Chapter 34: The Impact Caused by the Publication Announcement

Cao Sheng logged into his email.

Sure enough, he saw an email sent by Wang Jing.

The content of this email was as follows:

"Cao Sheng, I have some good news to tell you. Your book, *Living with a Flight Attendant*, has passed the review at Huacheng Publishing House. They are very interested in publishing your work. We helped you negotiate the terms preliminarily, and they agreed to give you an 8% royalty. This royalty rate is already quite high; for new authors and new works in the country, it is generally only 6%. We used personal connections to help you negotiate it up to 8%. If you have no objections, we will sign the contract with them based on these terms. After that, you just need to wait to receive the money..."

Cao Sheng read the email up to this point, then scanned the rest of the content casually without looking at it carefully.

Because there was no more valuable information afterward.

An 8% royalty...

He had heard of royalties before.

At first glance, it sounds like a tax, but it is actually another term for author's remuneration. Unlike a fixed payment, royalties are calculated based on the book's price and sales volume.

The higher the price and sales volume of the work, the higher the total remuneration the author will ultimately receive.

But if the sales are poor, the total remuneration will not be high either.

This method of calculating remuneration can sometimes make an author rich overnight, such as J.K. Rowling, the author of *Harry Potter*.

Of course, Cao Sheng did not expect his book to make him rich overnight.

But compared to a fixed payment, he did indeed prefer royalties.

The only drawback is probably that the royalty calculation cycle is quite long; it might take half a year or even several years after a book is published to receive the full payment.

He gave Wang Jing an affirmative reply.

He agreed to have Huacheng Publishing House publish the book.

He did not need to worry about the subsequent matters.

As for the unpublished manuscript of *Living with a Flight Attendant*, he had already copied it for Wang Jing when she came over before, so for this publication, he did not even need to provide the subsequent manuscript again.

A few days later, he received the advance payment from Huacheng Publishing House. It wasn't much; after deducting the commission for Rongshuxia, Cao Sheng only received about three thousand yuan.

This was because the initial print run prepared by Huacheng Publishing House was only 5,000 copies.

The price was only 22 yuan per copy.

Even if they all sold out, it would only amount to a little over one hundred thousand yuan.

If the initial 5,000 copies did not sell out, there would be no further printing, and he, Cao Sheng, would not receive any subsequent royalties.

This is the risk of taking royalties.

It is also the reason why some writers these days pay out of their own pockets for self-publishing.

Many books, even if printed, are hard to sell in the thousands. If the publisher sees no profit, the author has no choice but to pay for it themselves if they want to publish.

Fortunately, Cao Sheng's book, *Living with a Flight Attendant*, had already become a hit on Rongshuxia, with over a million reads to date.

After confirming that it would be published by Huacheng Publishing House, Rongshuxia placed a pre-sale announcement in a prominent position on the website's homepage.

For a time, it attracted a lot of attention.

"Warmly celebrating the upcoming publication of the heartfelt work *Living with a Flight Attendant* by Zhongyuan Yidianhui. Those interested can place a pre-order!"

Such a red banner was stretched across the very top of the website's homepage; it was hard for readers entering the site not to notice it.

Cao Sheng saw that many people in his book review section were already discussing this matter.

Late one night, he went to an internet cafe for an overnight session. Before preparing to convert some of his manuscript into a digital file, he logged into Rongshuxia to check the various statistics for his book, *Living with a Flight Attendant*.

In the book review section, he saw the following comments.

"This book is actually getting published? It’s really a hit now!"

"Getting published? This book doesn't have many words yet, right? Is it enough to publish a book? Or is it that this book is actually already written? Is the author just being mean, deliberately updating slowly? Is this to tempt us to spend money to buy his book? This is too mean!"

"Extra! Extra! It is said that this book was finished long ago. This publication is the full text. Those who want to see the subsequent chapters can go to the website homepage to pre-order. You can pre-order a copy for 22 yuan."

"Damn! Zhongyuan Yidianhui, you really live up to your name. You clearly finished this book, yet you only update one chapter every two days just to lure us into buying your book, right? Your heart is truly pitch black! No wonder you didn't dare to name yourself Zhongyuan Yidianbai! I don't think you're 'Grey'! You should be called Zhongyuan Yidianhei!"

"We boosted the popularity of your book, and now you want to make money off us? And publishing... what era is this? Can't you just serialize it online? Everyone else's books are serialized for free, but you want to publish and charge money? Do you have any internet spirit at all?"

And so on.

Cao Sheng couldn't finish reading reviews like these; there were simply too many.

He didn't know who started the rumor that the book had been finished long ago.

Wasn't this just inviting people to scold him?

Could it be that the royalties I'm going to earn from this publication are just 'hush money' for being scolded?

Being scolded by readers was, after all, somewhat depressing.

But thinking that his book could be published, he still felt more happy than anything else.

However, such heavy promotion by Rongshuxia also caused some impact on his real life.

Sure enough, two nights later, when he finished writing and returned to the dormitory, the way his roommates looked at him was different again.

Pang Yunhai had a complex expression and was the first to speak, "Cao Sheng! I heard that your 'smutty book' is really getting published?"

Several roommates all looked at Cao Sheng.

Cao Sheng was a bit surprised, "How did you know?"

Song Chao chuckled, "Do you really think none of us know how to use the internet? Ever since the editor from Rongshuxia came to our dorm to find you, we’ve already gone online to check out your book, *Living with a Flight Attendant*. When I went online today, I took another look and saw the publication announcement for your book on the website's homepage. Are you still going to deny it?"

Guan Zhi: "Cao Sheng! You must have earned your royalties by now, right? Shouldn't you treat us to a meal?"

Cao Sheng: "..."

Internet access fees in '98 were too expensive; at 5 yuan an hour, many people didn't dare to spend money at internet cafes. In his impression, his roommates didn't usually have the habit of going online.

Therefore, he had assumed that it would take some time for them to hear the news about his book being published.

He didn't expect these guys to find out so quickly.

"What do you guys want to eat?"

Having no reason to refuse to treat them anymore, he decided to satisfy them once.

Otherwise, he feared he might be ostracized in this dormitory in the future.

Besides, he didn't want people going around saying he was too stingy.

And as soon as he asked, the roommates immediately got excited.

"I want to eat a big feast!"

Someone shouted.

Cao Sheng: "No big feast!"

"Then barbecue!"

Someone suggested.

Before Cao Sheng could reply, someone else suggested: "I want to eat hot pot!"

Others also chimed in with their own ideas.

"Let's go to Tianranju! Whatever you want to eat at Tianranju, just order it!"

"Why go to Tianranju? Isn't the first floor of Old Street good enough?"

"Let's go to Zhuangyuan Yijia instead! Their braised pork ribs are very good!"

After a burst of noise, Cao Sheng made the final decision: he would treat everyone to hot pot, and nothing else was up for discussion.

The roommates all stood up, wanting to go immediately; no one wanted to wait until tomorrow.