Training the Heavens

Chapter 66: Enough money saved to buy a house

"Mengya" has no objection to the radio adaptation of the book into a radio drama, because the book has already been serialized in "Mengya". Even if it is broadcast on the radio, it will not affect sales. On the contrary, it is a good thing. There will definitely be many people who have not bought "Mengya" who will buy the book because they heard the radio broadcast.

Niu Xinliang was sent to the radio station to discuss the adaptation fee with the person in charge, Tang Botao. The people at the radio station were unwilling to pay more, saying that at present each radio station only paid a symbolic fee for adapted works, and there was no reason to pay more.

But Niu Xinliang was prepared. "You're wrong. When the country reinstated the remuneration system, it said: For intellectual labor, writing works that are published by national publishing and radio and television departments, a certain amount of remuneration will be given to encourage them to continue their hard work."

"So, when it comes to royalties, it's not just us magazines and publishing houses that have to pay authors. If you, the radio station, want to use an author's manuscript, you naturally have to pay them too. And don't you always pay authors when you collect radio scripts?"

Tang Botao was suddenly stuck, because what Niu Xinliang said was indeed true. The radio station had so many programs to broadcast every day, and they could not write so many scripts by themselves, so they could only solicit them from the society.

Authors can also receive royalties for writing articles for them. Generally speaking, an article of a few hundred words can get a fee of about 20 yuan. The total royalties paid by the radio station every month is not a small amount.

"That's different! The manuscripts we collected are all re-written by the authors. Now Gao Jialin has already received royalties from you once. His mental work has been duly rewarded. How can he ask for high royalties from us?" Tang Botao tried to defend himself.

"Even if Gao Jialin has already received royalties from us, other newspapers and magazines still need to pay royalties if they want to reprint his articles. Of course, this does not apply to textbooks used in schools. But your radio station is not a textbook, so if you want to use the articles, you must pay!"

"Even TV stations and film studios have to pay adaptation fees when they adapt a certain author's work. You can't make an exception for your radio station, right?"

Niu Xinliang has been eating Gao Jialin's meals a lot recently. With so much delicious food in his stomach, his fighting power is really strong. He quoted a series of classics and made Tang Botao speechless.

Tang Botao was planning to give up this project, but then he thought that "Young Friends Come to Meet" was so popular among young people, if it could be adapted into a radio drama, the listening rate would definitely not be low, so he felt a little reluctant.

Then we can only talk slowly. "Even if what you said makes sense, isn't twenty dollars per thousand words too high?"

"Then calculate it based on the cost of a screenplay adaptation! Original feature film scripts currently cost 1500-4000 yuan each. For screenplays adapted from other literary forms, 20-30% of the above standard is paid to the original author, and the remainder goes to the adapter. Radio drama scripts are easier to adapt than film and television dramas, so Jialin can do it. Just give him yuan!"

This is the current market standard. When Zhang Yimou was filming "Red Sorghum", he gave Mo Yan 800 yuan for adaptation fees. When CCTV was filming "Ordinary World", due to tight funding, it only gave Lu Yao 680 yuan.

Tang Botao laughed angrily, "This book only has a little over 200,000 words. If you say that, I might as well just calculate it as 20 yuan per thousand words!"

"That's fine too!" Niu Xinliang said calmly.

"Four thousand yuan is the salary only for big screenwriters and authors. Jialin is a newcomer after all, so let's just calculate it as fifteen hundred!" Tang Botao took a step back.

"No, at least three thousand and five!" "Two thousand!"

"Three thousand two!"

The two argued back and forth for a long time, and finally reached an agreement on a price of two thousand five hundred. This was also thanks to the fact that Shanghai is a big city and the radio station has sufficient funding, otherwise Tang Botao would not be willing to pay so much money.

Gao Jialin invited Niu Xinliang to dinner, and then went back to start revising the radio drama script. As Niu Xinliang said, radio drama scripts are indeed simpler to write than film and television dramas. Most of the content can be copied verbatim, and only the narration and character names need to be added in front. In this way, the announcer recording the radio drama will know which part he should read when he gets the script.

It took me half a month to revise the script and submit it, and I got another 2,500 yuan.

But that wasn't all. When Gao Jialin arrived at No. 675 Julu Road, Niu Xinliang told him another piece of good news: "The publication of 'Young Friends Come to Meet' has been finalized, and the first print run is copies!"

Gao Jialin wasn't surprised by the decision to publish a book so quickly, as Mengya already had its own publishing house, making it very convenient for them to publish excellent works that had been published in the magazine. He was a little surprised by the print run, however. "The first print run is 100,000 copies. Aren't you worried that it won't sell?"

"Don't worry. From the resumption of the college entrance examination in 77 to now, hundreds of thousands of people have entered universities every year. Over the years, there are at least two million college students. These are the natural readers of your book! Add to that the high school students who have not yet been admitted to university but are very curious about university life, there are even more! If you add other reader groups, a mere copies will not be enough!" Niu Xinliang seemed full of confidence.

"That's true. You are all so confident. Why should I worry about it when I am the only one getting paid?" Gao Jialin nodded.

"Your royalties are essential. Your book has over 22 words, so I'll give you 6 yuan. At 22 yuan per thousand words, that's 7 yuan. With a print run of 4086 copies, your royalties are equivalent to 37% of the base royalties, which is 1511.82 yuan. The total is 5597.82 yuan. Just for this book, you've earned nearly yuan from us. If you add in the script fees from the radio station, you'll have almost saved enough to buy a house!"

After settling the accounts, Niu Xinliang was filled with envy, but not much jealousy, because he knew that this was what Gao Jialin deserved.

"Hehe, once you give me the royalties, it will be enough to buy a villa!" Gao Jialin still couldn't help but reveal his family's financial situation. When he thought that the villa of more than 500 square meters would soon become his, who could resist it!

"Where did you get the money? Are you contributing to other magazines behind my back?" Niu Xinliang felt betrayed.

He guessed correctly. The remaining money was naturally given by "Story Club". Gao Jialin was bored at home during the winter vacation, so he wrote two stories. After returning to school, he used the time between studying and writing for "Mengya" to write another one.

After taking these three stories to Story Club, Feng Jie immediately applied for the highest level of remuneration for him. The three stories earned him several thousand yuan in remuneration. Together with what he got from Mengya, Gao Jialin's savings successfully exceeded 20,000 yuan, and he could ask Xie Chao to buy a house.

After receiving the royalties, Gao Jialin immediately called Xie Chao and asked him to help him make an appointment with the homeowner to sign the contract. He didn't want to wait any longer.

(End of this chapter)