Chapter 118 Manuscripts and Strangers

Early July.

Single volumes of the top ten works of New God Ascension are jointly issued by the "Seven Major Publishing House Committee".

Last month, while Xia Yan was busy taking the college entrance examination and looking for a new home, the fame of "To the Moon" spread wildly among the Dragon Kingdom light novel fans.

The reputation of "To the Moon" is obvious to all. Many readers who did not buy the New God's Ascension Journal have already had great expectations for this work after the two months of publicity for the work. Now that the single volume has been released, .

Even in the Magic City area, Xia Yan could see the single book "Going to the Moon" piled high in a prominent place in the local bookstore, and its sales volume was very high.

It is obviously sold much faster than the other nine novels released in single volumes by New Gods.

The outside world now unanimously believes that with the popularity of To the Moon during the serialization period and the quality of the book, the single volume of this novel will sell more than four million copies within three months of its release in the Dragon Kingdom.

This estimated sales volume is actually extremely exaggerated.

The animation of "Unknown Flowers" is so popular. Taking advantage of the popularity of animation, the book of "Unknown Flowers" has only exceeded 5 million copies almost a year after its release without the support of any large book publishing channels.

Although "To the Moon" is supported and promoted by the seven major book club committees throughout the Dragon Kingdom, they will definitely not devote top-level resources to support a non-profit novel like "To the Moon".

Looking at it this way, the sales estimate of four million copies of To the Moon's single book is indeed quite high.

However, after the production of the animated film "Going to the Moon" is launched, the sales volume of the "Going to the Moon" stand-alone book should also see a second wave of surge.

Xia Yan looked at some data sent by the staff who contacted him, and then looked at the tall buildings in the distance.

After arriving in Shanghai, in the past few days, he had been busy coordinating with Tang Yin's father's "Sugar Man" film industry for the anime adaptation of To the Moon.

and now

He was heading to the agreed place to meet Jiang Jing's agent "Bai Xuan".

In the center of Magic City, in an elegantly decorated coffee shop.

Xia Yan arrived here almost half an hour ahead of the agreed time.

On his left hand side are the first five chapters of the novel adapted from Parasite Beast.

Classic piano music from the Dragon Kingdom was playing in the coffee shop. Xia Yan's eyes noticed the girl playing this music in the middle of the coffee shop.

The girl's skin is whiter than snow, and her temperament is elegant. Her hair is tied into a single ponytail, and her fingers move on the piano keys to create a series of afterimages of her fingers.

The reason why Xia Yan noticed her

It's because not long after Xia Yan sat here, the girl's eyes have been staring at Xia Yan, and Xia Yan can clearly feel that her piano music has been a little scattered since he came in. .

After all, he had collaborated with Song Lingyun to compose two pieces of music. Xia Yan had at least developed his ears, or so he felt.

As for why the other party was staring at him, Xia Yan guessed

Maybe he recognized him as a fan of his novel.

Xia Yan thought for a while and called a waiter from the coffee shop to ask.

"Who is she?"

Xia Yan pointed to the person playing the piano.

"Hello, guest, she is a student from Shanghai University who works part-time in our cafe during the summer vacation. What's wrong? Is her performance dissatisfied to you?"

Student at Shanghai University?

Summer job.

That's the senior sister.

Xia Yan immediately put away his indifferent attitude. If it was just a fan, forget it. Since it was a senior who was working during the summer vacation, and she might be a fan of his novel.

"Oh, no. I mean, she plays pretty well."

Although Xia Yan earns tens of millions a year, to be honest, he basically has no time to enjoy luxury, so his mentality is still that of a common man.

Although he felt a little distressed, he still took out one hundred dragon national coins from his wallet and handed it to the waiter.

"Give her a reward."

Just think of it as supporting fans of your own novels, which is not common anyway.

"These are all tips for her, right?" The waiter looked at Xia Yan with a hint of expectation in his eyes.

Xia Yan was stunned for a moment, then reacted immediately, then took out another fifty and handed it to the waiter.

"This is for you."

Damn, one hundred and fifty yuan is basically a day and a half's salary for the working-class people in the Magic City area, and it's also Xia Yan's income for almost ten minutes.

After all, the purchasing power of Longguo currency is about half that of the U.S. dollar in the parallel world, and many working-class people earn three to four thousand a month. Xia Yan's move is actually quite generous in the eyes of the waiter.

"Thank you guest."

Xia Yan smiled and no longer cared about the girl playing the piano.

But after the waiter handed the tip to the girl, the piano music in the cafe soon changed.

