Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 883, please support!

"Take the picture, right away!"

At Chen Fan's house, chairs and benches were brought out, along with a daybed that could seat two people, before everyone in the room could be seated.

He carried a kettle from He Qingsheng's house and poured tea for his master and guests... He had no choice but to mooch some water since he had just returned today and his family hadn't boiled any at home yet.

But to be honest, it's been a long time since I've done the work of serving tea and water, and I'm still a little unaccustomed to it.

If I had known so many people would be coming to my house today, I should have called a few people from Jiangda across the street.

Since the school has already started and the students I taught in Lujiawan have returned to school, it's only natural for disciples to serve their master and ask them to do chores.

It's okay if we miss it; we can try again next time.

Fortunately, the large number of people who came today attracted Xu Qizhen and Tan Yong, who live on the hillside behind the house. Tan Yong was unlikely to take action, but Xu Qizhen would offer to help.

She first called Bian Huifang and asked her to come over and do some work. Then she took the kettle from Chen Fan and said, "I'll pour the water. You go and talk about your business."

Chen Fan gratefully clasped his hands together and bowed, "It's all thanks to my Sister Xu!"

He then walked to the side, sat down, caught his breath, and said to Director Wu, "So, are the filming location, costumes, props, and actors all ready?"

Director Wu, smoking a cigarette, immediately replied, "The costumes and props are all fine, and the actors are ready to go at any time. As long as they are employees of our Jiangying Film Studio, no matter where they are or whether they are filming, they can come back anytime with just a call."

Then he spread his hands and said, "But we'll have to wait for you to decide on the filming location. Besides, you haven't given us the script yet."

Zhang Xuansong, listening from the side, frowned and muttered to Li Shangde beside him, "Is making a movie really that complicated?"

Li Shangde glanced at him. "What else?"

Lin Yuanxiang, however, remained calm and composed, saying, "This is nothing. The real trouble will come when we start filming."

Zhang Xuansong looked at him, "How do you know?"

Lin Yuanxiang raised his eyebrows smugly, "I asked at the Beijing Film Studio."

Chen Fan glanced at his three masters, but seeing that they were talking about their own things, he didn't interfere.

He then exclaimed "Ah!" and gestured to Director Wu, "Wait a moment."

Without hesitation, he got up and went into the house, quietly closed the door, and came out a moment later with several thick stacks of manuscripts in his hand. He walked up to Director Wu and handed them to him, saying, "I just finished writing these two days ago. I printed three copies. Make a few more copies for everyone to share later."

The script was naturally finished long ago and kept in the cabinet in the study; otherwise, I wouldn't have closed the door before taking it out.

After all, He Qingsheng knew that he hadn't even unpacked his suitcase since he got back, so it was necessary to cover it up when necessary.

Upon receiving the script, Director Wu decisively divided it into three parts. He first handed one to Zhang Xuansong, one to Yang Zhenlong, and kept the last one for himself.

Then Kuang Mingyi and Lao Jianhua came over from the left and right, and the three of them watched together.

The other two sides were similar, and in the end, only He Qingsheng, Tan Yong, and Xu Qizhen were left watching blankly.

Less than three seconds later, He Qingsheng looked decisively at Chen Fan without saying a word, but the meaning was clear: What about mine?

Xu Qizhen's eyes widened even more. "I just helped you with the work, and you just let me watch?"

Tan Yong didn't care, but he kept glancing at the other side, feeling a little itchy inside.

I wonder what the second part will be about? Judging from the timeline, it should be the Great Shift, right?

Chen Fan hesitated for two seconds, then decisively got up and went into the study. He came out quickly, carrying two thick manuscripts.

He first carried his chair and sat down next to He Qingsheng, then handed over the manuscript and whispered, "This is the original manuscript of the novel 'The Taoist Priest Descends the Mountain'."

He Qingsheng snatched it away, and when he saw the words on the cover clearly, his eyes lit up. He turned to Chen Fan and asked, "Both one and two are here, but they haven't been sent?"

Chen Fan clicked his tongue and explained in a low voice, "At first, I planned to release the novel and the movie together, but then the Chinese New Year came and I was too busy to remember about the publication."

He Qingsheng immediately said, "So you're going to publish this with Jiangnan Literature and Art Publishing House?"

Upon hearing this, Tan Yong and Xu Qizhen's eyes lit up. This was Chen Fan's novel, and the original novel of the currently popular movie "Monk Comes Down the Mountain." Once the book was published, it would undoubtedly sell over 500,000 copies.

Two books would be a million, and even if you only make 50 cents per book, that's 500,000!

How many benefits can you give out with 500,000? How much revenue can you generate? How much stuff can you buy? Putting everything else aside, it should be enough to build a swimming pool in the community, right?

What? Xinghu Lake?

