At eight o'clock in the morning, after Li Qing and others had breakfast, they drove to the Barnes & Noble bookstore on Fifth Avenue in the city center.
This is a "super bookstore" with three floors of book stores, including an audio-visual merchandise center, an entire floor of children's book stores and a coffee shop.
In the early 1990s, Barnes & Noble proposed the concept of a "super bookstore" with a business area between 10,000 and 60,000 square feet, 60,000 to 200,000 kinds of books to choose from, and layouts for leisure and entertainment.
Functional space, in a sense, has revolutionized the book retail industry.
However, because of its chain nature, Barnes & Noble bookstores can negotiate with publishers to force their 700 bookstores to offer discounts on books to attract customers. This has made it difficult for countless independent bookstores throughout the United States to survive.
In the past ten years alone, nearly half of independent bookstores in the United States have closed down due to the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain. The remaining independent bookstores have joined forces and have been at the forefront of suing the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain, and
It's the kind of thing where you can't win no matter how you sue, but the owners of independent bookstores keep insisting on suing.
This situation still exists today.
Scholars Press is the largest children's book publisher in the United States. They cooperate with the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain and some other independent bookstores. However, because the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain has 700 stores, when signing the contract, the publisher
The society agrees that "Harry Potter" can be sold at a discount in the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain, as long as a certain profit ratio is guaranteed.
In fact, Scholars Press is also very helpless. As one of the world's top 500 companies, the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain almost monopolizes the entire book industry. Their voice in the book industry is unmatched by other publishing houses and independent bookstores.
, in this case, either you refuse to cooperate with Barnes & Noble, or you choose to accept the terms of Barnes & Noble.
If you accept it, you can still make money. If you don't accept it, you can only cooperate with independent bookstores.
The prices of independent bookstores are not advantageous, and many people go to Barnes & Noble bookstores as soon as they buy books.
You must know that the price of a genuine book is still a bit expensive nowadays. Ordinary people who want to buy books on a large scale still need to consider the thickness of their wallets.
What's more, if you want to hit the major book sales lists and make "Harry Potter" famous, you still need a large company with many stores and influence like Barnes & Noble to achieve both fame and fortune.
For Li Qing, the current cooperation with Barnes & Noble Bookstore is inevitable because he wants to sell the various copyrights of "Harry Potter" at a price that satisfies him.
Recently, many domestic and foreign film and television producers have been actively contacting Hanhai, and there are countless people who want to purchase various copyrights for the "Harry Potter" novel, especially the film and television rights.
However, Li Qing had his own ideas. He could wait for the time when "Harry Potter" could be sold.
Therefore, he chose to turn a blind eye to the olive branches offered by many film and television companies.
And this opportunity is after the release of the American version of "Harry Potter". Through cooperation with the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain, we want to make "Harry Potter" set off a violent magic in New York, the United States, just like it did in London, England.
storm.
According to the information Li Qing learned in his previous life, the sales volume of "Harry Potter: The Philosopher's Stone" alone in the UK and the United States exceeded 150 million.
Now, in the UK, the first two volumes of "Harry Potter" have only sold 600,000 copies, which is still far from the extremely majestic figure of 150 million.
According to what Li Qing knows, the real rise of the "Harry Potter" series was achieved after the release of the American version.
This is also the reason why all walks of life around the world attach great importance to the U.S. market.
This is like a huge signal base station through which everyone can connect to the target signal.
Even Li Qing, who is very popular in the UK, did not receive the same high treatment as yesterday when he came to the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain to hold a book signing event.
Although the service staff in the bookstore are very enthusiastic, it can be seen that some of them do not know Li Qing and do not know how popular "Harry Potter" is.
In addition to the fact that the new books shelf area of the Barnes & Noble bookstore is filled with books about "Harry Potter: The Philosopher's Stone", and the news about the release of "Harry Potter" is frequently scrolled on the electronic screen at the conspicuous place at the door.
Apart from that, there was no other welcome ceremony.
