You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 409 Copyright
Liu Cixin was stunned when he looked at Xia Lian, wondering if he had heard it wrongly.

What day is it today?
Could it be that I am dreaming?

"Director Xia, you are not kidding, are you?" Liu Cixin asked hesitantly.

"No, I'm serious." Xia Lian said with a smile, "Depending on the quality of your novel, short stories will be 3 to 5 yuan, and novels will be 10 to 15 yuan."

Liu Cixin was shocked. He didn't expect the other party to be so generous.

The price for short and medium-length stories is 3 to 5 yuan, and the price for long stories is 10 to 15 yuan!

Even selling a novel would bring in a considerable amount of income, not to mention that the other party doesn't even have to choose, but wants all.

The magazine paid Liu Cixin 150 yuan per thousand words because he won the Chinese Science Fiction Galaxy Award from 1999 to 2006.

But the science fiction genre is too niche, and before The Three-Body Problem became popular, his books had almost no chance of being published, let alone royalties.

As for adaptation into film, television, and animation, that is even more unrealistic.

Liu Cixin began contributing to Science Fiction World magazine in the 99s, and entered his creative peak period in .

Works including "The Wandering Earth", "Rural Teacher", "Full-Band Blocking Interference", "Supernova Era" and "Ball Lightning" were all created during this period.

The Three-Body Problem, which made Liu Cixin truly famous, is still under creation and will not be published until May 2006.

Liu Cixin counted and found that he had nearly thirty works. If calculated based on the lowest price, they would all be worth millions.

Thinking of this, Liu Cixin's hands were shaking with excitement.

This is such a huge sum of money!

Xia Lian took out a catalog and put it on the table for Liu Cixin to see. "This is a list of all the novels you have published in Science Fiction World magazine. Please check to see if there is anything missing."

Then Xia Lian signaled her assistant to bring a thick briefcase, from which she took out a thick stack of contracts, which she stacked one after another on the table. The stack was more than twenty centimeters thick.

When Liu Cixin saw the thick contract, his eyes twitched and his heart became even more excited.

Xia Lian enthusiastically opened the contract and explained the terms to Liu Cixin, "Teacher Liu, please take a look at these clauses."

“Party B exclusively authorizes Party A to use or sublicense the aforementioned rights and conduct commercial promotion and sales on its own, and to sign relevant agreements.”

“Both parties confirm that Party A will provide Party B with corresponding benefits for the relevant rights authorized by Party B to Party A in this clause. At the same time, in order for Party B to further understand the copyright development of the works under the Agreement, when Party A exercises the film/animation/comic/game adaptation rights of the works under the Agreement in accordance with this authorization, Party A will promptly inform Party B of the relevant cooperation status of such adaptation rights and sincerely listen to Party B’s opinions and suggestions, in order to achieve better cooperation results.”

“In order to clarify Party B’s legal rights, Party B shall enjoy the moral rights of the works in the Agreement worldwide in accordance with the law (including but not limited to the rights of publication, authorship, modification and protection of the integrity of the works, etc., as provided for in Article 10, Paragraph 1, Items (1) to (4) of the Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China). The cooperation under this Agreement shall not be deemed as Party B authorizing such moral rights to Party A.”

Liu Cixin was a little confused when looking at these items. After thinking about them for a long time, he did not find anything wrong with them. On the contrary, these terms were quite beneficial to him.

"If there's anything you don't understand, I can explain it to you." Xia Lian said with a smile, "If you think there's nothing wrong with the terms of the contract, we can sign it."

"Okay!" Liu Cixin carefully read the contract from beginning to end.

There is no problem with the other contents of the contract. The other party has complete and exclusive rights to adapt the film, television, animation, comics, and games for a period of fifty years. In addition, a sum of money from the profits from the adaptation will be given to him.

It is equivalent to directly buying out the adaptation rights of all written works.

But Liu Cixin didn't care. The other party came to him to talk, definitely not for charity, and the conditions were quite generous.

If the work is published, he can get the bulk of the proceeds, and he will be quite satisfied.

As for adaptations and the like, he could get more money, but he didn't take them to heart. In Liu Cixin's view, these were still too far away.

Liu Cixin signed the contract very readily and gave his bank account to Xia Lian. The next step was to wait for the money to arrive.

Once the money is received, the contract will officially take effect.

Xia Lian also breathed a sigh of relief at this time. The task that President Qin had assigned her was finally completed. Then she sent a text message to President Qin to report the good news.

After a while, Mr. Qin replied, "Ask Liu Cixin if he has any unpublished works? Let's sign them together."

