I Am a Nobleman in England

When Arthur received a call from Jerry Fuller, the head of the Southern Daily Echo, he was shopping for a laptop in a shopping mall. The desktop at home was a bit old. Well, the old computer is undoubtedly troublesome in all aspects, so changing to a laptop with a higher configuration is something Arthur has long wanted to do.

At the stall where the housekeeper Paul was paying, Arthur had already learned from the phone that someone from British National Television had contacted the newspaper office to purchase the film and television adaptation rights of the novel "Boleyn Manor".

It's finally here!

This is Arthur's inner sigh under a confident smile after hearing the news. Isn't it because he didn't take the lead in choosing to compile and publish novels in order to attract ideas from some film and television production companies or TV stations?

No matter how elegant literature is, it has to be paid. Writers have to make a living, and they can't just live on love and cold water. Looking around the world, behind the glamorous title of writers, their living conditions and means of earning a living vary greatly. Some people rely on best-selling books to enter the ranks of the rich, some get paid to create with peace of mind, some travel around for a living, and some live in embarrassment.

You know, as a novice writer, it is very difficult to make a name for yourself in the UK. Without some means, even if the book is published, it is likely to hit the street. The reason why Arthur chose to write novels is to gain both fame and fortune.

Using the popular influence of film and television dramas to promote the hot sales of books is the path Arthur has decided to take from the beginning. As for why he is confident that he can sell the film and television copyright of novels, it is a test of Arthur's historical inertia. Although this kind of idea is very idealistic, it does not prevent Arthur from trying. Anyway, even if he does not sell the film and television copyright, he can rely on newspaper serialization to gain some popularity, but the publication of novels will not be completely unknown.

Whether it's the great luck of sitting on a tree and waiting for a rabbit, or the historical inertia of the mysterious and mysterious world that should be like this, after all, it ushered in the opportunity for Arthur.

Taking the newly bought Apple laptop, Arthur, led by the housekeeper Paul, went to the location of the Southern Daily Echo newspaper office in downtown Southampton, a five-story building full of history facing the street.

To be honest, if one day the newspaper office can't keep going, this building can be sold for a good price. This is Arthur's subconscious thought after seeing the building with brown walls.

The owner of the new Earl came to the newspaper office. Jerry Fuller, the person in charge of the newspaper office, would naturally not neglect, and greeted him personally, and accompanied Arthur to visit and inspect every department in the newspaper office building.

During the process, Arthur also saw a lot of vacant desks in the office area, and he could also feel the somewhat hidden and complicated eyes of the newspaper employees. He knew that the layoff knife he brandished caused the entire newspaper office to go through a crisis. It was a bloodbath, and this group of employees, who were a little frightened, naturally had complicated attitudes towards him, the new boss.

"You work very efficiently."

Walking into the editor-in-chief's office, as soon as Arthur sat down, he said to Jerry Fuller in a slightly teasing manner.

Jerry Fuller, on the other hand, poured a cup of black tea for the young Boss Earl with a wry smile on his face, and said helplessly, "Layoffs are an inevitable decision. To be honest, everyone understands that your decision, Boss, is correct." , It’s just that it really fell on me, and it’s unbearable. However, after calculation, if the income and expenditure are successfully completed, the newspaper office can save at least 1 million pounds a year, greatly reducing the loss.

In the past two years, branches of news organizations have been merged, staff have been laid off and more and more brick-and-mortar offices have been closed in an effort to cut costs. Over time, the pages of many local newspapers were almost filled to the point where they were filled only by a handful of junior reporters, meaning they inevitably relied on press releases and materials provided by the authorities.

And this also means the reduction of independent censorship. These things are related to people's interests and deserve attention. There used to be local newspapers that could conduct investigations.