Under the arrangement of the service staff, Li Qing and others went all the way to the cafe on the left front of the third floor.
This is where many writers and artists sign autographs.
It is worth mentioning that Barnes & Noble does not only sell books, but also has nearly one-fifth of the area on the second floor selling genuine albums.
There are also people coming and going, there are dedicated listening areas and service staff, and it looks very lively.
If Li Qing releases records in the United States in the future, he will most likely perform a signing event as a singer in a similar Barnes & Noble bookstore.
"Please take a seat." The service staff came to a signing table and said to Li Qing with a smile.
At this time, on the left side of the cafe, there were some customers who came to take a rest. At this moment, they were looking curiously at Li Qing, who walked into the cafe amid the crowd.
On the right is the location of Li Qing's autograph session.
At the book signing, nearly a hundred book fans were already standing densely packed, including blacks, whites, and Asians. When they saw Li Qing arriving, they all waved to Li Qing excitedly.
However, noise was prohibited in the bookstore. Although they were excited, these book fans still restrained their inner impulses and stayed where they were, waiting for the book signing to begin, which showed excellent personal quality.
"Is that all these people?"
Yu Zhenzhen, who was accompanying him, stuck out his tongue and said something strange.
Xue Yan made a "shush" gesture and whispered: "Maybe everyone hasn't arrived yet!"
Liu Qin also felt very strange and couldn't help but ask Doris in English: "There seem to be very few book fans here. Our boss was signing a book in the UK yesterday, and tens of thousands of people lined up..."
Liu Qin's tone was slightly arrogant, revealing a hint of showing off.
To a normal person, tens of thousands of people queuing up for signatures is indeed a record worth showing off.
But this made Li Qing very embarrassed.
He is not a high-profile person. With such an awesome historical record, alas, let it go with the wind...
Doris blinked and said jokingly: "Maybe it's because the publicity is not enough, and the book fans are on the road?"
"It's not on the road, it's because we have a limit on the number of people who can sign in here. Many Leesin fans are waiting outside to queue up, and only fifty people are allowed in at a time."
Next to him, a bookstore service staff couldn't help but said: "Your fans are waiting in line in front of the checkout counter. There are many, many people, exceeding our store manager's estimate. When we opened in the morning, we were all shocked.
The store manager didn't even have time to come over now, he is helping to maintain the scene in front of the cashier."
Li Qing heard this and looked at Doris.
Taurus said innocently: "This is also the first time I know the rules of Barnes & Noble."
After Li Qing sat down, the autograph session began immediately.
The crowd in line also began to move slowly.
"Hi, Leesin, can we take a photo together? You know, I'm your fan."
The first person waiting for the book signing was a black man, holding seven or eight copies of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in his arms. When he smiled, he showed unusually white teeth: "I've been here since six o'clock in the morning.
We started queuing up here.”
"sure."
Li Qing readily accepted it, stood up immediately, and under the arrangement of the staff, picked up the Polaroid and took a photo with the black guy.
The black man held the photo in his hand and grinned: "Thank you, I will keep this photo forever."
The black guy set a precedent. When it was everyone else's turn, they all asked for a group photo. In the end, Liu Qin, Doris and others couldn't stand it anymore, so they set a rule: they could only buy five dollars at a time.
Only fans of "Harry Potter" above will have the opportunity to take photos with Li Qing.
In this way, the photo rate will be greatly reduced.
Not long after, most of the nearly a hundred book fans in front of me disappeared.
When Li Qing saw this situation, he asked with some uncertainty: "Is there someone else?"
"certainly!"
The service staff next to him heard this and quickly took out the intercom from his hand: "Call number three, call number three, we can let a group of customers in."
Li Qing looked at him blankly.
Not long after, dozens of people in different costumes walked quickly to the entrance of the third floor, but all held a copy of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in their hands. After seeing the autograph signing line on the right side of the cafe,
, one by one suddenly accelerated their pace in excitement——
ps: Today’s update is enough. Can you please support me with a monthly pass? Okay... Tears, can you also give me the guaranteed monthly pass tomorrow?