Chapter 7: Official Signing

On the day of the official signing, Akiwara Yuto arrived at the Mantan Society headquarters early.

At the main entrance of this gray office building, besides men and women in black suits coming and going from time to time, occasionally one could see people running with manuscript bags.

However, he wasn't surprised. The release of magazines had time regulations. If an emergency occurred, the editor had to work their life out to catch up with the progress.

Akiwara Yuto walked into the front desk lobby and found a huge glass display wall cabinet on the right side. He was in a hurry last time and didn't notice it, but he could take a good look this time.

He walked up and looked carefully at this display wall cabinet, finding that four or five hundred books were displayed inside. Through the information on the covers of these books, one could find that these were books and magazines published by Mantan Society over the years.

Is this the spirit of Mantan Society as a major publishing house? Indeed, it cannot be underestimated.

He guessed the intention of Mantan Society placing the display cabinet here. It could not only increase the employees' sense of honor and pride but also show strength to the distributors and writers who came to negotiate business.

It was as if someone was saying, look, this is the historical foundation of our Mantan Society!

Seeing this scene, he was a bit curious about what the other major publishing houses were like.

In his previous world, many domestic readers who loved to read manga also liked to call Shogakukan, Shueisha, and Kodansha in Japan the "Three Major Publishing Houses" based on the sales of the three major manga weeklies.

But from the perspective of equity, it would be more accurate to use publishing groups, and there were four, namely Hitotsubashi, Otowa, Kadokawa, and Shinchosha.

The Hitotsubashi Group was a publishing group formed by Shogakukan and its branched-out Shueisha and Hakusensha. Because the location was in Hitotsubashi, it got this name.

Shogakukan, founded earliest in the group, made its fortune by specializing in publishing books for children. Later, in order to specialize in entertainment content, it branched out a subsidiary, which was the predecessor of Shueisha.

As a result, it didn't expect that the subsidiary Shueisha would do better and better, and there were not small contradictions between it and the parent company, so it later became independent.

Until today, many businesses of the two publishing houses were still direct competitors. Of course, in important areas, the steps of the two were consistent with the outside world.

Besides this giant, there were the Otowa Publishing Group (with Kodansha as the core), the Kadokawa Group (with Kadokawa Shoten as the core), and Shinchosha, the other three.

These four major publishing groups indirectly monopolized most of the Japanese publication market. At the same time, they had cross-shareholding relationships with upstream and downstream distributor companies, newspaper offices, and TV stations, forming an extremely huge interest chain.

For example, for the promotion of a book's IP, small publishing houses might only be able to wait for movie companies and TV stations to come to the door. But these large publishing groups often made a few phone calls and could quickly find suitable people.

It wasn't that there were no small publishing houses that rose suddenly, but they were extremely rare, comparable to lice on a bald head.

Akiwara Yuto sighed. Compared with these giants, he was as small as a grain of sand now.

However, he wasn't belittling himself. Relying on the many precious memory treasures of his past life, he would sooner or later be able to make his own career in this world.

Speaking of which, which publishing house Mantan Society was more like in his past life, he couldn't help but be a bit confused.

At this time, the corner of his eye aimed at the alarm clock hanging above the front desk, finding that it was almost the appointed time, so he gave up his wild thoughts, checked his clothes and appearance slightly in the glass, and walked toward the front desk with big strides.

After receiving the visitor's chest card, he was led to the 16th floor by the front desk staff again and walked to the "New Novel" editorial department.

Arriving at the door of the editorial department, he looked around the office and couldn't help but be a bit surprised.

If the lobby just now could be described as imposing, then this editorial department was barely describable as sloppy.

A space of about 80 tsubo was separated by long tables and cabinets, but whether on the tables or cabinets, thick books were piled up.

Not only that, there were many messy papers on the ground, making people very curious about how these editors worked in such a messy environment.

The staff who brought him over were a bit embarrassed, went in directly to notify Asano Aiko for him, and then turned to leave.

Asano Aiko followed and walked out, showing a dimpled smile and saying: "Akiwara-san, good morning."

