Chapter 563 My Karma My Soldier
At the end of the month, Cheng Zhongshi arrived in Yanjing.
These days, the Joint Publishing Company in Hong Kong and the Sun Hung Kai Publishing House in Taiwan have contacted him. After some communication, the publication of "White Deer Plain" has been basically confirmed. The two publishing houses will send people to the mainland to sign a publishing contract with Cheng Zhongshi soon. This time, Cheng Zhongshi has agreed to meet in Yanjing.
This time he came to Beijing not only because of the contracts between "White Deer Plain" and the publishing houses in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but also to communicate the abridged content of "White Deer Plain".
Lin Weimin handed the editing work of "White Deer Plain" to He Qizhi, who is of similar age to Cheng Zhongshi, has decades of editing experience and excellent writing skills. Both Lin Weimin and Cheng Zhongshi were relieved to hand over the work to him.
When Cheng Zhongshi came to the Guowen Publishing House, Lin Weimin first arranged for him to stay in the guesthouse upstairs, and then handed him the abridged manuscript.
Cheng Zhongshi looked carefully for two days and found Lin Weimin's office. Lin Weimin called He Qizhi over.
After some communication, Cheng Zhongshi basically approved He Qizhi's abridged version of "White Deer Plain".
"Okay. Then we will typeset and print this version of "White Deer Plain" first, and then publish the complete version when there is a chance in the future!" Lin Weimin made the decision.
Cheng Zhongshi nodded, looking a little disappointed.
Seeing that he was unhappy, Lin Weimin said to him, "By the way, I have another good news for you."
"What good news?"
Lin Weimin smiled and said, "The publishing house has decided to update your publishing contract and change it to a royalty sharing agreement with a 10% share."
Cheng Zhongshi was dumbfounded when he heard the news, "Change it?"
Lin Weimin winked at him and said, "This time I'll consider it as compensation for you."
Cheng Zhongshi looked at Lin Weimin, not knowing what to say for a moment, and his heart was deeply moved.
After signing the contract, Cheng Zhongshi did a simple calculation and found that "White Deer Plain" had sold more than 700,000 copies in more than half a year since its publication. According to his current royalty share, he could get at least 100,000 yuan.
Of course, those that have been sold do not count.
But hot-selling books have always been long-tail sales. According to the current trend, it will be no problem for "White Deer Plain" to sell 300,000 to 500,000 copies every year in the next three years. Based on the minimum of 300,000 copies, he can get 42,000 yuan every year.
That’s 42,000 yuan a year!
Cheng Zhongshi thought again of the results of his communication with publishing houses in Hong Kong and Taiwan. With Lin Weimin's advance communication, the publishing houses in the two places also gave him a 10% share of the royalties.
Hong Kong Joint Publishing plans to print 30,000 copies for the first time, while Taiwan's Sun Hung Kai Literature Publishing House plans to print 50,000 copies for the first time. Based on the book prices in the two places, Cheng Zhongshi will earn 260,000 RMB from this first print alone.
Thinking about the huge sum of hundreds of thousands of dollars that he was about to get, even though Cheng Zhongshi was already in his fifties, he was still a little excited.
Zhou Zhaoyun is the vice president of Guowen Publishing House in charge of publishing. When he heard that Cheng Zhongshi was signing a publishing contract in the front building today, he immediately ran over.
"Oh, Comrade Zhongshi, you've come at the right time. Xinhua Bookstore is planning to invite you to hold a book signing event."
Zhou Zhaoyun's enthusiasm made Cheng Zhongshi somewhat uncomfortable. When he heard about the "book signing and sale" event, he was even more confused. He had been writing novels all his life and had never enjoyed such treatment.
Lin Weimin patted his shoulder and said jokingly, "Old Cheng, it seems that you are really famous!"
Cheng Zhongshi smiled bitterly. Why should it be banned if it is so popular among readers?
Two days later, Lin Weimin had nothing to do in the morning, so he accompanied Cheng Zhongshi to the Wangfujing Bookstore, where the reader signing and book sale event arranged by Xinhua Bookstore was held.
As soon as Wangfujing Bookstore opened in the morning, readers who heard the news had already formed a long queue at the door. As time passed, the length of the queue showed a trend of increasing.
Cheng Zhongshi was so busy that he had no time to look up. Lin Weimin and Manager Zhang of Wangfujing Bookstore were standing in a corner. He looked at the long line at the door and couldn't help but recall the scene of people queuing to buy books ten years ago. He sighed, "People used to line up to buy books, but you don't see that now."
Manager Zhang smiled and said, "It's not like you can't see anything at all. Look, when Teacher Cheng came, the line formed. And when your work was released, the line was even longer than this!"
Manager Zhang's words were not entirely a compliment. Lin Weimin's novels were far more popular than Cheng Zhongshi's. Whenever a novel was released, long queues would form in front of the major bookstores in Yanjing early in the morning.
After watching the excitement in Wangfujing Bookstore for more than an hour, Lin Weimin returned to the Guowen Publishing House.
After coming back, he went straight into Cheng Zaochun's office.
"I don't think it's necessary."
"I think it's necessary."
"You are the president and I am the president?"
"Did you let me be the editor-in-chief? Do you understand the three things a new official should do when taking office? Is this how you support my work?"
Lin Weimin stood in front of Cheng Zaochun's desk and argued with him.
Cheng Zaochun took off his glasses with a headache and rubbed his nose bridge. "I understand your feelings and thoughts, but things need to be done step by step."
