Chapter 145 Inspiration Class

Pei Qian took a sip of tea and continued, "We only offer buyout contracts to the top authors on our own website."

"Because the terms of this buyout contract are quite good, it's essentially a benefit for our site's authors. Authors from other sites won't receive this benefit until they prove their abilities."

"Full buyout for the entire book, with a word count between 100,000 and 500,000 words. It cannot exceed 500,000 words."

"The buyout price is calculated as three times the author's previous revenue from their old books. For example, if the author's old book's subscription revenue was about 1,000 yuan per thousand words, then the buyout fee for this book would be 3,000 yuan per thousand words."

"There's no minimum daily update requirement. Write as much or as little as you like. Haste makes waste, after all."

"Moreover, we don't accept completely original works. Authors can only write commissioned works. We'll provide the IP."

After Pei Qian finished speaking, he couldn't help but be impressed by his own cleverness.

Buyout plus commissioned work? Wouldn't this net all the top authors from Chinese web novels, and ruin their writing?

Anyone who frequently reads web novels knows that buyout plus commissioned work is the easiest model to produce garbage.

Because to create good works, the first prerequisite is freedom.

Only when web novel authors are free to write about subjects they're good at, and have a strong drive to do so, can they write excellent works.

If an author who's good at writing science fiction is forced to write romance, the result will definitely be appalling.

And commissioned works are often works where the client has certain commercial promotion needs. In this case, the author's creative ideas will definitely be limited by the client.

In order for the work to meet their requirements, the client will definitely make some suggestions for changes, or interfere with the author's outline; and the author, unable to create entirely according to their own ideas, will also have a perfunctory attitude, unable to put in 120% of their creative effort.

Because commissioned works are aimed primarily at the client, not the reader, it's highly likely that readers won't like them.

On top of the limitations on the subject matter of commissioned works, the addition of a buyout will further dampen the author's creative enthusiasm.

Because a buyout means guaranteed income regardless of success, and commissioned buyout works are priced very high. Authors only need to use their brains a little to write a work that's about 60 points or so to meet the client's requirements and muddle through. There's no need to try to write it to 80 or even 100 points.

Or even if they want to write it to 100 points, they simply can't do it due to a lack of creative freedom, unfamiliarity with the subject matter, and other reasons.

So, Pei Qian released this commissioned + buyout trump card in order to "buy off" all the top authors on Chinese web novel sites.

For these top authors, whether they're writing subscriptions or buyouts, the bottom line is that they're doing it to make money. The specific choice depends on which makes more money.

Writing commissioned buyouts is easier, the royalties calculated by word count are almost doubled, and they can earn as much money as before by just writing a little and muddling through every day. Why not do it?

If the previous royalties were 1,000 yuan per thousand words, writing 300,000 words a month would earn 300,000 yuan; but with a buyout, the royalties would triple directly, and writing 100,000 words a month would earn the same amount of money.

But the workload is greatly reduced!

Although this buyout system is voluntary, not mandatory, Pei Qian felt that with such superior conditions, no one could refuse, right?

Who would argue with money?

In this way, the author's income isn't affected, but the website loses money, and Pei Qian's goal is achieved.

Ma Yiqun was obviously very clear about this principle as well, so his expression was a little shocked. He didn't know what kind of medicine President Pei was selling in his gourd.

Although whether or not to write a buyout is the author's free decision, at the current price, probably very few of these top authors would refuse.

It's certainly a good thing for the authors, but for the website... it seems to be a big risk, and a little carelessness could cause huge losses.

Ma Yiqun considered for a moment and asked, "President Pei, are there any other restrictions on this buyout system? What if the novel the author writes is unpopular? Can we ask him to finish it early, or force him to revise it?"

Pei Qian shook his head. "There are no other restrictions, but there are requirements for the number of words. That is, each book must be between 100,000 and 500,000 words. If it exceeds 500,000 words, we won't pay. They have to start another book."

The reason for setting the word count requirement was mainly to create difficulties for these authors who were used to writing long works.

The standard word count for online novels is currently 2 million to 3 million words, and some longer ones can even reach 5 million or more.

So, when authors start to set the story outline and create the synopsis, they're used to setting the full text to over 2 million words. Top authors are definitely more familiar with this, as it's how they made their name.

And at this time, forcing them to compress the story to 100,000 to 500,000 words and write short stories is a creative method that they're not very good at.

And for readers of online novels, most people also like to read long works, and they're not very interested in short stories.

In this way, the possibility of the novel making money is further reduced.

Ma Yiqun asked again, "If the author writes several consecutive books that are garbage, can we terminate the buyout contract?"

Pei Qian originally wanted to say no, but then he felt that this didn't make much sense. If an author was clearly producing garbage all the time, but the website was still giving him extremely high royalties for writing buyouts, it would be a little too unreasonable and unjustifiable.

So, he considered it and adopted a relatively compromise solution: "If two consecutive buyout books perform very poorly, let him go back to writing revenue-sharing books. After he writes a good revenue-sharing book, he can continue to write buyouts."

In this way, authors who want to coast along can write a good revenue-sharing book and then continue to write buyouts to cheat money, and the website's regulations won't have "come cheat my money" and "fool with lots of money" written on its face.

Ma Yiqun asked again, "Only writing commissioned works, what kind of commissioned works specifically?"

"Can we accept commissioned works from outside companies?"

