After rebirth, I became a great master

Chapter 352 Hoarding Copyrights

Zhongbo Bookstore has made personnel adjustments.

Li Changxing is no longer serving as the general manager of Changxing Printing Factory; Han Hang has taken over the position.

His focus will be on Zhongbo Real Estate.

The first policy implemented by the new Korean Air operator was to raise prices.

The market has changed.

The prices offered by Changxing Printing Factory are too low and are no longer suitable.

This is due to adjustments in national policy.

The printing industry began to compete fairly. Except for a few special departments that had to give orders to state-owned printing plants due to confidentiality, most government departments, state-owned enterprises, and public institutions were allowed to cooperate freely with private printing plants.

Unlike in the past, we no longer have to place orders only with state-owned printing plants.

This created a huge demand from the public.

Springtime has arrived for private printing factories.

Last year was different. The policy hadn't been relaxed, and private printing plants could generally only receive orders from private individuals... But the number of private orders was very limited, especially in the publishing industry, where private companies didn't have the authority and had to be affiliated with state-owned publishing houses.

This further suppressed the survival space of private printing plants.

There are very few orders from the general public!

Therefore, Changxing Printing Factory's low prices previously attracted most of the highest quality orders from the private sector, creating a strong competitive deterrent against its peers.

It's different now.

Private orders have increased significantly.

Changxing Printing Factory has low production capacity and cannot handle so many orders, so it cannot form a monopoly. A large number of high-quality orders will still be lost to its competitors, and the advantage of low price will not be obvious.

Therefore, Korean Air is raising its prices.

With more profit margins after raising prices, they can continuously expand production capacity and acquire more printing plants.

Zhou Haoran agreed, "However, the printing prices of textbooks and supplementary materials still need to be competitive. This is Zhongbo Bookstore's strategy. We aim to win over all the supplementary material orders in the harbor area."

Han Hang smiled and said, "Mr. Zhou, thanks to your introduction, we have just signed a contract with Fudan University Press. Fudan will give us priority in cooperating with their textbook publishing."

"Everything else can be given up, but we must firmly grasp the field of teaching aids and textbooks!"

Zhou Haoran reiterated his philosophy.

The book industry is tough.

But supplementary teaching materials are an exception.

Even twenty years from now, the total output value of the national book industry will only be 2000 billion yuan, of which 1000 billion yuan will be spent on textbooks and supplementary teaching materials.

Jiang Xiong also gave exciting good news.

They say they have already partnered with 18 educational and educational companies in the harbor, binding them to Zhongbo Bookstore's chariot.

However, after the meeting, Jiang Xiong still took the initiative to come over and said with emotion, "Mr. Da, as a private publishing house, Zhongbo Bookstore still has many problems to solve."

Zhou Haoran nodded. "Take your time!"

Jiang Xiong said, "Our educational supplementary materials project performed very well in the first half of the year. In our self-operated projects, we sold a total of 206 million books, with sales exceeding 3000 million yuan. Among them, 170 million books were related to educational supplementary materials."

Zhou Haoran had seen such reports before and said with a smile, "This shows that the 'Zhongbo Zhuangyuan' brand has gained market recognition."

“But in other fields, it’s very difficult for us to compete with established state-owned publishing houses,” Jiang Xiong paused, then sighed, “the gap is huge!”

In what aspects is there a gap?

Zhou Haoran was not surprised.

Jiang Xiong said, "It's about brand and trust... Take Yu Hua's works, for example. Everyone knows his books sell well; you can make money as long as they're printed. But he only collaborates with a few well-known state-owned publishing houses, while we have no chance at all."

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "Hasn't the 'Song of Everlasting Regret' been signed?"

"It was signed, but it's not an exclusive copyright. If it were a state-owned publishing house that had the foresight to discover a literary work that hadn't yet emerged, they would definitely sign an exclusive copyright agreement. Before 'To Live' was made into a movie, Yu Hua's works were also exclusively owned by the Yangtze River Literature and Art Publishing House."

Jiang Xiong felt powerless to do anything about it.

Zhongbo Bookstore discovered and successfully published "The Song of Everlasting Regret," achieving great success with sales exceeding 5 copies. It can be considered Zhongbo Bookstore's most successful project outside of educational materials.

However, there is no exclusive publishing right.

The author looked down on a private publishing house and was unwilling to sign an exclusive contract.

This led to other publishers following suit after "The Song of Everlasting Regret" became a hit, which greatly eroded the profits belonging to Zhongbo Bookstore.

Without exclusive rights, the value of "a discerning eye" will be greatly reduced.

Zhou Haoran was not surprised by this. "Zhongbo Bookstore's brand is still insufficient and cannot be compared with state-owned publishing houses."

“Yes!” Jiang Xiong sighed again, feeling it was such a pity. “It’s not just that we can’t sign big-name writers; they also prioritize cooperating with state-owned publishing houses for many high-quality projects, even if we offer better terms.”

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "Therefore, the New Concept Writing Competition must be done well! We can't get exclusive contracts with those established top writers right now. But we can still sign exclusive contracts with some emerging new writers and have long-term collaborations."

"This……"

Jiang Xiong wasn't very confident about this.

Can a writing competition really produce a group of national-level writers?

If an author's sales are only a few thousand copies, it's not even worth the effort!

Zhou Haoran encouraged him, "Old Jiang, Zhongbo Bookstore is still in its early stages, so it's normal to encounter difficulties. But as long as Zhongbo Bookstore produces a group of outstanding writers and high-quality works, it can build a reputation, gain influence in the industry, and become competitive in high-quality content."

Jiang Xiong said, "I need a suggestion from you, Master." "Market competition is all about the same strategies. Since we can't compete with the mainstream, let's start with the untapped areas of the market."

