Chen Lang listened to these few short words, but he was sweating like rain, the journey of this novel was so complicated, I don't know how the journey of the other two books was, fortunately, God favored him, and finally came to the hands of this uncle, otherwise he would be really tragic.

"It's so complicated, it's really a coincidence, thank you, uncle." Chen Lang wiped a cold sweat and said.

"Hehe, that's a good point, it's just that no book is written without coincidence. But let's talk about the price first, and then we'll talk about how. After the uncle finished speaking, he looked at Chen Lang, feeling a little anxious.

There is a reason for the urgency. The 70s was the most prosperous period for Hong Kong's newspapers, and the Hong Kong Peninsula was the size of the palm of its hand, but there were nearly 70 newspapers at the same time. After fierce competition and survival of the fittest, there were only 55 newspapers left in Hong Kong in 1982 and 38 in 1997. In 1980, there were still 60 newspapers. Based on Hong Kong's population and total newspaper circulation at this time, almost every two and a half Hong Kong people would buy a newspaper, a figure second only to Japan in Asia. And with so many newspapers, you can imagine how fierce the competition is.

Of course, in Hong Kong, Ming Pao, Oriental Daily, and Sing Tao Daily are the three newspapers that sell the most, and you take turns to sit in the "newspaper sales champion", with more than 100,000 copies sold in each issue. However, during this time, due to the resurgence of the Wesley series, the sales of "Ming Pao" once exceeded 150,000 copies, and "Ming Pao Evening News" also serialized the novels of martial arts master Wen Ruian, which sold well, which really gave "Oriental Daily" and "Sing Tao Daily" a big headache. The current "Oriental Daily" has been pressed by "Ming Pao" for several months, so when I saw such a potential novel as "Zhu Xian", I was eager to sign a contract. Of course, Chen Lang's family doesn't know much about these inside information.

"Okay, okay, uncle, what price are you going to pay to sign my novel?" Chen Lang looked eager, now he still needs to borrow money from Chen Jian to buy a guitar, and the family also needs to repay the money borrowed by Chen's mother, so Chen Lang is a little anxious, and Chen's father, Chen's mother and sister Chen Yun are not as eager as Chen Lang, but they are also very concerned, and they all look at the deputy editor-in-chief in front of them.

"According to the rules of the past few years of serialization of novels, if you just start writing a novel like Xiaoyou, it is generally about 50 yuan per thousand words, and in the case of "Ming Pao", it may only be 30 yuan per thousand words." The uncle looked at Chen Lang as he spoke, and finally teased "Ming Pao". Because Jin Yong is indeed stingy in this regard, the manuscript fee is generally slightly lower than that of other newspapers, but with Jin Yong, it is a golden signboard, not afraid that no one will contribute, and the quality is not low.

"Our family doesn't know much about these things, who is the highest manuscript fee now? How much is a thousand words? Or please give us some relevant information about this, uncle, from the personal visit of one of your deputy editors-in-chief, I can feel the sincerity of your newspaper, you can give me a literacy rate, and the price is easy to say. Chen Lang looked at the uncle with a cute face, and at the same time put a high hat on the other party, but I don't know if it's useful, because no one in the family really knows the market, even if he talks nonsense, no one knows whether it's true or not.

"Hehe, okay then, I'll tell you the specific market. Now the highest price is Ni Kuang's 500 yuan for 1,000 words. Chen Lang's family was stunned when they heard it, the gap is so big?

Of course, this can't be true, because Ni Kuang's Wesley series has been selling very well recently, and Huang Yulang, in order to start a new magazine, shouted this sky-high price by buying horse bones with Wesley's hot daughter, and wanted to build momentum by giving Ni Kuang's super high manuscript fee, so as to make his magazine hot, so the manuscript fee of 500 yuan for 1,000 words is very false. You must know that Ni Frame's manuscript fee in "Ming Pao" is only 180 yuan per thousand words. Hearing this, Chen Lang's heart was a little more balanced.

"The column manuscript of a well-known writer is about 700 yuan per thousand words, for example, if a famous writer is asked to write a highly professional and creative film review manuscript, it is almost this number -- "Ming Pao" will give 500 yuan per thousand words at most, and "Oriental Daily" will give 700 yuan per thousand words. If you just write a random essay, the manuscript fee will not exceed 200 yuan per thousand words. If an ordinary university professor is invited to write a column, the maximum remuneration is 150 yuan per thousand words. As for the manuscript of a novel, it is only about 100 yuan per thousand words for a famous writer, and the remuneration for an ordinary fiction writer is only 50 yuan per 1,000 words - except for a person like Ni Frame, of course. ”

"So uncle, how much are you going to give me a thousand words?" Chen Lang asked after listening to popular science.

