London financial street,
Scholastic Group, European headquarters building on the 15th floor.
The Little Prince Project Department.
"Editor-in-chief, the printing factory hopes that we can speed up the progress... Well, the EU is still going on strike, the supply chain is not operating stably, and the prices of paint and labor are increasing. The group's financial department estimates that if printing is postponed to April, the The printing cost of a batch of books may increase by 7% to 15%..."
The "Little Prince" project assistant who just stepped out of the elevator was a fat man.
He held half a donut in his mouth, holding a paper plate full of Starbucks coffee cups downstairs in his arms, and beads of sweat hung on his forehead.
The fat assistant was talking vaguely on the phone with a Bluetooth headset while walking into the office and placing coffee on the desks of every senior in the department.
He hung up the phone, wiped the sweat from his neck with the sleeve of his coat, and quickly ran back to his work station without any prompting from his supervisor.
The editing, three proofreadings and typesetting of the final text content of "The Little Prince" have been completed. The printing cycle is about to begin and the entire department is busy.
Today is not the 1970s. If you dare to order the little clerk girl in the office to serve tea and water, maybe tomorrow the human resources department will talk to you on the grounds of discrimination against lesbians.
As a result, the fat assistant became the most inhumane person in the department because of his junior qualifications.
Not only does he need to communicate with various departments of the group, but he also has to buy coffee, pick up express delivery, and bring lunch to the big guys in the same office. He doesn't even have time to eat a donut.
The fat assistant who is bullied in the workplace can only imagine that when he becomes a veteran, it will be his turn to point fingers at the newcomers and enjoy the hardship.
He sat at his workstation, turned on his computer, and found that there was a new email in his mailbox.
[Sample of Detective Cat's "The Little Prince" - Agent Mr. Folivora]
"Detective Cat? Mr. Sloth? What a weird name."
The fat assistant pouted.
"Is it the sample that the online illustrator sent?" A man stood behind him holding a coffee cup and stared at his computer screen, "Did you add milk?"
"Milk, two tablespoons, no sweetener."
The fat assistant who was used to being treated like a bully could fluently report the request of the visitor just by relying on the blurry mirror reflection of the computer screen. He nodded: "Yes, it is from the illustrator of "The Little Prince" appointed above. sample."
"The illustrator of "The Little Prince"...it's not certain. If she wants to get a contract, she must pass the review of the art department."
The man seemed to know the gossip about the upper echelons of the group. He hummed in a low voice: "I heard that the boss of the art department is very dissatisfied with this detective cat's interference."
"Don't say the art department is dissatisfied, I am dissatisfied too."
Another colleague came over: "I worked so hard to make a set of books, but in the end I hired an unprofessional online illustrator. What's going on? It doesn't matter if it's another book. The illustrations are very useful for "The Little Prince"." It’s not that everyone doesn’t know how important it is.”
"The Little Prince" belongs to the most special category among fairy tales.
The first section of the first story at the beginning of it is about the protagonist drawing various paintings for adults to see when he was a child.
From the first sentence of this book to the very end. Every plot is closely related to various illustrations.
Otherwise, the original author Saint-Exupéry would not have drawn so many illustrations himself.
Even in the past, senior book reviewers on the famous reading website GoodReaders believed that for "The Little Prince", even the words are just the skeleton that carries the ideas, while the illustrations are the real soul.
For such an important job, please hire a network painter to handle it.
Not only did the art department of the group have opinions, but most of their colleagues on the "Little Prince" project team were actually unhappy.
When the time comes, if the illustrations are bad, the sales will be poor, and everyone will not get paid for their performance.
Because it is close to the public, illustration is the subject with the lowest "artistic" content in the despised chain of paintings.
Also because it is close to the public, illustration is the subject matter that can best distinguish the quality of painters in the chain of painting contempt.
Wen Wu is the first, Wu Wu is the second, but illustrations are not among them.
If you put up a row of paintings by Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, and Van Gogh and ask them who is a good painter and who is a poor painter, not only the audience will have different opinions.
Even professors from top art academies do not dare to make this judgment.
To put it bluntly, there has never been a unified evaluation standard for things like artistry.
But illustrations are different. Audiences will vote with their actions.
