Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: Zhu Jiayin

Sister Huang is one of the sources of publications in the game industry in the second channel. If you have ever bought a game magazine from a newsstand, you have dealt with Sister Huang indirectly.

Around 2001, I was still working as an editor in a game magazine. After being introduced, I met Sister Huang. The name is widely heard in the publishing circle of computer and game magazines, and all books and magazines related to games are basically inextricable from Sister Huang.

We went to her store in Sweet Water Garden, the largest wholesale book market in Beijing, a four-or five-story building divided into rooms with all kinds of books in each room. That's where almost all books and periodicals in Beijing are sold through two channels. We walked through bundles of Wang Xiaobo's selected works and DK World Gem Atlas, through mountain-high recipes, youth novels and comics. Then I met Sister Huang.

Sister Huang is not a publisher in the traditional sense, but at least in the field of game magazines and books, in China, you can't get around Sister Huang. She controls the distribution of almost all game magazines in the country, and she is the source of almost all game magazines you know (which is not an exaggeration).

The process of a magazine, from editing and publishing to being bought by readers, is more complicated than most people think. After editing and typesetting, the manuscript is turned into typesetting file output, and then sent to the printing plant, after printing, it will enter the sales channel. The earliest sales channels are Post (that is, subscriptions, an one-year fee, and the postman delivers magazines to your mailbox at a fixed time every month) and Xinhua Bookstore. After 1990, private capital entered the field of publishing, and all kinds of newsstands appeared in the streets. In order to distinguish from Post and Xinhua Bookstore, newsstands and private small bookstores are called "two channels". Sister Huang is one of the sources of gaming industry publications in the second channel. If you have ever bought a game magazine from a newsstand-whether it is "popular software", "home computer and games" or "game console practical technology", then you have dealt with Sister Huang indirectly.

Nowadays, the rise, prosperity and decline of booksellers and retail channels in Beijing Sweet Water Garden Book Culture Port is a very interesting topic. It involves a wide range of stories, from the fate of private capital to the rise of retail, to the squeeze of physical channels by the Internet, and even to the municipal planning of some cities (after 2005, there has been a craze to cancel street kiosks in major Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, with the aim of building clean and hygienic cities, but this article does not want to discuss these grand issues. In fact, Sister Huang's contribution to the entire Chinese game industry is no less than any name we have ever heard, so her story is also worth knowing.

Half a month ago, we chatted with Sister Huang all morning in a teahouse near Dayue City in Chaoyang. Maybe this could be the beginning of a series of oral history-we try to find people who have had some or even important influence on the Chinese gaming industry and who have never been known, and ask them to tell stories about their past.

The following is Sister Huang's own account that we have made appropriate deletions and corrections.

1 A magazine to the reader's hand, from writing the article to editing and typesetting, and then to the printing factory, after printing through the distribution department, it came to our secondary wholesalers. Our secondary wholesalers are aimed at all parts of the country, through local newsstands, post offices, social bookstores, and book stalls, and finally deliver magazines to readers.

For example, "Volkswagen Software" gave us a 35% discount at that time, and then we sent it next, the discount was 70%, 75%, 80% off. Different discounts provide different services. 7 fold tube distribution, you have to give distribution 5 points, he has to ride a bike to send all over the newsstand. If you go to our store, you will get a 25% discount, depending on the quantity of goods you take. If you take 50 or 100 copies, it is a 25% discount. If you take one or two copies, it must be a 20% discount.

For quite a long time, newsstands are the main way for people to buy magazines. There is also the difference between general generation and regional agents. The general agent is the national general agent, and the regional agent is the agent for a region. For example, if you are from Beijing, you must get the goods from the general agent in Beijing. You cannot go to Tianjin to get the goods. There are also differences in these discounts. For example, in a certain city, the regional agent takes the goods at a discount of 35%, and the total agent takes the goods at a 45% discount, because you have to set aside profits for each link, and you can't send them down without leaving profits. I also have to make money, right? But it can't be too outrageous. If you leave too little profit to the distributor below, he won't dare to restock. Because the profit he asks for is relatively high, about 20% to 25%. Why is the profit so high? Because he is taking the risk, if he can't sell out in the end, the book will be in his hands.

