Reborn in 1977

Chapter 546: Making a Lot of Money

Actually, in Chen Fan's opinion, their requests were quite humble.

Not to mention not asking for a share of the royalties, even if they did ask for a little bit, he wouldn't have minded.

After all, they had put in real effort to work, saving him a lot of trouble, and most importantly, saving a lot of time. Otherwise, so much text would have taken a lot of effort just to copy, let alone the translation, which was equivalent to secondary creation.

And how much could they get?

According to domestic standards, the royalty for translation manuscripts is a maximum of 6 yuan per thousand words, so for 3.2 million words of translation manuscripts, they could only get 19,200 yuan.

Converting that to US dollars, that's 11,400 yuan?

Rounding it up for them, 12,000?

What could that buy?

A Porsche 924 priced at $9,495, and the rest for taxes?

Not to mention dividing it among several units, and what each person gets in the end would probably only buy some materials, and nothing else.

Chen Fan said he couldn't understand it.

However, through all the fuss today, from Zhao Junhui to Zhu Gong'an, from Jiang Heng to Xu Qizhen and the reactions of these people, he finally understood how significant foreign exchange was to domestic units now.

Having received a satisfactory reply, the leaders of the Cultural Affairs Bureau bid farewell and left.

They didn't even leave a souvenir.

At least give two packs of cigarettes.

He Qingsheng took a puff of his cigarette, a few hints of hesitation and a few hints of hope flashed in his eyes, "Do you think that Little Japan publisher might take a fancy to the works of our other writers?"

Chen Fan spread his hands towards him, shrugged his shoulders and said, "I can't guarantee this. I said just now that Little Japan came to me to sign a contract out of gratitude. He didn't even carefully read my articles, just let his assistant read a few of them simply. It's like giving money away for nothing, just using a reasonable and legal way."

Xu Qizhen gently gritted her teeth, not knowing whether to be envious or jealous.

But this method is really impossible to imitate. First of all, you have to know medical skills, and then you can happen to save a Little Japan with capitalist relatives, and finally, you must have a way to let people give money in a legitimate way.

He really deserves to make money.

He Qingsheng didn't show much disappointment on his face, just shook his head with a wry smile, "I'm thinking too much."

There are many works of the same kind as Chen Fan's articles in China. If they can go out and make the "literary creation to earn foreign exchange" road successful, it would be a great thing for the country and for themselves.

In fact, as early as the 1950s, China was promoting its excellent literary works to foreign countries on a large scale, from classical literature to modern masterpieces, after careful selection, they were translated on a large scale.

Unfortunately, very few writers can go abroad. Apart from Mr. Li's works sweeping the world, not many other writers have achieved success abroad.

Only Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Shen Congwen, and a few others.

Moreover, those were all top-level behaviors. The foreign exchange earned had little to do with the writers themselves, unlike today when Chen Fan directly signed a contract with a foreign publishing company, which has important practical significance.

However, this is just an individual case.

If he hadn't saved that child at that time, there wouldn't be today's karma.

Just as he was sighing secretly, Chen Fan thought for a while and said, "Actually, it's not like there's no chance."

He Qingsheng and Xu Qizhen looked up at him together, "How do you say that?"

Chen Fan said with a smile, "The nature of capitalists is to pursue profits. Although Takahashi Hideo signed a contract with me for the sake of human relations, he still has to print those books and sell them.

If these books sell well, he will definitely come to China again to look for other books of the same type, so all our colleagues will have a chance."

Hearing this, He Qingsheng and Xu Qizhen looked at each other.

Very likely!

They are very confident in Chen Qi's articles. Now there is only one problem, that is, will Little Japan like to read them?

Lacking survey data, there is no way to analyze this kind of thing. I just heard that they also have anti-war literature, which is very similar to Chen Fan's works.

The two of them can only pray silently in their hearts, hoping that Little Japan likes to read about beating Little Japan, so that there will be more stories about beating Little Japan for them to read!

Chen Fan just casually comforted them, took a sip of tea, and said softly, "Uncle He, is there any result from the Writers Association meeting last time?"

He Qingsheng came back to his senses, turned to look at him, and the first thing he said was, "You call me uncle, and call Little Sister Xu, she's only two years younger than me, is the difference that big?"

Xu Qizhen rolled her eyes, "What's your image, what's my image? Don't you have any idea in your own mind?"

Then she smiled at Chen Fan, "The result came out the next day. The Writers Association will officially resume work on May 1st. The reason why it has been delayed for so long is mainly because there are still many things to do at the Federation of Literary and Art Circles. We must first build a big framework, but it's only a few days away.

There will also be a selection of the Lu Xun Literature Award, and a selection committee will be officially established after the Writers Association resumes work. At that time, a batch of excellent works will be selected to participate in the election, and finally several works will be selected for awards."