"As I said earlier, the average writer of a novel is about 50 yuan per thousand words, and a well-known writer is 100 yuan per thousand words, in order to show our sincerity, we can give you 70 yuan per thousand words?" Uncle seemed to be a little nervous and said.

"Can't you do more?" Chen Lang still asked with a cute face.

"At most, 80 yuan per thousand words, no more, we can only give up." Chen Lang didn't speak, because he wasn't very good at bargaining, and his parents didn't know how to interject, in addition, the novel "Zhu Xian" was about more than 1.5 million words, calculated at 1.5 million, 80 yuan per thousand words, and finally he could get 120,000 Hong Kong dollars, which is a lot of income, and this is only his first novel, and when his fame comes up, it should increase again, and 120,000 yuan can completely solve the family's financial crisis.

"Okay, we believe in your sincerity, it's 80 yuan for 1,000 words, this is just the right to publish the serial, and the other copyrights are still mine, right?" Chen Lang remembered that maybe the novel would be adapted into a movie, TV series, or comics, anime and peripherals in the future, but it was all money, and the copyright must be his own.

"Of course, what we want is only the right to publish the serialization of the novel, and the rest of the copyright is still owned by you." The deputy editor-in-chief breathed a sigh of relief, because the bottom line he got before coming was 90 yuan per thousand words, and he could be regarded as having successfully completed the task.

"I brought the contract here, the price in the sky is fine, you see if there is no problem, we can sign the contract. However, because you are only 14 years old, you are not yet the legal age, so it must be signed by your father or mother to be legally effective. As he spoke, the uncle took out the contract from the briefcase beside him in duplicate.

"We all believe in the uncle, and we also believe that your newspaper will not do short-sighted stupid things, and there are many opportunities for cooperation in the future." After Chen Lang finished speaking, he handed the contract to Chen's father.

The uncle also lit up when he heard it, if the little guy can maintain a stable level, then it will undoubtedly be of great benefit to the "Oriental Daily", and he will have to find a way to tie him to the same boat as the newspaper, but now it is not in a hurry, everything will wait for the readers' reactions after the serialization of "Zhu Xian".

"By the way, there are two more questions." The uncle looked at Chen's father and Chen's mother and said to Chen Lang carefully.

"What's the problem, you say?" Chen Lang asked strangely.

"If your novel is serialized in our Oriental Daily, you have to have a pen name, do you think of your pen name? Also, I want to confirm how much manuscript you have in your hand now, and how many words you plan to write about this work. ”

"Pen name, I really forgot, I didn't think about it, or call the wolf?" Chen Lang touched his handsome face and had a whim. As a result, the other four people were stunned: "The wolf is coming?" What a broken name. ”

"It's not very broken. First of all, everyone knows the story of the wolf, and it is well-known, and my name is Chen Lang, every time I go to the classroom, everyone will shout that the wolf is coming. Chen Lang carefully analyzed, and the more he analyzed, the more he felt good. Everyone else laughed.

"It's really interesting that the wolf is coming."

"It turns out that our family's Lang Lang is a little wolf cub."

"No, it's not a nice name, people will think you're a bad pervert." Sister Chen Yun disagrees with the name.

"That's right, like me, I can't let everyone mistake him for a lewd pervert uncle, of course I didn't say you, uncle." After speaking, he explained to his uncle. The uncle twitched the corners of his mouth, I am a Sven, how can I be a salty and wet uncle.

"Then let's call it the moon and the stars, I want to make this round of moon." Chen Lang thought about the idiom of having his own name "Lang". The first thing that came to mind was catchy, Lang Lang, come to your mouth? Forget it, change one, and then I only thought of the moon and stars for a while, and the implication is good, the moon is in the sky, the stars are scarce, and I want to become this round of the moon and release thousands of lights.

"Hey, Xiaoyou's ambition is not small." The uncle understood what Chen Lang meant, half appreciative and half ridiculous.

"Hehe, if you are ambitious, you are not old, but now you are not young and frivolous, how can you be worthy of your age." Chen Lang is quite confident, as for the uncle, he can only sigh that it is good to be young, and he thinks that he was not like this back then.

Chen's father and Chen's mother carefully read the contract and felt that there were no traps, in fact, even if there were, it was estimated that they would not be able to find it, and the family was very happy, so Chen's father solemnly signed the two contracts.

"I may have to write more than 1.5 million words in this novel "Zhu Xian", and there will be about 250 chapters in total. I've now written the first two episodes, a total of twenty-three chapters, and the first two of the third episode. Chen Lang then answered the second question.

"1.5 million words, that seems like a lot of words. Then I'll take the first two episodes away first, and prepare for the official serialization next Monday, that is, tomorrow. ”

"It's so fast, but it's okay, I'll bring you the first two episodes." After speaking, Chen Lang ran to his room and gave the printout he had backed up in advance to the uncle, and then the family sent the uncle who was in a hurry to go back to typesetting out of the house.