Arthur Sulzberger put down the printed copy of the preface written by Bill Gates to "The World is Flat". A rare trace of surprise appeared on his face that had been calm for many years, and it soon disappeared without a trace.
He asked with interest: "Thomas, how did you convince him?"
"Arthur, you know, I have some friendship with him. Not only did I interview him, I am an honorary doctorate and visiting professor at Harvard. He is also from Harvard, although he dropped out of school."
Friedman leaned back and leaned on the back of his chair, and said proudly: "But the main content is the thoughts of Lu and I in the book. His Microsoft was inspired by our previous reports and entered the Chinese development market."
Arthur Sulzberger raised his lips and pointed out a paragraph in the manuscript that was dedicated to Lu Fei, "Then, how could he have such a good opinion of this Lu Fei whom he had never met before? Did you tell him?
"
"It's very simple. I told him that Lu is China's him, China's Bill Gates."
As soon as Friedman said this, Arthur Sulzberger laughed loudly, and the laughter of the two people spread throughout the office.
"good idea!"
Arthur Sulzberger was so happy that he almost burst into tears. If China’s Bill Gates wrote a best-selling book, wouldn’t he be even more awesome?
"With the addition of his preface, the number of first printings can be at least 50,000 more than the original number."
“How many copies does McGraw-Hill plan to print initially?”
"100,000 copies, you know, business and management books are not as popular as "Harry Potter" and other popular novels."
Arthur Sulzberger shrugged and said, "What's more, the first author is a Chinese businessman."
Friedman corrected: "China's Bill Gates."
"Sir, China's Bill Gates, the New York Times can help him promote and operate, but we also hope you can recommend your new book to Harvard. Now that universities are on spring break, there should be many lectures at the university."
"no problem!"
Friedman agreed immediately. He has honorary doctorates from five universities.
…………
The American book market sales account for one-third of the world's book market sales, and profit-oriented book publishing takes the lead.
Even if you promote some good books that do not make money, it will increase the quality and influence of the publishing house. Making money is the first priority. If the author of "The World is Flat" did not have Friedman, just with Lu Fei's reputation,
It is impossible for the first printing to reach even 3,000 copies, let alone distribute it to the most popular cities in the United States.
On average, the circulation in 40 important cities is 2,500 copies in each place.
New York, a Wal-Mart department store.
Gurgling, gurgling, the wheels of the cart rolled and made a slight sound.
Edward Zuckerberg pushed a cart and walked through the shelves with his wife Karen and daughter to shop. The shelves were full and the categories were complete.
While Karen and her daughter were buying toilet paper, he took the time to go to the book section. In fact, in the United States, most book sales are not in bookstores, but in retail hypermarkets. Major publishing houses rely on increasing discounts to sell books.
best seller.
He walked up to the shop and asked the clerk: "Are there any new books?"
The clerk enthusiastically introduced: "There are more than a dozen new books on the shelves these days, please follow me!"
Edward glanced at the new books on the bookshelf, "The Lovely Bones", "The Fourth Hand", and "The Nanny Diary". Each one passed before his eyes, and he was suddenly attracted by the weird and surprising book "The World is Flat".
The name attracts and the eyes are locked.
"This "The World is Flat" is the work of that famous scholar?"
The clerk introduced: "It's Thomas Friedman, the three-time Pulitzer Prize winner..."
Although Edward is a dentist, he is also a serious bookworm. Naturally, he is somewhat familiar with Friedman, whose name often appears in the "New York Times", and he immediately concluded that it was a good book with quality.
However, when I heard the clerk say in the second half of the sentence that he co-wrote it with a Chinese Internet elite, I couldn't help but be surprised.
"Who is this Lu?"
"Haven't you read the previous issues of the New York Times? He is China's Bill Gates! China's Jeff Bezos!"
"What?! China's Bill Gates? Jeff Bezos?"
Edward frowned and was doubtful. The last book he had read written by a Chinese was "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu.
"That's right, Bill Gates even wrote a preface to this book."
"Bill Gates?!"
"Yes." The clerk smiled.
The conversation between the two immediately attracted all the people around who were looking for books. After all, the title of the world's richest man is more attractive than the president.
Edward politely asked: "Can I look through it first?"
The clerk pulled out the unwrapped sample book and said, "Of course, please do."
Edward couldn't wait to open the title page and first read the preface by Bill Gates. He glanced at ten lines and saw that it read:
"As the world's best newspaper columnist, Friedman has the skill to describe in detail a large number of surprising phenomena in the world's economic life. He presents readers with the development speed and close cooperation of the global economy.
and complexity…”
"Huaxia Lu, who co-wrote with him, owns an Internet e-commerce similar to a combination of Amazon and eBay, and has social tools that rival Microsoft MSN's hundreds of millions of global users. At only 19 years old, he is comparable to me...
He analyzed the various phenomena raised by Friedman, found out the connections between them, and drew concise opinions based on them. The most important thing is not only the perspective of the United States, but also China. For anyone who wants to understand
This is a must-read for readers who are interested in the flattening of the world and where the process of globalization will take us."
The Chinese people that Bill Gates admires so much must be a master, and this book must be a good book!
Edward began to read the text, starting from the first chapter, and fell into it without realizing it, completely forgetting about Karen and her daughter.
After about ten minutes, the clerk finally couldn't help but remind him: "Sir, have you decided to buy it?"
"Ah? Oh, of course, please give me a copy."
As if Edward had found a treasure, he suddenly thought of his son who was obsessed with the Internet at home, and changed his words: "Give me two copies, thank you!"
"The World is Flat" has nearly 500 pages, and the complete set costs $22.50. It's not cheap, but it's not expensive either. For a middle-class family like his, it's a drop in the bucket.
Excitedly, he brought the book and went home with his wife and daughter without stopping. Then he went straight to his son's room and saw Zuckerberg hunched over, sitting in front of the computer, tinkering with his music program.
Perhaps due to Jewish genes, my son is very interested in computers and software programming, and he indulges it without restraint, because in this era, computers have great prospects.
Before, it was just intuition.
But now, after watching "The World is Flat", I fully support Zuckerberg's involvement in computers and the Internet.
"What's wrong, Daddy?" Zuckerberg asked confused.
"Mark, there is a new book about the Internet. It is very novel. I think you will like it."
Edward put the book on the table, patted his son on the back, roughly described the content of the book, and turned to leave.
Zuckerberg frowned and picked up the book. At first glance, he found it uninteresting. Then he put it down again. During the rare spring break, he wanted to study programming algorithms even more before returning to school.
But when I thought about Bill Gates's preface, I became curious again, so I couldn't help but pick it up again and flip through it casually.
I was dismissive of it at first, even though it included the Internet of Things, cloud computing, virtual reality, and iteration. These concepts were mentioned long ago in "Out of Control" and were just a piece of cake.
However, I slowly fell into it, and even if a maze screen saver appeared on the screen, I still read while reading, completely ignoring the passage of time.
"Ding-deng-deng~"
Suddenly, the msn prompt sounded on the speaker.
Zuckerberg trembled suddenly, his heart trembling with "dong dong dong". He looked back at the computer, and there was news from his roommate.
“So outdated!”
He complained disdainfully, and immediately thought of the qq mentioned by Lu Fei in the book, which connects China, which accounts for one-fifth of the world's population, across space and geography to build a social village, and his heart immediately surged.
Can I build a social platform?
Or, simply make an American version of QQ!
The thought came to mind, and I immediately replied to my roommate and turned into running water. I couldn't wait to recommend "The World is Flat" to my friends.
