At the end of the interview, Stanley immediately left and went to write for the newspaper. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Xu An, on the other hand, stayed in Clover and selected a few books, just like he was used to writing with a pen.

Lance waited for him for a while, and then the two of them went to eat Italian food together.

After a busy day, both of them were a little hungry, especially Xu An, who was so hungry that a large plate of tomato beef pasta was emptied in the blink of an eye, and after feeling a little stock in his stomach, he began to slowly clean up the salmon pizza in front of him.

"Seriously, I've never felt that pasta was so good!" With something in his stomach, Xu An felt that the whole person was alive again.

Lance ate more Sven, he wasn't very tired today, but the burgers provided by the bookstore at noon were a little difficult to swallow, and he didn't eat at all, and when he heard this, he smiled and said, "You're too hungry." ”

For two single men, eating is always a big problem, and when they are alone, they often deal with things casually.

"The pizza was nice too...... How are you today? Have you paid attention to the readers' reactions to the new book, the most important thing is the feedback from Boulder Random House? Xu An asked.

Lance shook his phone and said, "Not yet, but it's fast, readers won't react so quickly, you have to at least let everyone finish the book, don't you?" ”

"Okay." Xu An nodded, thought about it, and suddenly laughed, and said: "I noticed that when you talked about the gambling agreement during the afternoon interview, you smiled very happily, is it that the marketing executive regretted that his intestines were blue?" ”

"You mean Stanley?" Lance couldn't help laughing, and said evilly: "Every time I go to Boulder Langdon, I have to go to see him, and by the way, I mention the matter of the agreement." ”

Xu An shook his head: "It's a pity that they refused to continue to sign the gambling agreement in "Twilight". ”

"Hey, that's a 20% royalty, Ann, the Boulder Random side can only expect that "Bones" will sell well over 2 million copies, which is a small profit, but it's too difficult." Lance Road.

Xu An also knows that 20% royalties are a bit high in the book industry, except for the super authors standing at the top of the pyramid who have the strength to demand this number, it is impossible for new authors to even exceed 15%, at most 12%, 10% is the normal value, some harsh publishing houses only give 8%, and newcomers often grit their teeth and agree in order to publish smoothly.

But the publishing company is not a fool, "sales may not exceed two million a year, but two years, three years, so Boulder Langdon is still profitable." ”

"That's true, but we only gave up the physical rights of "Twilight" in North America, and 15% of the royalties is already good, and Boulder Random doesn't want to take any chances, if the book sells well, I think we will have the capital to demand higher royalties in the second volume, and I think about 18% is more appropriate." Lance analyzed.

Xu An thought for a while, these things are too troublesome, "Man, don't tell me this, this is your job, not only related to your commission, but also represents your professional level, so please keep working hard, no one will think that the royalties are too high!" ”

Lance was speechless, Xu An was right, this is the job of a publishing agent!

"What about the rest of the copyrights of Bones?" Xu An asked again, "These must be calculated as commissions, and you have already put enough effort into that original manuscript, so ......"

"OK, you're up to the cracks." Lance did not refuse, "Several foreign copyright publishing companies have contacted me, and Boulder Random is also interested in acting as an agent, but I am ready to wait for two more weeks, the greater its influence in the United States, the more chips we have, and the same is true for film and television copyrights, but no one has contacted me yet, only a few unreliable guys want to pick up the leaks, and I refused, but it is the electronic copyright, you should get a share on a regular basis!" ”

"Share?!" Xu An asked in surprise, he thought that with the VAM agreement, the royalties would be settled by Boulder Random in a year, and he would not be able to get the income in a short time, but he forgot about the growing e-book market, "What is the response on the Internet?" ”

"It's not bad, not long after the physical book was listed, I signed an agreement with several major e-book platforms for you, the most important one is Amazon, there are analysis reports that its share of the e-book market has exceeded 50%, and Bangnuo and KOBO have signed these, but don't be too happy, I'm afraid the first month's share will not be much." Lance said.

Xu An was stunned for a moment, he hardly reads e-books, but he also knows that the e-book market is becoming more and more popular now, although it is not as hot as the physical book market, but the growth momentum is very strong, and it makes no sense that the physical book of a work sells well, but the e-book is not cared for.

"Why not more?" Xu An asked.

"Bones costs $13.48 for the digital version on Amazon and $13.98 for the print version, a difference of only $0.5!" Lance said.

"$13.48?!" Xu An shouted, "How can it be so expensive?!" ”

Lance spread his hands and said: "Several large publishing groups such as Boulder Random House, Macmillan, Simon and Haber Collins have jointly set up a price alliance, in order to protect the physical book market, for a period of time after the new book is listed, e-books cannot be discounted, no activities are carried out, and if you want to read e-books at a low price, you can only wait for the physical book market to gradually saturate after a year, which is something that was in the original agreement, and we can't violate it." ”

"Hah, price alliance!" Xu An understood, "What about the sharing ratio?" ”

"This is relatively high, originally the electronic copyright should have been Boulder Random House, but I didn't give it to them, so basically there will be a 50% ratio!" Lance Road.

"Wow, if everybody bought e-books and didn't buy physical books......"

Lance said with a smile: "Hey, wake up, Ann, although the e-book market has developed rapidly in recent years, it may not be easy to surpass physical books, and publishing companies will not agree to it in the first place." ”

"I'm just casually saying that paper books do look better than e-books." Xu An smiled, "By the way, how is Game of Thrones going?" Or is there no publishing company willing to sign it? ”

"Of course there is, but the royalties are too low, Boulder Langdon does not agree to a minimum of 15% royalties, at most only 12%, and also requires a number of copyrights, other publishing companies even give only 8%, the book is too serious, and the publishers are very cautious about its market reaction."

Speaking of "Game of Thrones", Lance is a little helpless, there is no doubt that this is a great work, he himself is a loyal fan of the book, and it is not that the publishing company has shown interest, but as he said, this book is too serious, even more serious than historical fiction, obviously there are fantasy elements, but there is no magic, it can be said to be a serious historical work dressed in fantasy.

Publishers are concerned about the book's performance, fearing that the market will not respond well and will not recoup the costs, so they will not pay a high percentage of royalties.

But Lance didn't want to sell it at a low price!

The same is true for Xu An, this can be said to be his most attentive work, how can he be willing to sell it cheaply?

"It would be nice if we had our own publishing company, and we could publish whatever we wanted, and we didn't have to think about royalties." Xu An said with emotion.

Hearing this, Lance was stunned for a moment, he thought about it seriously, and said, "Perhaps, we can really have a publishing company!" ”

"What? Are you kidding? Xu An laughed, "I just said casually, we don't have time to set up a publishing company, that's too troublesome!" ”

"No, no, there is no need to form, we can acquire, acquire an existing publishing company!" Lance said seriously, "Affected by the impact of e-books, the physical book market is far from the past boom, bookstores and publishers are having a hard time, the publishing market in the United States is basically dominated by a few large publishing groups, and there are often small and medium-sized publishing companies going bankrupt, we may be able to consider this aspect!" ”

"Acquisition?" Xu An put away his smiling face and became serious.