Chapter 28: A sincere contract renewal, but the next challenges are even more severe!
Chapter 28: A sincere contract renewal, but the next challenges are even more severe!
Kitagawa Hide followed the apartment manager and rushed downstairs as fast as he could. The two of them went into the manager's office. At this time, he didn't care about etiquette. He took a step forward to the phone and picked up the receiver.
A busy tone came from the other end; Rena Saito had hung up the phone long ago.
"The call is hung up. I think he will call back." Kitagawa Hide said as he put the receiver back.
If the other party hangs up on this type of landline phone and you keep the handset off the hook, when she calls again, it will always show that your line is busy.
He could understand why Saito Rena hung up the phone early.
Because Japan's telecommunications industry is now highly monopolized by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation), with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation being the only dominant player, the public corporation has raised telephone charges to an extremely exaggerated level.
A call from Kyoto to Tokyo costs about 300 yen per minute, and a short-distance call within Tokyo costs about 100 yen per minute. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s an incoming call or an outgoing call, everyone has to pay together!
It is no exaggeration to say that at this moment, Rena Saito, who was probably standing outside the public telephone booth, had to keep putting 10-yen coins into the coin slot in order to keep the call open.
If you miss the call, it will be disconnected immediately.
In 10, when the exchange rate between the Japanese yen and the RMB was 1:1995, it cost 10 RMB to talk on the phone for one minute. Who could bear that?
The apartment manager yawned and looked at him with an unhappy face, meaning that it was bad enough that you two were talking on the phone late at night, but now I have to chat with you, and I don't know if you will call back.
Fortunately, not long after Kitagawa Hide hung up, the phone rang again.
He immediately picked up the receiver: "Moshimoshi, is this Saito-san? I'm Kitagawa, can you hear me?"
There was a heavy gasp coming from the phone. After more than ten seconds, Saito Reina's voice finally came: "I'm here, I'm here. Sorry, I called several times just now but no one answered. I was too anxious and thought the phone in the phone booth was broken, so I ran to another place."
"Is it about the copyright contract? It's okay, you take a rest first, I'm not in a hurry."
Kitagawa Hide said this, but his eyes were actually fixed on the clock on the wall, carefully observing the direction of the second and minute hands.
When speaking, try to be concise and not waste time.
For private calls like this, the apartment manager will come to your house at the end of the month to ask for the phone bill. There's nothing you can do about it since the phone bills are so expensive!
"Ah, no, it's okay, I'll be there in a minute. Anyway, congratulations, Kitagawa-san, your application for the copyright contract has been approved! Editor-in-chief Muramatsu sent me a pager message not long ago, asking me to notify you immediately, so I had to call you in the middle of the night. I'm really sorry!"
Reina Saito on the other end of the phone seemed very excited. She spoke faster and her voice became much heavier.
"How much is it? Has the Ministry of Culture agreed? Are there any special terms?" Kitagawa Hide took a deep breath. Facing the first large sum of money that was about to come, he couldn't help but feel nervous.
"We agreed to sign a royalty contract based on sales volume, with a royalty rate of 6%, paid by our company, without any other additional terms. However, the Ministry of Culture refused to provide any resources and would not endorse sales."
Saito Reina held the receiver in the night wind and told Kitagawa Hide the result as quickly as possible, and then with her other hand she kept putting 10 yen coins into the coin slot.
"I'll tell you the details of the contract tomorrow. Anyway, this should be the best royalty contract the company can give to new writers. Editor-in-Chief Muramatsu has really tried his best."
"The Agency for Cultural Affairs is angry." Kitagawa Hide felt happy after hearing this. The royalty rate for physical books in Japan generally fluctuates between 5% and 10%, depending on the writer's ability and the company's financial resources.
He had only published one novel, totaling 4 words. Even if he won the Group Portrait Newcomer Award, he was actually not qualified to negotiate royalties and publishing issues with the company.
According to the normal process, he would have to compete for major awards such as this year's Akutagawa Prize, Noma Literary Newcomer Award, and Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Newcomer Award, and then get all the awards he can, and the magazine sales would be good, and the subsequent works would also meet expectations.
Only then will we be qualified to continue discussing publishing physical books.
In the first year, any publishing house basically gives a 5% royalty rate to newcomers. Kodansha is willing to give an additional 1%, which shows that Muramatsu Tomoshi really tried his best.
As for the fact that the Ministry of Culture chose not to get involved, he was even happier.
These officials who only think of treating newcomers as cash cows and indentured laborers, even if they are willing to pay him, he would not be willing to accept it!
He is short of money, but that doesn't mean he is willing to trade his dignity for it.
"By the way, Mr. Beichuan, please take some time to sign the writer's contract tomorrow. After completing these procedures, your bonus and royalties will be credited to your account tomorrow night. When do you think you are free?"
"Then let's go to 6pm. I just asked for leave a few days ago. If I ask for leave again, my boss will fire me."
Kitagawa Hide smiled. At this point, the 200 million yen bonus alone was equivalent to his salary for three or four years. It didn't really matter whether he worked as a security guard or not.
But he can't give Kodansha a feeling of urgency and anxiety.
Talk less, do more, and stay calm.
He always keeps the eight-character maxim in mind.
"Okay, I'll talk to my colleagues in the contract department when I get to the company tomorrow. If there's nothing else, I won't disturb your rest."
Saito Rena breathed a sigh of relief. Kitagawa Hide's affirmative answer was what she urgently needed.
To be honest, during the time she communicated with him, she felt more and more that Kitagawa Hide was somewhat unpredictable and her thoughts were hard to understand.
If he changes his mind after hearing these conditions, I will fall off the cliff again.
