Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 306: The Four-Part Series Revealed, Annual Revenue Nearly 100 Million?

Two days later, in the morning.

Pengcheng.

Wang Jing was discussing renovation issues with the head of the renovation company when her phone suddenly rang. The head of the renovation company smiled and gestured for her to answer the call first.

Wang Jing frowned, took out her phone, glanced at the caller ID, and was surprised to find that it was a US number that looked somewhat familiar.

It seems to be Fox's copyright department?

I already said that the film they're interested in, *Rise of the Planet of the Apes*, has already been signed by Disney. Why are they still calling?
Feeling puzzled, she thought for a moment, then walked aside and answered the call.

"Hello? Fox?"

"Yes, Ms. Wang, this is Lin Xiang from Fox. I'm sorry to bother you again. I'm contacting you today to discuss the script for 'Twilight.' You haven't sold the script yet, have you?"

Lin Xiang's voice came through the phone.

Wang Jing was quite surprised—talking about the Twilight script? Didn't Fox not initially show interest in it? Why are they interested now? Is it because they couldn't sign Rise of the Planet of the Apes, so they're settling for second best? Isn't that shameless?

She wanted to laugh, and the corners of her mouth were already slightly upturned.

"Oh, the copyright to this script is still in my boss's hands. However, if you're still only willing to offer $50 like last time, then don't even bother asking. Let me put it this way: my boss has never sold a script to Hollywood for less than $200 million. Do you understand what I mean?"

Lin Xiang remained silent for a moment.

A few seconds later, he asked, "So, what's your price? How much are you looking to sell the Twilight script for?"

Wang Jing's eyes darted around. Although Cao Sheng hadn't asked her to discuss the price of the script with anyone, nor had he given her a bottom line, she felt that Cao Sheng's bottom line should be no less than 200 million US dollars.

So she said, "250 million US dollars!"

Lin Xiang: "Isn't that too high? Can you lower it a bit? Like, 150 million US dollars?"

Wang Jing chuckled, "Do you know how much Disney paid for our 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'?"

Lin Xiang: "How much?"

Wang Jing: "It's the price I just told you! As far as I know, Fox is one of the big players in Hollywood, right? How come Paramount and Disney can offer so readily, but Fox is always so stingy? What do you think is the reason for that?"

Lin Xiang: "..."

He is an American citizen, but also of Chinese descent, and his Chinese is quite good; he could understand everything Wang Jing said.

Because he understood, he was at a loss for words at that moment.

At the same time, I was very surprised. Disney actually paid $250 million for the script of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"? Really? Is this woman lying to me?
“Ms. Wang, different scripts have different values. Our company’s internal evaluation of the script for Twilight is lower than that for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Therefore, we cannot offer this script as much as 250 million US dollars.”

Wang Jing: "That's your opinion. In our opinion, Twilight is more valuable than Rise of the Planet of the Apes!"

Lin Xiang: "???"

"Two million US dollars! This is the maximum authority I've been given. If you agree to this price, we can sign the contract today. If you want a higher price, I'll have to apply up the chain of command, and ultimately, it might not be approved. So, is two million US dollars acceptable?"

Wang Jing frowned and thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "Sure! However, we need to retain the sequel development rights. Simply put, you bought this script, so you can't develop a sequel on your own."

Lin Xiang: "What? That's impossible! Two million US dollars, and you still want to retain the sequel development rights? Absolutely not! Our company will never agree to that!"

Wang Jing: "There's nothing we can do about it. My boss has already written the scripts for the second, third, and fourth installments. We can't just scrap the scripts for the first installment, can we? You agree, right?"

Lin Xiang was taken aback, his voice rising considerably, "What? You mean there are four parts to this script? And they're all already written?"

Wang Jing: "Yes!"

Wang Jing was very happy that she had surprised the other party.

Lin Xiang: "..."

After a moment of silence, Lin Xiang spoke again: "Could you show us the scripts for the next three parts? I need to report this to my superiors, and our company also needs to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the quality of the subsequent three scripts. I hope you can understand."

