Chapter 16 Signing the Contract

When he arrived at the publishing house, Director Ma was already waiting for him in the office. The two sides exchanged pleasantries for a while, and after sitting down, they began to formally discuss matters concerning royalties.

"According to our month-long discussion, we have finally reached a relatively clear conclusion about the payment of royalties, and the publishing house allows this operation in principle.

However, the payment method of royalties is the first time after all, there is no precedent in China for reference, and the publishing house is still cautious.

Therefore, the publishing house can only promise to give you 5% of the royalties of this book. What do you think about this, just say it. "Director Ma said.

Being able to obtain the payment method of royalties is indeed a pioneering reform, but it is not so innovative. After all, in the early days of the founding of New China, royalties were also paid.

Only in the early 1960s, the country removed the payment method of royalties and changed it to remuneration, so the payment method of remuneration has been used until now.

"The payment method of royalties is the development trend of the publishing industry. The publishing house can make such a decision in advance, which is at the forefront of the reform, and it will definitely help the development of the publishing house.

It’s just that the 5% royalty ratio is really a bit low. I think 10% is a more appropriate ratio, and it can also increase the author’s motivation to write. "Leaf Book said.

He doubled the royalties, mainly for the next bargaining. As a newcomer, the possibility of getting 10% royalties is very low.

Sure enough, when he heard that he directly increased the royalties to 10%, Director Ma immediately said: "Your idea is a bit unrealistic. It is impossible for the publishing house to agree to such a high royalty ratio."

"Then Director Ma, please give me a real figure. 5% is really too low. If you say it, people will think that the school's publishing house is bullying newcomers." Ye Zishu said.

Seeing that Ye Zishu is very knowledgeable about royalties, and the 5% royalties are indeed a bit low, the reason why I said it was just to see the situation.

Since Ye Zishu said so, Director Ma thought for a while and said, "Then let me give you a real number, what do you think of 7%?"

"Since Director Ma has already said it, let's each make a concession. The 8% royalty cannot be lowered!" Ye Zishu said.

As a newcomer, the possibility of getting 10% of the royalties is not high, but 8% of the royalties, he thinks there is still a possibility, and Director Ma raised the royalties to 7%.

"You are such a shrewd young man, we are not going around in circles, just 8%." Director Ma said with a smile.

"Thank you, Director Ma, for the compliment. In fact, this is beneficial to both parties. Only when everyone has money can the business last for a long time!" Ye Zishu also said with a smile.

Then the two parties signed the publishing contract, and he read the contract carefully. There were no other major problems, but he raised his own objection to the royalty payment time in it.

The contract states that the royalties will not be paid until all the books are sold. If this method is followed, it is estimated that the money will be paid in the monkey year.

Fortunately, books are best-selling. If too many books are printed at one time, resulting in a large backlog, the publisher can always default on his royalties on the grounds that they have not bought them all.

Therefore, he proposed that before a printing, the publisher needs to pay half of his royalties first, and the remaining royalties must be paid in place before the 5th of the next month after the publication.

In this regard, Director Ma believes that the repayment period after the release is not so fast, and it is impossible to pay the royalties on the 5th of the next month, so after negotiation, it is changed to a period of 3 months to pay the royalties.

As for paying half of the royalties in advance, Director Ma naturally has opinions. Doing so will increase the burden on the publishing house. If the books do not sell well, they may lose money.

"There is no such thing as a stable profit in the world. Doing so can urge publishers to be more active in distribution. If there is almost no cost, they may not work hard in distribution.

will cause loss to the author.

Director Ma should have heard of the agency system. If an agent wants to obtain the agency right of a product, he must pay an agency fee. Why?

The ultimate purpose of doing this is to let the agents have to sell the products desperately in order to get back the cost as soon as possible. Otherwise, after getting the agency right, the manufacturer will easily go bankrupt? "Leaf Book said.

Although the agency model, paying high agency fees is not the only reason, but the most important reason is definitely this, and other reasons are just incidental.

For example, you can identify the strength of the agent, increase the capital pool of the manufacturer and expand the production scale. Of course, there will be no shortage of people in later generations who are simply defrauding people of money.

Director Ma didn't expect him to have such a set of fallacies, and it really sounded reasonable, so he didn't know how to refute for a while.

After thinking for a while, Director Ma said, "Okay, then add this clause as you said."

"Director Ma is still reasonable, and a thorough understanding of win-win cooperation is the true meaning of business." Ye Zishu praised Director Ma.

Then he continued: "There is one more thing, and that is the number of publications of the first edition. It is best to have a clear number in the contract, otherwise, as an author, you will be confused, and you will not be able to settle the account at all."

This proposal is compatible with the advance payment of half of the royalties above. If there is no specific number of publications, naturally there is no rationality for paying royalties in advance.

Since he agreed to pay half of the royalties in advance, Director Ma naturally understood this truth, and added a clause that he needs to sign the publishing contract again before each reprint.

After discussions between the two parties, it was decided that the number of copies to be published in the first edition would be 100,000 copies. Whether this figure is too big or too small will test both parties' confidence in the market for this book.

Since this book only has 200,000 words and is not technically high, the price is not too expensive. In principle, it is priced at 10 yuan per copy, which he accepts.

After the contract was signed, he received a royalties of 8,000 yuan from the publishing house in advance, and asked the publishing house to issue a certificate so that he could go to the tax bureau to pay the tax.

This is different from selling music tapes. Selling tapes is a personal business activity. The accounts are not clear at all, and it is difficult for the tax department to check.

But the royalties income is the commercial cooperation between individuals and institutions. If you don’t pay taxes, you can check it out. He doesn’t want to get into trouble.

Even if it was tape income, he was going to pay a tax, but because of the current shortage of funds, he played a side-ball, and at worst he would pay a late fee.

After he came out, he went directly to the school's post office and sent 1,000 yuan to his family by postal money order. At the same time, he sent a telegram explaining the source of the money to avoid parents' worries.

When I returned to the dormitory, I found that the class instructor was already waiting for him in the dormitory. I asked him the reason. It turned out that he wanted to let him perform at the school's welcome party.

Tsinghua University is a school that mainly focuses on science and engineering. Even the Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts in the previous life has not yet been incorporated, and there are not many artistic talents.

It was not easy for a popular campus singer like Ye Zishu to come out, so he was naturally pulled over by the school to become a young man. Ye Zishu didn't refuse, and it was hard to refuse.

After all, the school gave him a lot of convenience in music promotion, and as a freshman, the school gave him the first task and was rejected, which is really unreasonable, and it is not conducive to harmonious coexistence in the future.