Reborn Tycoon Rise

"The main text is called Kunlun, but Iron-Blooded Prodigy is just a prequel?"

Zhao Deyuan immediately understood: This would be a piece of news that was neither big nor small.

During this period, The Iron-Blooded Prodigy has attracted the attention of the people in Xiangjiang, but its influence is still limited. After all, it is a short novel and is about to be completed. It can be described as a flash in the pan.

But if this is just a prequel, then the subsequent Kunlun will definitely be more exciting and more ambitious.

In martial arts novels, word count is king. Given enough time, a novel of sufficient quality and length will definitely have an exponential effect. What's more, for any newspaper company, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Zhao Deyuan asked: "I wonder if Xu Sheng has considered submitting the novel to our Oriental Daily?"

Xu Zhi smiled and said, "Can you decide this matter?"

Zhao Deyuan said: "I will go back and report it, but if Xu Sheng agrees, I think there will be absolutely no problem."

Xu Zhi said: "Okay, you can go back and talk about it. If you are interested, we can talk about it."

Zhao Deyuan was originally going to ask a few more questions, but because he knew about Kunlun's existence, some of the following questions were of little value, so he said hello, paid and left.

A big company is good, and you can be reimbursed for interviews and tea, and Xu Zhi also got a free meal.

………….

Time flies, and another week has passed.

Even though the people at Huixing Daily were extremely reluctant, Iron-Blooded Genius still ushered in its finale.

On the last day, the newspaper's sales exceeded 40,000 copies. According to the approximate record for the same period, it was enough to enter the top 20 in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, it was only for one day.

But because of a novel, a small newspaper selling a few thousand a day suddenly became one of the giants selling tens of thousands. The role of literary fiction has once again attracted the attention of newspaper giants.

……………….

"Xu Zhi, someone is looking for you." Wu Peng brought a middle-aged man to Xu Zhi's seafood shop.

Xu Zhi stood up and asked: "Who are you?"

The middle-aged man smiled and said: "My name is Wang Rong, and I am the editor-in-chief of Oriental Daily."

"Oh." Xu Zhidao: "Then please sit down."

Wang Rong smiled and said: "Xu Sheng is really young."

Xu Zhi asked: "Where is Zhao Deyuan? Why didn't he come?"

Wang Rong smiled and said: "I'm not here for an interview today. He is a reporter and there is no need to come."

Xu Zhidao: "Then why did Mr. Wang come today?"

"Kunlun!" Wang Rong said: "I heard that Xu Sheng is already writing this book, and we at Oriental Daily are very interested in it!"

Xu Zhixiao asked: "It's been a week, what if I have already submitted my article to other newspapers?"

I had informed the other party a week ago, but I didn't expect that I was made to wait until today.

Wang Rong frowned and asked, "Which newspaper?"

He only found out about this yesterday, and after asking the whole story, he found out that Zhao Deyuan handed in the story after the interview, but the people above him didn't pay attention to it. It wasn't until a few days passed that Wang Rong was notified, so he rushed over today. .

Xu Zhixiao said: "This needs to be kept secret!"

Wang Rong was not sure whether what the other party said was true or false, but since he was here, he had to talk. He added, "I don't know how much Xu Sheng has written about Kunlun. Can you show it to me?"

Xu Zhi opened the drawer next to him, took out a few manuscripts, and handed them to Wang Rong: "Here are some of the previous contents. Can you take a look?"

Wang Rong flipped through the manuscript and frowned before reading it: "Why is it so small?"

Xu Zhi smiled and said: "These are almost more than 20,000 words, which is enough for you to publish several issues. You can't let us take out the entire book, right?"

Wang Rong said: "If possible, we just want to see the subsequent quality."

Xu Zhi ignored him and said, "That's all you want to read. The Iron-blooded Genius has read it, so why should you doubt the quality of the book?"

Wang Rong became silent upon hearing this. After discussing with several other editors before coming, they all felt that they should see more follow-up before deciding whether to conduct subsequent negotiations. After working as editors for so many years, they have encountered many short-lived good books. After writing a classic, they can no longer follow up.

Although "Iron-Blooded Prodigy" is good, it is only a short story after all. People who can write this kind of book may not be able to control the content of a full-length novel. What's more, the person who wrote the book is a newcomer with low academic qualifications. All of this makes them hesitate to write a full-length novel. The serialization of a newspaper is a very important matter for a newspaper. Although it cannot alarm the board of directors, it must have the approval of the top management.

