Writing Web Novels In America-Chapter 42 After the Revision

Scholastic Publishers, in the office for royalty settlements.

Roy looked at Wang Jian sitting across from him, his face dark and ominous.

Who could have thought that this Asian youth, who became famous from an accidental hit with "I’m a Great Mage," would manage to write another high-quality fantasy masterpiece, "Arcane Throne"?

The most critical issue was that even through book critics, they hadn’t managed to quell the novel’s popularity.

Now there were even people offering him excellent conditions for recruitment right in front of the publishing house’s senior management.

One could imagine what his image now looked like in the eyes of senior management at the publishing house.

However, at this moment, Wang Jian wasn’t paying much attention to Roy.

His mind was filled with a 20% royalty share, the highest possible advance against royalties.

He had to admit, the conditions offered by that bald man Bezos were quite attractive.

But to leave the publisher and distribute books through a website...

Was this really reliable?

After some thought, Wang Jian decided to leave and discuss it with his literary agent Tom.

As the publishing house’s financial staff passed over the sales report for "I’m a Great Mage."

The royalty settlement for "I’m a Great Mage" for this period was complete.

Wang Jian picked up the sales report and the check.

The second edition of "I’m a Great Mage" had sold 30,000 copies.

Priced at 10 US Dollars each, with a 7% royalty rate.

The total profit was 21,000 US Dollars.

Wang Jian frowned slightly, somewhat dissatisfied.

After deducting his 7% royalty share, Scholastic Publishers had earned 279,000 US Dollars just from the second edition of "I’m a Great Mage."

Even after excluding book production costs, the profit was still more than tenfold his own.

The most critical issue was that, besides printing and distributing the books to stores, they hadn’t done much else.

Roy watched as Wang Jian got ready to leave with the check.

He was pondering how to speak up, ready to mend their relationship.

But unexpectedly, the chief editor of the publishing house pushed the door open and walked in, then ignored him and went straight to Wang Jian.

"Mr. Wang," said the middle-aged Caucasian with thinning hair to Wang Jian, "I believe our initial cooperation on ’I’m a Great Mage’ was rather pleasant."

"As for the misunderstandings that arose afterward, those were due to our managing editor’s incompetence. We will promptly make an adjustment to his position and hope that you will not doubt Scholastic Publishers’ desire for good works."

"We look forward to your next book and hope to continue cooperating with Scholastic Publishers."

On hearing this, Roy at first turned pale and then his anger flared up.

He remembered reporting to the chief editor about pushing down the royalties for the second edition of "I’m a Great Mage" to 7%, and the chief editor had praised him as an excellent managing editor.

But after Wang Jian had penned another bestseller, was he now the scapegoat used to appease the possible anger of this Asian kid?

Wang Jian, however, just had a casual chat with the chief editor, indicating that his next book would certainly consider Scholastic Publishers while thinking about the author-publisher profit-sharing relationship.

He didn’t come to his senses until he had walked out of the publisher’s building that the one who was going to have his position adjusted was Roy, who had threatened him.

Wang Jian thought for a moment and then shook his head with a smile.

Perhaps because he had been in New York for so long, he didn’t care much about personal grievances anymore.

What he cared more about was how to obtain more benefits from the books in his mind.

He turned his head to ask Tom, ready to have him look into the current state of Amazon.

Suddenly, there was a flash of camera lights.

Then a few reporters rushed out.

"How do you, as an author, feel about ’I’m a Great Mage’ narrowly avoiding a PG-13 rating while ’Arcane Throne’ became the first ’United States high school students’ recommended book’ of the year?"

"Several Nobel laureates in physics recommended your ’Arcane Throne’ while refuting ’the uselessness of reading.’ What’s your take on that?"

"Apparently, Horace Mann School and Columbia Preparatory School both have plans to invite you to speak. Will you accept?"

Wang Jian looked at the camera and microphone in front of him and didn’t react at once.

All he was, was just a plagiarist.

Reporters mobbing a best-selling author, wasn’t that the kind of treatment Hemingway would get?

Was this not a bit too exaggerated?

"Sorry, I haven’t received such news yet," Wang Jian said determinedly. "All I can say is that ’Arcane Throne’ is a novel I’m very satisfied with, thank you."

Having said that, he hurried into Tom’s car.

"What’s the matter?" Wang Jian looked at Tom and asked, "Why are there reporters here again?"

Tom shook his head and said, "I’m not sure. But it must be the effect of that ’Ivy Recommended Books.’

"After all, that recommendation usually only goes to literary classics. And your ’Arcane Throne’ must have gotten recommended because it just happened to scratch their itch, probably the first unfinished novel to be recommended."

Wang Jian thought for a moment and couldn’t think of any other possibility, then said with a smile, "This should increase the sales of ’Arcane Throne,’ right?"

"Of course," Tom was much more excited than Wang Jian. "You know, American students in literature classes are semi-forced to read some of the ’high school students’ recommended books.’

"If your ’Arcane Throne’ can continue to maintain a high standard, it might become a classic in fantasy literature just like ’The Lord of the Rings.’

"After all, it’s just so in line with scholars’ tastes, haha."

Thinking of the content to follow in ’Arcane Throne,’ Wang Jian couldn’t help but laugh.

The periodic table of elements, Schrödinger’s cat, E=mc^2—American middle schoolers, are you ready?

In the midst of Wang Jian’s daydreaming, they returned to the apartment.

Waiting for them was Jack Dorsey’s big face with extremely obvious dark circles under his eyes.

"Look at this, after the website redesign, our click-through rate has increased a lot," Dorsey said, almost as if he was seeking praise, dragging Wang Jian in front of the computer.

He pointed at the computer screen and said, "After this redesign, the website has basically turned into an online bookstore."

"Online bookstore?" Wang Jian thought of Bezos and asked, "Like Amazon?"

"No," Jack Dorsey shook his head. "They use the internet as a medium but are still selling physical books."

"We, on the other hand, are electronifying the books directly," he said proudly. "We no longer need printing or transportation. We just need content, we just need the internet!"

Wang Jian picked up the mouse and clicked into his own website.

When he arrived at the homepage, rows of book titles appeared neatly.

And all of these books had not been distributed or shared profits with publishers.

He scrolled through the books while listening to Dorsey ramble in his ear.

"Now we just need better servers and greater bandwidth. Look at our website, then look at Amazon."

"Our page views even surpass theirs by three times."

Wang Jian nodded while casually clicking on a work titled ’I’m Really a Great Mage.’

After looking for a while, he almost spat blood.

The only difference between this book and ’I’m a Great Mage’ was that instead of eating corn rolls, characters were now eating doughnuts.

And the critical issue was, the comments below the work were: So good, really good.

Hurry up and continue writing!

...

Wang Jian looked at the computer, then at Dorsey, and then at the royalty check for ’I’m a Great Mage’ that he was holding.

For a moment, he really didn’t know what to say.

R𝑒ad lat𝒆st chapt𝒆rs at f(r)eew𝒆bnov𝒆l.com Only