The most powerful illustrator is the illustrator who can draw the works that make customers want to buy the most.
In the book market, two identical works are placed in front of you, only the illustrations on the covers are different.
Three out of ten customers who enter the store will choose the first book, and seven will choose the second book.
So don’t talk about art concepts and painting techniques. In the eyes of the market, the latter’s illustrators are better than the former.
Traffic and sales are the last word.
That's why good illustrators are so important to Scholastic Group's project teams.
The works of excellent illustrators can really be converted into real sales, earn a lot of money for the group, and have the ability to turn waste into treasure.
There are a large number of high-quality illustrators under his command, which is why Director Charlie of the Art Department dares to disobey President Osborne.
"Hush... Detective Cat was able to grab this fat job from the art department, and his connections are very strong! The person standing behind him is someone who is a monster, so don't spread gossip."
Someone kindly reminded me.
At this time, many colleagues were standing behind the fat assistant. Everyone wanted to see the new illustrator's sample.
"Humph, what's the relationship... He doesn't seem to be a serious illustrator. He doesn't even have a contracted gallery or studio. His agent's name is Mr. Sloth, and he's probably also an online name. He's still just recruiting work online. That set of stuff is not formal at all.”
The colleague's tone became much more restrained, but he still hummed in a low voice: "In other words, we are a large group. This kind of grass-roots team and some small companies invite manuscripts, and they don't even know how they are sold."
Another role of an excellent agent is to handle contracts and strive for more benefits for the painter.
Some rookie illustrators encounter unscrupulous bosses and work hard to complete the project. Because of some clauses in the contract that they did not read carefully, they cannot get a penny. They are not the unlucky ones who were cheated by prostitutes or even lost money. No.
"Here, why are you standing there? Open it and take a look."
Someone urged the fat assistant.
The fat assistant opened the email, and then he was stunned for a moment.
This was not what I imagined. The online illustrator just sent the finished drawing to his mailbox and it was done.
Instead, it was a long and detailed email.
"Twenty-four percent advance payment, right to authorize the cover, and monthly sales share for each issue..."
As the fat assistant pulled the email down.
In the email, the other party’s agent, Mr. Sloth, made many requests for illustrators in a polite but very firm tone.
Some colleagues behind him who were unhappy with Detective Cat said angrily: "You think of yourself as a person, and you dare to make so many demands without even saying a word. If this guy really gets a formal contract, I don’t know how troublesome it is.”
"Hey! This Mr. Sloth is really knowledgeable." The supervisor on the side was also watching, and he shook his head at this time.
The supervisor is Osborn's direct subordinate and does not have much ill will towards Detective Cat.
More importantly, he discovered that this agent named Mr. Sloth was indeed quite powerful.
The other party seems to have many and detailed requirements, but it can only be said that he is very professional and not excessive.
Illustrators make deals with publishers,
The biggest problem is that the payment cycle is too slow.
In many cases, remuneration cannot be paid until more than a year after the book is released, and six months is considered fast. A large group like Scholastic has a relatively abundant capital chain and can actually pay 10% to 25% of the remuneration in advance as an advance payment.
certainly,
No one would dislike having too much money in their account. If you don't take the initiative to fight for this kind of rights, the publisher will not mention it to you.
The second is the right of signature. The right of signature is a natural right provided by the law to illustrators, which means to tell everyone that this painting was drawn by you.
Unless it is a ghostwriting contract in some gray area, the general contract will stipulate that the artist will be given the right to sign.
However, there are also particularities in how to give.
The illustrator's signature does not necessarily need to be on the book. It can even leave a line of small words on the copyright title page of the book that no one will notice, even if the publisher is very powerful.
The vast majority of readers who buy books do not know who drew the illustrations for this book.
The cover signature requested by the other party means that in addition to the original author and translator, there should also be the annotation [Illustration - Detective Cat] on the cover.
This requirement is difficult.
For an illustrator, having his or her name printed on the cover of a work that is expected to print millions of copies in its entire sales cycle is naturally a beautiful thing.
But under normal circumstances, illustration or layout design work is not as important as text author.
Publishers are unwilling to leave such a prime cover position to illustrators.
Unless you are a legendary painter who is so famous that many fans pay for your name, such as Andy Warhol.
