Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 546 Can Make a Lot of Money

In Chen Fan's opinion, their request was quite humble.

Even if he asked for a share of the royalties, he wouldn't object.

After all, they really put in a lot of effort, which saved him a lot of trouble and, most importantly, a lot of time. Otherwise, just copying so much text would have taken a lot of time, not to mention that it was a translation, which was essentially a secondary creation.

And how much will they get?
According to domestic standards, the maximum remuneration for translated manuscripts is 6 yuan per thousand words. Therefore, for a 320 million-word translation, they would only receive 19200 yuan.

Converted to US dollars, that's 11400?
Let's round it up to 12000?

What can I do?
Buy a Porsche 924 for $9495, and pay the rest in taxes?

Not to mention that it's divided among several units, so in the end, each person probably only gets enough to buy some documents, and can't do anything else with it.

Chen Fan said he couldn't understand it.

However, after today's ordeal, and from the reactions of people like Zhao Junhui, Zhu Gongan, Jiang Heng, and Xu Qizhen, he finally understood how significant foreign exchange was to domestic organizations.

Having received a satisfactory reply, the leaders from the Department of Culture took their leave.

They didn't even mention leaving a souvenir.

Even two packs of cigarettes would be nice.

He Qingsheng took a drag of his cigarette, a hint of hesitation mixed with a touch of hope in his eyes. "Do you think it's possible that the publisher of that little book might take a liking to the works of our other writers?"

Chen Fan spread his hands and shrugged, saying, "I can't guarantee that. As I just said, that little notebook only came to me with the intention of repaying a debt. He didn't even read my articles carefully. He just had his assistant read a few of them. It's like giving money away for free, just in a legal and legitimate way."

Xu Qizhen gritted her teeth slightly, unsure whether to feel envious or jealous.

However, this method is really hard to imitate. First, you need to know medicine, then you need to happen to save a person with a capitalist relative, and finally you need to have a way to make it legitimate for them to give you money.

He deserves to make money.

He Qingsheng didn't show much disappointment on his face, but just shook his head with a wry smile, "I was overthinking it."

There are many works similar to Chen Fan's in China. If they can go abroad and make the path of "literary foreign exchange earnings" work, it will be a great thing for both the country and the writer.

In fact, as early as the 50s, my country began to promote its outstanding literary works abroad on a large scale. From classical literature to modern masterpieces, they were translated on a large scale after careful selection.

Unfortunately, very few writers have been able to go abroad. Apart from Mr. Li's works, which have swept across the world, there are not many other writers who have achieved success overseas.

That is, only a few people such as Mao Dun, Ba Jin, and Shen Congwen.

Moreover, those were all actions taken by superiors, and the foreign exchange earned had little to do with the author himself, unlike today where Chen Fan directly signed a contract with a foreign publishing company, which has significant practical implications.

However, this is just an isolated case.

If he hadn't saved that child back then, we wouldn't have this connection today.

Just as he was sighing to himself, Chen Fan thought for a moment and said, "Actually, it's not like there's no chance."

He Qingsheng and Xu Qizhen both looked up at him at the same time, "What do you mean?"

Chen Fan said with a smile, "Capitalists are driven by profit. Although Hideo Takahashi signed the contract with me out of personal favor, he still wants to print and sell those books."

If these books sell well, he'll definitely come back to China to look for other books of the same type, and then all of us in the industry will have a chance.

Upon hearing this, He Qingsheng and Xu Qizhen exchanged a glance.

Very likely!
They all had great confidence in Chen Qi's articles. Now there was only one question: would the other side of the press like to read them?
Without survey data, it's impossible to analyze this kind of thing. I've only heard that they also have anti-war literature, which is very similar to Chen Fan's works.

The two could only pray silently that Xiaobenzi would enjoy reading about beating Xiaobenzi, so that they could read more stories about beating Xiaobenzi!
Chen Fan offered only a casual word of comfort, took a sip of tea, and said softly, "Uncle He, is there a result from the last Writers' Association meeting?"

He Qingsheng snapped out of her daze, turned to look at him, and said as her first words, "You call me Uncle, but you call her Sister Xu. She's only two years younger than me, is there really such a big difference?"

Xu Qizhen rolled her eyes. "What kind of image do you have? What kind of image do I have? Don't you have any self-awareness?"

He then smiled at Chen Fan and said, "The results came out the next day. The Writers Association officially resumed work on May 1st. The reason it took so long was mainly because the Federation of Literary and Art Circles still had a lot of things to do and needed to set up the big framework first, but it didn't make a difference of a few days."

Furthermore, the selection process for the Lu Xun Literary Prize will be formally organized after the Writers' Association resumes operations. A selection committee will then be formed to choose a number of outstanding works for consideration, with a final selection of several for the award.