When the publications on the market are too saturated, people have to work hard to keep up with the volume in order to catch up with advertisements. At that time, there will be a certain return ratio, for example, 10% to 15%, and I will return the books that cannot be sold. This is all discussed, I discuss with you, we both bear part of the return, you take how many copies I can only return to you, more I do not return, you bear.

Selling publications is more troublesome than selling books because it is timely. Weekly, semimonthly, monthly. Books do not have timeliness, books can be sold for a year and half a year, but not publications. Most of the time, it is difficult to grasp anyone, it depends on your coordination, very tired. So to be honest, sales is the hardest, because I have been on the front line, coordinate the national market, and transfer goods as soon as they don't sell well. Where sold out, where can not sell, to transfer goods, the book to callback.

Now there is Wechat, so where is Wechat? It was the phone, and then there was QQ, right? They all need to be contacted one by one. There are several people in my shop and a lot of people in the storeroom. what do they do? Each person is in charge of several periodicals, and when the goods arrive, they call one by one to count the sales volume of the whole country. To call the following dealer, set the quantity, you (dealer) say I have no problem, OK, if you have any more problems, you will solve them yourself.

I've been in this business for 20 years. I opened the shop on July 16, 1997, and my son was born on April 16. Less than a hundred days after giving birth, I opened the shop. Until the end of 2017, I gave the store to my sister, and more than a year later, there was an epidemic.

When I opened the shop, I lived like this every day: I left home at 5 o'clock in the morning, arrived at the office after 5 o'clock, bought some breakfast first, and then turned on the computer after eating. You have to pay the bill. We have to figure out who to marry today and who to tie the knot tomorrow. After the checkout list was finished, I went to the warehouse. It was about 7 o'clock when I got to the warehouse, and the warehouse had already started to deliver the goods.

I have to keep an eye on all this. I can't make a mistake or miss it. If you stop there, they will give you care. Why don't you stand there for two days? If you get used to it, they can form a habit. I'm very serious, and they're still afraid of me at work. When the delivery is finished, then it's time to go to the store and open the door at 8 o'clock. I went to the store and watched the goods shipped.

Many game periodicals will be accompanied by CDs, which make packaging and transportation more difficult. Today, this magazine comes, and when the manufacturer comes tomorrow, I want to have a look at the store. In addition, my partners also want to come to the store. There are too many. I'm coming here every day. Let's have a chat and go out for dinner. I have 365 days a year. I don't have any Saturdays or Sundays. I schedule some things to Saturday and Sunday.

Usually I stay in the store until more than 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and then I go back to the office and call everyone to communicate. Everything happens. Then go out, go to the editor, which editorial department to go to, talk about cooperation. That's it. It's all like that.

It's about 9 o'clock when I get home. Sometimes I may go out and chat with my friends. It's usually 10:00 when I get home, and 12:00 is normal. Make an appointment today and make an appointment tomorrow. It will be 10:00 as soon as we finish dinner. There was no subway at that time. I lived in Wangfujing. I got home at 10:00 after 11:00. Won't it be 12:00 after washing and doing?

I've been doing this almost every day for more than 20 years. My mother thought I was too tired and advised me all day. I haven't been idle. Our child called me aunt before the age of 3, but not mother at all. New Year's Eve, suddenly the books I made myself came, and I had to install the CD by myself. The printer had to have a holiday and didn't install it. I installed it myself. I put the CD and the magazine together and sealed it with a plastic bag. New Year's Eve, the New year's Eve dinner is ready. I want to sell more than a hundred thousand copies of that book. The staff are gone, my family old and young have to go, their own installation of more than a hundred thousand, parents have to go.

I'm so tired. You want to grab the market, you want to be the boss, you have to be tired, you know. If you want to wait for the printing factory to start work and install the CD for others, can they pay attention to it? When things come back, the CD is in a mess. Can he be responsible for it?

I am from Shandong. I came to Beijing on September 13, 1990. I was 19 at the time. At that time, I was injured and couldn't study any more. I came to Beijing to work before graduating from high school.

