Chapter 751 Ashleypress Positioning - Cultural Export
Fang Minghua’s days in San Francisco began.
He was not in a hurry to go to Los Angeles. Warner Bros. had already sent him an email and decided to use the script he wrote, and paid a high price-1.1 million U.S. dollars, which is only 100,000 U.S. dollars on average. The Hollywood script market is sky-high.
But Fang Minghua didn’t think it was that high, but when he thought that Shengshi Film and Television was also involved in the filming of this movie, he reluctantly accepted it.
In the afternoon, Li Li drove to the university to attend classes. Fang Minghua didn’t stay at home too much. He first took the subway to the San Francisco DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) to apply for a driver’s license translation, and then went to a nearby Mercedes-Benz 4S store. I have taken a fancy to two Mercedes-Benz cars, a Mercedes-Benz W140 and a Mercedes-Benz ML320.
The former is for Li Li. The Ford she drives has been driving for seven or eight years and needs to be replaced with a better one. The latter is used by myself in San Francisco. It is an SUV with a lot of space and is suitable for family travel.
Both are not expensive, the former is 120,000 US dollars, and the latter is only 100,000 US dollars. It must be said that American cars are cheap.
Of course, he can't pick it up now. He has to wait a week for the translation before he can drive away, but there's no rush.
Getting up the next morning, Fang Minghua and Li Li got up together, mainly to take her car to go to the publishing house - Ashleypress, which is located on Fontblvd (Baptismal Boulevard) in the northwest corner of San Francisco State University.
Li Li drove him to the door of the publishing house and said, "Minghua, I will pick you up after class at noon."
"No, you are busy with your business. I can't stay here for long."
"Okay, I'm leaving, bye."
I saw the Ford car driven by Li Li After leaving, Fang Minghua put his hands in his windbreaker pockets and looked at the building.
It hasn’t changed much from before, except that the Ashleypress nameplate has been replaced with a new one, which has more metallic luster.
After walking up to the second floor and entering the interior of the publishing house, the original old-fashioned decoration has long since disappeared. The walls, ceilings, doors and windows have been brand new and full of modern flavor.
The number of people in the publishing house has increased significantly, and people in the corridor are busy and looking at this oriental man curiously.
Fang Minghua went straight to the president's office. After knocking on the door, he saw a white-collar beauty with flaxen hair sitting behind the large boss's desk.
It’s Demi, the president of Ashleypress and Li Li’s good friend.
"Hey, Demi."
"Mr. Minghua!" Demi stood up immediately with a smile on her face.
Fang Minghua was sitting on the sofa, and Demi asked diligently: "Mr. Minghua, do you drink coffee or tea? I heard Lili say that you like Chinese Longjing tea, but I'm sorry, I don't have it here."
< br>"Let's have coffee, no sugar."
Soon, Demi made a cup of coffee and placed it on the coffee table in front of her.
"Thank you." Fang Minghua took a bite and it tasted pretty good.
"Mr. Minghua, I went to Lili's house some time ago and saw her little baby. It's so cute! Congratulations."
Fang Minghua also knew that Demi knew the relationship between him and Li Li, so he no longer tried to hide it and said "Thank you." "Rated as the best writer of 1996," Demi said, standing up and taking out a magazine from the boss's desk drawer and handing it to Fang Minghua.
Sure enough, his name is clearly written in the newly announced Writer of the Year column on the magazine's homepage, and there is a brief introduction about him below, focusing on his major works published in China and the United States over the years.
The introduction to the Harry Potter book is: ""In the novel, the author Mr. Minghua first created for us a magical world full of imagination and mystery, which allows people to face it bravely Difficulties and challenges, and bravely pursue your dreams."
As for novel awards, he has won several awards now, and he doesn't have much trouble in his heart, but Demi is very excited.
"Mr. Minghua, this is also the focus of our promotion of the second Harry Potter volume, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."
"You wrote to me that it has been released in the United States on January 1st. How is the sales volume?" Fang Minghua asked.
“Very good. One month has passed since its release, and sales have reached 150,000 copies, exceeding the sales of the first volume in the same period last year.”
“According to the latest statistics, Harry Potter The first volume sold 1.2 million copies in the United States last year, ranking first among bestsellers, and the second volume can definitely break this number. "How is the sales on Amazon?" This is a question that Fang Minghua is concerned about.
"It has exceeded 20,000 books, surpassing the sales of the largest bookseller in the United States, Barnes & Noble, and has become our largest customer. Oh my god, Amazon is such a miracle, it is incredible." At the end, Demi couldn't help but sigh.
Fang Minghua just smiled and said nothing.
"Mr. Minghua, in view of the rapid development of online book sales, Ashleypress plans to also establish an online bookstore, but unlike Amazon, it will mainly sell books published by Ashleypress." Demi put forward her own suggestion.
"Yes, you are the president, these are within your scope of authority."
"Thank you for your trust in me." Demi was very happy.
It is so comfortable to work in the hands of a boss like Fang Minghua. He almost always hands off the boss and lets him do whatever he wants.
"Mr. Minghua, I will give you a detailed report on my work this year." Demi was about to go to the table to get the report materials, but was stopped by Fang Minghua.
"No, you have already made it clear in the email. Just talk about your recent work, especially the difficulties and problems you encountered."
"OK, Mr. Minghua, you "Alive" written by Yu Hua, who came to your country, was translated into English by the University of California translation team, and my colleagues in the editorial department and I read it carefully. "
Demi said.
"How is it?"
"From a literary point of view, this is a very valuable novel, but from a sales point of view, I still want to say a few words: After our evaluation, the sales will not be good - - Or even lose money, because the stories told in the book are not of interest to Americans generally. "
Fang Minghua didn't care after hearing this.
"I expected this. Pure literature should be published as it should be published."
Demi was not surprised by Fang Minghua's attitude.
She recalled what Li Li's cousin, the cold-looking woman, said when she took on the position of president:
"Ms. Demi, do you know what the positioning of Ashleypress is?" ”
“Strive to become a large publishing house such as Simon and Random House! Demi replied.
“No, no. "Song Tangtang shook his head.
"I don't know if Lili told you, "Ashleypress is not a bestseller in the published version - China's domestic excellent serious literature will account for a large part of future publishing, and this part is Often the sales are not good or even unprofitable, but you try your best to make money on these books that seem impossible to make money! This is where your ability will really be tested!”
Cultural export!
Demi understood immediately.
Now the Chinese are starting to do this too.
Now, this book "Alive" is one of them.
She looked at Fang Minghua, who was drinking coffee slowly, and suddenly thought of something and asked: "Mr. Minghua, how is your relationship with this writer Yu Hua?"
"It's good, we are friends."
"OK! That will be a highlight of our promotion of this book!" Demi immediately said excitedly: "Mr. Minghua, can you talk about the relationship between you two? Interesting things that happened? "
Oh my God
"Demi, if this Yu Hua is a woman, aren't you going to hype up the scandal between us?" Fang Minghua joked. .
"Okay, look at Emily, the famous female writer in my country. She had a wonderful relationship with you ten years ago in Iowa. She often mentioned this experience in front of media reporters, although It’s a memory of a friend, but from another perspective, isn’t it a kind of hype?”
Fang Minghua was speechless after hearing this.
(End of this chapter)