Regarding the other party's proposal, Zhuang Yan shook his head and refused: "If I tell my identity, I think maybe you are not the only publishing house that will come to me now." ”

Assistant Li smiled: "Of course I know this, with the name of the pioneer writer Zhuang Yan, the publishing houses that may contact you can be ranked from Jinling to Yanjing." But Mr. Zhuang, you must know that because of this, it is enough to show the sincerity of our publishing house. We were interested in contacting you for publication before we knew who you were, doesn't that just show that our publisher attaches great importance to this book?"

In fact, the 10% royalty is very good for a fairy tale, and it is such a long fairy tale book, but Zhuang Yan himself knows the potential of the book, so he is not very satisfied with this condition.

But the publishing house is also in business, not charity, and it is impossible to give him too high conditions, even if they are optimistic about the book, but they are not willing to gamble with their own money.

Zhuang Yan thought for a while and said a compromise method: "In this way, I am not satisfied with the conditions you gave, why don't we change the way of cooperation and have a ladder royalty?"

"Tiered royalties?" Assistant Li was certainly no stranger to this method, and he was a little curious: "I don't know what Mr. Zhuang's plan is?"

Zhuang Yan said with a smile: "The reserve price is at 10% royalty, no matter how much you print for the first time and how much you sell in the end, the royalty is 10%." When I sell more than 10 million copies, I get 12 percent of the royalties. ”

Assistant Li was taken aback: "Mr. Zhuang, are you serious, 10 million copies?"

"How many are 10 million copies? Don't forget, this book is sold in ten parts. Zhuang Yan said.

"Oh, I forgot, so what do you mean by that, if a single volume exceeds one million, it will be counted as twelve percent?" Assistant Li reacted, "But this is not suitable, as far as I know, many books that sell more than one million copies on the market today do not reach the royalty of twelve percent." ”

Zhuang Yan smiled, and said in his heart, I will ask for a price all over the sky, can't you just sit on the ground and pay back?" He continued: "Don't be in a hurry first, wait until I finish all the plans." ”

"Okay, please. ”

"More than 10 million copies will be counted as 12 percent, more than 20 million copies will be counted as 14 percent, more than 30 million copies will be counted as 16 percent, and more than 40 million copies will be counted as 16 percent, and more than 40 million copies will be ......."

"Impossible!" Before Zhuang Yan finished speaking, Assistant Li said, "The plan you said is really outrageous, I have never seen such a high royalty until now, and it cannot be said that a single book sells more than four million copies everywhere, it is not a rare thing, but I have never heard of such a high royalty." ”

Zhuang Yan smiled: "Then what plan do you say should be followed, you don't agree with my plan, at least you have to give a plan, right?"

Assistant Li paused suddenly, he really couldn't decide on this matter, so he said, "Mr. Zhuang, I need to ask Mr. Yu for advice on this matter." ”

"No problem, you go and ask. Zhuang Yan didn't care, he said that this plan was originally a bargain for them.

About half an hour later, the call came again, but this time it was a different person.

As soon as the phone was connected, a hearty voice came, "Hello Zhuang Yan, I'm Yu Hai from the Literary and Art Publishing House." ”

It turned out that the editor-in-chief was out of the horse, and Zhuang Yan said with a smile: "Hello Mr. Yu, you have to talk about this little thing in person." ”

Yu Hai smiled, "I can't do it if I don't come, Xiao Li told me about your demand, you want ladder royalties?"

"Well, since Assistant Li told you, I won't repeat it. Zhuang Yan said.

Yu Hai groaned and said: "The tiered royalties you mentioned are also a good method, but the specific conditions still need to be discussed. As you know, the royalties of fairy tales are generally not high, and it is also the greatest sincerity of our publishing house to give 10% of the royalties. Two days ago, our publishing house also published a children's book, and we only gave 6% of the royalty, which is nearly half of the 10%. ”

Zhuang Yan smiled and said: "Mr. Yu, I heard Mr. Wang say that you are a refreshing person, let's be more direct." If you have any objections to my plan, you have to come up with a plan. ”

Yu Hai choked for a moment, and said in his heart that I was refreshing, but now I am talking about business, and what I am talking about is money, so I can't get up directly. However, he still smiled and said: "Zhuang Yan, you are really a direct person, so let's give you a thorough explanation, according to the tiered royalty plan you said, the reserve price is ten percent, and for every 20 million increase in total sales, the royalty will increase by one point, what do you think?"

Zhuang Yan gasped, this Yu Hai's knife was too ruthless, and he directly cut down three-quarters of his plan, which was originally two points for every ten million royalties added, but now it has become twenty million plus one point.

"Mr. Yu, you're too ruthless. Twenty million, you only give one point?" Zhuang Yan said.

Yu Hai smiled: "You asked for a price before, didn't I sit on the ground and pay back, each other." ”

Zhuang Yan pouted, this Editor-in-Chief Yu is really hearty, but what he said is also right, since he is asking for a sky-high price, he should allow others to sit on the ground and repay the money.

Thinking of this, Zhuang Yanxin was a little tired, and he suddenly found that he was still not suitable for talking about these things, so he directly said his psychological price: "That's it, Mr. Yu, I won't ask you for a price all over the sky, every time you increase 10 million, the royalty will be added by a point, what do you think?"

Yu Hai was silent for a while and said, "Yes, but sixteen percent is the upper limit." ”

This requirement is not excessive, it cannot be said that there is no upper limit, so if the book sells 200 million copies, Zhuang Yan will not directly get 30% of the royalties, then the publishing house will lose money and make money. Although this is basically impossible, it is definitely necessary to be on guard.

So Zhuang Yan smiled: "Yes, sixteen percent is sixteen percent." ”

Yu Hai laughed and said: "Listening to your tone, it seems that you have already received the 16% royalty, you have to understand that it is not easy to add up to 60 million in a total of ten volumes, and it is even more difficult than 6 million in a single book." ”

He was right, although it was the same book, but it was sold in ten volumes, and if you want to sell it for 60 million, it will be much more difficult than selling 6 million for a single book. This is easy to understand, in general, the first of the ten volumes must be the most sold, and the sales of each subsequent book will decline.

The sales gap of each volume depends on the word-of-mouth of the book, and if the word-of-mouth is attractive, then readers will pay to continue reading, if readers can't read it, then it is very likely that there will be a cliff-like decline in sales.

Of course, the way to eliminate this effect is to bundle ten books and sell them together, so that readers will have to buy them all at once if they want to read them, but this is obviously not possible in the current situation.

In this case, if the total sales volume is to reach sixty million, then the sales of the first volume must be more than six million, or even one or two million, but in the heart of the sea, he thinks that this is impossible.