Chen Fan asked with some curiosity, "Has the specific judging mechanism been finalized?"

He Qingsheng leaned back on the sofa, a cigarette between his fingers, and said casually, "The selection committee hasn't been formed yet. They'll come up with the rules first."

In addition, the Writers Association Council is expected to be elected after the National Writers' Congress. Before that, the temporary Party Group will handle all the work, and the charter will also be reviewed by them before it is finalized and implemented.

Therefore, at the earliest, the first batch of winning entries will likely be announced by the end of May or June.

He raised his head, coughed lightly, and casually took a puff of his cigarette. "Little Chen, you're quick-witted. Do you have any ideas about this selection process?"

Chen Fan frowned slightly, thought for a moment, and was about to speak when he heard Xu Qizhen say, "Xiao Fan, don't listen to him. He can say it, but he has to give you some benefits!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Fan looked up at her, blinked gently, and then quickly turned to look at He Qingsheng.

He Qingsheng looked at Xu Qizhen speechlessly, "You can't do this. I'm the chairman, you're the secretary-general, we have to cooperate sincerely. Look at yourself, what kind of behavior is this?"

Chen Fan chuckled, "Uncle He, are you a judge too?"

He Qingsheng blushed slightly. "Thank you all for your kindness in choosing me. Actually, there are quite a few people on the selection committee. There are six people in total."

Chen Fan feigned surprise, widening his eyes. "Wow, one-sixth! Amazing!"

He even clapped his hands as he spoke.

He Qingsheng waved his hand, feigning embarrassment, "No, no, it's all..."

"It's all because the old leader didn't participate."

Xu Qizhen laughed and said, "Mr. Mao Dun, Mr. Ba Jin, and Mr. Zhang Guangnian did not participate. Only Chen Huangmei took the lead and served as the chairman of the selection committee. The remaining five were selected from the chairmen of the provincial branches."

He Qingsheng said with a dark face, "You can't stand not going against me, can you?"

He then turned to Chen Fan and said, "Look at you, you're about to make such a big profit, what's the point of a little bit of profit, right? Tell me, tell me."

Chen Fan blinked, glanced at Xu Qizhen who was chuckling beside him, and turned to say, "Well then, it's one of two options. Didn't you say I had a large sum of money? But this is just a one-time thing, and I might not have it again."

"I have an idea for you. It's reasonable, legal, and compliant, and it's also very popular with readers. Most importantly, it can continuously increase the company's revenue, earning hundreds of thousands a year. Which one do you want?"

He Qingsheng stared at him blankly for two or three seconds, then suddenly turned to look at Xu Qizhen, "Did I hear that right?"

Xu Qizhen stopped laughing at this point, looking at Chen Fan with suspicion. "Earn hundreds of thousands a year? And a steady stream of income? And all legal and compliant?" He Qingsheng quickly turned around, his eyes full of hope. "You're not wrong? Is there really such a way?"

He paused for a moment, then frowned slightly. "You're not thinking of starting a new magazine, are you? That's one way to do it, but let me tell you, starting a magazine isn't so easy..."

Chen Fan lit a cigarette, shook his head slightly, and smiled, "It's not about starting a magazine, and there's not much investment involved. We just need a group of experienced veteran writers."

"A group of experienced veteran writers?"

He Qingsheng frowned even more deeply. "How much do you want?"

Chen Fan thought for a moment, "Probably a dozen or so, but they could also be editors from the Jiangnan Literature and Art magazine, or rather, editors would be more suitable."

Upon hearing this, He Qingsheng's brows immediately relaxed. What batch? He thought it would be a lot of people, but it turned out to be only a dozen or so.

Let alone the writers in the provincial capital, there are so many editors in the magazine alone, it's a small matter!
He immediately felt a surge of pride and said, "Tell me about it."

Chen Fan looked at him teasingly, "You choose this one?"

He Qingsheng rolled up his sleeves and pointed at him, "Choose this one."

"it is good."

Chen Fan coughed lightly and said, "It's actually very simple. Didn't the Writers' Association often hold literary creation study sessions before? You can find someone to dig out some old materials, remove some unnecessary things, and select the real substance. Oh, substance means useful."

Then it can be adapted into writing textbooks, made into the kind that can be taught via correspondence, and the course name can be 'Correspondence Course in Literary Creation'.

"Correspondence courses in creative writing?"

He Qingsheng looked at him with a strange expression, "You can earn hundreds of thousands a year like this?"

Why don't I see any other correspondence schools earning hundreds of thousands a year?
Chen Fan smiled and said, "How much you can earn depends on how many people you plan to assign to this job. If there are only a few people, you will definitely earn less, but you should still be able to earn tens of thousands of yuan."

