Chapter 214: Hot Topics in America
Amazon Publishing, Evans turned on the computer, entered the database, and looked at yesterday's book sales data.
“Compared with yesterday, the sales volume of “Thirst Game” has increased by one, and the rating is still stable at 4.7 points!”
The sales volume has increased so fast, and there are still such high Rating, Evans instantly felt that he had unearthed a great treasure.
With the advent of summer vacation, book sales have also entered the peak season, especially for youth literature, where sales have increased dramatically.
Of course, the market competition at this time is also very fierce. What can improve the sales ranking at this time may not be a pearl, but it is definitely a masterpiece that caters to the market.
American book review websites have a characteristic. Historical masterpieces may not have high ratings. On the contrary, many best-selling novels will have relatively high ratings. For example, the Harry Potter series will have ratings above 4.5 points. A world-famous novel such as "The Red and the Black" only scores about three points.
If it scores 4.7, it is definitely a high-scoring work!
Evans clicked on the latest comments and picked up the ones with a larger number of words and read them.
"The Thirst Game" is a dystopian teenage adventure. This work successfully integrates the cruelty of the real world and the struggle of human nature into a fictional future world. Zuo Zai depicts the growth and transformation of the protagonist At the same time, it also reflects the sadness of social injustice and the gap between rich and poor. The novel is both science fiction and realistic, and it is fascinating. ”
"Thirst Games reveals the delicate relationship between power and class through a brutal reality show. In this fictional future world, rulers use games to consolidate their status and maintain social order. This work not only makes people feel the difficulty of survival, but also makes people deeply reflect on power and class."
"This is a thrilling adventure novel in which the protagonist replaces his sister. The courage and determination to participate in the hunger game show the responsibility and struggle of youth, and also inspire the deep desire to survive. This novel is exciting and the plot is touching."
Read several book reviews. , Evans already felt confident.
“There are many people who have reviewed it, and the reviews are mainly positive. It seems that we can invest more resources.”
The next day, “The Thirst Game” was listed on Amazon. book recommendations.
After all, Amazon targets the entire United States. The last recommended spot can be seen by Amazon users across the United States.
When users click on it, the work’s rating is as high as 4.7 points! That should be a good book. If you look at the introduction again and see that the works are recommended by the great writer Cormac McCarthy, then the quality of the works is even more guaranteed.
Finally, let’s look at the synopsis. The story is set in North America after the nuclear war. It’s a doomsday theme and there’s a killing game, so I’ll like it even more! Lao Mei, I like to watch this kind of story of killing each other at the end of the world and finally eating the chicken.
Because the subject matter is quite lovable, this recommendation immediately increased the sales of "The Thirst Game".
When readers actually bought this book and read it carefully, they discovered that the connotation of this work is not as simple as it seems on the surface. The works discuss value and exploitation, class and power, resistance and compromise, and the choices and tests of human nature, which are all thought-provoking.
The most important thing is that many of the values displayed in the work are really in line with American tastes.
As a country of immigrants, the United States is a diversified society. It has only a history of more than 200 years and has not developed much cultural heritage, so the values of each generation are quite different.
This generation of Americans has experienced 911, the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. In the future, they will also experience the subprime mortgage crisis. They will occupy Wall Street and take to the streets for Floyd. Will storm into Parliament shouting "Maga".
This is definitely the most divided generation of Americans since the founding of the United States. Perhaps it is for this reason that works like The Hunger Games are regarded as masterpieces by Americans!
In contrast, this generation of Chinese people are not so torn, so Chinese readers do not understand what is so good about The Hunger Games. Chinese readers have begun to like stories like "The Wandering Earth" in which people unite as one and work together to save the world.
...
Xuele Group, Galante was called to the office by his boss.
The boss threw a copy of the New York Times in front of Galante and asked sternly: "You must have read the latest issue of the New York Times bestseller list, right? This one came out of nowhere. "No. 8, do you want an explanation?"
Gallant took a look at the New York Times and found that the eighth bestseller on this week's list was the book he rejected. "The Thirst Game".
“Well, this author has relatively high royalties requirements and is unwilling to accept the 5% I offered, so I rejected him. He is still a new author, and even if his work is of acceptable quality, we can’t accept it. It's impossible to give him a higher price!" Galante explained calmly.
"A new author? As far as I know, he is also a top-selling author with millions of copies sold in China!" the boss immediately retorted.
Galante continued to explain calmly: "You also know that he is Chinese, so I am even less likely to give him high royalties. I don't think something written by a Chinese can be sold in the American market. Achieve good sales.”
“What’s wrong with being ranked eighth in the New York Times bestseller list?”
“Maybe it’s just a flash in the pan! Within a week, "The Thirst Game" will disappear without a trace on the list," Galante said rather harshly.
The boss directly threw the original book of "The Thirst Game" over and said: "A short-lived flash in the pan? Take a closer look at what is written on the cover!"
