The most famous self-funded publisher is Lv Buwei, a politician in the Warring States Period. He organized his followers to compile Liaozhai, a book similar to an encyclopedia in the pre-Qin period. After the book was finished, Lv Buwei decided to "hype" the book in order to improve his influence. He asked his men to post the contents of the book on the gate of Xianyang City, and a notice was posted next to it: whoever can add or subtract a word from the contents of the book, he will immediately reward his daughter.
this is the origin of the idiom "a word is a promise". At that time, the news of "a thousand words" spread and caused a great sensation. There is no record in the history books of whether someone picked out the faults in the book and got "1 yuan", but what is certain is that Lu's influence in the Spring and Autumn Period has greatly increased and he has become the masterpiece of "saints" in the history of China.
It can be seen that the ancients needed strong economic strength to publish books, while Lv Buwei published books not only at his own expense, but also through publicity and hype. It is not so easy to publish a book if there are no literati with a certain economic foundation and their works are not appreciated. Li Boyuan, the author of Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals in Qing Dynasty, compiled a book called The Officialdom in Appearance. It is planned to print 2, copies, which will cost a lot of money. To this end, he asked for help everywhere, patched things together, and the borrowed money could not be returned until the book was sold. The whole process of publishing this book is very difficult. Money, a great literary figure, can't escape the dilemma of raising money to publish books. His representative work, current affairs and jokes, was published by his disciples together with all his classmates. For this, Qian not only didn't complain because there was no payment for publishing this book, but was very satisfied.
Although there is no contribution fee, not all literati will worry about their livelihood. In the past, many people supplemented their daily expenses by selling articles, which the ancients called "wiping pens". Li Yong, a calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, was especially good at inscriptions and was well known. Many people came to his house with brocade to ask him to write poems, so that Du Fu, his contemporary, commented on him. His inscriptions were all brocade, brocade and brocade. In the Qing Dynasty, Zheng Banqiao lost his official position in his later years, and he painted in ghost, with a clear price tag. "The big one is six taels, the middle one is four taels, the small one is two taels, a book, a couplet, a fan, and a bucket of five yuan"
However, it is not accurate to understand the matter of "writing" as a contribution fee. The essence of "writing" is not the transaction of articles, but the name of the writer, just like the advertising fee and endorsement fee today. Those who ask these literati for inscriptions and preface just want to use their reputation to honor their family. In ancient times, the starting point of real authors' writing was actually very simple. For example, Confucius, the editor of the beginner's collection, and Sima Qian, the editor of the Book of Songs, wrote for expression, or for interest and responsibility, regardless of the geometry of the manuscript fee. However, if you think about it carefully, this is also the greatness of these literati. Compared with "eternal articles", is it only a measurable contribution fee?