Chapter 800: This is not popular in the National Literature Society
The broadcast of CCTV's drama was just halfway through when the second round of copyright sales for "Season of Flowers and Rain" was already on the agenda, and the copyrights of six provincial (municipal) TV stations were sold at once. According to the package price that Wencheng gave to the TV series, this is a full 18 million yuan. Together with the 6 million yuan for the first round of CCTV copyrights, the total is 24 million yuan.
In 1996, "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo" created the highest annual ratings for CCTV. The copyright sales that year reached more than 24 million. If it were in later generations, it would have been the king of dramas.
But now, "The Season of Flowers and Rain" has already tied the record of "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo" before the TV series has even finished airing.
This TV series may bring more profits to Guowen Publishing House in the future than "Party A and Party B".
Isn’t it said that TV series make more money than movies?
Making a hit TV series is like robbing money, and you don’t even have to split the profits with the theaters.
"Some TV stations are contacting us now. This time, the copyright sales of "Season of Flowers and Rain" will definitely break the record in the history of Chinese TV, including overseas sales." Hai Yan said proudly.
Chinese TV dramas developed relatively late, and even fewer have sold overseas copyrights. The only known case is that last year's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" sold a lot of copyrights in East Asia, creating nearly two million US dollars in copyright revenue for CCTV.
The overseas revenue of "Season of Flowers and Rain" may not be as high as that of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", but the overall revenue is definitely higher than that of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", because "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" itself was produced by CCTV and was not sold to many local TV stations.
After praising Lin Weimin for a few words, Haiyan introduced Wencheng’s recent projects to him.
The script for "Swordsman", co-produced by Wencheng Film and Television and CCTV, has been completed, and Zhang Jizhong has finally been confirmed as the director.
Zhang Jizhong is the director of CCTV TV Drama Center. He was an actor in his early years and switched to being a director in 1985. He directed the fourth part of the TV series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" broadcast by CCTV last year, "The South-North War".
As a middle-aged director of CCTV, Zhang Jizhong has good directing ability. It happened that Wencheng lacked a director who was good at costume action scenes, so he was appointed as the director.
"Our mainland crew still lacks experience in filming martial arts TV series. I hired a martial arts instructor from Hong Kong as you said. He is from the Yuan family and spent a lot of money."
Speaking of this, Haiyan couldn't help but reveal a look of pain.
In those days, Hong Kong's economy was booming, and it was impossible to hire a real martial arts instructor from Hong Kong without paying a high price. Many domestic crews in later generations paid a high price to hire someone, only to find out they were ripped off after filming began. Haiyan hired someone through Xu Feng's relationship, so he didn't expect to be ripped off.
After hearing Haiyan say that he had invited someone from the "Yuan Clan", Lin Weimin curiously asked, "What's his name?"
"His name is Yuan Xiangren. He used to work with the famous director Chang Cheh. He is Yuan Heping's younger brother. He is not very famous. He has been traveling between Hong Kong and Taiwan in recent years. He will do anything for money. The most important thing is that he loves acting. I promised to find him an important role in the play, otherwise I might not be able to hire him."
A face flashed through Lin Weimin's mind: You have an extraordinary skeleton. You have the energy to break through the sky, you must be a martial arts genius, I will sell you a copy of "Tathagata Palm" for only 10 yuan!
The scene flashed through his mind, and Lin Weimin smiled and said, "Just don't give him the male lead."
"You are such a joker. The male lead is Shao Bing, and the female lead Ren Yingying is Jiang Qinqin..."
When Hai Yan said this, he secretly glanced at Lin Weimin, and seeing that his expression didn't change at all, he felt a little disappointed, thinking that his flattery was in vain.
Shao Bing was the original male lead in the later CCTV version of "Swordsman", but was later replaced by Li Yapeng due to some unexpected changes.
Lin Weimin didn't have a good impression of Li Yapeng's versions of Linghu Chong and Guo Jing, so Shao Bing seemed to be a good choice instead.
"This Jiang Qinqin is about to become your Wencheng's exclusive heroine, right?" Lin Weimin joked.