Oh, right, Xinghu Lake is right next door; you can jump into the lake if you want to swim. How about building a stadium there?

Just as they were lost in their fantasies, Chen Fan said quietly, "What are you thinking about? I just thought you were bored, so I'll show you."

He paused for a moment, then, meeting three pairs of incredulous eyes, he smiled and said, “I opened a publishing house in Shanghai. The person in charge is my sister-in-law. The company is affiliated with the Shanghai Writers Association. Every year, we have to pay a fixed fee of 1000 yuan, plus a management fee of 2% of the net profit.”

The publishing house has been established for almost a month, and it hasn't published a single book yet. I definitely want to keep these two books for myself.

He Qingsheng and the other two changed their expressions instantly, their faces turning cold and icy, colder than the water of Xinghu Lake outside.

Hsu Chi-chen: Are you a devil?
That wasn't all. Chen Fan took out cigarettes, pulled out three, and handed them over, grinning as he said, "Uncle He, Uncle Tan, do you have any unpublished works? Our publishing house can consider them. We guarantee to pay the highest royalties. If you're not satisfied, I can even exchange them for US dollars. This kind of treatment is absolutely unique to Scorpion Papa. Please support us!"

Upon hearing this, He Qingsheng's face darkened.

Not only did they refuse to publish the manuscripts for their own organization, but they even tried to publish them for their own benefit?

Can't you just act like a normal person?!

Tan Yong, however, was somewhat tempted. He leaned forward and said, "The royalty standards were just mentioned. Now the highest is 10 yuan per thousand words. Are you going to calculate it at 10 yuan? And there's also royalties for print runs, you know?"

Chen Fan said without hesitation, "Bring me the manuscript, and I'll pay you 10 yuan per thousand words immediately. The royalties will be calculated based on the number of copies printed."

Originally scheduled for October 1980, the "Provisional Regulations on Book Royalties" formulated by the State Publishing Bureau were released ahead of schedule in January thanks to the influence of Chen Fan.

It wasn't that he made any suggestions.

There's nothing else to it, mainly because someone's royalties are too high, while the current domestic royalty standards are too low, and there's no "printing fee." So, during a meeting with higher authorities some time ago, someone suggested that there are so many writers in the country, but the vast majority don't have the opportunity to earn foreign exchange and can only live off the meager royalties earned domestically. This isn't conducive to writers' stable creative output. So, shouldn't we appropriately raise the royalty standards to stimulate everyone's enthusiasm?
The old political commissar also attended the meeting and immediately said that it was worth mentioning. As a result, the new standard, which was originally scheduled to be promulgated in the second half of the year, was released more than half a year ahead of schedule.

However, the increase was not significant. It only increased from the original 2 to 7 yuan per thousand words to 3 to 10 yuan, barely recovering to half of what it was when the manuscript fee standard was first set in 1958, not to mention compared to the early 1950s.

This is just the standard for literary works. For poetry, every 20 lines count as 1,000 characters. For traditional folk arts, it's half the price, 40 lines count as 1,000 characters.

Actually, the royalties are secondary; the most important thing is the restoration of "print fee".

Although it was far less than the later "royalties," the payment was calculated based on the number of copies sold per 10,000 copies. For example, for every X number of copies sold, a certain percentage of the basic royalties would be paid, which would then gradually decrease while the royalties accumulated.

However, compared to simple royalties, it is already several times more, and compared with other professions, it can be considered a high-income group.

If adjustments are to be made again, unless someone intervenes, it will be until 1984 that the standard for royalties for literary works will be raised to 2 to 20 yuan per thousand words, and the royalties for printed copies will also increase significantly.

Even movie scripts can fetch 3000 to 8000 yuan each, with a very few reaching 10000 yuan.

However, compared to the standards after the 90s, they are still not high enough.

Taking songs as an example, after adjustments in 84, the royalties for songwriting were 10 to 20 yuan per song for both lyrics and composition.

This standard remained in place for quite some time.

For example, in 1984, Shi Xiang wrote the lyrics for "The Moon on the Fifteenth," which also tells the story of the Southwest battlefield. At that time, this song brought him a royalties of sixteen yuan, so there was a saying at the time: "The moon on the fifteenth is worth sixteen yuan."

Ahem, although it coincides with an astronomical proverb, the royalties for this song were indeed sixteen yuan at the time.

This is also all the income the author received for this song.

Chen Fan suspected that the person who decided on the royalties did it on purpose!
In short, although writers' royalties are much higher than those of ordinary workers these days, getting rich through "writing" was something that only happened in the 90s, after Wang Shuo started negotiating profit sharing with publishers.

Seeing Tan Yong's excitement, Chen Fan had an idea: should he get the royalties out in advance?

But then I thought again, and realized it still wouldn't work.

