The world of film and television begins from childhood

In the end, it was only because Zhou Chen saw how pitiful Qiu Shui looked, as if he was about to be expelled from school, that he went to Zhao Yingnan for help and asked Zhao Yingnan to plead for Qiu Shui.

Instructors Dai and Sun finally did not give Qiu Shui a more severe punishment out of consideration for the chief's daughter. They only asked him to write a self-criticism and confess his mistakes in front of all the instructors and students.

For a shameless person like Qiu Shui, this was not a big deal at all. The review he wrote was just a show of showing off his literary background, which was totally irrelevant.

Zhou Chen came to Chief of Staff Zhao's office again. He knew that Chief of Staff Zhao came to him to ask for a program, so he brought the program he had prepared.

To his surprise, in addition to Chief of Staff Zhao, there was another officer in the office whom he had never seen before.

"Comrade Xiao Zhou, a month has passed. How is the program creation going?"

Chief of Staff Zhao's first words when he saw Zhou Chen were about the show, which was enough to show how much he cared.

When Zhou Chen heard Chief of Staff Zhao's address, he complained inwardly. In just the few times they met, he had already changed his address to several different ones.

"Commander, I have worked hard and put a lot of thought into writing songs during this period, but I was not satisfied with a few of them and gave up on them."

"Not done well?" Chief of Staff Zhao's tone suddenly changed.

Zhou Chen said calmly: "There are no new songs, but I was inspired to write a skit. I personally think it is very good, so I brought it to the chief for review."

"The song wasn't finished, so you wrote a skit?"

Chief of Staff Zhao was very surprised. In fact, he expected Zhou Chen to write a good song. However, he did not write a song but a skit instead. This made him suspicious of Zhou Chen.

Taking the notebook handed over by Zhou Chen, he read it carefully. After a few minutes, he smiled.

"It's interesting."

Zhou Chen rolled his eyes. It was more than just interesting. It was extremely interesting.

The skit he performed was a classic among classics. A few years later, it would have been a work that became popular all over the country. However, when it came to Chief of Staff Zhao, it was just a little interesting.

Chief of Staff Zhao handed the notebook to the officer next to him and said, "Old Zhu, you are a professional, please give me your evaluation."

The officer called Lao Zhu took the book with a smile. He was a member of the military art troupe and an expert in cultural performances. He did not think that Zhou Chen, a student, could write any good works, but he had to give face to Chief of Staff Zhao.

He originally wanted to just take a quick look and get it over with, but of course after seeing the content of the sketch written by Zhou Chen, his face suddenly became serious, and then he sat up straight and read it word by word from beginning to end.

The whole process lasted nearly ten minutes, making Lao Zhao a little impatient.

Zhou Chen looked at the officer curiously. Lao Zhao just said that he was a professional. Could it be that this person was also in the entertainment industry?

"Good, good, it's very well written, very well written!"

Old Zhu suddenly shouted, startling both Zhou Chen and Chief of Staff Zhao.

Old Zhao even scolded him: "What are you crazy about, Old Zhu, be serious."

Old Zhu smiled awkwardly, then patted the book in his hand and said, "Chief of Staff, this is a good book. If it is performed, it will definitely be very good. I never thought that a college student could write such an excellent skit. Comrade, does your family work in the cultural field?"

Zhou Chen shook his head and replied, "No, I'm just more interested in literature and I like writing stories. This is the work I worked hard on. Please take a look at it, Chief. If there's anything wrong with it, please help me correct it."

Old Zhu smiled and said, "If this is not considered excellent, then the other skits are even worse. Chief of Staff, this script must be given to our art troupe to perform."

"piss off."

Old Zhao didn't give Old Zhu any face and started scolding him directly. If Old Zhu was so excited, the skit must be good. How could he give in?

"This is what our military camp prepared for the Spring Festival Gala. If you want to take it away, then go ahead and dream on."

As he spoke, he snatched the notebook and said to Zhou Chen happily: "Comrade Xiao Zhou, you are very good, very good."

Zhou Chen would not miss this good opportunity and immediately said what he had prepared before coming here.

"Commander, this skit has very high requirements for actors. If you choose actors, I hope to be able to participate."

"This is a small matter. You wrote it. The selection of candidates must go through you. No problem."

"Also, Chief, you said before that one show might not be safe, so I thought we still have time, so I'll try to create some more works."

Upon hearing this, Lao Zhao was even more delighted: "Okay, Comrade Xiao Zhou has a very high level of awareness. From now on, apart from military training, you don't have to worry about anything else. Just focus on your creation."

The fact that even Lao Zhu was vying for the show was enough to show Zhou Chen's ability. He would never treat talented people unfairly.

On the contrary, Old Zhu flattered Zhou Chen and said, "Little comrade, I am from the military art troupe. Can you write a similar skit for our art troupe?"

