Smith thought that Xiang Nan was the kind of nerd who only immersed himself in creation and had no knowledge of world affairs, let alone foreign situations, so he cajoled and frightened him in every possible way.

But he didn't expect that Xiang Nan was much smarter than him.

Indeed, as Xiang Nan said, Random House is the largest publishing company in the United States. Every move it makes attracts attention in the industry. So if it discovers any good books or good ideas, other publishing houses will definitely follow suit.

Therefore, publishing companies often kill the wrong ones. Once they find a promising idea, even if the quality of the work is not that high, they will sign it first to prevent it from being poached by other companies.

And even if one of these seedlings' works sells well, it will be enough to compensate for their losses.

Just like today's idol companies, they sign a lot of new people as soon as they sign. Even if they don't have the resources to offer so much, they won't give it to their peers.

Therefore, if he really doesn't sign Xiang Nan, then other companies will definitely sign it. By then, if it becomes popular, he will become a joke in the industry.

Xiang Nan himself is one of the most well-known writers in China. If his works sell less than one million copies in the mainland, they are considered failures.

A writer like this will not fail even if he goes to the United States. Just like Zhang Ailing, she is good at writing Chinese novels. Even if her works are not too popular after going to the United States, they are still much better than newcomers.

Therefore, after thinking about it, Smith finally chose to sign a cooperation agreement with Xiang Nan.

Xiang Nan himself translated "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" into English and had it published by Random House. Random House paid Xiang Nan the remuneration and royalties.

The royalty rate is 10%, which is also the rate for ordinary authors.

If you are like Stephen King, rl Stan ("Goosebumps" series), Dan Brown ("The Da Vinci Code"), Neil Gaiman ("American Gods"), George Martin ("Ice") For great writers such as "A Song of Fire"), the royalties can even reach 30% to 40%.

However, although the commission is small now, Xiang Nan believes that one day he will get a commission higher than that of Stephen King, Dan Brown, and George Martin.

…

I heard that Xiang Nan rejected Random House's million-dollar buyout and instead prepared to cooperate on a profit-sharing basis. Many people expressed their disbelief.

They feel that one bird in hand is better than a hundred birds in the bush. One million dollars is enough to spend a lifetime.

On the contrary, if the form of royalties is used, if the book is not popular and cannot achieve high sales, then Xiang Nan will lose money. At that time, not to mention one million US dollars, I am afraid it will be thousands or tens of thousands of US dollars. , which is considered quite good.

So they all laughed at Xiang Nan's choice.

"Do you really think your novel will be popular in the United States? I really don't know how high the sky is."

"A talented woman like Zhang Ailing is not popular in the United States. She is still in China and has not been abroad. Can she write works that are popular with foreigners?"

"Cheng Jianjun has been famous in China for a long time, so he is arrogant and thinks that he is popular everywhere. In fact, he simply cannot see the situation clearly. No matter how good the works of our mainland writers are, they are no better than those from foreign countries."

They discussed one after another, saying that they all felt that the moon in foreign countries was rounder, and they had no expectations for the sales of Xiang Nan's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" abroad.

Similar words also reached Xiang Nan's ears.

But he doesn't care, it's a mule or a horse, take it out for a walk. Everything depends on the results. No matter how much you have now, it's just talk.

So now, he is seizing the time to translate "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", publish it, and when the time comes, he will slap those people in the face with his results.

…

Entering 1987, Jin Manying's business continued to expand, with thirty-six branches open, and he was also preparing to expand to surrounding provinces and cities, such as Jinmen, Langfang, Tangshan and other places to open up new markets.

For this reason, Xiang Nan specially improved the pot base. In addition to the traditional clear soup and meat-shabu-shabu, new varieties such as red oil hot pot, mushroom soup hot pot, nourishing hot pot, and mandarin duck hot pot were also added.

First of all, when it comes to eating shabu-shabu in Beijing, the mutton is brought from outside the mouth. The meat is tender and has no smell, and is extremely tender. It is delicious even when it is simmered in clear soup.

But the mutton from other places does not necessarily come from outside the country. It is probably the local sheep, and the meat quality is not that good. The taste will be different when the clear soup is shabu-shabu. Therefore, the bottom of the pot must be changed and the taste must be heavier to compensate.

The shortcomings of mutton.

Secondly, tourists from other places may not necessarily have the same taste as Yanjing people. It is said that the south is sweet, the north is salty, the east is spicy and the west is sour, so adding some flavors will give diners more choices.

At the beginning of the same year, Cai Xiaoli was promoted from associate section to full section and served as section chief of the Social Security Section.

Five years after graduation, I was promoted from section member to section chief, which is very fast. My classmates who graduated in the same period are only now starting to advance to associate section.

Cai Xiaoli knew that the reason why she was promoted to a major was not because of her ability or hard work, but mostly because of Xiang Nan's face. However, this already made her very happy.

…

In February 1987, the crew of "Triumph at Midnight" returned to Yanjing.

Feng Xiaogang also appeared in front of Xiang Nan again, "Professor Cheng, my little Gangzi is back again."

"How's it going? Did the filming in Southern Xinjiang go well?" Xiang Nan asked with a smile.

"It's not bad. The local army has special cooperation. Tanks, firearms, and soldiers are all available for free, which saves a lot of money. Otherwise, what else would 400,000 yuan be enough for?" Feng Xiaogang nodded.

Xiang Nan smiled.

At this stage, mainland TV stations basically rely on state financial allocations. They are not commercial enough and not entertaining enough, so they cannot make much money.

In 1983, the advertising revenue of national TV stations was only 34 million yuan. In comparison, in 2020, the traditional advertising revenue of national TV stations was as high as 78 billion yuan.

Television stations had no income, so naturally they could not spend much money to produce new programs. Therefore, in the 1980s, the output of national television programs was very low. No more than 1,500 episodes of TV series were produced in a year.

In comparison, in 2019, more than 13,000 episodes of TV series were distributed nationwide, and half of them could not be released after filming.

This shows how poor mainland TV stations were in the 1980s. This phenomenon did not begin to improve until the mid-1990s.

"Anyway, as long as the filming is finished." Xiang Nan nodded.

"Yes, you are right." Feng Xiaogang smiled and said, "By the way, Professor Cheng, I have a few friends who admire you very much. Would you like to meet them?"

"Who are they?" Xiang Nan asked curiously.

"They are all my magnets. For example, Wang Tie who wrote "Half Seawater, Usually Fire", Zheng Xiaolong who filmed "Four Generations Under One Roof", Ma Weidu, the editor of "Youth Literature", and the author of "Undercover Police"

Hai Yi, Liu Zhenyun who wrote "Tapu", Su Tong who wrote "The Escape of 1934", etc." Feng Xiaogang explained.
Chapter completed!