The invitation process was much more difficult than I imagined.
Lu Yanhe originally thought that no matter what, Li Zhibai and Yan Liang would definitely agree immediately, but who knew that Li Zhibai refused without hesitation.
"You want me to write an article? Come on, the article I wrote is so grammatically incoherent and full of typos. Who would read it?" Li Zhibai shook his head without hesitation, "Find someone else."
Lu Yanhe said, "Who else can I turn to?"
Li Zhibai: "Don't try to play tricks on me. We're not the only ones you know."
"But if you don't write, who will help me write?" Lu Yanhe said.
Li Zhibai: "..."
Lu Yanhe: "Please help me."
Li Zhibai: "I really can't write it. If I write it, everyone will definitely laugh at me."
"We will definitely help you revise it and won't let you be laughed at." Lu Yanhe said, "You write a rough draft first, and I will make revisions and additions based on your draft. How about that?"
Li Zhibai: "Why don't you just write it for me and sign it with my name."
"That's not the way to be lazy."
"Xiao Lu, it's not that I don't want to help you, it's that you really found the wrong person." Li Zhibai looked helpless, "I really can't write."
Seeing that Li Zhibai was in such a dilemma, Lu Yanhe didn't want to persuade him any further.
The expedition started off badly and suffered a setback, but fortunately, Yan Liang agreed without any hesitation.
This made Lu Yanhe breathe a sigh of relief.
Lu Yanhe told Chen Siqi about Li Zhibai's reaction and said, "If it really doesn't work, he can dictate and I'll write it for him?"
Chen Siqi said, "You already have a lot on your plate, is that OK?"
"OK, the first issue must be finished." Lu Yanhe said.
"Okay, I'm going to revise our plan today and adapt it to the Mook format," Chen Siqi said. "I've sorted out some relevant information. Domestic publishers have quite a few Mook books, and they've been releasing them all the time. The concept of an e-magazine might sound outdated to this platform. Using the Mook concept is more approachable, and it'll also make it easier for me to create a comparable product."
"Okay, I'll do whatever you say. The format doesn't matter. Whether it's a magazine or a Mook, the content is essentially the same." Lu Yanhe said, "I'll contact everyone I can today and tell you."
"good."
After Lu Yanhe hung up the phone, he began to search his address book.
Cheng Hai, Chen Jing, and Tu Song are all artists from the same company. He has a relatively good relationship with them, so he can ask them for help.
I also had dealings with Song Linxin, the talented female singer who became famous overnight for her cover of "Memory" in "Songs to Come".
Peng Zhixing, a contracted host of Northern Lights Video, had dealt with him at the graduation party.
Jiang Yuqian and Huang Kairen, the protagonists of "The Golden Age", are also among the most popular stars in Lu Yanhe's opinion.
As for Wang Yunfan and Li Qian, their relationship is too ordinary to bring up the topic, so forget it.
All in all, these are the only people.
Who else do you know?
Should they all be invited in the first episode? Regardless of whether they would agree, if they did, the first episode would be the finale, because Lu Yanhe would have no one else to invite.
The column "Student Days of Celebrity Artists" came to an end.
Lu Yanhe thought for a long time and finally left out three names: Jiang Yuqian, Tu Song, and Song Linxin. Let's ask these three people first.
However, when these people's names are put together, except for Song Linxin, they are all from Star Entertainment, just like the Star Entertainment special.
-
"You're inviting me to write an article about my school days?" Jiang Yuqian was stunned for a moment. "Yan He, you're fine, why are you suddenly asking me to write an article?"
Lu Yanhe explained to her what he was doing.
"You want to make an e-book?" Jiang Yuqian's tone revealed disbelief. "What are you going to do? Be the editor-in-chief?"
"Yes," Lu Yanhe said, "My classmates and I want to do this together this summer. We met with Yemai.com yesterday and reached a preliminary cooperation agreement. The book will be available for sale on Yemai.com when the time comes."
Jiang Yuqian hesitated for a moment and said, "Yan He, I'm a little hesitant to agree to this. I've never written anything like this before. I'm willing to do this, but this—"
Lu Yanhe understood Jiang Yuqian's hesitation.
He said, "Sister Yuqian, I know you usually give interviews and others write articles about them, but we want to make a book like this and invite you to write this article. We want to review that era completely from your perspective. Is that okay? I've compiled a few similar articles written by other actors for you. Would you please take a look and consider it first?"
"Okay." Jiang Yuqian smiled helplessly. "It's you who asked me to write it, so I can't just refuse. Let me take a look at it first. But let me make it clear first, Yan He, if I really feel that I can't write it, then I will still refuse."
