Chapter 494 The Difficult Old Tan
It was three days later that Phillips called Lin Weimin again. During this period, he went to talk to Spielberg about Lin Weimin's concerns. After some negotiations, the two sides finally agreed to limit the authorization period for the film adaptation rights of the novel to five years.
If Spielberg does not start the film adaptation of "Life is Beautiful" within 5 years, Lin Weimin will take back the film adaptation rights free of charge.
In this way, Lin Weimin's concerns were resolved and Spielberg also obtained the rights to adapt the film.
One of the benefits of working with Spielberg, a big Hollywood director, is that the adaptation fee of "Nothing" set a record for Lin Weimin's novel film adaptation, and he received 800,000 US dollars.
The reason why Spielberg was willing to spend a sky-high fee of 800,000 US dollars to obtain the adaptation rights was naturally because of the popularity of the novel "Nothing" in the United States and Lin Weimin's current fame in the United States.
Before "None", "Farewell My Concubine", "The Horse Catcher", "The Lover", "The Murderer", and "Burning" were all published in the United States.
Among them, "The Dark Knight" has the worst sales, with sales of only more than 200,000 copies, and it is now rarely seen in bookstores in the United States.
Then there is "Burning". Although this novel won the National Book Critics Circle Award that year, the novel tells the story of Asian immigrants and its content is mostly critical of American society. It is relatively niche, and its readers in the United States are mostly ethnic minorities and ZY groups.
Fortunately, with the support of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the novel sold more than 400,000 copies, and Random House also made a lot of money, making it a work that gained both fame and fortune.
The sales of "The Lover" and "The Horse Catcher" in the United States are somewhat similar, but the sales curve of the former is "U" shaped, while the sales curve of the latter is "J" shaped.
When "The Lover" first landed on the U.S. market, it was marketed as the "Far East version of The Great Gatsby", attracting a wave of readers. Unfortunately, American readers were not too interested in this kind of sentimental love story, and the sales of the novel went down, and then it was discontinued like "The Great Gatsby".
As a result, last year Lin Weimin won the Goncourt Prize for "The Lover". Random House struck while the iron was hot and reprinted 500,000 copies. Taking advantage of the popularity of Lin Weimin's award, sales of the novel skyrocketed and are now gradually entering a stage of stable sales, with total sales exceeding one million copies.
If The Lover took advantage of the Goncourt Prize, then The Horse Lassoer took advantage of The Kite Runner. The Kite Runner received rave reviews on Broadway and won a Tony Award. As the original work, The Horse Lassoer immediately doubled in value, and its total sales have now exceeded 1.5 million copies.
Among Lin Weimin's works, the most popular one among the American people is "Farewell My Concubine", which was published in the United States in 1983 but was not very popular in the first two years.
But as time went by, the word-of-mouth effect of the novel continued to expand, and as the author Lin Weimin became more and more famous in the United States, the sales of the novel increased day by day.
In recent years, it has been a regular on the New York Times bestseller list, and its sales in the United States have approached three million copies.
If sales in China and other English-speaking countries around the world are counted, the total sales are heading towards tens of millions of copies.
With novels published, plays performed on Broadway, Tony Awards, National Book Critics Circle Awards, Prix Goncourt, and Academy Awards, Lin Weimin has steadily established a name for himself in the United States through his novels and plays.
As more and more readers and viewers see his works, and with the support of several awards, Lin Weimin's name has become increasingly well-known to the American people.
It is precisely because of the blessing of these halos that after the novel "Nothing" was published by Random House this year, the novel was on the New York Times bestseller list in just half a month, and its ranking has been climbing at a rapid pace.
The first print run of 500,000 copies of the novel was sold out within half a year. According to the current situation, sales are expected to exceed one million copies by the end of the year. This achievement is the first among all Lin Weimin's novels published in the United States.
It took several other novels several years to reach total sales of over one million.
Lin Weimin waited in Yanjing for half a month and signed the contract for "Nothing" with the lawyer sent by Spielberg.
In late November, it snowed in Yanjing.
It was the weekend, and Lin Weimin drove to the entrance of Beichizi Ertiao Hutong.
Lin Weimin got off the car and walked into the alley. There was a layer of snow on the ground. The low-lying areas on the road had frozen over, and snowflakes were still falling from the sky.
He walked to the gate of a courtyard and pushed open the half-open door of the outer courtyard. At this time, the snow in the courtyard had been swept clean.
The nanny who was cleaning up the slag came out and smiled when she saw Lin Weimin, "Writer Lin, you're here?"
"Where's Teacher Tan?"
"I am discussing the manuscript with Teacher Meng."
Lin Weimin thanked the nanny and entered the main room, where he saw Qin Chaoyang and Meng Weizai gathered by the stove, discussing the manuscript.
Although the two have retired, they sometimes cannot sit idle and are occasionally responsible for the final review of some novels.
"Old Tan, how have you been these past two days?"
The two people who were discussing the manuscript raised their heads and laughed when they saw that it was Lin Weimin. Qin Chaoyang asked, "Why are you here?"
"I heard you were sick, so I came to see you."
