Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

Chapter 177 I am very optimistic about you!

After leaving Xiamen University, the three talked and laughed, and they were all in a good mood.

Yu Hua also turned her head to look at the gate of Xia University behind, and said with emotion: "This Xia University's school spirit is really good, unlike your Yanshi University."

His words immediately offended Yu Dong and Su Tong.

"Heh, look at what you said, dare to judge the school spirit of a school based on whether someone can recognize you, Yu Hua?" Su Tong sneered.

Yu Dong also said: "I see you, you might as well stick to Xiamen's side from now on, and wander around the door if you have nothing to do. It won't take long for all the teachers and students in the school to recognize your face."

"Hey, look, among other things, is it true that you students of Yan Normal University are protecting their shortcomings? Forget it, after all, I am half a student of Yan Normal University."

Su Tong rolled his eyes and said: "This is strange. I never heard you say that you are a student of Yan Normal University before. Why, have you changed now?"

"With the two of you, I have an extra layer of Yanshi university student's coat, and you two can't scold me."

The three of them finished their tiring day and went back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep. The next day Yu Hua left early in the morning. His bus was in the morning, so he had to leave early.Yu Dong and the others' train trip was in the afternoon, and they didn't get up until late in the morning.

After arriving at the school, although no one came to welcome them, a banner was hung on the avenue leading to the library at the school gate: Congratulations to Teacher Yu Dong for winning the Zhuang Zhongwen Literature Award!

The doorman, Uncle Zhou, said with a smile: "It was hung yesterday, and there is another one on the outer wall to the north. Teacher Yu, I heard that the Zhuang Wen Literary Award you won this time is coming to Sri Lanka, and the prize money is not too old or young. "

It's not appropriate to ask about the bonus, but Yu Dong didn't take it seriously, and said with a smile: "It's not much, Mr. Zhou, do you have a letter from me?"

"Yes, I packed everything for you." Uncle Zhou turned and went into the reception room and took out a plastic bag: "You have quite a lot of letters now, and you have received more than a dozen letters in just a few days."

Yu Dong took the plastic bags and checked, there were indeed quite a few.

Recently, he has received more and more letters, including invitation letters from various magazines and letters from readers.

Now more and more people knew that he was teaching at Jinyi, so they sent the letter directly to the school.

Before Liu Xuemin told Yu Dong that readers often sent some weird letters to the author, but Yu Dong was lucky, and the letters he received from readers were normal and positive.

Occasionally, some readers will make some comments, but they are relatively moderate.

When there were not many letters before, Yu Dong would open them one by one and read them carefully. Now that there are more and more letters, he no longer has the time and energy.

Take the letter to the dormitory, and the students who see him along the way will take the initiative to say hello to him.

Now whether it is a new student or an old student, Jin Yi basically has no students who don't know him. The school itself is not big, and the students can see Yu Dong's name every day, so they will naturally know him every time they come and go.

When he arrived at the dormitory, he put down his bag, and Yu Dong first took out the letters in the plastic bags and sorted them into categories.

Three of them were from magazines, and one of them was from Reader's Digest.

After Yu Dongyinyang scolded them strangely last time, not only were they not angry, but they even wrote a thank you letter.

"Thank you, Mr. Yu Dong, for your attention to our agency. The title you gave has been carefully studied within our agency, and I think it is completely feasible, so I plan to start asking for opinions from the society as a 'reader' in the next issue. If you get a reader Thanks for your extensive support, our society will use this journal title, and I will be very grateful.”

Then I wrote a lot of nonsense in the back.

After Yu Dong finished reading the letter, he couldn't help but praise "Reader's Digest".

These people are really good at beating snakes and sticks, and they are a little resigned.But the more this happened, the more Yu Dong looked down on this magazine.

They think that having no position and no temper are the "quality" that a free publication should have, but they don't know that there is no person or organization without a position in this world. Their so-called no position is precisely a position.

But Yu Dong won't reply to them again, it's not a good thing to get too involved with them.

……

The next day, Jimmy arrived in Jinling and reported the situation of "Resident Evil" to Yu Dong.

