Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 543 A Big Gain
Generally speaking, when a foreign work is adapted for a domestic audience, the publisher does not directly contact the original author. Instead, a "translator" first translates the work into the domestic language and then submits it to the publisher.

Or, a publishing house might take a liking to a particular work, find a translator, and buy out the rights to translate it.

In the former case, the publisher needs to pay the original author a one-time copyright fee, which is a single payment and that's it. Then, the publisher pays the translator a fee slightly lower than the original author's fee, and if the work has the potential to be a bestseller, additional royalties will also be paid.

If it is the latter, then the publisher only needs to pay two one-time fees, one to the original author and one to the translation fee, and subsequent income has nothing to do with the writer and translator.

Unless you are a "contracted author".

In other words, if publishers directly commission manuscripts from foreign authors, they will be paid both copyright fees and royalties, just like with domestic authors. Whether the work is an older or new piece is irrelevant; the goal is long-term collaboration, not a one-off deal.

Originally, Hideo Takahashi had the intention of repaying Chen Fan's kindness before he even thought of copying Chen Fan's work to a small studio and sending him money.

As for the translation fees, those were naturally borne by the publisher.

Now that Mr. Chen speaks Japanese, we can sign a contract with him directly, and he can personally translate the translation.

In this way, it would be perfectly reasonable to pay him the maximum royalties, and it would not raise any questions from industry associations.

In small businesses, industry associations have certain regulatory powers to ensure that all companies in the industry follow the explicit or implicit industry rules and prevent any violations of the rules.

Therefore, even if Hideo Takahashi wanted to give money, he had to follow the rules.

But when he saw Chen Fan place dozens of magazines on the coffee table, Hideo Takahashi began to doubt whether he could afford to pay royalties for so many works.

Chen Fan coughed lightly and smiled slightly at the group of people who had just woken up. "As we all know, writers like to use pen names. I also learned from many predecessors and used several pen names to submit articles to different magazines."

Then he looked at Zhao Junhui and the others, "However, this matter has not been made public, so please Comrade Zhao and these two comrades do not spread it."

Zhao Junhui let out a long breath and turned to look at the stack of magazines. "Teacher Chen, how many magazines have you submitted your work to?"

Chen Fan smiled and said, "Not many, only about a dozen."

Zhao Junhui stared blankly, speechless. There are only a dozen or so provincial-level literary journals that have resumed operations nationwide, right? You think you can take them all down?!

Who is this person?
He nodded with mixed feelings, "Please rest assured, we will definitely not tell anyone."

I silently added in my mind, unless the leader asked.

As he spoke, he unconsciously glanced at Zhu Gong'an.

Zhu Gong'an blinked repeatedly, a cigarette dangling from his lips. Should he report this matter or not?
Chen Fan ignored him; his own petty affairs were no secret in the Nanhu Commune.

Take submitting articles under a pseudonym, for example. He doesn't expect the people at the dozen or so Luwan delicatessens to keep it a secret for him; at most, it will just be exposed a little later.

Maybe someone secretly told someone from the beginning, "I'm going to tell you a secret, but you absolutely can't tell anyone else, you know? Teacher Chen is also submitting articles to other magazines..."

Then someone else tells someone else, "I'll tell you a secret, so-and-so told me, but you absolutely mustn't tell anyone else..."

Therefore, Chen Fan didn't care at all whether Zhu Gong'an would go out and talk about it; at most, the matter would remain unresolved.

Now that we don't have WeChat Moments or Kuaishou, you can easily post something and the whole world will know. These days, travel is slow, communication is slow, and the speed of news dissemination is even slower, almost measured in years.

If it weren't reported in newspapers or on the radio, a major event happening in one place might take several years to reach other provinces.

By then, his true colors will probably have been revealed, so what's there to be afraid of?

When Zhu Gong'an saw that Chen hadn't given him any instructions, he assumed that Teacher Chen trusted him a lot, so he immediately decided not to tell anyone!
Unless the boss asks you directly!
Chen Fan turned to Takahashi Hideo and said, "Although it looks like there are a lot of books, my articles make up a small portion of them. Each magazine only has a dozen to twenty pages of content, so there aren't many."

Hideo Takahashi held a magazine in his hand and quickly calculated in his mind that magazines with this layout usually have less than 800 words per page, which is about 1500 words per page.

Mr. Chen just mentioned that each book has ten to twenty pages of content, which averages out to 3 words?

