Chapter 148 A Special Cooperation
Lu Yanhe accompanied Li Pengfei to buy some things, including a laptop. Just after they finished, Li Pengfei suddenly thought of something and said, "Should I buy one for Xu Zijun too? She definitely doesn't have one."
“Take it easy, she might not be willing to accept it,” Lu Yanhe said. “A suitcase is worth a few hundred yuan, but a laptop costs several thousand. It’s nothing to you, but it’s a very expensive gift to her.”
“You’re right.” Li Pengfei nodded and readily accepted the offer, without exaggerating like those rich kids in TV dramas who say, “What’s so expensive about this!”
This is Li Pengfei, a rich second-generation who doesn't usually flaunt his wealth and dislikes Chu Saiying's "class theory," without the "why not eat meat porridge" mentality.
Just as Lu Yanhe was thinking this, he heard Li Pengfei suddenly say, "Next time, find a pretext to send it over legitimately."
"..." Lu Yanhe glanced at this guy.
Is this a question of origin?
My phone suddenly rang.
It was a call from an unknown number.
Lu Yanhe answered the number with some surprise.
"Hello, is this Lu Yanhe?" the other party introduced himself. "I'm Xu Xiaoyin, a novel editor at Jiangyin Publishing House. Is this a convenient time to talk?"
"I...I am..." Lu Yanhe was completely bewildered. "May I ask what's the matter?"
"Here's the thing, I'm the editor in charge of 'Nineteen Years of Crime Records.' I especially want to thank you for recommending this book in the live broadcast last night. I was wondering if you're free today so I could come and express my gratitude to you in person."
Lu Yanhe was even more shocked upon hearing this.
This was truly something unexpected.
"Uh, no need for thanks, you're too kind," Lu Yanhe said. "I didn't make any special recommendations, I just read this novel during a live stream, and I haven't finished it yet."
Xu Xiaoyin said, "But because you read this book, it sold over a thousand copies online last night. If you have time, please let me express my gratitude in person. Also, I have another book I'd like you to read to see if we can collaborate."
Lu Yanhe was quite surprised to hear this.
cooperate?
Lu Yanhe hesitated.
He said, "So... is it convenient for you to come to Zhoufujing now? There's a coffee shop on the first floor here, if it's convenient for you now."
Xu Xiaoyin immediately smiled and said, "Of course it's convenient. It should take us about thirty minutes to get here, is that alright?"
"Okay, then I'll wait for you here."
Lu Yanhe hung up the phone, thought for a moment, and sent a message to Chen Ziyan, telling her about it.
Chen Ziyan replied: Maybe they saw that you helped sell more than a thousand copies of the book by reading it in your live broadcast yesterday, so they want you to help promote the book. However, the profit margin of booksellers is low, and they can't offer much in promotion fees if they ask you to cooperate in promotion. You can talk to her first to see her intentions. If she really wants to establish a business partnership, then you need to go through a proper contract. We can talk about it again when I get back. But based on my understanding of the publishing industry, it will be difficult for them to offer a high price.
Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll talk to her first."
Chen Ziyan: Well, it depends on your mood. If it's a non-commercial promotional collaboration, you should weigh it yourself: do you like the book? Are you willing to help promote it? Is the content and theme of the book suitable for your live stream? In short, listen to what they say first, don't agree yet. Let me check it out for you before you reply.
Lu Yanhe: If it's too much trouble, I might as well just refuse.
Chen Ziyan: If it were other artists, I would have asked them to decline. But you are different. Your live stream is learning-oriented. If you do live streams in the future and become a book-oriented blogger, it will greatly enhance your public image.
Lu Yanhe understood Chen Ziyan's intention.
Chen Ziyan said: This is the biggest difference between you and other artists: knowledge, education, and intellectualism. These are things that a management company cannot package. It's not that you should try to be worldly and rely on these labels, but you are good at studying and love reading. So let's focus on these things and do them without feeling guilty or at fault. Others can't imitate that.
Lu Yanhe replied with a "good".
"I've bought it." Li Pengfei paid the bill and had someone set up the laptop for him.
With a suitcase in his left hand and a laptop bag in his right, and a youthful face, he looked like a teenager who had just finished the college entrance examination.
"Let's go," Li Pengfei said.
They're going to Li Pengfei's house later.
Lu Yanhe said, "I just got a phone call. I need to meet with someone from a publishing house here later. Why don't you go back first, and I'll come back myself later."
"People from the publishing house? What does that have to do with you?" Li Pengfei asked, puzzled. "I'll come with you and wait for you here."
Lu Yanhe nodded: "Okay, I arranged to meet them at the coffee shop near the entrance. Let's go there and wait for them now."
