20,000 copies were urgently printed, and the talent took the initiative to bring the goods. The picture book ＂Luo Cha Sea City＂ was sold out!

　　Author: Liu Yang Zhejiang Children's Publishing House

　　This article is reproduced from "Zhejiang Publishing Media" WeChat WeChat official account (slightly changed)

　　This article is about 3800 words, and it is expected to be read in 7.6 minutes.

　　Business press: the first print was sold out, and 20,000 copies were urgently printed. More than 10,000 copies have been pre-sold. A single-volume picture book just listed in April this year, such market performance is really not easy.

　　This picture book is Luo Cha Sea City by Zhejiang Children's Publishing House. On April 22nd, the book held a launching ceremony and a new book sharing meeting in Pu Songling Memorial Hall. Recently, a song named "Luo Cha Sea City" brought a wonderful opportunity for this painting book. Uncle Kai interprets the short video of "Luo Cha Sea City" from a brand-new perspective, which is a rapid explosion of books.

　　High-quality content, early market cultivation, and an opportunity to detonate, Luo Cha Sea Market got the market feedback it deserved.

　　Many people don't know what kind of story "Sea City in Luo Cha" tells. Simply put, it is the "Fantasy Ocean Adventures of Beautiful Teenagers" written by Pu Songling 300 years ago, which is a unique one among the well-known Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. In the manuscripts of past dynasties, there is an anonymous annotation that "Luo Cha Sea City is the first, which is like a novel of the Tang Dynasty".

　　From the story point of view, its particularity lies in the design of "upside down world" that shocked us. Pu Songling constructed a fantasy world in a fairy-tale way, and expressed his dissatisfaction with the real world through this fictional world.

　　Why do you want to do this topic?

　　The touch brought by the story itself is an opportunity for the formation of the topic.

　　The setting of morality and aesthetics in Luo Cha Sea City is completely contrary to the world we know, which is funny and humorous and conforms to children's reading interest. The story has a complete world outlook and clear logic, which is more suitable to be presented in the form of picture books; In addition, the story is full of ups and downs, and there is enough room for imagination, which gives the picture part plenty of creative space.

　　Kei Ma, the protagonist, has experienced twists and turns, and has a complete fantasy adventure story line. While telling the story, it also gives some thoughts on reality: the judgment of beauty and ugliness, the judgment of the value of ideal and reality, and how to make a choice ... These contents make the age of this picture book suitable for reading increase accordingly, but there is no doubt that its value is also fully presented.

　　When I saw the original text of this story, on the one hand, I was touched by the beauty of its words, on the other hand, I quickly drew a complete story clue in my mind. 300 years ago, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio had such a complete structure and fantastic imagination. Isn't this the embryonic form of a picture book suitable for us to read and reread?

　　The possibility of story and the imaginability of painting make the creation of this picture book executable.

　　Looking for a graphic creator who fits the story.

　　At present, there are too many excellent painters in China, and everyone has a great desire to create. But another reality is that there are few really high-quality story texts. Picture book works need the perfect combination of graphics and text, so the difficulty of this book becomes how to find the right graphic creator.

　　The wonderful story in the original work is just one of the possibilities that a picture book can be created, and the other possibility is painting.

　　At first, although I was deeply attracted by Mr. Jing He's pictures, I couldn't let the painter take the risk to start a picture book without a good text. We must find a suitable rewriting author, who needs to know traditional culture and children very well.

　　Who is suitable?

　　I once cooperated with teacher Yi Wei in the adaptation of the picture book Selling Fragrant Farts, and found that she has two advantages as a rewriting author: first, she has an accurate grasp of children's language and psychology, and the words are beautiful, humorous and full of charm; Second, rich experience in rewriting and profound foundation.

　　Fortunately, Teacher Yi Wei also likes this story very much. She designed a detailed rewriting idea, and said, "Sea City in Luo Cha is a unique fairy tale in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, which can be regarded as a' marine adventure' of heroic fantasy and beauty, and also as a fable to explore truth, goodness and beauty. At the story level, it can be regarded as a tortuous plot, imaginative and attractive to children; On the ideological level, it also has profound philosophical connotation. It is necessary to make this story into a picture book, which will definitely become a daily reading for contemporary children in the future. " Her approval made me more confident ().