Wang Jing shook her head slightly, "I'm sorry, the scripts for the next three parts are with my boss. I don't have them. If you really want to see them, I can talk to my boss. However, my boss said before that he would sell the script for the first part first, and he probably won't discuss cooperation on the scripts for the next three parts with you for the time being."

Lin Xiang: "Oh, oh, okay, okay! I understand. Shall we report to our superiors separately? This is probably beyond our authority, isn't it?"

Wang Jing: "Okay!"

Lin Xiang: "Okay! We'll contact each other again later, goodbye!"

Wang Jing: Goodbye!

Just as the call was about to end, Lin Xiang's voice suddenly came through the phone again, "Wait! Wait!"

Wang Jing asked in surprise, "What's wrong? Is there anything else you want to say?"

Lin Xiang: "Uh, Ms. Wang! It's like this, Fox really wants to sign the script for 'Twilight,' so I hope that if any other company approaches you about this script soon, no matter what price they offer, you can notify us before signing. Don't sign directly with Disney like last time, okay?"

Wang Jing smiled wryly, almost bursting out laughing.

She sensed that this guy was still scared after what happened last time.

This must have left a psychological scar, right?

"Okay! Sure. Is there anything else?"

she says.

Lin Xiang: "Oh, that's all. Shall we talk again later? Goodbye?"

Wang Jing: Goodbye!

call ended.

Wang Jing still had a big smile on her face and was in a good mood.

It was as if I could see lots of banknotes beckoning to me.

She recently helped Cao Sheng sell the script for "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," and now it seems he's about to sell the script for "Twilight." Knowing Cao Sheng as she does, she'll definitely give him a substantial bonus once the fees for these two scripts arrive.

The bonus could be more than the total salary earned in one or two years while working at Banyan Tree.

At this moment, she was very glad that she had quit her job at Rongshuxia and chosen to become Cao Sheng's assistant.

Just as she predicted, Cao Sheng had a bright future and a promising career ahead of him.

At this moment, the person in charge of the decoration company walked over and asked with a smile, "Ms. Wang, shall we continue?"

Wang Jing glanced at him, smiled, and shook her head. "Alright! Let's stop here for today! We can discuss the other issues at your company this afternoon, okay? I have some more important work to take care of here. Sorry!"

The person in charge of the renovation company was quite surprised.

I subconsciously looked up at the ceiling.

I thought to myself: Isn't the renovation of this entire building important enough? Is there anything more important? You're kidding me.

But since Wang Jing has said that, what else can he say?

"No problem! I'll be waiting for you at the company this afternoon."

Wang Jing nodded, "Then please take care, I won't see you off."

"You're too kind! You go ahead with your work, I'll be going now."

The person in charge of the renovation company left.

Wang Jing picked up her phone, found Cao Sheng's number, and dialed it. Huizhou.

On the balcony of the second floor of the villa.

Cao Sheng was drinking tea and reading a book. Wang Zuxian left yesterday afternoon. After all, she is a big star with a company and agent behind her. The agent arranged a lot of schedules for her. The main reason she was able to stay here for two or three days was because she had just finished filming "The Hunger Games" and the agent gave her a few days to rest.

But she can't stay here for long.

Once she left, Cao Sheng resumed his previous life.

Today is Saturday, so he doesn't have to go to school. He doesn't usually write in the morning, so he's just here sunbathing and reading.

In January, the weather was already cold.

Sunbathing feels so good.

Suddenly, his phone, which was on the small tea table, rang. He looked over and saw that the caller ID showed Wang Jing. Only then did he reach out and pick up the phone.

Over the phone, Wang Jing reported to him about Fox's interest in buying the script for "Twilight".

The key point mentioned is that Fox had offered $2 million, and... she told them about the scripts for three more sequels to Twilight: Part 200, Part 3, and Part 4.

It's unclear whether Fox might consider buying all of these scripts.

He also mentioned that Fox wanted to see the scripts for the next three sequels and asked if he could show them to Fox.

Cao Sheng was quite surprised to hear this.

He didn't expect that Wang Jing would also tell the buyer that he had a sequel script.

He hadn't originally planned to bring it up, thinking that if the first film did well at the box office and received good reviews, he would then present the script for the second film, at which point he could ask for a higher price for the script.

