The king of all people

Chapter 173 The Substantial Copyright of "The Legend of the Ancient Sword"
"Ding... The system triggers the side mission 'First-line singer'. Task requirements: release my second music album within three months, and the album sales exceed 100 million copies."

When he received this task from the "Astrology" system, Li Xian was rushing to promote the movie "Shaolin Soccer" and the TV series "Love Through Time and Space" all over the country day and night.Fortunately, the time limit for the task is three months, so the time will not be too rushed.

Speaking of which, a year has passed since Li Xian's first album "Let's Go Now". In the era of 2001, it was common for many singers to release two albums within a year.Of course, if Li Xian had the heart, he only needed to "record" 10 songs from the system, and he could easily make a good-quality record, but Li Xian didn't have this kind of idea now.

He will definitely release an album, but this time he wants to add some novel elements to it.Li Xian needs enough time. He plans to try to see if he can write a few well-known songs with his own strength after more than a year of training...

At the current stage, Li Xian's work is still focused on the field of film and television.

At the same time, in the outskirts of CD City, a temporary office building named Hailan Publishing House was in a dead and dull atmosphere.

At this time in 2001, although new reading types such as online literature and e-books had not yet appeared, traditional and old paper books and literary novels were facing a dangerous trend of gradual decadence.The era of fast food has not yet arrived, but people's public life has already entered the fast-paced era ahead of time. Busy and compact work and studies occupy most of the time of most people...

On the other hand, due to the slow content and plot of traditional literature, more and more people are beginning to get tired of this type of literature.Under the pressure of double factors, the situation of some domestic book publishing houses is becoming more and more embarrassing. Except for large state-supported manufacturers such as Changjiang Publishing House, Xinhua Publishing House, and People's Publishing House, some publishing houses that rely on this industry to make a living The merchant can only barely survive with scattered income. Once the time goes by, bankruptcy is a certainty...

"Is this really written by a public figure with only a high school diploma?" In one of the largest offices in Hailan Publishing House, Chief Editor Zhao Qingsong reluctantly took off his reading glasses, and stood aside with a questioning tone. General Manager Jia Ke said.

Originally only 50 years old, Zhao Qingsong's temples were extremely gray. After living for decades, he can say that he has devoted most of his life to the book publishing industry. Although the publishing house used to be small, it usually made a profit every year. Nearly six-figure turnover... Except for other large and small expenses, it is basically self-sufficient.

However, in the past two years, the books that have been increasing in sales in major bookstores across the country are basically teaching supplementary books. Compared with the glory days of the past, traditional literature books are becoming more and more difficult to sell, and less and less people are interested in them.It is precisely for this reason that many bookstores have interrupted their cooperative relationship with publishing houses and refused to accept the traditional literature books sent by them.

Zhao Qingsong, who was over half a century old, saw it in his eyes and was anxious in his heart.Looking at the declining turnover of the publishing house, he was suddenly unable to do anything. He even suspected that this publishing house, which he had devoted most of his life to, would be destroyed and declared bankrupt soon...

However, there is no unparalleled road, and the turning point appeared at this critical moment.It seems that at the end of last year, a newcomer in the entertainment industry named Li Xian began to serialize his long original novel "Gu Jian Qi Tan" on Sina blog. With his personal popularity and popularity doubling, this book created a new system The new generation of fantasy novels of fairy tales has also risen with the tide, and has been featured on the home page of the Sina portal more than once...

As a middle-aged uncle who can't keep up with young people, Zhao Qingsong naturally doesn't understand these things.The one who told him these new things was Jia Ke, the new general manager of Qidian Publishing House, who he trained by himself—a 30-year-old emerging media person who is at the forefront of the times and grasps the latest social trends.

In fact, the first time Jia Ke learned about the novel "Gu Jian Qi Tan" was because of his sister who was still in middle school.With a skeptical attitude, he opened the Sina blog page that had never registered an account. After a series of complicated program operations, this young publisher with keen eyesight and extraordinary insight was deeply involved in "Gu Jian Qi". In the story world of "Tan"...

Almost on the same day, after reading all the chapters of "Gu Jian Qi Tan" serialized on Li Xian's blog in one go, a thought jumped out of Jia Ke's heart that made him unbearably excited.As the general manager of Hailan Publishing House, he is not ignorant of the precarious operating status of Hailan Publishing House.

This new novel, which boldly breaks through traditional literary routines and content, gave Jia Ke, who was impatient, a glimmer of hope...