　　After repeatedly polishing the text, I devoted myself to the communication of the sketch of the mirror with the creator.

　　The picture book version of "Luo Cha Sea City" that we see now is not perfect, but at this stage, the author and painter of the text adaptation have paid all their enthusiasm and thinking.

　　Creation is a process of continuous communication with oneself and others.

　　I believe that many original picture books have encountered or are facing such a problem: the painting skills and thinking displayed by the painter's personal works are particularly compatible with the works, but the design draft is completely different from the editor's imagination. When faced with such a problem, should we give up or stick to it?

　　Looking back at the original draft, we sent out the same feeling: fortunately, we didn't give up at that time.

　　The concept draft created by Jinghe is really amazing, but the picture book work is not a single painting, and its beauty will only make it a collection of essays, not a picture book.

　　The draft was not up to expectations. We communicated many times, and the painter was not satisfied with it, but she had exhausted her energy at that time. The more practical solution is to look through the paintings painted by the painter again based on the trust in the painter. I believe that after the initial running-in period, she will have new creative inspiration, and will abandon the massiness and choose the lightest expression ().

　　Therefore, we are not obsessed with polishing the design draft to perfection, but enter the idea of the mirror sketch. After combing the split mirror completely, the painter found that the set draft should not be described with "heavy colors", but should be adjusted according to the rhythm of the story. Through continuous communication, we have reached a consensus and tacit understanding step by step.

　　On the content adaptation, I fully trust the level of teacher Yi Wei, and the final effect is also recognized by many readers.

　　I think this book is full of content and form. The picture book completely retains the story clues of this "fantasy ocean adventure story" 300 years ago, and tries not to miss the wonderful fragments in Pu Lao's original work. Therefore, this picture book has 60 pages, and two pages are designed to show the hidden surprises in the plot, which are especially suitable for expansion: one is that the protagonist steps from the "ordinary world" to the "fantasy world-Luo Cha country"; The other is that after Kei Ma and Dragon Girl met, they walked into the big Luo Cha city built by the dragons of the four seas with their thoughts and dreams. The design of the pull page can fully show the mirage world where gods and people meet.

　　The most brilliant part of the text adaptation is "Inverted Songs". There are five songs in the full text, and Teacher Yi Wei wrote the most interesting one, The Overturning Song.

　　Turn upside down, sing upside down, do well when it is bad.

　　The prime minister's nose is upturned, and his facial features are correct.

　　Hands make feet, feet make hands, and stunning women walk backwards.

　　Who is the best monarch in the world, and the king of Luo Cha is the most heroic.

　　This song fully exposes the irony hidden in the story.

　　Adding Color to Picture Books —— Making Original Picture Books Sound

　　This story is really long, with nearly 3,000 words of pure text, which is a lot of words for picture books. When parents and children read together, it is obviously better to have audio assistance. Audio can not only make the characters alive, but also prevent parents from reading too much. Therefore, in the process of production, I paid special attention to some dubbing experts in Little Red Book.

　　At first, I wanted to find a child to read aloud, but the length of the text was not short. The dialogue between the protagonist Kei Ma and the dragon girl was more suitable for male and female voices to read aloud. In the search, I found the recording of Cici and her father, a little voice actor. Coincidentally, they liked the story so much that the father and daughter immediately agreed to record it together. Professional special effects also make the story more colorful: the sound of waves, the sound of downtown, birds singing and the wind, this book suddenly becomes three-dimensional and vivid, giving readers an immersive feeling.

　　Meaningful starting place and "planting grass" promotion

　　As a picture book with obvious "Liaozhai" attribute, we contacted Du Chaoyang, deputy director of Pu Songling Memorial Hall during the author's creation, hoping that the memorial hall could write a recommendation for this book. After the new book was printed, the offline premiere was held at Pu Songling Memorial Hall.

