I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 29: You can sign the indenture, but don’t try to tie me to the boat!

"Teacher Kitagawa, after discussion with the company's senior management, we have decided to offer you two options. One is a short-term contract with a guaranteed minimum wage of 6000 yen per sheet of manuscript paper for a period of one year; the other is a long-term contract with a basic salary of 12 yen per month for a period of ten years."

Since this contract change involved the formal contract between Kodansha and its writers, and royalties also had to be negotiated, Rena Saito also squeezed into the small cubicle and assisted Kitagawa Hide in signing the contract together with two employees from the contract department.

When talking about business, Saito Rena put away her gentle smile and turned back into an intellectual office lady. However, when she said this, she secretly winked at Kitagawa Hide while the contract department staff were not paying attention.

The slender, green fingers quietly tapped the long-term contract, suggesting that this one was a better deal.

Kitagawa Hide had anticipated this and answered without hesitation: "I choose the short-term contract. Thank you, Mr. Saito."

Saito Reina was stunned for a moment, then immediately lowered her eyelids and whispered, "Teacher Kitagawa, if you choose a short-term contract, when the contract expires, we will re-evaluate your writing status and decide whether to renew the contract."

If there weren't two employees from the contract department sitting next to her, she would have wanted to help Kitagawa Hide sign the long-term contract directly!
In comparison, a short-term contract seems to bring in a lot more royalties, but it is very unstable. After a year, if Kitagawa Hide's condition declines significantly, Kodansha can choose not to renew his contract.

As for long-term contracts, a term of ten years is similar to the lifetime employment system that Japanese citizens love the most, with a guaranteed monthly salary of 12 yen, and an annual pre-tax income of 144 million yen, which is 1440 million yen in ten years!

As long as Kitagawa Hide puts pen to paper, he will have received 1440 million yen.

After the bubble economy completely burst in 1992, Japan's GDP, per capita income and other data have declined year by year for three years. Countless companies have gone bankrupt and laid off employees, and the day of recovery is nowhere in sight.

Economists even predict that Japan will only get worse in the next decade, there is no worst.

In this social environment, a stable income is something that countless people dream of.

A basic salary of 12 yen is equivalent to half a month's income for an ordinary white-collar worker. This is the money that Kodansha will give you for free even if you do nothing!
There's no reason not to choose it.

Thinking that Kitagawa Hide didn't understand, Saito Reina immediately added, "If you choose a short-term contract, we will only pay you royalties if your manuscript is published in Gunzo, and there will be no basic salary."

"I understand, but a one-year short-term contract is enough." Kitagawa Hide replied with a confident smile on his face.

In Japan, when writing serials for magazines or newspapers, the remuneration is not calculated based on "per thousand words" but on "per piece of manuscript paper".

That kind of regular writing paper has about 20 words per line, and including punctuation, there are about 400 words on one page.

The remuneration for a piece of manuscript paper from an ordinary publishing house is about 2000 yen (equivalent to RMB per thousand words during the contract period).

At top publishing houses like Kodansha, the basic fee for a piece of manuscript paper starts at 5000 yen.

Because Kitagawa Hide is the winner of the Group Portrait Newcomer Award, the remuneration ratio has been slightly increased, and it is reasonable to be given 6000 yen for a piece of manuscript paper.

The entire book of "Hear the Wind Sing" has 4 words and a total of 6 pages of manuscript paper. This issue of "Gunzo" published it all at once, and Kitagawa Hide should be paid a manuscript fee of 115 yen before tax.

In other words, if Kitagawa Hide writes 10 words a year and has them published, his income will exceed the basic salary of a long-term contract.

As long as it is written well and quickly, the benefits of the former are far greater than those of the latter, and with a one-year agreed term, the penalty for breach of contract is also less.

Once the business takes off, it will be easier to negotiate a higher price for royalties.

It even makes job-hopping easier.

Kitagawa Hide's choice and firm attitude surprised Saito Rena a little, and the two contract department employees couldn't help but glance at this currently popular winner of the Newcomer Award.

In the current environment, all the contracted writers of Kodansha want a long-term contract, and some even want to sign a lifetime contract with Kodansha in one go, similar to Oshima Hikaru's.

However, he chose to go against the current, which is indeed a bit special.

"Okay, please sign here, Mr. Kitagawa." Realizing that this might involve Kitagawa Hide's career planning, Saito Rena stopped persuading her.

Kitagawa Hide signed happily, filled in the basic information again, and temporarily sold himself to Kodansha for one year.

This year's indenture was not bad, at least it could ease his loan pressure a lot.

As for what Saito Rena was thinking, he had already considered it.

In his previous life, he would definitely choose the long-term contract, the longer the better, but he traveled through time with a cheat, and planned to be a plagiarist. Although his goal was to make money, he had to work hard to become a literary giant, didn't he?
It’s good to just eat and wait for death, but if a person has no dreams, what’s the difference between him and a salted fish?
Moreover, Kodansha is dreaming of tying itself to the ship with just such a contract.

The Japanese literary world is so vast that it is obviously inappropriate to hang it on the tree of Kodansha.

After signing the "indenture", Rena Saito pushed the royalty contract over.

He had no choice in this contract and could only sign it obediently and then listen to them explain the details of the contract.

