Chapter 490 A Novel that Will Surely Be a Bestseller

After talking to them on the phone, Zhou Yan did not work anymore and went to bed directly. He was quite tired after running around all day.

It was just 12:30 p.m. in New York time when Zhou Yan went to bed.

Harry Kane was playing ball with his friends outside when he suddenly received a call from Zhang Youan. He took his club back home before finishing the game.

At almost two o'clock, a young man rang his doorbell and gave him a manuscript.

Harry Kane was overjoyed to receive the manuscript. He started to look through the manuscript in his hand before he even walked to the sofa.

This is the English manuscript of Zhou Yan's new book "Shutter Island". Harry Kane has been waiting for this manuscript for some time, so he couldn't wait to come back as soon as Zhang Youan called him.

The story of the novel is set in a mental hospital called Boston Bay, where some criminals who have become mentally ill due to serious crimes are detained.

This closed and mysterious mental hospital is like a bottomless black hole, attracting countless eyes. Once you step into it, you will find yourself trapped in an endless mystery.

A missing case occurred on the island, and federal policeman Teddy and his partner were sent to the island to investigate the missing case.

However, Teddy's purpose of this trip was not simple. In addition to investigating the missing case, he also wanted to find the murderer who killed his wife and children on the island.

But the process of finding the murderer was not easy. As the investigation deepened, Teddy discovered that there seemed to be some unspeakable secrets on the island.

And these secrets were all related to the murderer he wanted to find.

...

The rhythm of the novel was better than Harry Kane expected. He originally thought that traditional writers like Zhou Yan would explore human nature more and ignore the development of the story when writing such detective novels.

But the facts were completely opposite to what he expected. The pace of the novel was very fast, with almost no extension, allowing readers to immerse themselves in the story. The writing style was not like those writers at all.

Harry Kane was led step by step into the mystery by the words of the novel. Many things seemed to have clues, but they were all hidden in the fog and could not be seen clearly.

And every time Harry Kane felt that he was about to grasp the truth, he found that there was another reversal. The key was that each reversal was very smooth.

In addition, the narrative perspective of the novel is very flexible, always interweaving between Teddy's memories and reality, which makes people feel more confused.

This sense of dislocation should be specially designed by Y to challenge the reader's thinking.

Every seemingly simple and irrelevant plot may be closely connected with the truth. Harry Kane dare not slack off for fear of missing important clues.

In a trance, Harry Kane felt that he was competing with a certain object in intelligence.

But this object is uncertain.

He may have put himself in the shoes of the protagonist Teddy and was competing with the mastermind behind everything.

It may also be from the perspective of the reader, competing with the author.

There is even a possibility that he is competing with the protagonist Teddy.

The last possibility makes Harry Kane feel most confused and even horrified.

Until the end, when Harry Kane saw the truth of the ending, he suddenly realized that it was no wonder that he felt like he was competing with the protagonist. It turned out that all this was fake.

The murderer who killed his wife and he was looking for was actually himself.

When Harry Kane saw this paragraph, his reaction was almost the same as the protagonist's. He couldn't believe it.

Yes, he couldn't believe it.

In fact, looking back now, the protagonist seemed to have vaguely realized, or recalled who he was, but he was unwilling to accept it in his subconscious mind.

Thinking of this, Harry Kane felt his scalp tingling.

He obviously didn't understand this point while reading the novel, but he had the same feeling as the protagonist in his subconscious mind.

Many details in the previous section can confirm all this.

Recalling some of the previous details, Harry Kane turned the manuscript to the front again and began to find the details he had just seen one by one to confirm.

After Harry Kane sorted out the previous details again, he was more and more impressed by the power of Y's new book, and the details were done perfectly.

It was because of such perfect detail processing that he was tightly pulled by the plot when reading the novel, and the protagonist's deep feelings were also projected onto him.

It was also because of these details that the subsequent reversal was both sudden and reasonable.

As a professional who has been immersed in the book industry for many years, Harry Kane knows that the sales of this novel cannot be bad.

First of all, its quality is excellent and very special.

The quality of the book is one aspect, and the story is more important.

Many good books may not be able to get good sales, but special books are often very popular.

Besides, Harry Kane knows that the movie adapted from this novel is already in preparation.

This means that "Shutter Island" has a unique advantage in the early promotion.

And even if there is no movie, the name Y alone is attractive enough.

Although Y is almost unknown in the American book industry, he is famous in the music and film and television industries.

American readers are very interested in celebrities writing books across industries and are willing to support them.

After most people become celebrities, they will eventually go one way - selling books.

However, most of the books sold by celebrities are their autobiographies or some review articles.

It's very rare for someone like Y to write a novel in such a serious way.

At that time, not only the fans of Y will support it, but also other people who like to join in the fun. Everyone will also be curious about what it is like for a musician to write a novel.

…

Harry Kane thought about it for a while, then picked up the phone and dialed.

Soon, the call was connected, and a rich man's voice came from the other side, "Hello."

"Dante, it's me, Harry." Harry Kane smiled.

The man opposite also smiled, "Harry, why did you call me suddenly?"

"Of course because I want to chat with you."

"Harry, you know, I don't mind chatting with you for a while, but I know you definitely didn't make this call just to chat with me. Tell me, what is it?"

"I have a friend who wants to publish a book, so I'm calling you to ask."

"A book?" Dante's voice was full of surprise, "It's just a book, and it actually asked you to call me?"

Harry Kane smiled. On the other end of the phone was Dante Self, head of the business book department of Bantam Books Group.

If it were just an ordinary book, it really wouldn't be worth calling Dante personally, but "Shutter Island" is not an ordinary novel, and its author is even less ordinary.

