Writing Web Novels In America-Chapter 89

The next morning, to decide which work to use for the film adaptation, the company held a collective meeting.

At the meeting, the website editors, following instructions, recommended three works.

Wang Jian briefly flipped through these three works and shook his head helplessly.

Among these three works, only one featured a genuine female protagonist, yet the overall story was so mundane that it hardly inspired anyone to keep reading.

After skimming through the works, Wang Jian was simply at a loss for words.

The rough plots of the other two works were similar to "I’m a Great Mage," involving traveling to Otherworlds and building harems.

However, the difference was that the protagonists were female.

Uh...

So were the harem members...

Right now, he just wanted to take the documents and fiercely thump them on the editors’ heads a few times, asking what on earth they were thinking.

Wang Jian handed over the work summaries completed by the editors to Tom.

After Tom briefly looked them over, he passed them on to Dorsey.

Moments later, suppressed laughter from Tom and Dorsey echoed through the meeting room.

Wang Jian looked at the two of them and also couldn’t help but laugh helplessly.

Indeed, finding women-oriented works on this male-oriented, fantasy-styled website was like climbing to heaven.

So it seemed that "Prison Break," created by Sarah in jail without reader vetting, became the only choice.

Wang Jian cleared his throat, looked around at everyone, and said in a low voice, "I have a work here, take a look and see if it’s suitable."

Then, he distributed the documents one by one.

Moments later, the room full of big men fell silent as crows.

"This is the women-oriented, innovative work you mentioned?" Tom asked Wang Jian, looking puzzled as if he had stumbled upon a new world.

Dorsey by his side also made a face as if he had a toothache.

Hearing this, Tom and Dorsey exchanged glances and lowered their heads without saying another word.

After all, they weren’t women; who knows what those women were thinking.

The meeting ended in a strange atmosphere.

In the end, the decision was made for Dorsey to spend money hiring some female readers for a trial read to see their reactions to the work.

Then, they would decide whether to adapt "Prison Break."

...

"Tom, you come with me to the author’s house to sign a contract," Wang Jian said.

"It’s just one work, do you really need to go personally?" Tom started, then asked.

"The author is called Sarah, you’ve met her before," Wang Jian patted Tom’s shoulder and replied offhandedly.

Tom paused for a moment, then his face lit up with realization.

"No wonder you want to adapt this work," he muttered to himself.

"What did you say?" Wang Jian looked at Tom, puzzled.

"Nothing," Tom shook his head, picked up his briefcase, and said, "Well, let’s go."

Without giving it much thought, Wang Jian followed Tom out of the office building.

At ten in the morning, Wang Jian rang the doorbell of Sarah’s apartment.

The door opened ajar, and Sarah’s timid face peeped out.

But when she saw that it was Wang Jian standing at the door, her expression shifted from worry to joy in an instant.

She let the two men in somewhat flusteredly and asked, "Wang Jian, have you had breakfast? Shall I make you some coffee?"

Truth be told, at times like this, Wang Jian always felt a bit awkward. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

He quickly said, "Don’t worry about that, I’m here to sign a revenue sharing agreement with you for your work."

"Revenue sharing?" Sarah looked at Wang Jian, her deep Latin eyes filled with confusion.

"It’s for ’Prison Break,’" Wang Jian reminded her.

"Ah?" She covered her mouth in surprise. "My work is qualified to be published?"

"Don’t break the rules of the website just for me," Sarah said. "I’ve seen your website; it’s all about magic, fighting Qi, and such."

Then, Tom, who had been watching the show from the sidelines, laughed and said, "Miss Sarah, your work meets all our signing criteria."

"Here’s the contract, you’ll have 50% of the digital rights to the work and 70% of the ancillary rights."

Only after seeing Wang Jian nod did Sarah take the contract.

But her next move surprised Tom.

Without even reading the content, Sarah signed her name directly on the contract.

"Aren’t you going to read the contract?" Tom asked.

"If Wang Jian tells me to sign, I’ll sign," Sarah looked at Wang Jian intently, "just like when we were kids, and we trusted each other."

Hearing this, Wang Jian felt he couldn’t stay in the room any longer.

He took the documents, excused himself on the pretext of being busy, and left in a hurry.

But all of this was witnessed by Tom.

He whispered, "Looks like I need to have a talk with Dorsey when I get back."

So that afternoon,

while Wang Jian was busy updating "Extreme Heavenly Demon," he suddenly discovered that he couldn’t upload the latest Chapter.

As he wondered if there was a glitch with the website, the page came back to normal.

Dorsey walked in with a grin and said to Wang Jian, "The female readers’ feedback is out."

"That fast?" Wang Jian asked in surprise.

"The piece isn’t very long," Dorsey shrugged. "Besides, we paid for it!"

"How’s the feedback?" Wang Jian asked.

"Most of it is very positive," Dorsey passed over a printed sheet. "Uh... apart from some individuals with rather unusual sexual orientations."

"By the way, what was with the website just now?" Wang Jian inquired.

"I did a little update, added a new section," Dorsey clicked open the webpage and pointed at the screen.

On the website, there appeared a new section called "Female-oriented."

Under it, there was only "Prison Break."

Wang Jian frowned at first, but soon relaxed.

There weren’t many female internet users currently, but they were bound to grow, weren’t they?

He nodded, looking at the document in his hand.

Tom came in too and winked at Dorsey.

A few minutes later,

Wang Jian looked up and said, "It’s decided, let’s adapt ’Prison Break’."

"Tom, fax the work over to Lehman at Goldman Sachs."

"If there are no objections, then we’ll sign a bet agreement."

Tom nodded, picked up the printed version of "Prison Break," and left.

A few minutes later, in Manhattan,

inside the Goldman Sachs office building,

Lehman took the fax his secretary handed him, muttering as he read, "What in the world is all this? Can this even be adapted into a film or TV series?"

"Even Wang’s first work, ’I’m a Great Mage,’ is more reliable than this."

But his secretary handed over the faxes sheet by sheet, whispering, "But I think, this work is better than ’Arcane Throne.’"

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