Chapter 5

Friday, September 27, is an important day. The HarperCollins team has arrived in Boston and is now settled at the Hilton Hotel on Franklin Street. The two sides have made an appointment to discuss the signing at 1 p.m.

Tracy looked in the mirror with great interest. Dressed in formal clothes, she was slightly more mature than usual. She had short hair and fresh spirit, and her whole body smelled like a workplace elite.

He usually wears casual clothes, mostly casual clothes and sportswear. I'm not used to wearing this black gray suit with black leather shoes. Especially the tie, like a yoke stuck on the neck, is very uncomfortable. However, there's no way. I have to sign a contract with the publisher today. It's the least polite to wear formal clothes on formal occasions.

Near the appointed time, Tracy stepped out of the door and called a car.

The taxi drove about 20 minutes to the downstairs of the Hilton Hotel. As soon as I got off, I saw Andre Smith waiting for him.

"Hi, Tracy," Andre greeted.

"Andre, you're so early. Please watch it for me today."

"This job is not difficult." Andre shrugs indifferently. They enter the hotel and get on the elevator. The agreed place is a small conference room on the third floor.

Someone had already been waiting for him in the small meeting room. As soon as he entered the door, a slightly fat middle-aged man came to him.

"I'm Belloc Anderson, the person in charge of this project. You're Mr. Li. You're really young and promising." the tone is easy-going and flattering.

At first, when he received the task, he was reluctant and thought it was the mischief of the rich childe. However, after learning about Tracy's information and reading the manuscript and outline, he changed his mind.

Three and a half stars for reading, two and a half stars for creativity and three and a half stars for potential. This is his professional evaluation as a senior editor. As long as Samsung's potential is tapped properly, the project will make no loss. In the publishing industry, the projects that can make money are good projects. Therefore, he attached great importance to each other and came to Boston in person.

"Just call me Tracy, Mr. Anderson. It's a great honor to cooperate with your company." Tracy shook hands with the other party with a smile and everyone took a seat.

HarperCollins press, one of the six largest publishers in the United States, was founded in 1817 with a long history. It has perfect distribution channels all over Europe and America. Tracy chose it because of his father's strong distribution ability.

The contract negotiation team with him is composed of five people, including legal counsel and team reviewers in addition to Belloc Anderson.

After Tracy and the other party saw each other one by one, Belloc first opened his mouth and said, "here is an evaluation report and a contract for the project. You can have a look first." then he sent the two materials to Tracy's eyes.

Tracy just glanced at the evaluation report and threw it aside. Instead, he looked at the contract seriously.

While he looked at the contract, Belloc continued: "We have discussed your proposal and found it feasible. However, after all, you are still too young to understand the market. Love stories and love s content do have a wide audience, but the plot of Prince and Cinderella is too old-fashioned for readers to buy. Although love s content attracts attention, it is everywhere in the United States. If you want to break out of the siege, you need strong publicity..."

The publishing of books is business. Tracy holds the project and the publisher is an investor. The two sides achieve win-win results through cooperation. Among them, signing a contract and pressing down on prices is a normal means, which is nothing more than squeezing each other's interests and improving Party B's profits.

"After all, you are a newcomer and have little appeal. The publicity mainly depends on us, but the contract I provide you is enough..." Belloc talked freely. Although he despised each other, he paid enough attention to it in his heart. Moreover, he believed that the young man would gladly accept the conditions he gave.

"I can't sign this contract. I feel that your company is not sincere about my project. If this is the bottom line of your company, I think we have nothing to talk about." Tracy interrupted him, looked directly at the other party, pushed the contract and the so-called evaluation report back, and scolded in his heart. Is MD an idiot.

"Er." Belloc was stunned and looked at him strangely. What's the situation? You can talk about dissatisfaction. Why is the young man so impulsive.

The expression on Beilock's face was extremely complex, but he reluctantly smiled and said, "we can talk about any dissatisfaction with the contract."

"Can we talk?" Tracy picked up the contract as if he didn't care: "the increase of royalty from 5 points to 8 points is too small. I hope it's 15 points."

"It's too long to wait until the next publishing season for six months. I want a fast track. I hope my books can appear on the shelves of every bookstore in the United States in November or December."

"The copyright fee is settled once a quarter. Don't I have to wait until next year to see the money? It takes a long time, preferably once a month."

"You underestimated the attractiveness of my works to readers and invested very little in publicity. I hope you can invest more resources, focusing on the Internet and the so-called critics."

"Also, for my trilogy, you can only win the first one, and I can give you priority to sign the follow-up."

"This one, you want to represent the film and television copyright of my works, which is absolutely impossible."

"Let me cooperate with your publicity for the signing meeting, but it must be arranged according to my time."

"Also, for the advance payment, I hope to get at least 50% of 100000 copies instead of 15% of 10000 copies. That's too little."

"Well, that's about it. I'll show my lawyer that he's sure it's OK before I sign the contract." Tracy pointed out all his dissatisfaction in a short time. In his eyes, the contract is a overlord clause. It's estimated that the other party will eat no residue after signing it.

The whole audience was silent. Everyone's eyes focused on Tracy as if he were a monster. So did Andre around him. He opened his mouth to say something, but swallowed it back.

"Who do you think you are?" Belloc trembled angrily, stood up with his hands on the table, glared at Tracy, and his saliva almost gushed out. He was really angry. The contract could be negotiated and the price could be raised, but the other party was clearly humiliating him.

"Gentlemanly demeanor, Mr. Anderson, pay attention to your gentlemanly demeanor." Tracy also supported the table with both hands and looked at him without losing the wind: "I TM am Tracy Lee, a genius Tracy Lee. You will remember me after today."