Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 125 Even if there is no meat, I will still gnaw on the bones

Cao Sheng smiled, "Yes! If you really want to publish my book, then we can indeed talk about it."

Lin Baohui was very happy. "That's great! But I don't have the authority to discuss the specific contract with you. How about this? We'll come to you tomorrow morning, and then let Mr. Zhao discuss the specific contract with you?"

Cao Sheng nodded, "Okay! But I don't think it's good to always ask you to come to me. How about you tell me where you live, and I'll come to you tomorrow after class at noon, and treat you to a meal, and we can talk while we eat?"

Lin Baohui agreed readily, lowered her head and took out a business card and a pen from her bag, wrote the name of the hotel and room number on the business card, and handed it to Cao Sheng.

"Then it's settled. We'll wait for you at the hotel tomorrow at noon. See you there!"

Cao Sheng took the business card with a smile and said, "OK!"

The two chatted for a while at the edge of the playground, and then Lin Baohui said goodbye and left.

Cao Sheng watched her back and was in a good mood.

I also feel a little emotional.

"Living with the Air Hostess" is the first work he wrote after his rebirth.

The reason why he decided to write this kind of pure love story, which he had never written before, was mainly to cater to the literary and artistic group.

The readership groups are different in different eras.

When he wrote this book, most of the people who had access to the Internet and read novels online were white-collar workers or college students, and there were very few high school students.

The rest of the population either don’t know how to use the Internet, or don’t have the time or money to use the Internet.

If he had written a book targeting the market of primary and secondary school students and posted it on the Internet, the consequences would have been disastrous. Not only would he have made no money, he would have probably received a lot of ridicule.

For example: "What the hell is this?"

"The author only has an elementary school diploma, right? His IQ is so low."

"Anyone dares to write a book. Doesn't the author have a mirror at home? Why don't you take a piss and look at yourself?"

The same reason.

If he had written a work for literary youths in an era when cool literature was popular, it would probably have ended up the same way.

However, readers' evaluations may be a little different.

You might ask: "What kind of ancient writing method is this author using? Did he just get online?"

"What the hell is this? Is it interesting to have a love story that goes on and on? If the author can't write about love, then don't write it!"

"Author, I'll give you a list of books. Go and study them carefully! I'm speechless about your retro writing style."

……

Times are changing.

When most of the readers are literary youths, if his works are not literary enough, he is guilty.

So, he wrote "Living with the Flight Attendant".

But at that time, he was unknown and had no guarantee that his works could be published in a short period of time. He could only put them online and accumulate popularity and reputation little by little, thinking that once his popularity and reputation were built up, perhaps a publishing house would be willing to publish them.

This book was mainly used by him to seize the title of the originator of online literature.

After that, I focused my main energy on "I Want to Become an Immortal".

Compared to "The Days of Living with a Flight Attendant", which was serialized for free online and powered by love, "I Want to Become an Immortal" was published smoothly in Taiwan and then in mainland China because of its new subject matter, novel setting and many exciting parts.

However, "Living with a Flight Attendant" is a bit inferior.

After becoming popular on the Internet, it has only been published in simplified Chinese in mainland China.

After the Chinese New Year this year, news suddenly broke that the sales of this book exceeded one million copies, and it became a complete hit.

But even so, his main focus was still on "I Want to Become an Immortal" and the outline of "God's Tomb".

He is used to writing novels of more than a million words.

I am also used to writing fantasy and fairy tale themes.

A work like "Living with a Flight Attendant" with only 200,000 to 300,000 words may be considered a true novel in the eyes of traditional writers.

But in Cao Sheng's eyes, this is a short story! The kind that can't be any shorter.

This number of words might not have been enough to put an article on sale on Qidian Chinese website in the early 2000s.

Because at that time, most works would not be put on the shelves until they were written to 250,000 words.

When many works are put on the shelves, the word count exceeds 300,000 words.

Some works, even with 200,000 or 300,000 words, cannot be signed with the website.

If Lin Baohui hadn't suddenly said that she wanted the traditional Chinese copyright of this book, Cao Sheng would have almost forgotten that he hadn't sold the traditional Chinese copyright of this book yet.

Now that I think about it, if I had not started "I Want to Become an Immortal" in time, but had been waiting foolishly for "Living with the Air Hostess" to be published to make money, I would probably not be able to support myself long ago and would have had to go out to work part-time to earn a living.

And now, the traditional Chinese copyright of this book is also being sold.

Maybe in two years, we can even sell the rights for film and television adaptation.

Just like "First Contact" from the original time and space, as the recognized first online novel, it not only sold the film and television adaptation rights, but was also developed into a game.

……

This night.

Cao Sheng sent Wang Jing a reply email.

Tell her that the contract for his new book has been signed with Xinchang, and ask her to tell the people at Hetu that there is a chance for them to work together again in the future.

Then he called Huang Qingya and asked her to tell the representative of the publishing company that he would have a chance to cooperate again in the future. He also said that they would have dinner together this time, but he would treat them next time. He knew that the people from the two publishing houses would be disappointed when they received such news.

But he only had one new book and could only sign it to one company, so someone would be disappointed.

