1980 My literary era

In June in Yanjing, the weather gradually became hotter.

Lin Weimin received a letter from Lu Yao, in which he talked about his recent move to a new home.

In the past few years, he had been living in a small bungalow provided by the Cultural Association for his family of three. Until recently, because of his achievements in creation, or to be precise, because of the popularity of "Life" across the country, the Literary and Art Association assigned him a two-bedroom unit of more than 50 square meters.

In this era, there was no public corruption in the area of ​​houses allocated by work units. The area of ​​​​50 to 60 square meters was real, which was equivalent to more than 80 square meters of high-rise residences in later generations. It would not be a problem to accommodate several people in Lu Yao's family. Nowadays, people Not as pretentious as later generations.

Lu Yao mentioned in the letter that the biggest benefit of having a new home with two bedrooms and one living room is that he finally has a study room of his own.

He set up a single bed in the study. When he was late reading or creating, he would rest in the study.

Lin Weimin nodded frequently when he saw this. Comrade Lu Yao had made progress, and he was also happy for the improvement of Lu Yao's living conditions.

In addition, Lu Yao also mentioned that director Wu Tianming, who had treated him and Lin Weimin to dinner in Yanjing, had recently approached him and hoped to adapt "Life".

Wu Tianming represented Xiying Film Studio, and the two of them were fellow villagers, so Lu Yao was a little moved.

But what troubled him was that the Shanghai Film Studio had been in close contact with him recently, and offered very high conditions. He would personally lead the adaptation of the movie script, and the royalties would be extremely generous.

After understanding Lu Yao's entanglement in the letter, Lin Weimin wrote a reply to him.

In his impression, the movie "Life" was invested and filmed by Xiying Film Studio. The director was Wu Tianming, and the screenwriter was Lu Yao himself. The two worked closely together and became excellent friends.

The film quality of "Life" is also very high. It won the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Feature Film together with "Wreaths Under the Mountain" which was released that year. Wu Tianming, who was originally unknown, became famous in one play.

Lin Weimin remembered an interview he saw before traveling through time. When Wu Tianming was filming "Life", the head of the Provincial Department of Etiquette asked Wu Tianming if he would like to be the deputy director of an art factory.

Wu Tianming joked that if he doesn't want to be the deputy, he should be the number one if he wants to.

As a result, just when the filming of "Life" was about to end, an order came down from above, and Wu Tianming directly became the director of Xiying Film Studio.

It is precisely because Xiying Film Studio has Wu Tianming as director that it has successively cultivated many famous talents for the domestic film industry in the following years, such as Yanying's 78-level Zhang Yimou.

Knowing this information in advance, Lin Weimin naturally wanted to persuade Lu Yao not to focus on immediate interests and hand over the adaptation rights of "Life" to Shanghai Film Studio.

He knew that Lu Yao was a person who regarded money as dirt at his core. He valued royalties solely to maintain his livelihood.

After replying to Lu Yao's letter, Lin Weimin continued working.

When he got off work, Lin Weimin left the unit with a packet of letters from readers.

After returning home and sorting out letters from readers and putting them on the bookshelf, Lin Weimin heard movement in the courtyard.

He walked out and saw Qu Xiaowei and his wife.

The two of them were empty-handed, and it looked like they were just here to get some food.

"I said you two can't start a gang? You spend all your time flirting with each other. No one in Zheng is as capable as you."

Qu Xiaowei and Liu Haiyan have been married for a month. They first spent a few days with their relatives in Yanjing, then traveled to Shanghai for a week, and then returned to Jinling to stay for a week. They just returned to Yanjing these two days.

If this were left to future generations, it would be basically equivalent to a trip to Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.

"It's coming soon, it's coming soon, everything will be ready in no time." Qu Xiaowei said.

Lin Weimin was too lazy to listen to his nonsense and shouted into the room: "Zhuang Zhuang, let's cook!"

"Here we come, uncle!"

Han Zhuangzhuang came out of the room holding a book with a serious look on his face.

Qu Xiaowei joked: "Hey, my eldest nephew is becoming more and more serious now!"

Han Zhuangzhuang put down his book and gave Qu Xiaowei a silly smile.

Lin Weimin mocked: "Do you think everyone is like you? You are ignorant and incompetent all day long."

Qu Xiaowei was not angry, and grabbed Lin Weimin while Han Zhuangzhuang went to the kitchen to cook.

"For the people, get me some tickets for the premiere of "Farewell My Concubine"!"

"Want to have sex for free again?"

"This time I won't do it for free. If you pay me, you can get me some tickets for Farewell My Concubine."

Lin Weimin broke free from Qu Xiaowei's hand, "I really can't get this."

Renyi's "Farewell My Concubine" has been in preparation for nearly a year and has been scheduled to be released later this month.

As soon as the performance information of this play was released, it immediately aroused widespread attention and heated discussion among the media, critics and drama lovers in Yanjing.

Since "Farewell My Concubine" was published in People's Literature in April last year and published as a single volume in September, the cumulative sales of the publication's books have reached nearly three million copies, and its impact on readers across the country has been unprecedented. of.