"I'm sure many of your fans would like to read this article. Regarding your memories of your school days, I believe Sister Yuqian must also have many people and things that she misses." Lu Yanhe said, "Yemai.com is a place with many real users. Many people write diaries and write about their lives there. Sister Yuqian, if you have time, you can also check out this website and post your article here. People will get to know you better."
"I know Yemai.com. None of the dramas I starred in scored higher than 8 points on this website." Jiang Yuqian said with a smile.
"Then you need to let them know more about you." Lu Yanhe said quickly, sweating all over. He didn't expect such a thing to happen.
-
After chatting with Jiang Yuqian, Tu Song and Song Linxin followed.
Lu Yanhe called them one by one, explained the situation to them, and invited them to write an article.
When Tu Song heard this, he said, "Oh my god, I haven't written an article in several years."
“Just treat it as writing something on a social platform.”
"There's nothing much to write about. I didn't pay attention in class and always wanted to sing. I entered various singing competitions. My parents tried to stop me at first, scolding and beating me. But I was so determined to sing that they finally agreed."
Lu Yanhe's eyes lit up and he said, "Then why don't you write about the time you insisted on singing?"
Tu Song: "Ah? What's there to write about? These are just unbearable memories."
"It allows everyone to know how much you love singing."
“Can you understand it from just one article?”
"An article is a record. Your fans will know about it, and people who have listened to your songs and want to know more about you will also know about it," Lu Yanhe said. "When others want to know more about you, if there is an article you wrote, they can understand you through your own article, rather than through what others have written."
"What you said seems to make sense. I'm a little convinced by you."
"Write one."
"Let me try writing it." Tu Song said.
Lu Yanhe ticked Tu Song's name and breathed a sigh of relief.
The only one missing is Song Linxin.
Lu Yanhe had wanted to call her directly, but just as he was about to call, he reflected on his relationship with Song Linxin and felt that calling her suddenly would be very presumptuous and would probably make her feel awkward. After all, they had only met twice before and hardly ever chatted.
After thinking about it, Lu Yanhe sent her a text, roughly describing what he was doing, and finally expressed his hope that she would write an article on the theme of her student days.
Less than five seconds after the message was sent, Song Linxin replied: OK.
Lu Yanhe was stunned.
Song Linxin asked again: When will I give it to you?
Lu Yanhe widened his eyes in shock.
wipe?
Do you agree now?
No hesitation at all!
Lu Yanhe had never expected that Song Linxin would respond so readily.
He was stunned.
-
After Chen Siqi got everyone's response from Lu Yanhe, she was a little surprised and said, "So, everyone is basically still willing?"
"Yes." Lu Yanhe nodded.
"You have a good relationship with people." Chen Siqi couldn't help but say.
Lu Yanhe was also a little surprised. Although he had some objections most of the time during the communication process, he finally agreed and did not directly refuse.
Chen Siqi thought for a moment and said, "As for the celebrity section, if Jiang Yuqian is really willing to write and writes an article for us, then with her in charge, this section will be enough. Now we need to invite writers. Have you talked to Liu Jiazhen and Mingyin?"
"No, they are writers. Inviting them to write is different from inviting others to write. I also want to ask you, what is the standard for manuscript fees?" Lu Yanhe asked.
Chen Siqi said: "That must be the market standard."
"But there are basically no market standards now, and there's not much to refer to," Chen Siqi said. "Since we're not just looking to make a book for fun, we have to consider the costs and benefits. Have you considered how many copies of our book we can sell?"
"No." Lu Yanhe shook his head.
Chen Siqi said, "Have you ever thought about the upper limit of our production budget for this book?"
"No." Lu Yanhe continued to shake his head.
Chen Siqi said, "Xin Zixing reminded us of one thing. We didn't make a detailed budget. I made one first. Take a look."
Chen Siqi sent the budget sheet she made to Lu Yanhe.
Lu Yanhe opened it on the computer.
The production budget is 50,000 yuan.
The royalties for the fictional novel section alone account for 20,000 yuan. It is expected that five novels will be published, with an average remuneration of 4,000 yuan per article.
The student days of celebrity artists are expected to be between 1,500 and 3,000 words, with a remuneration of 2,000 yuan per article. It is expected that there will be six articles, with a total remuneration of 12,000 yuan.
There are also various other royalties payments, totaling about 10,000 yuan.
The royalties alone amount to 42,000 yuan.
The remaining eight thousand must all be used for layout design, which is still not enough.
Chen Siqi said: "This is very unprofessional. I just wrote down whatever I could think of and estimated the number myself. This did not include any editing and other labor costs."
Lu Yanhe hesitated for a moment and said, "The production cost of 50,000 yuan is definitely conservative."