"Dante, do you know Y-chou?" Harry Kevin asked.

"Y-Chou? It sounds familiar, but I forgot where I heard it."

Dante Self doesn't pay much attention to the music industry, so he doesn't know much about Y-chou. He may have heard his name in the news occasionally but didn't write it down.

"Y is a very outstanding musician. He just won the Oscar for Best Score this year. In addition, he composed Mariah Carey's "Young and Beautiful" and "Some Like You."

"Oh, I remember these two songs were written by a Chinese, right?"

These two songs are so popular that even if Dante Self doesn’t usually pay attention to the music industry, he is familiar with this song.

Moreover, "Someone Like You" is still very popular recently, and it is still on the list every week, but it just doesn't always dominate the top of the list when it first came out.

The song "Someone Like You" set a record. After the single was released, it stayed at the top for 17 consecutive weeks, becoming the single with the longest consecutive championship.

This record is very scary, because there are only fifty-two weeks in a year, and a song must win one-third of the weekly championships, which means that this song has undisputed dominance that year.

The key is that being number one for seventeen weeks also means one thing, that is, this song must have been on the chart for far more than seventeen weeks.

It couldn't be number one in the seventeenth week and fall off the list in the eighteenth week.

Under normal circumstances, after falling from the first place, you can basically stay at the top of the list for a while.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the past few months, the song that has been heard most in the streets and alleys is "Someone Like You".

Of course, "Young and Beautiful" has not been listened to less. Although this song has not been released for a long time, it has already become a classic song.

Now Mariah Carey will sing these two songs whether she is performing in a commercial or singing.

Hearing that Dante Self knew some information about Zhou Yan, Harry Kane laughed and said, "Yes, he is a Chinese. I think he is also the Chinese with the highest sales of music albums, or an Asian." ”

"His results are indeed amazing, but why do you suddenly want to talk about him?" Dante Self asked strangely.

"Because Y-chou is the author of this book."

"Oh, I understand." Dante Self felt that he had understood the situation. "He wrote an autobiography and wanted to publish it?"

"No, no, no, if he just wants to publish an autobiography, there is no need for me to call you."

"Not an autobiography? Is that a storytelling article?"

"It's a novel, a suspense novel."

"Suspense novel?" Dante Self became a little interested.

He knew that if it were just an autobiography, there would be no gimmicks at all.

But it would be more fascinating if the famous musician wrote a suspense novel.

"Yes, a suspense novel, and a very good suspense novel. I forgot to tell you that Y-chou is not just a musician, he is actually a well-known writer. His novels are popular in China and Neon. It is very well-known. The film "Tree Hole" that won the Special Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival a few days ago was adapted from his film of the same name."

Dante Self was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped, "You mean, he is also a novelist? The kind whose movie adaptation of the novel won an award at the Berlin Film Festival?"

"Well, he has a high reputation in China's literary world."

Harry Kane said this very skillfully. Zhou Yan is indeed very well-known in the Chinese literary world, but his popularity is not entirely due to his few novels, but more to his other identities.

But when Dante Self listens to it, he will think that Zhou Yan's works have a strong influence in China.

Of course, even though they were old colleagues, it was impossible for Dante to believe whatever Harry Kane said. He would definitely verify some information.

However, for things like winning the Berlin Film Festival, Dante has basically believed it, because this kind of information is so easy to check, and there is absolutely no need for Harry Kane to lie about this kind of thing.

If it is true as Harry Kane said, then Y-chou's new book does have great potential, and it is indeed worthy of Harry Kane's call.

At this time, Dante had already started to get interested. Although their Bantam Group was the leader in the industry, they also focused on performance. There was no way he would let go of a work like this that was destined to be a best-seller.

"Harry, let's do this. I'll ask James to contact you... No, you should just show me the manuscript of the novel."

James is the editor-in-chief of the editorial department. Normally, James is responsible for reading the manuscripts, but this time Dante decided to read it himself.

On the one hand, he is very interested in this novel, and on the other hand, he is trying to show off Harry Kane. After all, Harry Kane has already taken the initiative to call.

Although Harry Kane no longer works for the group, his career is getting better and better, and he is still their client. This relationship must still be maintained.

"Okay, I'll send it to you in a moment. Also, I want to tell you something."

"What happened?"

"This novel has been chosen by Warner Bros. to be adapted into a movie. The preparations for the movie are now basically completed and filming will start in a while. By the way, the director is Martin Scorsese."

"What, the film adaptation has been confirmed?" Dante's voice suddenly rose an octave higher.

With a novel about to be adapted into a movie directed by someone like Martin Scorsese, Dante Self knows what that means.

As long as nothing unexpected happens, it will definitely be a best-selling novel.

After hearing that the novel had been adapted into a movie, Dante Self became even more interested in the novel.

"Harry, you must come today."

Harry Kane smiled and said, "Haha, just prepare the coffee and wait for me."

"No problem. When you come, I will make you coffee myself."

…

Harry Kane didn't waste any time and went to Dante Self's office with the manuscript that afternoon.

After Dante Self finished reading "Shutter Island," he hugged the manuscript tightly and refused to let go.

He said that he was bound to get this novel, and the conditions were just open.

However, Harry Kane said that he was only responsible for bringing the book to Bantam. As for the specific negotiation of terms, Y-chou's agent would have to come.

Dante was afraid of a long night and many dreams, so he asked Harry Kane to call Zhang Youan on the spot.

After the phone call, the two parties roughly understood each other's wishes, but the specific conditions had to be discussed further.

The two parties had a fairly pleasant conversation. Although they did not completely reach an agreement, they had basically figured out the other party's bottom line, and they were sure that they could accept the other party's bottom line. (End of chapter)