Chen Fan was a little curious, "Has the specific award mechanism been determined?"

He Qingsheng leaned on the back of the sofa, holding a cigarette in his hand, and said casually, "Isn't the selection committee not yet established? At that time, they will first come up with the regulations.

In addition, the Writers Association council is estimated to be elected after the National Congress of Writers. Before that, the temporary party group will act as an agent for various tasks. This regulation will also be determined and implemented after their review.

So at the earliest, it is estimated that it will have to wait until the end of May or June to select the first batch of winning works."

He raised his head, coughed dryly, and took a puff of his cigarette indifferently, "Little Chen, you have a flexible mind, what ideas do you have about this selection regulation?"

Chen Fan frowned slightly, thought for a while, and was about to speak when he heard Xu Qizhen say, "Xiao Fan, don't listen to him, you can talk about it, but you have to get some benefits!"

Hearing this, Chen Fan raised his head to look at her, blinked his eyes lightly, and then quickly turned his head to look at He Qingsheng.

I saw He Qingsheng looking at Xu Qizhen with a speechless face, "Don't be like this. I'm the chairman, you're the secretary-general, we have to cooperate sincerely, look at you, what do you look like."

Chen Fan laughed, "Uncle He, are you also a judge?"

He Qingsheng's old face blushed slightly, "Thank you for the love of all comrades, you have to choose me, in fact, there are still many people on this selection committee, there are 6 people in total."

Chen Fan pretended to be surprised and widened his eyes, "Wow, one-sixth, amazing!"

Saying that, he also clapped his palms.

He Qingsheng waved his hands pretentiously shyly, "No, no, it's all..."

"It's all because the old leaders didn't participate."

Xu Qizhen laughed, "Mr. Mao Dun, Mr. Ba Jin, and Mr. Zhang Guangnian, all didn't participate, only Chen Huangmei took the lead and served as the chairman of the selection committee, and the remaining 5 were all selected from the chairmen of the provincial branch."

He Qingsheng said with a black face, "Are you uncomfortable if you don't fight against me."

Then he turned to look at Chen Fan, "Look at you, you will have such a large income soon, what's the point of a little benefit, right? Talk, talk, talk."

Chen Fan blinked, glanced at Xu Qizhen who was laughing beside him, turned his face and said, "Then, choose one of two. Didn't you say that I have a large income, but this is just a one-time thing, maybe there won't be any in the future.

"I'll give you an idea, one that's reasonable, legal, and compliant, and also very popular with the general readership. Most importantly, it can continuously increase revenue for the organization, earning hundreds of thousands a year. Which one do you want?"

He Qingsheng stared blankly at him. After two or three seconds, he suddenly turned to look at Xu Qizhen, "Did I hear wrong?"

Xu Qizhen also stopped smiling at this point, looking at Chen Fan with a face full of suspicion, "Earn hundreds of thousands a year? Continuously? And reasonable, legal, and compliant?"

He Qingsheng quickly turned back, his eyes full of hope, "You didn't say anything wrong? There really is such a method?"

After a pause, he frowned slightly again, "You're not thinking of starting another new magazine, are you? That would also be a solution, but, let me tell you, a magazine isn't that easy to run..."

Chen Fan lit a cigarette, shook his head gently, and smiled, "It's not about running a magazine, and it doesn't require much investment. It just needs a group of experienced veteran writers."

"A group of experienced veteran writers?"

He Qingsheng frowned even tighter, "How many?"

Chen Fan thought for a moment, "About a dozen, maybe. But it can also be done by the editors of the 'Jiangnan Literature' magazine on a part-time basis. Or rather, editors are even more suitable."

As soon as He Qingsheng heard this, his frown immediately relaxed. What do you mean a group? He thought it would be a lot of people. It turned out to be only a dozen or so.

Not to mention the writers in the provincial capital, the magazine's own editors are enough. A small matter!

Immediately, a burst of boldness arose, "Tell me about it."

Chen Fan looked at him teasingly, "You're choosing this one?"

He Qingsheng rolled up his sleeves and pointed at him, "I'm choosing this one."

"Okay."

Chen Fan coughed lightly and said, "Actually, it's very simple. Didn't the Writers Association often hold literary creation workshops in the past? Have someone dig out some of the previous materials, remove some unnecessary things, and select the real substance. Oh, substance means useful.

Then adapt it into writing teaching materials and make it into a correspondence course. The course name can be called 'Literary Creation Correspondence Class'."

"Literary Creation Correspondence?"

He Qingsheng looked at him with a strange expression, "This can earn hundreds of thousands a year?"

Why hasn't he seen any other correspondence school earn hundreds of thousands a year?

Chen Fan smiled, "How much you can earn specifically depends on how many people you plan to arrange to do this work. If there are only a few people, you can definitely only earn a little, but it should still be possible to earn tens of thousands of yuan.

