After rebirth, I became a great master

Chapter 355 Buying Overseas Projects at Rock-Bottom Prices
Zhou Haoran is very familiar with Silicon Valley.

The work is very rhythmic.

My main focus was on connecting with Oracle's technical team and providing them with technical guidance.

Stability and security under high concurrency will remain a constant theme for the technology industry for the next few decades.

Zhou Haoran has written 12 papers on this topic.

Eight of them have already been published.

This naturally made him the most famous expert in the industry.

Companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM have also established internal technical teams to develop new high-concurrency algorithms based on his theoretical ideas, thereby translating academic research into commercial applications.

It won't be easy to achieve.

Zhou Haoran's papers are all theoretical in nature; he wrote them all by himself without any experimental data, architecture, or code. Even the top tech companies might not be able to achieve this.

This led to the exorbitant hiring fee offered by Oracle.

Academic work is just academic work.

The value lies in the ability to translate academic research into commercial applications.

For example, those two PhDs at Stanford University who researched search technology.

Zhou Haoran focused more of his energy here, communicating with Larry Page and Sergey Brin, explaining his search ideas and the logic of distributed computing.

Putting theory into practice is extremely difficult.

Fortunately, the three of them worked together.

With Zhou Haoran's guidance, the two of them put it into practice.

The coordination was seamless!
The next step is to apply for a patent.

As a key participant in this project and a mentor-level leader, Zhou Haoran also received his share of the patent, 30%. The remaining shares were split equally between the other two PhDs, 35% each.

That's all set!

With the patents in hand, and once the project was commercialized, Google was founded. The founders of Google were no longer two people, but three: Zhou Haoran, Larry Page, and Shel Gablin.

Having the identity of a founder is much better than waving money around and becoming an investor later.

In the evenings, I would exchange ideas with university professors and renowned scholars, engaging in academic discussions.

Alternatively, see Wei Jie.

After spending just a few days together, Zhou Haoran could tell that this guy was someone special.

It's obvious from just one point.

To secure the rights to "The Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter," he went to the UK and then returned to Silicon Valley.

They never mentioned reimbursing travel expenses.

We only talk about work, not money.

Seeing that he had rushed back from England, Zhou Haoran specially arranged a high-end restaurant to entertain him: "You've had a long journey! You've had a long journey!"

"Oh, it's nothing." Wei Jie smiled nonchalantly. "When you do what you love, you'll always have endless motivation."

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "Judging from your expression, you must have some good news?"

"The best news is that the copyrights are still valid." Wei Jie didn't feel relieved, though. "There aren't any Chinese versions of these two sets of books yet. However, internationally, the Chinese versions are divided into two regions: Greater China and Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. We can only obtain the Greater China region's copyrights."

Zhou Haoran nodded. "I understand."

“I went to see J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter novels… just as I guessed, she really is a housewife.”

Wei Jie shook his head secretly.

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "The author of 'White Deer Plain' was a farmer, yet it's still a masterpiece."

"Too!"

Wei Jie laughed heartily.

Zhou Haoran solemnly stated, "While Harry Potter does lack depth and its word choice is somewhat unrefined, this is precisely what makes it suitable for children's reading. Piracy is rampant in the domestic book market. Children's books are the category most capable of overcoming piracy!"

"So that's it!"

Wei Jie then understood why his junior was interested in this tattered book.

It turns out it was based on market considerations!

Zhou Haoran smiled and asked, "How are the book's sales in the UK?"

“Very good.” Wei Jie said with admiration, “You’re right, adults don’t really like reading this series, but it’s become a hit among children. It was a huge success in the UK that led it to the US market.”

Zhou Haoran said in a deep voice, "I went to the bookstore again yesterday, and I was quite impressed."

"how?"

"Last time we went to the bookstore, there was still Harry Potter on the shelf. When I went yesterday, I found it was sold out."

"So fast?"

Wei Jie was taken aback. Zhou Haoran said, "So my judgment was correct."

Wei Jie took a deep breath. He had just gone to the UK to do some research. "I talked to Rowling about copyright matters. She told me that the sale of the book's US rights was a fierce bidding war. In the end, Scholar Press bought the US rights for a signing fee of $10 and also paid 12% royalties, with an initial print run of 5 copies."

5 copies?

Zhou Haoran was slightly stunned.

This book was only published at the end of last month.