He was a little impressed by Zhao Guobin and Lin Baohui who came to see him today.

When these two people learned that the contract for his new book had been signed with Xinchang, they suddenly remembered that he still had the traditional Chinese copyright of an old book that seemed to have not been sold yet.

Just because they reacted so quickly and were so smart, he wanted to sign "Living with a Flight Attendant" to them.

……

Just as Cao Sheng expected.

That night, Kang Yuming of Hetu learned that the contract for his new book had been signed to Xinchang. After a look of surprise, he smiled bitterly.

"I didn't expect Xinchang to be so efficient this time. They signed the contract right after we made our move. I wonder how much they paid this time. I guess it was a lot! Xinchang's CEO is still so courageous!"

His assistant frowned, thought for a moment, and asked, "Boss Kang, do we still need to select works from under the banyan tree?"

Kang Yuming looked over and asked, "Why not?"

Assistant: "They didn't sign Zhongyuan Yidianhui's new book for us."

Kang Yuming smiled, "So, we have to select excellent works from their website. We have no better choice. The headquarters sent us here this time, not only to let us try to sign Zhongyuan Yidianhui's new book, but also to set up an office here and receive manuscripts from the mainland for a long time. Rongshuxia is a good partner."

……

Bai Fengyin, the person in charge sent to the mainland this time, received the news and learned that Cao Sheng had signed the new book to Xinchang. He frowned and lowered his head in thought.

The assistant who reported the news to her waited silently for a while. Seeing that she still didn't speak, the assistant couldn't help but ask softly: "Manager, Cao Sheng said to cancel the dinner we had arranged before. Should we... leave Huizhou?"

They arrived in Huizhou this afternoon.

I had just settled down in the hotel when I received this news. It was such a heavy blow to me.

Bai Fengyin raised his head and looked at the young assistant.

He smiled and said softly, "Just leave Huizhou like this? Then how do we report to the headquarters? Say that we spent a lot of money to treat the middleman to meals, tea, flights, and hotel stays, but got nothing in return? The money was wasted? The time was wasted? Is this a work report? This is reporting our incompetence to the headquarters! Is this how you want to report it?"

The assistant was speechless.

After a moment of silence, she asked weakly, "Then what else can we do? Now that things have come to this, can we still let him break the contract with Xinchang? And then transfer the contract to us?"

Bai Fengyin shook her head, "Of course this is impossible! Even if we can really make him break the contract with Xinchang, we will definitely have to pay a huge price, and the headquarters will not approve it."

Assistant: "Then why don't we leave? What else can we do here?"

Bai Fengyin smiled, her eyes radiating confidence, "I, Bai Fengyin, will never waste the company's funds! Now that we are here, even if the meat has been eaten by Xinchang, even if there are only a few bones left, we still have to take a few bites! Even if there are no bones left, we have to get some oil! We must not return empty-handed!"

The assistant looked puzzled, "There are bones?"

Bai Fengyin nodded, "Of course there is! As long as you are willing to offer a price, who says Zhongyuan Yidianhui can only write one new book? He can use a pen name like 'Zhongyuan Yidianhong' or 'Zhongyuan Yidianlv' and write a book in our bookstore! Although the effect will definitely not be as good as using the pen name Zhongyuan Yidianhui, it is better than us returning empty-handed, what do you think?"

The assistant's eyes lit up.

A smile full of surprise on his face.

"Boss, you are amazing! You can actually come up with such a good idea."

There was a hint of complacency in Bai Fengyin's smile.

Then, he instructed the assistant: "The dinner with Cao Sheng cannot be cancelled! Go and arrange it! Try to get us to meet him tomorrow night. We need a chance to have a face-to-face interview with him!"

The young assistant quickly took the order and went away, returning to his passion for work.

……

This evening.

An Internet cafe near a hotel.

Adventurer Zhao Guobin sat in front of a computer, squinting at the movie "Living with the Air Hostess" on the computer.

When he first came to this Internet cafe, he just wanted to try reading the book to get a rough idea of ​​its quality.

Only in this way can he decide whether to apply to the headquarters for publication of this work.

As for the fact that this book has sold very well in mainland China, it has already exceeded one million copies?
He feels that sales in mainland China can only be used as a reference.

Just because a book sells well in mainland China, it doesn’t mean it’s suitable to be published in Taiwan.

Otherwise, why didn't Xinchang publish this book?
Love stories written by mainland authors have been published in Taiwan before.

But sales are generally not very good.

He felt that love stories written by mainland authors lacked some romantic elements and were too realistic, failing to allow readers to feel the beauty of love. Instead, they felt the cruelty of reality.

It is not to the taste of young readers in Taiwan.

He suspected that this was the reason why Xinchang did not publish the book.

but……

He found this book online. After just a few moments of reading, he was attracted by the story in the book. After finishing one chapter, he clicked on the next one, and after finishing the next chapter, he clicked on another chapter.

Unaware of the passage of time.

I also completely forgot that when I came to the Internet cafe, I just wanted to try reading a few tens of thousands of words.

Until the network administrator came and asked him if he wanted to renew the subscription?
Only then did he realize that almost three hours had passed.

I have read most of this book.

(End of this chapter)