Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 331 You Are Back

Lin Chaoyang blocked Dong Qiao so much that he was speechless and looked embarrassed.

The royalty system is a method of settling royalties commonly used in countries and regions around the world today. The royalty ratios vary from country to country based on their own circumstances.

In many countries with large readerships and considerable book sales, this proportion is usually between 5% and 15%.

But Hong Kong has a population of only a few million, and even fewer potential readers, so the royalty rate here is much higher than that in other countries and regions, usually 10% to 20%.

The 5% royalty is indeed low, but it is not the first time his boss has done this.

In Hong Kong's news and publishing circles, Ming Pao's reputation for being stingy has long been known and has always been hated by everyone.

But there is still a constant stream of people willing to cooperate with it, and the reason is that Ming Pao has a unique appeal in the minds of readers.

For creators, having their works published or published in Ming Pao itself means recognition.

Especially for many young writers, it can be regarded as a shortcut to fame.

"Mr. Lin, Hong Kong is not like the mainland. With only a few million people, the sales of literary works have never been very high. It is not easy for publishing houses to operate..."

"Editor-in-Chief Dong, with all due respect, if this is your newspaper's sincerity, then it will be difficult for us to reach a cooperation agreement."

Lin Chaoyang did not give Dong Qiao another chance to speak. Since they were all willing to make an offer, Lin Chaoyang would naturally not be embarrassed to refuse.

The price of books in Hong Kong is generally around 5 to 1.5 Hong Kong dollars. According to the 1% royalty rate, he can get a maximum of 1.5 Hong Kong dollars for each book sold. If copies are sold, it will only be Hong Kong dollars.

For the same printing of 1 copies, the Hong Kong Chinese University Press paid 300 yuan per thousand words for the manuscript, for a total of 6 yuan.

Of course, one of the reasons is that the Hong Kong Chinese University Press is not concerned about profit, but it is also a fact that the royalties paid by Ming Pao are low.

So you, Old Cha, gave me a signed set of Jin Yong's complete works in order to cheat me out of tens of thousands of royalties!

Seeing Lin Chaoyang's tough attitude, Dong Qiao couldn't help but feel a little resentful towards his boss.

It is true that Jin Yong is stingy, but he does not believe that Lin Chaoyang's novels are only worth 5% royalties.

Just because of his penny-pinching nature as a businessman, he instructed Dong Qiao to negotiate the lowest price possible.

But after this test, it was clear that Lin Chaoyang was not the kind of person who was easily fooled. This fully exposed the pettiness of Ming Bao.

"What is Mr. Yilin's opinion..." Dong Qiao asked tentatively again.

"At least 15%." Lin Chaoyang said firmly.

Dong Qiao fell silent after hearing this figure. The price that Lin Chaoyang wanted was already the standard for famous writers in Hong Kong, and it was not something that ordinary writers could get.

Lin Chaoyang is somewhat famous in the Hong Kong cultural circle, but that is only limited to a small circle. This price is beyond the scope of what Dong Qiao can decide.

He observed Lin Chaoyang's expression and tried to continue negotiating with him, but Lin Chaoyang refused to give in, which gave Dong Qiao a headache.

In the end, he had no choice but to say, "Then I'll go back and discuss it."

After Dong Qiao left, the delegation carried out its activities as usual the next day. They stayed in Hong Kong for a day and then went to the neighboring Macau.

One of the people who facilitated this delegation's visit was Mr. Ma from Macau, so a trip to Macao was a natural thing to do.

After staying in the Haojiang River for three days, the delegation returned to the Hong Kong River by boat on the morning of the fourth day. It was almost noon when they arrived at the hotel.

The official itinerary of this visit has also ended, and the delegation will fly back to the mainland tomorrow morning.

The rest of the day was free time for everyone. After dropping off their luggage at the hotel, everyone went out directly to buy some gifts to bring back.

Everyone had limited foreign exchange, so they had to plan carefully before buying anything. Those who didn't have much money focused on food.

Jiadunli's biscuits, colorful Swiss candies, triangular chocolate bars...

