Besides Shinei Publishing and Flash Strike Library, quite a few other famous publishers had come to hold signing events here today.
Their aim was not only to raise their authors' profiles. More importantly, the publishers were also competing behind the scenes, hoping to use the opportunity to siphon traffic from their rivals' works and boost their own popularity.
That was why they had invited authors who were currently all the rage, including several venerable, old-school literary masters.
Yamamoto Hideaki of Tantan Publishing was now around fifty-three years old.
His literary works had won numerous awards in Japan's literary world.
His latest release, Showa Dancer, had sold exceptionally well, outselling almost every other author's work released around the same time.
Only one author's sales could match his: Sanqianli.
At first, he had doubted whether the other publisher had somehow cheated.
How could a new author sell so well with two books in a row?
But after reading Snow Country himself, he was instantly struck by its elegant prose, profound mono no aware, and sense of futility.
He could hardly imagine that any author could produce such a consummate masterpiece.
This was the pinnacle of literature, the very thing he had pursued his entire life. He immediately recognized the author's talent.
That was one reason he had agreed to come to the signing event. He wanted to find out who Sanqianli really was, and how someone so young could write works like these.
Yamamoto Hideaki looked across at Shinei Publishing's signing area.
Just then, Natsume Chikage and Yukimura Suzune arrived with the editors behind them.
Matsuo Yuka went over to a table, pulled out a chair, and gestured. "Chikage, this is your seat."
"Suzune, yours is here," Yabuki Mina said, indicating the table beside it.
Once the two had taken their seats,