Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 34 Impact of Publication Notice

Cao Sheng logged into his email.

Sure enough, I saw an email from Wang Jing.

The content of this email is as follows:
"Cao Sheng, I have good news for you. Your book, "The Days of Living with a Stewardess," has passed the review of Huacheng Publishing House. They are very interested in publishing your work. We have helped you negotiate the terms and they have agreed to give you 8% royalties. This royalty is not low. The royalties that newcomers can get for their new works in China are generally only 6%. We used our personal connections to help you negotiate the royalty to 8%. If you have no objection, we will sign a contract with them based on these terms and you just need to wait to receive the money..."

When Cao Sheng read this email, he just glanced at the rest of the content without reading it carefully.

Because there is no valuable information behind it.

8% royalty...

He had heard of the concept of royalties before.

At first glance, it sounds like a tax, but it is actually another way of saying royalties. The difference from fixed royalties is that royalties are calculated based on the pricing and sales volume of the work.

The higher the price and sales volume of a work, the higher the total amount of royalties the author will eventually receive.

But if sales are not good, the final total amount of royalties will not be high.

This method of calculating royalties can sometimes make an author rich overnight with just one book, such as JK Rowling, the author of "Harry Potter".

Of course, Cao Sheng did not expect that this book would make him rich.

But he does prefer royalties to fixed fees.

The only drawback is probably that the royalty calculation cycle is relatively long. After a book is published, you may have to wait half a year or even several years before you can get the full royalties.

He gave Wang Jing a positive reply.

Agree to have Huacheng Publishing House publish this book.

He doesn't need to worry about the follow-up matters.

He had already copied the unpublished manuscripts of "Living with the Air Hostess" to Wang Jing when she came over before, so he didn't even need to provide the subsequent manuscripts again for this publication.

A few days later, he received an advance payment from Huacheng Publishing House. It was not much. After deducting the share from Under the Banyan Tree, Cao Sheng only got about 3,000 yuan.

Because Huacheng Publishing House only prepared 5000 copies for the first print run.

The price is only 22 yuan per copy.

Even if all of them were sold, they could only fetch about 100,000 yuan.

If the first print run of 5000 copies is not sold out, no further printing will be done, and Cao Sheng will not receive any subsequent royalties.

That's the risk of taking royalties.

This is also the reason why some writers these days pay for their works out of their own pockets and publish them at their own expense.

Many books, even if printed, find it difficult to sell more than a few thousand copies, and publishing houses don't make any profit. If authors want to publish, they can only pay for it themselves.

Fortunately, Cao Sheng’s book “Living with a Flight Attendant” has become popular on Under the Banyan Tree, and has been read by more than one million people.

After it was confirmed that the book would be published by Huacheng Publishing House, Under the Banyan Tree placed a pre-sale announcement in a prominent position on the homepage of its website.

For a time, it attracted a lot of people's attention.

“Warmly celebrate the publication of Zhongyuan Yidianhui’s masterpiece “The Days of Living with a Stewardess”, which is about to be published. Those who are interested can pre-order it!”

With such a red banner at the top of the website's homepage, it is hard for readers who enter the website not to notice it.

Cao Sheng saw that many people were discussing this matter in his book review section.

Late one night, he came to an Internet cafe for the night. Before converting some of his saved manuscripts into electronic documents, he first logged into Under the Banyan Tree to check the data in his book "Living with the Air Hostess".

In the book review section, he saw the following comments.

"This book is actually going to be published. It's really popular!"

"Is it going to be published? There aren't that many words in this book now, right? Is it enough to publish a whole book? Or has a lot of words already been written in this book? Is it just that the author is too mean and deliberately updates slowly? Is he trying to tempt us to spend money to buy his book? This is too mean!"

"Extra! It is said that this book has been completed a long time ago, and this time the full text is published. If you want to read the subsequent chapters, you can go to the homepage of the website to pre-order. You can pre-order a copy for 22 yuan."

"Fuck! Zhongyuan Yidianhui, you really deserve your name. You've clearly finished writing this book, but you only updated one chapter in two days. You're trying to seduce us into buying your book, right? You're really evil-minded! No wonder you don't dare to name yourself Zhongyuan Yidianbai! I don't think you're gray! You should be called Zhongyuan Yidianhei!"

"We've made your book popular, and you want to make money from us, right? And you want to publish it... What era is this? Can't you just serialize it online? Other people's books are serialized for free, but you want to publish it and charge for it? Do you have any Internet spirit?"...

and many more.

Cao Sheng couldn't finish reading all the book reviews like this.

I don't know who spread the rumor, but it turned out that this book had been completed long ago.

Wouldn't this make him get scolded?

Are all the royalties I earn from this publication going to be wasted money?

Being scolded by readers is a bit depressing after all.

But he felt even happier when he thought about the publication of his book.

However, such intensive publicity under the banyan tree also had some impact on his real life.

Two nights later, when he finished writing the manuscript and returned to the dormitory, his roommates looked at him differently again.

Pang Yunhai had a complicated expression and was the first to speak, "Cao Sheng! I heard that your pornographic book was really published?"

Several roommates looked at Cao Sheng.

Cao Sheng was a little surprised, "How did you know?"

Song Chao chuckled, "Do you really think that none of us know how to use the Internet? Ever since the editor from Under the Banyan Tree came to our dormitory to look for you last time, we have already looked online at your book "Living with a Flight Attendant". Today, when I went online, I took another look and saw the publication notice of your book on the homepage of the website. You still don't admit it?"

Guan Zhi: "Cao Sheng! Have you earned your royalties now? Shouldn't you treat us to a meal?"

Cao Sheng: “…”

The Internet fee in 98 was too expensive, 5 yuan per hour, which made many people afraid to go to Internet cafes. In his impression, his roommates did not have the habit of surfing the Internet.

Therefore, he originally thought that it would take some time before they would hear about the publication of his book.

I didn't expect these guys to know it so quickly.

"What do you want to eat?"

He had no reason to refuse the treat, so he decided to satisfy them this time.

Otherwise, he might be isolated in this dormitory in the future.

Besides, he didn't want people to say that he was too stingy.

When he asked this question, his roommates immediately became excited.

"I want a big meal!"

someone shouted.

Cao Sheng: "No big meal!"

“Then grill it!”

Someone suggested.