If we arrange for a large number of people, tens or hundreds of thousands, it's absolutely no problem!

His idea wasn't just a wild guess.

In the early 80s, the literary youth magazine in Wenzhou set up a literary correspondence creation center.

If this program is only held in the local area, it won't be able to recruit many people; a few hundred would be the maximum.

Although many people harbored literary dreams at the time, most of them were merely paying lip service to it. In other words, people at the time viewed literary creation as a very sacred thing, and many people dared not pursue their dreams because of inferiority complex or fear of the opinions of those around them.

So, in order to recruit students, the correspondence center came up with a plan: to place a recruitment advertisement in the Wenhui Daily.

Wenhui Daily is a major national newspaper with a daily circulation of several million copies, and its audience includes literary youth.

What's the result?

exploded!

The correspondence center, which originally planned to enroll only 2000 students, received more than 12,000 application letters in less than a week after the advertisement was released. ...The letters also included a 10 yuan tuition fee.

Given the mailing speed at the time, these were probably all literature enthusiasts from areas with free shipping.

As time went on, the number of applicants skyrocketed to over 20,000.

The correspondence education center was so frightened that it held an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures. They advertised again, announcing that the enrollment quota was full and begging people not to send any more application fees.

On the other hand, they rushed to refund the money, even refunding part of the original tuition fee of 10 yuan per year.

Because there were so many people, the more than 20 yuan in the account really scared them.

When has a literary magazine from a prefecture-level city ever had so much money?!

This correspondence school continued for many years, enrolling a fixed 1 students each year, until later, when the literary dream faded and the economic tide arrived, it decided to stop while it was still doing well.

Although it's not the early 80s now, and we've missed out on the first few cohorts of university freshmen since the resumption of the college entrance examination, it seems that the number of young people interested in literature is not as high as it would be a few years later.

But the reality is quite the opposite.

First, literary magazines that had been discontinued for several years resumed publication one after another, attracting intellectuals who had long yearned for literature to buy and read them, which led to a month-by-month increase in sales.

The subsequent resumption of the college entrance examination greatly stimulated the learning enthusiasm of young people.

Finally, the shockingly low college admission rate was like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing the passion of many people to take the college entrance exam.

If a literary creation correspondence course were launched right now, requiring no exams and only a registration fee, allowing students to study for a whole year... guess how many people would go crazy?!

The fact is, a few years later, when the correspondence center in Wenzhou only held one face-to-face class, a middle school teacher from Inner Mongolia traveled a long distance to attend the face-to-face class. Before that, the entire village saw him off with gongs and drums and by slaughtering cattle and sheep.

The villagers thought it was a remarkable thing that he was able to go to the south to study literary creation.

What about this time a few years ago?!
There's a labor shortage everywhere these days. For the same clerical position, one person says they only graduated from high school, while another has a correspondence course diploma in creative writing. Who has a better chance?
On the other hand, looking at the Jiangnan Writers Association and the Jiangnan Literature magazine, one is a provincial-level writers association branch and the other is a provincial-level literary journal. The resources they can access are far greater than those of the Literary Youth magazine.

Therefore, without a doubt, the hundreds of thousands Chen Fan mentioned were not just empty boasting.

Seeing He Qingsheng and Xu Qizhen frowning in thought, Chen Fan leaned back on the sofa and laughed, "Hey, Uncle He, if you're not going to do this, why don't you let me do it? The Writers' Association is going to set up a correspondence school for literature. Anyway, my rank is high enough, so let me be in charge of it."

Then I'll be responsible for all the expenses of this correspondence school. If it loses money, it's on me; if it makes a profit, I won't ask for more, we'll split it 50/50 with the company, how about that?"

"not so good!"

He Qingsheng rolled his eyes at him. "What, you want to get a contract? Don't even think about it."

He wasn't talking about Xiaogang's village. In fact, similar policies were briefly implemented in Shandong in 62 and in parts of Fujian in the first half of the 70s, but the timing wasn't right, and they were all abandoned.

Therefore, the term "contracting" did not come about later; it existed long before that.

After pausing for two seconds, he looked up and laughed, "It's just a correspondence training school, can't I bear this responsibility? Alright, I agree to this. Produce the articles of association tomorrow."

Chen Fan said with a dark face, "I'm not participating. I'm just making a suggestion."

He Qingsheng hesitated for two seconds, then said, "Just the proposal, and two platinum dragons."

Chen Fan slapped his thigh and said, "Deal."

He Qingsheng looked up at him with a big smile, "Add two more Platinum Dragons, and while you're at it, write me some judging rules?"

Chen Fan held up one hand, "Let's do a five-item contract together."

He Qingsheng: Why has the price gone up?
(End of this chapter)