A familiar tune played.

"To the creek!"

Xia Yan looked at the senior sister with stunned eyes.

The other party also looked at him.

Sure enough, she knew me.

But before Xia Yan could say anything more, a woman in a white dress and high heels walked in.

The woman is tall, almost 1.7 meters tall, carrying a small luxury bag, and lightly applying makeup on her fair and beautiful face. As soon as she entered the cafe, many male eyes couldn't help but look at her.

"Hello, Teacher Xia Yan, right? I am "Bai Xuan", the agent of Liuli Book Club."

The woman looked at Xia Yan with a smile on her face.

She heard about Xia Yan from Jiang Jing, and also knew what her colleague Meng Lin was thinking.

Xia Yan, a person who is unwilling to even sign a long-term contract because he is afraid of being restrained, will definitely not give priority to those two companies after learning about the serious nepotism between Starry Sky Novel and Qingze Library.

Meng Lin only needs to treat Xia Yan coldly for a month or two, and then Xia Yan will most likely leave Meng Lin and sign a ten-year contract with Liuli Publishing House.

Of course, it doesn't matter what the other party does to Baixuan. After all, the book club has arranged for Meng Lin to deal with Xia Yan, and it's not easy for Baixuan to interfere.

only.

Now it was Xia Yan who took the initiative to come to her, which was not breaking the rules.

"I have a general understanding of the situation. Teacher Xia Yan wants to cooperate with me, which I am very happy to do. After all, you can easily defeat the genius novel author "Jiang Jing" who I spent a lot of effort to discover." Bai Xuan's crystal clear face He took a sip of coffee with his lips.

"But my business ability and relationship network may not be better than Meng Lin's. If she can't give you, I probably can't give it to you either."

"I know that I only have two simple conditions. First, my new novel can be eligible to be serialized in Liuli Publishing House's secondary journal "Liu Li Color". Second, I will not sign a long-term contract." Xia Yan said.

It is said to be two simple conditions, but in fact, it is not simple.

"It's no problem if you don't sign a long-term contract. The impact for you will be less royalties. Also, if your work is released as a single book in the future, the publicity resources provided by the book publisher may only be 6% of those of authors with the same performance and long-term contracts. About seventy. But what can I say? The writing is good but it can be broken." Bai Xuan said with a smile.

"If it is a real hit novel, the book club will not be perfunctory even if it is for the sake of its own profits. Even if the author of the novel is not a long-term work of the book club."

To put it bluntly, for ordinary-level novels, whether the author signs a long-term contract will affect the funding of publicity resources, thereby affecting the sales of the book, which in turn will be converted into direct income for the author.

But for blockbuster-level works, which book society wouldn’t mind making money because it’s too expensive? As long as the book club can see the benefits, it will still push it with all its strength. Long-term contracts often actually protect the interests of mid-level novelists. It limits the performance of high-level novelists and prevents them from asking for exorbitant prices after becoming famous.

"As for what you said about your new novel, you want it to be in "Liu Li Color!" "It is serialized in this journal. That kind of thing does not lie with me, but with yourself, Teacher Xia Yan. I will help you fight for opportunities, but if your work is not strong enough, it will be useless for me to fight for it." Bai Xuan laughed. road.

"I understand." Xia Yan nodded.

The two had actually been chatting on the Penguin for several days before this meeting, and the details of the cooperation had been roughly finalized.

Xia Yan handed the novel manuscript on his left hand to Bai Xuan.

In fact, the work of agents of novelists like Qida greatly overlaps with that of novel editors.

But what they do more is to help contracted novelists develop their personal values ​​in an all-round way.

For example, using the funds given by the book club to reflect good public opinion on the Internet, organize meetings between novel authors and fans, help their novelists' works to be fully and in-depth IP adaptation, and even regularly monitor the physical and mental health of novelists. , if necessary, hire doctors to provide psychological counseling for some novelists who are under pressure, so that some people will not be able to think about it after having poor serial performance and being scolded by millions of readers.

Otherwise, among those who write novels, how many of them understand this? Even if they understand, how many people have the energy to deal with these trivial matters?

"Parasite beast?" Baixuan opened the document and read it briefly.

She has several employees in her working group within Liuli Bookstore to help her handle affairs. Whether there are any problems with the plot of the novel she receives and what suggestions she can make mainly depend on the opinions of those people after review.

But Baixuan definitely has the basic ability to read manuscripts.

She will not judge with an overly professional eye when reading manuscripts. In this way, she will often be restricted by standards when reading manuscripts.