"Sure."
The two of them went together.
After listening to Lu Yanhe's explanation, Li Pengfei finally understood why the publishing house staff had come to see Lu Yanhe.
"Wow, that's amazing! He sold a thousand books just from one live stream," Li Pengfei said.
Lu Yanhe was also quite surprised. His live stream usually had a stable audience of around four thousand people, and that was only after a slow increase over the past six months. With people coming and going, maybe he only streamed for half an hour yesterday, and that brought the total to around ten thousand viewers. So how could a thousand people buy this book?
Does he have that much influence?
Lu Yanhe always felt it was unreliable.
However, this data comes from the publisher.
-
Xu Xiaoyin brought Xu Mingyue to the coffee shop in Zhoufujing. When they pushed open the door, there were quite a few people inside, but Lu Yanhe was easy to find. A quick online search would bring up his photos. Good-looking people always stand out in a crowd, and you can spot him at a glance. It just goes to show that people's eyes tend to focus on good-looking people.
Xu Xiaoyin and Xu Mingyue are both women, and they always feel happy when they see handsome men in real life, especially handsome men who have just graduated from high school.
They went over and greeted them.
"Hello Lu Yanhe, this is Xu Xiaoyin, who called you before."
Xu Xiaoyin extended her hand and shook hands with Lu Yanhe.
Lu Yanhe: "Hello, Sister Xiaoyin."
Xu Xiaoyin glanced at Li Pengfei, somewhat puzzled by his identity.
Li Pengfei grinned and said, "Li Pengfei, classmate Lao Lu."
"Xu Mingyue, our intern," Xu Xiaoyin introduced her to them.
Xu Mingyue's feelings at this moment were quite complicated.
A year ago, she stumbled upon Lu Yanhe's live stream. Because she thought the streamer was handsome, she recommended him to her roommate. As a result, He Lan became his die-hard fan. A year later, she actually met him again because of his live stream.
He probably never imagined that she was once a viewer in his live stream.
Xu Xiaoyin picked up a canvas bag that looked like it had been specially designed and was quite heavy. She placed it on the table, pushed it to Lu Yanhe, and said, "Thank you very much for reading the book 'Nineteen Years' in the live broadcast room. This is a small gift, a set of deluxe editions by famous authors launched by our publishing house."
Lu Yanhe was somewhat surprised and said, "Oh! Thank you! You're too kind."
Xu Xiaoyin said, "Actually, I was very moved when I found out about this. Many so-called book bloggers on the Internet only do this for money. So when we first heard the news, we thought it was done by the marketing department. Later we found out that it was your initiative."
“I’ve been livestreaming all the time, and now that I’ve finished my exams, I’m livestreaming while reading novels. I really enjoy reading novels,” Lu Yanhe said. “I’ve only read the beginning of ‘Nineteen Years of Crime Records’ yet, I haven’t finished it.”
"This novel is very well written, but because it's by a new author, it hasn't received much attention since its release." Xu Xiaoyin asked curiously, "How did you find out about this book?"
"I finished my exam the day before yesterday, and yesterday I went to the bookstore and picked out this book. I didn't really know about this book from anywhere."
Xu Xiaoyin was extremely surprised.
That really was a stroke of luck by sheer chance.
She laughed: "That's great. I thought there weren't many people who wanted to go to bookstores anymore."
After exchanging pleasantries, Xu Xiaoyin got down to business.
"Yan He, I came to see you today specifically because there's another matter, which is also a collaboration. Another book I'm in charge of, 'Star Orbit,' is going to be released this Thursday. I was wondering if we could collaborate on promoting it." Xu Xiaoyin took another book out of her bag, a new plastic-wrapped book, and pushed it in front of Lu Yanhe.
Lu Yanhe looked at Xu Xiaoyin in surprise and said, "Promote it?"
“Well, I’d like to ask you to read this book aloud in the live stream,” Xu Xiaoyin said. “I discovered this novel two years ago. It’s by a new author, and the market is bad right now. It’s hard for new authors to make it big. I finally managed to get an ISBN and a chance to go public. The first print run is only 8,000 copies. I happened to meet you, so I thought I’d see if we could collaborate.”
Lu Yanhe looked hesitantly at the book in his hand.
“Of course, we’re not going to freeload,” Xu Xiaoyin said immediately. “We will provide corresponding promotional expenses, but the publishing industry is different from other industries, so the promotional expenses may not be as high as your usual quote.”
Lu Yanhe thought to himself, "You're overthinking it."
This was his first time working on this kind of promotion.