The only thing that can compare with it is "Life", which suddenly emerged in the second half of the year.

Now that "Farewell My Concubine" is about to be released in a drama version, all readers who have watched "Farewell My Concubine" are naturally interested in it.

It is a pity that there is little information these days and the influence of the drama is very limited. This kind of attention and heated discussion is now limited to the surrounding areas of Yanjing.

But even if it only had an impact in Yanjing, it was enough to make "Farewell My Concubine" reach the level of living before it was performed.

There were almost no ordinary audiences for the tickets for the first performance. A small group of cultural celebrities and media reporters, as long as the famous cultural figures in Yanjing City, all became the audience of the premiere of "Farewell My Concubine" .

Under such circumstances, being an audience member at the premiere of "Farewell My Concubine" seems to have become a status symbol.

We were in the same work unit and we started chatting. You could be invited to watch "Farewell My Concubine", but you could only stay at home that night. It would be embarrassing to talk about it. This is not a good position in the industry!

Even if you don’t really receive an invitation, you still have to get a ticket!

This directly makes it difficult to get tickets for the premiere of "Farewell My Concubine". Even the dean is now afraid to agree to give away tickets casually.

"Don't bother me. I already promised Haiyan, you can't let me break my promise, right?" Qu Xiaowei begged.

Lin Weimin glanced at Liu Haiyan who was standing next to him, and said helplessly: "I really can't get the premiere, I'll find another venue for you."

Having said that, Qu Xiaowei knew that Lin Weimin really couldn't get tickets for the premiere, so he could only agree to settle for the next best thing.

"Okay, I'll trouble you this time."

"Stop saying that."

The next day, Lin Weimin was called to Yan Wenjing's office when he went to work.

“After we talked that day, I fully communicated with the comrades in the WS department and Random House.

What they meant was that the price was set lower entirely because this was a Chinese novel, and publishing it in the United States was a risky endeavor for them. Random House took the risk.

After our hard arguments, Random House agreed to increase the manuscript fee to US$15,000, with an initial printing of 30,000 copies.

I learned about it with the comrades in the WS department. The book pricing mechanism in the United States is similar to ours. The only difference is probably the labor cost paid to the author.

Our country currently implements a remuneration system, which is basic remuneration + remuneration for the number of prints. Publishers in the United States pay royalties directly to authors, and royalties for famous writers can basically account for 10% to 15% of sales revenue.

But this means that for writers who have become famous and have a family, the lowest royalties for new writers can even be reduced to 3%. Normally, this amount is in the range of 5% to 10%.

We did some calculations and found that a book in the United States costs about US$10, and the total sales revenue from the first printing of 30,000 copies is US$300,000. US$15,000 is exactly equivalent to paying you a 5% royalty.

This price is relatively reasonable. "

As soon as Lin Weimin walked in and sat down, Yan Wenjing started talking like a machine gun. It was probably because he had been talking about this matter to Random House in the past few days.

The manuscript fee jumped directly from 5,000 US dollars to 15,000 US dollars. Lin Weimin was quite satisfied with the price. He also understood that Random House's considerations made sense.

A writer whose name has never been heard of, from the far east China, writes a novel whose local readers are not familiar with the background of the era. The first printing of 30,000 copies is an adventure, and it is very likely that all the money will be lost.

He is not well-known in the United States, and he doesn't expect others to treat him like a celebrity.

All he pursues is respect. Although he doesn't want to admit it, sometimes price represents respect.

"I have no objection to this price..."

Yan Wenjing was about to breathe a sigh of relief when he received Lin Weimin's answer, when he heard him say again: "However, if we need to print more in the future, have we negotiated the price?"

Yan Wenjing looked at Lin Weimin with a wry smile, "You, you, you really never suffer."

He continued: "We have also discussed this issue. Random House's opinion is that if you want to print more copies in the future, they are willing to give you an increase of 20% on the basis of the current royalties."

Lin Weimin muttered: "These old ricers are so clever that they won't suffer any loss at all."

If there is really a need for additional printing in the future, it proves that "Farewell My Concubine" has made money for Lao Mi. Naturally, people do not want to use royalties to share the money with him. A symbolic increase in the royalties is considered to be an expression of sincerity.

But the words were ambiguous, and he needed to ask clearly.

"What does this 20% increase mean? Is it based on the fee for each word, or is it only based on the fee for this time?"

Yan Wenjing said angrily: "Of course the increase is based on the fee for each word. Do you think I'm a fool? If he prints a million copies, will he increase your fee by 3,000 meters?"

Lin Weimin never thought that "Farewell My Concubine" would become a big hit in the American book market and jump onto the bestseller list. He asked this just in case.

The fee is increased by 20% per word, which is equivalent to a 6% royalty price, which is quite sincere.

He smiled apologetically, "Don't be angry, leader, I'm just asking casually. I knew that with you here, this matter couldn't be wrong, and it has to be you!"

As he spoke, he did not forget to give Yan Wenjing a thumbs up, with a flattering look on his face.

Yan Wenjing lost his temper completely due to his playful smile.

This monkey!

Day six. Tomorrow we will continue to generate tens of thousands per day. Please subscribe and vote monthly!