It sounds a bit shabby. The National Book Reviewers Association Award does not even have a prize. The gilded trophy that Lin Chaoyang received from John Updike is already the biggest material reward for winning the award.

Of course, for writers, the biggest benefit of winning is never the prize money.

As one of the three major literary awards in the United States, the Book Reviewer Award has a very high appeal among American readers.

In addition to the writer's reputation, winning the award will also bring about the hot sale of works.

According to incomplete statistics, after the list of winners of Book Reviewers Awards is announced every year, the sales of novel winning works will increase by at least 300,000 copies.

This number is worth mentioning compared to Lin Chaoyang's best-selling works, but for most pure literary writers, it is already a very high sales.

Holding the trophy in his hand, Lin Chaoyang looked at the audience.

The business area of ​​Wall Street restaurant is not large and the award ceremony is not grand. Apart from a background board for writers to take photos, no arrangements related to the award ceremony can be found.

However, the emotional value given by nearly 100 guests at the scene was very high, and the warm applause lasted for more than half a minute.

Then slowly calm down.

Everyone looked at Lin Chaoyang quietly, waiting for the writer from a foreign country to deliver his award speech.

"Good evening, all literary fellows——"

Such a unique title instantly aroused applause and cheers from the guests present, and everyone looked at Lin Chaoyang with a little more anticipation.

"Thank you very much to the association and all the judges for their recognition of "Ambren Hunter", although some people say you should have awarded this award to me last year."

The scene suddenly burst into laughter.

"Dallas Buyers Club" was out of the dark last year, and it caused a lot of controversy at the time.

Now Lin Chaoyang is re-introducing the old story, which is a bit of a sarcastic association, but his attitude is generous. Several judges present smiled bitterly and could only regard this as the moment of declaration that the winner deserves.

"Don't mind, this is just a joke. As for awards, I have done this before and I often get scolded."

Lin Chaoyang only said a few short words, and the scene burst into laughter, and the atmosphere was harmonious and pleasant.

After a while, he curled his smile and looked solemn. The guests on the scene looked at him more seriously. Everyone knew that the next thing was the key.

"Two years ago, when I was writing the first line of text with a fountain pen in a study room in Xiangjiang where the fragrance of tea all day long, the sound of rushing tides vaguely came from outside the window.

At that time, I never expected that this story about life and promise would travel through the iron walls of language and arouse such profound resonance in the hearts of all the judges.

Literature always touches our hearts inadvertent moments. We write for records and witnesses. When you choose to let this text full of vitality, courage and love come into the hall, it also fulfills its mission.

And tonight, when my hands touched the trophy made by stars, I seemed to touch countless souls wandering in literary history like ghosts.

The sighs of the forgotten, the whispers of the hidden, and the struggles of the disciplined, are now turned into the weight of my palm.

The weight of this trophy at this moment comes from those sunken lives that have not been salvaged by literature.

May literature continue to guide us!

Thanks!"

After saying his remarks, Lin Chaoyang bowed, and thunderous applause sounded again from the audience.

Unlike before, many people are respected from the bottom of their hearts this time.

Lin Chaoyang's speech was brilliant and revealed a strong humanistic care. He paid tribute to the unknown creators on the most glorious stage, showing the pattern of great writers.

After making his speech, Lin Chaoyang stepped down and was dragged to the interview area before he could share the joy with Tao Yushu.

The news media that literary awards can attract will definitely not be as many as the Oscars. There are more than a dozen media outlets present today.

The biggest brands are the New York Times and the New Yorker.

In addition, Xin H News and Ming Pao also sent reporters to witness Lin Chaoyang's award.

The process of group recruitment is very fast and it ends in less than twenty minutes.

The biggest award tonight, and the final award, was completed and the interview ended, which means that the award ceremony came to an end.

On the way back to the hotel, Tao Yushu looked left and right with the newly won trophy, his eyebrows and eyes were filled with joy, and asked Lin Chaoyang again: "When did you write your comments? You are well prepared!"

"What else is going to prepare? You're just talking. I must show off when you are off the stage!" Lin Chaoyang said with a stern look.

Tao Yushu gave him a angrily glance and touched the trophy happily.

The next day, Lin Chaoyang stood up and the work intensity was too high this day.

There was no one around him, so Tao Yushu left him a note saying that he would go to Blockbuster headquarters to discuss cooperation today.

Lin Chaoyang had breakfast himself and didn't go out because he still had two exclusive interviews today.

In the evening he received a call from Robert Gottlieb saying he wanted to hold a celebration party.

"Celebration Party" is of course a joke, but it is actually a gathering between friends.

However, Lin Chaoyang had just won the Book Review Award, and it was very popular. When he arrived at Robert Gottlieb's home on Long Island the next day, he was surrounded by people to ask about his thoughts on winning the award.

The day after attending the party, Lin Chaoyang flew to Los Angeles by plane.

Blockbuster's headquarters is in Colorado. After Tao Yushu negotiated the cooperation, he went back to Los Angeles directly.