I couldn't continue to go to school at that time. It was very painful, but I had to find a way out. I thought of coming to Beijing for a break, just do it, or go back if I can't. I came with two classmates, but they went back after less than two months. They are not as lucky as me. After I came here, I met an aunt, and up to now we are still very close. She said to me, "I'll train you," and then applied for a vocational high school.

The vocational high school is on Wanshou Road. I worked while I was reading. At that time, my job was mailing (postal distribution), writing envelopes and pasting envelopes in the China National Book Import and Export Corporation. Handwritten envelopes have to be affixed, sent to the post office, and then started publishing newspapers. I've been doing this for three years.

Even now, we can still subscribe to newspapers and periodicals through the postal system. I have not been idle for three years and got my vocational high school diploma. I resigned less than a year after I got my diploma, when I was 24 years old and started fighting on my own.

My shop was on the other side of the Sweet Water Garden from the beginning. The Sweet Water Garden Market was only established in 1997, and I opened a shop there in July 1997. I picked up someone else's store, and after I took it, I started to do periodicals. At the beginning of selling perpetual calendar, birthday eight characters, Shakespeare, Zizhi Tongjian, Sanyan Erpai, Gulong's novels, so began to sell blindly.

At that time, there were only 70 or 80 merchants in the whole market, and the goods were not exclusive. Whoever had the goods, he would give the goods, and the goods were almost the same. Everyone was very friendly when your family sold out of his home. Slowly the market came into being, and people began to monopolize books in certain areas. To see which areas were monopolized by others, they had to start thinking about them.

I belong to people who like to catch hot spots in the market. At that time, no one was optimistic about computers and games, and none of them were optimistic, and I don't know why everyone was not optimistic. But I quite agree, this may have something to do with my aunt's two sons, they are always playing games, I asked them, they said this is OK, often give me advice, and finally I decided

Custom-made computers and games.

41997, 1998, until 2002, was the best time for the book market. In 1998, there was a book fair in Nanjing. In a hotel, each bookseller had a room, and people who ordered books went to the room. There were not as many people in any room as mine. At that time, I collected money in sacks, and I had to drive to the bank with a gold cup at night.

At that time, there were no 100 and 50 yuan denominations, all 10 yuan, a bag of 200000, in fact, that bag didn't have much money. At that time, you wrote 200000, I took the sack to the bank to deposit, to the bank to check, less money, there is fake money, you bear, I do not bear. You wrap it yourself, write your name, I'll take a letter of tape, get the bank, bank points. Less you make up for me, more I return you, fake you bear. I always operate in this way, because at that time, the bank remittance fee was too high. 200000 of the handling fee was 2000 yuan, which I saved for others. Aren't you happy that I saved you money? So everyone was saving at that time.

Compared with more than 20 years ago, the book fair now has a larger scale and more types than it was more than 20 years ago. this is the first year, and the next year I told them, you can just transfer the money to my card, transfer it to me, and I'll write you a receipt. Don't carry the money to the hotel, it's too dangerous. Wasn't there a time when a bookseller was robbed? I remember it was a man who sold literary books.

You said my style was quite spicy, and I'm telling you, it was untenable if it wasn't spicy. I don't talk to anyone. When I talk to you, I absolutely won't let you find fault with me, but don't put on small shoes for me. If you put on small shoes for me, then I will never do it, not even if you steal my business, I will never steal your business, but you can't steal my business either. I'm kidding. I have to do it myself in any big city. I told the regional agent in the big city, please give me the number as soon as possible, how many copies do you want? If you don't report in time, I'm sorry, prepare for the next issue. Not by my rules? I don't have the energy to spend time with you. Because I'm not representing a family.

There is also competition among magazines, many of which are printed by several printing plants, and whoever has the publication listed first will take advantage of it. The competition between the two magazines is my agent, and I have been tight-lipped. You each strive for your own. Your manuscript is handed in late, and the book is published late, isn't it? Then don't blame anyone else.