There are 16 magazines here. The one with the most issues is "Jiangnan Literature and Art," with 12 issues. The one with the fewest issues has 5 issues, and the most has 7 issues...

After a short while, he came to the conclusion that the total word count should be between 300 million and 350 million words.

Taking an average of 320 million, the number might be expanded if translated into Japanese, so the original manuscript contains approximately 10000 pages?
The fee is 2500 yen per article, so the fee for the original manuscript alone is 2500 million yen.
The current exchange rate of the Japanese yen to the US dollar is about 210 yen to 1 US dollar, and the yen is still appreciating, which means it would cost about 12 US dollars.
As for subsequent royalties, a book can generally be published with 10 to 20 words, depending on the word count, and the price is around 600 or 1000 yen.

(The 84 edition of "The Story of Japanese Housing" was priced at 950 yen, not much different from the 78 edition.)

The 320 million words could be published as 20 standalone books. Assuming a price of 800 yen per book and an initial print run of 10000 copies per book, that would amount to 2240 million yen.

It is equivalent to approximately US$107,000.

Adding the two together, that's about $23?!

After finishing the calculations, Hideo Takahashi breathed a sigh of relief. He could afford a mere $23; he had only been intimidated by the sheer number of books.

Besides, once these articles are published, we'll break even, and maybe even make a profit!

This is a great deal—it repays a debt of gratitude and makes money at the same time!
After thinking it over, he turned to face Chen Fan, nodded slightly and bowed, "Mr. Chen, on behalf of Takahashi Publishing House, I respectfully request that all of your works be signed. Please be sure to agree to my request."

Chen Fan raised an eyebrow. He was even more certain of his guess when the man agreed so easily.

He must have come to repay a favor!

However, there's no reason to refuse money that's offered to you, especially when it's money in a small notebook.

At worst, I can just write another bestseller for him to publish, as long as he doesn't lose money.

He nodded slightly. "Takahashi-kun, no need for formalities. I agree to your request. However, our works need approval from the relevant departments for distribution abroad."

Seeing the change in Takahashi's expression, he couldn't help but smile. "Don't worry about that, I'll take care of it."

Culture and propaganda are all part of the same family. Is that difficult?
Not to mention that his works are both politically correct and professionally competent, so he will only receive encouragement and support, and there is absolutely no possibility of him being harassed.

If anyone dares to make things difficult, they can go and complain to the Writers' Association!

A smile returned to Takahashi's face, and he bowed slightly again. "Thank you for your trust, Mr. Chen. Takahashi Publishing House will do its utmost to publish your work well." He paused, then said seriously, "Regarding the royalties, it's like this. According to industry practice in our country, for completed works, the original manuscript royalties and first-edition royalties will be paid upon signing the contract. This money is not affected by the success of the publication or the number of copies sold, and will be paid in a lump sum upon signing the contract."

If a reprint is required, there will be no original manuscript fee; instead, royalties will be paid based on the number of reprints, and these payments will be made in full before the reprint.

Now that your work is complete, I will pay you this fee on behalf of the company when we sign the contract…

Hearing this, Chen Fan beamed with joy.

Well, he was still wondering when the royalties for "Yunhu Love" and "Shanghai Spy Shadow" would arrive, but he didn't expect to receive money so soon. He wondered how much it would be.
It shouldn't be too low, right?

Then Takahashi Hideo continued, "I've roughly estimated that your work has a total word count of around 320 million?"

Chen Fan thought for a moment, "Pretty much."

As he said this, he was quite emotional, saying that he had been writing diligently for a whole year and had only managed to produce so many words; it was no easy feat!
Oh, and we haven't included "Cloud Lake Romance" and "Shanghai Spy Shadow" yet.

Hideo Takahashi was pleased to hear that his calculations were correct, and then said, "If it's translated into Japanese, the amount might increase slightly, so let's calculate based on 10000 pages of original manuscript. Adding the royalties from the first issue, I've roughly estimated that the total amount I need to pay you, including royalties and manuscript fees, is $23..."

After these words were spoken, all was silent.

Chen Fan remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he was frantically calculating. Two seconds later, he came to a conclusion: 387,320 yuan!

A wave of fat!

But we lost money.

The current exchange rate is 1.684, but last year it was 1.73, the year before that it was 1.88, the year before that it was 1.9663, and so on... In 71 it was 2.2673.

The RMB is appreciating year by year!

Then I comforted myself, thinking, "It's alright, it'll be 1.5771 by the end of the year, and 1.4962 next year."

It reached its peak here, and then began to depreciate year by year, with the lowest point being 8.6187 in 94.