What Lin Weimin was discussing with Cheng Zaochun was the performance appraisal system of the editorial department. The performance appraisal system of the editorial department was not a new thing, and many publishing houses in the south had already taken the lead, but Guowen Publishing House had been slow to start the system reform.
As the president of a publishing house, Cheng Zaochun does not have a strong sense of business operations.
His ideas still have some old-fashioned thinking under the planned economy. He attaches great importance to the significance of cultural accumulation of books, and emphasizes the social benefits and artistic quality of publications. He does not pay much attention to making money from publishing books. He is always cautious about the commercialization of publishing management.
"What does it mean to be steady and cautious? Is it a steady and cautious management style like the current one without performance appraisal?"
When talking about official business, Lin Weimin's expression was serious and he did not smile. "I know you are afraid that hasty reforms will go wrong and cause problems that will be difficult to deal with. But have you ever considered the editors' feelings about creating benefits but not getting the due rewards? Now that writers have started to receive royalties, if we still stick to the old ways, will they not talk about it? Will they not have any opinions?"
At the end, Lin Weimin added, "Have you forgotten about Xiao Guo? Why did the young people leave?"
Lin Weimin's words were heart-piercing and deeply pierced Cheng Zaochun's heart.
Why do young people like Guo Xugang leave? Besides the high pay they receive outside, another very important reason is that they cannot see a way forward in the Guowen Society.
Speaking of Guowenshe, the first thing that comes to people’s mind is the “Royal Publishing House”, a temple in the domestic literary field, full of talented people and famous editors.
But it is precisely because there are so many famous editors that the young people in the Guowen Society see no hope.
These young people are able to work in the Guowen Society, so their conditions are naturally not bad. After training here for a few years and with the guidance of knowledgeable and respected seniors, they can already stand on their own.
But because there are so many senior predecessors blocking their way, many people can only stay in the editorial office and be a small editor.
There are only a handful of people like Lin Weimin and Li Xin who were promoted to middle and senior leadership positions in the community at the age of 30.
Apart from anything else, the issue of professional title alone is enough to make many young people wait in despair.
This group of people can be promoted to assistant editors after one or two years of working at the Guowen Publishing House. Four years later, when they are promoted to editors, they have to compete with their peers in the publishing house.
When it comes to the stage of being evaluated as deputy editor, one has to face many senior colleagues in the publishing house who have already achieved fame and success, which makes the difficulty level hellish.
Gao Xianjun, director of the First Editorial Office of Contemporary Literature, has outstanding working abilities. Like Li Xin, he is also under 40 years old this year and has been promoted to director, but his professional title is still stuck at the editor level.
This is certainly not because of his lack of professional ability or outstanding performance, but because there are too many seniors who meet the requirements and are lining up in front of him, so even if he wants to compete, he has no chance.
Gao Xianjun's experience is a true portrayal of the younger generation of Guowen Publishing House. Unlike Lin Weimin, they do not have huge royalties to support them and cannot face issues such as ratings and benefits calmly.
Now that Cheng Zaochun has asked Lin Weimin to take up the position of editor-in-chief, the first idea he can think of is to establish a performance appraisal system for the editorial department.
In the publishing house, young editors do as much work as old editors, but their salaries, benefits and professional titles are not commensurate with their workload and work ability. If this continues, how can Guowen Publishing House retain its employees? And how many of those who stay are truly talented?
Lin Weimin stared at Cheng Zaochun blankly, showing no sign of compromise.
Cheng Zaochun stared at him for a long time. Of course, he understood all the reasons Lin Weimin talked about, but he was still stubborn and said to Lin Weimin: "The situation in the community is complicated, you don't understand."
When Lin Weimin heard this, he retorted: "You understand, but is your understanding useful? Do we have to wait until it is absolutely necessary to change things before we change them? Is that still called reform? That's called revolution!"
He still felt unsatisfied after saying this, "If that's the case, then my job as editor-in-chief is meaningless, so I'm quitting!"
Cheng Zaochun said angrily: "Stop threatening me here!"
"This is not a threat, this is a statement! Anyway, I'm saying this. If you let me be the editor-in-chief, then the editorial department's performance appraisal is a must."
Cheng Zaochun looked at Lin Weimin who was acting like a fool again, stood up with a bit of frustration, and paced back and forth between the window and the desk.
After a while, he turned around and said, "Performance appraisal is too commercial. If you rashly carry out such a reform, it will have a great impact on the atmosphere within the company. You are the new editor-in-chief, and you are doing this right after taking office. If you don't do it well, your future work will be difficult!"
Lin Weimin stared at Cheng Zaochun, wondering whether he was truly defending him or was just using these words to dissuade him from the idea.
"What's that look in your eyes?" Cheng Zaochun knew what Lin Weimin was up to as soon as he saw the look in his eyes, and asked angrily.
"I know you're doing this for my own good. But since you've asked me to be the editor-in-chief, I can't just be mediocre. The external environment is so severe now, we can't just keep doing this. We should have the courage to move forward despite the difficulties and the determination to forge ahead."
After Lin Weimin said these words, he looked at Cheng Zaochun with firm eyes.
Cheng Zaochun looked at him for a long time, and finally said helplessly: "Forget it! You have grown up and want to be the editor-in-chief. I can't control you anymore!"
When Lin Weimin saw Cheng Zaochun soften his tone, he immediately changed his expression and said with a playful smile: "Look at what you said, I will always be your soldier!"
Cheng Zaochun snorted coldly, "My soldiers? My karma is still pretty good?"
(End of this chapter)
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