Lin Weimin sat down in a familiar manner and said, "You still have the energy to read the manuscript. Does it seem like you have recovered from your illness?"
"It was just a cold, a little pneumonia. I went to the hospital and got IV drips for a few days and I'm almost healed."
Lin Weimin nodded, "That's good!"
Meng Weizai looked Lin Weimin up and down and asked, "You came to see the patient empty-handed?"
"How can I come here empty-handed? I come here with full sincerity!"
"You are becoming more and more perfunctory in dealing with us retired comrades."
"You, an old comrade, need to further reform your thinking! Comradeship is worth a thousand gold, do you understand?"
After a few jokes, Meng Weizai and Lin Weimin talked about the recent issues of "Contemporary".
This year's tenth issue of "Contemporary" published Yu Hua's "Crying in the Drizzle", and the eleventh issue of "Contemporary" published the first half of the fourth volume of Er Yuehe's "Kangxi Emperor", both of which have caused quite a stir recently.
"Crying in the Rain" is Yu Hua's first novel after his debut many years ago. The style is still very avant-garde, carrying the banner of "avant-garde novel" and did not disappoint his many readers.
Since 1984, "Emperor Kangxi" has been published in "Contemporary" at the rate of one volume per year. This year, this magnificent historical novel of one million words finally came to an end, but the controversy surrounding it has not stopped, but has become more and more intense.
Meng Weizai said: "I read the editor's note you wrote. It was well-intentioned, but it had little effect. It would be better for you to write a complete review of the novel "Emperor Kangxi" to calm the controversy."
Lin Weimin waved his hand. "I wrote that editor's note for my favorite readers. It's just a simple explanation of the position of Contemporary. If I submit an article to a publication, it will easily turn into a verbal battle. There's no need for that. If everyone wants to discuss, then discuss. As long as it's not exaggerated, not offensive or slanderous, we welcome it."
After hearing what he said, Meng Weizai showed a gratified smile on his face, "Not bad, not bad, you have really matured. It seems that this deputy editor-in-chief position is not in vain."
Qin Chaoyang also teased Lin Weimin a few times. As they were talking and laughing, they heard the nanny talking to someone outside.
After a while, five or six middle-aged men walked into the main room.
Qin Chaoyang saw a man in the middle was stunned, "Gui Lin, why are you here?"
"Uncle, my colleagues and I came to Yanjing on a business trip and came to see you."
The man's name was Tan Guilin, Tan Chaoyang's cousin from his hometown in Huanggang.
Qin Guilin introduced his colleagues behind him to Qin Chaoyang. The leader was County Mayor Gong from his hometown Huanggang, as well as people from the Education Bureau and the "Enterprise Management Committee".
Lin Weimin and Meng Weizai were planning to say goodbye, but when Qin Guilin and others heard Qin Chaoyang introduce his and Meng Weizai's names, they immediately shook hands with them with great enthusiasm.
Meng Weizai is the former president of the Guowen Society. After retiring, he enjoys the treatment of a minister. Even Lin Weimin, the deputy editor-in-chief of the Guowen Society, is two levels higher in rank than County Magistrate Gong, who is leading the team today, not to mention that they are also well-known for their literary talents.
Faced with the enthusiasm of Qin Guilin and others, Meng Weizai and Lin Weimin had no choice but to sit down again, and then listened to them chatting with Qin Chaoyang about the situation in their hometown.
Qin Guilin and others came to Beijing for business and specifically found Qin Chaoyang. Without asking, one knows that it must be Qin Chaoyang who made the connection.
Unfortunately, Qin Chaoyang has been in the publishing and cultural circles all his life. After listening to what Qin Guilin and County Magistrate Gong said, his brows furrowed.
"I'm afraid I can't help you with this matter."
Disappointment flashed across the faces of the people present when they heard this. Tan Guilin said anxiously, "Uncle, I know this is difficult for you, but we have no other choice. The government office in Yanjing is too big. We come from a small place and don't even have an acquaintance, let alone get things done..."
When Qin Guilin said this, he noticed that his comrades who came with him winked at him, and seeing that Qin Chaoyang's face was not looking good, he knew that what he said was very inappropriate, so he kept silent.
The atmosphere in the room fell into awkwardness for a moment.
Lin Weimin knew Qin Chaoyang's character. If it was within his ability and people from his hometown came to him for help, he would definitely be willing to help. But asking an old man who had buried himself in books for decades to help make connections was really putting things in a difficult position for him.
Seeing Qin Chaoyang being carried there, Lin Weimin sighed secretly and said, "County Magistrate Gong, I just heard you say that one of the tasks for coming to Yanjing this time is to solve the construction funding problem of several schools in the county?"
Upon hearing this, the already disheartened County Magistrate Gong's expression suddenly brightened up, "That's right, that's right, Teacher Lin..."
I was upset because of the pain in my waist. I couldn't sit or stand, so I just lay down. But I couldn't type on the computer while lying down, so I had to use my mobile phone. It took me a whole day to write 6,000 words.
I will try to guarantee two updates in the next few days. I can’t say more than that. I will write more when my waist gets better.
I hope everyone can understand!
(End of this chapter)
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