104: Chapter Novel Copyright

Lu Qingyu's achievements surprised everyone, and incidentally, the TV series he starred in, "destined lover," became a huge hit.

He played a high-IQ business genius and second-generation rich kid in the show. Now, everyone has directly projected that persona onto him, and Su Jixing has been receiving so many business offers these past two days that his hands are tired.

Besides "destined lover," Qingcheng Entertainment is currently developing other scripts. In his free time, Lu Qingyu downloaded several popular online novel apps and read quite a few completed and ongoing novels from their bestseller lists.

His work is busier than before, and he has less time to write scripts. Qingcheng Entertainment's demand is high, and he cannot supply enough on his own, so buying copyrights directly from novel websites is also a viable path.

There are many novel apps. Lu Qingyu downloaded the top five reading apps from the store. These apps have huge download numbers, making the others seem like minor players.

Lu Qingyu picked a few novels with good performance to read, and he was hooked as soon as he started.

He browsed through several different genres; if these were adapted into films in his own era, they would definitely be huge hits.

"Qingcheng Entertainment" now has the capability to produce A+ level works and can definitely start stockpiling resources. So, Lu Qingyu sent the novels he had read over the past two days to Wang Ning, asking him to inquire if the copyrights for these novels had already been sold.

Wang Ning received the list from Lu Qingyu, which totaled eight books. They covered xianxia, historical romance, period pieces, suspense, urban, and even thriller and pure love genres. More than half of the genres were ones their company hadn't touched yet.

Following Lu Qingyu's instructions, Wang Ning took the list to negotiate with these companies.

The prices for novel copyrights here are divided into two types: one is a buyout, and the other is purchasing usage rights.

The price for usage rights is cheap, around 100,000 to "200,000." Depending on the novel's popularity, the price varies. Buying usage rights means not only can you film it, but others can also buy it to film.

The buyout price means that from then on, the copyright of the novel belongs to Qingcheng Entertainment, and even the author themselves cannot film it without Qingcheng Entertainment's permission.

The buyout price is about 100,000 higher than the price for usage rights.

Wang Ning didn't know what Lu Qingyu intended for these works, so he called him.

"Boss, I've contacted the parties regarding the novels you sent. The buyout price for all eight novels is 5 million, and if we only buy usage rights, the price is 2.4 million."

Lu Qingyu was stunned to hear Wang Ning say this. Eight novels for a buyout price of 5 million! This was way too cheap.

If this were his past life, he would have been satisfied just being able to buy two.

Another point is that the novels he chose were all on the bestseller lists of these websites. He thought it would be good if even one or two of the eight novels still had their copyrights available; how could all eight remain unsold!

"Wait, are you saying the copyrights for all eight novels are still available?"

Wang Ning: "Yes, they are all available."

Lu Qingyu's breath hitched, and he immediately asked, "Is there something difficult about buying these copyrights? The novels I sent you are all on the bestseller lists of reading apps. I've read some of the content, and they are quite good. How can they be so cheap?"

Wang Ning thought it was quite normal: "Boss, I think there shouldn't be any problems. Film and television works adapted from such novel websites are rare to begin with. The market is bad, and if they set the price too high, no one would buy them."

It wasn't just Wang Ning who thought this way; in the eyes of the Producers in the entertainment industry, these novels were just minor trifles, and serious screenwriters looked down on these things even more.

The words "holy crap" flashed through Lu Qingyu's mind. He felt he had stumbled upon something amazing.

Lu Qingyu was starting to get excited.

"Then where do current film and television works come from?"

Wang Ning: "Of course, they are written by screenwriters."

In Longguo, screenwriters have a very high status. Film and TV shows are purchased specifically from screenwriters, and the copyright for a single work costs about 5 million.

Lu Qingyu was excited. Wasn't this letting him pick up a huge bargain?

Lu Qingyu immediately said: "Go and talk to the novel companies now. Buy out the copyrights for the top 200 books on the bestseller lists of the five reading apps."

Wang Ning's first reaction was that the boss was crazy.

Buy 200 books from one app? That's 1,000 books across five apps. When would Qingcheng Entertainment be able to finish filming all these novels?

Wang Ning hesitated: "Boss, our company can't finish filming all these, and there are many genres we haven't touched. If we buy the copyrights and fail to film them well, what if we lose money?"

What Lu Qingyu needed to do now was to get the copyrights in hand before other entertainment companies realized it; otherwise, it would be too late once the trend of adapting novels into films took off.

With the copyrights in his own hands, not only could he film them, but he could also sell them to other companies.

"Rest assured, these scripts won't be stuck in our hands."

The books on the bestseller list have quality guarantees; at least the reader base is large enough. Even if they can't be filmed into movies, they won't lose money if they are filmed into short dramas.

In fact, driven by Qingcheng Entertainment, hit short dramas have already started to make novel websites sell more copyrights, because professional screenwriters disdain writing brainless content.

Wang Ning couldn't understand what Lu Qingyu was thinking, so he could only obediently execute the order.

There was no need to doubt Wang Ning's business ability. Lu Qingyu's goal was the top 200 novels on the bestseller lists of each app. Wang Ning negotiated with the five companies to lower the price, and eventually packaged 1,000 books as buyouts, spending a total of 320 million.

Wang Ning felt a bit heartbroken about spending so much money, but Lu Qingyu felt he had picked up a huge bargain.

Such a big move by Qingcheng Entertainment naturally alarmed the entire industry, but most people just mocked them.

Xiangwan Entertainment, one of the top four entertainment companies in the country, laughed at them, calling them fools when they learned that Qingcheng Entertainment had spent 320 million to package so many novels.

The director of Xiangwan Entertainment held a party, inviting heads of major entertainment companies, screenwriters, directors, and many actors, among others.

Qingcheng Entertainment made its fortune with short dramas. Although its momentum was very strong, it had been around for too short a time. Other entertainment companies did not have a very high acceptance of this suddenly emerging company, so Wang Ning often attended such banquets to expand the company's connections.

The banquet was at 8:00 PM. Wang Ning arrived early. There were many high-level personnel over 30 at the party. Wang Ning was very familiar with celebrities and Agents, but he didn't know many of the behind-the-scenes big shots in the entertainment industry, so he could only slowly get to know them.

A crowd surrounded Meng Wei, the director of Xiangwan Entertainment. Everyone held red wine and crowded around Meng Wei, flattering him and hoping to request cooperation.