Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 75 A Common Man Like Me
Although Qin Ming's "The Eleventh Finger" is still just a manuscript, it is already very complete, so there is no need for Meng Bai to make any additional changes.

The two discussed it and finally reached a preliminary "verbal agreement": Meng Bai's copyright company Arclight Culture would be responsible for helping Qin Ming complete the relevant matters of contacting and publishing. At the same time, Qin Ming also needed to authorize Arclight Culture to adapt the entire book into a film and television version and subsequent copyright development.

"If the first book performs well, I think you can make this theme into a series, Mr. Qin." Meng Bai suggested: "Anyway, they are mainly unit stories, so each book only needs to have a separate main line."

"Let's see how this book is accepted by readers first." Qin Ming said calmly: "I originally just wanted to do some popular science for the public, and writing a book is just a side job."

Meng Bai smiled and said, "I am very confident about the audience of this subject. In the Internet age, people are receiving more and more opinions and information. Those past 'traditional taboos' will eventually be slowly accepted."

"I hope so." Qin Ming sighed deeply, then looked at Meng Bai and said with a smile: "If it is really made into a series, it should need a series name, right? I am a bad at naming, does Mr. Meng have any good suggestions?"

Meng Bai said: "The main function of a book title is to summarize the content of the book and attract the reader's interest. From this perspective, the two words 'Forensic' are sufficient. So if it were me, I might as well keep it simple... just call it 'Forensic Qin Ming'."

"This..." Qin Ming was entangled: "Isn't this a little narcissistic?"

"It's okay. This is actually a standard way of naming suspense and mystery themes. Look, "Sherlock Holmes", "The Kindaichi Case Files", "Detective Poirot", and "Forensic Qin Ming". There is no sense of incongruity, right?" Meng Bai said.

"It doesn't sound rhyming." Qin Ming said, "Okay, then let's use 'Forensic Qin Ming' as the title of the series."

Meng Bai asked: "If it is adapted into a TV series, does Teacher Qin have any suggestions for the selection of the male lead role?"

"Haha, the most important thing in our industry is to leave professional matters to professionals. So you can choose the actors' images." Qin Ming smiled and said, "Although the male protagonist I wrote is also called Qin Ming, he is not completely based on me. As long as his acting skills are better and his image fits the bill, it will be fine."

"Okay, I understand."

After a moment of silence, Qin Ming asked tentatively, "By the way, Mr. Meng, do you think Liu Ye or Zhu Yawen would be closer to the image of the male lead?"

"…Whether it's suitable or not, the main reason is that he is too famous, I'm afraid he won't come to our small web series."

"Oh, so, then just do as you wish."

After discussing some issues regarding content creation with Qin Ming, Meng Bai flew back to northern Beijing to discuss cooperation on "novel publishing" with Leshi.com.

In fact, he had thought about publishing a novel with the same name as the web drama as early as when Soul Ferry was broadcast. However, it was his first project at that time and he was not familiar with many aspects, so he did not have the time and energy to do some additional operations.

Nowadays, online dramas are just emerging, and there are limited forms of development for online drama IPs in the market. Publishing novels is a good way to “collect copyrights and make money”.

So this time, in addition to warming up for the subsequent "Forensic Qin Ming" series, Meng Bai also plans to publish a novel and setting collection of "Soul Ferry", which can be released together with "Pendulum 2".

"For the publishing company, we considered several large domestic publishing groups, but finally we felt that Boji Tianjuan was more suitable." In the office of Leshi.com, Liu Jun poured Meng Bai a cup of tea, and then talked about the results of his recent efforts.

"Bo Ji Tian Juan?" Meng Bai asked doubtfully.

Screenwriters and writers seem to have similar jobs, but in fact, the nature and scope of their jobs are very different. At least before this, Meng Bai had never paid attention to publishing houses.

Liu Jun explained to him that Boji Tianjuan is a subsidiary of Central South Media Group and is one of the best in the field of physical literature publishing in China.

“It sounds like it’s pretty impressive.”

