Chapter 21: One dollar per word. First respect the clothes and then respect the people. …
Respect the clothes first and then respect the person.
Although this idea is wrong, there are indeed many people who do this in reality.
Since putting on the custom-made suit, Ian has found that there are many more good people around him.
If you bump into him accidentally, he won't give you a cold eye, but a sneer.
When passing by the door of a high-end store, the receptionist was no longer on guard against him, but was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to go in and make a purchase.
In the past, his favorite thing was to look at the goods in these high-end stores and fantasize about when he would have money.
But now, he passed by these places without looking around, he had more important things to do.
Bantam Books, as a mass market paperback publisher, mainly publishes popular fiction.
The edition is small, the price is low, the print volume is large, and it is mainly aimed at the general public.
Ian put himself in other people's shoes and felt that "Once Upon a Time in Wall Street" was a perfect match for their publishing house.
During the time he worked as a handyman at the newspaper, he did not gain nothing. He heard the address of Bantam Book Company from a newspaper employee.
"Please wait a moment. Someone in charge will come to discuss with you soon. You can have some refreshments first."
The front desk brought Ian coffee and donuts. Sitting next to the sunny glass window, the aroma of coffee made Ian a little dazed.
He was able to easily get into Bantam Books, a large company that even took the initiative to help him make an appointment with a non-busy person in charge when they heard that he did not have an appointment.
All of this, just because he was wearing a high-end suit and said he wanted to publish his father's autobiography, a story about dreams and Wall Street.
"Mr. Li, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."
"Not too long, but your donuts are too sweet."
Just kidding, if it wasn’t for disguising himself, he would have shown off ten of these super sweet donuts!
It’s just that the book says that most people in the lower class pursue high-calorie food, while most people in the upper class pursue healthy food, and food that is high in sugar and oil is considered unhealthy food.
It is okay to eat it occasionally, but eating it frequently is not good for your health. Good health is very important for the upper class people.
After all, they have everything they want, so of course they want to, and they have the ability to live longer. People at the bottom of society have it much simpler, as long as they are alive. How they live or how long they live are not what they should consider.
"I'm really sorry. I'll ask them to change it next time. You know, girls like to eat this kind of food."
Ian smiled but said nothing. He didn't eat any of the donuts on the table, nor did he touch his coffee.
"I understand you wish to publish your father's autobiography?"
"Of course, this is my father's wish and the purpose of my trip."
"How many copies do you want to print? We will provide different gears according to the different quantities."
Ian interrupted his sales pitch: "Perhaps I didn't make it clear, I didn't want to publish it at my own expense. It's totally worth buying. It's an excellent autobiography."
As he said these words, Ian raised his head slightly with a reserved expression, as if publishing at his own expense was disrespectful to his father.
The head of the copyright department suddenly felt as if he had drawn his sword and looked around in confusion. If the book was not being published at his own expense, then why was he coming here? The head of the editorial department should be asked to come.
It's not you, boy, why are you pretending? If you just want to recommend yourself, then just do it honestly.
Of course, he would not say these words to your face. He just said that if you want to recommend yourself, you can submit your work to their company. The company will screen it and notify you if you are selected.
Ian shook his head and took out Dennis's manuscript from his arms: "My father's autobiography is completely different from theirs. You can take a look at it first."
The editor of the publishing department was a little impatient, but since he was already sitting there and no new appointments were made, he just picked it up, planning to take a look at it and put it down, and tell the guy to get out.
The page he casually opened happened to be the one when Wright Lee met the banker and first learned about the Federation plan.
The federation is full of industry monopoly bosses who have plenty of money but lack excellent money-making projects.
For only one thousand dollars, the banker can recommend him to the association and let him introduce his project in front of these bigwigs.
As long as one of them is willing to invest in him, he will be the next rising star on Wall Street.
The next step is to join the union, where you can see how much money your colleagues earn every day and visit their successful investment projects.
Under such intense brainwashing, Wright Li quickly paid the second installment of money, which could help him jump the queue.
There are too many people in the federation who want to get investment, but these big guys don’t have much time. Only three lucky people can present their plans every day. Wright Li is ranked outside the top 100.
At this point, the head of the publishing department changed into a comfortable position and continued reading. He began to feel that this association definitely existed, he just lacked an opportunity to join, and banker might be a good breakthrough.
Even when Wright Li paid the money again and again, but in the end no one invested in the project and he left the association angrily, the person in charge still felt sorry for him.
I think maybe next time he finds a new project, someone will invest in him.
Before we had time to feel sorry for this project, a Ponzi scheme came on the scene.
The person in charge was about to continue reading when he was interrupted by his assistant, who had to meet someone he had an appointment with at that time.
"Please wait here. I will ask the head of the editorial department to come and talk to you."
Before leaving, the person in charge said these words and calmed Ian down before leaving.
He didn't lie. The head of the editorial department, Andre Miller, quickly sat in front of Ian and picked up the manuscript without saying anything more.
