Chapter 134, Who is that vixen? (Subscribe)
The two met at a western restaurant near Sanjiang University.
Chen Min did not mention bringing the children to participate, and Shen Qiushan also tacitly did not mention it.
After all, whether talking about work or something else, it is not very convenient to bring children with you.
Since it was dinner time and today was the day for new students to register, many parents who live nearby stayed and did not leave, so the Western restaurant, which usually has average business, was almost full.
Shen Qiushan and Chen Min were arranged to sit near the window at the door. Whenever someone entered or left, the lucky cat sensor on the shelf would emit a cartoon sound of "Welcome".
A bit noisy but also childish.
The greetings after meeting were interrupted by the voice of "Welcome" again. Chen Min smiled and spread her hands: "I should have known not to meet here."
Shen Qiushan picked up the coffee in front of him and took a sip: "Sister Min, how about we order directly?"
Chen Min nodded with a smile on her face: "Okay, then just order directly."
"I think your book The Three-Body Civilization is pretty good. I want to talk to you about cooperation."
“Is the book finished?”
"Well, it's finished."
"How many words?"
"880,000."
“So long?”
"Wouldn't it be better if it was longer?"
"Well"
Chen Min looked up at Shen Qiushan opposite him and added subconsciously: "I'm talking about books!"
"What else?"
Shen Qiushan looked innocent, as if he didn't understand anything.
Chen Min's cheeks turned slightly red after being treated like this. A beautiful woman like her who has been in the workplace for so many years had naturally heard all kinds of dirty jokes. Even during social events, clients and some famous male authors would deliberately tell her dirty jokes.
Some just enjoy the process of talking nonsense, while others really want something to happen between them and Chen Min.
And Chen Min already had her own way of dealing with those men, but at this moment Shen Qiushan's car drove unexpectedly, and the key point was that she actually caught it steadily.
At this moment, Shen Qiushan pretended to be innocent with clear eyes, making it seem as if she was the one who brought up the topic.
If Shen Qiushan was just a greasy old man, Chen Min would not have reacted much, but Shen Qiushan was like a younger brother to her, and his appearance was extremely outstanding.
This gives the impression that an "older woman" is teasing a "younger brother".
"If it's 880,000 words, then it's better to divide it into two volumes, or three volumes."
Chen Min calmed himself down and brought the topic back on track.
"Three volumes, I have already divided them."
"Um."
Chen Min nodded slightly, looked at Shen Qiushan again, and said seriously: "Let's talk about the remuneration. How much do you hope for?"
Chen Min's question seemed quite normal, but in fact he was testing Shen Qiushan, in order to see how he assessed the value of his work.
Secondly, she deliberately used the conversational language of a non-professional. If the person sitting opposite her was a famous writer, Chen Min would not use the term "remuneration" but would directly talk about royalties.
Since Chen Min knew that Shen Qiushan was a web writer and had no previous publishing experience, he also wanted to test whether Shen Qiushan understood the ins and outs of this.
As a result, Shen Qiushan only replied: "I take 20% of the royalties."
"Hmm~"
Chen Min, who had just taken a sip of coffee, almost spit out the coffee in her mouth. At the last moment, she clenched her teeth and picked up the tissue on the table to wipe the corners of her mouth.
"Brother Shen, do you know what 20% royalties mean?"
After tidying up his manners, Chen Min asked with a serious expression.
According to the current market conditions, when publishing houses cooperate with writers, the royalties that writers can get basically fluctuate between 5% and 15%.
If you are a new writer with little fame, you can basically only get 5% of the royalties.
Domestic first-line writers usually only get 15% of the royalties, and only a few top writers at the top of the pyramid may get more than 15% of the royalties.
But when working with top writers, there are more things to discuss. In addition to royalties, there may also be guaranteed remuneration and other additional conditions.
Therefore, Shen Qiushan's 20% share of royalties is exactly the treatment for top writers.
And he is just an "online writer".
Although it has achieved some success on Penguin Novels, it has not proven itself in the field of physical publishing.
Strictly speaking, he is just a newcomer.
Before coming here, Chen Min also planned to sign a publishing cooperation agreement with Shen Qiushan at the price of a newcomer.
But Shen Qiushan made a very high request!
“I think The Three-Body Civilization deserves 20% royalties.”
Shen Qiushan said with a confident look.
“Every author thinks that their work is a masterpiece, but whether it is a masterpiece or not is not decided by the author or the editor.”
"It's the readers and the market that have the final say."
At this moment, Chen Min had already adopted a negotiating attitude. She subconsciously crossed her hands together and stared at Shen Qiushan with burning eyes.
"Sister Min is considered the first reader of The Three-Body Civilization. What do you think of this book?"
Shen Qiushan asked calmly.