"Our first battle can be described as a complete victory. Before I left the United States, I got the sales data for the first 20 days. The sales volume has reached 30 copies. If it weren't for the fact that there were too few first prints at the beginning, I think this figure It should also increase by 50.00%, and it will definitely exceed 40 copies."

When talking about the sales of "Resident Evil", Jimmy looked excited.

Before he left, Bantam had already decided to print another 100 million copies, and a total of 160 million copies had been printed.

The royalties are not settled according to the sales volume, but according to the printed copies, that is to say, how many copies Bantam printed, the royalties should be paid to Yu Dong, regardless of whether they sold or not.

Looking at it now, they have received at least 160 million royalties.

But Jimmy is not satisfied with this. His longest hope is that this book can sell 700 million copies in the United States, breaking the sales record of novels in the United States.

Of course, this hope is not great at this stage, so Jimmy’s temporary hope is to sell the 160 million copies as soon as possible, distribute the goods in other English-speaking regions as soon as possible, and strive to sell tens of millions of copies worldwide.

In this way, future series of works will be easier to promote.

Thinking of the series, Jimmy asked Yu Dong again: "Dong, have you conceived the second part of this series? When will it come out?"

Yu Dong was a little speechless and said: "How can it be so fast, wait until next year."

"It's almost next year, there are still ten days to go." Jimmy smiled, "As long as you have a plan, I think it will be fine. Oh, by the way, I saw the banner hanging at the door when I came in , you won the Zhuang Zhongwen Literature Award? How is the weight of this award? What category?"

"It's hard to say how much it is, and the recent attention is not bad. However, there are a lot of people who win each year, and we have [-] people in this year. The traditional literature category is mainly awarded to young writers." Yu Dong said.

Jimmy nodded, feeling that there is little room for manipulation in this award, and it is not easy to create public opinion. The main reason is that it has no characteristics.

It would be great if Yu Dong could win an important foreign award, it would be very helpful to his marketing, but for the time being, it seems that there is no hope.

In fact, Jimmy was mentally prepared when he decided to take Yu Dong's works to the United States. It is not easy for Chinese authors to win awards abroad.

"There is one more thing I want to tell you. I have already contacted the Niu Erfang you mentioned before. He mainly fell in love with the science fiction writers I signed, and hoped that he could use me in the future to let These writers contribute to them. Or, to see if there is such a possibility.”

Yu Dong frowned and said, "What do you mean, tell me in detail."

"They are indeed planning to launch a sci-fi magazine, because they see the momentum of sci-fi in China and feel that it is not enough to have only one sci-fi magazine, so they also want to launch a sci-fi magazine."

"Well, I know this. Niu Erfang said it when he came last time." Yu Dong nodded.

Jimmy smiled and continued: "In fact, they really want to make a magazine like "Science Fiction World", but they are afraid that they will not be able to compete with them, so they found me through you. They want to see if they can draw me to If they go to the camp, as long as they win over the author and give "Science Fiction World" a bottom line, they will have confidence."

Yu Dong looked at Jimmy and probably knew the final result of the negotiation.

Jimmy wasn't a big fan of World of Science Fiction, so it didn't matter to him where the authors he signed were submitting, but he had to see enough interest.

Yu Dong can conclude that Niu Erfang and the others cannot give the benefit that Jimmy requested.

"Don't you ask me, have you talked with them?" Jimmy asked.

Yu Dong smiled and said, "Do you still want to ask?"

"Hey, chatting with you is really boring. Indeed, we didn't agree, and they were too greedy. They wanted an author, but they couldn't give me any real benefits, so they would draw big cakes for me. You know how they persuaded me Yes? They said that if their magazines can be supported, the living environment of domestic science fiction writers will be much better in the future, because more magazines will participate in the competition for authors.”

Speaking of this, Jimmy sneered: "They think too highly of themselves, why should I support them thanklessly? After hearing my tone of unwillingness to support them, they said they wanted to create a comic magazine .But this one has nothing to do with me, so I didn’t talk about it in depth.”

