Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 331 The Lion Opens Its Mouth

"You can see that it has an incredible 6-inch screen! You know, the screen of the iPhone that Apple just launched is only 3.5 inches! It's incredible, isn't it?"

"And this screen itself does not emit light. Just like a real book, it uses external light to illuminate the content on the screen, which will definitely not harm the user's eyesight! It's simply a scientific miracle, right? We call it the 'paper screen'!"

"It has a built-in 256Mb flash memory and supports SD card expansion. One unit can store hundreds of books! It's amazing!"

“It also has a complete keyboard set, so users can easily search for book titles or take some simple notes! It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

"By then we will have 100,000 books on the shelves of our stores, and the price of each book will be much lower than the physical version...but the authors' income will double!"

"Sir...Sir, what are you looking for?" The blonde girl in a business suit looked at the man in front of her puzzledly, only to see that he didn't care about her passionate and generous introduction at all, but was walking around the living room of the hotel suite with the expensive prototype in his hand.

Finally, at the entrance, the man finally found the item he wanted - a bucket of instant noodles.

He placed the book-sized prototype on the instant noodle bucket, pressed it down firmly, bent down to take a look, then nodded with satisfaction and smiled brightly.

No matter how time changes, classics will always be classics.

The girl couldn't understand the meaning of this action at all, but she couldn't afford to offend this man. As the only writer in the entire East Asia region that the company needed to send public relations personnel to lobby, he played a vital role in the strategic layout.

She could only wait patiently until the man had had enough fun and sat back on the sofa with the prototype in his hand. Then she continued, "Mr. Zhang Chao, what you are holding in your hand is the greatest digital product invented in this century! It will change the ecology of literature!"

Zhang Chao turned the device over and said in a slightly sarcastic tone, "If it is the greatest digital product, then what about the iPhone? The second greatest?"

The girl's pretty face blushed. Since its release at the beginning of the year, Apple's iPhone has been the most popular digital product in the world. It has been in great demand since it was officially released last month.

If she said that this unreleased machine could surpass Apple's iPhone, she wouldn't dare brag about it in front of Zhang Chao.

The machine in Zhang Chao's hand looks strange - the milky white body is about the size of an ordinary paperback book, with a 6-inch gray-black screen; the wedge-shaped design looks like the front and back covers of a book stacked together; it has a split full keyboard, a rear power switch, a scrollable "selection wheel", and large page-turning buttons...

Zhang Chao asked, "After talking for so long, you still haven't told me its name, Evelyn."

Evelyn said cautiously: "This is our secret, sir. We now call it... K1." Before a new product is announced, the confidentiality of the name is even higher than other priorities.

Zhang Chao smiled when he heard this and said, "So it starts with K. Let me guess, is it called Kin..."

When Evelin heard the first syllable that came out of Zhang Chao's mouth, her eyes widened, and she almost blurted out "How did you know?"

Unexpectedly, Zhang Chao said "Kingdom" and added an explanation: "This is a good name, indicating that your reading machine can build its own kingdom."

Evelin secretly breathed a sigh of relief and quickly said, “Your suggestion is good, but we haven’t yet decided on the final code name for this machine.”

Zhang Chao still had a smile on his face. Although he had a bit of a bad taste, he would not say the name "Kindle" several months in advance in front of Evelyn, the person sent by Amazon to do his public relations.

The Kindle prototype in his hand was still a highly confidential business secret. If it wasn't for convincing Zhang Chao, it would never have been brought to China. Even Xu Ruiya, the translator, was not allowed to attend this meeting.

Although Evelin didn’t know why Zhang Chao had no interest in this epoch-making reader, she still said with a stiff upper lip: “Just as you said, K1 will establish a brand new reading kingdom.

Currently, Amazon has the electronic copyright of 10 books, which means we are a complete ecosystem covering hardware and content. K1 is to books like... iPod is to music.

But we still need big new book resources, and hope to release them together with K1! ”

Zhang Chao asked with a smile: "Like those games that are first released simultaneously on PS or XBOX?"

Evelin nodded and said, "This analogy is very appropriate. Zhang, you are such a smart person!"

Zhang Chao said, "Then let me be frank - how much do you plan to sell each book on this K1 for, and how much profit can I get as an author?"

Evelyn thought that after laying the groundwork for so long, Zhang Chao finally gave in, so she sat up straight and said solemnly, "We plan to price the books in the K1 store at $9.9 per copy, which is 30%-50% lower than traditional paper books. But you don't have to worry -

Since there are no distributors or retailers, we will give authors a higher royalty share..."