There are generally two types of royalty contracts, namely "paying royalties based on the share of sales" and "paying royalties based on the number of copies issued", that is, signing a royalty contract based on the number of sales, and signing a royalty contract based on the number of copies issued. Kitagawa Hide signed the former, which simply means that you get a commission based on how many copies you sell.

The latter is aimed at those well-known writers. In order to ensure their basic income, they can directly get commission based on how many copies are printed and distributed.

For example, the first print run of "Hear the Wind Sing" was 1000 copies, and 500 copies were sold.

Kitagawa Hide will have to wait until the statistics are completed before he can get the commission percentage of the sales of the 500 copies. As for the author who signs the latter contract, the publishing house will deposit the royalties of 1000 copies into his account after the printing of 1000 copies.

He gets a 6% royalty rate, which is not bad.

The contract also states the specific details of the release of the paperback edition of "Hear the Wind Sing". It is initially planned to print 1000 copies for the first time, with each copy priced at 2500 yen. It is tentatively scheduled to go on sale around May 5.

In addition, it also describes in great detail the various publicity and promotion work done by Jiangtan Shehui for the paperback edition of "Hear the Wind Sing", such as first-hand sales in cooperative bookstores, bundled sales with certain popular products in book cities, and various advertising printings, etc.

The process of advertising and promoting book sales is extremely complete in Japan, and can be detailed to every detail. It all depends on how far the publishing house is willing to go for you.

Of course, don’t think that the publishing house will be so kind as to help you with these advertising and promotion. In fact, the operating costs have already been secretly deducted from the book sales price and your royalties!

To what extent the secret manipulation and black-heartedness were involved, in Japan in 1995, it all depended on the publisher’s own conscience.

Kitagawa Hide read it carefully several times, and after confirming that it was correct, he signed his name readily.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Kitagawa." The three stood up and bowed 90 degrees, then shook hands with him.

After the two employees left with the contract, Rena Saito pouted her lips, which was rare, revealing a cute and playful expression.

"Mr. Beichuan, you are in a hurry to sign a short-term contract. Are you thinking of running away someday?" she asked jokingly.

The two walked side by side, their two long ponytails swaying and hitting Saito Rena's firm and round buttocks, making an almost inaudible "da da da" sound.

Kitagawa Hide laughed: "How could that be? Who says that a little grass can repay the kindness of three springs? I will always remember Saito-san's kindness."

He hummed an ancient poem. Although the original meaning of the poem was to express gratitude to his mother, it could also be extended to mean the grace of being recognized and given a chance.

Anyway, Saito Rena can't understand it, and the Japanese are fascinated by Chinese language and ancient poetry, so it's nice to show off occasionally.

Sure enough, Saito Reina paused and stood there for a moment, then repeated the words with stiff Japanese kanji pronunciation, wondering, "Are you talking about ancient Chinese poetry, Kitagawa-san? Do you understand Chinese?"

"I don't quite understand. I just read it in the library." Kitagawa Hide waved his hands quickly. He had previously revealed that he knew foreign literature, and now he spoke Chinese on the spur of the moment. If she really got the urge to check his background and flight tickets, it would be difficult to explain.

Saito Reina was skeptical and asked about the meaning of the poem. When she heard that it was "repaying the mother", her cheeks instantly turned red. She felt that Kitagawa Hideya was too casual.

Speaking of poetry, the topic unconsciously turned to Japan's original haiku.

The official Japanese statement is that the prototype of haiku comes from quatrains in ancient Chinese poetry, which later gradually developed into long tanka and waka.

Before this, Kitagawa Hide had completely ignored haiku, because the Japanese literary world had not produced a decent haiku poet for nearly fifty years. This thing is now on the verge of marginalization. Except for professional courses in university literature departments that continue to study and pass on this thing, modern people basically don't touch this thing anymore.

It is a less popular genre than mystery novels. Kitagawa Hide couldn't figure out how to monetize haiku, so he didn't bother to care about it.

After talking with Saito Rena, Kitagawa Hide learned that haiku had declined to such an extent and was about to fade out of the literary world. He quickly cut ties with her and said that he didn't understand it at all.

"What a pity. Not long ago, they said they would open a haiku column at the back of the magazine. It would be great if Kitagawa-san knew something about it." Saito Rena said with some regret.

There is now serious class stratification within the editorial department. The important sections of "Qun Xiang" are basically controlled by the old editors. If newcomers like them want to stand out, they can only find another way.

She was interested in taking over the haiku column, but when she saw the current situation of haiku, she couldn't muster the energy to do it.

After accompanying Kitagawa Hide all the way to the gate, Saito Rena put her mind at ease and prepared to shift all her attention to the publication of "Hear the Wind Sing".

Whether the sales will be booming by then will determine the future fate of both of them!

She was thinking about these problems, but Kitagawa Hide didn't care at all. Before leaving, he stopped Saito Reina and asked, "Saito-san, the payment will be credited to your account in the next two days, right?"

This was the seventh time he had confirmed it along the way.

Saito Reina nodded patiently, and finally reminded him: "Kitagawa-san, remember to finish writing "Pinball in 1973" as soon as possible!"

(End of this chapter)