I also contact the printer for many magazines, and the magazines also have to rush for time. I can get the manuscript and CD master to the printer. Don't worry about the rest. I found the printing plant, I have one by one in place. If you print it out today, you have to get on the car and send it away tonight. I don't care about anything else. If your printer has the ability to do so, forget it if you can't.

Because magazines have long been listed on the market, they have to be pulled to the newsstand overnight and put on the market at the newsstand overnight. This is how the "practical technology of game consoles" has defeated other competitors in Shanghai and Beijing. I was in charge of Beijing at that time, and the other places learned from me. If any magazine is printed tonight, I'll tell my distribution team to stand by. The distribution team is a special team that rides bikes to deliver goods to newsstands, just like today's takeout. Sometimes at 8 o'clock in the evening, the printer says that it is finished, you can get the goods, we will get them right away.

"Game console practical Technology" is one of the long-running game periodicals in China. 500 commemorative editions were launched in 2020. We all have the phone of the newsstand, which district the distribution team is responsible for, and they all have the phone of the owner of the newsstand, so he calls down and waits. I'll send it to you. The newsstand closes relatively late and closes at 11: 12 p. M. and can be sold in the evening or in the morning when it is delivered to him. Sometimes when the printing shop is finished at 10:00 in the evening, I can cover the whole of Beijing at four or five o'clock the next day.

So I'm telling you, I've been through ups and downs, really. And pick up goods, books are transported by train, at that time almost every day the goods arrived, the goods had to go to the railway station overnight. I was famous at the railway station, and those people in Zhongguancun mentioned my name, they all thought I was a man, no one thought I was a lesbian. Sometimes the editorial department comes to me to deliver goods, and they are also happy to see that my family is full of people waiting in line to pick up the goods. Do you think you can stop looking for me when you have a product? Take what you can give you. For example, when a new product comes, I say you can try it today. If you can't sell it, I can guarantee a refund. You have to take 3, at least 3, and I have to build all of them.

In fact, the channel does not make money, you look prosperous, earn not much money, in the end, no one dares to stay in my market, their heads are blown up. Once I represented a publication, and several Japanese came from the editorial department in Japan, and they also came to our store. They bowed to others as soon as they took their goods in the store, which made me feel embarrassed. In the end, I didn't even dare to let them come.

And too tired, you think the channel is easy to do? This is different from you as editors. You can just sit there and write. We are good here, both the owner and the West. We have to deal with problems every day, and our relationship is changing, with cooperation, problems and contradictions. That's how I did it.

I have been in this business for 20 years. I think the best time is 1998, 1999, to 2002. In 2002, computer magazines were a little out of date, and magazines such as game consoles began to appear. By 2005, all the magazines were slowly slipping. Five years at the best. Now many publications are gone, and all the publications in this area that are still alive are in my hands. Some magazines no longer play games and have been changed into fashion publications, and they are still in my hands.

The most enjoyable things I have done over the years are "heartbeat memories" and "love stories", which were done by your "popular software" at that time. Then there was the genuine storm of Jinshan Ciba, and then there was the strategy book of the Stone Age, all of which happened before 2005. At that time, most of the people who bought computer magazines went out of my hands. Including the Volkswagen Software binding Edition, the computer Business Intelligence binding Edition, and the computer newspaper binding Edition, all came from my hands. Game publications and publications seemed to me, and then gradually became less good. Then, since 2012, I have turned to youth novels. I have done a lot of youth novels, and then I have gone to animation.

The memory of the times is now basically gone in the offline market. Why is it gone offline? First, he is lazy, he almost does not go out to buy, do not visit the newsstand, post-95 children almost do not go shopping, all their lives are on the Internet. In the past, in order to buy a magazine, some people even ran more than a dozen newsstands, but now people don't run a single newsstand.

Now I have basically given this stand to my sister, and I don't want to worry so much. If there's a big deal, I'll take care of it. If there's no big deal, I won't care. Now there is not much profit, as well as this and that expenses, and the number of magazines is also less. Except for a few magazines that can have 1,800 copies, the rest are one or two hundred. I still have to support two people, forget it is not tired enough, I will say that you are responsible for your own profits and losses, do it if you can, and forget it if you can't.

(in the article, Sister Huang is an alias. )

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