At this point, Evelyn paused, ready to keep the question in suspense, waiting for Zhang Chao to impatiently ask "how much" before revealing the number.

After waiting for a long time, Zhang Chao just sat there and didn't ask any more questions. She could only continue, "35%! What an exciting number! Three times higher than what traditional publishers give authors!"

Zhang Chao remained calm upon hearing this, and even felt like laughing.

Evelin could only put aside her “self-enthusiasm” tone and asked with some guilt, “Doesn’t this number still make you excited?”

Zhang Chao took a sip of tea and said leisurely, "The retail price is $9.9, and the royalties are 35%, which means that for every copy sold in K1's e-bookstore, I can get $1. Am I right in this elementary school math problem?
Do you think the royalties I get from Random House and Simon & Schuster are less than that?"

Evelin’s smile froze, but she still said, “This also has to be considered in terms of sales. You can buy books on the K1 bookshelf anywhere there is an Internet connection. As for traditional physical books, you have to go to a bookstore…”

张潮反问道：“你刚刚那句话我不同意，不如说‘有K1才能买到K1书架上的图书’。你们初期一共制造了多少台机器？10万？30万？还是50万、100万？”

Evelin stammered, “That’s the business of the production department…but I think the quantity will definitely not be small.”

Zhang Chao did not let her go, but continued to ask: "Let's not talk about the quantity for now, what about the price? How much do you plan to sell a K1 for? You said that K1 is to reading like iPod is to music - I remember the first generation of iPod was priced at US$399. So K1, is it similar?"

Evelin was shocked. Although the price of the first generation Kindle had not yet been finalized, it was indeed likely to fall within this price range. Zhang Chao's guess could be said to be very close.

Zhang Chao paused and said: "'Paper screen' seems to have never been used on a large scale in the market. I just used your K1, do you know what it feels like?

The system is slow to respond, the screen refresh rate is very low, page turning is very slow, and there is severe afterimage..."

Evelyn quickly said, "These problems can be solved by the time it goes on sale. This is a beta version." Zhang Chao smiled secretly. In his previous life, he followed the trend and bought a Kindle Paperwhite, which was already in 2013. These problems still exist, not to mention this first generation product.

As a former serious digital enthusiast, he still remembers the enthusiastic pursuit and subsequent severe shortage of the first generation Kindle when it was launched.

Amazon actually did not have enough confidence in this product. At the same time, due to the high manufacturing costs, the price of $399 could not cover it at all, so only 2.5 units were stocked in the first batch, and they were sold out within 5 hours after the sale went on.

Then the market waited a full five months before Amazon replenished new supply.

With a shipment volume of 2.5 units, even if every user bought his book, this sales volume is not even a fraction of the first print run of each of his books.

So now that he has joined Amazon with a 35% royalty rate, it is a huge loss for Zhang Chao.

Zhang Chao said: "You should be very familiar with the sales of my books in the United States?"

Evelin nodded, but immediately emphasized: "We are a brand new book ecology, using the Internet..." She shut up here. It was only then that she suddenly remembered that the young man in front of her was the founder of "Weibo", the world's largest reading sharing platform, and it was ridiculous for her to brag about Internet marketing.

After all the roads were blocked by Zhang Chao, there was only one move left - Evelyn said: "In fact, there is another royalty plan, that is 50%! We can sign a 50% royalty agreement with you! You can take $5 for each book!

That should be more than you can get from Random House.”

Zhang Chao complained in his heart, "It can exceed that, but not by much..." He said bluntly, "80%. Only when I reach this number, will I consider giving you my new book."

Evelin said without caring about her manners: "Sir, you...did I hear you wrong? According to the ancient Chinese saying, this is called "a lion's mouth is wide open"! "

Zhang Chao said again with certainty: "My English may not be very good, but the number is still clear - 80%. In addition to the 80% royalties, there are some other terms, including basic sales requirements, distribution scope requirements...

But the basis of everything is 80% of the royalties, and the rest can be handled by our lawyers.”

Evelyn was silent. This result was something she had not expected. Whether it was the new form of reader product, the market prospects of free downloads, or the royalty ratio that was several times higher than the market rate, none of them could make Zhang Chao give in. Instead, he proposed an unrealistic number.

She could already imagine what kind of dirty words would come out of the mouths of the group's top executives after hearing her report.

Zhang Chao stood up and extended his hand to Evelyn; Evelyn knew that Zhang Chao was going to "see her off", so she quickly stood up, shook his hand, said a polite word, "I hope we can meet again soon", and left in a daze.

