Chapter 546 Worthy of the Word "People"
The arrival of the Deputy Prime Minister brought the seminar on "No One Left Behind" to a climax. The fact that it attracted the attention of a leader of this level fully demonstrated the influence and national character of this work.
At 4:30 p.m. that day, the work seminar finally came to a successful conclusion in harmony.
This seminar also set the tone for the official evaluation of "No One Left Behind": this is an inspiring, positive and worth learning work.
The meeting ended, and as a group of people walked out, Director Du gritted his teeth and asked in a low voice, "You are putting eye drops on me, kid!"
Lin Weimin immediately complained: "Leader, where did you get that from?"
"Don't play dumb when you know the truth. When your boss praises you, you just say a few polite words. Why are you bringing up the piracy issue?"
"Didn't you ask me to bring it up?" Lin Weimin said righteously.
Du Shu looked blank, then thought of the look Lin Weimin had made with him before he spoke, and couldn't help but yelled angrily: "You're talking nonsense!"
"Look at you, why don't you admit it when you did it?"
Director Du stared at Lin Weimin for a long time. This kid had a reckless look on his face and it was obvious that he did it on purpose. Even if he was hung up and beaten today, he probably wouldn't admit that he did it on purpose.
Some time ago, he ran to the Publishing House to file a complaint. He must have gotten anxious after waiting for such a long time without seeing any response. Today, the Deputy Prime Minister happened to be here, so he was so bold as to want to file a complaint to the emperor.
Director Du boasted that he had seen through Lin Weimin's cunning mind, "You boy, you really have no sense of organization or discipline!"
Lin Weimin didn't care about what he said, and asked Director Du again, "When will this be done? You expressed your position when the leader was here just now!"
You bastard, are you trying to force me to abdicate?
"Don't worry! Just wait!"
Director Du was so angry that he couldn't help but swear. It was really hard not to get angry with such a scoundrel.
Although Secretary Du was angry, the deputy prime minister's involvement did bring benefits to the matter. At least the resistance to its implementation was not as great.
He asked Lin Weimin to wait, but in fact he didn't wait for long.
About a week after the seminar was held, news about the seminar had already appeared in major mainstream newspapers, helping to boost the influence of "No One Left Behind".
At this time, an article titled "It is urgent to crack down on book piracy" appeared in Guangming Daily.
On the third day after the article was published, the Press and Publication Administration, together with the National Copyright Administration, the Ministry of Public Security and other ministries and commissions, held a press conference in Beijing to launch a special campaign to combat book piracy. In order to implement the special campaign, a "Notice on Launching a Special Campaign to Combat Book Piracy" was issued in the form of a telegram on June 4, 1990, deploying a special campaign to combat book piracy.
With the issuance of the "Notice on Launching a Special Campaign to Crack Down on Book Piracy," multiple ministries and commissions took joint action, launching the first special campaign against cultural piracy in the history of New China across the country.
After reading the news in the newspaper, Lin Weimin finally understood what was going on.
It is impossible to say that this special rectification campaign can safely eliminate piracy.
But there would be no problem in sending a group of pirated booksellers in to operate the sewing machines. When he thought of this, he couldn't help but feel relieved.
Of course he did it on purpose when he complained to the Deputy Prime Minister at the work seminar that day.
He understands that leaders have their own difficulties, so just find the leader of the leader.
Look, isn’t it solved perfectly now?
As for the issue of offending people, Teacher Lin was not worried at all.
Do you know what kind of subordinates leaders fear the most?
He is not afraid of your outstanding abilities or your positive attitude, but he is afraid that you have no desires.
When facing such a subordinate, you cannot hit, scold or talk to him. The best way is to worship him.
Lin Weimin saw this trick clearly in Lao Tan. This old salted fish had caused him a lot of trouble in the past few years!
Now, it’s time for the leaders to enjoy this treatment.
By mid-June, after more than two months, the discussion in the news media about "No One Left Behind" and college students' rural teaching had gradually subsided.
During this period, the total sales of the fourth issue of "Contemporary" exceeded 3 million copies, making it one of the few publications in the history of "Contemporary" with sales of over 3 million copies in a single issue.
Guowen Publishing House is ready to strike while the iron is hot and launch the single volume of "No One Can Be Left Behind". It is the first time in more than two years that Lin Weimin's work has been published again. Guowen Publishing House attaches great importance to it as always, and the first print run of the single volume is 500,000 copies.
In April, Cheng Zhongshi's "White Deer Plain" was published by Guowen Publishing House, and the first print run was no more than 100,000 copies.
Of course, the quality of "White Deer Plain" is in no way inferior to "Not One Less". Since it was released on the market more than two months ago, it has been reprinted twice and its sales have exceeded 260,000 copies, which greatly exceeded the expectations of Guowen Publishing House.
I thought a first print run of 100,000 copies was already a very bold number, but I didn't expect that I still underestimated the potential of this novel.
After the first two hectic reprints, at the suggestion of Lin Weimin, Guowen Publishing House made a bold decision to reprint "White Deer Plain" and increased the print run to 300,000 copies, which greatly alleviated the market and readers' demand for the novel.
From announcement to publication, "White Deer Plain" has followed an upward curve that has been envied by countless colleagues in the literary world.
The reason is not only because it has extremely high ideological value and unique aesthetic value, but also because of its amazing sense of reality, profound sense of history, vivid characterization and artistic characteristics that appeal to both the elite and the masses.
Tolstoy once said: The happiness of a writer's life is to be able to write a book for humanity.
Cheng Zhongshi was undoubtedly fortunate that he wrote a masterpiece that could be used as a "pillow for his coffin" when he was nearly fifty years old.