Galante took the book "The Thirst Game" and looked down. In addition to the title and author, there were the words "Highly Recommended by Cormac McCarthy" on the cover of the book.
Seeing this name, Galante was shocked. He immediately asked: "Recommendation by Cormac McCarthy? How is this possible? Cormac McCarthy has always been reclusive, even the New York Times It is very difficult to interview him. How could the Chinese get his recommendation? "
"Look for yourself, the title page is Cormac McCarthy's recommendation letter, and Cormac McCarthy is very fond of this! The reviews for this book are very high!" the boss said.
Galante turned over the title page and saw that this was indeed the case.
It has been printed in the book, so it is definitely impossible to fake it. Even if the author wants to fake it, the publisher is not a fool and will check the authenticity.
"That Chinese guy actually had such connections that even Cormac McCarthy could get his hands on it!"
Galante took a deep breath and then explained: "That's right, he came to me at that time. At the time, I did not produce Cormac McCarthy’s recommendation letter. Otherwise, I would definitely consider giving him more royalties. “
“It’s too late to say this now, because of your mistake. We may have missed a best-selling book."
The boss snorted, and then said: "It would be fine if we didn't know about this book before, but the author was the first one to find us. But you rejected it, which caused us losses.
More importantly, if this book really becomes popular, wouldn’t it mean that our editors are ignorant of our professionalism? The standards will be questioned and the writers will lose trust in us!
And if our peers find out that we have not agreed on the percentage of royalties, then we will really become the laughing stock of our peers, and no writer with any ability will come to us to submit a manuscript. ”
In a cultural and creative industry like publishing, the loss of money is still secondary. What is really serious is the loss of reputation. You can make money again after the money is gone, but it is difficult to recover after the reputation is ruined.
In this situation, if an excellent work is delivered to your door but the publishing house does not accept it, it is obviously because the editor has no vision. Doesn’t this mean that this publishing house is amateur? < br>
Whether you are a writer or a colleague, you definitely want to cooperate with professionals. If you look so amateur, no one will want to talk to you.
It is not unforgivable for anyone to behave unprofessionally. You are not born a know-it-all, you can learn if you don’t understand!
But it would be foolish to reject a top-notch work just for a small percentage of royalties!
Just listen to the boss say: "I can accept that you are not professional enough, but I absolutely cannot accept your stupidity! If this book "The Thirst Game" really becomes popular, our entire Xuele Group will suffer. When you question it, you need to explain it to the board of directors!"
Galante was stunned, and the next second he understood the purpose of his boss, he was looking for a scapegoat!
If the follow-up sales of "The Thirst Game" are just average, but if the sales really explode, someone must take the responsibility for missing out on the hit.
If we don’t find someone to take the blame and give an explanation, the reputation of the entire Xuele Group will be damaged. At that time, peers will laugh at the Xuele Group, and writers will also ignore the Xuele Group.
In the publishing industry, works are the core resources. If excellent writers are not willing to submit their works to this publishing house, then this publishing house must be in trouble.
Finding a scapegoat to carry out the attack is tantamount to Cao Cao's campaign against Yuan Shu. He ran out of food halfway, so he borrowed the head of the grain officer Wang Jie to calm the morale of the army. As for the result of the scapegoat, one can imagine that even if he is not fired, he will be relegated to the sidelines.
The boss definitely doesn’t want to take this responsibility, so he can only bear the blame!
……
A week later, it’s time again for the New York Times to announce its bestseller list.
Gallant immediately bought a copy of the New York Times and found this week's bestseller list.
"Last week, "Thirst Game" was ranked eighth. I hope it won't move forward this week!" Galante thought to himself, and then looked directly at the eighth position.
"It's not "The Thirst Game"!" Galante's eyes began to glance upwards. The seventh place, the sixth place, and the fifth place were all not "The Thirst Game".
Just when Galante was about to breathe a sigh of relief, "The Thirst Game" finally came into Galante's sight.
"Third place!" Galante gasped.
In one week, it went from the eighth bestseller to the top three bestsellers!
The top three is a threshold. If a work can enter the top three, it means it has the potential to hit the first place.
And with the momentum of "Thirst Game", it doesn't seem to be difficult to hit the first place.
The scene of meeting Zhang Wei that day emerged in Galante's mind.
At that time, Galante only thought that "The Thirst Game" was an adventure novel of good quality, but he did not expect that this work would eventually become a hit!
Recalling that day, he was so awesome and coaxing that he was unwilling to let go even for one percent of the price. At this time, Galante wished that he could turn back time and go back to several times. Months ago, when I met Zhang Wei.
If I were not so arrogant and signed this book "The Thirst Game", then this best-selling novel would become my performance, and maybe it could help me get promoted and get a salary increase!