First look at the author’s name, Rice Flower, an author I have never seen before. What’s interesting is that there is also a translator, Dennis.
Due to translation reasons and in order to publish overseas, Dennis and his colleagues did not clearly state which country Li Lai Te was from, but only said that he owned a factory with 3,000 employees.
This is already considered a large factory abroad.
After reading only the first half, Ander immediately decided that they must sign this book!
In the future, this book will definitely become an autobiography that everyone who has the America dream and the Wall Street dream must study.
"I'm really curious about what kind of person your father is. Maybe I can go visit him?"
"I'm sorry, but at the end of the book, he wrote that he became a tramp after he had spent all his money and dreams on Wall Street.
This autobiography was written by the author based on my father's dictation. The author Rice Flower gave it to me and it is the only legacy of my father. "
"I'm sorry, I didn't know that."
Ian shrugged indifferently: "It doesn't matter. I don't have deep feelings for him. If it weren't for him, my mother and I wouldn't have gone through that unfortunate time. This book can be regarded as his compensation."
After talking about feelings, it's time to talk about money, and this is when Andre Miller returns to his post.
"As a new author's first book, we can't offer a very high price. Although I really want to offer it the highest price of one dollar per word, it doesn't meet the publisher's requirements. Within my authority, the highest price I can offer it is 50 cents per word."
Translated into English, Li Daohua's novel has about 110,000 words, which works out to $50,000.
This is already a very high price. You have to know that one dollar per word is the price that famous newspapers pay celebrities.
Although prices have risen now, this price has remained unchanged for more than 70 years since 1908, but everyone is like this. At least he is willing to admit the excellence of this autobiography.
Ian hesitated for a moment and said helplessly: "That's it, I'm really not good at this."
Andre Miller, who won the role of One Step Away on Wall Street, breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, this was a newcomer, otherwise, he might have suffered a heavy loss.
After signing the contract, Ian immediately received a check for $50,000 in royalties.
Fifty thousand dollars in 1980 was definitely a fortune for Ian, but he did not stop there. In his opinion, this novel had great potential, and relying on this novel, he could also change his destiny. So, he was waiting, waiting for the impact of this novel after its publication.
Of course, first of all, he must calm Dennis down. Dennis is just studying abroad, he is not dead, and he will come back one day.
Lies will always be exposed one day, but the truth will never be, so he decided to tell Dennis the truth about how he promoted the novel and how he changed his last name.
Oh, by the way, I also need to call and ask his parents to change their surnames, and also change his grandfather’s surname as well.
Of the $50,000, Ian only kept $10,000 for himself as an emergency and transferred the remaining $40,000 to Dennis.
He also called to tell him that he would continue to run "Once Upon a Time in Wall Street" in America, and if he had any new works, he could send them over.
At this time, three months had passed since Dennis completed the translation. During these three months, Li Daohua also completed her new work "Dong Le's Success Studies".
She sent the novel to Shouhuo. After all, the other party had asked for a manuscript last time, although there had been no news from him recently.
The reply she received was that her manuscript could be accepted, but the remuneration was much lower than what Li Daohua earned at Peking Literature and Art.
Of course Li Daohua was unwilling to do that. She was not seeking fame or readers, but money. So don't blame her for returning to Peking Literature and Art.
They don't care about the harvest and offer a low fee, which means they are not optimistic about Li Daohua's new book.
Her previous book "Once Upon a Time in Wall Street" suffered a Waterloo. I didn't expect that her new book would be so stubborn as to touch on the foreign parts. Isn't this asking for trouble?
Dong Yu was still happy, celebrating their success in blocking Li Daohua and causing her first book to sell poorly, giving him some relief.
I didn't expect to see "Dong Le's Success Studies" on Beiping Literature and Art soon.
In this novel, Dong Le is a street urchin who has accomplished nothing, and his biggest hobby every day is to brag everywhere.
He successfully fooled a group of people by bragging. After making some money, he became complacent. Later, he lost all his money in gambling and even owed a lot of foreign debts.
In order to escape from debt collectors, Dong Le chose to sneak abroad.
This part is also the most exciting and attractive part of the whole article. It is exciting because it makes people feel it is real when they read it.
In 1980, the domestic development situation was not very good, and many neighboring countries were much better than China.
This has led to people of this generation being crazy about foreign countries. They believe that everything abroad is good, and as long as there is an opportunity, they will find a way to go abroad.
Most of the people who left during this era will never come back, no matter how well or badly they lived.
Later, this group of people were also the ones who hated China the most on foreign websites.
In fact, this is very normal. When they went out, they abandoned everything and went from a backward country to what they thought was the most developed country.
As a result, decades later, the places where they live have become more and more backward in development, while the previously backward places have caught up. This gap has made their psychology even more distorted.
In the 1980s, most people didn’t know how to go abroad, but Li Daohua described in detail in his novel the thrilling process of going abroad.
It fully satisfies the curiosity and novelty of the general public.
So the sales were unexpectedly good, and successfully boosted the sales of Beiping Literature and Art once again, returning to the level when Li Daohua's novels were still there.