"What do you think of their idea of ​​a manga magazine?"

Jimmy thought for a while and said: "It's really a good idea, and it doesn't take much effort. But the key problem is, based on my understanding of Chinese comics, I'm afraid it's not easy to find such an artist. Experienced old artists will definitely not pick it up." For their job, inexperienced students are definitely not skilled enough to support such a comic magazine. And when I was chatting with Niu Erfang, I found that he didn’t know anything about comics, he was just a layman.”

Yu Dong nodded, and Jimmy got to the point.

In the past two years, foreign comics have gradually become popular in China. This is indeed a fact, but Niu Erfang and the others want to start their own sci-fi comic magazine. There are many difficulties, and the biggest difficulty is the professional problem that Jimmy mentioned.

"In my opinion." Jimmy continued, "Either recruit talents in this field from abroad, or prepare for losses in the past few years, and spend time and money to train some painters."

"Don't follow this matter for the time being. You should focus more on the writers you signed during this time. Especially Wang Jingkang and Han Song, you can get in touch with them more." Yu Dong said.

Jimmy scratched the back of his head, "Speaking of this Wang Jingkang, I'm still rather surprised, why you must sign him, I read "Seven Shells", and it's really not bad, it's a bit like an extended popular version of "Prison No. [-]". But He is different from He Hongwei and the others, he is too old and it is difficult for him to develop further. Especially for novels, it is very difficult for him to write novels at his age."

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter even if it is a short novel, and his potential cannot be measured by age."

In fact, the appearance of Wang Jingkang also surprised Yu Dong, because in his impression, his "Seven Shells" would come out a long time later, and his debut work should be "Adam's Return".

Now that "Adam's Return" hasn't come out, "Seven Shells" has appeared first.

Yu Dong guessed that this was another change caused by his return.

When he saw the name, Yu Dong immediately asked Jimmy to sign Wang Jingkang.According to Jimmy, when he found Wang Jingkang, Wang Jingkang was very surprised. He never expected that someone would come to sign a cooperation with him, and even once regarded Jimmy as a liar.

Moreover, Wang Jingkang didn't understand what a writer's agent was at all.

"It's just a senior engineer who studies technology."

This is the summary of Jimmy's impression of Wang Jingkang.

In addition, Wang Jingkang is indeed not young. He is already in his forties this year. For a science fiction writer, it is really late to publish his debut novel at this age.

Yu Dong's judgment on Wang Jingkang is not entirely due to his own foresight, but also based on his works.Just as he believes, Hu Changqing also has the hope of becoming a well-known science fiction writer.

People like Wang Jingkang and Hu Changqing have a talent for writing science fiction, but they entered this path a little later.

Hu Changqing also signed a contract with Jimmy, but he didn't know that Yu Dong was the boss behind Jimmy's "Deep Space Co., Ltd."

In addition to signing some science fiction writers, the company has recently begun to prepare to sign some traditional literature writers.

Yu Dong gave Jimmy a list, wrote the names of some writers he thought could be signed, and asked him to talk.

In the list written by Yu Dong, there are basically young writers who have not yet become famous or have just become famous for a few years, such as Yu Hua and Bi Feiyu.

In fact, Jimmy didn't think it would be worthwhile to sign a writer of traditional literature, but based on his understanding of Dong, it was useless to know what to say, so after getting the list, he didn't mention any opinions, but just patted his chest and promised to complete the task.

Still the same sentence, even if signing these writers doesn't make money, it won't hurt the company's roots, and it can make Yu Dong happy, so why not do it?

The writer of Jimmy's first strategy is Bi Feiyu.

Yu Dong ran out of the room and yelled in the direction of Bi Feiyu on the second floor.

"Feiyu, someone is looking for you."

Bi Feiyu came out lazily, "Who is it?"

Jimmy also ran out and greeted Bi Feiyu, "Mr. Bi, it's me."

Bi Feiyu knew Jimmy, and replied with a smile: "It's you, Mr. Jimmy. I heard what Yu Dong said, and thought it was another editor from a magazine."

