 yuan to let me breathe."
The lie was not punctured, Tu Tu accepted the 10,000 yuan, although this money is not enough to subsidize the salaries of employees, but the friendship between the author and the publisher will "make you feel a kind of strength and comfort", stay up, and quickly make the book.
That was tu tu's second year of founding Lefu culture. In 2016, Tu Tu resigned from the position of editor-in-chief of the Beijing News Book Review Weekly, and together with 8 like-minded friends, he gathered 1 million to start an independent publishing experiment. The idea of starting a business is simple, if you want to make a book you like, just do it.
1 million was quickly spent, not only did not earn money, but also lost a lot.
In the first year, le fu published only one book, "Silent Ecstasy", a print of Yeats's poetry collection. The following year, Lefu also published only one book, "Chinese Stories", a folk literature. The sales of the two books are not bad, "Silent Ecstasy" sold nearly 28,000 copies, but the speed of one book a year is far from enough to get back the cost, and Lefu Culture has ushered in a huge financial dilemma.
With a team of only two editors, "there is no way to pay wages", as an uncompetitive new company, it can not deduct too much in terms of treatment, or it is still a little higher than its peers, so Tu Tu chose to "control himself". He experienced a period of life that could not get a salary, and he could not open the turnover, so he borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars from his bank card and put it in the company, "carrying it for a few more months". Finally slowly survived to 2018, a new partner joined, "this tone only turned around"
Willfulness and "greed"
Tu Tu is willful, he often uses "greed" to describe himself, and it is true that when the company was most difficult, Tu Tu never stopped signing a large number of books.
For each book signed, the prepaid price ranges from 100,000 to 1 million. Tu Tu revealed that in the first two years of only two books, he actually signed more than 40 books, "I especially like the books I signed." The more you sign, the more you have to go hand in hand, and the speed of publishing books is naturally very slow. Most of the books I was working on were not well known and risky for the market, "At that time, I believed that they were all potential mainstreams, and I needed to tell the story well."
Before signing "Dialogue with the Sick", Tu Tu consulted with friends and editors, "They all said that this book is not good, I said no, this is a good writing." They asked me to give me a reason, and I couldn't tell. But I wanted to try it, and I had already made a decision, and this thing just couldn't be stopped."
The beijing joint publishing company is also not optimistic about "Dialogue with The Disease", the newcomer wrote, it is medicine, and all the points are minus points. Tu Tu did not want to give up, "Is it okay for us to print 5,000 copies?" As a result, 5,000 copies sold very quickly, and by the end of 2019, the book was printed to nearly 20,000 copies, TuTu fulfilled his promise of "10,000 yuan lie" with Hu Bingshuang, and sent her 500 books.
Also successful is "Autumn Garden", the author Yang Benfen picked up a pen in his later years to look back on the past, recorded the tragic and tenacious life of his mother Qiu Yuan, and wrote the story of their family struggling to survive like driftwood in the water. Douban netizens commented, "This book is smaller than you think, heavier than you estimate."
"Autumn Garden" is a manuscript that was updated in the Tianya Forum in 2009, and was discovered after 10 years of silence. Regardless of whether this is the debut work of an 80-year-old grandmother, regardless of whether the manuscript has been rejected by other publishers before, and regardless of whether the publisher has spent all its savings again in 2020, "After reading only one chapter, I decided that I must publish "Autumn Garden" and "Autumn Garden" is not history, but literature." This time, "Autumn Garden" was a great success, and Lefu once again survived the crisis of deficit. In 2022, Yang Benfen's "My Fragrance" and "Driftwood" were published successively.
"This is entirely out of intuitive judgment, I don't know if it's right or wrong", TuTu believes that intuition is a talent, a core competitiveness, if there is no other condition, then "trust it".
Not every time the willfulness has results, but Tu Tu has a "heart that does not die until the Yellow River".
In 2018, Lefu Culture published "Six: A Japanese Farming and Love in Dali", the team spent a lot of effort to publicize, and the author's story was known to many people, and the book did not sell much. Tu Tu was very unconvinced, and he decided to change the title of the book to "Seeds Fall on the Soil" again this year, "I think this book is good, I can try again."
Waiting may not be waiting
Tu Tu believes that a good book needs to wait, waiting for the book number, waiting for the market, waiting for luck, maybe waiting to get, maybe not waiting.
In 2017, Lefu published its second book, The Story of China, which sold 30,000 copies when it was first released. Last year, a new edition was released, 3 volumes were counted as a set, and finally sold more than 200,000 copies, "its volume difference is very large, after 4 years of accumulation and fermentation in the middle, but you need to have 4 years to wait for it."
"The risk of independent publishing is that you can't wait for that day, and you will collapse", Tu Tu sighed, accepting uncertainty is the inevitable of independent publishing.
Another conundrum that has plagued the independent publishing industry for years is the balance between idealism and realistic survival. Tu Tu finally figured out the answer after 6 years, romance is OK, but you must consider making money.
At the beginning of the establishment of Lefu, the management of the editorial team was loose and extensive, Tutu would not make requirements for editors, he believed, "Editors are free, in order to make free books", but this idea is a bit too "romantic", inefficient, and even many progress is often stuck for several months because Tu Tu can't make a decision. After 2020, the Lefu team expanded to 20 people, and the romance was overwhelmed. Tu Tu tried to find a balance between freedom and efficiency again, "adding a management level", and the task of making books was promoted by more refined nodes, "what time to carry out what links, are planned very clearly, I will also be pushed." Because of the increase in efficiency, more than 70 books planned for 2022, "it seems that the problem will not be particularly big now."