But considering the particularity and quantity of the illustrations in "The Little Prince", it is not entirely impossible to talk about it. In contrast, after the book is put on the market, the sales share of each issue is paid on a monthly basis, but it is a detail.
Mr. Sloth handled the key issues of the contract very tactfully.
“Very professional!”
The supervisor rubbed his chin and praised.
By making these requests at the draft stage, it can be said that the other party's agent is very candid.
Not only is he very knowledgeable, but he also has full confidence that Detective Cat can win this official contract.
Either this Mr. Sloth is very confident in the quality of Detective Cat's works, or he is very confident in Detective Cat's connections at the top of the group.
Or both.
The supervisor became even more curious about this online illustrator who could be personally taken care of by Vice President Osborne.
"Let's take a look at the painting now. Have you downloaded the attachment?"
The supervisor motioned to the fat assistant to open the attachment at the bottom of the email.
The assistant opened the sample manuscript sent by Detective Cat, turned the computer screen to everyone, and adjusted the brightness of the computer.
A brightly colored illustration appeared in front of everyone's eyes.
There was a brief silence in the office.
Some have heard of Detective Cat before, some have not.
But regardless of whether they knew Detective Cat or not, they, the employees of the publishing house, instinctively did not trust the standards of online illustrators.
Many people originally looked at the work of the illustrator posted above with critical thoughts.
But now,
They subconsciously felt that this painting looked...
Shouldn't be bad.
"Oh! This painting..."
"It's indeed pretty."
"Look at the colors, it looks like it's really out of space. It's an oil painting. It looks amazing."
After a few seconds of silence, many people began to exchange their opinions.
Some of these people are proofreaders and editors, and some are responsible for layout design. In fact, few of them are professional artists.
But the audience for illustrations is not professionals, but ordinary people.
These people don't have any stereotypes about knife-painting. Basically, few of them have even heard of knife-painting.
They just intuitively think the painting is beautiful.
Gives people a sense of wonder.
"I don't know much about painting, but it seems... there is something. The intuitive feeling is even better than the previous illustrations designed by our art department."
Even the well-informed colleague who was very dissatisfied with Detective Cat being an illustrator at first and had been making fun of him nodded in surprise.
After all, everyone and the illustrator have a community of interests, so it was surprising to see Detective Cat hand over such a sample.
The project team's dissatisfaction with this Internet painter immediately diminished a lot.
"What do you think?"
The supervisor asked an uncle next to him. This uncle was an artist seconded by the project team from the art department. He was the only one among these people who studied art.
"It seems like drawing with a knife."
The uncle stared at the fat assistant's computer screen, a little unsure.
He felt that this was probably a painting, but the details were really good, right?
These dreamy pigments, these smooth and elastic curves...
Ordinary colleagues in the office just think it’s pretty.
He is a professional and knows the difficulties of this painting method.
The uncle was a little unsure whether this was really a work drawn with a hard oil painting knife.
Can knife painting really be so perfect?
"What's wrong with Hua Dao Hua?"
"This painting method is a bit unpopular and difficult. But... this painting is a bit too perfect." The uncle carefully considered the words: "If I were to describe it, it would be two words, rare and beautiful."
"Rarely beautiful, rarely beautiful." The uncle murmured to himself.
"Can you draw such a picture?" asked the supervisor.
"Me? Stop joking, boss."
"First of all, I am not a professional oil painter." The uncle smiled bitterly, "Secondly, the details of this painting are so perfect that it doesn't look like it was painted by a human being."
"So, if this painting passes the review of the art department, there should be no problem?" the supervisor asked with a smile.
"Normally, no problem, but..."
The uncle looked at his colleagues around him and hesitated.
He heard that Director Charlie had already announced that he wanted a sample of Detective Cat.
When it comes to things like art, if you really want to cause trouble, even if Leonardo da Vinci was alive and possessed by Rembrandt, he would still be able to find fault.
At least this unpopular painting method is a problem.
"understood."
The supervisor nodded.
He dismissed his colleagues, then leaned down and patted the fat assistant on the arm.
"Don't send the sample to the art department yet, swipe my job card, take the VIP elevator to the 41st floor, find President Osborne, and show him the work on the computer."
The supervisor ordered softly.
(End of chapter)
