Who is the male singer who set a record of selling 5,000 books after 2 days of release?

"After releasing my first book, many young fans bought it to read, making me more aware of seeing this as a career, not just a hobby," singer Jun Pham shared.

Editor's note

At the end of 2023, the Vietnam Publishing Association and TikTok Vietnam signed a cooperation agreement to protect copyright and develop the book market on the platform through the #BookTok project. The cooperation agreement between the Vietnam Publishing Association and TikTok Vietnam focuses on four main contents: Supporting the promotion of books and reading culture in Vietnam; Implementing a monthly #BookTok Day on the TikTok platform; Preventing the buying and selling of fake and pirated books on the platform; Organizing a training program on effectively exploiting TikTok Shop. VietNamNet would like to introduce some important highlights and prominent faces in the #BookTok campaign in Vietnam and the development of this platform in the world over the past 3 years.

- People often think that being a singer is an easy job to "make money", but recently you seem to be "indifferent" to singing to spend more time writing. Why did you make this change?

Because writing has been my hobby since I was little, I wrote many short stories since 7th grade. This habit cannot be given up, partly because it also helps me to be myself and not to act out another perfect personality. I like that identity so I don't want it to disappear. - Is it because you have a large fan base when you were a singer that you are confident that when you move into literature, you will always have a number of enthusiastic readers? That was the initial reason why I dared to launch my first book. Actually, 10 years ago, although I liked writing, launching a book was something very big. For me at that time, if I wasn't a member of a band, I probably wouldn't have had the courage to introduce my first "brainchild" to readers. But after the book If I Can't Say If was published, many young fans bought the book to read, making me more aware of considering this as a profession and not just a walk in the park. From then on, I was more careful with each word as well as the content of the following works. - You once revealed that selling 10,000 books would not earn you as much as one night of singing, so why not 'work hard' like many other singers? The difference is true, but that does not make me falter in my writing career, but rather motivates me to compose better books that are read by more people. I hope that my dream and goal will come true one day. My direction is still short stories and novels. - Young people today have many interests, and smartphones and digital technology development overwhelm reading culture. Recently, some young people have expressed the opinion that in today's society, only earning money is important, reading or studying a lot is not important. What is your perspective? I think that besides earning money, one still has to read. Reading here does not necessarily mean reading paper books, but we have many sources from online books, listening to audiobooks, reading online newspapers... Because only by reading and listening a lot can we select which information is true - which is false, or at least even though we do not know 100% of the truth, we will have a certain amount of knowledge to compare with other information. From there, it helps each person to be more confident in all jobs, especially those that require communication skills or using social networks. General knowledge is still a solid foundation for creative thinking in all professions. - #BookTok has accompanied you to launch the novel 'The Land of Endless' and quickly created a buzz when selling out 5,000 copies after 2 days, reprinting 10,000 copies. Are you surprised by this success? It is really surprising and happy, for me, novels are a difficult genre to sell because they require patience from readers. Maybe readers bought it because of me or because of the appearance of the book in general, but I am still very proud that the work has the opportunity to reach many readers of all ages thanks to TikTok. - There is an opinion that Jun Pham's books are not so excellent but are well-publicized and have a strong viral effect on TikTok, so they are selling so well? I think that opinion is completely correct, but in reality, the books are not selling well! My writing style is quite simple, so I can only sympathize with a small part. And that is also the motivation for me to improve my skills and emotions more in the following works. - Do you have a plan to develop a reading culture on the TikTok channel? TikTok, like many other social networking platforms, is a tool to serve people from entertainment to work and life. Therefore, good and bad depend on the behavior of the user. I often follow Tiktokers with positive content such as: books, newspapers, cooking, science, fashion, music ... because they help me gain more concise and useful general knowledge. Writing is Jun's passion, so I will definitely have more positive actions to promote reading culture in general and my books in particular. I choose TikTok to make this happen. - People read books and think they have a solid grasp of knowledge, but it's clear that the economy and the market are always changing. Many people read books to get rich and try to follow them, leading to failure. Which book do you like the most and want to share? What doesn't change? Even the people you love the most disappear, let alone the economy and the market? I think we only think of failure as a negative thing to avoid. Actually, success and failure are two sides of the same coin. Without one, there will always be no other and vice versa. I like the book Life Changes When We Change the most , that book changes one-way thinking. Failure also has its worthy values. Most of the beautiful memories we tell are bitter, difficult, and arduous experiences.

- What do you think are the similarities and differences between writing a book and writing a script? Are you planning a new script? Jun thinks these are two completely different genres. Writing a book requires a lot of emotion, using many rhetorical devices, and expressing each author's own writing style. Screenwriters mainly focus on interesting content to attract investors - then comes the dialogue. The script does not necessarily have to deeply describe a phenomenon or emotion. Leave those things to the director and actors to create. I am planning a book project more than a script because with a book, I have full control over every step, including the fate of the character. - Being absorbed in words, is it possible that Jun Pham "cut ties" with music and movies? Currently, I have just finished a new role in the movie "Seven Years Without Marriage, I Will Break Up" . This 25-episode series is the first time I take on a villain role, so I have high expectations. Besides, this June, I will participate in the program Anh trai vu ngan cong gai . Once again, I hope the program will help me return to my passion for music. - You are considered a multi-talented artist when you perform well in many roles such as: singer, actor, writer, screenwriter... But have you ever thought that you are taking on too much and losing direction? According to my concept of life and work, I am probably a bit artistic. What is suitable is not important, the most important thing is to be happy. I always live and work according to my emotions. Working is just a part of life, not living to work. I just feel very lucky because I have many talents but rarely lose direction. In the future, I still like to show my abilities in different fields and learn many new things. - I read many interviews and see that Jun Pham only likes to talk about books, music, movies, life... and almost 'avoids' love stories. While most other showbiz guys like to 'conquer love', you seem to hide in silence. Are you too picky or do you like loneliness? I have never avoided love affairs, but on the contrary, I am very excited, it's just because other fields are more prominent, so people are interested. But that's also good, the audience sees that I am doing a serious job and I feel more secure in my artistic work. My point of view is quite simple. Being alone and still feeling happy is the only way to make the other person happy when in love. You cannot rush into love because you are too lonely! Love that comes from selfishness will sooner or later lead to a breakup or a cold war. Maybe because I have experienced many losses, I understand that loneliness is just my imagination. Being alone is not lonely, not autistic. A negative and autistic person cannot have as many friends as Jun. I always know how to make myself happy by doing many jobs, learning new things, reading or listening to books every day, exercising regularly, and having fun in moderation.

- Jun loved his father very much and confided that thanks to living close to him in the last years of his life, he was inspired to complete the novel 'The Land of Endless Rivers'. Surely your father is so special? Actually, my father is so special because my mother passed away when I was young, so he played both the role of father and mother to raise me to be a good person. The older I get, the more I realize that a man can do that is not simple at all. My father always loved life - loving people until the last minute is something I will never forget. - "Growing up is the journey of learning to be small again" - I really like this saying of yours, please help me and the readers visualize more clearly the mature Jun Pham of today? Children can build a sand castle on the beach and always be satisfied, believing it to be true. Even if the waves break the sand castle, the children are only a little sad and then build another one with the same joy as before. That's me now. Still working hard to build the sand castle of my dreams, but if one day life knocks it down, I will feel as peaceful as a child and start over without any doubts. We only live one life, it's better to fail than to do nothing!