"The heroine you picked must be right. This girl has a face that suits both ancient and modern times. Although she is still in school, her acting skills are pretty good. We signed her, and now she is considered one of our own, so we won't let outsiders take away her wealth." Hai Yan explained.
Seeing that Lin Weimin was no longer interested in this topic, he said, "With the success of "Flower Season and Rainy Season", Wencheng is not short of funds now. As for projects, Bu Lao Hu has a work called "The Right Way in the World" which is quite suitable for adaptation. You can talk to the author Zou Meisen when you have time."
"Okay." Hai Yan responded and continued, "'Flower Season and Rainy Season' became popular, and the young actors who participated in it also became famous. Now they are all signed to our Wencheng. I plan to continue to produce a campus-themed youth idol drama next year, following the path of 'Flower Season and Rainy Season'."
"Are you not going to stick with your police and gangster + romance style?" Lin Weimin asked.
"Let's go. I'm still writing the novel. I'm too busy with work right now. I'll talk to you when I finish it."
Lin Weimin nodded slightly. With this calculation, Wencheng Film and Television will have three projects at the beginning of the year, which is enough for them to work on for a year.
After seeing Haiyan off, Lin Weimin had just taken a sip of tea when Zhao Xin walked into her office with a smile on her face.
"lead!"
Seeing her expression, Lin Weimin asked, "What's the matter?"
Zhao Xin hesitated and took out several newspapers from behind his back, including one copy of the "Guowen Newspaper", which was the revised version of the "Literary Story Newspaper", and two copies of the "Yenching Youth Daily" and the "Guangming Daily".
From proposing this concept in the middle of the year to the first issue of the revised "Guowen Newspaper" officially meeting readers after New Year's Day, the effort and hard work Zhao Xin has put in over the past six months is unimaginable to ordinary people.
After all, she had to connect with a chain bookstore with thousands of stores across the country. In an era before big data, creating a book sales ranking from scratch was by no means an easy task.
The new Guowen Newspaper is in quarto format, directly aligned with broadsheets, with eight pages per issue, with the same content as before, but there is a big difference in content.
The original "Literary Story Newspaper" was mainly composed of abstracts, but the revised "National Literature Newspaper" has significantly reduced this type of content. The columns are mainly new book express, hot spot tracking, writer interviews, celebrity anecdotes, work reviews, novel experimental areas, etc.
The most important thing is that the sales ranking of Chinese books will be published on the front page every other issue.
"Guowen Bao" is a weekly newspaper, and the sales ranking of Chinese books is published every half month.
Just after New Year’s Day, the revamped “Guowen Newspaper” was published and the sales ranking of Chinese books published on the front page immediately attracted the attention of many readers.
On the eve of the launch of Guowen Newspaper, Lin Weimin and Cheng Zaochun communicated and changed the "Bestseller List" to "Book Sales List", removing some utilitarian colors and in line with the consistent style of Guowen Publishing House.
No organization in China has ever done such a thing as book sales ranking. As the first organization to try it out, Guowen Publishing House reaped the rewards in a short period of time.
Zhao Xin originally thought that the Guowen Newspaper, which had undergone a major transformation, might need an adaptation period before it could reach its previous sales volume, but readers' reactions were much faster than she expected.
The sales of the first issue of the revised "Guowen Daily" were as good as usual. The second issue was released a few days ago and the sales soared by 20%.
Because Zhao Xin, who works on the book sales rankings, has good relationships with major bookstores in China, she asked each sales point in the bookstores to collect readers' opinions on the revised version of "Guowen Bao".
She has received a lot of feedback in the past two days. Overall, readers have given high praise to the major changes in the Guowen Daily.
Compared with the previous style of "Literary Story Newspaper", the new "National Literature Newspaper" has made innovations in both newspaper style and layout content, especially the new thing of book sales ranking list, which has aroused strong praise from readers.
Many readers who originally subscribed to the Literary Story Newspaper were book lovers who had the habit of buying books on a daily basis, but most of the time, these readers could only go to bookstores to buy books themselves.
