Back to 17, My Brother is the Cult Leader

The next day, Fang Yuan rode his bicycle to school.

It's unbearably hot, and the cicadas are chirping deafeningly.

By the time I got to the school gate, my shirt was soaked with sweat.

Jiang Shan was waiting for him in the office, next to a man in his early forties.

The man was tall and thin, wearing black-rimmed glasses and a plaid short-sleeved shirt; he looked quite refined.

He was holding a bottle of mineral water and slowly drinking it.

"Fang Yuan, come here." Jiang Shan beckoned.

"This is Mr. Li Minghao, the editor of 'Mengya' magazine."

Fang Yuan walked over and greeted, "Hello, Teacher Li."

Okay, it's about what I expected. He's in his early forties and doesn't have much hair.

In his past life, most of his colleagues were like this.

Very friendly.

Fang Yuan unconsciously smiled.

Li Minghao put down the water bottle and glanced at him.

"What does this kid mean? I feel like he's making fun of me!"

"Stop fooling around, don't scare him," Jiang Shan said with a smile.

"You're Fang Yuan?" Li Minghao smiled.

"Younger than I thought."

"I'm not old to begin with."

Jiang Shan glared at him: "Fang Yuan, stop joking."

Li Minghao didn't seem to care; instead, he laughed.

"Haha, that's great, it suits my temperament."

He pulled a stack of papers out of his bag, and Fang Yuan recognized it at a glance as his own manuscript.

The paper was already a bit wrinkled, with the corners rolled up, and it was covered with dense red pen annotations.

"I've read this piece of yours three times," Li Minghao said.

Fang Yuan's heart tightened.

"I first read it in the office during my lunch break, and once I started, I couldn't put it down."

"After I finished reading it, I called your teacher, Mr. Jiang."

Li Minghao placed the manuscript on the table.

"I watched it at home the second time. I watched it a third time on the train, and wrote down some comments as I watched."

Fang Yuan glanced at the red text, his heart racing.

"Fang Yuan, I'm asking you a question," Li Minghao said, looking at him.

"Is your story based on a true story?"

"Yes. It's been somewhat artistically embellished."

"Is Chen Xia your classmate?"

"Yeah. That's right, the plot of the novel is a bit exaggerated compared to real life."

"The early stages weren't that bad, and the later stages weren't until the college entrance exam."

Fang Yuan was a little embarrassed.

Li Minghao nodded.

Does Chen Xia herself know about this?

"Know"

"Yes, I have her sign the authorization form."

Li Minghao turned to look at Jiang Shan in surprise, but didn't ask any further questions.

"Let me share my thoughts." He cleared his throat. "This piece of yours is excellent."

Fang Yuan sat up straight.

"The story is good, the pace is fast, the dialogue is lively, and it's not tiring to read."

Our magazine receives hundreds of manuscripts every day, but we only glance at most of them before putting them down.

I read your piece in one go.

Fang Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.

I thought to myself, how could it not be good? It was a bestseller in its previous life.

"The downside is that I wrote too quickly in some places."

Li Minghao opened the manuscript and pointed to one of the pages.

"Look here, Chen Xia improved by more than 20 places in her first mock exam."

Too fast, it's unreal.

True comebacks are rarely so smooth.

Fang Yuan nodded.

Jiang Shan also said this, and he has already changed a lot.

"And," Li Minghao flipped through the pages, "there's more."

"Your article is nearly 100,000 words long; our magazine can't publish it all at once."

Fang Yuan's heart skipped a beat. Did this mean they were going to reject the manuscript?

"We plan to publish it in four installments," Li Minghao said.

Fang Yuan was stunned.

"Fourth phase?" Jiang Shan asked from the side.

"Yes." Li Minghao looked at Fang Yuan, "The four installments will be completed in September, October, November, and December."

It coincides perfectly with the start of the school season, attracting many student readers, and the subject matter is also a good fit.

Fang Yuan opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but didn't know what to say.

Only one thought popped into his mind—the manuscript was about to be published.

"Of course, that's on the condition that you agree."