Actually, it's still higher than the 1:10 to 12 ratio in the underground market.

90年代出国热最火爆的时候，还有过1比20的天价，也就是20块钱换1美元。

But don't even think about keeping the dollars until then, because this foreign exchange will never reach his hands. All foreign exchange orders will be converted into RMB when he withdraws the money, and at most, a "remittance certificate" will be issued based on the value.

As explained before, remittance certificates could be used to purchase in-demand goods and imported products at places like Friendship Store. Unlike foreign exchange certificates, which could be used directly as cash, remittance certificates needed to be used with cash and were not abolished until 92.

As for the standard for the issuance ratio of remittance coupons, well, that's not fixed. The specific amount is up to the leaders.

At its lowest, it was five or six percent, and at its highest, it was only thirty percent, which meant that for every 100 dollars, you would receive 30 dollars in remittance certificates, which was incomparable to foreign exchange certificates.

Unfortunately, the users of foreign exchange certificates were mainly "foreigners" and residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Unless someone was willing to immigrate, they could not expect to obtain foreign exchange certificates through formal channels.

Chen Fan was still calculating the accounts, while Zhao Junhui, sitting next to him, was already dumbfounded.

$23?
It's too exaggerated!
Many large state-owned enterprises struggle to achieve this goal, yet he alone can generate so much foreign exchange?!

When he came to his senses, Zhao Junhui felt a rush of blood to his head, and his face instantly turned rosy.

What is he doing here, going through all that trouble to accompany Xiaobenzi?

Isn't it all just to generate more foreign exchange?!
Now he suddenly has an extra $23 in foreign exchange. Regardless of what happens next, he has already exceeded his target. With this income alone, he is confident that he can get promoted.

The two people who accompanied him were also very excited, sharing the same thoughts as Zhao Junhui.

Who says you can't have something for nothing?
Isn't that right in front of us?

As for Zhu Gong'an, he was frantically considering whether he should run back and report it now.
$23—no matter where the lawsuit goes, this money was earned by the people of Nanhu Commune. We can't leave Nanhu Commune with nothing!

Once this money arrives, I and the police station will definitely get credit for it.
Putting everything else aside, shouldn't the salary be increased by one level?
Little did Hideo Takahashi know that in the short time he had to catch his breath, some of the people in the room were already thinking about how to divide the money.

He picked up his teacup, took a sip, put it down, and continued, "Mr. Chen, your work still needs to be translated into Japanese before it can be published. I don't know how long it will take for you to submit the manuscript. Of course, I'm talking about submitting it in stages. It's impossible to translate all of this text at once. You can submit the manuscript according to the different works."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Junhui immediately snapped out of his reverie and eagerly asked, "Takahashi-san, does that mean I can't get my payment if I don't submit the translation?"

The three police officers, including Zhu, looked at Takahashi Hideo with tense expressions.

Chen Fan, on the other hand, remained very calm.

Anyway, the meat is already in the pot, so it's up to him when to eat it.

Hideo Takahashi gave them a strange look, then chuckled and said, "That's alright. We can add relevant clauses to the contract, pay the royalties and fees when we sign, and then deliver the manuscript on the agreed date."

Hearing this, Zhao Junhui breathed a sigh of relief.

The effects of receiving small, sporadic income versus receiving a lump sum of $23 are worlds apart.

It's just a matter of submitting the manuscript. As long as the foreign exchange arrives, he's confident that even if the leaders of the relevant departments assign the task to all Japanese translators in the province, they can still deliver the manuscript on time!

Chen Fan was unaware that someone was already looking out for him and hiring a substitute to cheat. Seeing Takahashi Hideo's decisiveness, he smiled and nodded, "In that case, once I report the situation to my superiors and get their permission, we can sign the contract at any time."

Hideo Takahashi smiled and nodded. "Then I'll have someone draft the contract first, and we'll officially sign it once you get good news from your side."

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhao Junhui turned to his two colleagues and said, "I'll call my unit later to report the situation. You should also report this situation to your unit leaders and ask them to urge the Department of Culture to complete the review as soon as possible."

The two nodded without hesitation, "Okay."

Although everyone knows that Chen Fan's work will not be blocked, how can they get a share of the profits if their own unit doesn't make any moves?
(I caught another cold; I couldn't even open my eyes yesterday. I used to catch a cold once every three to five years, but I've already caught one three to five times this year, and each time it's been really bad o(╥﹏╥)o)

(End of this chapter)