When Arthur received a call from Jerry Fuller, the head of the "Southern Daily Echo", he was shopping for a laptop in a shopping mall, and the desktop at home was a bit old.

At the stall where the housekeeper Paul paid, Arthur had already learned from the phone that someone from the British Duli TV station had contacted the newspaper to buy the film and television adaptation rights of the novel "Boleyn Manor".

It's finally here!

After learning the news, Arthur sighed in his heart with a confident smile, didn't he take the lead in choosing to assemble and publish the novel just to arouse the ideas of some film and television production companies or TV stations?

No matter how elegant literature is, it still has to be paid, and writers have to make a living, and they can't live on love and cold water alone. Looking at the world, behind the glamorous title of writers, their living circumstances and means of livelihood are very different, some people have become rich with bestsellers, some people have paid wages to create with peace of mind, some people are running around for life, and some people are embarrassed to survive.

You know, as a novice writer, how difficult it is to make a name for yourself in the country of England, without some means, even if the book is published, it is likely to hit the streets, and the reason why Arthur chose to write a novel is to gain fame and fortune.

With the hot influence of film and television dramas to promote the hot sale of books, this is the road Arthur decided to take from the beginning, as for why he is confident that he can sell the film and television rights of the novel, it is completely a test of Arthur's historical inertia, although this idea is very idealistic, but this does not prevent Arthur from trying, anyway, even if he does not sell the film and television rights, he can also rely on newspaper serialization to make some popularity, but the publication of the novel will not be unfamous.

Whether it is waiting for the rabbit to hit the luck, or the historical inertia that the world should be so mysterious and mysterious, it finally ushered in an opportunity for Arthur.

Grabbing his new Apple laptop, Arthur was led by his butler Paul to the site of the Southern Daily Echo newspaper in downtown Southampton, a five-storey historic building facing the street.

To be honest, one day the newspaper office will not be able to open, and this building can be sold for a good price, which is Arthur's subconscious idea after seeing the building with coffee-colored walls.

The new earl boss came to the newspaper, and Jerry Fuller, as the head of the newspaper, naturally did not slack off, personally greeted and accompanied Arthur to visit and inspect each department in the newspaper building.

In the process, Arthur also saw a lot of desks vacated in the office area, and he could also feel the somewhat hidden and complicated eyes of the newspaper employees, he knew that the layoff knife he wielded made the entire newspaper office go through a bloody storm, and he was naturally full of complicated attitudes towards his new boss, this group of employees who were a little panicked.

"You're very productive. ”

Walking into the editor-in-chief's office, as soon as Arthur sat down, he said to Jerry Fuller with a little teasing.

And Jerry Fuller poured a cup of black tea for the young earl boss with a wry smile, and said helplessly: "Layoffs are an imperative decision, to be honest, boss, your decision, everyone understands that it is correct, but it really falls on your own head, and it is unbearable, however, after estimation, if the successful completion of open source and cost reduction, the newspaper can save at least 1 million pounds a year, greatly reducing the amount of losses."

Over the past two years, newsroom branches have been merged, staff have been laid off, and more and more physical offices have been closed in an effort to cut costs. Over time, many local newspapers have become almost filled with space filled by a handful of junior journalists, which means they inevitably rely on press releases and materials provided by the authorities.

And this also means that there is less censorship in DU, which is related to people's interests and deserves attention, and there are local newspapers that can carry out investigations, showing that justice has been served, but the business model no longer exists. Ironically, the reduction in independent reviews has instead played a key role in reducing costs for local governments. ”

Hearing some helplessness, a hint of complaint, and more helpless words, Arthur just smiled, he saw the trend of paper media withdrawing from the stage of history, he saw it very clearly, with the mobile Internet, who would read newspapers.

In the past, I saw some reports in Britain and the United States, saying that they like to read, and they are willing to read newspapers and books when they take the subway, and they will never be like a certain countryman, everyone holds a mobile phone and swipes, and many media have used it to count down the mobile phone party, so I lamented how much the people of other countries love to learn.

But the truth of the matter is that they don't have a choice, why don't they read books, anyway, there is no signal in the subway... That's right, there is no signal, take the London Underground, it is the oldest underground in the world, it was opened as early as 1863, and of course there was no such thing as a mobile phone at that time.

It's a bit far, no matter what, in Arthur's view, the paper media has no future, so, as a boss, you must first ensure that you will not lose money, and it is not okay not to open source and reduce expenditure.

It's just that this requires money and time, and now is not the time for the newspaper to change, so Arthur did not continue to spend more energy on the issue of the newspaper, but diverted the topic and asked: "When will the DU TV station send someone over?"

"When I received the call, the other party said that he had left for Southampton, hoping that the newspaper could contact the boss as soon as possible, and they seemed to be determined to get "Boleyn Manor", and the conditions were very good, 750,000 pounds, this price, is indeed full of sincerity. Jerry spoke his mind.

Paul, the butler who followed Arthur, also had his eyes lit up when he heard this price, and he looked at the young earl with more admiration and satisfaction.

Although he had already learned about this price on the phone, Arthur was still a little excited when he heard it here, to be honest, he really didn't expect that the other party could offer such a sincere price, it was really difficult for people not to be moved.

"Jerry, I don't know much about selling the rights to film and television adaptations of novels, can you explain it to me?" Since you don't understand, you naturally have to ask clearly, so that you won't make any jokes in the next meeting and negotiation.

"Good boss. Jerry nodded and said, "Generally speaking, after the other party has paid the purchase price, the boss should grant and transfer to the other party the adaptation rights based on the book in perpetuity, including film and television, video or DVD, Internet productions, and some ancillary rights."

This includes, but is not limited to, the right to remake, make a sequel, television series, and merchandising and bundling. You must also grant them a perpetual right to exploit and distribute the products based on this book on all media platforms.

Boss, you need to note that among all these additional rights, the right to make a sequel is especially important. If you do not reserve the right to write a sequel for the other party under the agreement, the other party is entitled to use the characters from the first book in their original film series or TV series after paying the purchase fee, but not the characters or stories from your original sequel.

This is very important, imagine that when the other party makes a movie that is very popular, and then you write a best-selling sequel, but the other person can't touch it at this time, it is undoubtedly a very frustrating thing, so when the other party talks to you about the adaptation rights of the first book, then they will definitely fight for the adaptation rights of your original sequel.

And the fairest and most appropriate way is for the boss to insist that the other party must first exercise the right to adapt the first book, pay the price of the purchase of the rights, and then negotiate the agency rights for the sequel, so that you will have the initiative.

As for the price, one is a huge fixed fee, which is calculated separately according to the big screen movie, TV movie, miniseries, etc. The other is that the offer is tied to the budget, and conventionally, the purchase price will be about 2.5% of the final budget.

If it is a movie, in addition to the purchase price, it is generally necessary to pay a certain percentage of the film's profits to the author, which is also customary. This price point is generally 5 to 10% of the total net profit after the release of the movie.

However, the concept of net profit is actually very vague. It can use different formulas in economics to get different results, or simply depend on someone defining this "net profit". In short, people always sue each other because of this confrontation in court!

So, if it's a movie, it may take many days for the boss to negotiate with the other party how to determine the net profit. ”

"Tsk, that's a lot of trouble, it looks like James and Tom need to be notified to come over and help me negotiate. Arthur didn't expect that there were so many problems to deal with, and it seemed that professional things still had to be handed over to professional people in order to get twice the result with half the effort.