She regarded herself as a reader and stared at the novel manuscript of "Parasite Beast" without thinking about anything.

Parasitic beasts invade the earth?

Just seeing this setting, Baixuan frowned.

It's not that it can't be done, it's mainly because of Xia Yan.

Change the subject again?

This is a work about a girl on her journey of youth. Before she heard the name of the flower, it became a story about friendship.

As for To the Moon, it is more like a work that praises love, but it is very different from youthful love.

And the parasitic beast

No matter how you look at it, they are all combat novels.

Baixuan continued to read.

Parasitic beasts randomly parasitize various animals, invade the brain, and then disguise themselves in human society.

You thought you were a gentle wife, a kind mother and a lovely daughter, but in the dead of night, you were taken care of by your bedside.

eat.

Eaten?

When Bai Xuan saw this, her eyes widened.

There are no three gourmet novels in the world of Dragon Kingdom novels: Tokyo Foodies, Retreating Dwarves, and Parasite Beast.

This kind of thing, just setting it up, makes Bai Xuan feel extremely

interesting.

Of course cannibalism is scary, but it is not so scary when it is written in a novel, because readers know that the protagonist will not be eaten in such a miserable way.

The protagonist was invaded by a parasitic beast. However, the invasion of the parasitic beast failed, so he had no choice but to give up the parasitic protagonist's brain. Instead, in order to survive, he had no choice but to parasitize the protagonist's right hand.

In this way, the protagonist of the story has a super powerful golden right hand that is not under his control, can be soft or hard, fast or slow, and can even change various postures.

At first, Baixuan just thought that this novel was a passionate and exciting novel in which the male protagonist relied on parasitic beasts to fight.

But as I read, something was wrong.

The more I read, the more I felt that the plot of this novel was a bit profound and quite depressing.

Compared to the improvement of the hero's combat power in the novel, it is better to say that the whole novel is more about depicting the hero's change of state of mind.

Especially in the fifth chapter.

When the hero returned home and received a call from his seriously injured father, asking him to call the police and not to believe his mother.

Bai Xuan's heart was tangled.

The novel used a lot of space to describe this plot.

How the protagonist welcomed his mother back home with a nervous mood.

And how he couldn't believe that his mother's head was directly split like a twist in front of him, split into a sharp blade made of flesh, and pierced his heart with one knife.

The person you love most in the world has become a monster in your eyes little by little, and took your life with his own hands.

Snap!

Bai Xuan closed the manuscript of the novel with both hands, took a deep breath and looked at Xia Yan.

"It's written. Quite innovative." Bai Xuan could only say this for the time being.

But the strong desire to know the subsequent plot in her heart told Bai Xuan that this novel was of extremely high quality.

"Then the manuscript will be temporarily placed with me. I will go back to discuss and confirm with the relevant personnel of the book club, and draft a contract. If everything goes well, it will be in a few days."

Bai Xuan stood up and stretched out her hand to Xia Yan.

Xia Yan immediately shook hands with her.

Bai Xuan had a lot of things to do, and it was impossible for her to accompany Xia Yan here to drink coffee all the time, so she left soon.

As for Xia Yan, he breathed a sigh of relief.

It can only be said that the title of the first place in the New God Ascension Selection is useful.

With historical achievements, it is natural to talk about these things.

Otherwise, if Xia Yan was a pure new novel writer, Bai Xuan would not talk to him at all.

You say you have talent and potential? Then come to me when you become famous.

Xia Yan sat on a chair drinking coffee, but not long after, a girl suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Senior?" Xia Yan was stunned when she saw the girl who worked part-time in the coffee shop, and blurted out a sentence.

"Senior?" The girl looked at Xia Yan suspiciously.

"Are you also a student of Magic City University?"

"No, I just want to apply for Magic City University." Xia Yan was a little embarrassed.

"Are you so sure that you can get in? The score line hasn't come out yet, right?" The girl looked at Xia Yan curiously.

"I checked the answers to the college entrance examination online, and I feel that it should be a sure thing." Xia Yan said.

After all, he only needs 440 points to get in for special recruitment. As long as the essay of uncertain subjects such as Chinese does not lose a lot of points, Xia Yan will always get more than 440 points.

"Senior, you are looking for me, what's the matter?" Xia Yan asked.

"About the same. I am a part-time cartoonist, and I am also a fan of your novels. I have been following you for a long time, and I happened to meet you today, so I wanted to come and ask you for an autograph." The girl said calmly.