Writing Web Novels In America-Chapter 148 - 146 Musk

By the time Wang Jian left MSG and returned to the office building in Flushing, it was nearly noon.

"Wang," Tom smiled at him, "how do you feel?"

Exciting, back aching, legs hurting...

Wang Jian appeared completely unruffled on the surface, "How do I feel about what? Just get on with your work."

Tom laughed heartily and passed a folder to him.

"These are the documents that need your review."

Wang Jian took the folder and, following Tom’s lead, scrutinized each page carefully.

"It’s been three months since the print release of ’Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’."

"Judging from the royalties settled by Random House, aside from fan purchases, there’s a lot of room to expand the physical book reader base."

"So, is the next step to start releasing the physical books of ’Arcane Throne’ and ’Prison Break’?"

Wang Jian looked carefully at the data and found that the profit from physical book royalties was about a quarter of that from online subscriptions.

And author J.K. Rowling made a considerable amount of money from the physical books.

"Ah, my mindset was wrong when signing the contract," Wang Jian inwardly sighed with regret, "I should have taken the perspective of the website owner, not the author."

But luckily, according to Dorsey’s statistics, a significant portion of these physical book readers joined in the Twitter discussions after reading the novels.

Then, they were directed from Twitter to the website.

"Fine." Wang Jian looked at the contracts that had been reviewed by Tom and Matthew and signed his name.

"The physical book royalties for ’Arcane Throne’ and ’Prison Break’ going to the authors doesn’t sting as much now."

"The second document is a fax from Apple Company."

"They’ve agreed in principle to exchange recording equipment and production costs for a five-year audio license."

"But the specific details will be discussed by a dedicated representative coming tomorrow."

Wang Jian nodded, "Anything else?"

"Hehe." Tom’s expression shifted from serious to lewd, "Also, there’s Omnicom Advertising’s sponsorship agency authority for ’Prison Break Special Forces.’"

"Because of the success of ’Prison Break,’ Omnicom reduced their agency commission from seven percent to five percent."

He strutted over to Wang Jian’s side with mock seriousness and cheekily said, "I specifically assigned Lynn to be the agent."

"Your meeting with her is scheduled for two in the afternoon."

Two in the afternoon?

Wang Jian took out his phone to check the time.

He realized that, unbeknownst to him, it was time for lunch.

"Just order me some takeout," Wang Jian flipped through the documents, "uh... better send two people to Chinatown to get some chive pockets."

"Chive, pockets?" Tom pronounced the words awkwardly, "Is that the name of a dish?"

"Yep." Wang Jian didn’t even look up, "It’s an essential food for successful men."

"Successful men? Essential food?" Tom left the office, puzzled, to find the new assistant for the task.

Fortunately, Flushing wasn’t far from Chinatown in New York, so the assistant quickly brought back the food.

"What the heck, it’s just chives and eggs!"

Curious, Tom commented as he joined Wang Jian for lunch.

Pfft, you wouldn’t understand!

Wang Jian massaged his waist and devoured his lunch.

Soon, the afternoon arrived.

Lynn, dressed in a professional OL suit, arrived at Wang Jian’s office with two subordinates.

She gave a brief frown at the two behind her and then at Tom behind Wang Jian.

Then, as if nothing was amiss, she said, "Mr. Wang, in ’Prison Break,’ you initially received a sponsorship of 600,000 US dollars."

She sat down opposite Wang Jian, "And after authorizing Omnicom, the sponsorship fee increased by nearly 20%."

"Therefore, we have reason to believe that with the popularity of ’Prison Break’ and Omnicom’s involvement from the start, the sponsorship fees for ’Prison Break Special Forces’ will offset a significant portion of the production costs."

Wang Jian ignored the light scratch Lynn made on his palm and opened the file.

He saw the already confirmed sponsors included Zara, whose sponsorship had soared from 400,000 US dollars to 800,000 US dollars.

The remaining potential sponsors were some old friends, like prison equipment, fitness equipment, firearms manufacturers, and so on.

But with Omnicom’s involvement, their sponsorship fees had increased significantly.

Of course, there were also some new sponsors.

For instance, the famous lingerie brand CK, which stipulated that their logo had to be prominently displayed in every episode where lingerie appeared.

Wang Jian imagined in his mind Miller in lingerie, fighting hand-to-hand against a group of muscular men in underwear.

Yikes...

He definitely wouldn’t make a cameo in that show!

"Tom," Wang Jian handed the documents to him, "go talk with the director and see which requests can be accepted and which need adjustments."

Lynn glanced back, "You two, accompany this gentleman to discuss with the director as well."

"You’ve all memorized the specific requests from the sponsors, right?"

"Yes, Vice Director."

Before long, only Wang Jian was left in the office.

Lynn stood up and closed the office door.

She kicked off her high heels and walked back to her seat barefoot.

"Designating me specifically, huh, little boy." Lynn’s expression softened from serious to warm and smiling.

"Which of these colors do you like?"

Wang Jian watched as the redhead in the OL outfit went to her bag and pulled out several pairs of stockings.

Then, she sashayed back towards him.

"It’s all Tom’s fault! Not mine!" he screamed inwardly, "Stay away from me, I... really have nothing left!"

Meanwhile, in a hotel in New York,

Musk looked at the business plan in his hands and deeply sighed.

The challenge of implementing online payments was a hundred times tougher than he had anticipated.

He expended a great deal of his connections just to secure a guarantee from an insurance company.

And through the insurance company, he managed to get authorization from two small banks.

But because the stakes were so high, several investment banks were not optimistic, making it even harder to promote PayPal.

"Sigh, even offering to accept investment and not splitting the shares didn’t sway eBay and Amazon." He picked up a glass of whiskey and took a big gulp.

"This is the last chance, Musk!" he said to himself in the mirror, "Apple has already agreed to use PayPal for their audio payment website."

"Now, the only obstacle is that bestselling author. Just convince him, and PayPal will have taken its first step in online payment."

Musk slapped his cheeks to invigorate himself.

Then, he started reading Wang Jian’s personal information.

"18 years old, an author; he probably won’t be strictly profit-driven."

"I’ll follow Apple’s representative tomorrow to meet him; just talk big about changing the world with our vision!"

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