The concrete manifestation of this happiness is the royalties. A total of 460,000 copies of the novel were reprinted three times. According to the contract between Guowen Publishing House and Cheng Zhongshi, the royalties for this number of reprints alone amounted to 46,000 yuan, which was more than the first publishing royalties he had received before, and once again set a record for royalties in Cheng Zhongshi's creative career.
In just less than three months, Cheng Zhongshi received three consecutive payments totaling more than 40,000 yuan in royalties, which made him completely immersed in the joy of his works selling well.
At this time, in order to adapt to new situations such as rising prices, the "Interim Provisions on Book Remuneration" were adjusted with the approval of the State Council.
Among them, the remuneration for printing volume has been increased from 5% of the basic remuneration per 10,000 copies to 8% of the basic remuneration per 10,000 copies.
For monographs that have important academic and theoretical research value but are printed in a small number, if the print run is within 10,000 copies, the remuneration will be increased from the original 20% of the basic remuneration to 30%.
The basic standard for calculating royalties is RMB 10 to RMB 40 per thousand words for original manuscripts and RMB 8 to RMB 35 per thousand words for translated manuscripts.
According to the new regulations, the royalties for the number of copies of the books that Cheng Zhongshi received should be 60% higher than now. A colleague from the Shaanxi Federation of Literary and Art Circles urged Cheng Zhongshi to talk to the Guowen Publishing House and increase the royalties for the number of copies of the books agreed in the contract in accordance with the new regulations.
"The National Literature Society has treated me well. I can't do such a thing!" Cheng Zhongshi said to his colleagues.
Zhongshi also read the new regulations on royalties. His colleagues only noticed the changes in the remuneration based on the number of copies printed, but did not notice the changes in the basic royalties. Now it has increased to a maximum of 40 yuan per thousand words, which seems to be more than before, but the basic royalties given to him by Guowen Publishing House had increased to 40 yuan per thousand words before the new regulations were introduced.
Not only that, considering his interactions with Lin Weimin over the years, his care and help for him, Cheng Zhongshi would never do anything like asking others to raise the price.
Cheng Zhongshi thought so and did not take the initiative to look for Lin Weimin and Guowen Society. Unexpectedly, Lin Weimin took the initiative to look for him.
"Old Cheng, when you have time, come over and re-sign the contract." Lin Weimin said on the phone.
"Sign a contract? Sign what contract?"
"With the release of new regulations, writers' remuneration standards have increased, so your contracts will naturally have to be re-signed."
Cheng Zhongshi was unable to react for a moment. How could such a good thing happen?
He thought that he had received so much help from Guowen Publishing House and Lin Weimin, and it would be hard for him to go to Yanjing to revise the contract.
"I won't go. Everything is fine now. In the past few months, I have received more royalties than I have received in decades," said Cheng Zhongshi.
"There will be more in the future." Lin Weimin laughed and advised: "This time it's not just your own that will be changed, but all publishing contracts must be implemented according to the new regulations."
Lin Weimin gave Cheng Zhongshi a detailed introduction to the contract revision. The publishing contract had already been signed and the basic remuneration had been paid, so there was no change in this part.
What has changed is the remuneration for the number of copies printed. In the future, for additional print runs within the time limit specified in the contract, the contract of Guowen Publishing House will be implemented in accordance with the new regulations, that is, the remuneration for the number of copies printed will be increased from the original 5% to 8% per 10,000 copies.
Lin Weimin proposed the idea of re-signing publishing contracts for many writers who have cooperated with Guowen Publishing House in accordance with the new regulations at a meeting of Guowen Publishing House.
As soon as this idea was put forward, it aroused heated discussions among many leading cadres of the Guowen Society.
In the eyes of most people, this is completely unnecessary. If the Guowen Publishing House does not do this, no one can say anything.
"The price paid for this matter is not as high as everyone imagines. If you do the math, most writers' works don't even involve the issue of reprinting, let alone the issue of remuneration for the number of copies printed.
We only need to pay a small number of writers the increased royalties for the number of copies of the new regulations, but we can win great reputation for our Guowen Press among the vast community of writers. I think this is very worthwhile. "
Lin Weimin's persuasion made his colleagues hesitant. Cheng Zaochun asked the people in the editor-in-chief's office to do some calculations and found that the situation was almost the same as what Lin Weimin said.
If the new regulations are implemented, the number of writers that Guowen Publishing House needs to pay more will not exceed ten, and the amount of extra royalties will not exceed RMB 50,000.
Fifty thousand dollars for a chance to shine in the literary world, this is a good deal no matter how you look at it!
After explaining the situation, Lin Weimin said to Cheng Zhongshi: "If you find it troublesome, you can mail it, but in case it gets lost, it's better to send someone."
After hearing these words, Cheng Zhongshi put down the burden in his heart and said, "Okay, I will go to Yanjing again in two days."
The release of the new regulations on royalties has solved an urgent problem for many writers.
The rise in prices has little impact on famous and successful writers, whose income is far higher than that of most people at this time.
However, in the literary world, part-time writing is the norm, and most creators can only publish one or two articles a year. This increase in royalties is particularly important, because these extra royalties can really solve a family's urgent needs.
This change in the signed publishing contract by Guowen Publishing House can be said to be a major benefit to the cooperating writers.
When these people received the news, they couldn't help cheering and running around to tell others that Guowen Society's move was really kind.
Logically speaking, the contract was signed first and the new regulations were introduced later. Guowen Publishing House can completely ignore the requirements of the new regulations. At most, it can follow the new regulations when signing new publishing contracts in the future.
But Guowen Publishing House chose to be an honest person and pass on the profits that could have been pocketed to the vast number of writers.
This move may seem extremely stupid, but it actually won the support of many writers.
"China's most conscientious publishing house, worthy of the word 'people'!"
(End of this chapter)
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