Wang Shuo talked about profit sharing in 1990 when the State Administration of Press and Publication issued a notice allowing for an appropriate increase in the standard of royalties for writers. Then, my country’s first Copyright Law was introduced, which clarified that “if the contract stipulates otherwise, remuneration may be paid in accordance with the contract.”

With legal provisions in place, Lao Wang had the confidence to negotiate royalties, which enabled him to negotiate with the publisher in 92 and secure a "10%" royalty, thus ushering in the era of royalties in China.

Therefore, arbitrarily increasing writers' royalties is, strictly speaking, "illegal".

Chen Fan swallowed hard. He was a model citizen who obeyed the law; how could he do anything against the rules? Forget it, forget it.

He stood there in a daze, while He Qingsheng next to him grew anxious and immediately turned to look at Tan Yong, "Are you really going to publish it for him?"

Tan Yong glanced at him and said irritably, "Don't let me find out you gave him the manuscript, or I'll eat your food for the rest of my life."

He Qingsheng was speechless.

From a public perspective, these days publishers are scrambling for high-quality manuscripts; whoever gets one makes money. Although their works aren't as commercially successful as Chen Fan's, they are both well-regarded veteran authors, and a sales volume of 100,000 copies is still guaranteed.

If such a work is not kept at one's own workplace, but instead published by someone else, wouldn't that be laughable?

But thinking back, this is Chen Fan!

He Qingsheng turned to look at Chen Fan and couldn't help but sigh, "Let me make this clear first, there's only one copy, no more."

Two years ago, I personally recruited him to be the director of the Asian branch of the External Relations Department. In the past two years, all of Chen Fan's works, except for "Small Town People", have been published by Jiangnan Literature and Art Publishing House, earning the company two to three million yuan in revenue.

Now that they want to go it alone and need your support, what else is there to say?

Putting everything else aside, just the title "Uncle He" is enough to warrant sending out a manuscript.

Chen Fan immediately grinned and said, "Uncle He is so generous!"

Watching Chen Fan busy lighting He Qingsheng's cigarette, Xu Qizhen couldn't help but sigh, "You're going to be someone who makes a lot of money in the future."

Others may not know, but how could they not know how profitable it is to run a publishing house? A good book can cost hundreds of thousands of yuan. Can this kid ever spend it all?

Chen Fan turned his face and smiled, "It's just a small amount of money, nothing more."

Xu Qizhen's eyes widened instantly, and she was about to speak.

At this moment, Tan Yong remarked quietly from the side, "What's a lot of money for others is really just small change for him. The manuscript for 'Saint Seiya' has already been paid several times, adding up to over a million US dollars, right?!"

Upon hearing this, Xu Qizhen fell silent.

We're all from different worlds, so let's just destroy it.

……

Chen Fan had originally planned to buy some groceries today and invite He Qingsheng and the other two to dinner at home, but with so many people coming, he couldn't handle it all by himself.

Mainly because I'm too lazy to be busy.

He then asked Xu Qizhen to call two vans from his workplace, along with his own GAZ truck, and Bian Huifang, who arrived later, to take everyone to a wild game restaurant and have a meal in a large private room.

The main reason I went there, besides the delicious food, was because they accepted US dollars and didn't require tickets.

After dinner, everyone went home and did their own work.

He Qingsheng and Tan Yong were busy writing articles; making money was secondary, their main purpose was to support Chen Fan, their junior.

Xu Qizhen had to coordinate with various parties and was busy arranging various matters in preparation for Chen Fan's departure.

He Qingsheng had already told her and Tan Yong that they couldn't keep him. In the current Jiangnan Provincial Writers Association, Vice Chairman Chen's influence was too strong and his impact was too great. If he were to leave one day, it would definitely cause a huge reaction. Therefore, some work had to be done in advance, just in case.

They were extremely busy, and the Jiangying Film Studio on the other side was not idle either.

After receiving the script, Kuang Mingyi led his team to search for suitable filming locations. Yang Chenfeng, Yang Congling, and others were busy memorizing lines and rehearsing. This time, Yang Zhenlong was no longer playing the old Taoist priest; Kuang Mingyi had arranged another role for him. Every day, he would drag Yuan Wang, who was already famous, along to give him acting lessons.

Seeing that everyone was busy preparing for the movie, Zhang Xuansong and his two companions called Chaoyang Temple and learned that the crowd of onlookers had already dispersed. They then said goodbye to Chen Fan and secretly returned to Beijing.

Everyone else was busy, but Chen Fan spent every day in the library, poring over books and working on his graduation thesis.

A month passed in the blink of an eye, and just then, he suddenly received a call from Yang Kangnian of Yunhu Automobile Factory, "What? You're coming to the provincial capital? What happened? Were you dismissed?"

(End of this chapter)