In the room, Li Chenchuan brought a cup of water to Shi Chuanfeng. After saying thank you, Shi Chuanfeng put it aside and said to Li Chenchuan, "Chenchuan, I won't beat around the bush today. I want to take over the publishing rights for the next few books of 'Those Things in the Ming Dynasty.' As for the terms, I won't hide anything from you. I will offer you a pretty good contract, but to be honest, I can't guarantee that other publishers won't offer you better terms."
Li Chenchuan found this guy to be quite honest.
In fact, Shi Chuanfeng was just catering to Li Chenchuan's preferences. He felt that if he tried to trick Li Chenchuan, it would be easier for him to see through it, so he decided to be completely open.
Li Chenchuan nodded and said, "No matter what, you gave me the opportunity to publish my book and offered me a good price. I know you might have faced some pressure behind the scenes, so I am very grateful to you... As for the other books, as long as the terms are not much worse than what other publishers offer, I will still choose to publish with Baihua Publishing House."
Li Chenchuan's words moved Shi Chuanfeng...
It turned out that Li Chenchuan knew everything, and he was such a grateful person!
All the委屈 Shi Chuanfeng had endured during that time now seemed to vanish because of Li Chenchuan's understanding!
To be honest, they would also base Li Chenchuan's price on the contracts from other publishers and wouldn't lower his benefits just to save money—Shi Chuanfeng and his team understood that draining the pond to catch all the fish was not a viable strategy. A win-win situation was the way to go! If they tried to take advantage of Li Chenchuan by lowering his contract price, he might not cooperate with Baihua Publishing House in the future and might even flirt with other publishers, affecting the quality of the books.
So, they would try to offer better contracts than other publishers!
Now, Li Chenchuan's words truly moved Shi Chuanfeng—a teenager of eighteen could remain calm in the face of rapidly increasing sales and still have a grateful heart, which was truly surprising. He also thought that Li Chenchuan's future path would be longer and smoother than that of other young people.
"Alright, Chenchuan, thank you for your trust," Shi Chuanfeng said. "We can offer you a contract of 200 yuan per thousand characters, plus a 15% profit share from royalties. How does that sound?"
In fact, this was already a very generous contract. Generally, only well-known authors could get a profit share from royalties, and even then, it was usually between 10% and 16%. Shi Chuanfeng immediately offered Li Chenchuan a 15% profit share and a contract of 200 yuan per thousand characters, which was a very generous offer.
Li Chenchuan nodded, thought for a moment, and then said, "Alright, Editor Shi, I'm sure other publishers will come to me in the next few days. After filtering out the fraudulent ones, as long as their profit share does not exceed 17%, I will still choose to sign with Baihua Publishing House."
He didn't want to switch to an unfamiliar publisher. As long as Shi Chuanfeng's offer wasn't too low, he would continue to choose Baihua.
After all, he had many books, and he didn't mind a little loss of profit.
Moreover, he knew that Shi Chuanfeng and his team wouldn't be so short-sighted as to try to get rich by taking advantage of him. Besides, a 15% profit share was already very high.
Thus, Li Chenchuan made his statement.
When Shi Chuanfeng heard Li Chenchuan's words, he felt relieved—since Li Chenchuan had said he would filter out the fraudulent publishers, he didn't have to worry too much. Other publishers wouldn't offer more than a 16% royalty, so Shi Chuanfeng smiled and said, "Alright, then let's have a pleasant cooperation."
"Pleasant cooperation."
Then, Shi Chuanfeng suddenly took out a card and said, "By the way, Chenchuan, this card has 50,000 yuan. It's a small token of appreciation from the publishing house. Your 'Those Things in the Ming Dynasty' Volume 1 has been very popular. Although we agreed to buy the full rights, we don't want you to lose out too much. If the sales of this book exceed 500,000 copies, we will give you a bonus."
Li Chenchuan didn't refuse, not only because he was short of money recently, but also because this was what he deserved. 'Those Things in the Ming Dynasty' had already sold 100,000 copies, and the publishing house had made at least several hundred thousand yuan from it. Giving him a bonus wasn't unreasonable.
However, being able to directly offer 50,000 yuan as a bonus and promise more bonuses was almost as good as a profit share.
It seemed that Baihua Publishing House was going all out to win him over, and Li Chenchuan could also infer that their future cooperation would give him many advantages.
After that, the two of them chatted about other things, mainly about books. Shi Chuanfeng shared many interesting stories from the publishing industry and literary circles, which Li Chenchuan, of course, was very interested in and enjoyed listening to.
Of course, Li Chenchuan didn't forget to subtly ask about the film industry. Although Shi Chuanfeng didn't know much about it, he knew more than the average person. In this world, the Chinese film industry was definitely different from the one in another timeline. The system here was more complete and far from as dirty as the film industry in his previous life. The audience here was more mature, and the box office was generally determined by quality rather than publicity...
In short, this was a fertile ground for films! And it was the perfect place for the hundreds of classic films in Li Chenchuan's mind to be realized.
After their conversation, they walked out of the room. Outside, Yang Yifang had already prepared dinner and insisted that Shi Chuanfeng stay. Despite his polite refusal, he had no choice but to stay and have dinner with Li Chenchuan's family.
Wang Fen felt uncomfortable when she saw Shi Chuanfeng stay—because this guy had shattered many of her plans and made Li Chenchuan's bestseller shock everyone.
But Wang Fen couldn't say much...
So, Wang Fen ate in silence, while Li Chaoyong, Li Chaoguo, and Shi Chuanfeng chatted a lot.
Although Shi Chuanfeng didn't overly flatter Li Chaoguo because of his position as the head of the construction bureau, they had many common topics and got along well at the dinner table. Li Chenchuan occasionally made some mature comments, which made Li Chaoguo look at him with new respect!
Wang Fen could only grit her teeth and think—wait until the college entrance exam results come out, Li Chenchuan might cry then!