After the group came to the Chinese restaurant outside the National People's Congress, they couldn't wait to open their mobile phones and start reading the manuscript and preface of the first two chapters sent by Lin Han.

Only Li Wenyuan and Lin Han were left to look at each other and smile, they began to order some dishes with light tastes, and after asking the waiter to recommend a few special dishes, they waited quietly.

Tong Yonglie took the lead in reading the tens of thousands of words, he put down his mobile phone, and then said with emotion: "Xiaolin, this book is definitely a masterpiece in hard science fiction, are you planning to write a history of the development of robots? Every little story is worth thinking about." ”

"Teacher Tong, I have this plan to write a story according to the development process of the robot, and there are still five short stories that have not been written. After Lin Han heard this evaluation, he couldn't help but be overjoyed, this is the recognition of professionals.

The other three also finished reading it one after another, and they looked at Lin Han with complicated eyes one by one, the quality of this novel is not to mention, it really doesn't look like it was written by a newcomer.

Ye Guangliang and Gu Ming were used to being teachers, and they saw that this young man who was about the same age as his student could write such a shocking science fiction novel, and they were not surprised that it was all fake.

As for Zhao Han, the vice president of the National People's Congress Publishing House, he also began to ponder at this time, how to operate this book is the best choice, and now it is to compete with who can calm down.

Although he is a lover of science fiction, he is also a businessman, and businessmen want to maximize their profits.

Li Wenyuan was not very familiar with several of them, so he couldn't say anything, but said with emotion: "Yes, when you see the three laws of the robot at the front, are you surprised, this most essential thing is placed at the beginning, and it is the first to win people." ”

"Actually, when I saw these three laws, I subconsciously began to look for loopholes in these laws, is it not flawed? But when I saw the back, I found that these flaws are the essence of the article, a very good idea, a rare good book. Tong Yonglie glanced at Zhao Han, "Old Zhao, the quality of this book can still enter your eyes, right?"

Zhao Han started Tai Chi at this time, he knew that this was a rare science fiction masterpiece, but the overall market for the publication of science fiction was not good, and many times it could not be sold after printing.

Science fiction readers are a niche readership, and although they have been growing in recent years, they are still far from the rest of the genre.

"We haven't published science fiction in the past year, so we need to be cautious. Liu Jun, you are a professional, how about you give an opinion?" Zhao Han threw the topic to Liu Jun, the editor, and he thought about it seriously.

The two of them have been friends for many years, and of course they understand this very well, so Liu Jun began to think about how to lower the price, "To be honest, this is indeed a very good science fiction novel, I personally like it very much, if I see this beginning in the bookstore, I will definitely take out my wallet and buy it back." But well, there are some slight shortcomings in this, first of all, the character setting, you are writing about the future of fictional Americans, American families, and American robots, and we are in China. ”

Praise first, and then point out the problem, Liu Jun's practice of saluting first and then soldiering is used freely.

"I haven't lived in the United States, so I don't know what their speech habits are like, but you write the history of the American robot in Chinese, it's like a translation." But the style of writing is localized, and it's hard to say whether readers will buy it or not. And you're a newcomer, so we don't expect to have too many prints. ”

Li Wenyuan secretly said in his heart that it was not good, these old fritters really eat people and don't spit out bones, if he knew that he would talk about publishing today, he should have explained the bends and bends in front of Lin Han in advance, so as not to be pitted.

Now that he was seated at the table, he would undoubtedly cause considerable trouble if he blatantly brought it up, so he began to feel anxious.

At this time, Tong Yonglie frowned dissatisfiedly, "Lao Liu and Lao Zhao, you two are not authentic." This "I, Robot" will become a science fiction classic at a glance, and it has the ability to sell for a long time. ”

Zhao Han and Liu Jun don't mean to be embarrassed, shopping malls are like battlefields, so it is natural to ensure the interests of the publishing house, and this is not a place to pay attention to feelings.

Lin Han did not expect these people to have such sharp eyes, and at a glance he saw the background setting in the novel "I, Robot", obviously Chinese, must write the history of American robots, and the protagonists are all Americans, which may test the reader's acceptance.

But he still said: "In fact, you can ignore the background or something, although the robot industry in our country is developing rapidly, but the protagonist is representative of what race is the protagonist, which explores the relationship between humans and robots." In addition, most of the books read by domestic science fiction readers are imported from abroad, so they are very receptive to these backgrounds. ”

In fact, Lin Han did not choose to replace the characters in it with Chinese, but overall it is nothing, science fiction readers are probably the most accepting of foreign backgrounds, and they even have many people who directly gnaw the original English novel.

Zhao Han nodded, he agreed with Lin Han's opinion, he said with a smile: "You are the one recommended by Lao Tong, and the quality of this book is indeed not bad, so we won't give you any novice buyout price, how about 5% royalties? ”

Royalties are not taxes, but a way for authors and publishers to settle their remuneration, and generally speaking, the author's income is equal to the number of prints multiplied by the price of the novel multiplied by the royalty rate.

For many publishing houses, newcomers are like a free squeeze resource, coming and going, buying the whole book for a price of a thousand words and a few hundred, and then promoting it to the market, if the market response is good, then the publishing house will make money, and if the market response is not good, then the publishing house will not lose money either.

At present, the rules of the game in the domestic publishing industry are very simple, and it is a place with strict hierarchies.

If it is a well-known best-selling writer, such as Tong Yonglie, who is famous and can sell novels, the publishing house will agree to all kinds of requests he puts forward, and the royalty can even exceed 12%, and the number of copies printed can be directly increased to hundreds of thousands of copies.

If it is a relatively well-known writer like Li Wenyuan, then the publisher will roughly estimate a figure based on the number of sales of his previously published novels, and the royalty is generally not more than 10%, and the number of prints tends to be conservative.

For an author like Lin Han, who is not well-known at all, the publisher will generally pretend to shirk and say that your book is not easy to sell, try to keep the royalty rate and the number of prints low, and the author basically has no right to speak.

The lowest group is the group of people who publish at their own expense, supported by the dream of being a writer, and the publisher's favorite is such an author who is willing to spend his own money. Not only do you have to pay for the book number yourself, but you also have to pay for the printing yourself, and at the same time, you have to sell it yourself, and most of them can't be sold, so you have to give them to relatives and friends.

To be honest, 5% royalty is really not too harsh for a newcomer, on the one hand, Zhao Han wants to form a good relationship with Lin Han and takes a fancy to his potential, on the other hand, there are also factors such as Tong Yonglie and others, this is indeed a good book, and it should not be a problem to sell more than 100,000 copies.

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The recommendation given by the website in the past two weeks is not very good, the author needs to see everyone's support, the more difficult the time, the more you can't give up, I hope to receive the recommendation votes and collections of book friends, let me see your hands!