Oriental Daily is one of the largest newspapers in Hong Kong. If it publishes a novel and it is brilliant in the early stage and collapses in the later stage, the newspaper will be stuck in the decision of whether to continue publishing or stop serialization. However, both of these methods will offend many people and lose a lot of money. . If this were to happen, they would have a lot of fun making decisions.

While thinking, Wang Rong also read the entire article. He is an editor and has already developed the ability to read ten lines at a glance. After reading it, he found that there was too little content and he could not guess the subsequent plot.

"Is this Liang Xiao the protagonist of Kunlun?" Wang Rong asked.

Xu Zhi replied: "Of course!"

Wang Rong asked: "How many words does Xu Sheng of Kunlun intend to write?"

Xu Zhidao: "One million!"

Wang Rong asked: "Can Xu Sheng consider our Oriental Daily? The manuscript fee is definitely not a problem!" "

Even though I don’t know the quality of the follow-up, the writing is not bad after all. I’ll sign it first. If I sign, it’s just a signing. Just give me a little signing bonus, but the novel may not be published.

Xu Zhi smiled and said: "How about 100 words for a thousand words?"

Wang Rong almost threw away the manuscript in his hand when he heard that it was 100 words per thousand words. Ni Kuang didn't get this treatment. The only one in Xiangjiang who had it was Mr. Jin, but he had already closed the book. Even if the novel is not closed, I am afraid that the novel he writes will only give him a clear reward. It is estimated that no newspaper in Xiangjiang can afford him.

"It's too expensive. Xu Sheng should come up with a reasonable figure, right? Ni Kuang Cologne doesn't even have this price." Wang Rong shook his head and said.

A thousand words are 100, and a novel manuscript fee of one million is 100,000. These days, 100,000 can buy a very good house.

Xu Zhi asked again: "How much can you offer?"

Wang Rong thought for a while and said: "50, a thousand words!"

"The minimum is 90. There is no need to discuss it. If you don't want to, forget it!" Xu Zhi said forcefully.

When Wang Rong heard this, he immediately raised the price to 55, but Xu Zhi ignored him and still refused to lower the price.

Seeing that Xu Zhi refused to let go, Wang Rong had no choice but to say: "I have no right to decide such a high price. I have to go back and discuss it."

Xu Zhi smiled and said: "Okay, but be quick."

………………..

After Wang Rong left, Wu Peng, who had been sitting next to him watching the show, laughed and said, "Dazhi, you are really ambitious. You want to make 100,000 yuan at a time."

Xu Zhi said with a smile: "It's not worth the price! But they serialized the novel and made a lot of money. My 100,000 is just a fraction of it. That's it, they still can't bear to part with it. It belongs to my mother-in-law."

When he first decided to write novels, Xu Zhi also checked the income of some writers, and the figures were really low. Ni Kuang's novels are well-known in Hong Kong and overseas Chinese areas, but they are only about 200 words per thousand, and his novels are mainly short and medium-sized stories. In fact, he does not earn much in royalties.

However, there are not many standards for comparison. Ni Kuang’s real explosive stage was when the movie boom began in the 1980s. His novels were adapted to the screen several times and the copyrights were sold several times. In addition, the big screen brought the best-selling books. Ni Kuang The boss has just entered the level of a multi-millionaire.

As for another master, Gu Long, Taiwan's remuneration algorithm is rather strange. It is calculated by line. Each line counts 25 words. Regardless of whether it is full or not, the money will be counted as the same. So when you look at Gu Long's original novel, you will find that there are a lot of poems in it, and many of the characters' dialogues are also very concise. Half of them are pretentious, and half of them are for the manuscript fee, so the mixed style has formed a lot of pretentious supporting characters.

Mr. Gu Long suffered from liver disease in his later years, and he basically invested his previous manuscript fees. Although he had his own habit of spending money randomly, if he really had a certain net worth, how could he spend it all without gambling or drug abuse?

As for Mr. Jin, before the establishment of Ming Pao, the novels were also super watery. Xiangjiang was written by words and could not be watered in the same way as Gulong, so he directly watered the content: "Huang Rong's hundreds of dish names! Yang Dingtian, Cheng Kun , as well as the bloody plot of the leader’s wife, too many details on Ice and Fire Island, etc.”

Mr. Jin stopped writing in 1972 because being the boss of Ming Pao made more money than writing novels. Moreover, the old man understood that more is worse than finer, so he spent several years overhauling his previous novels. When they started to be spread in the mainland, they all went through A fine product that has been carefully renovated.

If the remuneration is not enough, can I use the copyright to make up for it?