"Sister Xiaoyin, it's like this, if it's a commercial collaboration, all my work needs to be approved by my agent, so I can't reply to you right away."
Xu Xiaoyin nodded: "I understand, we know. Since I don't have your agent's contact information either, would you like to give me your agent's contact information, or would you like to relay it to me?"
Lu Yanhe: "I'll talk to my agent later and ask her to contact you, okay?"
"That's great," Xu Xiaoyin said.
-
After leaving the coffee shop, Xu Mingyue followed Xu Xiaoyin into her car.
Xu Mingyue asked, "Sister Xiaoyin, how much promotion fee do we usually pay to an artist like Lu Yanhe for promotion?"
Xu Xiaoyin said, "I don't know either. If we really have to pay a promotion fee, it needs to be submitted to the publishing house for discussion. Generally speaking, unless it is a dedicated book blogger who has negotiated a cooperation framework with the publishing house, the promotion of such single books is usually done through personal connections or favors, asking for help from others."
Xu Mingyue asked, puzzled, "Then why did you mention the promotion fee to him just now...?"
“That shows our attitude,” Xu Xiaoyin said. “We can’t really ask others for help with the intention of getting something for nothing.”
"What if they really want a promotion fee?"
“Then let’s report it to the publishing house and process the accounting,” Xu Xiaoyin said. “Lu Yanhe sold a thousand copies of this book in one live broadcast without saying a word. What’s wrong with applying for a promotion fee? It just won’t be too high. In fact, usually when celebrities like him hear how much our promotion fee is, they just give it to us for free.”
"ah?"
"How much promotion fee do you think we can give?" Xu Xiaoyin looked at Xu Mingyue and laughed.
Xu Mingyue: "How much do you usually give?"
"Five hundred, or a thousand?" Xu Xiaoyin said, "Unless it's a very popular live stream that can sell tens of thousands of copies for us in one night, it's usually around this price."
"Isn't that too low?"
"That depends on what you're comparing it to. The profit margin for a book is limited. If you charge too much, it's a losing proposition, isn't it?" Xu Xiaoyin sighed. "The publishing industry is really in a slump right now. Mingyue, are you really planning to work in the publishing industry?"
Xu Mingyue hesitated for a moment and said, "I've always had this dream, but I haven't figured it out yet. I want to do an internship now so that I can find out in advance whether I really love this industry. When I was a child, I read a lot of novels and magazines, and I really wanted to work in a magazine back then, but now many magazines have stopped publishing."
"There's nothing we can do. We thought e-magazines were a new way to develop, but now we've found that e-magazines aren't going to work either," Xu Xiaoyin said with a smile and a sigh.
-
Lu Yanhe called Chen Ziyan from the car and told her about Xu Xiaoyin.
Upon hearing this, Chen Ziyan said, "Okay, send me her number and I'll contact her."
Lu Yanhe agreed.
After hanging up the phone, Li Pengfei looked at Lu Yanhe with a strange expression and asked, "Are you this obedient in front of your agent? You even called her immediately for such a small matter."
Lu Yanhe said, "It's my job to be an agent, so of course I have to tell her as soon as possible and ask her to help me with the follow-up matters. I've never handled these things myself before."
What Lu Yanhe didn't say was that he and Chen Ziyan had just started working together, and he didn't want Chen Ziyan to misunderstand him as someone who liked to take on private jobs because of his lack of timely communication.
Many artists take on private jobs to bypass their agents, which is often one of the reasons why the relationship between artists and their agents breaks down.
"I forgot to ask earlier, how did they get the number?" Lu Yanhe suddenly said.
"Huh?" Li Pengfei looked at Lu Yanhe in surprise. "Didn't she tell you?"
"They didn't say, and I forgot to ask," Lu Yanhe said. "Not many people know this number of mine."
-
“But it’s strange too,” Xu Mingyue suddenly said in the car.
"What's strange?" Xu Xiaoyin asked.
Xu Mingyue: "When we gave it to Xingyu Entertainment, didn't we say that he had already terminated his contract with Xingyu? Then he said he wanted to find an agent to contact us. Where did this agent come from?"
Xu Xiaoyin came to her senses and realized the problem.
"That's true." She thought for a moment and said, "Did you switch agencies?"
Xu Xiaoyin's phone rang at that very moment.
It was an unfamiliar number.
Xu Xiaoyin answered the phone, and her phone was connected via Bluetooth. She gestured to Xu Mingyue not to speak yet.
Hello? Who is this?
"I'm Chen Ziyan, Lu Yanhe's agent," a somewhat capable female voice rang out. "Are you Xu Xiaoyin?"
"Ah, yes, I'm Xu Xiaoyin, Chen... my agent, hello."