But now, it’s too late to regret it. I’ve definitely taken the blame!
……
At this time, Zhang Wei had returned to Tsingta University.
Meng Heming and all the professors from the Department of Biology stood at the door. After seeing Zhang Wei, they immediately greeted him.
“I look forward to the stars and the moon, and finally I hope you are back!”
“Professor Meng, are you looking forward to the results of the follow-up research on IPS cells?” Zhang Wei asked with a smile. .
“With you here, I can get whatever research results I want!” Meng Heming said quickly.
"If you are not in a hurry, I will rest for a few days and go back to my hometown."
"No, all the professors in the biology department are here to welcome you, you are not allowed to say more than a few words!"
>"I knew you wouldn't let me go. I've prepared everything you want. Let's go in and talk!" Zhang Wei waved his hand and followed Meng Heming to the conference room.
After arriving at the conference room, Zhang Wei was not polite, he sat directly in the middle and said; "Everyone must know about IPS cells, so I won't introduce them more.
As for the follow-up research on IPS cells, I am currently working on three projects, namely generating IPS cells with germline reproductive capacity, generating IPS cells using mouse liver cells and gastric cells, and generating IPS cells without virus vectors
<. br>
The relevant results were also published last month. I won’t elaborate on the specific content. They are all written in the paper. If you want to know more, you can come to me and we will discuss it slowly.
Concerning this IPS cell, there is still great potential for subsequent research. I also promised President Gu before that I would keep the core research at Tsingta University. So I will talk about this today.
Let’s first talk about the generation of IPS cells without virus vectors. The purpose of this research is mainly to improve the safety of IPS cells, so as to serve subsequent clinical experiments.
When I first induced IPS cells, I used retroviruses as gene vectors. Later, I collaborated with Professor Stapp’s team at Northwestern University to develop plasmids as gene vectors, which greatly reduced the carcinogenicity. .
But I have a bolder idea, which is to use other methods to induce and realize the reprogramming process of IPS cells without using vectors! ”
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of everyone present became serious. They all knew that directly inducing IPS cells without using carriers would bring a revolutionary progress to this research.
For example, this is equivalent to replacing a feature phone with a smartphone, which directly changes the ecosystem of the entire mobile phone industry and redefines the functions of mobile phones.
Zhang Wei continued: "Regarding this research, I plan to divide it into two projects: short-term and long-term. The short-term results will be produced relatively quickly, while the long-term results will be slower. The two projects At the same time.
For short-term projects, we need to experiment with transcription factor proteins to achieve induction effects. This will increase the safety of IPS cells, at least the oncogenes will be eliminated, and the risk of cancer will be eliminated.
For a long-term project, I hope to use small molecule compounds to induce IPS cells. Compared with traditional gene induction methods, small molecule compound induction will take less time, be more efficient, and the operation will be simpler and more efficient. Cost-effective, the key is that we can carry out precise control!
My ultimate goal is to achieve two goals. One is to get rid of the dependence of previous reprogramming methods on genetic manipulation, and the other is to achieve reversibility of the cell development process! ”
Hearing Zhang Wei put forward these two goals, everyone in the conference room gasped, and some people even showed surprised expressions, obviously frightened by Zhang Wei’s idea.< br>
It’s okay to get rid of dependence on genetic manipulation. This is a very important issue in genetics.
But the reversibility of cell development is a bit scary to think about. Yes!
We all know that embryonic stem cells can be transformed into any tissue cells, but this process is irreversible
What Zhang Wei calls reversible means that any tissue cells can be transformed back into embryonic stem cells. In other words, various cells such as muscles, blood, fat, skin, organs, nerves, etc. can be re-converted into stem cells.
This is equivalent to a process of rejuvenating cells. To put it bluntly, this completely violates the laws of biological growth.
This is like planting a seed and it will grow into a towering tree a few years later. How is it possible for this big tree to grow back to its original seed now?
Once this research is successful, does it mean that when a person gets old, he can use technological means to reverse the growth of his cells and eventually return to the state of a young adult?
Then humans have gained eternal life!
Qin Shihuang knew that there was such a good thing, wouldn't he have to climb out of the coffin, and even without you paying for it, he would have to make you a prince?
Looking at the surprised expressions of everyone, Zhang Wei showed a meaningful smile. Everyone's reaction was completely expected by him.
Based on the understanding in 2005, the reversibility of cell development is indeed beyond the normal biological understanding.
In this era, humans are still thinking about how to use embryonic stem cells to cultivate human tissues and organs, and then use them as replacement parts. How can anyone think about the reverse growth of cell development?
But in 2018, the scientific research team of Peking University really studied the reverse growth of cell development, using the three-factor transcription method of IPS cells.
Although it is just a mud town of cell development, there is still a long way to go before human beings can rejuvenate, and it may even never be realized, but this research is indeed a landmark achievement.
(End of this chapter)