The couple gathered at the mansion in Mulholland Road. Lin Chaoyang asked about Tao Yushu's cooperation, and she was not very interested.

Blockbuster was founded in 1985 and started its business with videotape rental. It took only 10 years to open 8,000 stores across the United States. You can almost see Blockbuster in any small town in the United States.

Today, Blockbuster is at its peak and has reached exclusive cooperation with all Hollywood studios to ensure that the latest blockbusters of these studios can be seen by their customers at the first time.

But since it is the overlord of videotapes, the conditions for cooperation are naturally not very favorable for Lin's Pictures.

Tao Yushu doesn't like this feeling of "artificially making Sister Dao, I'm fishing", let alone in her opinion, videotape rental is one of the powerful tools for profits in the film industry.

You should know that Blockbuster's revenue last year had approached the $4 billion mark. What does this mean? The total box office of the US film market last year was only $5.4 billion.

In fact, since 1988, the annual revenue of videotape rental in the US film market has reached US$5.15 billion, while the box office revenue at that time was only US$4.46 billion, and this number has continued to increase in the past two years.

It is impossible for Tao Yushu to be so fat without being jealous of it.

Unfortunately, Blockbuster is now a behemoth in the American film industry and can't even buy it if you have money.

What’s even more terrifying is that Blockbuster is still expanding at a super fast speed. Their goal is to expand the number of stores to 10,000 within three years.

In this high-intensity competitive environment, even if Tao Yushu is willing to enter the game, it is difficult to break the situation.

She habitually talked about her inner anxiety to Lin Chaoyang. Lin Chaoyang comforted her gentle words: "Manpower is sometimes poor, and you can't always think about putting everything into your own control. Even if you can't master it, can you cooperate and make money?"

Tao Yushu sighed, "I know these things. But it is better to have them in your own hands than to have them in others' hands, right?

The intellectual property protection in the North American market is much stronger than that in the mainland, and videotape rental is the most important source of income after the screening."

Seeing her so worried, Lin Chaoyang said, "Did you notice the DVD technology displayed by Sony at the Las Vegas International Consumer Electronics Exhibition in the past two months?"

"I know that, it sounds beautiful.

But the implementation of any technology is not completed in one or two days, not to mention that the VHS video tape format is now at its peak, so it is not so easy to replace.

I think the market share of DVD video tapes is unlikely to surpass VHS video tapes within ten years. Besides, even if there is a format dispute, it will not affect Blockbuster's dominance in the video tape rental industry."

Lin Chaoyang shook his head, "You don't understand what I mean. What I want to say is that many times those industry overlords seem to be powerful, but they are actually vulnerable in the face of new business models or technological innovations."

Tao Yushu savored her husband's words carefully and felt that it was not without reason, but what does these two things have to do?

Lin Chaoyang turned on the computer at home and entered a URL BookStacksUnlimited.com.

The name of this website can be translated as "Infinite Book Library". It was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1992. It is the earliest online book retailer in the United States.

Tao Yushu slides the mouse and asks: "You mean we can try to sell videotapes online? Find a different approach in marketing model?"

Lin Chaoyang shook his head, "No. Video tape market sales only account for a small share, and rental is the big one."

He smiled self-deprecatingly, and Tao Yushu focused on his mind.

Lin Chaoyang is right. In the United States, there will be a Blockbuster store within a 10-15-minute drive, and no competitor can defeat Blockbuster in terms of convenience.

The fundamental reason why the videotape rental industry in the United States is so developed is the high price of its videotapes.

The price of a videotape is 70 or 80 dollars, which is far beyond the affordability of ordinary users, and is destined to be a collection hobby for a few people.

Therefore, the market for videotape sales in the United States is far smaller than the rental market. In other words, leasing is the focus of occupying the market.

Lin's Pictures has its own theater chain in Xiangjiang and also has videotape sales and rental stores, but Xiangjiang is small and has a dense population, so the experience there is not suitable for the United States.

The rental price of videotapes in the United States is generally between US$3 and US$4. A VHS videotape is calculated at US$80 and needs to be transferred at least 20 times to make a profit. This has not yet been counted as store rental, labor, water, electricity, taxes, postage, loss and other costs.

Thinking of this, Tao Yushu couldn't help frowning. This road seemed a little unworkable.

Suddenly, she thought of the DVD that Lin Chaoyang mentioned just now, and suddenly she was blessed to her heart.

She has some knowledge of DVD technology and knows that this video format can easily load the content that a heavy VHS video tape can carry into a thin disc.

If the VHS video tape is converted into DVD video tape, then the postage alone can save a lot of money.

But the most important thing is the price of video tape, and the price of DVDs must be continued.

She then thought of the authorization fee for DVD video tape production, promotion and sales of DVD players, and mailing routes—

Tao Yushu is a smart person, and it is no problem to learn from one example. However, when faced with such a strange thing, he couldn't help but feel at a loss.

"I want to do a survey!" she said suddenly.

Lin Chaoyang smiled, "Okay, then I'll accompany you."
To be continued...