Chapter 141 Xu Sanguan Selling Blood (Thanks to Mini Titan Lan for the reward)
After more than ten days, the purpose of this call from Harvest Literature Network has changed somewhat.
Last time, Fang Qing asked Lin Ping to call Zhang Zhong to get him to talk to Zhang Zhong to pave the way for the copyright negotiation later, but Lin Ping failed in the end because Zhang Zhong had no plan at all.
After more than ten days like this, things at Harvest Literature Network were almost busy. There was no news from Zhang Zhong, so they were a little anxious.
Lin Ping exchanged a few words with Zhang Chong and then got down to business. However, after discussing the specific conditions, she changed someone to talk to Zhang Chong.
"Hello, Mr. Zhang, I am Fang Qing, the editor-in-chief of Harvest Literature. Regarding the publication of "Wives and Concubines", our conditions are 10% royalties, a ten-year contract, and an initial printing of 100,000 copies." Fang
After Qing took the phone, she explained their conditions to Zhang Zhong simply and clearly.
The other party's style was neat, and Zhang Zhong also became more agile, saying directly, "Sign for five years, and I will keep the film and television adaptation rights for myself. I will not make any requirements for the first printing."
When ordinary authors talk about publishing, they pay more attention to two points. The first point is the royalty point, and the second point is the first printing. These two conditions will directly affect the author's income, and they are the basic income.
Therefore, when authors ask for higher royalties, they often ask for higher first printings. Even if the work does not sell well in the future, the publisher will bear the loss. Anyway, the author gets paid based on the number of prints, not how much is sold.
Book.
Zhang Zhong's indifferent attitude towards the number of first printings surprised Fang Qing, but Fang Qing still couldn't accept his conditions, "Mr. Zhang, if you only sign for five years, it is impossible for our publisher to agree, and the film and television adaptation rights are
Our publishing house has no precedent before.”
"These are my conditions. If possible, we can continue to talk." Zhang Zhong said with a smile. The implication is that if you don't agree with these two conditions, there is no need to continue talking.
Fang Qing on the other end of the phone paused for a moment. She was a little confused about Zhang Zhong. Does this person know nothing and is just a deadhead, or is he already an old man?
She told Zhang Zhong that there was no precedent for them to give up the rights to film and television adaptations when they harvested literature, which was of course false, but she didn't think that a new author was enough to make them give up this part of the condition, because this was the treatment of well-known big guys.
"Mr. Zhang, we can raise the royalty rate to 11%. This is already our bottom line."
Zhang Zhong smiled and said, "Editor Fang, I think my conditions have been made clear to you."
…
Lin Ping saw that the smile that had always been on Fang Qing's face suddenly disappeared, replaced by a frown and a cold face. She seemed to be in trouble.
I knew that the other party was a difficult person, and even Editor Fang couldn't handle it.
After chatting for a while, Fang Qing still failed to win the ten-year contract period and the priority for film and television adaptations. However, she did not get nothing. She successfully reduced the royalties from 10% to 9%, which was lower than she originally expected.
The royalty bottom line set at 12% should be three points lower.
"The matter has been negotiated. You don't need to worry about it anymore. I will take over the full responsibility. I will handle the matter of contacting this person in the future."
After hanging up the phone, Fang Qing said to Lin Ping.
Lin Ping breathed a sigh of relief. She couldn't do these things as an editor. It would be a good thing if Editor Fang took over.
"Oh, nine percent, I don't know what he was thinking." Fang Qing shook her head, left Lin Ping's seat and returned to her office.
Zhang Zhong also hung up the phone on the other side. He was satisfied with the outcome of the negotiation.
The sales volume of the book "Wives and Concubines" will definitely not be very high, even if it is released on his large-scale album, there is no way it will become a hit in the market.
Being able to firmly hold the film and television adaptation rights and only signing a five-year contract is already very profitable for him.
If you are lucky, this book might win a few literary awards and be adapted in a short time. Then when the contract expires, the conditions for renewal will naturally increase.
Now that the terms have been negotiated on the phone, Harvest Literature will draw up the contract later. Zhang Zhong will print it out and sign it and mail it over. After the other party signs it and sends a copy over, the contract will come into effect and there is no need for an interview.
Fang Qing told her that the book would be published by the end of next month. In this way, Zhang Zhong calculated that he would have two books on the shelves at the same time by the end of next month, and the other one was "Murder on the Orient Express"
》.
Zhang Zhong had an extra 10,000 points in his hand two days ago, but he was not in a hurry to use it this time. Anyway, he has a lot of books in his hand that can be distributed recently. His "Snowman" is still being created and will probably be completed by the end of this year.
Therefore, he wanted to keep these points and draw again when he accumulated 20,000 points. Every time the system continued to promote sales, it had a more or less brainwashing effect. He did have some interest in high-level draws.
…
When Zhang Zhong accumulated 20,000 points, it was the day of the New Year.
They celebrate the Little New Year here on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, which is the 17th day of the first lunar month.
Nowadays, it’s not very lively to celebrate the New Year, let alone the Small New Year.
The small year passes in the middle, the big year passes in the late year.
Here in Jiangyang, it is considered a big meal at noon during the Lunar New Year. In some rural areas, the Kitchen God is also given as a gift.
After lunch, Zhang Zhong lay in bed and took a nap. A message came from the system that his points had reached 20,000.
[Let’s turn on the advanced lottery mode.] Zhang Zhong said to the system.
[Advanced lottery mode will consume more points. Check the remaining 20,000 points. Do you want to spend 20,000 points to draw the works? 】
【yes.】
【Enable advanced lottery mode.】
[Won the work "Xu Sanguan Sells Blood"]
"Xu Sanguan sells blood!"
Zhang Zhong sat up from the bed all of a sudden, with a look of surprise and excitement on his face. The 20,000 points were indeed not given in vain, and he could actually win this book.
"The Story of Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" is one of Yu Hua's masterpieces and one of the best novels in China in the past fifty years.
When many people hear Yu Hua, the first book they think of may be "Alive", but for Zhang Zhong, this is the book he loves most about Yu Hua.
In Yu Hua's works, there are always various miserable little characters, and Xu Sanguan in "Xu Sanguan Sells Blood" is one of them.
This book is not as "mysterious" as the title of "Alive", but the title simply and clearly summarizes the content of the entire book. This book mainly talks about one thing from beginning to end, Xu Sanguan
Selling blood.
If Zhang Zhong remembers correctly, Xu Sanguan sold blood seven times in total. Except for the first time when he sold blood with people from the same village, out of curiosity and to prove that he was in good health, every other time