If you arrange more people, hundreds of thousands, absolutely no problem!"

His idea is not groundless.

In the early 1980s, the "Literary Youth" magazine in Wenzhou established a literary correspondence creation center.

If this thing was only done in the local area, it would not be able to recruit many people. Gathering a few hundred would be the limit.

Although there were many people with literary dreams at that time, most of them were hypocritical, or, as people at the time saw it, literary creation was a very sacred thing. Many people were afraid to pursue their dreams because of inferiority or fear of the eyes of those around them.

So, in order to enroll students, the correspondence center came up with a way to place a recruitment advertisement in the "Wenhui Daily".

Wenhui Daily was a major newspaper distributed nationwide, with a daily circulation of several million, and its audience happened to include those literary youths.

So what happened?

It exploded!

After the advertisement was published, the correspondence center, which originally only planned to recruit 2,000 students, received more than 12,000 registration letters in less than a week. ... The letters also contained 10 yuan for tuition.

According to the speed of sending letters at that time, it is estimated that these were all literary enthusiasts from the postal area.

As time went on, the number of applicants soared to more than 20,000.

The correspondence center was so frightened that it urgently held a meeting to discuss countermeasures, on the one hand, it advertised again, announcing that the enrollment quota was full, and begging people not to send registration fees anymore.

On the other hand, they hurried to refund the money, and even refunded part of the original 10 yuan per year tuition fee.

Because there were too many people, the 200,000 yuan in the account really scared them.

Just a literary magazine in a prefecture-level city, when had they ever seen so much money?!

After that, the correspondence school held many sessions, enrolling 10,000 people every year, until later, when literary dreams receded and the economic tide came, they stopped when it was good.

Although it is not the early 1980s, and there are fewer new college students after the resumption of the college entrance examination, it seems that the number of literary youths is not as large as it will be in a few years.

But the reality is quite the opposite.

First, literary magazines that had been discontinued for many years were successively re-published, attracting intellectuals who had been yearning for literature for a long time to purchase and read them, prompting sales to rise month by month.

Then, the resumption of the college entrance examination greatly stimulated the learning enthusiasm of the majority of young people.

Finally, the shockingly low college entrance examination enrollment rate was like a basin of ice water, extinguishing the enthusiasm of many people for taking the exam.

If a literary creation correspondence class that does not require exams and only requires paying a registration fee to study for a whole year is launched at this time, ... guess how many people will go crazy?!

The fact is that, a few years later, when the correspondence center in Wenzhou only held one face-to-face class, a middle school teacher from Inner Mongolia traveled thousands of miles to participate in the face-to-face teaching of the correspondence center. Before that, the villagers in the whole village beat gongs and drums and slaughtered cattle and sheep to see him off.

Because the villagers believed that it was a great thing for him to go to the south to participate in the study of literary creation.

So what about now, a few years ago?!

Nowadays, there is a shortage of people everywhere. For the same clerical position, one says that he graduated from high school, and the other takes out a literary creation correspondence diploma. Who has a better chance?!

On the other hand, looking at the Jiangnan Writers Association and the "Jiangnan Literature" magazine, one is a provincial-level writers association branch, and the other is a provincial-level literary publication. The resources that can be used are far from comparable to "Literary Youth".

Therefore, without a doubt, the hundreds of thousands that Chen Fan mentioned are not bragging.

Looking at He Qingsheng and Xu Qizhen, who were frowning and thinking, Chen Fan leaned back and leaned on the back of the sofa, smiling, "Well, Uncle He, if you don't do this, why not let me do it? The Writers Association can establish a literary correspondence school. Anyway, my level is high enough, so let me be the person in charge.

Then all the expenses of this correspondence school will be borne by me. If I lose money, it's my loss. If I can make money, I won't ask for much. I'll split it in half with the organization. How about it?"

"Not good!"

He Qingsheng glared at him, "What? You still want to contract it? Don't even think about it."

What he said was not Xiaogang's village. In fact, such policies were briefly implemented in Shandong in 1962 and in some parts of Fujian in the first half of the 1970s, but the timing was not right, and they all died down.

So the term contracting did not only exist later, but existed long before.

After a pause of two seconds, he raised his head and smiled, "Isn't it just a correspondence training school? Can't I bear this responsibility? Okay, I agree to this matter. Tomorrow, you bring out a charter."

Chen Fan's face darkened, "I won't participate. I'm just making a suggestion."

He Qingsheng pondered for two seconds, "Just the proposal, two White Gold Dragons."

Chen Fan slapped his thigh, "Deal."

He Qingsheng raised his head, looking at him with a smile on his face, "Add two more White Gold Dragons, and write me an award rule by the way?"

Chen Fan stretched out a palm, "Five in total, all-inclusive."

He Qingsheng: Why did the price go up?