　　On April 22nd, the initial launch was supposed to be held as scheduled after the book was published. We invited two creators from Changde, Hunan, and Dongguan, Guangdong, to Zibo City, where the barbecue was exploding, to Pu Songling Memorial Hall in Zichuan District and Zibo Library in Zhangdian District, and held an unforgettable new book sharing meeting on the same day.

　　Since the launch of the new book, Zhejiang Shaoshe has successively held exhibitions of original picture books and illustrations in Zibo Library, Zhejiang Library, Hangzhou Jimei Picture Book Museum and other places, among which "Luo Cha Sea City", as one of the main exhibition works, has also been continuously unveiled.

　　The book was first published in Pu Songling Memorial Hall.

　　At the same time, the video number of "Reading Pupil" was edited and live broadcast on April 23rd, which achieved the simultaneous launch of offline memorial halls, libraries and online picture book reading institutions (reading puppets), and the initial launch reached nearly 2,000 copies. During the event, we also contacted more than 65 media in the early and late stages to preview the event and report on the event site.

　　This single-book picture book can't be deus ex in terms of volume and scale in the children's book market with a flood of new books, but it has emerged in many media with a stunning painting style. In order to let more people have a chance to see this original picture book, which is loyal to the face value and starts from the content, we have provided sample sending service to many reading promoters, promotion agencies, media inside and outside the industry and new media experts in the form of wide spread net from the early stage of the book listing. We have done enough market cultivation in the early marketing stage with the mode of offline activities+online live broadcast+online new media. Up to now, there are only 200 "grass planting" notes on the little red book platform.

　　Recently, a song named "Luo Cha Sea City" brought a wonderful opportunity for this painting book. Uncle Kai's interpretation of the short video of "Luo Cha Sea City" from a brand-new perspective has quickly exploded the book. At present, Zhejiang Shaoshe has urgently printed 20,000 copies, and every day, people have contacted and requested to bring goods. Many people have also opened the pre-sale function to keep pace with the rhythm and continue to promote the market.

　　Next, Zhejiang Shaoshe also plans to share author activities in bookstores such as Shenzhen Maowu Bookstore, and the well-received illustration exhibition in the first half of the year will also enter more offline reading space.

　　Let the traditional story be childlike, and let the elements of China surprise the world.

　　I started to make imported picture books in 2014, which has been nearly 10 years. This is a continuous learning process. In the process of making the imported version, I will sigh from time to time that there are many great stories in China that are suitable for making picture books! However, originality does require experience accumulation. This process of trial and error is particularly good, and professional picture book editors in China are growing.

　　Now, more and more excellent Chinese style picture books appear in the book market, and are loved and praised by readers, which shows that parents and children need these "China elements" reading materials. Therefore, the creators will become more confident and continue to create more high-quality works, which will surprise readers.

　　Luo Cha Sea City

　　Author: [Qing] Pu Songling/Original, Yi Wei/Rewriting, Static Load/Painting

　　Publishing House: Zhejiang Children's Publishing House

　　Publication date: April 2023

　　Sea City in Luo Cha is a fantastic story in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio by Pu Songling, a famous literary figure in Qing Dynasty;

　　On behalf of his father, Kei Ma, a handsome man from Hangzhou City, went to sea for trade. On the way, he encountered huge waves and was involved in a strange country-Luo Cha.

　　The upside-down world in Luo Cha is completely different from the ordinary world. Ugliness is the beauty here, and the uglier people are, the more popular they are. In order to survive, Kei Ma put on a mask, won the love of the king of Luo Cha with his funny dances and subversive songs, and became a high official. However, hiding his true face every day makes him depressed.

　　Taking advantage of the opening of Shanghai, he ventured to meet the dragon lady here, and was appreciated by the dragon king and the dragon lady with his talent, and married the dragon lady.

　　Later, Kei Ma missed his hometown, bid farewell to the dragon girl and returned to his parents. Three years later, Kei Ma was reunited with the Dragon Lady and two children at the seaside.

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