"Sure enough, rice flowers are a guarantee of sales."
Dong Yu was furious and accused Li Daohua of finding it difficult to raise only girls and villains.
Li Daohua accused him of being too nosy. There were many people with the surname Dong, so why did she say that she was mocking him? The person whose real name was Dong Le hadn't said anything yet.
Besides, novels are purely fictional stories. If one insists on applying a fictional story to oneself, then people will no longer be able to write novels.
It is impossible to calm down. A short period of calm is only for a more powerful counterattack.
Dong Yu felt that since Li Daohua had done something wrong, he would do the same to her for the rest of her life. He also planned to write Li Daohua into his own novel and make her infamous forever.
With the royalties, Li Daohua went home happily. Her injury had healed long ago, and no one had bothered her recently. She was also about to pay off the money she had used to buy a house.
Ouyang Yuan brought back a letter from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, written by Li Daohua’s father, Li Sanzhu.
First of all, he mentioned the bicycle tickets they gave him during the Chinese New Year. Li Sanzhu borrowed money from his brothers to buy a bicycle and rode it first.
The second thing is to ask them what is the nearest and most convenient phone number so that they can call them in the future.
In the letter, Li Sanzhu also wrote that Li Daohua's mother Lin Jinfeng missed Li Daohua very much.
"How about...let's go home for the New Year?"
This is what Ouyang Yuan planned. Now they have saved some money, and he has also saved up his monthly salary recently.
Going home is not a big deal for them.
"Go back if you want, it's my home anyway."
"Teacher Rice Flower! Teacher Rice Flower!"
The two of them were discussing when to go home when they heard Dennis running in shouting.
Without even catching his breath, he hurriedly told Li Daohua: "Teacher Daohua, Ian called and said that he has found a publisher to publish "Odyssey on Wall Street" and the royalties have been transferred! Forty thousand dollars!"
"How many?"
"Forty thousand dollars."
That’s why they say it’s easier for writers abroad to make money than in China. It’s indeed easier.
How much did the trilogy earn in total? The Adventures of a Young Man alone earned 40,000 overseas.
"Actually it should be more than 50,000, but he also needs money to run the book in America, so he can only send 40,000."
"I understand."
Ouyang Yuan next to him was stunned. He wondered if he was dreaming.
Forty thousand RMB was hard for him to imagine, let alone forty thousand US dollars.
In 1980, the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar to the RMB was 1:1.5, and 40,000 U.S. dollars was equivalent to 60,000 RMB.
In this way, six millionaires emerged, and Li Daohua was still two months away from completing her first year in Beijing.
This remittance slip needs to be signed in person, and Dennis told Li Daohua this because he hoped that Li Daohua could go with him to prove that he did not lie.
"Of course I believe you. How could I not believe you?"
Although saying this, Li Daohua still followed him, as she also wanted some foreign exchange coupons.
"Sign here." All foreign exchange will be converted into foreign exchange coupons, which is a way for the country to collect foreign exchange.
When collecting the foreign exchange, you will also be asked about the source of the foreign exchange.
Dennis naturally said that it was the royalties from the publication of Li Daohua's "Adventures on Wall Street" in America.
The amount of money they received was huge, and it was also their royalties, which immediately attracted the attention of everyone in the hall.
In the 1980s, a small number of people received money remitted from relatives abroad. The amounts were relatively small, and a few hundred dollars was considered a large remittance.
If the recipient of the remittance order was not Dennis but Li Daohua, the investigation would be more serious and careful to prevent the emergence of spies.
Even so, Dennis's words still caused them trouble, and they were not allowed to go until they called Peking Literature and Art to verify the matter.
"This ten thousand is your translation fee."
Dennis gave all 40,000 to Li Daohua, but Li Daohua took out 10,000 and gave it to Dennis and Li Ziran.
If it weren't for the two of them, she wouldn't have been able to get the foreign exchange, especially Dennis, who played a greater role.
Dennis was not polite to Li Daohua. If she dared to give, he dared to accept. He shared the money with Li Ziran when he got back, and then went to a big hotel in Peking for a few big meals.
There were still 30,000 foreign exchange coupons left, so the two went to the Friendship Store to look at televisions. A color TV cost more than 2,000 foreign exchange coupons, and no coupons were required.
Although the goods in the Friendship Store do not require tickets, they do use foreign exchange coupons, so they are actually not much cheaper.
But compared with 20,000 foreign currencies, more than 2,000 is much cheaper, so I bought it. Anyway, there is not much to spend money at home.
Li Daohua plans to use the remaining money to buy another house. The house they live in was a necessity in the first place, so there are many things to consider, especially the issue of Ouyang Yuan's work.
Li Daohua bought this new house for investment, waiting for it to appreciate in value, so the location and area are very important, and whether the house is in a dilapidated state is secondary.
The propaganda slogan of Peking Literature and Art has changed, and the slogan of the Reform Trilogy has added a new one: Best-seller overseas, the story of Wall Street and dreams.
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