Now with the book sales ranking guide, readers have an important reference when purchasing books.
It also gives readers a clear idea of which books are popular. People tend to follow the crowd, and when readers realize that more people like their favorite books, they will naturally feel a sense of accomplishment from being recognized.
The book sales ranking list may be more important to domestic chain bookstores and publishing houses than to readers, because China's book industry now has an additional book shopping guide, which is good news for the entire industry.
The launch of Guowen Newspaper was silent, but more than a week later, relying on the powerful weapon of Guowen book sales ranking, it attracted the attention of many media such as Guangming Daily and Yenching Youth Daily, and they reported on the matter.
Lin Weimin glanced at the contents of several newspapers and said in a relaxed tone, "What's the matter? Are you here to take credit for something?"
Zhao Xin showed a bit of embarrassment on her face, "That's not what I meant. I just wanted to report my work to you, the leader..."
"Okay, stop pretending." Lin Weimin interrupted Zhao Xin and said, "Now that the National Literature Newspaper has been revised and the book sales ranking list has been established, I will definitely fulfill my promise to you."
Hearing this, Zhao Xin's eyebrows rose with joy and he couldn't control his expression at all.
"But..."
Lin Weimin's tone changed, and the joy on Zhao Xin's face froze instantly, and she looked at him anxiously.
"Don't be nervous. Are you afraid that I'll break my promise?"
Zhao Xin quickly shook her head to deny it. "Look at what you said, how can I not believe you?"
Lin Weimin chuckled, "The timing is not right right now, just be patient and wait a few more months."
When Zhao Xin heard this, she was moved. She came forward and whispered, "Leader, the president will retire in two months, right?"
Lin Weimin glared at her and said, "You think about these useless things all day long!"
After being scolded, Zhao Xin showed some shame and looked at the awareness of his leader.
"Old Cheng will not retreat for the time being." Lin Weimin said.
"Ah!" Zhao Xin exclaimed in surprise, "Why?"
"You'll know when the time comes. Why ask so many questions?"
After being scolded again and seeing that Lin Weimin was so tight-lipped, Zhao Xin didn't dare to ask any more questions.
Her boss asked her to wait, so she just had to wait a few more months.
After leaving the office, she thought about Lao Cheng's retirement, and quietly asked around in several editorial offices, and she actually found out the news.
"I heard that he and Weimin will swap positions, with him being the editor-in-chief and Weimin being the president."
"Why do you do this?" Zhao Xin was puzzled.
"There is no suitable candidate for editor-in-chief. The current deputy editors-in-chief have good professional capabilities, but they are young and unknown, and cannot control the situation!"
The editor-in-chief of Guowen Press has always been very particular. The president can be very indifferent, like Yan Wenjing. But the editor-in-chief cannot be like that. Guowen Press is a literary publishing organization, and it has to review the most cutting-edge literary works in China all year round, and has to deal with many departments.
Recalling the editors-in-chief of Guowen Publishing House, Wei Junyi went to China twice for the successful publication of "General's Chant" and "Heavy Wings"; Cheng Zaochun argued with the leaders of the Publishing Administration several times for his works; not to mention Lin Weimin, several ministries and commissions related to publishing were troubled by him.
Now that Cheng Zaochun is about to retire, Lin Weimin is the popular choice to take over, but who will take on the vacated editor-in-chief position is a problem.
The current deputy editors-in-chief of Guowen Publishing House include both veteran comrades and middle-aged ones, but compared with the previous editors-in-chief, they seem to be a little lacking in fame and style.
Fame is one thing, but if the work style is not strong, suppose the company publishes or prints a controversial work, and some departments raise some opinions, but the editor-in-chief is weak and accepts them all, then how can the Guowen Publishing House do its work?
Zhao Xin has also worked at Guowen Press for more than ten years. After listening to the explanation, he understood it and felt a lot more relieved. As long as the editor-in-chief could be promoted, it would be fine.
The editor-in-chief is quite tight-lipped, but unfortunately this approach is not popular in the Chinese Literature Press.
(End of this chapter)
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