???

Xia Lian was a little confused. She looked at Liu Cixin in front of her with confusion.

Is this person so important?

President Qin thinks too highly of this person. He even wants to sign his unpublished works?

Xia Lian asked tentatively: "Teacher Liu, do you have any unpublished works?"

Liu Cixin also looked confused, "Uh, no."

“But there is a work in progress.”

"It doesn't matter. We also want the works that are still being created!" Xia Lian said quickly, "Is it a long or short story?"

“Ah? You also need one for the one that’s still being created?!” Liu Cixin was also surprised.

……

"Boss Qin, the unfinished Three-Body Problem has been acquired."

Qin Shaoyan smiled after receiving the news and replied with a text message full of joy, "Well done."

The IP of "The Three-Body Problem" was seized by ourselves first. This is a gold mine that has not yet been mined. In a few years, this gold mine will appreciate sharply.

Qin Shaoyan took over "The Three-Body Problem" not only to increase the stock price and create hype, but he really wanted to make good use of this IP.

The value of this IP is not only in economic terms, but also in cultural output.

In 2015, The Three-Body Problem won the Best Novel Award at the 73rd Hugo Awards, and it was also the first Chinese work to win the Hugo Award.

"The Three-Body Problem" has become the world's top science fiction IP, and the outside world has commented that "Liu Cixin has single-handedly brought Chinese science fiction to an international level."

Many national leaders are fans of The Three-Body Problem, and US President Obama even urged for updates.

This shows the influence of "The Three-Body Problem".

However, the situation of such a super IP, a work with the greatest value for film and television adaptation, is hard to describe.

In Qin Shaoyan's previous life, the development of the "Three-Body" IP was full of twists and turns.

In 2009, after reading "The Three-Body Problem", a female screenwriter persuaded her husband, an th-tier director, to buy the film and television rights of "The Three-Body Problem" at a very low price.

This is the famous case in the science fiction world of "selling the copyright of The Three-Body Problem for 10 yuan", but it is said that the amount was hundreds of thousands, not as low as yuan.

However, this is still a hugely profitable deal. In August 2015, "The Three-Body Problem" won the Best Novel Award at the 8rd Hugo Awards. The film and television rights that were bought out became a hot commodity, and investors rushed to invest in all projects related to the Three-Body Problem. This couple, who hit the cusp of the trend, sold the film and television rights of "The Three-Body Problem" to Youzu for million yuan.

In 8 years, copyright fees have increased hundreds of times.

The couple had not thought at the time that there would be such huge profits, although they had already discovered that the "Three-Body" IP had potential.

In fact, they wanted to buy it for their own use.

However, this director is only a horror film director. He has never directed any successful commercial films, and has no experience in science fiction films.

So they were simply not cut out for it. After selling the "Three-Body" IP to Youzu and getting the support of boss Lin Qi, they still couldn't make it work.

This director is Zhang Fanfan, the director of the movie version of "The Three-Body Problem".

It was of great significance to Liu Cixin who sold the copyright at that time. You have to know that "The Three-Body Problem" was still a golden egg at that time, so Liu Cixin always felt that this money was a bargain.

Later, he regretted it after watching the movie "The Three-Body Problem".

The first prerequisite for adapting a novel into a movie is to respect the original work. This "Three-Body" movie, which was shot by Youzu and took only 5 months, was called a "running account PPT movie". Liu Cixin looked at these movies ruined by a poor team and refused to admit that he sold the copyright for 10 yuan. When pressed, he would ask the media: "What were you doing before?"

It’s not Liu’s fault that he’s angry. After all, this would be unpleasant for anyone.

No one can accept this situation where the work you put so much effort into is like your own child.

How amazing is this movie?
At that time, a certain leader, who was also a science fiction fan, heard that the movie "The Three-Body Problem" was completed, and excitedly went to Youzu to watch it on site, becoming one of the first viewers of the movie.

The relevant news can be found on Youzu's official website.

Then there is no more then.

The Three-Body movie never appeared again.

Cameron had some small episodes with Liu Cixin. At a film festival, Cameron heard about the movie "The Three-Body Problem" and wanted to see the movie in advance, but was embarrassedly declined by Liu Cixin.

After Youzu purchased the copyright of "The Three-Body Problem", it established the Three-Body Universe (Shanghai) Cultural Development Co., Ltd., and after experiencing a brief failure, it clearly stated that it would abandon the "The Three-Body Problem" film project and would carry out full copyright development of the IP.

At that time, Lynch appointed Xu Yao as the CEO of Three-Body Universe, and he himself served as the actual person in charge of Three-Body Universe, that is, the big boss.

