The Fiery Era: Starting from Longxugou

Chapter 93 Royalties Standards

Zhao Shi'an felt a pang of regret, then continued the tour with his younger siblings.

Zhao Xiaoyue and her group of little ones were overjoyed when they came out of the main hall. They had been curious about what the Golden Palace looked like, but after seeing it, they lost interest.

Once outside the Hall of Supreme Harmony and onto the open imperial road, the little ones ran and jumped along the blue brick pavement, their clear laughter echoing through the empty palace courtyard, startling many birds in the trees.

Seeing the group's cheerful demeanor, Zhao Shi'an didn't want to spoil the mood. He followed behind them and called out a warning, "Slow down, be careful not to bump into anyone."

"Understood, big brother!"

Everyone responded with a reply, and another burst of laughter filled the road!

Zhao Shi'an kept an eye on the little ones running around wildly while slowly scanning the palace courtyards on both sides.

Continuing along the central axis, passing the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony, you soon approach the area around the Palace of Heavenly Purity. In the side courtyards and corners on both sides, many old trees have new saplings growing.

While his younger siblings were busy chasing and playing, Zhao Shi'an used his body as cover to quietly store several healthy seedlings into his spatial storage.

He found several jujube saplings with new buds in the corner of the side courtyard of Cining Palace; he also found two short and sturdy thin-skinned walnut saplings at the foot of the secluded palace wall of the Western Six Palaces; and finally, he found several crabapple trees that had already borne fruit in the corner of the flower bed of Kunning Palace.

Zhao Shi'an followed the playful little ones forward, past the Qianqing Palace and the Jiaotai Hall, and then came the Kunning Palace, where the flowers and trees on both sides of the palace walls became increasingly lush.

The May sunlight filtered through the branches and leaves, casting dappled patterns on the ground.

Zhao Xiaoyue chased after the butterfly, Zhao Xiaole hopped and skipped along the cracks in the blue bricks, and Zhao Shijie and Zhao Shixiong imitated Sun Wukong and Erlang Shen fighting.

Tian Qingshan ran behind them, cheering them on, while Tian Xiaocao followed the group, occasionally checking on Zhao Xiaoyue and Zhao Xiaole.

The crisp sounds of laughter echoed through the deep palace courtyards, mingling with the whispers of tourists in the distance, creating a harmonious atmosphere!

Zhao Shi'an followed behind the group, occasionally calling out a reminder: "Be careful not to fall."

Zhao Shi'an's gaze seemed to casually sweep over the surroundings, but in reality, he was constantly watching for any signs of movement in every corner.

In a secluded spot on the west side of Kunning Palace, several ancient persimmon saplings, their tender green leaves sprouting from the cracks in the bricks, quietly slipped into their spatial storage while Zhao Shi'an adjusted his clothes.

Not far away, several clumps of jujube tree shoots were growing vigorously. He knew that these were new seedlings that had sprouted from the roots of old trees, so he put them into his space as well.

At the corner of the palace wall, several walnut saplings were hidden among the weeds, their leaves spread out and they were growing very well. He put them all into his spatial storage.

Zhao Shi'an collected items along the way, searching through everyone he knew and didn't know.

He doesn't recognize many of the flowers, plants, and trees. For example, there are several kinds of crabapple, such as Malus spectabilis and Malus halliana. Whether he understands them or not is not important. He'll just collect them first and deal with them later!

In addition, he also collected many saplings and even a few clumps of peonies into his space while his younger siblings were chasing and playing.

The further you walk, the denser the ancient trees become. After turning through a small vermilion gate, you arrive at the Imperial Garden.

As he entered the Imperial Garden, he knew that all the truly rare and precious flowers and trees in the Forbidden City were here.

Before us, towering ancient cypresses block out the sun, intertwined cypresses are gnarled and vigorous, reclining pine trees extend their branches diagonally, and various exotic flowers and trees are scattered around.

Unfortunately, he didn't know many plants; he could only recognize peonies, herbaceous peonies, and roses.