The two of them seemed to be chatting in a relaxed manner, but in fact, she had been feeling very nervous. Now she was finally relieved.
"Okay, then I'll hang up?" Kitagawa Hide said with a satisfied smile.
Saito Reina pushed the last coin into the coin slot, paused, looked up at the slightly pale sky, and suddenly smiled and said, "Thank you, Kitagawa-san."
The phone is busy.
Kitagawa Hide bowed slightly to the apartment manager, sang a little song, calculated the approximate income from royalties in his mind, and went upstairs happily.
It’s not easy. It’s been almost three months since I traveled through time, and I finally see the dawn of hope in escaping poverty. Among the time travelers, I guess I’m one of the worst off.
But fortunately, there is a promising future and tomorrow will be a bright future!
The next day, the swelling on her face and the dark circles under her eyes finally disappeared, and Reina Saito regained her top appearance as the most beautiful girl in the editorial department. After sending her two younger sisters to school, she came to the company early.
I never thought that before 9 o'clock, the editorial office was already crowded with people.
Walking on the street, she felt that her popularity had improved overnight.
Over the past year, she has become increasingly marginalized due to performance issues and her repeated rejection of confessions from male employees of Kodansha. In recent months, she has had no one to eat with her at noon.
Now, as she walked toward her desk, familiar and unfamiliar editors all took the initiative to greet her. The walk that usually only took a few minutes now took her ten minutes longer, like a star walking on the red carpet.
"The Wind-Hearing" Sada even expressed his congratulations to her directly, which made Saito Rena realize that the company did not have any airtight walls at all. It was clear that Editor-in-Chief Muramatsu did not send her a message until 10 o'clock last night.
How come everyone seems to know about it so early this morning?
"Good morning, Saito-san. Congratulations on bringing out such an outstanding new writer. I really envy you." A warm-hearted male editor came over and said, "I was saying that a writer like Otaku Yomiuri can never be compared to Mr. Kitagawa. There is no comparison."
He was the male editor who spoke up to support Tanaka Aoi when Tanaka Aoi was disgusted by Saito Reina.
Now he licked me shamelessly as if what happened before had never happened.
"Thank you." Saito Rena replied lightly. Before she sat down, she heard another commotion in the office area.
She looked up and found that it was Tanaka Ao, who looked much more lonely, walking slowly towards her.
The editors in the office immediately ran away as if they were avoiding the plague. The employees who originally had nothing to do suddenly seemed very busy and no one paid any attention to her.
Tanaka Aoi walked weakly to her workstation step by step and failed to complete the task assigned by An Yuanxian. Even though she tried her best to please him, she still failed to get the chance to become a regular employee.
This was the most unhappy period of her life since she dumped Kitagawa Hide.
I clearly did nothing wrong!
She was in a bad mood, with a lot of anger brewing but nowhere to vent it.
When I arrived at my workstation and saw the words "Disgusting bitch who poached writers" written on the table with red marker by someone, all kinds of negative emotions suddenly flooded my mind.
She collapsed all of a sudden.
Seeing her running to the bathroom crying, Saito Rena was stunned, and then she noticed the disgusting red words on the table.
The originally happy mood due to the successful resolution of the Kitagawa Hidetoshi paperback issue was suddenly overshadowed.
She looked at the extremely familiar editorial office of "Qun Xiang", and suddenly felt a sense of strangeness.
Something crackled and shattered in my heart.
Reina Saito stood up, picked up a tissue beside her, dipped it in water, then walked to Tanaka Aoi's workstation and gently wiped off the red words.
Then he returned to his seat safely under the curious gazes of a group of people, picked up the new manuscript and began to review it carefully.
I devoted myself to my work as usual and quickly adjusted my mood.
Society is already very depressing and painful, and life is full of uncertainty and depression. Saito Reina's ability to withstand pressure is not very good, but these days, she has learned something from Kitagawa Hide -
Face all challenges and difficulties with a positive and optimistic attitude and a never-give-up spirit, and things will always develop in a good direction!
And so it went on into the afternoon.
Kitagawa Hide, wearing security uniform, arrived as scheduled and immediately attracted a lot of curious looks.
In fact, he didn't want to go in and out of Kodansha wearing this outfit under the strange gazes of many people.
Unfortunately, the record company next door doesn’t even have a security room. It’s just a simple pavilion where you stand like a sculpture, and that’s your office area.
Kitagawa Hide couldn't possibly take off his clothes and change them in front of a bunch of young female singers from the record company.
When I have money, I must buy a set of clothes. No, I must buy a closet full of good clothes!
Thinking of this, he followed Saito Rena and took the elevator to the contract signing department on the third floor.
On the way, Kitagawa Hide deliberately observed the customer service work situation, which was not as busy as before.
In other words, over the past month, the popularity of "Group Portrait" brought by "Hear the Wind Sing" has been gradually fading.
If we don't seize the opportunity to launch a paperback edition, subsequent sales will definitely be affected.
Although he had gone through untold hardships and finally succeeded in reaching the stage of publication, Kitagawa Hideka dared not relax.
This royalty contract is equivalent to snatching back a large amount of money from the Ministry of Culture. It not only slapped the faces of a group of officials, but also invisibly increased the cost of Kodansha publishing "Hear the Wind Sing" and nurturing him.
If it sells well, everyone is happy.
If you don’t sell well, you will be criticized.
He believed that there must be someone hiding in the dark and watching quietly, waiting for him to be in a desperate situation and then jump out to give him a push.
The road is long and long.
Kitagawa Hide took a few deep breaths, suppressed his slightly excited mood, and then followed into the signing office area.
(End of this chapter)