He didn't know how good Zhou Chen was at writing songs, but his level of writing sketches was there. He didn't ask to be able to write a sketch of the same level, as long as he could be half as good, he would be satisfied.

Chief of Staff Zhao immediately said, "Get lost. Comrade Xiao Zhou is my soldier. Why are you here to join in the fun?"

Lao Zhu: "Chief of Staff, I am doing this for the troops."

The two argued for a while, and finally Zhou Chen agreed to create a sketch for Lao Zhu, and was let go by the two bosses.

Adding one more skit was not a difficult task for Zhou Chen. Instead, it gave him more excuses not to attend evening classes.

The most important thing is that Chief of Staff Zhao was satisfied. With Chief of Staff Zhao, his life in the barracks became much easier.

Two days later, a message came from the mailroom, asking Zhou Chen to pick up the letter.

As soon as he heard the news, Zhou Chen immediately knew the reason. It must be that there was a reply to the submission letters he had sent out, so he immediately prepared to go to the mailroom.

As soon as I walked out of the boys' dormitory, I met Zhao Yingnan.

"Zhou Chen, I heard there's a letter from you in the mailroom. It must be a response to your submission. Let's go take a look together."

In fact, she was also very nervous because she hoped Zhou Chen could succeed.

"Okay, let's go together."

Zhou Chen naturally would not refuse.

Although he is full of confidence in "his" novels, he really dare not guarantee whether there will be acclimatization in this era. He can only hope that those editors have vision and can take a fancy to "his" triple door .

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 295 Novel published, consensus reached

Readers and Youth Digest of this era were relatively well-known magazines in China, but unfortunately, they did not seem to serialize any novels.

So when he submitted his manuscripts, Zhou Chen did not submit them to these two magazines he was more familiar with, but instead submitted them to magazine publishers around Yanjing.

There were four letters in total, which Zhou Chen opened one by one. Three of them informed him that his submission was successful and that if he was interested, he could sign a contract with them to publish the book. The other letter replied that his novel did not fit the current environment, but if it was revised, it could be considered for publication.

Zhou Chen simply threw away the rejection letter and looked at the remaining three companies.

He had sent out nine letters in total, and had only received replies to four of them. He was not sure what the remaining five meant, so he wanted to wait a little longer.

"Congratulations, Zhou Chen, you finally got what you wanted."

Zhao Yingnan was also happy for Zhou Chen when she saw that someone was willing to help him publish his book.

Zhou Chen: "Not yet. They just have the intention. Whether we can reach a cooperation is another matter."

He was happy that his novel was recognized, but he cared more about how much money he could make from the book. After all, he wrote the novel just to make money.

These three magazine publishers only have intentions. It is hard to say whether they can reach a consensus after the actual negotiations, or how much royalties he can get.

Seeing Zhou Chen's embarrassment, Zhao Yingnan suddenly said, "Why don't you go ask Liu Tingting."

"Liu Tingting? Why are you asking her?" Zhou Chen looked confused. What does this have to do with Liu Tingting?

Zhao Yingnan said, "Liu Tingting's family has connections. I heard her say before that her father seems to know someone in the publishing house. If she is willing to help, it will definitely save you a lot of trouble."

Zhou Chen looked thoughtful, but soon shook his head: "Forget it, there's no need to owe others a favor for something like this."

He knew that Liu Tingting was a rich second-generation. In this day and age, someone who could easily go abroad must not be an ordinary rich second-generation.

Perhaps Liu Tingting's words could save him a lot of trouble, but to be honest, he didn't really want to deal with this kind of rich second-generation, and he didn't want to owe her a favor.

The debt of favor is the hardest to repay.

For someone like Zhao Yingnan who has helped so much, you can repay the favor by inviting her to dinner or giving her some gifts.

But in the eyes of someone like Liu Tingting, it may not be that easy.

What's more, he wrote novels just to make some money so that he could survive the first two years of poverty. When he left the military camp, he had plenty of time and ways to make money and didn't need to rely on others at all.

When Zhao Yingnan heard Zhou Chen's answer, the smile on her face became much brighter.

Although she was the one who proposed this suggestion and she really wanted to help Zhou Chen find a solution, she felt even happier after hearing Zhou Chen's refusal.

She is a very smart and rational girl. She knows why she is happy and she also has a better feeling towards Zhou Chen.

Although Zhou Chen wants to make money, he obviously has his own bottom line and is not the kind of person who is willing to do anything for money.

Zhou Chen didn't know that Zhao Yingnan had thought so much in an instant, so he smiled and said to her, "Zhao Yingnan, if everything goes well, it shouldn't be long before I can treat you to a meal. You can think about what you want to eat now."

"Now? Anything?"

Zhou Chen said: "Of course, as long as I can afford it, it's all right what you want to eat."