When the children arrived at the Imperial Garden, Zhao Shijie, Zhao Shixiong, and Tian Qingshan reached out to touch the rough trunks of the ancient trees, while Zhao Xiaoyue, Zhao Xiaole, and Tian Xiaocao were captivated by the blooming flowers in the flowerbeds, staring at them intently.

In early May, the Imperial Garden retains the last splendor of late spring.

The late-blooming peonies still managed to maintain their last bit of elegance, with layers upon layers of petals and extremely rich colors; large swathes of peonies were bulging with full buds, and a few plants were the first to bloom with pink and white petals, standing gracefully among the green leaves.

There was another patch of flowers I didn't recognize that were in full bloom, with clusters of tiny white blossoms adorning the branches, their delicate fragrance spreading in the breeze.

A few rose bushes dotted the corners of the flower bed, with a few pale pink flowers blooming sparsely, standing out against the lush greenery.

While his younger siblings were distracted, Zhao Shi'an glanced at the flowers and trees around Wanchun Pavilion and Jiangxue Pavilion. He quietly collected the seedlings one by one, then casually plucked two small red flowers, went to his two younger sisters, squatted down, and put them on the heads of the two little ones.

"Big brother, what are you doing? Ah! It's a flower, so beautiful!"

When Zhao Xiaoyue saw her older brother arrive and noticed the little red flower on her younger cousin's head, she reached out and touched her own head and found one too. She was overjoyed!

"Sister Xiaoyue, the flower in your hair is red! What color is the one in mine?"

Zhao Xiaole touched her head happily and looked at Sister Xiaoyue to ask.

"You're popular too!"

"Great! We're the same! Sister Little Grass, look at the little flowers Big Brother picked for us! Aren't they pretty?"

Zhao Xiaole was overjoyed when she heard this, and immediately showed off to Tian Xiaocao, twisting her little body from time to time so that the other party could see it clearly!

"nice!"

Tian Xiaocao nodded affirmatively.

"Sister Little Grass, me, me, look at me, am I pretty?"

Zhao Xiaoyue became anxious upon hearing this and pulled Tian Xiaocao aside to verify it as well.

"Haha! They look so pretty! Both of you are wearing beautiful little flowers!"

Tian Xiaocao laughed upon hearing this.

"Hehe! That's great! I'll let my second brother and Shixiong take a look!"

Zhao Xiaoyue was overjoyed to hear this and immediately ran off to find someone.

"I'm going too, Sister Xiaoyue, wait for me!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Xiaole also ran over.

Watching the little guy run off into the distance, Zhao Shi'an couldn't stop smiling.

Only after the two little girls had finished showing off and were too tired to walk any further did Zhao Shi'an lead everyone out of Shenwu Gate.

After leaving the Forbidden City, Zhao Shi'an saw that it was still early. Looking at Jingshan Park across the street, he thought of the tree where Emperor Chongzhen died for his country. He had originally planned to pay his respects, but after the wind picked up, the tree was gone. He would never be able to find the original version again. If he had the chance, he could store it in his space and return it to its rightful owner after the storm had passed.

However, after seeing how exhausted his younger siblings looked, he didn't mention it.

Thinking that the capital city library wasn't far from here, Zhao Shi'an encouraged the group, saying, "Tired? Let's go to the library and rest! We can read all sorts of comic books there. After I finish my research, we'll take a car home!"

Zhao Shi'an recalled that he had gone to Xinhua Bookstore last time to inquire about the standards for royalties in this era, but he couldn't find them. In the end, the clerk told him that he could go to the library or newspaper office to check. Now that he was so close to the Beijing Library, he might as well go and find out!

"Okay! Let's go read comic books!"

"Let's read a picture book!"

When Zhao Shijie and his friends heard that the library had all sorts of comic books, they immediately perked up.

"Let's go! It's not far, we'll be there in no time."

As Zhao Shi'an spoke, he led the group westward. The Beijing Library was located at No. 7 Wenjin Street, opposite Beihai Park, and about one kilometer from Shenwu Gate.

Just now in the Forbidden City, the little ones played wildly and walked weakly. Zhao Shi'an encouraged them, picked up the youngest Zhao Xiaole, and walked for a long time before slowly making their way to the Beijing Library.