Pei Qian immediately shook his head. "No! We can only write about our own Tengda's IPs."

Ma Yiqun: "..."

If they could accept commissioned works from outside companies, then this kind of buyout might still be profitable.

For example, if some popular online games need promotion, then Ma Yiqun could recommend his excellent authors to that company, let the company pay for it, and then let the author write a buyout. In this way, Chinese web novel could still earn a sum of advertising fees from the middle.

But President Pei denied this possibility of making money on the spot!

According to President Pei's statement, the subject matter restrictions for this commissioned work were quite bizarre.

It can't be purely original, and it can't accept commissions from outside companies. It can only write about Tengda's IPs.

What IPs does Tengda have?

Ma Yiqun briefly inventoried them, including the various games that Tengda has currently developed, such as *Turning Back is the Shore*, *Sea Fortress*, *Struggle*, etc.;

Including the short videos and movies that Flying Huang Workshop has already shot, such as *A Better Tomorrow* and the currently filming *Mission and Choice*;

Including the various purchased IP images in the game *gog*, as well as the original hero characters such as Modest and Ruan;

Including the various superhero characters in the works of the Hurricane Comics company that was bought;

In addition, some popular novels on Chinese web novel, as well as other miscellaneous things, are also considered Tengda's IPs.

It does seem like a lot, but what's the point of writing commissions about these things?

The only function may be to enrich the story reserves of the entire "Tengda Universe", but many of these IPs simply don't need to be enriched: the content that the original work wants to express has already been expressed very clearly and thoroughly. Why add a tail to a snake?

Can these authors write stories that are comparable to the original works if they write seriously? Ma Yiqun doesn't think so at all, because many of the original works were personally handled by President Pei, and these authors can't keep up no matter how hard they try.

What's more, it's still a loss compared to the money spent on buying out these works.

Because this buyout strategy isn't just aimed at one author, but at all the top authors on Chinese web novel. If these authors are determined to muddle through and cheat money, then for Chinese web novel, it's buying garbage at a high price, and it's difficult to guarantee the website's interests.

Ma Yiqun considered for a long time, but he was still full of confusion about President Pei's decision this time.

But seeing President Pei's confident expression, Ma Yiqun didn't say much.

After all, President Pei always acts in a way that's so unpredictable, and the decisions that President Pei makes, no matter how outrageous and strange they seem at first, are eventually proven to have other profound meanings, and are a great success.

So, Ma Yiqun nodded. "Okay, President Pei, I'll arrange it soon."

Pei Qian was very satisfied with his attitude. "Yes, very good."

"In addition, there's one more thing, about the author training class."

"This training class has been running for a while, and it's time to make some improvements."

"My idea is to create an 'Inspiration Class' on top of this training class."

"Gather those top authors, especially those who have decided to write commissioned buyout works, to participate in this Inspiration Class."

"In the Inspiration Class, we'll prepare a large number of novels, movies, and games for them, so that they can collect materials from them every day, and then communicate writing skills and knowledge, and recommend games or movies that they think are fun or good-looking."

"This Inspiration Class will definitely require some initial investment. For example, the monitors must be large, the headphones must be good, the chairs must be comfortable, and we'll directly purchase genuine, ultra-high-definition Blu-ray discs for all kinds of resources inside to provide everyone with the best viewing experience."

"In the previous training class, authors could only code and search for information, and couldn't do anything else; but in this Inspiration Class, authors can only do things related to collecting inspiration. During the 8 hours in the Inspiration Class every day, they can only take out a maximum of 2 hours to code."

Ma Yiqun was stunned again. "Ah? This..."

This isn't an Inspiration Class at all, it's clearly an Enjoyment Class, a Loafing Class!

One of the most important reasons why the previous training class was successful was that the "small black room" method allowed these authors with relatively poor self-control to concentrate on creating in this environment, which led to the birth of many excellent works.

But now, everyone can watch movies if they want, and play games if they want. Not only are they not locked in a small black room, but they're also restricted from coding time. A maximum of 2 hours of coding per day?

Isn't this the same as encouraging them to loaf?

What's more, President Pei also said that this Inspiration Class is mainly aimed at those authors who have decided to write commissioned buyout works. The update requirements for these people are already very low, and their creative enthusiasm is probably not very high. Arranging such a comfortable and enjoyable environment for them...

These people are going to be ruined!

They're all top authors and pillars of Chinese web novel. If they're ruined, it will affect not only the website's income, but also the number of excellent works on the website and the readers' evaluation of the website...

Ma Yiqun hesitated for a moment and said, "President Pei, isn't this environment too relaxed?"

Pei Qian chuckled. "It's meant to be relaxed!"

"For these top authors, they don't lack skills or strength. If they want to go further, they need more inspiration, and they need to slow down and take their time!"

"Now many novels are easily millions of words long, and they update thousands or even tens of thousands of words every day. How can it be possible to write masterpieces under such huge update pressure?"

"Let them slow down and polish them well!"

Ma Yiqun opened his mouth, wanting to say something else, but in the end he couldn't say it.

Obviously, President Pei's idea seems a little unrealistic. This is an online novel. It's originally for entertainment. What's the point of slowing down and polishing it well? Can it be polished into a masterpiece?

But President Pei's idea can't be said to be wrong. It can only be said that President Pei sees things on a higher level and has more ambitious goals.

Ma Yiqun hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded. "Okay, President Pei, I'll arrange it right away!"