That is also a dream - Xiangjiang law comes from the British, and the copyright law is actually very complete, but in fact writers cannot receive it at all, and all kinds of piracy are rampant. Want to sue? You have to find out where the pirate factory is first? Who is the mastermind behind this? Even if you really find out, if you tell them, they will immediately shut down the business and go abroad to have it printed! Ordinary authors have no power and power, why should they go to hell?

The only one who can gain from copyright is Mr. Jin. His newspaper is very influential. No big shot is willing to offend him for this piracy profit, and even small ones cannot scale up.

Lao Gu, Lao Ni and others usually sell their works directly when they cannot receive the publishing fee. Large publishing houses are generally able to issue genuine editions, but the income of writers is also severely suppressed.

The golden age for writers was the 1980s. In 1976, Jim Yong Kim's Legend of the Condor Heroes was put on the screen by Xiangjiang Jiayi TV Station, and it became an instant hit. Later, TVB, Li's (ATV), and several major TV stations in Taiwan joined the show. In the 1980s, The martial arts style spread throughout Asia. During this period, the writer's reputation and status rose rapidly, and all kinds of income also increased.

Unfortunately, Gu Long died in 1985 due to liver disease and excessive drinking. Because he did not write a will before his death and was quite romantic during his lifetime, the astonishing copyright income became a matter of contention after his death. DNA technology was not yet mature at that time, and the court was still unclear whether several people were related to Gu Long by blood, so Put off again and again.

The delay lasted for 20 years, and it was not until 2006 that all the relationships were sorted out and the copyright dispute was ended. In the past 20 years, any TV station that wanted to film Gu Long's novels had to obtain the consent of several family members, and the legal procedures were cumbersome. Therefore, except for the most classic novels such as Xiao Li Feidao, Lu Xiaofeng, and Chu Liuxiang, there were no others. People are willing to ask questions. This has also led to Jin Yong’s novels almost monopolizing the entire mainland martial arts TV drama market.

And now that The Iron-Blooded Prodigy has just been serialized, there are pirated copies on the market. Are you going to ask for the copyright fees?

Xu Zhi didn't expect to make any money from the copyright, unless he sold it all at once, he could still make a fortune. However, Kunlun has not yet been written, the number of words in Iron Blood is too few, and his fame has only just begun, so even if he sells it, it won't make much money.

"Actually, being serialized in newspapers is just a way to gain fame. It's impossible to make a lot of money!" Xu Zhi said with a smile.

Wu Peng said disdainfully: "Don't be pretentious. We used to steal eggs from Lao Wang's house next door and sell them. You would be so happy for a dime each! Have you finished writing the whole book?"

Xu Zhidao: "Not yet, but it will be soon!"

Wu Peng said happily: "Then can I take a look first?"

Xu Zhi shook his head and said: "No, there are some things at the beginning of the book that cannot be leaked out, and you can't read them either!"

Of course, what cannot be leaked is the death of Liang Wenjing. Not only Wu Peng, but also his sister Xu Yaxin did not tell it. Otherwise, if it was accidentally leaked, it would definitely have a bad effect on future serializations.

"Tch, you are so stingy." Wu Peng opened the refrigerator, took out two bottles of Coke, handed one to Xu Zhi, and said, "My parents want me to go out to work."

Xu Zhi asked: "Why? Don't you help them sell vegetables?"

Wu Peng replied: "You don't need so many people to sell vegetables? You have also seen that I have nothing to do every day. Isn't it okay to be so idle?"

Xu Zhi asked again: "Then where are you going to work?"

Wu Peng said: "There is an electronics factory that is recruiting people. My dad has asked about it. I should be able to go."

Xu Zhi asked: "Do you want to go?"

Wu Peng smiled bitterly and said: "Of course I don't want to go. I asked some people. In the electronics factory, you have to work 12 hours a day. The monthly salary is only a few hundred yuan, and you have to work night shifts."

Xu Zhi smiled and said: "The night shift is very harmful to the body. You can't tell it when you are young. As time goes by, your body will suffer from various problems. But there are many girls in the electronics factory. Maybe you can still find a partner? Found it. It’s okay to come out again.”

Wu Peng didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Who did you listen to? There are not many girls in the electronics factory, and even if there are many, they are older."

"Really?" Xu Zhi didn't quite understand. He thought that today's electronics factories were still the same as those in the mainland in later generations.

Xu Zhi thought for a while and said, "I have an idea here. Instead of going to work, come to my store and help my dad. I will pay you a salary. How about 300 a month?"