Smith thought that Xiang Nan was the kind of nerd who only immersed himself in creation and didn't know the world, let alone the situation abroad, so he cajoled and frightened him in every possible way.
But unexpectedly, Xiang Nan was much smarter than him.
Indeed, as Xiang Nan said, Random House is the largest publishing company in the United States. Every move it makes attracts attention within the industry. Therefore, if it discovers any good books or ideas, other publishing houses will definitely follow suit.
Therefore, publishing companies often kill mistakes without letting them go. Once we find a promising idea, even if the quality of the work is not that high, we will sign it first to prevent it from being poached by other companies.
And even if one of these seedlings' works sells well, it will be enough to compensate for their losses.
Just like today's idol companies, they sign a lot of new people as soon as they sign. Even if I don’t have the resources to support that much, I won’t give it to my peers.
Therefore, if he really doesn't sign Xiang Nan, then other companies will definitely sign it. By then, if it becomes popular, he will become a joke in the industry.
Xiang Nan himself is one of the most well-known writers in China. His works are considered failures if they sell less than one million copies in the mainland.
A writer like this will not fail even if he goes to the United States. Just like Zhang Ailing, she is good at writing Chinese style. Even if her works are not very popular after moving to the United States, she is still much better than newcomers.
Therefore, after Smith considered it, he finally chose to sign a cooperation agreement with Xiang Nan.
Xiang Nan himself translated "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" into English and had it published by Random House. Random House paid Xiang Nan the remuneration and royalties.
The royalty rate is 10%, which is also the rate for ordinary authors.
If you are like Stephen King, RL Stein ("Goosebumps" series), Dan Brown ("The Da Vinci Code"), Neil Gaiman ("American Gods"), George Martin ("Ice" For great writers such as "Song of Fire"), the royalties can even reach 30% to 40%.
However, although the commission is small now, Xiang Nan believes that one day he will get a commission higher than that of Stephen King, Dan Brown, and George Martin.
…
I heard that Xiang Nan rejected Random House’s million-dollar buyout and instead prepared to cooperate on a profit-sharing basis. Many people expressed their disbelief.
They feel that a bird in the hand is better than a hundred birds in the forest. One million dollars is enough to last a lifetime.
On the contrary, if the form of royalties is used, if the book is not popular and cannot achieve high sales, then Xiang Nan will lose money. At that time, let alone one million US dollars, I'm afraid it would be a good deal to get a commission of several thousand or tens of thousands of US dollars.
So they all made fun of Xiang Nan's choice.
"Do you really think that your work will be popular in the United States? I really don't know how high the sky is and how high it is."
"A talented woman like Zhang Ailing is not popular in the United States. She is still in China and has not been abroad. Can she write works that are popular with foreigners?"
"Cheng Jianjun has been famous in China for a long time, so he is arrogant and thinks that he is popular everywhere. In fact, he simply cannot see the situation clearly. No matter how good the works of our mainland writers are, they cannot compare with those from foreign countries."
They discussed one after another, saying that they all felt that the moon in foreign countries was rounder, and they had no expectations for the sales of Xiang Nan's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" abroad.
Similar words also reached Xiang Nan's ears.
But he didn't care, it was a mule or a horse, he took it out for a walk. Everything depends on performance. No matter how many BBs you have now, it's just talk.
So now, he is seizing the time to translate "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", publish it, and when the time comes, he will slap those people in the face with his results.
…
Entering 1987, Jin Manying's business continued to expand, with thirty-six branches open, and he was also preparing to expand to surrounding provinces and cities, such as Jinmen, Langfang, Tangshan and other places to open up new markets.
For this reason, Xiang Nan specially improved the bottom of the pot. In addition to the traditional clear soup hot pot, new varieties such as red oil hot pot, mushroom soup hot pot, nourishing hot pot, and mandarin duck hot pot have also been added.
First of all, when eating hot-pot in Beijing, the mutton is brought from outside the mouth. The meat is tender and has no smell, and is extremely tender. It is delicious even when it is washed with clear soup.
But the mutton from other places does not necessarily come from outside the mouth. It is likely that the mutton is produced locally and the meat quality is not that good. The taste of clear soup shabu-shabu is different. Therefore, the bottom of the pot must be changed and the taste must be stronger to make up for the lack of mutton.
Secondly, tourists from other places may not necessarily have the same taste as Yanjing people. The so-called sweet in the south, salty in the north, spicy in the east and sour in the west, so adding some flavors also gives diners more choices.
At the beginning of the same year, Cai Xiaoli was promoted from associate section to full section and served as section chief of the Social Security Section.
Five years after graduation, I was promoted from section member to section chief, which is very fast. The students who graduated in the same period are only now starting to advance to associate majors.
Cai Xiaoli knew that she was promoted to a major, not because of her ability or how hard she worked, but mostly because of Xiang Nan's face. However, this already made her happy.
…
In February 1987, the crew of "Triumph at Midnight" returned to Yanjing.
Feng Xiaogang also appeared in front of Xiang Nan again, "Professor Cheng, my little Gangzi is back again."
"How's it going? Did the filming in Southern Xinjiang go well?" Xiang Nan asked with a smile.
"It's not bad. The local troops are cooperating with us. Tanks, firearms, and soldiers are all available for free, which saves a lot of money. Otherwise, 400,000 yuan is enough for what we are doing." Feng Xiaogang nodded.
Xiang Nan smiled.
At this stage, mainland TV stations basically rely on state financial allocations. They are not commercial enough and not entertaining enough, so they cannot make much money.
In 1983, the advertising revenue of national television stations was only 34 million. In comparison, in 2020, the traditional advertising revenue of national TV stations reached 78 billion yuan.
Television stations had no income, so they naturally could not spend much money to produce new programs. Therefore, in the 1980s, the output of national television programs was very low. No more than 1,500 episodes of TV series were produced in a year.
In comparison, in 2019, more than 13,000 episodes of TV series were distributed nationwide, and half of them could not be released after filming.
This shows how poor mainland TV stations were in the 1980s. This phenomenon did not begin to improve until the mid-1990s.
"Anyway, just finish the filming." Xiang Nan nodded.
"Yes, you are right." Feng Xiaogang smiled, "By the way, Professor Cheng, I have a few friends who admire you. Would you like to meet them?"
"Who are they?" Xiang Nan asked curiously.
"They are all my magnets. For example, Wang Tie who wrote "Half Seawater, Usually Fire", Zheng Xiaolong who filmed "Four Generations Under One Roof", Ma Weidu, editor of "Youth Literature", and author of "Undercover Police" Hai Yi, Liu Zhenyun who wrote "Tapu", Su Tong who wrote "The Escape of 1934" and so on." Feng Xiaogang explained.
"Hey, you really have a lot of iron magnets." Xiang Nan laughed when he heard this.