"Um"
Chen Min hesitated for a moment. She thought that the next step would be a game of price, but she didn't expect Shen Qiushan to throw the question back.
"I still approve of this book, otherwise I wouldn't have come to you, Brother Shen, to discuss cooperation."
“But as I said just now, your or my recognition is actually not very meaningful. Only the recognition of readers and the market can bring real value.”
Chen Min continued, "Brother Shen, as a new writer, I can assure you that it is impossible for you to get a 20% share of the royalties, especially since this is a science fiction novel."
"As far as I can remember, there hasn't been a science fiction novel in China that sold over 100,000 copies in a long time."
Chen Min was halfway through her words when she was interrupted by the waiter who came over to serve the food.
The two ordered two steaks, a vegetable salad and a snack.
After the waiter left, Shen Qiushan picked up the knife and fork, and while cutting the steak in front of him, he said, "Sister Min, do you think it is possible to sign such an agreement, where the royalty ratio is linked to sales volume. For example, if 100,000 copies are sold, the royalty is 10%, if 500,000 copies are sold, the royalty is 15%, if 1 million copies are sold, the royalty is 20%, and so on."
"sure."
Chen Min agreed very readily because their publishing house adopted this kind of tiered royalty agreement when cooperating with certain best-selling authors.
The more books sold, the higher the share of royalties the writer gets.
Publishers are actually willing to adopt this approach, especially when working with some well-known writers. If they directly give a high-royalty contract, once the book does not sell well, the publisher is likely to lose money.
"Okay, then let's discuss the specific royalty ratio corresponding to sales volume!"
Shen Qiushan also knew that it was not realistic for him, a newcomer, to directly receive high royalties, so he had already thought about it on the way here and decided to adopt a tiered royalty model.
If Chen Min doesn’t agree to this, then just go to the next one!
There are plenty of publishing houses anyway.
The commercial street outside the window.
A small group consisting of four women and one man was particularly eye-catching.
Especially the four girls walking in front, each one was prettier than the other, and they became a beautiful scenery on the commercial street.
Almost all the boys passing by would look at her a few more times, and some boys who were with their girlfriends even had their ears pulled because they were distracted.
The four golden flowers group are Shen Yanran, Lin Jiayu, Fang Xiaoya and Shen Yanran’s roommate Chen Jiahuan.
The boy following behind the four people was naturally Shen Yixiao.
The reason why they got together was very simple. Didn't Chen Qiushan stand up the two children? And Lin Jiayu, the aunt, just happened to contact them and said they wanted to have dinner together.
Shen Yanran and Chen Jiahuan got along well, so she was brought along as well.
Fang Xiaoya, the "little stepmother" with ulterior motives, naturally did not want to miss the opportunity to communicate with the siblings Shen Yanran and Shen Yixiao, so she joined the dinner and took the initiative to treat them as a guest on the pretext of welcoming them.
Since it was still early, Lin Jiayu suggested taking Shen Yanran and the other two to the school's commercial street to get familiar with the environment around the school.
"Yanran, what important matter did your father have? He didn't even eat the first meal of the school with you."
Fang Xiaoya was very curious about Shen Qiushan's whereabouts.
Don't tell me he's secretly dating other women. When Shen Qiushan reported for work today, many girls pulled him to take photos. One of them is a WeChat friend of Fang Xiaoya, and she even posted on her Moments, calling him the most handsome uncle she had ever seen!
Fang Xiaoya also checked the school forum, where there were several posts about Shen Qiushan. The titles of these posts were probably about meeting Shen Qiushan to report for school.
But in the replies below the post, many girls were praising him, saying things like "Old Shen is so handsome" and "Uncle Shen is so handsome".
This made Fang Xiaoya, the "young stepmother", feel a great sense of crisis.
"They said they were talking about work, but I didn't ask in detail."
Shen Yanran didn't really care what her father was doing. She was still immersed in the joy of coming to a new environment and was very curious about the shops on both sides of the commercial street.
At this moment, she accidentally saw a familiar figure.
Well.
Dad?!
Of course, her father, Shen Yanran, knew him, and at this moment, he was sitting in the western restaurant to her right.
Almost at the same time, Fang Xiaoya also discovered Shen Qiushan sitting in the western restaurant, and the "vixen" sitting opposite him!
"Sure enough, he sneaked out for a date!"
"Who is that vixen?"
Fang Xiaoya stomped her feet in anger, like a young wife who caught her husband cheating on her.
"Well?"
"Brother-in-law, are you really going out on a date?"
Lin Jiayu, who had a corn cob stuck on her finger and was chewing it slowly like a little hamster, stopped and looked at her brother-in-law sitting in the store in surprise.
Chen Jiahuan, who was walking beside her, was dumbfounded, because the "vixen" that Fang Xiaoya mentioned turned out to be her own mother!
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