"Hello." Chen Ziyan chuckled on the other end of the line. "Yan He just called me and told me that you have a collaboration that you're looking for. I heard it's about helping your publishing house promote a novel?"
Xu Xiaoyin: "Yes, that's right. I am the editor in charge of this book. Actually, it was because Lu Yanhe read another book that I was in charge of during his live broadcast yesterday, and the market feedback was very good, so I wanted to see if we could collaborate on promoting this new book, 'Star Orbit'."
Chen Ziyan said, "Editor Xu, it's like this. Yan He is a book lover, so promoting his favorite books is no problem. However, this kind of cooperation is a bit restrictive. How about this? If your publishing house has any books you'd like Yan He to promote, just send him one or two. Yan He can choose them himself. He can promote the ones he likes and is willing to promote. As for promotion fees, let's forget about it. It's not really formal marketing. He's just reading books in his own live stream. In return, please don't specify which books he should promote. Books are selective in their audience. If Yan He doesn't like a book, his live stream viewers might not like it either. Let's make this cooperation less utilitarian. What do you think?"
Xu Xiaoyin was naturally very pleasantly surprised.
"Of course that's great, but..." Xu Xiaoyin felt embarrassed. Giving Lu Yanhe a few books was nothing, it was practically free money. "It wouldn't be right not to give him a promotion fee, would it? It's not a charity collaboration. One or two books is fine, but if we can have a long-term collaboration, we'd feel bad taking advantage of him forever."
Chen Ziyan smiled and said, "Let's talk about the preliminary matters first. If there is room for long-term cooperation and Yan He's influence can help you sell more books, then we can discuss a framework cooperation. I know that unless your book is a particularly bestseller, the profit per book is not high. I also saw that Yan He is a book lover, so I helped him take on this project."
Xu Xiaoyin felt a little embarrassed to take advantage of him like this. This time, she brought a book called "Star Orbit" for promotional cooperation, and it would be reasonable for her to take advantage of him without charging a promotion fee. However, Chen Ziyan's intention was clearly to let Lu Yanhe promote the book in his live broadcast room for a long time. As long as Lu Yanhe liked the book they sent and was willing to promote it, she couldn't bring herself to do it.
But Chen Ziyan clearly doesn't need that promotional fee right now, and she hasn't even gotten approval from the company yet, so how can we force her to pay the promotional fee?
Xu Xiaoyin could only say, "Then thank you very much."
After hanging up the phone, Xu Xiaoyin felt that things had gone too smoothly, almost unbelievably.
She asked Xu Mingyue with a puzzled look, "Are people in the entertainment industry really that easy to get along with?"
Xu Mingyue: "...No, I don't think so."
-
Chen Ziyan really didn't care about that small amount of promotional fee.
Instead of being too lazy to make small profits, it's better to let Lu Yanhe get in touch with Jiangyin Publishing House; there might be some unexpected opportunities in the future.
Jiangyin Publishing House is one of the largest publishing houses in China. It has a state-owned background, a large number of writers, and good relationships with many film and television companies in this IP era. It has also participated in the investment of many film and television dramas.
This is a strategic consideration, and on a smaller scale, it shows that Chen Ziyan doesn't want this matter to be tainted by money.
To be precise, they didn't want Lu Yanhe's image as a book lover to be tainted by the smell of money.
Once people find out, his love of reading will inevitably take on a more utilitarian hue, and a good thing will turn into a bad one.
-
When they were almost at Li Pengfei's house, Lu Yanhe found out who had given him his phone number.
Liu Qin called him and said, "Yan He, a classmate from a publishing house just contacted me and said she has a collaboration with you. Since she's an old classmate, I didn't think much of it and agreed. I just realized it and I need to let you know first. Has she contacted you?"
"Ah, you contacted me." Lu Yanhe never expected it to be his own homeroom teacher. "Is editor Xu Xiaoyin your classmate?"
"Her? Who is she? The one who asked me for my number is Liu Cheng, who is now an editor at Jiangyin Publishing House."
“Oh! The person who came to see me was an editor named Xu Xiaoyin,” Lu Yanhe explained.
“That’s probably one of her editors,” Liu Qin said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think that much about it just now. Your position is quite special, so I really can’t just give out your phone number. Next time, I’ll let you know first and ask if it’s convenient for you.”
“Okay, thank you for your trouble, Teacher Liu,” Lu Yanhe said.
Liu Qin: "I haven't asked you yet, how did your exam go? You kids, you don't even tell me after the exam, so I don't feel comfortable asking."