These snacks are exquisitely packaged, with words in either traditional Chinese or English. They give people a high-end feeling at first glance, and are perfect to buy home as gifts.

Those who have more money focus on electrical appliances, such as radios, electronic watches, televisions, microwave ovens...

However, people still look more and buy less, mainly because after looking around, they always feel that the money is a little short.

Compared with other people's entanglement and hesitation, Lin Chaoyang was much more happy when shopping.

He had originally seen a Commodore 64 in a store, which was considered the most successful home personal computer in the early to mid-s.

It came with a 1541 single floppy disk drive, a C2N cassette tape drive, a keyboard and 7 software disks, with 64kb of accessible memory. It was priced at only $595 in the United States, and its main feature was that it was cheap.

The Internet era is still many years away, so Lin Chaoyang plans to buy one to try it out.

He asked the salesperson and found out that the Commodore 64 cost HK$4500. He could afford it, but the software also cost money. After adding the software, he had very little money left and could not buy gifts for his family. He decided to give up.

He walked around the electronics counter again and found two interesting little things. One was the Good Light Camera, which was later highly praised by young literary men. This plastic-bodied camera looked like a toy, but was surprisingly durable.

The other one is a game&watch with the Nintendo logo printed on it, and it also has a discount.

These two things would be great to take back as toys for your kids.

Then I bought two pocket-sized atomic radios made by Champagne Company. This type of radio is smaller than an adult's palm, can be listened to using No. 5 batteries, and is easy to carry.

Both Mr. Tao and Mr. Lin have the habit of listening to the radio. Giving this thing to them will definitely make them the most handsome old men on the street when they go out.

Then Lin Chaoyang went to the watch counter and bought a women's watch from Longines and Seiko respectively. These were for Tao Yushu and her sister.

Tao Yumo wanted a Citizen watch, but there were only Seiko counters in the nearby shopping malls, and he was too lazy to bother, mainly because he didn't have enough time.

He ran around for the whole afternoon, buying more and more things. For convenience, he bought small items, but he couldn't handle the large number of things!
Except for the watch bought for Tao Yushu which cost thousands of dollars, the rest of the things were mostly worth one or two hundred dollars, so I ended up buying a big bag of things.

He finished shopping and was waiting for the boss when he saw Jin Ying wandering around the electrical appliance counter.

"What do you like?" he asked. Jin Ying pointed to a rectangular metal box on the shelf.

"I heard that this microwave oven can heat up rice in just one minute. It's really a good thing, but it's too expensive!"

Lin Chaoyang took a look at the price tag. It was HK$2200, which was indeed a bit expensive.

After he finished shopping, he still had a few hundred dollars left. He wanted to do Jin Ying a favor, but unfortunately the things Jin Ying liked were too expensive.

Jin Ying said regretfully: "You should buy a microwave."

Lin Chaoyang blurted out, "Why buy that thing? It's for cattle and horses."

"What is a cow-horse?"

Lin Chaoyang realized that he had made a mistake and said, "I learned this from chatting with people from Hong Kong. It's a self-deprecating term used by migrant workers here. I use this thing just for convenience. Everything changes when it's put in there."

Jin Ying looked at him strangely. I'm just looking for convenience, why should I pursue taste?
She thought of Lin Chaoyang's family's cultural salon and his cooking skills that had always been famous in the literary world, and she complained in her heart, we are all writers, only you know how to live!

After a few words, Lin Chaoyang still contributed the few Hong Kong dollars he had left.

Of course, this is not free, and everyone has to give him corresponding RMB.

The things people want to buy are based on the money they have, but it is impossible for them to be exactly right. There will always be a little difference. If there is extra, it is okay, but if there is not enough, it will make people depressed.

The few hundred dollars from Lin Chaoyang helped several people out of their predicament, and everyone kept thanking him.

After everyone finished shopping and had spent all the foreign currency in their pockets, they headed home.

After returning to the hotel, Lin Chaoyang had just put down his things when he received a call from the front desk saying that there was an external call.

