George Lennon Starr, owner of Starr, a Manchester-based publishing house that has only been established for three years, is a middle-aged Caucasian man who is already 45 years old. By chance, he learned from a colleague that a young man named Joanne Rowling had written a children's fantasy novel and was looking for a publisher to publish it. But because she had never published any articles before, the publishers who received the submissions were dismissive of her submissions, and some even threw them aside.

Starr made a copy of the book from one of these publishers and read it from cover to cover, and although Joanne had only sent the first two chapters, Starr still felt that the book had a certain appeal to children.

Stahl Publishing House, since its establishment, although the performance is reasonable, and the annual profit after tax has barely reached the average level of the British publishing industry, but Starr founded this publishing house not for the sake of life, and he is of course not satisfied with such performance. However, in the eyes of the British, Starr Publishing House is not as good as those big publishing houses with a long history and well-known reputation, and it is not easy to further improve the performance of the publishing house.

There is an old saying in China - if you are poor, you will change, if you change, you will be successful, and if you are poor, you will be able to do it for a long time. It means that when things have developed to the extreme, they think of changing them in order to achieve success. The latter refers to the fact that when people are in a difficult situation, they will try to change the status quo in order to develop.

Although Starr does not know Chinese, the truth of the world is the same, and Starr also understands that if the performance of the publishing house is to increase significantly, then there must be a breakthrough!

So, Starr decided to give it a try!

Starr happened to be in Glasgow to attend a conference of the British publishing industry in the past few days, so he found Diana's home according to the address and phone number left on Joanne's submission.

Diana, of course, was overjoyed, and after a few words with Starr, she brought her husband back and asked him to stay with Starr at home, while she hurried to find Joanne. By the time Mén was pushed away, Starr had already had a fairly clear understanding of Joanne's current situation from Diana's husband - this was not difficult for a successful person who had been in society for many years.

Starr was quite satisfied with the result. Joanne Rowling's poor financial situation meant that she needed a steady income, even if it wasn't that big. Moreover, Joanne Rowling has not published any literary works in the past, and is an out-and-out rookie in the author's industry. This undoubtedly gives him a lot of room to reduce prices.

To be honest, Starr believes that Rowling's writing prospects should still have a certain potential, which can be seen from the novel "Harry Bōt and the Philosopher's Stone", if she can be incorporated into the company's banner, even if this novel can make a small profit, it is worth it! After all, how many writers can become famous in one fell swoop? Most of them still need time and experience accumulation!

Starr doesn't mind investing properly in Rowling, because he knows that if he makes the right bet, he will bring him a steady stream of huge fortunes, and his peers in the publishing industry have provided him with enough examples of this!

But how to keep the manuscript fee down as much as possible, and tie Rowling to the chariot of Starr Press, this requires Starr to show his negotiating ability! However, Starr believes that for Rowling, who has been in poor financial condition for a long time and urgently needs an income, the conditions he put forward are definitely not harsh!

It's just that to his surprise, although Joanne Rowling came back with her sister Diana, there were three young yellow people with her.

"Mr. Starr, it's a pleasure to meet you!" Joanne, who was obviously a little nervous, hugged NV and Starr, "I'm sorry to keep you waiting!"

Starr waved his hand and said, "Rowling NV, it doesn't matter, I rushed over without prior notice, I'm very sorry." ”

Rowling beckoned Fang Mingyuan and the three of them to sit down, poured tea for everyone again, and then sat down on the sofa opposite Starr and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Starr, I don't remember ever submitting a manuscript to your company, and how do you know?" On the way back, Joanne kept thinking about this question. She had never heard the name of Starr Press, so naturally she couldn't talk about submitting to them!

Starr smiled and said: "I occasionally hear from other people in the same industry, and I have also read Rowling's contributions, although the writing is still very childish, and there are still many deficiencies in the plot arrangement and character portrayal, but I think your novel still has a certain readability and deserves a small amount of publication." I came here this time just to ......" Starr's words are quite level, and the long gushing words are both positive for Joanne's writing, but also vaguely express the inadequacy of certain parts of it--so as to facilitate Starr's psychological suppression of Joanne, so as to obtain more favorable terms for the publisher in the contract.

Joanne couldn't help but be overjoyed, now that she was very satisfied as long as her novel could be published, she would naturally not have thought that her novel would make her a super-rich woman with a net worth of nearly 500 million pounds in less than ten years.

"You mean that my novel can be published?" Joanne's voice trembled slightly.

"Hmm!" Starr nodded heavily, took out a contract from the briefcase next to him, and put it in front of Joanne, "If Rowling is happy with this contract, we can sign it tonight." Of course, if you think some of the terms in it are inappropriate, I can also bring your comments back, and after everyone discusses, I will give you a reply. ”

Joanne's trembling hands made her mood clear, and she picked up the contract in front of her and looked at it carefully.

Zheng Jiayi, who was sitting next to her, was also sincerely happy for Joanne, although Starr Press is also an unknown small publishing house in the British publishing industry, but this represents a positive recognition of Joanne's hard work in the past few years! However, Zheng Jiayi still glanced at Fang Mingyuan, and she felt that if Fang Mingyuan was willing to help Joanne, it should be able to bring more benefits to Joanne.

Uda Guangli gently poked Fang Mingyuan, and whispered in Japanese: "Don't you also think that Joanne's novel is good, Weishenme won't buy it?" Although she hadn't read "Harry Bōt and the Philosopher's Stone", she judged from Fang Mingyuan's attitude that Fang Mingyuan still attached great importance to Joanne's novel. Otherwise, even if Joanne Rowling is Zheng Jiayi's friend, Fang Mingyuan will not be able to accompany Joanne and Zheng Jiayi here in person.

"Without comparison, how can you tell if it's good or bad?" Fang Mingyuan smiled faintly. He believed that no one on this shijie knew the value of Joanne Rowling's novel better than him, so no one would dare to compete with him for the publishing rights of the novel, the film adaptation, and the rights to derivative works before the official publication of Harry Bōt and the Philosopher's Stone.

Zheng Jiayi also heard Fang Mingyuan and Uda Guangli's jiāo talk, but her Japanese can only be said to be so-so, and Fang Mingyuan and Uda Guangli's voices are not high, so she doesn't understand very well.

Seeing Joanne turn the contract to the third page, Starr secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. In his briefcase, he actually prepared two contracts, one based on the average fee paid by the British publishing industry to new authors, and the other in Joanne's hands. Not only has the number of novels published and the manuscript fee been reduced a lot, but also at a fairly low price, they have asked for the adaptation rights of the novel's movies and TV series, as well as the image rights of the characters in the book and other related rights. And most importantly, not only Harry bōt and the Philosopher's Stone must be published by Starr Press in the future, but also Joanne's other works in the next few years must be published by Starr Press!

If Joanne's children's novel, if not up to the level of a bestseller, can reach the average level of novels published in the United Kingdom, it is enough for Starr Press to make a lot of money this time. It would be even better if it could be liked by a film director!

Although this contract is indeed a bit harsh, the rights and obligations between the two parties are somewhat unequal. But he had just learned from Diana and his wife that Joanne Rowling's life was under a lot of pressure now, and the little subsidy from the government and the income from her odd jobs could only barely make ends meet for her and her daughter, and if it weren't for the help of Diana and her husband from time to time, Rowling's life would have collapsed. If she wants to live a more Haode life, if she wants to let NV children have a more beautiful childhood, and want NV children to get a more Haode education and have a bright future?

Starr believes that Joanne should have no choice!

So, Starr confidently waited for the moment when Rowling picked up the pen and signed her name on the contract.