In 2006, web novels were not as developed as they would be in ten years. Contracts were also more generic than future ones.
The later contracts included not just digital rights, but also the rights for traditional and simplified Chinese, games, cartoons, movies, television, and even radio plays.
The people now would never imagine that web novels would be published en masse in simplified and traditional Chinese, which would then be sold to Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, North America, and even Europe…
Tang Tang had mentioned earlier that their bottom line was the digital rights, which meant that the other rights, such as physical publication, game, and animation still belonged to her!
That was great news.
IP would be really popular in a few years. All sorts of rights like television, movies, and animation could be sold for millions! But at this stage, hardly anyone believed that web novels could be turned into television entertainment.
Rights that were sold now were cheap.
'Consort of Troubled Times' and many other Qing dynasty shows, which were filmed in ten years, had sold their television rights early on for a price between 200,000 to 500,000 yuan.
Compared to the millions of dollars made from the works' distribution rights, the hundreds of thousands of yuan were peanuts!
There was also a popular weekly drama, which was Shen Shiying's 'Liao Zhai: Bone Drawing.' Its rights only sold for 200,000 yuan back then. The publisher struck gold with that work.
There were countless examples of this.
Thus, Yun Hua decided to hold on to all the other rights. Even if she signed away the rights to the simplified Chinese publication, she would ask for a percentage cut and not a one-off payment.
As for animation and game rights, she was not in a hurry to sell them. It was not the best time for novel-based games yet. The prices would reach their peak in a few years, when the internet and film industry were more developed and could ensure the adaptations' quality.
Yun Hua was now obsessed with making money.
After she was done reading the contract, Yun Hua told Tang Tang directly that Penguin Literature could have exclusive online publication rights, but she wanted to keep the rights for everything else.
She could make Penguin Literature the manager, but she would make all the final decisions regarding the sales of rights. Of course, Penguin Literature would receive a ten percent share.
Tang Tang: "Fleeting Life, you're direct. I'll ask my colleagues in the legal department to make the edits and send it to our editor-in-chief for approval. I'll give you a reply within two hours!"
Draw Fleeting Life: "Okay."
Tang Tang busied herself while Yun Hua continued to write her novel.
She could not write every day, but she had to update her novel everyday. Therefore, she had to write more in a single sitting and save the drafts in the backlog.
The plot was smooth running. Before she knew it, Yun Hua had written another four chapters—a total of 8,000 words.
She was stretching when Tang Tang's message came in.
Tang Tang: "Fleeting Life, the contract has been modified, and my editor-in-chief has approved it. I'll send it to your inbox; please confirm it. If you can, could you mail out the contract as soon as possible? I'll arrange for your work to be promoted as soon as possible!"