After the call was transferred, it turned out to be Dong Qiao.

After the last breakdown of the talks, Lin Chaoyang thought that the publication of "The Death of Van Gogh" would have no result, but he did not expect that Dong Qiao would contact him again.

"Mr. Lin, it's really not easy to contact you!"

The delegation went to Macau these days, so Dong Qiao naturally couldn't contact him. Fortunately, Lin Chaoyang and the others stayed in the same hotel after returning to Hong Kong.

The two chatted for a while, and Dong Qiao got straight to the point, saying on the phone: "We have discussed it over the past two days, and the royalties can be raised to 12%. This is our greatest sincerity. What do you think?"

Listening to Dong Qiao's words, Lin Chaoyang pondered in silence. This price had actually met his psychological expectations.

He knew very well that as a mainland writer, he was not very famous in Hong Kong, and it was almost impossible for him to get the top royalties or manuscript fees here. It would be very good if he could get a medium level of royalties.

Dong Qiao on the other end of the phone saw that he didn't move, thinking that he was still not satisfied, and said helplessly: "Mr. Lin, this price is already the standard for many powerful writers. After all, this is our first cooperation, and there is a long way to go!"

His implication was that they could discuss future cooperation. Lin Chaoyang did not believe it, but the 12% royalties were indeed not low.

It is always good to have more income, and at least it is much more than what you can earn from publishing in mainland China.

"Okay, I agree."

Dong Qiao was very happy to hear Lin Chaoyang's affirmative answer. He was planning to find Lin Chaoyang to sign the publishing contract tomorrow. However, Lin Chaoyang said, "You'd better come tonight. Our delegation will be back tomorrow."

When Dong Qiao heard this, he immediately prepared the contract and rushed to the hotel to sign the contract with Lin Chaoyang.

After Lin Chaoyang signed, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"The Death of Van Gogh" is just a novel, and it is not reasonable to trouble Jin Yong, the boss, and the editor-in-chief.

This is mainly due to some ideas of his boss Jin Yong. On the one hand, Jin Yong wanted to use the opportunity of publishing "The Death of Van Gogh" to show goodwill to the mainland cultural circle.

On the other hand, because "The Death of Van Gogh" has a very good reputation in the Hong Kong cultural circle, if Ming Pao Publishing House can publish this novel, it will also help to enhance the influence of the publishing house.

It's just that his boss is too shrewd. He wants to take advantage but doesn't want to spend any money. Instead of wasting several days' time, he might as well have given an ideal price early on.

Although he complained in his heart, Dong Qiao still looked like a modest gentleman, gentle as jade.

"Mr. Lin, it's a pleasure to work with you!"

"Happy cooperation!"

He put away the contract and said goodbye to Lin Chaoyang again and again before leaving the hotel.

Silent all night.

The next morning, the delegation flew back to the mainland. After getting off the plane, going through customs was a hassle.

Everyone brought back a lot of things from Hong Kong. There was nothing else, but the publications had to be checked. During the exchanges during the past few days, everyone received some gifts more or less, many of which were books.

Fortunately, these publications have been reported to WS staff in advance, so there will definitely be no mistakes, it is just a formality.

When they got out of the passage, there were still reporters surrounding them.

The visit of the mainland writers' delegation to Hong Kong is considered a relatively large-scale cultural exchange between the two countries in recent years. The visitors are from several mainstream official media outlets, including People's Daily, China Youth Daily and Literary Gazette.

After dealing with the reporters' interviews, the delegation disbanded on the spot.

These days, taxis are only available to foreign guests. Taxis are only available at the airport and outside foreign-related hotels. Everyone waited for a bus that runs between the airport and the city and got on it.

It was already past four in the afternoon when Lin Chaoyang got home.

When he appeared in the yard carrying his luggage, Tao Yumo was walking outside the door with Xiao Dongdong in her arms. When she saw him, her face was filled with excitement and joy, as if her lover had been waiting for his return.

"You're back!"

These words were so sincere and heartfelt that Lin Chaoyang almost mistook her for Tao Yushu.

(End of this chapter)