After discussing the textbooks of the School of Philosophy, Professor Luke looked at Professor Jacob on the side, and only heard him smile and say:

"As for the textbooks of the school's new approach school, I think we can also use the textbooks of the University of London, which is a world-class comprehensive university, and the law school of UCL (University of London) has the best level of research in the UK. ”

Professor Luke is from the University of London, and naturally hopes that the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Law established by the University of Hong Kong will be able to use the textbooks of the University of London, so as to demonstrate the strong teaching strength of the University of London to all students and expand the reputation of the University of London in Hong Kong.

Professor Jacob, who was sitting next door to Professor Jacob of Oxford, was angry, and he walked over and said, "Is the law school of Oxford University bad? I think the school can use the law textbooks of Oxford University." ”

After listening to Professor Jacob's words, Professor Luke smiled and said, "It seems that Oxford University has an Oxford publishing house in Hong Kong, are you sure they will authorize you to print law textbooks?"

"We can buy it from Oxford. Professor Jacob said.

"That increases the cost of textbooks, which have always been expensive at Oxford. Professor Luke said.

Professor Jacob's face froze, the books of Oxford Press such as academic textbooks are indeed very expensive, he thought for a while, and said: "I can apply for a batch of cheap textbooks from Oxford University." ”

"No, you can apply for a batch at most, what about the future? The University of London does not have a publishing house in Hong Kong, so I can apply to the University of London for the copyright of the relevant textbooks, so that I only need to find a publishing house or printing house to print the books very cheaply. ”

Professor Luke's point is obvious, that is, there is Oxford Publishing House in Hong Kong, and they need to make a profit, so the price of books such as academic textbooks must be very expensive.

But the University of London is different, they do not have a publishing house in Hong Kong, they only need to pay a copyright fee, and the future textbooks can be printed at will and provided to students cheaply.

Professor Jacob was visibly stunned by Professor Luke's words.

truly

It is impossible for Oxford Press to provide books to the University of Hong Kong cheaply for a long time, after all, Oxford Press has been established for almost 600 years, and has already had a very rich management and sales methods.

It is simply not possible to sell the copyright of the textbook to any publisher in Hong Kong, as Professor Luke has said, because it is not in the interest of Oxford.

In the face of the argument between Professor Luke and Professor Jacob, Director Huang naturally hoped that the school could pick up the bargain, so he was more inclined to support Professor Luke.

Since the establishment of the University of Hong Kong, although there have been some donations from celebrities and wealthy businessmen and special grants from the Hong Kong Governor's Government, this can only maintain the operation of the school, as well as the improvement and maintenance of the school's facilities, and students still need to buy their own textbooks.

It's nothing if the family conditions are better, it's not bad for the money.

However, there are always many students whose family conditions are average, and if the textbooks and tutorial books are very expensive, it will increase the pressure on the students' families.

Although Director Huang is not an honest official, he still has a heart for education, so he supports Professor Luke in his heart.

Obtaining the copyright of textbooks and books, whether it is reopening the University of Hong Kong Press or handing it over to an outside printing house for printing, can be sold to students almost cheaply.

...

Professor Luke and Professor Jacob argued about this, and in the end they did not decide which university textbook to use.

In the end, Director Huang said that the matter of textbooks and books would be postponed and that he would wait for the principal to come back and make a decision.

After the meeting.

Huo Yaowen hurriedly took a few steps to keep up with Teacher Zhang's steps.

The two walked side by side towards the dormitory.

Huo Yaowen asked, "Teacher, when did the school's publishing house close?"

"It's been a few years. ”

Zhang Chengyi said as he walked: "It seems to be 64 years, yes, it is 64 years, I remember that year there was a typhoon in Hong Kong, which destroyed a lot of shacks. ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Chengyi glanced back at Huo Yaowen and asked curiously, "Why are you asking this?"

"Just now, Professor Luke said that he was going to apply for textbooks from the University of London. ”

"Well, but I don't think the school will reopen the publishing house, and it would be too wasteful to reopen the publishing house every year to print students' textbooks. ”

In 1956, the University of Hong Kong set up a publishing house with the idea of being self-sufficient, and then publishing some related academic books, just like the University of Oxford.

But it turned out that opening a publishing house was a wrong choice, and self-sufficiency was enough, but few people bought the academic books published, mainly because there was Oxford Press in Hong Kong, which was also a publishing company affiliated with the university, and the academic books published by Oxford Press were a little more rigorous and well-known than the University of Hong Kong.

In addition to printing a batch of textbooks every year for academics, it is almost impossible for the University of Hong Kong Press to continue operating, so in the case of long-term losses, the university has no choice but to close the publishing house and only find people from outside to print textbooks.

Hearing this, Huo Yaowen pondered for a moment and asked, "Is all the printing equipment of the school publishing house sold?"