It shows that justice has been done, but the business model no longer exists. Ironically, the reduction in independent scrutiny has played a key role in lowering local government costs. "

Hearing some helpless, a little complaint, more helpless words, Arthur just smiled. He understood the trend of paper media withdrawing from the stage of history. With the mobile Internet, who would read newspapers.

I saw some reports from Britain and the United States before, saying that they like to read, and they are willing to read newspapers and books when they take the subway. How much the people love to learn and so on.

However, the truth of the matter is that they have no choice, why not read a book, there is no signal in the subway anyway. . . That's right, there is no signal. Take the London Underground as an example. It is the oldest subway in the world. It was opened as early as 1863. Of course, there was no such thing as a mobile phone at that time.

It's a bit far-fetched, no matter how you say it, in Arthur's opinion, the paper media has no future. Therefore, as a boss, you must first ensure that you will not lose money. Keep the basic disk and lay the foundation for the future transformation to the Internet electronic version.

It's just that it needs money and time, and now is not the time for the newspaper to change, so Arthur didn't continue to spend more energy on the newspaper's issue, but changed the topic and asked: "When will the DU TV station send someone come over?"

"When I received the call, the other party said that he had left for Southampton, and hoped that the newspaper could contact the boss as soon as possible. They seemed to be determined to win "Boleyn Manor", and the offer was very generous, 750,000 pounds. This price, It’s really sincere.” Jerry expressed his opinion.

The butler Paul who was following Arthur's eyes lit up when he heard the price, and he looked at the young earl with more admiration and relief.

Although he had already heard about the price on the phone, Arthur was still a little excited when he heard it here. To be honest, he really didn't expect that the other party could offer such a sincere price. People don't care.

"Jerry, I don't know much about the sale of film and television adaptation rights for novels, can you explain to me?" Since you don't understand, you should ask clearly, so that there will be no trouble in the next meeting and negotiation joke.

"Okay boss." Jerry nodded and said: "Generally speaking, after the other party pays the purchase fee, boss, you should permanently grant and transfer to the other party the adaptation rights based on this book, including film, television, video or DVD, Internet Works, and Certain Ancillary Rights.

Including, but not limited to, remasters, sequels, television series, and merchandising and bundling rights. You must also grant the other party the permanent right to use and distribute products based on this book on all media platforms.

Boss, you need to pay attention, among all these additional rights, the right to make a sequel is particularly important. If you do not reserve the right to write a sequel for the other party in the agreement, after paying the purchase fee, the other party has the right to use the characters from the first book in their original series of movies or TV series, but not in your original sequel. characters or stories.

This is very critical. Imagine that when the other party makes a very popular movie, and then you write a best-selling sequel, but at this time the other party cannot be touched, it is undoubtedly a very frustrating thing. Therefore, when the other party and When you have negotiated the adaptation rights of the first book, they will definitely fight for the adaptation rights of your original sequel, the boss.

The fairest and most appropriate way is, boss, you must insist that the other party must first exercise the right to adapt the first book, pay the price for the purchase of the copyright, and then negotiate the agency right for the sequel. In this way, you will Take the initiative.

As for the price, one is a huge fixed fee, which is calculated separately for big-screen movies, TV movies, and mini-series. The other is that the quotation and the budget are bound together. According to the usual practice, the purchase price will be about 2.5% of the final budget.

If it is a movie, in addition to the purchase price, generally a certain percentage of the movie's profits should be paid to the author, which is also a common practice. This price is generally 5 to 10% of the total net profit after the movie is released.

However, the concept of net profit is actually very vague. It can use different formulas in economics to get different results, or simply depends on who defines this "net profit". In short, people are always suing each other because of this lawsuit!

Therefore, if a movie is involved, the boss may need many days to discuss with the other party how to determine the net profit. "

"Tsk tsk, it's really troublesome enough. It seems that James and Tom need to be notified to come and help me negotiate." Arthur didn't expect there to be so many problems to deal with. It seems that professional matters still have to be handed over. Only professional people can get twice the result with half the effort.