In fact, Lefu culture didn't break even until last year. Tu Tu pointed out that the four or five million invested in the 6 years of entrepreneurship has "not been earned until now", but according to the current trend, you can slowly make money, "the book is sold, read, discussed, and the meaning of your doing this is realized."
dialogue
I want to do independent publishing
It is necessary to learn to accept uncertainty and failure
Independent publisher and writer Fu Xingwen founded the "Wen Diamond" book in 2010, and has published more than 100 books such as Han Haoyue's "The Gyroscope of Time" and Zhang Kangkang's "Memories Find Me", and this year he published the book "Pyramid on the Top of the Mountain". Being both a book publisher and a book writer gave him a deeper understanding of independent publishing. On the topic of independent publication, this newspaper talked to Fu Xingwen and Tu Tu.
Beiqing Daily: What is independent publishing? What is the difference between independent publishing and state/private publishing houses?
Tu Tu: The process of independent publishing goes from the editor discovering the topic, to signing a contract with the author, reviewing and proofreading three times, designing and publishing, just like a large publishing house, but we are done, the publishing house re-proofs it again, and finally disseminates marketing.
Compared with large publishing houses, independent publishers are more willing to bring more cultural resources and find a living space for this small piece of new discovery. Passion and risk go hand in hand.
Fu Xingwen: Independent publishing, we also call writers agents, is equivalent to a bridge between writers and publishing houses, and the process is no different from conventional publishing. Large publishing houses have to publish many books every year, and there is no way to push each one with care. Working with independent publishers, writers can concentrate on their work, and independent publishers will do their best to make a book work well and can do it very well. The same book can be tried to be pushed to multiple publishing houses, giving some books and some unknown authors more opportunities to publish.
Beiqing Daily: How can I start publishing independently?
Tu Tu: Theoretically, you can do what you want to do, first you think this book is good, second, it sells to feed you, this judgment needs to be accumulated, this is the most fundamental. Secondly, you must have funds, cooperative publishing houses, certain distribution capabilities, and also be strong psychologically prepared, at the beginning you are going to lose money.
Fu Xingwen: At the beginning, you should have done it in a publishing house or publishing company, have experience in editing or topic planning, and have a certain understanding of the various processes of publishing investment.
Beiqing Daily: It is said that the premise of independent publishing is not only money, but this is also particularly unrealistic, how to balance idealism and reality to survive, profit is also a problem that independent publishing has always faced, now you have found the answer?
Tu Tu: If you understand independent publishing as a game, it doesn't need to make money, but if you make it a career, you have to make money. Making money is not only to make money, but also to make books, in order to pass on the values in books. Doing a good job, telling a good story, and making money are two parallels, and making money is a proof.
Fu Xingwen: If you want to balance ideals and reality, on the one hand, you must embark on a stable path on your own. After we have done it for so many years, because of some long-selling books, there are stable sales every year, and there is a stable income. On this basis, some new books are launched every year, so that they are on a relatively normal track. On the other hand, readers also need to love books and support books.
Beiqing Daily: What do you think of the current independent publishing industry? What is the status of the independent publishing group?
Tu Tu: They are all trying to live, like a page, casting, I think it is quite good, like thinking about new thinking, encountered setbacks, but still do not change their obsession with books. We may have different ways, but we are diverse and energetic.
Fu Xingwen: If you want to do independent publishing, you must learn to accept uncertainty and failure. I was interviewed 10 years ago about independent publishing studios where there were dozens of small studios, and then I found out that many of them slowly disappeared, and they changed careers or were eliminated.
Some small independent publishers are really difficult, the market is not so prosperous, I understand those independent publishers very well, they know that this book may not sell much, may lose money, but they feel that there is publishing value, or will do, this is a very valuable spirit.
Beiqing Daily: What is the significance of independent publishing? What impact has it had on you?
Tu Tu: Lefu culture is a small community that I and my colleagues have built, and we have really created value. In the past few years, I have become happier.
Fu Xingwen: The significance of independent publishing is that I dare to do it more, I want to try new things, and I want to do a variety of topics. For me, I have more freedom to read and write, pursue my literary dreams, and be happier.
Q: What are the future book publishing plans?
TuTu: We plan to produce more than 70 books in 2022. I just signed a book, and I cried many times with my editor when I read the manuscript, called "Night Run", which has more than 700,000 words, which is the thickest book we have ever written. I think it's a family, a national epic, with very strong power in the book, and it's also a debut novel that should be published at the end of this year or early next year.
Fu Xingwen: I am still waiting for a good book manuscript, and some authors have submitted papers, but many works are still difficult to really write well, and I can only regret to give up.
Beiqing Daily: What other independent publishers or institutions do you like to recommend?
Tu Tu: My favorite is Wen Jin, but it is not an independent publishing company, it is semi-independent. Small independent publishing I appreciate the creation on paper, I don't know if he will succeed, but his book is good.
Fu Xingwen: Lefu culture, as well as the old six Zhang Lixian who read the library, I regard him as an example.
Article/Reporter Zhang Enjie Intern Li Tong
Co-ordinator/Liu Jianghua