Zhou Haoran doesn't know much about the cultural industry.

But he understands business.

"A blank area?" Jiang Xiong was slightly taken aback, narrowing his eyes. "Like a writing competition?"

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "That's right. Cultivating young writers through essay competitions is a gap in the market. State-owned publishing houses haven't paid attention to it, or even disdain to participate. If we take action on this, we can have a significant advantage."

"Ah."

Jiang Xiong became more determined to make the essay competition a success.

Zhou Haoran continued, "For example, there's a craze for martial arts novels right now. But private publishing houses like ours can't possibly handle top-tier martial arts works. We can only rely on printing plants to get printing orders from state-owned publishing houses."

If you're taking printing orders, you can only earn money from the printing business.

Only with the approval of Zhongbo Bookstore can the "production-sales" business process be truly completed, thus creating a greater profit margin.

However, due to national policy, private publishing houses do not have ISBNs, so Zhongbo Bookstore still has to be affiliated with state-owned publishing houses and pay them a fee to publish under the name of state-owned publishing houses.

The difficulty lies in getting the project approved.

Top-tier authors and their works don't collaborate with independent booksellers.

What if sales figures are fabricated and royalties are misappropriated?
What if the royalties are delayed, or the royalties are refused to be paid for various reasons?
State-owned enterprises are still the most reliable!
Jiang Xiong said with great distress, "There are too many swindlers among private booksellers. If given the choice, no one would want to cooperate with private booksellers."

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "So we need to find untapped markets where there's not much choice. Martial arts projects are hard to do, but what about science fiction? I've seen many excellent novels in Science Fiction World magazine."

"Science fiction?" Jiang Xiong shook his head repeatedly. "There's no market for that."

Zhou Haoran said sternly, "It's precisely because there's no market that we have a chance! If we sign a contract for a science fiction novel, it might not be a 5- or 10-year exclusive publishing rights deal, but a permanent buyout of the rights!"

Jiang Xiong disagrees. "If there's a market, even partial copyright can make money. If there's no market, even if you buy out the copyright, it has no value."

"No one can truly understand the market."

Zhou Haoran felt that his views were too conservative.

"Ok?"

Jiang Xiong was slightly puzzled.

Zhou Haoran said, "Science fiction isn't popular now, but maybe it will be in twenty years? Martial arts are popular now, but they might be out of fashion in ten years. Old Jiang, the market is constantly changing; we need to focus on what remains constant!"

"What is it?"

"copyright!"

"what?"

Jiang Xiong still didn't understand.

Zhou Haoran said calmly, "The copyrights after the buyout! Old Jiang, I propose that Zhongbo Bookstore allocate 10% of its profits each year to purchase the copyrights of excellent literary works in the market. Whether it's romance novels, science fiction, youth novels, martial arts novels, or even street vendor literature. There's only one requirement: it has to be a complete buyout!"

"Invest in the copyrights of literary works?" Jiang Xiong finally understood and was taken aback. "Make a move in advance, buy the copyrights of some high-quality works, and then wait for market opportunities to emerge."

"Yes, that's copyright hoarding!"

Zhou Haoran knew that Zhongbo Bookstore was facing difficulties, so he had to resort to some prescient methods.

The trend of "hoarding copyrights" will not become popular until ten years later, which is the concept of IP.

The reason for this overseas is the global popularity of Marvel movies.

The domestic cause was that after the author sold all the copyrights of "The Three-Body Problem" for 10 yuan, the subsequent copyright holders, who changed hands several times, all became billionaires... Even the publishing royalties of the novel, both domestically and internationally, amounted to several hundred million US dollars.

Jiang Xiong summarized: "Ten years without business, then a hundred years of profit. That's the significance of stockpiling copyrights."

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "That's exactly what I mean. Many writers can't make money from their work, and they live in poverty. You can buy out the copyright to their works permanently at a very low cost, and then just wait for the right opportunity to come along."

Jiang Xiong said happily, "When we buy copyrights, many struggling, unknown writers will have a sum of money to live on in the short term. This can not only solve their immediate problems but also strengthen their literary creation path, which is a kind of encouragement. This is equivalent to Zhongbo Bookstore cultivating a group of its own writers."

“I don’t know much about the cultural industry, but you can follow this approach.” Zhou Haoran reiterated, “The magazine ‘Science Fiction World’ is good; you can sign a strategic agreement with them.”

Jiang Xiong finally understood what he meant and said, "Just like when we make educational supplementary books, the reason we are so successful is because it is a niche market that even state-owned printing plants have not entered."

Zhou Haoran declared emphatically: "Avoid competition with state-owned publishing houses and create an industrial empire for Zhongbo Bookstore in niche and untapped markets!"

Of course, these are not the only options for Zhongbo Bookstore.

Private booksellers face discrimination in the country.

I do not agree.

But once you go overseas, it's the opposite.

Foreigners discriminate against state-owned enterprises and prefer to cooperate with private enterprises.

By finding high-quality works abroad, signing contracts, and translating and publishing them in China, Zhongbo Bookstore can gain a competitive advantage.

Zhou Haoran has already booked his plane ticket.

Oracle reimbursement.

There are three in total.

One business class seat and two economy class seats.

Zhou Haoran naturally couldn't let Aunt Wan and Teacher Jiang both travel in economy class. He upgraded them at his own expense and went to the United States! Teacher Jiang is a Chinese teacher, so he could find a translator and have her go to a bookstore in the United States to pick something out.

By bringing foreign books back to China for publication, Zhongbo Bookstore can escape the embarrassing situation of having no high-quality projects!
(End of this chapter)