Lynch appointed Xu Yao so that he could focus his energy on the copyright of "The Three-Body Problem". However, he was not only busy with the copyright, but also established a risk control system in the company and controlled the overall expenditure, which completely weakened Lynch's pleasure in being the boss.

After all, it’s definitely not a good thing if you can’t spend the money and don’t get a penny back.

In the end, it was Lynch who chose his partner - Bilibili, or rather, it was Youzu who chose Bilibili.

It is better to say that Bilibili chose Youzu, which holds many game IPs. Even though it has the adaptation rights for "The Three-Body Problem", it has yet to produce any adaptation that satisfies all parties.

With Bilibili, a large platform with 9000 million daily active users, and "The Three-Body Problem" being such a hot commodity, they have to make a profit no matter what, right?

As early as 2015, Youzu finalized the IP "film-game linkage" strategy, using IP to connect games and film and television dramas to achieve the effect of killing two birds with one stone.

At that time, Youzu chose to cooperate with a game company in Beijing that started out as a web game company to develop the "Advisors Alliance" IP, and developed the web game and mobile game simultaneously.

After the TV series "The Advisors Alliance" was launched, the games were quietly popular, whether it was a web game or a mobile game.

The game hopes to implement its big IP strategy with the help of the Bilibili platform.

During the 2019 Spring Festival, the science fiction film "The Wandering Earth" came out of nowhere and became the darkest dark horse, setting off a huge science fiction craze.

The movie "The Wandering Earth", which is known as the opening of Chinese science fiction movies, is also adapted from Liu Cixin's novel.

Youzu and Bilibili are very excited about the movie. At this time, the fans of "The Three-Body Problem" are crazy looking forward to the domestic science fiction film. The bad "The Three-Body Problem" in the past has been forgotten. What everyone is thinking about now is when the new big production will come out.

Then, the "Three-Body" animation produced by Yihua Kaitian opened everyone's eyes.

In September 2020, Three-Body Universe announced that it would co-develop an English series with Netflix. Xu Yao began to be marginalized and was transferred to other projects. Since then, Xu Yao has been absent from almost all publicity.

Then a dramatic scene occurred.

On December 2020, 12, Youzu announced that its 25-year-old founder Lin Qi died of illness, and the police identified Xu Yao as a major suspect.

In order to retaliate, Xu Yao poisoned Lin Qi for a long time.

In the end, Lin Qi died, Youzu's stock price plummeted, and the market was in chaos.

If Penguin hadn’t released the TV series “The Three-Body Problem” to restore its reputation, this super IP would have really been ruined by capital.

……

Yizhou, Science Fiction World magazine.

Editor Yang Ping looked at the middle-aged man in front of him with some doubt, took the business card and took a look at it, "Chinese Science Fiction Promotion Association?"

"Hmm, why haven't I heard of this association?" Yang Ping frowned, "Xun..."

"Xun Ziliang, you can just call me Mr. Xun." The middle-aged man said with a smile.

"What exactly does your association do?" Yang Ping asked curiously.

"Our association is mainly responsible for promoting science fiction works." Xun Ziliang introduced, "Our association was established in the 1980s. At first, it was just a loose reading club composed of science fiction fans."

"Later, as science fiction was in a slump, we felt that we should take on the responsibility of promoting science fiction works, so that more people could understand science fiction works and give science fiction works a second life."

"Oh." Yang Ping nodded. "Then why did you come to our magazine?"

"We are here today to submit manuscripts." Xun Ziliang solemnly took out a stack of manuscripts from his briefcase and handed them to Yang Ping. "Editor Yang, please correct me."

"I'm growing potatoes on Mars?" Yang Ping glanced at it in surprise, then was attracted by the content of the story. He read until the protagonist was abandoned alone on Mars, and then found that there was no chapter after that. "Hey, what's next?"

"The rest is still being created." Xun Ziliang replied.

"Oh, this novel is so well written, not bad, not bad." Yang Ping said happily, "It has a novel idea, good writing style, and a tortuous plot. It is really a good work. We can publish it in the next issue of the magazine."

"I will discuss this with the editor-in-chief and give you a suitable price for the manuscript."

"No hurry, no hurry." Xun Ziliang said with a smile, "In fact, I came to your company today for another reason, which is to cooperate with your company."

"Cooperation?" Yang Ping was stunned.

"Yes." Xun Ziliang said solemnly, "We will set up a science fiction incentive fund with your company with 500,000 yuan every year, and select a number of works for reward every year."

(End of this chapter)