While talking, Bi Feiyu had already gone downstairs, "Mr. Jimmy, what can you do with me?"

Jimmy cut to the chase: "I hope to be Mr. Bi's manager, but I don't know if Mr. Bi is willing."

Bi Feiyu looked surprised, first looked at Yu Dong, saw Yu Dong nodding to him, and then looked at Jimmy.

He knew that Jimmy was Yu Dong's agent, but in his opinion, the reason why Jimmy wanted to be Yu Dong's agent was entirely because of Yu Dong's achievements in science fiction, and had nothing to do with traditional literature.

"Mr. Jimmy, I can't write science fiction." Bi Feiyu said with a smile.

Jimmy also laughed, "I know you don't write science fiction, but your achievements in traditional literature are obvious to all..."

"Don't, don't—" Bi Feiyu waved his hands again and again, "Mr. Jimmy, it's not the first time we've met, so you don't have to put a high hat on me. I know my situation myself, and I really don't need an agent. People. Look at the few works I own, I don’t have many things to deal with, even if you sign it, I won’t be able to bring you any profit.”

Bi Feiyu's meaning is very clear, he doesn't have many affairs at hand, and he can handle it completely by himself, there is no need to hire a broker to divide his money, and the money is not much in the first place.

Of course Jimmy could understand what Bi Feiyu meant, but he was not in a hurry, and said to Bi Feiyu with a smile: "Don't rush to refuse, let's go into the room and talk slowly."

Bi Feiyu nodded, followed Jimmy and the others into Yu Dong's room.

Jimmy took the initiative to pour a cup of tea for Bi Feiyu, and took out two handfuls of melon seeds from Yu Dong's grain bag for Bi Feiyu, as if he regarded Yu Dong's place as his own home.

He did this on purpose for Bi Feiyu to see, to let Bi Feiyu know that he has an unusual relationship with Yu Dong, so as to dispel Bi Feiyu's worries.

After the tea and melon seeds were in place, Jimmy said slowly: "Mr. Bi, I understand your concerns, but what I'm going to say next can completely dispel all your concerns. If my agent's commission is 12.00 At this point, you need to give me [-]% of your work income. However, you should pay attention to this However, the commission agreement between us can set a trigger condition, that is, if your work income within a year does not reach [-], you will not When this agreement is triggered, all the income belongs to you, once your annual income exceeds [-], then I will take a percentage of the [-]."

Bi Feiyu was thinking while listening to Jimmy's words.

Jimmy's proposal is indeed very tempting. The annual income of 5 yuan is still a bit far away for Bi Feiyu. He doesn't think that he can earn more than [-] yuan in one year's writing.

If Jimmy can make him earn more than [-] a year, it seems reasonable to give some commission.

"And." Seeing Bi Feiyu's hesitation, Jimmy continued: "The 5 yuan only includes royalties, author's remuneration, licensing fees, etc. If your work wins, the bonus is not included in the 5 yuan. "

Jimmy didn't discuss this proposal with Yu Dong, it was his own idea.Because in his opinion, if you don't earn more than [-] yuan a year, it's meaningless to take such a commission. It's only a few thousand yuan, so why not just give it to the writer as a favor.

Bi Feiyu didn't reply immediately, but thought about it while drinking water from the cup.

Jimmy didn't urge him here either, he grabbed a handful of melon seeds and started nibbling.

After Bi Feiyu finished drinking a cup of tea, he still didn't think of a reason to reject the proposal, so he said, "I think it's okay."

Hearing Bi Feiyu's answer, Jimmy quickly put down the melon seeds in his hand, and said with a smile: "If you think it's ok, then I'll draw up a contract for you later, and if there's no problem, we'll settle the matter. "

Bi Feiyu nodded, and then said with some doubts: "Mr. Jimmy, I have a question, why did you sign me?"

"Because I am very optimistic about you." Jimmy said with sincere and firm eyes.

　Thank you [The Man Under the Ice] for the 100 reward
　　Thank you [Ghost Valley Holy Word] for the 100 reward of the boss
　　
　
(End of this chapter)