But Wang Jing told the other party about the sequel script.

Why did you tell them that I had already written the sequel script?

Cao Sheng frowned and asked.

Wang Jing: "Hey! Boss! We have to say something! We want to keep the sequel development rights for this movie, and they won't agree if we don't say it."

Cao Sheng: "..."

After a moment of silence, Cao Sheng smiled slightly. "Alright! Since you've already said it, then you've said it! There's no big problem."

He thought that a script selling for $200 million was already a top price in Hollywood. Even if the first Twilight movie was a box office and critical success, it would be difficult to negotiate a high price for the second script, as the potential for growth was very limited.

Therefore, if Fox wants to buy the rights to all four screenplays, it's not impossible for them to sell them if the price is right.

Given the speed of Hollywood blockbuster filming and production, it will probably take one or two years from filming to release for the first Twilight movie.

With four films, the filming period would be even longer.

Therefore, if he could sell all four scripts at once, he could get the money sooner and invest it sooner, which might bring him greater returns in the future.

Therefore, what he just said to Wang Jing was the truth; he genuinely believed that this was not a big problem.

Wang Jing: "Well... Boss, if they insist on seeing the scripts for the next three parts, can we show them to them?"

Cao Sheng nodded, "Okay!"

Wang Jing: "Okay! I understand. But what if they want to buy all four scripts together? How much should we ask for? Can you give me a bottom line?"

Cao Sheng thought for a moment, "I remember you said last time that the person who contacted you from Fox News was a Chinese American who could speak Chinese, right?"

Wang Jing: "Yes, that's right. What's wrong?"

Cao Sheng: "If they really want to buy all four at once, then let them talk to me! You don't need to worry about it."

Wang Jing was a little surprised. "Oh, okay! Okay. I understand. That's fine then. When they ask me for the scripts for the next three parts, can I have them contact you too? Is that alright?"

Cao Sheng hummed in agreement again.

……

call ended.

Cao Sheng frowned and thought for a while, then chuckled softly.

He figured that if he could sell all four Twilight movies' scripts at once, plus the recently signed "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" contract with Disney, his script rights revenue by the end of the year would probably exceed ten million US dollars.

Ten million US dollars...that's seventy or eighty million RMB.

Such an income was absolutely astonishing in China at that time.

You should know that he earned all of this by writing.

Looking across the entire Chinese-speaking world, who can surpass him? Is there anyone?

In the original timeline, around 2010-2011, with the collaboration between Qidian and China Mobile, the online literature library was integrated into China Mobile's bookstore, ushering in the era of mobile reading. From then on, readers could use their mobile phones to read novels, the number of readers expanded rapidly, and authors' incomes experienced a period of rapid growth.

Among them, the fastest income growth was seen among some of the top experts.

Some of them can earn hundreds of millions of yuan a year from selling just one book.

When the news broke, many people were stunned and couldn't believe that writing online novels could be so profitable.

It was from that time onward that the number of writers attempting to write online novels exploded.

Many people are attracted by the fact that writing novels can be very lucrative and join the ranks of writers.

At that time, Cao Sheng was just an unremarkable, struggling actor.

The income of top writers skyrocketed, but that had little to do with him. His monthly royalties usually only increased by a few hundred or a thousand yuan.

Because in the online literature industry, it has always been a winner-takes-all situation.

The most popular top-tier works can attract the attention of the vast majority of readers.

Most readers only become interested in other authors' works after reading the most popular ones.

At that time, he was one of the "other authors".

And now?
It's been almost three years since he was reborn, and he has become a top author in the online literature circle. Many people regard him as a representative figure of online literature authors.

In 2000, his annual income would likely have been close to 100 million.

How could this not fill him with a myriad of emotions?

Unfortunately, his main income this year came not from online article royalties, but from script fees.

But he was still very happy.

For him, online article royalties or script fees are all money, and he can buy whatever he wants with that money; there's no difference in purchasing power.

……

The next afternoon.

Cao Sheng received a call from Lin Xiang, representing Fox's copyright department, on his mobile phone.

(End of this chapter)