Chapter 36 Sanlian Publishing House
After Ming Pao came out, Liu Hongmin temporarily put the matter of Jin Yong's novel aside.
There wasn't much work for consultant Shao Bao. He just gave some suggestions on the costumes, asking them not to be too exaggerated since it is a historical drama after all.
The most important thing is the set design, which at least has to look like the real thing. Land in Hong Kong is very expensive, and RTV's studio is not big, so many shots need to be built temporarily. Therefore, Liu Hongmin mostly works with the set designers, telling them what kind of scenes to make and what details to pay attention to.
However, as the filming began and the set designers gained experience, Liu Hongmin could provide less and less guidance.
After he had some free time, he began to write the outline for the second part of Shao Bao.
After weighing the pros and cons between the two, Liu Hongmin finally chose Shao Bao Part 2. Taking advantage of Shao Bao's popularity in Hong Kong, he wanted to make some more films to earn some Hong Kong dollars.
On this day, Luo Baoming brought a man with him.
"Mr. Liu, this is Mr. Yang Guiren from Sanlian Publishing House. This time, I want to discuss the publication of Shao Bao's books."
Liu Hongmin became interested. "Hello, Mr. Yang. Does Sanlian Publishing House want to publish Shao Bao's single volume in Hong Kong?"
Yang Guiren smiled and shook hands with Liu Hongmin. "Not only a single volume, we also want to publish a collection."
Liu Hongmin raised his eyebrows, "Can you tell me more about it?"
Yang Guiren: "We know that the drama Shao Bao will be broadcast after the new year. As long as the RTV production is good, it will definitely cause a hit effect. We plan to take this opportunity to publish the single volume first. As the plot of the TV series progresses, seven single volumes will be released gradually. After the TV series is finished, we will publish a collection and add the pictures of the TV series as illustrations. I believe many book fans will buy a set for collection."
Liu Hongmin gave a thumbs up and said, "You guys are really good at making money!"
Seeing that Liu Hongmin approved the plan, Yang Guiren took out a contract.
"Mr. Liu, this is the contract we drafted, you can take a look."
In Hong Kong, the royalty system is implemented for publishing books. Liu Hongmin is not very famous now, but Shao Bao is very famous, so Sanlian Publishing House did not give the lowest 5%, of course, nor the highest 10%, but gave 9%.
Liu Hongmin looked at Yang Guiren and said, "Mr. Yang, is this the royalty standard in Hong Kong?"
Yang Guiren's eyes flickered. "Although this is the royalty standard in Hong Kong, it is almost the same in Southeast Asia."
Liu Hongmin smiled and said, "The Hong Kong market is small, so I accept the 9% royalty, but I don't need to tell you how big the market is in Southeast Asia, right?"
"Mr. Liu, that's not how it works. The Southeast Asian market is indeed huge, but except for Green Island, all other places are English speaking areas..."
"So, you want to translate Shao Bao into English? Can it be released in Europe and America as well?"
Yang Guiren's mouth twitched, "Mr. Liu, Shao Bao's story is not suitable for Europe and the United States."
"With so many Chinatowns, we can definitely sell some, right?"
Yang Guiren opened his mouth speechlessly, "We don't have this channel, and we can't cover all Chinatowns."
Liu Hongmin: "It doesn't matter. I don't care how many channels you have. Let's change the cooperation model. I will give you the distribution rights of traditional Chinese, and we will handle the royalties in different levels. I only want 6% for printing 8 copies, 10% for exceeding 12 copies, 15% for copies, % for copies, and % for copies. The collection is not counted separately, it is directly added to the number of copies printed."
Yang Guiren calculated silently that Liu Hongmin's asking price was not too high. If he could really buy 15 copies, he would be fine with 20%, not to mention %. The more copies he printed, the lower the cost. The reduced cost would be enough to pay Liu Hongmin's extra royalties.
In other words, the money earned by Sanlian Publishing House is equal to 8-9% of Liu Hongmin's royalties. If this cooperation method was not so novel and required approval from the leadership, he would have agreed to it directly.
The collection is not a big deal. If the collection is counted separately, the royalties for Liu Hongmin will be much higher than normal. After all, it is a hardcover book, and the selling price is much higher. The number that can be sold will not be too large.
"Mr. Liu, I will go back and ask for instructions and give you a reply in two days."
"No problem at all!"
Liu Hongmin sent the two away and returned to the office to continue writing the outline for the second part of Shao Bao.
Shao Bao Part 2 is composed of six stories: "A Better Tomorrow", "Boundless Loyalty", "Hidden Dragon and Crouching Tiger", "Stealing Heaven and Earth", "Shocking" and "The Dragnet".
Because the first part of Shao Bao was suspected of plagiarism, the second part used original stories. Because the screenwriter's reasoning ability is not good enough, the crime process and reasoning are much weaker, and it looks more fake than the first part.
But these are not problems for Liu Hongmin, as he has countless detective plots in his mind that have not yet been created.
There are more than a thousand episodes of The Elementary School Student Who Dies, and the methods of committing crimes in it are enough for him to learn.
To make up for the shortcomings in reasoning in the second part of Shao Bao, the love scenes were cut, the roles of Gongsun Ce, Wang Chao, Ma Han, Zhang Long and Zhao Hu were weakened, and the main character combination of Bao Zheng and Zhan Zhao was still maintained, following the style of the first part written by Liu Hongmin himself.
In this way, the watchability of the second part of Shao Bao is greatly increased.
Two days later, Yang Guiren came to see Liu Hongmin. This time, he came on his own.
"Mr. Liu, we at Sanlian Publishing House can accept your conditions. But the publishing house hopes to obtain the Japanese and Korean copyrights under the same conditions."
As one of the four Asian tigers, the Southern Dynasty has a very developed economy and a large market for mystery novels.
The Japanese market is the largest market for mystery novels in Asia. If Shao Bao can succeed in the Japanese market, he will make a lot of money.
"Does your publishing house have channels in the Southern Dynasty and the Japanese?"
Yang Guiren nodded, "Yes, we have local partners. Although some people earn less from sharing the profits, there is absolutely no problem in distributing the products comprehensively. The only question is whether the story of Shao Bao can attract readers in both places."
Liu Hongmin shook his head. "I don't know either, but it's always a good idea to try."
Liu Hongmin didn't have high hopes for Southern Dynasty. If he could sell 50,000 copies, that would be considered a lot. But he could still look forward to the Japanese side. Given the market size there, even if they didn't like the small packs, they could probably sell 100,000 copies.
So Liu Hongmin signed all three contracts. Then he said, "After the RTV TV series is released, if it causes a craze, you can help sell it to the Japanese and Southern Dynasties, and maybe it can increase sales."
Yang Guiren smiled and nodded, "The publisher also considered this, otherwise they would not dare to publish the Japanese and Korean versions."
(End of this chapter)