Akiwara Yuto returned the greeting with a smile and also checked the other party's clothes today. Compared with the outfit in the coffee shop, Asano Aiko's outfit today looked more capable.

She wore a white shirt and a black coat on her upper body, and a gray hip-hugging skirt on her lower body. The whole person looked scholarly and had a "white-collar elite" temperament.

Asano Aiko and Akiwara Yuto exchanged a few pleasantries, then led him toward the small conference room on the other side, talking about today's itinerary while walking.

"Akiwara-san, besides signing the contract today, I also trouble you to meet with our Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi."

Akiwara Yuto naturally agreed. He still had a certain understanding of the importance of human relationships.

From the personnel of the editorial department, the editor-in-chief was undoubtedly the one with the greatest power and could decide all aspects of a magazine's work.

He thought about it and asked politely: "May I ask, what is the editor-in-chief's personality like? Does he have any hobbies?"

After all, he was the person in charge of the magazine. If he wanted to handle the relationship well, it was better to know more information.

Asano Aiko pondered and answered: "Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi is a relatively easygoing person and doesn't have much airs. In addition, he likes baseball."

Akiwara Yuto nodded. In short, it was better for him to be polite. No matter whether the other party had airs or not, he was just a newcomer, and he still had to fulfill the etiquette.

Asano Aiko continued: "Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi has 20 years of industry experience and is a genuine senior editor. He has contacted many writers before, many of whom published bestselling books later, and a few even won various literary awards."

"Akiwara-san, the meeting he proposed this time should just be a simple chat, so don't worry too much."

She didn't say much, because basically every writer who signed a contract would meet with the editor-in-chief once, which had become a convention of the editorial department.

Hearing this, Akiwara Yuto felt that he didn't need to think too much. It seemed it was just an ordinary meeting.

The two talked while walking into the small conference room, where a middle-aged man in a black suit was waiting for them.

The other party greeted enthusiastically, asked them to sit opposite, then handed over two contracts, and said politely: "Teacher Akiwara, this is the signing contract, in duplicate. Please take a look."

Akiwara Yuto thanked him, then spread it out in front of him and looked at it carefully, feeling a bit surprised. As expected of a major publishing house, it was much more generous than those small-minded small and medium-sized publishing houses.

In terms of manuscript fees, calculated by a page of 400-character manuscript paper, one page could get about 7000 yen.

The "Koshi and Yoko" he submitted before had a length of 15,000 characters, which could earn about 260,000 yen, equal to about 4 months of his rent, and it would arrive in the account in these two days.

In terms of royalties, they were calculated at 10% of the selling price, which was slightly higher than the industry average.

For example, if a single volume was to be published, calculated at 50,000 copies printed and priced at 2000 yen, he could get 10 million yen regardless of whether it sold well later.

In the long run, if the work was filmed or animated, he could get a considerable primary and secondary usage fee based on the popularity of the work, but the specific amount still had to be negotiated with the producer and the user.

But at present, he could only get the manuscript fee, and other numbers were just looking beautiful.

After all, only when his work was recognized by a large number of readers could he consider the possibility of publishing single volumes and filming.

Akiwara Yuto read it carefully and felt it was acceptable.

He was just a newcomer and didn't have much room to bargain, so it wasn't worth the publishing house modifying this standard contract for him.

If he made a name for himself later, presumably the publishing house would take the initiative to propose improving treatment and make greater concessions in terms of manuscript fees and royalties.

After pondering, he began to write his personal information on the contract, only hesitating when filling in the address.

He was considering whether to move after getting the money. The sound insulation was so poor that he could even hear the sound of the upstairs residents drumming for "love," which really affected his work and rest.

Asano Aiko saw him hesitate and became nervous, looking at him with wide eyes.

Seeing him continue to write and finish, and then cover it with his personal seal, she breathed a sigh of relief.

The contract was signed smoothly. Akiwara Yuto calculated the income he could get with satisfaction, then took his copy of the contract and left the small conference room with Asano Aiko.

The next step was to have a talk with Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi. I don't know what kind of person the other party is... ===== CHAPTER 8 =====