"The printing press from more than ten years ago, no one wants it if it is sold, is it possible to sell it as scrap iron?" Mr. Zhang glanced at Huo Yaowen, the other party's questions were very strange, and he couldn't help but wonder: "Yaowen, what do you mean by this?"

"Hehe, teacher, what do you think of me if I bought this closed publishing house from the school?" asked Huo Yaowen with a grin.

Zhang Chengyi's face was shocked, he looked Huo Yaowen up and down, frowned and said, "Why did you buy a publishing house?"

"Of course it's a publishing house!"

Huo Yaowen respected Zhang Chengyi very much, so he didn't hide it, and said bluntly: "The money I earn as a teacher is too small, I want to do a certain business, I didn't consider the publishing house before, but just now Professor Luke said that he wanted to apply for copyright, but he reminded me that I can buy the school's publishing house and operate book publishing." ”

Hearing Huo Yaowen say that he wanted to make money, Zhang Chengyi didn't care much, after all, everyone wanted to make money, he was old, there was no place to spend money, and the school's benefits were very good for an old teacher like him, so he didn't care much about this aspect of things.

"It's not that simple to open a publishing house. ”

Zhang Chengyi didn't hit Huo Yaowen, saying that the other party was not suitable, but said patiently to him: "First of all, don't mention the problem of book sales and management, starting from employees and equipment, you first need to recruit editors, proofreaders, finance, reviewers, printers, etc." And there must be no mistakes in the printing process, otherwise it will cost a lot of money to redo the template. I don't know what the current printing press is, but if it's not suitable, you need to buy it again, and it costs a lot of money. ”

"It can be handed over to the people in the printing house. ”

Zhang Chengyi smiled: "Yes." You can all be handed over to the printing house to be responsible, so how can the school agree to sell the publishing house to you? Anyway, it will be handed over to the printing house for printing, so why should you have more? ”

Hearing this, Huo Yaowen was dumbfounded.

Zhang Chengyi patted him on the shoulder and said: "I know that you are still young and want to make more money, since the school has closed the publishing house, it means that it is difficult to maintain business from the school textbooks alone. ”

Listening to Teacher Zhang's bitter words, Huo Yaowen pondered for a long time, nodded and said, "I know the teacher." ”

"Well, it's good to know, in fact, being a teacher doesn't mean that you can't get money, and when you become a regular teacher, the school will give you a lot of benefits, such as pensions and the like. ”

Regarding the series of problems mentioned by Mr. Zhang, Huo Yaowen really didn't think about it in detail just now, he just wanted to see if he could buy the publishing house that the school had closed, and then start from printing textbooks and books, and slowly expand the number of books distributed.

As it turns out, opening a publishing house is not so simple.

However, even if Zhang Chengyi said that it was difficult to open a publishing house, Huo Yaowen was still a little reluctant to give up, although he had a lot of ideas in his mind to make money, such as investing in Hong Kong real estate, or waiting until the establishment of the Far East Exchange next year to buy stocks, or a little more troublesome, waiting for more than ten years to invest in the mainland.

After all, he has memories of the next few decades, although he is not very clear about many ways to make money, but it is still possible to find some from the memory of history.

But it all takes time, and it takes a lot of time to wait for the opportunity.

Thinking of this, Fok Yaowen always felt that this was a good opportunity, after all, there are only two formal universities in Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong and the University of Chinese, except for the University of Hong Kong, which opened a publishing house in the early years, Chinese universities have not established their own publishing houses so far.

If you can rely on the name of the University of Hong Kong to open a publishing house, whether it is famous or other aspects, it will be far beyond the ordinary publishing house.

But think about it, what Mr. Zhang said before is still reasonable, if you want to set up a publishing house, it is not so simple, the University of Hong Kong itself established a publishing house has closed down due to serious losses, Huo Yaowen does not understand the operation of the publishing house, if you want to maintain the daily profit of the publishing house, this is not just by talking.

After returning to Teacher Zhang's dormitory and taking away the gift bag, Huo Yaowen went to Director Huang, Anna Isabel, and Teacher Zhang and Wang Bona next door.

After giving the gift, Huo Yaowen saw that there was no class today, so he decided to go to "Oriental Daily", and he didn't know what happened to Gu Shu Zimo last time.

Although he told Editor-in-Chief Li before leaving Hong Kong, he still had to go over and ask in person.

...

Oriental Press.

Li Daoguang looked at Huo Yaowen, who he hadn't seen for more than half a month, and asked with a smile, "When did Huo Sheng come back from the United States?"