Wei Jie exclaimed in surprise, "5 copies sold out in less than half a month... This is going to be a huge hit!"

“So we need to act quickly, otherwise our domestic publishing peers will have their eyes on us.” Zhou Haoran was also sensitive to the numbers he had just mentioned. “The US market is so big, how could they buy the copyright for only $10?”

“This is already a high price after competition,” Wei Jie said, noticing that the man himself didn’t know much about the publishing industry. “These kinds of projects are very complicated to operate. I met with J.K. Rowling and her agent. I didn’t understand a lot of the jargon they used. It also requires the involvement of professional publishers.”

Zhou Haoran felt it was necessary. "Okay, I'll have Lao Jiang... that is, Jiang Xiong, the general manager of Zhongbo Bookstore, come and cooperate with you!"

"General manager?"

Wei Jie was horrified.

I thought to myself, this junior is really something. He can assign work to the general manager with just a few words?
He's the real boss of Zhongbo Bookstore!
“Yes, General Manager, but the visa might take another week to process. Keep in touch with them for now.” Zhou Haoran had high hopes for this alumnus. “Senior, how’s your work at Oracle going?”

Wei Jie shook his head. "I've taken leave."

"Maybe I should just quit."

Zhou Haoran was not slow at all.

"what?"

Wei Jie could hardly believe it.

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "We're alumni. Since you're going back to China and want to work in the cultural industry, then I'll gladly accept your offer. Zhongbo Bookstore is short of a vice general manager to handle overseas translation projects, and I hope you can come over."

Wei Jie hesitated for a moment and slowly said, "I'll talk to President Jiang about the publishing industry when I meet him. After all, I don't know much about this field."

Back at the hotel that evening, Zhou Haoran contacted Jiang Xiong.

It's still daytime in China.

Tell him to hurry up and get a visa to come to the United States.

He then started talking about the promising projects he had discovered overseas.

Jiang Xiong was an expert, unlike him who was full of enthusiasm. "Sir, the process of getting an overseas book into China is very complicated! The approval process alone may take several months."

"We have to do it!"

Zhou Haoran left no doubt.

Jiang Xiong said, "I had previously learned about 'The Lord of the Rings.' Harbor Translation Publishing House is the largest translation book publisher in China, and they had previously considered publishing 'The Lord of the Rings.'"

"how?"

Zhou Haoran was unaware of the details.

Jiang Xiong explained, "It was abandoned because of the review process."

Zhou Haoran was a little confused. "The Lord of the Rings is a fantasy novel and it doesn't involve politics. What's wrong with publishing it?"

Jiang Xiong said in a deep voice: "Because this work contains a large number of religious metaphors, as well as a Western-centric epic theme structure."

"sharp."

Zhou Haoran chuckled, unsure of what to say.

“I’m not too familiar with the Harry Potter situation. But the fact that you said the book wasn’t written by a master and that the author is a housewife is actually a good thing.”

Jiang Xiong's statement is truly astonishing.

Zhou Haoran chuckled and said, "This is a children's book, for kids. It doesn't have any profound ideas; it's just a simple popular read."

Jiang Xiong smiled and said, "That's for the best."

Without hesitation, Zhou Haoran firmly stated, "There's no need to worry about 'The Lord of the Rings.' Once the movie comes out, everything will be fine!"

In fact it is.

In my past life, the Lord of the Rings series was never published in China, but a traditional Chinese version was published across the Taiwan Strait.

A set of three books in traditional Chinese characters was then imported into the mainland market for 168 yuan!
It’s a sky-high price.

But there simply aren't enough to go around.

After the movie was released and censorship was relaxed, mainland publishers finally took action and signed a contract for a simplified Chinese version of "The Lord of the Rings." The first print run was 5 copies, but due to the tight deadline, the translation quality was terrible, leading to it being dubbed a "half-orc level translation."

Even so, it sold out in just three months.

In the era before online novels, these foreign books truly gave Chinese people the opportunity to unleash their imaginations.

"The Lord of the Rings is risky, so let's not rush it. Let's act quickly and sign the Harry Potter contract. This is a rare opportunity to buy at rock-bottom prices!" Zhou Haoran compromised, "Hurry up! Zhongbo Bookstore must become the best publisher of translated books in China!"

Jiang Xiong immediately took action: "I'll get the visa done right away!"

(End of this chapter)