"Yes." Chen Siqi nodded. "That's why I'm asking you, how many copies do you think we can sell on Yemai.com, and what price should we set?"
"It would be better to communicate with Yemai.com about this."
"We need to make our own estimates. If the price is ten yuan per copy, we need to sell 5,000 copies to cover the production costs of 50,000 yuan," Chen Siqi said. "Can we sell that many copies through Yemai.com alone?"
Lu Yanhe asked, "Besides Yemai.com, are there other channels where I can sell this book?"
"Mook can be listed in many places, and there are still many platforms for selling e-books." Chen Siqi said, "If we sell it exclusively on Yemai.com and sell it on multiple platforms, the market we have will be different. So I think we should have an estimate and a reserve price before discussing this with Xin Zixing."
"From what she said, she definitely wants Yemai.com to exclusively sell this book."
"If it's an exclusive listing, they'll offer us more favorable conditions," Chen Siqi said. "Now that we can put together such a creative team, at least the book we produce won't go unnoticed. We also have the confidence to negotiate cooperation with various platforms. An e-book with good sales prospects will definitely attract the interest of many platforms."
Lu Yanhe nodded.
Chen Siqi asked, "Do you think we should contact other platforms first and then talk to Yemai.com, or should we talk to Xin Zixing again first and see how things go?"
"Let's talk to Sister Zixing again first. I asked her for help before, and she gave me feedback right away. It's better not to be too businesslike when working with her."
"Okay." Chen Siqi nodded.
-
Because of this incident, Lu Yanhe suddenly had a lot of things to do these days, and even had less time for live broadcasts.
Lu Yanhe went to a second-hand bookstore and bought a lot of old magazines. He flipped through them one by one and took various notes.
The same goes for Mook. If it is just a pile of articles, it is just a portfolio. Compared with a regular portfolio, there is a big difference between magazines and Mook. There is a significant concept of "theme" and "topic".
In the live broadcast room, everyone was a little confused when they saw Lu Yanhe suddenly start reading those old magazines. They didn't know why Lu Yanhe suddenly started reading old magazines.
-
When the notification popped up on the phone that Lu Yanhe was starting a live broadcast, Chen Ziyan was still driving. She clicked on it and played it as the background all the way until she got home. Lu Yanhe kept flipping through the magazines at hand, because the sound was muted and only the pictures were visible.
The idea of Lu Yanhe making a magazine with his classmates sounded a bit unbelievable, but Chen Ziyan didn't stop it no matter how unreliable it was.
At the age of nineteen, she could do whatever she wanted. This was Chen Ziyan’s thought.
No matter how difficult it was, it was a very valuable experience for Lu Yanhe.
Chen Ziyan doesn't want Lu Yanhe to become an artist whose only life is performing arts, nor does she want him to be away from real life from now on.
Chen Ziyan has the style of an old-school agent. She doesn't want to treat artists as commodities, nor does she want them to be assembly line products. She hopes they have their own style and characteristics.
If Zhou Ping'an hopes that his artists will be less troublesome and be 100% obedient, then Chen Ziyan hopes that her artists will be as troublesome as possible on non-principle issues.
These are brokers who grew up in different eras and have different characteristics.
Although the overall environment has changed a lot now, Chen Ziyan still hopes that her artists can release their personal charm like the superstars in the past and maximize their charm, rather than packaging, labeling, and simply pursuing popularity.
Chen Ziyan thinks that it is a good thing for Lu Yanhe to make magazines and Mook. It is good to be able to work hard. It is good if he succeeds or fails. More life experiences and lessons are very helpful in enriching a person's personality.
Chen Ziyan felt that Lu Yanhe was too much of a "three-good student". He was excellent, but he seemed a little tepid and didn't have a distinct personality.
Chen Ziyan would rather he go through more trouble.
In reality, how much could Lu Yanhe possibly have experienced during his four years at university? Lu Yanhe was too young. Being too young isn't a particularly good thing for an actor; there aren't many suitable roles. In the film and television market, the mainstream male roles are still between 30 and 40 years old.
Young male characters are either from genre films or idol dramas.
Chen Ziyan didn't have any hope for Lu Yanhe to win an award in the next four years, so it would be better for her to take advantage of this time to do something else and accumulate life experience.
-
When Zhou Pingan heard that Lu Yanhe was going to make a Mook book, he was stunned and asked, "What is Mook?"
Li Zhibai said: "Magazines and books."
When Zhou Pingan heard the word "magazine", he felt that he had understood something and asked in surprise, "Is Lu Yanhe really planning to transition into the cultural industry?"