"I only came back yesterday. Huo Yaowen smiled, handed the gift he was carrying to the other party and said, "Editor-in-Chief Li, this is a small gift I bought from the United States, and it is not a respect." ”

"And gifts. Li Daoguang smiled, and then pretended to sigh and said: "It seems that Huo Sheng's stay in the United States for half a month is quite good, and he can still have time to go shopping." I can't do it anymore, I've been so busy lately that I'm going to be dizzy, and in addition to the newspaper work, I'm going to help you write some swearing articles in the newspaper. ”

"What?" Huo Yaowen frowned and asked, "That Gu Shu Zimo started again?"

"Yes, every two days after you left, he scolded in the "Emperor's Daily", which may have been a lot of learning, and he did not name names, but beat around the bush, and the scolding was very vague. ”

Li Daoguang continued with a smile on his face: "But I'm not bad, I specially wrote several essays for you. ”

"Oh, is there a retained manuscript?" Huo Yaowen asked with a smile.

"Of course, I keep all the newspapers just to treat me to a meal when you come back. Li Daoguang opened the cabinet under the desk and took out a stack of newspapers from it, in addition to the text written by Li Daoguang, there was also the content written by Gu Shu Zimo in the "Emperor Daily", which he kept for Huo Yaowen.

Huo Yaowen took the newspaper and flipped through it a few times, there were eight in total, five for "Emperor Daily" and three for "Oriental Daily".

Without exception, the front page is full of content scolding each other, but perhaps it is learning from his own method of scolding obscurively last time, and the other party did not name him this time, but was extremely obscure and invulnerable.

"Of course, Editor-in-Chief Li helped me so much that I couldn't say it without a meal. Huo Yaowen grinned and said, "Why don't you just do it tonight?"

"Tonight?" Li Daoguang shook his head and said, "Not tonight, I have an appointment tonight." ”

"Next time, then. ”

After Huo Yaowen finished speaking casually, he suddenly remembered what he had talked about with Mr. Zhang before, and couldn't help asking, "Editor-in-Chief Li, what kind of printing press is your newspaper using now?"

"What?" Editor-in-Chief Li wondered, "How can Huo Sheng ask about this." ”

"It's nothing, it's just that when I was in a school meeting just now, I said that I was going to print a batch of textbooks and books, and I asked casually. ”

"Oh, then our printing press won't work. ”

Editor-in-Chief Li said: "The printing press of our newspaper is relatively old, it is the old machine ten years ago, and it still uses a lead alloy letterpress printing press. Books like Huo Sheng's textbooks are generally printed with the latest lithographic offset printing, like when I was working at Ta Kung Pao, they used this latest printing press to publish books. ”

"What's the difference?" Huo Yaowen asked.

I thought that the printing press of the school should be the lead alloy letterpress mentioned by Li Daoguang.

"The difference is big, first of all, the lead alloy letterpress printing machine needs professional printers, and the process of printing newspapers is relatively long, and it smells particularly bad. The lithographic offset printing machine adopts the principle of incompatibility of water and ink to carry out flat printing, and the graphic information on the printing plate is transferred (printed) to the paper through the blanket cylinder. ”

Huo Yaowen didn't know much about this, but thinking of what he had seen in later generations, he asked, "Isn't there a printing press that uses a roller?"

"It's not a wheel, it's a wheel. ”

Li Daoguang said with a smile: "This technology has it, and the efficiency of printing paper is also very high, but few newspapers in Hong Kong use it, because the method of full rotary printing is too ink-intensive, and the cost will be very high." And the investment cost is also a lot, I don't know the specific price of such a printing press, but I think it will take at least 150,000 yuan. This is not the most important thing, the most important thing is the money of ink, and rotary printing will consume a lot of ink. ”

Speaking of the matter of the printing press, Li Daoguang continued: "I made an appointment with President Ma tonight to discuss the matter of the printing press, and now the newspaper sales of the newspaper can basically exceed 10,000 every day, so I am ready to propose to President Ma to buy a lithographic offset printing machine, so that the efficiency will be improved a lot." ”

Huo Yaowen asked, "How much does it cost?"

Li Daoguang shook his head: "I don't know, but it's about seventy or eighty thousand, it depends on what brand it is, RB Komori and Mitsubishi are much cheaper than Heidelberg in Germany." Although the quality of Heidelberg is very good, I would also like to use Heidelberg's printing presses, but Komori and Mitsubishi's printing presses are also ok and the price is a little cheaper. ”

Seventy or eighty thousand!!

Huo Yaowen was instantly occluded.

Buy, he certainly can't afford it.

And even if you buy a printing press, it will be difficult to pay for the staff and space.

For a while, Huo Yaowen had a headache.

Thinking of this, Huo Yaowen regretted that he had signed a sharing agreement with the people of Bantan Books, and he knew that it would be good to sell it out directly, at least for tens of thousands of US dollars, plus his own 20,000 or 30,000 Hong Kong dollars, it would be almost enough to establish a publishing house.

PS: Ask for recommendation tickets, ask for collections, ask for rewards.