"It's actually pretty impressive." Liu Jun said, "Let me put it this way, does Mango TV know about it? The status of Mango TV among national satellite TV channels is similar to that of Zhongnan Media among national publishing groups."

"Then I understand." Meng Bai suddenly realized: "They are all Internet celebrity styles."

"…If you are willing to understand it this way, there is no problem."

Meng Bai thought about it and decided that he should choose a large company like Boji Tianjuan. Apart from other things, their promotion channels alone are much better than those of small companies. Of course, large companies also have their own shortcomings, such as high profit sharing requirements and poor bargaining power of copyright holders. However, this is not a big problem for Meng Bai and Leshi.com. After all, their main goal is to cultivate IP and promote popularity, and no one really expects the income from royalties.

The average price of a book is 30, and the royalties are 8% to 10%, which means that one can make dollars per book. A million sales volume is only a little over million - not to mention that these days, apart from textbooks and exercise books, there are few physical books that can achieve a million sales volume.

After talking about publishing, Liu Jun became concerned about the filming of "Psychological Crime".

"'Psychological Crime' will start filming in the middle of this month. If everything goes well, it will be completed around July. Including post-production, it will be ready for broadcast in September." Meng Bai said.

The biggest advantage of online dramas is that they do not need to be reviewed or scheduled, and can be broadcast as soon as they are completed. Even if the investors and producers have the demand, it is no problem to make them broadcast simultaneously like Korean dramas.

"Hey, aren't you planning to release a novel of the same name simultaneously with "Psychological Crime"? " Liu Jun asked.

"No, Brother Liu, do you really think I'm a printer?" Meng Bai sighed, "Do you know how many projects I have lined up right now?"

"Psychological Crime" is currently being filmed, the script of "Soul Ferry 2" needs to be perfected, the schedules of several leading actors need to be planned and confirmed, and the dialogue script of "The Pretender" needs to be completed as soon as possible. At the same time, the publication of "Pendulum Setting Collection" and "Forensic Qin Ming" must also be taken into consideration.

Even Meng Bai has been thinking that if Arclight Films really wants to grow and develop, it is not enough to rely on the "suspense" theme that it is good at. It must find a way to add other types of projects...

Although there was nothing urgent except the filming of "Psychological Crime", the myriad things to deal with still occupied most of Meng Bai's energy.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" Liu Jun advised, "Your Arclight Films has only just started to develop, so just take it step by step. There's no need to take such a big step all at once."

"Is this still considered big?" Meng Bai smiled, then whispered, "In my opinion, it's already very slow."

His current development seems to be booming, but in the context of the entire industry, he is just a seedling that has just broken through the ground.

In the film, television and entertainment industry, only those with capital have the right to speak, but Meng Bai and the new Arc Light Film and Television obviously have not reached this level yet.

This is why Meng Bai has always hoped to develop faster - as a content creator, he has experienced too much and lost too much by being forced to change his work by investors and big brands, and he does not want to make forced compromises because of this in the future.

To reject capital, either you have to have no desires or become capital.

Meng Bai considers himself a vulgar man. He wants fame, wealth, and all kinds of pleasures. He cannot be without desires, so he can only choose the latter path.

Although he is very busy with all these plans and projects, he is just busy and is far from being unable to bear it.

Compared to being busy, the lack of sufficient development funds is his biggest problem now. If he could start with 500 million yuan in funding like Xiao Wang, all difficulties would be overcome.

However, even if there is no "good father", it does not mean that you cannot get money. There are many venture capital companies in the market waving money around looking for suitable targets.

But Meng Bai hasn't set his sights on them yet.

Arclight Pictures is still too small and has a low valuation. These venture capitalists can almost buy it outright with just a random investment - it's just a description. Meng Bai can't sell it even if he really wants to. After all, the most valuable person in the company now is himself.

According to Meng Bai's idea, it will be the time when these venture capital investments are needed after Arc Light Films has at least a few works as a foundation and has passed the novice start-up stage.

Before that, he needs to accumulate slowly, or have the right opportunity to "make a fortune".

Where can I make some “quick money”?

(End of this chapter)