Li Minghao said,

"If you want to send them all at once, we'll have to wait until we have a suitable time slot, which may be scheduled for next year."

"No need to wait, just serialize it." Fang Yuan blurted out.

Li Minghao laughed: "Alright, let me continue with the matter of royalties."

He took another piece of paper out of his bag and handed it to Fang Yuan.

"You've caught a good time; we just revamped our website this year, and campus literature is a key focus."

"Magazine fees have also increased, with several tiers; the fees differ for short stories, medium-length stories, and long stories, with serialized articles receiving the highest rates."

"With this length, you could probably get a little over ten thousand yuan by the highest standards."

Fang Yuan took the paper, glanced at it, and his hand trembled slightly.

Ten thousand yuan in 1996.

How much does his dad earn in a month? How much does it cost him to eat a meal in the cafeteria?

"Don't get excited, this is just the royalties from the serialization."

Li Minghao took a sip of water.

"I'm here today mainly to talk to you about the follow-up matters."

Fang Yuan looked up: "What happened next?"

"Yes." Li Minghao put down the water bottle.

"Our magazine's editorial board read your article 'Flying Colors,' and gave it a very high rating."

The old editor-in-chief said something that left a deep impression on me—

"This child wrote about the college entrance exam, but it's more than just about the college entrance exam."

Fang Yuan didn't quite understand, but he thought the words were quite sophisticated.

"So we thought," Li Minghao paused.

"If your manuscript is well-received after the serialization ends, we'll help you publish it as a standalone book."

Fang Yuan's mind went blank for a moment.

Publish a book?

"Of course, it depends on the market reaction."

Li Minghao added,

"But the editorial board's intention is to finalize the agreement with you first, so that other publishers won't try to snatch it away."

Fang Yuan glanced at Jiang Shan.

Jiang Shan nodded slightly to him.

"Teacher Li," Fang Yuan said, trying to keep his voice steady.

"Regarding the individual volumes, how exactly will it be handled?"

Li Minghao was clearly prepared.

There are two ways.

One option is for our magazine to connect you with a publisher. Once the deal is agreed upon, you sign the contract directly with the publisher; we simply act as a middleman. The other option is to authorize our magazine's affiliated book studio, which will handle the entire operation, and the manuscript fees will be converted into royalties.

"What's the difference?" Fang Yuan asked.

"The first type is where you receive a one-time fee, and whether the book sells well or poorly is irrelevant to you."

The second type is royalties; the more you sell, the more you earn.

But the risk is also high; if it doesn't sell, you might not get a single penny.

Fang Yuan thought for a moment, then didn't rush to answer.

"Can we not choose either one?" he asked.

Li Minghao paused for a moment, then smiled:

"Are you planning to find a publisher yourself?"

"I was just asking."

"Sure. But if you look for something yourself, the conditions might not be as good as what we find for you."

Li Minghao pushed up his glasses.

"We have partnerships with more than 20 publishing houses across the country, which allows us to obtain better royalty rates."

For new authors, the percentage is typically between 6% and 8%. We can help you negotiate down to 10%.

Fang Yuan did some mental calculations.

If a book is priced at fifteen yuan and ten thousand copies are sold, then 10% of that would be fifteen thousand yuan.

Including the royalties from the serialized articles, the total came to over 20,000 yuan after tax.

More than 20,000.

He took a deep breath.

"Teacher Li, I choose royalty sharing."

"Have you thought it through?"

In his past life, he was someone who earned a fixed salary, and in this life, he doesn't want to earn a fixed fee for writing articles again.

Jiang Shan nodded to Fang Yuan from the side.

"Okay, that's my opinion too. I have a lot of confidence in this novel."

He took another document out of his bag.

"This is the contract for the serialization."

Take a look first, and ask Teacher Jiang if you don't understand anything.

Fang Yuan took the contract and turned to the first page.

The densely packed terms and conditions made him dizzy.

Li Minghao pointed to one of them and said:

"This clause is a proprietary publishing right."

This means that after your article is published in our magazine, you cannot submit it to other magazines for publication within two years.

Fang Yuan nodded.

He can understand that.