Zhou Chen is never stingy when it comes to friends. Zhao Yingnan has helped him so much, so let alone a meal, even treating her a few more times would not be a big deal.

"Then I'll have to think about it carefully." Zhao Yingnan said with a smile.

In the next few days, Zhou Chen received three more letters. This time, two of them were rejections and only one expressed intention to sign a contract.

Out of nine submissions, only five companies finally accepted my manuscripts and expressed their intention to publish them, but all of them required an interview.

Zhou Chen even went to ask for leave from the two instructors, but Dai Bingzhong refused without any hesitation. Zhou Chen also left without saying a word and went to find Chief of Staff Zhao.

When Chief of Staff Zhao heard that Zhou Chen wanted to publish a novel, he was very surprised. In the end, he agreed to Zhou Chen's request for leave and gave Zhou Chen a week's vacation.

A week's vacation may seem long, but it takes a long time to go back and forth, so Zhou Chen did not dare to delay for a moment. He went to Yanjing City as quickly as possible and negotiated with several magazine publishers he had agreed to meet with.

The negotiation process was the most difficult, but for Zhou Chen, who had been a business tycoon several times, this little thing was not difficult for him at all.

As expected, the prices offered by several publishing houses were not high, with the lowest even offering a buyout price of five yuan per thousand words.

When Zhou Chen heard the price, he almost threw the glass of water over. Damn, are you trying to get rid of a beggar?

There are only 21 words in Triple Door, and if the price is yuan per thousand words, you can only get yuan. Even though yuan is not a small amount in this era, for Zhou Chen, it is basically giving it away for free. He cannot look down on our Boss Han's novel.

Zhou Chen's ideal price is not a buyout, what he wants is a share of royalties. Since he is going to publish, he naturally wants to maximize profits. If it is not a share of royalties, he would rather not publish it and keep it in his hands, and then publish it himself when he has money in the future.

There was a publishing house with considerable strength who, upon learning that the novel had 21 words, offered a good price of yuan per thousand words.

It seems like a small amount, and it cannot be compared with later generations, but the other party’s statement is also tenable.

First of all, Zhou Chen is a newcomer and has no fame at all. The price of 40 yuan per thousand words is simply not something a newcomer can afford. Secondly, they really like this book "The Triple Door" and want to publish it exclusively, so they offered this price.

Finally, they put forward a condition that if Zhou Chen was willing to sign a contract with them for future novels, they could raise the price further.

This is mainly because they saw Zhou Chen’s potential and wanted to sign a bundled contract.

This is already the best one. Zhou Chen considered it for a long time, but still refused and then put forward his own idea.

The other party was surprised to hear that Zhou Chen did not want to buy out the words for a thousand words but wanted to share the royalties. However, he did not refuse on the spot. Instead, he said he wanted to discuss it further.

Zhou Chen talked with them for three days before finally reaching an agreement.

The result was not exactly what he expected, but the two parties reached a consensus that royalties were acceptable, but had to be linked to the sales of the novel.

In other words, royalties will only be paid after a certain sales volume is reached. If it is not reached, the royalties will be bought out at 50 yuan per thousand words, and the next book must also be signed to the publishing house.

If the predetermined sales volume is reached, the royalties can be shared, and the royalties can be increased every time a certain sales volume is reached, with the upper limit being 12%.

In the end, the two parties signed the contract, which made Zhou Chen feel relieved.

If he hadn't been stuck in the military camp and unable to leave, he would never have thought of writing novels, because it was too time-consuming and laborious.

His mission this time was to become a great doctor, not a novelist. Studying medicine was his job.

Before he formally studied medicine, he had no idea about his medical talent.

If he had poor medical talent, the time it would take to become a great doctor would definitely be astonishing, so time was very precious to him.

He knew all the words in the medical books that Qiu Shui gave him, but although he recognized the names of the medicines and professional terms, he could not understand most of them.

This also made him realize that it was too presumptuous to want to understand medicine by reading a few medical books.

When he returned to the military camp and the dormitory before the deadline, the military training had not yet ended, so Zhou Chen was typing alone in the dormitory.

He had already promised the publishing house that he would hand over the remaining manuscript to them within a month, so time was still very urgent and he had to speed up.

When Qiu Shui and others came back and learned that Zhou Chen's novel was about to be published, they were all shocked.

In fact, in their dormitory, no one was optimistic about whether Zhou Chen’s novel could be published, and even Qiu Shui was no exception.

But the final result was good. While they were shocked, they also immediately congratulated Zhou Chen.

Qiu Shui, in particular, was more excited than anyone else. He kept asking about the negotiation process between Zhou Chen and others. He even made up his mind to start writing a novel from now on, and after his novel was finished, he would ask Zhou Chen to help recommend it.

Zhou Chen sent Qiu Shui away with just two sentences, but Qiu Shui didn't care. She continued to talk to him and told him everything that happened in the week he was away.