Chapter 2220: Attention Attracted by the Little Mermaid
“What? How is this even possible?!”
In ‘Perfect Food”s editorial department, Hector stared at the completely identical picture books with shock.
These were sent by Garlan from Chaos City with the fastest flying steeds. As the boss of ‘Perfect Food’, Hector was also a picture book lover.
Garlan wasn’t sending him a gift to butter him up. After all, Garlan knew that such prim and proper picture books were not what he liked.
Hector, who had shelves full of colored picture books at home, wasn’t shocked over how beautifully drawn ‘The Tale of The Little Mermaid’ was. Instead, he was shocked that these two picture books were identical!
This was a colored picture book!
According to Garlan, there were 1,000 identical copies in Chaos City. They were being sold at Mamy Restaurant at 1,000 copper coins per copy.
What did this mean?
Usually, people would think about how to buy a few more copies and then sell them for more at another place, earning from the price difference.
With Hector’s professional insight, this picture book could be sold for 50,000 to 80,000 copper coins in Rodu’s colored picture books market.
The drawing style was exquisite and the story was interesting. Many rich young mistresses would like it.
They could buy it at 1,000 copper coins and sell it for 100,000 copper coins before the news spread to Rodu.
Garlan was asking him to help him sell it…
But of course, it was far more than that; 1,000 identical colored picture books meant that someone had already solved the problem of color printing in Chaos City.
This was, without a doubt, a subversive news to the paper media.
Imagine it, if colored pictures could be inserted into ‘Perfect Food’, what kind of impact would it create in the gourmet magazines’ market?...
If this cost could be lowered, the price could be controlled, then he couldn’t imagine the growth of ‘Perfect Food’ magazine.
Hector’s breathing slowly became labored when he thought of this.
However, Garlan had sent back bad news at the same time. Mag declined to work with ‘Perfect Food’ exclusively. Instead, he signed a contract with 10 gourmet magazines at the same time.
This meant ‘Perfect Food’ had lost its advantage of exclusivity and the previous miracle of the 1,000,000 issues wouldn’t be repeated either.
However, if they could get the secret of wealth of color printing without other gourmet magazines knowing, he could already foresee the numerous changes the industry was going to face. Countless opportunities were hidden there.
Just printing some of his prized picture books after censoring some of the inappropriate pictures would be enough to shock the picture books’ industry and earn him buckets of gold.
The good news was these picture books came from Mr. Mag and they were drawn by his daughter.
The not-so-good news was Mr. Mag was obviously not a man who could be easily fooled. Selling 1,000 copies of picture books every day at 1,000 copper coins each allowed him to earn 1,000,000 copper coins easily.
Hector wasn’t sure that he could make such a man share his secret of wealth.
Hector walked to his office’s door and said to his secretary, “Help me book a travel ticket to Chaos City tomorrow. I want the fastest flying steed.”
“Yes, Boss.”
***
“Interesting. How did Mr. Mag do it? He actually solved a problem that couldn’t be resolved for years and he did it so beautifully! Is it magic? It doesn’t seem like it.”
In the Buffett Manor, Scheer was reading a picture book on the sofa with her legs propped up comfortably. She was marveling at it.
It was her rare rest time and the picture book was gifted to her by her servant. It came from Mamy Restaurant and Annie.
The story was interesting and the drawing style was very intricate too.
The comfortable color and drawing style gave her an enjoyable 30 minutes.
However, what interested her the most was the picture book itself.
It was a colored picture book and a mass produced colored picture book at that too.
Such a thing had never appeared on the market before.
The reason was very simple. No one was able to print colored prints up until now.
Some had tried before, but what they created was rough and the colors were limited. Hence, the combination was unusually ugly and it wasn’t even as good as black-and-white, which provided some room for imagination.
Someone had said before, if anyone could resolve the issue of color printing, they would grasp the secret of wealth of the paper media.
Now, this person has appeared.
Scheer caressed the picture book with upturned lips.
1
Mr. Mag had indeed never disappointed her before. From the steam train to the color printing now, it was easier for her to accept the latter because of the former.
The Buffett Family didn’t have many businesses in the paper media industry, but everyone knew the importance of a wide-spread media platform. It was the same to the Buffett Family.
She had sensed that this industry was going to be subverted and a new player was going to emerge soon. Perhaps, she could have a chance to plan in advance this time.
“I wonder if Mr. Mag will decide to do it himself this time, or sell away the technology like before?” Scheer murmured before she turned to say towards the door, “By tomorrow morning, I want to see the information on the best people in the media on the Norland Continent.”
“Yes, Young Mistress,” the secretary respectfully answered from the outside.
***
“Quick! Send this book to Rodu and get Old Fang to print 10,000 copies!”
In a living room at the north of Chaos City, a middle-aged man passed a picture book that was wrapped up in layers of cloth to a young man.
“Father, this… isn’t very nice, right?” the young man said with a frown.
The middle-aged man leaped up and knocked him on his head. He said as though he had expected better from him, “What do you know, kid? We do this for a living. What’s not nice about it? Others will print it even if we don’t. There’s no point for us to print it if it is available everywhere.”
The young man covered his head and aggrievedly said, “B-but, we’re printing 10,000 copies right away. What if we can’t sell it? These aren’t restricted books that they cannot buy on the market.”
1
The middle-aged man rolled his eyes and said, “What do you know? It contains instructions on how to cook red braised pork, personally drawn by Mamy Restaurant’s boss’ daughter. Do you know how many copies of the previous ‘Perfect Food’ were sold because of Boss Mag’s eggplant with garlic sauce’s recipe? 1,000,000 copies! You fool! Don’t even say 10,000 copies, I may have to print even more copies.”
“But…”
“But your a**… Go now!” The middle-aged man gave him a kick.
The young man went out quietly.
***
Mag had no idea that ‘The Tale of The Little Mermaid’ had attracted so many people’s attention. He had already begun to plan how to promote the sales of ‘Miss Black Cat’.
This time, he intended to release it in Rodu first and fixed the price at 2000 copper coins per copy.
The price was double that of the ‘Little Mermaid”s, but it had more than twice the pages and Annie’s drawing was far better in ‘Miss Black Cat’ than in ‘The Little Mermaid’ after practicing for a period of time.
Furthermore, his target audience were those rich and free people who appreciated the arts. They were the opera house’s target customers.