The predecessor of the Capital Library was the Capital Library, which was established in 1909. In 1931, the current Wenjin Street building was completed. In 1949, it was renamed the National Capital Library. In June 1951, it was renamed the Capital Library.

The entire building in front of us is a palace-style main building with a solemn and grand green glazed tile roof, a white marble base and carved railings, a red lacquered gate with copper door studs, a pair of majestic stone lions in front of the gate, and white marble ornamental columns moved from the Old Summer Palace on both sides, which are very impressive.

Stepping into the courtyard, rows of pine and cypress trees line the spacious grounds. The main building, Wenjin Building, is a two-story structure with a connecting corridor linking the two side buildings. It possesses both the grandeur of traditional Chinese imperial architecture and the regularity of modern architecture.

It is said that the library currently houses more than 1.6 million books, including ancient books, newspapers and periodicals, and foreign language documents. It also has a complete set of the Wenjin Pavilion edition of the Siku Quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries), making it the largest book collection in China.

If you can't find the royalty standards here, you're even less likely to find them elsewhere.

With this information in mind, Zhao Shi'an and his younger siblings registered their personal information at the entrance and went inside.

The Beijing Library is open to the public. You can enter to read books after registering your personal information. If you want to borrow books, you need to apply for a library card.

Upon entering the library, Zhao Xiaoyue and the other kids immediately became lively. After asking their older brother about the bookshelf where the comic books were kept, they all ran to the bookshelf and began to search earnestly.

Zhao Shi'an gave some instructions to the group, then found a staff member and explained their purpose. Soon, with the staff member's guidance, they found a bound volume of the 53 Guangming Daily, from which they found the "Provisional Regulations on Book Royalties" issued by the General Administration of Press and Publication. The core clauses of the regulations were excerpted and published in official publications to guide authors across the country in submitting their manuscripts.

Upon seeing this message, Zhao Shi'an was overjoyed and quickly began reading it.

Original manuscripts are graded according to quality, with remuneration ranging from 60,000 to 180,000 yuan per thousand words; translated manuscripts are slightly lower, ranging from 40,000 to 130,000 yuan per thousand words. Poetry is not charged according to word count, but is uniformly calculated as 20 lines equaling 1,000 words.

Short articles published in newspapers and magazines only receive basic royalties. Once a book is published, a fixed print run system will be implemented: the publisher will set a fixed print run for each category based on the subject matter. For the first four categories, the publisher will receive the full basic royalties for each category. Starting from the fifth category, the royalties will be reduced by 20%.

After reading this, Zhao Shi'an realized that his standard of 100,000 words per thousand words was only average.

Upon seeing the regulations on book royalties, he was initially puzzled about what the print run quota was. After reading it, he discovered that it was modeled after the Soviet Union, with no royalties and royalties calculated in tiers based on "quota units".

When printing books, a basic quota is first set. Common quotas for literature are generally 1 copies, 2 copies, 3 copies, or 5 copies.

The payment is based on a quota of 10,000 copies. For the first four quotas, the basic royalty is paid in full upon completion of each quota. From the fifth quota onwards, only 80% of the basic royalty is paid for each quota. After that, the royalty decreases by 10% for every two quotas printed. The more copies printed, the lower the royalty per unit. After the 13th quota, the royalty is fixed at 40%.

Taking himself as an example, if he wrote a book of 100,000 words and the standard royalty was 100,000 per thousand words, then the basic royalty would be 10 million.

When printing a book, if the planned quota is 30,000 copies, then 30,000 copies is a quota. Even if the number of copies is less than 30,000, you can still receive 10 million in royalties. After receiving the full 30,000 copies, the total number of copies printed will reach 120,000. Starting from the fifth quota, you can only receive 80% of the basic royalties, which is 8 million.

The seventh and eighth quotas are 70%.

The ninth and tenth quotas are 60%.

The 11th and 12th fixed amounts will receive 50%.

After the 13th quota, for every 30,000 copies printed, the royalties would be 40%, or 4 million.

Based on this calculation, a book with 100,000 words can earn 96 million yuan as long as the thirteenth quota is printed. At this point, 390,000 books have already been printed.

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