"It's fine, I performed as expected." Lu Yanhe said with a smile, "The results haven't come out yet. How could I call you before the results are out? If I say the score is too high, I'll embarrass myself, and if I say it's too low, I'm afraid you'll worry."
Liu Qin laughed heartily and said, "Just do your best. If your grades improve quickly, you'll definitely get into a top university."
“I’m looking forward to it too,” Lu Yanhe said.
The teacher and student chatted for a couple of minutes before hanging up.
Lu Yanhe was truly grateful to his teacher, Liu Qin.
It wasn't just her, but also Old Chen, Su Su, and Old Lady Lin.
If he hadn't met these great teachers, he wouldn't have been able to improve his grades so quickly on his own.
Especially Su Su.
History is a real challenge. If he hadn't met a teacher like Su Su who was good at lecturing and solving problems, he really doesn't know if he would have been able to finally understand it.
Li Pengfei shrugged at him and said, "What are you daydreaming about? We're here."
Lu Yanhe snapped out of his daze, looked up, and was shocked to find that although Li Pengfei's house was also in the same community, it was a small villa with a yard. The yard wasn't big, only about fifty square meters, but in this location, a house with a yard must be extremely expensive.
It can only be said that his usual joking remark about "a wealthy family" was not a joke to them at all.
"Wow, that's impressive," Lu Yanhe exclaimed enviously.
Li Pengfei chuckled.
"Go inside and take a look. My dad isn't home; it's just Aunt Zhang."
Lu Yanhe also knew Aunt Zhang from Li Pengfei's family. Aunt Zhang used to come to the school often to deliver meals to Li Pengfei, and Lu Yanhe had also eaten there many times.
"Aunt Zhang, could you cut some fruit and make two cups of coffee for me?" Li Pengfei called out as soon as he entered the door, beckoning Lu Yanhe to come upstairs with him.
Aunt Zhang was sitting on the small balcony scrolling through her phone when she saw him return with his classmates, and she greeted him with a warm smile.
Lu Yanhe followed Li Pengfei upstairs and into his room.
Li Pengfei put his suitcase against the wall and said, "Let's go, there's nothing interesting in my bedroom, let's go next door."
Next door was a game room, with one entire wall covered by electronic screens.
This was the first time Lu Yanhe had ever seen a room specifically set aside as a game room. Two beanbag chairs were placed against the other wall, so people could lie down on them, pick up a controller, and comfortably play games.
“This is truly enviable,” Lu Yanhe said.
Li Pengfei asked, "Want to play a couple of rounds?"
“Okay.” Lu Yanhe nodded.
-
Lu Yanhe stayed at Li Pengfei's house for half a day before heading back.
Li Pengfei really wanted to keep him playing a little longer, but Lu Yanhe was thinking about the book he hadn't finished reading, "Nineteen Years of Criminal Records," and didn't want to play games with Li Pengfei all day, so he said he had something to do, ate lunch, and left.
At 3 p.m. sharp, Lu Yanhe started his broadcast and continued reading the novel, "Nineteen Years of Crime Records".
As for the book "Star Tracks", Lu Yanhe hasn't received a call from Chen Ziyan yet and doesn't know what to do.
But if we really want to promote it, we'll definitely have to continue reading this book in the live stream.
Lu Yanhe felt that he had to finish reading "Nineteen Years of Criminal Records" first.
This novel is really good; it tells a murder story that spans nineteen years.
From the university onwards, all the characters who appear are middle-aged.
The time span is quite large.
Lu Yanhe read for three hours straight, until almost nightfall, before he finally finished the book.
It's June now, so it gets dark quite late; it's only six o'clock.
The ending of this story left Lu Yanhe feeling lost and he remained in a daze for a long time.
When he came to his senses, he thought to check the comments section and found that many people were discussing the book.
—I went to lunch today and happened to pass by a bookstore. I remembered that Lu Yanhe read this book last night, so I bought a copy. After lunch, I opened it and read a few pages. The beginning was creepy and scary.
—Is it scary? I'm so afraid of these kinds of scary stories, I don't dare to read them anymore.
—It's not that scary. The beginning seems to deliberately create a scary atmosphere, but it's not actually that scary. It's not a thriller or horror novel.
—I ordered it online, it hasn't arrived yet, I won't receive it until tomorrow.
--Me too.
—It's been a long time since I've read a novel. I didn't expect Lu Yanhe to read it for so long in one go. It must be really good.
—He's almost finished reading it.
...
Lu Yanhe kept scrolling up through everyone's comments and laughed.
He turned off his phone and said, "I just finished reading this novel. The ending was a bit unexpected. It's a very good story. If you like crime and mystery novels, you can give this one a try."
(End of this chapter)
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