"Of course not." Li Zhibai shook his head. "Anyway, let me tell you first. Yan Liang and I are going to write an article for him. Don't blame us for not informing you later."
Zhou Pingan was speechless and said, "If you two have this kind of energy, why don't you record another show?"
"Anyway, we've both already agreed to this, so don't try to stop us. Didn't you say you have no personal grudge against Lu Yanhe?"
"I don't have any personal grudge against him, but that doesn't mean I'm happy to see you two following him around all the time. How come you two still have such a good relationship with him?"
"We've been teammates for three years and lived in the same house for three years. How can our relationship not be good?" Li Zhibai asked back.
Zhou Ping'an had nothing to say.
"You two can write, but I have to review the manuscript first before I can send it out." Zhou Ping'an looked very worried about them and said, "Don't send out anything inappropriate. Lu Yanhe needs a gimmick for this thing. You're just brothers now, so I'm too lazy to persuade you anymore. Anyway, leave it to me to review it."
"Let's talk about it later."
"What do you mean by later? This matter is not negotiable!"
"If you have that much energy, why not take care of your loved ones more often?" Li Zhibai rolled his eyes. "You brought Ma Zhiyuan with you and still expect me to trust you? Forget it."
Zhou Ping'an was choked.
"How many times do you want me to emphasize this? Even if I bring Ma Zhiyuan with me, it won't affect you." Zhou Ping'an said earnestly.
Li Zhibai chuckled, "You can go and tell Cheng Hai about this. I'm too lazy to tell you. Anyway, I'm telling you in advance that I will find a new agent. Ma Zhiyuan and I don't get along, so it's absolutely impossible for us to work under you at the same time. If you want to take him, don't worry about me."
Zhou Pingan was a little annoyed and said, "You don't have the final say! I've been with you since four years ago. Don't act like a spoiled brat. Honestly, haven't I been good enough to you?"
"I don't feel that way anymore." Li Zhi said confidently, "Ma Zhiyuan can take the job if he wants to, or not if he doesn't want to. When have I ever been treated this way?"
Zhou Pingan: "..."
"Let's go." Li Zhibai said he was leaving.
"Wait a minute!" Zhou Pingan stopped him angrily, "Li Zhibai, I'm asking you seriously, do you really want to change your agent? Why do you refuse to stay under my management with Ma Zhiyuan?"
"Right." Li Zhibai said, "I've never been treated like this before! Don't you know how much I hate that idiot? I'm telling you, I haven't found anyone to smear him yet because I'm giving you face. I'm too lazy to cause trouble for you. Otherwise, I'd find someone to smear him to death every day."
Zhou Ping'an's forehead was bulging with veins, "Don't mess around!"
"I'm not kidding you." Li Zhibai said.
Zhou Pingan was silent for a moment, then said, "Two years. I'll only be coaching him for two years. Don't be silly. I'll tell you again, I brought you up personally. I took over Ma Zhiyuan halfway through. The boss asked me to take over, so I had no choice but to take over. But I promise you, I'll only be coaching him for two years. After two years, I'll no longer be coaching him, okay?"
"Who knows whether what you said is true or false." Li Zhibai sneered.
"I admit that I'm not a good person, and I don't tell the truth to everyone, but I shouldn't have fooled you, right?" Zhou Ping'an said.
Li Zhibai: "Who knows?"
"In two years, I will make you more famous than Ma Zhiyuan. In fact, you could have done it a long time ago. If you weren't lazy, you would definitely be no worse than Ma Zhiyuan. Think about it yourself, how have I wronged you? You are so lazy, and I let you rest when you wanted to. I also didn't let you take the work you were extremely reluctant to take, right?" Zhou Pingan said, "Even if I kept telling you not to associate with Lu Yanhe, and you really kept doing so, what would have happened to me?"
"What can you do?" Li Zhibai asked back, "Now that he's left you, he's doing very well. Even if Ma Zhiyuan is very popular, it doesn't matter. The evening parties in Beijing and Taiwan will invite Lu Yanhe, but will they invite Ma Zhiyuan? His social image will be different, right?"
Zhou Pingan: "..."
"However, since you are so sincere and have promised a two-year agreement, I am willing to compromise." Li Zhibai said, and then said, "But if you do anything to harm our interests for Ma Zhiyuan's benefit, I will immediately change my agent."
Zhou Ping'an looked at Li Zhibai who didn't care at all, and was so angry that his teeth were itching, but he could do nothing.
Li Zhibai had the confidence to say this, and he had nothing else to say.
"Also, don't try to sow discord between us anymore. Lao Lu and I are true friends, and you can't sow discord between us. Now that he's gone, don't think about him anymore." Li Zhibai said.