As soon as Evelin left, Xu Ruiya, Shuang Xuetao and others who were waiting in the other room pushed the door in, and Xu Ruiya asked, “What did this woman talk about mysteriously?”

Zhang Chao explained the general situation to them and finally said, "Don't spread the news about the reader."

It took them a while to digest this information. Shuang Xuetao was also amazed by the figure of "80% royalties" and asked, "Will they agree?"

Zhang Chao said nonchalantly, "When doing business, you ask for a high price and pay a low price. If they say 35%, it's 35%, if they say 50%, it's 50%. What do they think of me? And I'm actually using this number to make them sincere enough to sit down at the negotiation table and talk to you."

Zhang Chao was very clear about Kindle's subsequent royalty policy. 35% was a universal royalty, and e-books of any price could receive this proportion of royalty distribution; but there was also a 70% royalty, which applied to e-books priced between US$2.99 ​​and US$9.99, and was only sold in specific regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, India, Brazil, and Mexico.

This is of course the solution that many authors and different platforms finally reached after bargaining with Amazon. But since it can agree to a general royalty rate of 70%, then as a writer with guaranteed sales and considerable influence, why can't Zhang Chao raise his royalties to 80%?
This deal could only be concluded before the market response to Kindle was verified and Amazon was in a state of high expectations.

Zhang Chao's words "talk to you" made Shuang Xuetao feel pressured, and he quickly asked, "Won't the number 80% anger them?"

Zhang Chao patiently explained: "Amazon is a mature business company and will not act on emotion. No matter how outrageous the number I proposed was, as long as they did not reject it on the spot, they would try to contact me again.

The K1 reader is related to their strategic layout in the field of e-book reading in the next ten years, so a good start is very important.”

At this time, Xu Ruiya said: "According to your speculation, the first batch of K1 sales will not be too high. By then, let alone 80% royalties, even if it is 100% royalties, your income will be reduced by millions of dollars.

Is it really worth working with them?"

Zhang Chao certainly knows this. The rise of Amazon and many subsequent e-book platforms actually has little impact on top authors like him, even if they stick to traditional publishing channels.

The real beneficiaries are the middle- and lower-level authors. In particular, Amazon launched the KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) platform, which allows authors to bypass traditional publishers and directly publish their works, unleashing the potential of non-mainstream themes, and giving niche genres (such as science fiction and suspense) and independent authors a living space.

For example, Andy Weir's "The Martian" became popular on the KDP platform and was then made into a movie by Hollywood.

Of course, this is also accompanied by a long business struggle, cooperation, and lawsuits between traditional publishers and Amazon... This has nothing to do with top authors like Zhang Chao - no matter which side wins, part of the increased profits will eventually fall into their pockets.

Zhang Chao asked: "You really can't understand why I am willing to suffer this loss?"

The two shook their heads in confusion. Zhang Chao sighed and explained, "What's a book? The K1 platform is bound to be a huge success! Although electronic books will not replace paper books in the future, they will be a good supplement to the reading market.

If paper books are like earning ‘whole bills’, then e-readers are like collecting ‘coins’. Although the denomination of coins is smaller than that of whole bills, the influence of small amounts of money cannot be underestimated.”

Shuang Xuetao still found it a little unbelievable and asked, "Didn't you say that this machine would cost 399 US dollars? That's more than 2000 RMB. You can buy more than 100 new books, and I don't know how many second-hand and pirated books you can buy.

Is there really someone who would spend so much money to buy a machine and then buy books to read on it? This behavior...I really find it hard to understand. "

Zhang Chao pointed at Shuang Xuetao's waist. He had an exquisite leather case on his belt with a cell phone inside. He asked, "Is this the iPhone Jeff brought back from the US? It costs $499 and doesn't have 3G network. It can only be used for making calls and listening to music. Why do you think everyone is going crazy for it?"

Shuang Xuetao's face flushed, and he recalled how excited he was when he received the phone. He suddenly understood what Zhang Chao meant, and asked quickly, "You haven't told me why you're willing to suffer a loss?"

Zhang Chao paused for a moment before saying, “K1 is an electronic reader that can access the Internet, and Weibo is an Internet reading and sharing platform. If Weibo can be embedded in K1’s bookstore system, then can 1+1 be greater than 2?
Compared with the growth of Weibo's valuation, what is the royalties from a book? "

When Shuang Xuetao and Xu Ruiya heard this, they were stunned. Wasn't Zhang Chao's intention too hidden?

This is not the end yet. Zhang Chao slowly opened his mouth and told them the next plan that shocked them...

(End of this chapter)