Chapter 32 Publishing Ambition
Seeing that the two had finished their discussion, Luo Baoming said, "Mr. Liu, I am here with a mission as well."
Liu Hongmin: "Ming Pao wants the publishing rights for the remaining three episodes?"
"That's right. Mr. Jin Yong's price this time is 70 yuan per thousand words. This is the highest remuneration in Hong Kong, second only to Ni Kuang's 80 yuan per thousand words."
Liu Hongmin thought about it for a moment and said, "Okay."
Ni Kuang is a well-known writer in Hong Kong. Liu Hongmin knows that his status is far inferior to his. If Shao Bao was not so popular and RTV was going to adapt it into a TV series, I am afraid Mr. Jin Yong would not give such a high fee.
Moreover, many people in Hong Kong now feel that they are superior to mainlanders. Ni Kuang has a special status. If Liu Hongmin really takes 80 yuan per thousand words as a remuneration, Ni Kuang will definitely cause trouble for Mr. Jin Yong.
Luo Baoming also prepared the contract in advance. After Liu Hongmin signed it, he invited the two of them to dinner.
Manager Huang didn't know the situation and agreed immediately, and Luo Baoming didn't have time to stop him.
Liu Hongmin calmly interrupted, "Mr. Luo, this is our third collaboration, let's celebrate."
"Really just a little?"
Luo Baoming asked a little naively.
"Of course!"
Liu Hongmin smiled sincerely, then turned around and grabbed a classmate, asking him to help call Zou Shifang.
After Zou Shifang came out, Liu Hongmin said, "I will take the two Hong Kong compatriots to Uncle Wang first. You can call Zhenyun and the others, as well as Zha Jianying."
When Zou Shifang heard this, he knew that the person Liu Hongmin actually wanted to call was Cha Jianying, but he was afraid that his friends would have other ideas, so he called them all.
When they arrived at Uncle Wang's small restaurant, Liu Hongmin calmly discussed the casting and adaptation of Shao Bao with Manager Huang.
"Since the length of the story is limited, there are not many characters. It is mainly a two-person detective mode, but when filming the TV series, some characters can be added. For example, Wang Chao, Ma Han, Zhang Long, and Zhao Hu can all be set as the yamen runners of Bianliang Cheng, the investigators of the secret village, the witnesses of the opera troupe, etc., as the easter eggs of the TV series. I think the audience will definitely be happy to see such a situation..."
Manager Huang nodded repeatedly, "Mr. Liu is worthy of being the author of Shao Bao, the arrangement is so reasonable."
Not long after, Zou Shifang and others arrived. Zha Jianying saw Luo Baoming and greeted him with a smile.
"Mr. Luo, we meet again."
"Hello, Miss Cha, hello."
Luo Baoming respects this distant relative of his boss very much. Others may not know this, but he is very clear that Miss Cha's family has someone backing them up.
Liu Hongmin introduced them to each other. Liu Zhenyun, Chen Jiangong and Wang Xiaoping were all surprised to hear that these two people were from Ming Pao and RTV.
They did hear that the copyright of Shao Bao had been sold to Hong Kong, but the fact that people from Hong Kong had been coming again and again meant that something big must be going on.
Liu Hongmin invited everyone to drink, and without notice, he winked at Zou Shifang. Zou Shifang immediately turned into a master of persuading people to drink, and with just a few words, the two visitors from Hong Kong drank a small cup. Drinking in a small cup of three cents is very deceptive. At first, the drinker can count how many cups he has drunk, but soon he will ignore the number because of drunkenness and think that he can't get drunk.
Manager Huang soon fell down. Luo Baoming was cautious, but he could not control himself.
Liu Hongmin asked at this time: "Mr. Luo, Mr. Jin Yong is also very famous in the mainland."
Luo Baoming said proudly: "Of course, he is my boss!"
Liu Hongmin glanced at Cha Jianying, who covered her mouth and laughed. She knew that Luo Baoming was using her to show his loyalty to Mr. Jin Yong, but she had never even met Mr. Jin Yong, so Luo Baoming was acting for the blind.
"That's right, that's right!" Zou Shifang echoed, picking up the wine cup and clinking it with Luo Baoming. Luo Baoming consciously raised the wine cup, "Chelsea!"
Cha Jianying took the opportunity to quietly ask: "What do you want to do?"
"I want to bring Mr. Jin Yong's novels to the mainland for distribution."
Cha Jianying looked at Liu Hongmin in astonishment. "Are you sure? Even if you can afford the copyright fee, how are you going to print it?"
"Doesn't Kyoto University have a publishing house? It shouldn't be a problem to have an affiliate, right?"
Cha Jianying fell into deep thought. It seemed feasible to affiliate with the university, but could Beijing University Press do it?
You have to know that since the restoration of Beijing University Press, tens of millions of copies of teaching materials have been sold, so how can there be time to publish novels! If Liu Hongmin's Shao Bao had not brought honor to the school, it would have been heard by Beijing University Press long ago.
Compared with teaching materials that sell millions of copies of a book, a small package of only 50,000 or 60,000 copies a month is no different from a mosquito leg.
Although Mr. Jin Yong's novels are very popular, they are still far inferior to teaching supplementary materials.
No matter how Cha Jianying looked at it, he felt that this was Liu Hongmin's wishful thinking.
"It all depends on people!"
Publishing Jin Yong's novels was the most feasible way for Liu Hongmin to make money. Throughout the 1980s, Mr. Jin Yong only published one book in the mainland, which was "The Book and the Sword".
This novel earned Mr. Jin Yong 50,000 yuan in copyright fees, which is a huge sum of money in mainland China. But for Mr. Jin Yong, this amount of money was not worth his while, so he donated it.
Mr. Jin Yong looked down upon this little profit, but Liu Hongmin did. Moreover, this was a long-term business. When online novels were not popular, Jin Yong's novels could continue to make money.
Liu Hongmin estimated that the profits from Jin Yong's novels were at least tens of millions, and that was with piracy. Without piracy, the profits could even be hundreds of millions.
The way to get rich is right in front of him. If Liu Hongmin doesn't give it a try, he will regret it to death.
"Publish Jin Yong's novels?" Luo Baoming turned around and asked in surprise, "How do you know that Mr. Jin Yong wants to publish his novels in mainland China?"
Liu Hongmin smiled and said, "Mr. Jin Yong cares about mainland compatriots. Of course he would like his works to be appreciated by mainland compatriots."
Luo Baoming nodded dazedly, "You are right, but this is not easy. The reputation of martial arts novels in your continent is not very good, which is the biggest obstacle at present."
Reputation?
The people present looked at each other and it seemed that they had indeed seen articles criticizing martial arts novels. However, when they read them, they thought it was an isolated case. Now thinking about it, it seems that many newspapers have participated in it.
Everyone fell silent. This was indeed a very serious problem.
Only Liu Hongmin laughed out loud, "This problem is easy to solve."
Everyone asked in confusion: "Hongmin, do you really have a solution?"
"Of course!"
Luo Baoming quickly asked: "Mr. Liu, what is the solution?"
However, Liu Hongmin kept the secret.
"Don't worry, we can talk about it after I get Mr. Jin Yong's authorization."
(End of this chapter)
