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 the book to read, making me more aware of considering 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 4 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 a 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 self 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 loved writing, launching a book was something very big. For me at that time, if I wasn't a member of a music group, 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, not just a walk in the park. From then on, I was more careful with each word as well as the content of my subsequent works. - You once revealed that selling 10,000 books would not earn you as much as a night of singing, so why don't you work hard like many other singers? The difference is true, but that doesn't make me falter in my writing career, but rather motivates me to write 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, making money is all that matters, reading or studying a lot is not important. What is your perspective? I think that besides making money, reading is still necessary. 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 right - wrong, 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 readers to be patient. Maybe readers bought it because of me or because of the appearance of the book in general, but I'm still very proud that the work has the opportunity to reach many readers of all ages thanks to TikTok. - There are opinions that Jun Pham's books are not too excellent but are well-publicized and have a strong viral effect on TikTok, so they sell well? I think that opinion is completely correct, but in reality, the books have not sold 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 media platforms, is a tool to serve people from entertainment to work and life. Therefore, good or bad depends 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 do more positive things 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. In fact, 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-sided thinking. Failure also has its merits. Most of the beautiful memories we tell are bitter, difficult, and arduous experiences.

- Writing books and writing scripts, in your opinion, what are the similarities and differences? Are you nurturing a new script? Jun thinks these are two completely different genres. Writing books requires a lot of emotion, using many rhetorical devices, 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 nurturing the book project more than the script because with books I have full control over every step, including the fate of the characters. - Being absorbed in words, is it possible that Jun Pham will "cut ties" with music and movies? Currently, I have just finished a new role in the movie Bay nam chua nuoi se chia tay . 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 being alone? 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 can't rush into love because you are too lonely! Love that comes from selfishness will sooner or later lead to a breakdown or a cold war. Maybe because I have experienced many losses, I understand that loneliness is just my imagination. Being alone is not lonely, it is 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 many new things, reading or listening to books every day, exercising regularly, and having fun in moderation.

- Jun loves 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'. 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 - loved people until the last minute, which is something I will never forget. - "Growing up is the journey of learning to be small again" - I really like this quote of yours, please help me and the readers visualize more clearly the grown-up Jun Pham of today? Children can build a sand castle on the beach and always be satisfied, believing it is true. Even if the waves break the sand castle, the children are only a little sad and then build another one with the original joy. That's me now. Still working hard to build the sand castle of my dreams, but if one day life knocks me 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!