Chapter 96 The issue of royalties
"Teacher Gao, our company has been engaged in the book publishing industry for 35 years and has a very clear understanding of the Japanese book market. According to our research, your book "Showa American Story" has a high probability of entering the annual bestseller list and achieving sales of more than one million copies!"
Mibu Heita began to calculate the bill for Gao Jialin, "Based on the price of 1,500 yen per copy, you can get 210 million yen in royalties for one million copies, which is equivalent to 1.24 million US dollars at the current exchange rate."
This number is not exaggerated. Japan's book publishing industry is still quite hot. Next year, Haruki Murakami will complete his classic work "Norwegian Wood", which has sold 7 million copies in ten years.
Since then, every time he comes out with a new book, it quickly tops the bestseller list and achieves sales of over one million copies.
With the gimmick of "Showa American Story", it is not an exaggeration to achieve sales of one million copies, and it is not impossible to even increase it several times. Now is the heyday of the Neon bubble economy, and they all believe that Neon can really buy the entire United States. Such works just hit their G-spot, and it is impossible for them not to be popular.
Upon hearing this figure, the accompanying teacher couldn't help but breathe faster, because China's total foreign exchange reserves last year were only US$2.644 billion. Now Gao Jialin's book can help increase the country's foreign exchange reserves by almost one two thousandth, which is more than many large state-owned factories can do in a year.
On the one hand, there was the temptation of foreign exchange, and on the other hand, there was Tokuma Yasukazu's face. Tokuma Shoten offered these two magic weapons at the same time, making it really difficult for the Chinese delegation to resist.
After the visit, a report was made immediately after returning, and Tokuma Yasukazu also used his own channels to express his intentions to some familiar Chinese leaders. Finally, he received a positive reply before Gao Jialin returned to China, and they agreed to the cooperation.
Gao Jialin also received the official notice, "Mr. Tokuma is our old friend. He has always been very supportive of the development of our country's literature and art. Now there is such an opportunity. If there is no problem, you should agree to Mr. Tokuma."
"There's a problem. I only have a rough framework in my mind right now. If I want to fill in the details and come up with a complete story, I'm afraid I'll need to read a lot of information, because this story is set in Japan and the United States, and my experience is not enough to support such a work," Gao Jialin said sincerely.
The leader frowned and asked, "So what are you going to do?"
He was wondering, is Gao Jialin trying to use this as an excuse to stay in Japan? Gao Jialin didn't think so. "I want to ask Tokuma Bookstore to help me collect materials. At the same time, I would like to ask you to help me find a domestic expert who is proficient in Japanese to translate these materials, and translate the book into Japanese after I finish writing it."
Hearing this, the group leader's brows relaxed immediately, "No problem, as long as you can write a good book, we will fully support you."
This is foreign exchange worth more than one million US dollars. If it can be successfully obtained, the country will have an additional valuable fund to introduce advanced foreign technology, and he who has made all this happen will also be recognized and rewarded by his superiors.
"Yesterday, Heita Nibu also mentioned this issue. Tokuma Shoten is willing to help me collect information and is also willing to arrange for a writer who is proficient in Chinese to translate my novel. However, in this case, I have to give him a portion of the royalties, about 4%. I think that our country is so short of foreign exchange now, and it would be a pity to hand over such a large sum of money to foreigners. It is better to keep it for ourselves." Gao Jialin explained the reason for doing so.
"Well, you are very thoughtful. For the country, every foreign exchange is very valuable. We should take as much as we can. There is no need to hand it over to Tokuma Shoten for things we can do ourselves."
As he spoke, the leader's expression became more and more amiable. "Also, Jialin, according to the regulations, you cannot directly receive the royalties in Japanese yen. You can only give it to the state, and then the state will convert it into RMB according to the official exchange rate and give it to you."
"Of course, considering your contribution and your need to purchase Japanese books or other goods, we will also leave you some quota for your free use."
No wonder the leader's tone became gentler, because doing so was indeed a bit unfair to Gao Jialin. Foreign exchange is so tight now, and the exchange rate exchanged privately is much higher than the official exchange rate. It is indeed a bit of a loss to receive RMB according to the official exchange rate.
"Uh." Gao Jialin looked embarrassed.
The leader's smile softened. The most important thing now was to keep Gao Jialin steady. If he got angry and quit, wouldn't the one million dollars in foreign exchange be wasted? "Jialin, do you have any ideas? It's okay, just speak up. Can we discuss it? If you think it's a pity to convert all the money into RMB, we can help you exchange some foreign exchange certificates, so that you can go directly to the Friendship Store to buy things."
"These days, while I've been participating in various exchange activities, I've also been paying attention to Japan's current economic development and have some superficial understanding of Japan's future development trends. So I originally planned to use these royalties to do some economic experiments. Now... If I do as you said and directly convert most of the royalties into RMB, then the opportunity for this experiment will be gone."
Analyze the development trend of Japan's economy? As a student majoring in Chinese, do you have the ability to do this?
The head of the delegation was about to criticize when he suddenly remembered that Gao Jialin had published articles in the internal reference. One was about the reform achievements in Guangdong and the other was about the current development status of Shanghai's private economy. Both articles were related to economics, so he was indeed qualified to say such things.
He could only continue to ask, "What results have you found? What kind of experiment do you plan to do?"
"Last year, the world's five major economic powers (the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and France) reached the 'Plaza Accord' at the Plaza Hotel in New York. The five governments jointly intervened in the foreign exchange market to induce an orderly depreciation of the US dollar against major currencies, which in turn promoted the appreciation of the Japanese yen."
"This will be a huge blow to Japan's export industry, but it is good news for Japan's domestic stock market and real estate market, so I originally planned to invest all these royalties in Japan's financial market to see whether the future development of Japan's economy is consistent with my prediction."
"If I'm right, the royalties will multiply, and it won't be surprising if it becomes two or even three million dollars."
The impact of the Plaza Accord on the Japanese economy is so well-known. As a time traveler, how could I bear to miss such an opportunity?
"How can you be sure that what you said will really happen?" The team leader was depressed. He didn't understand economics and it was difficult for him to judge.
(End of this chapter)
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