"Editor Zhao, what do you think of this novel? Do you have the desire to continue reading?" Jia Ke saw his immediate boss look away from the computer screen, and immediately stared at it expectantly. looking at each other.

Zhao Qingsong rubbed the corners of his eyes. At first he wanted to bluntly say that he was very optimistic about this novel, at least it was an extremely rare work in recent years that could make him feel curious.But considering the current situation of Hailan Publishing House and his own actual age, he adjusted his mentality and exuded a more serious aura: "There are some merits, but after all, it is written by a young man. , there are more flaws than merits. Wouldn’t it be too reckless for you to pin your hopes on this book?”

As soon as the words fell, Zhao Qingsong handed back the preliminary publishing plan that Jia Ke handed over, and even frowned and added: "Our Hailan is no longer what it used to be, a small blow is enough to make us collapse... "

In fact, the reason why Zhao Qingsong is not optimistic about Jia Ke's proposal is mostly due to his many years of experience in the industry.Although the sales volume of traditional literature is very poor now, compared with the prospect of this "Gu Jian Qi Tan", which is only serialized on the Internet, the future is even more uncertain... Even though it is produced by a popular artist, but Today's Hailan Publishing House, a publishing house with negative income, can no longer afford to fail.

If this "Gu Jian Qi Tan" can really create a new trend in the domestic book market, if it is published and listed as a big seller, then why has it been serialized for almost a year without a real physical book?Even the current domestic giants in the publishing industry do not have enough courage to test the waters. How dare their small publishing house have the courage to act as guinea pigs and compete with the market?
Jia Ke can understand the boss's worries very well. It is not that he did not consider this issue when he decided to fight for the book publishing rights of "Gu Jian Qi Tan".But... Now that Hailan Publishing House is in such a difficult situation, it might as well let go and fight hard!

Besides, he still hasn't contacted Li Xian, the original author of "Gu Jian Qi Tan", his idea at the moment is to convince the editor-in-chief boss, and then arrange other things.

"Editor Zhao, I have indeed thought about the issues you mentioned. But from my personal point of view, although the risk of publishing "Gu Jian Qi Tan" is not small, at least there is still a chance of turning the corner. To put it bluntly, it is better than ours. Now it’s much better to just sit and wait... now even other relatively large publishing houses in CD City are jointly suppressing small publishing houses, maybe we will have a good turnaround with this novel!"

"And, editor-in-chief, I promise you that I will try my best to get the copyright of this book at the lowest price. If I lose money by then, the situation will not be any worse than our current situation."

Zhao Qingsong couldn't help but look a little stunned.Jia Ke is a newcomer he has cultivated by himself, and he is also the candidate he is most optimistic about to succeed the chief editor of Hailan Publishing House in the future.According to what I know about him, he should not be a rash and reckless person...

Zhao Qingsong was gradually moved by Jia Ke's reasons. After thinking about it, if Hailan Publishing House continues to operate like this, it will really go bankrupt in less than a year. The old-fashioned Zhao Qingsong decided to take a big gamble.

Picking up and putting down the presbyopic glasses on the table, after repeating several times, Zhao Qingsong's expression turned green and then white, and he let out a long breath: "Xiao Ke, I'm getting old, I really don't care It's too useful... This time, let's treat it as if I was young and crazy. You will contact the original author of "Gu Jian Qi Tan" later. Remember, you have to talk to him well. As for the copyright fee The problem can be solved within the scope of our ability to pay..."

Suddenly, Zhao Qingsong seemed to have aged a few years.He can't predict whether his decision is right or wrong, but now he really has nowhere to go...

"Okay Editor Zhao, thank you for trusting me. I...will try not to disappoint you!" Jia Ke waved his fist full of motivation, and left the editor's office with a full face of excitement.

After Zhao Qingsong was settled, now he had to contact Li Xian non-stop to discuss the copyright of "Gu Jian Qi Tan".It's ridiculous to say that the reason why I have always believed that Li Xian will hand over the physical copyright of this novel to himself is because he went to the cinema with his sister to watch his movie "Shaolin Soccer" yesterday...

In the movie, he was not overwhelmed by the hardships of life, and he maintained his original intention and positive attitude from beginning to end.Jia Ke instinctively believes that a person who can bring smiles and touch people will always be a good talker.

""Gu Jian Qi Tan"... I have devoted most of my life to Hailan Publishing House. Whether it can survive or not depends entirely on you..." After Jia Ke left, Zhao Qingsong, who was still sitting on the chair, was a little helpless muttered to himself.

(End of this chapter)