Hundreds of pages of fiction condense the painstaking efforts of a team for more than a year.
Yao Xue still remembers that scene, former deputy editor of "Science Fiction World", now CEO of Baguangfen Culture, Yang Feng, who claimed that "there is no manuscript in the science fiction circle that she can't urge", asked her one day, "Do you want to come to the company to do something you like?" ”
"It was particularly tempting at the time." Yao Xue recalled that she grew up watching science fiction, and after graduation, she entered the "Science Fiction World" magazine for a period of time as an editor, and she had a deep affection for science fiction. In 2016, the establishment of the eight light point culture, the new company always has to have a clear weather, they specially went to the Beijing Tu Expo in August, visited 4 previous domestic copyright agency partners, in person to clarify their own business direction and interest in the direction of copyright: in addition to the traditional classic science fiction as the core, but also to operate a large IP project.
Yang Feng
The good news came quickly, and late the next month, a copyright partner gave the news that the BBC would publish Doctor Who on a large scale in China for the first time. Doctor Who is the longest-running British science fiction drama produced by the BBC, tells the story of a magical "Time Lord" (race name) named "Doctor" and his partner who explore time and space to fight against evil forces and save civilization.
The show is considered to occupy a very important position in popular culture in the United Kingdom, the time span is also very long, the first season was launched in 1963, the kennedy assassination, the show was discontinued in 1989, a movie was launched in 1996, the entire project was restarted in 2005, and so far according to the setting, 12 Doctors have been "reborn", which has a great influence in the world.
"The more I dig into this IP, the more I feel like it's well worth doing." The high standard of the work not only meets all the expectations of Ph.D. fans, but also ensures that our book products can make a beautiful appearance in the market, which is also good for the company's image shaping. Yao Xue told the Hedgehog Commune (ID: ciweigongshe), as a doctoral fan and the director of the company's book department, that after hearing the news, she excitedly did more than half a month's homework to persuade the company to take over the project: smoothing the timeline of "Doctor Who", collecting its fans and word of mouth in the world, and sorting out the scores of various film critics and book reviewers - the difficulty is not to do it, but how big it is.
"Doctor Who has two slots in the UK, one is the regular slot from April to July, and the other is the Christmas slot, and we will launch a set of books for the four PhDs 9, 10, 11 and 12 in each of these two slots in the future. It will last at least two or three years. After three rounds of meetings, the company decided to invest large-scale resources in it, unlike the small fights like the previous Shanghai Translation and people's post and telecommunications publishing houses.
At the moment when the plan passed, Yao Xue knew very well that the pressure was never within the company, and the war had just begun.
<h1>competitive bidding</h1>
Bidding is not a treat for dinner.
Yao Xue later learned that there were five companies involved in the copyright war of Doctor Who, and Baguangfen only identified two of them through various channels. Unlike the high-priced people of general projects, the BBC, which is known as "turtle hair", also has to examine the company's business ability, the works it has previously operated, how much force it is willing to invest in this work, and so on.
More interestingly, the BBC also has requirements for printing house qualifications – there must be internationally certified environmental qualifications, which usually only occur in the field of children's books, in order to prevent publications from containing toxic substances.
"It's like going through an interview." Yao Xue described how she felt when the first round of offers passed. Because she was not sure of her competitors and did not know how determined the other party was to do this project, she was more nervous in her heart. It was not until entering the second round of detailed publication planning that Yao Xue was "more confident".
Doctor Who – The Only Human Book
Self-confidence comes from having enough homework and being sincere.
Baguangfen consulted a large amount of data collection in a week, combined with the domestic doctoral fan ecology to make user portraits, formulated a publishing plan for the next five years, and finally printed out the material equivalent to the thickness of an adult's thumb. During this period, friends were not idle, and one company bypassed the copyright agent in the second round of quotations and directly contacted the BBC - publishers have long explored a set of "not enough for outsiders" tips in their perennial practice.
"I was very shocked, and (we) immediately held a small meeting to discuss countermeasures," Yao Xue said, "and in the end everyone decided to do things according to the rules, after all, all of our efforts were reflected in the publication plan report of the book." ”
Doing things according to the rules does not mean that Hachikofen is a "Buddhist" company, they "quite cleverly" put a long letter in the email to state the demand for copyright, repeatedly stressing that they are a professional editorial team, but also a loyal fan of "Doctor Who", very much looking forward to becoming a "disseminator of doctoral culture in China".
The last two rounds passed, but the feedback from the BBC made them cry and laugh: After I give you such a big IP, you will definitely be able to sell hundreds of thousands of copies or even millions of copies.
"This is not possible in China, so the data we have reported should be similar." Yao Xue said that unlike online articles or top hits like "Dragon Clan", the average genre novel that sells 20,000 to 50,000 copies can be regarded as a small bestseller - especially the introduction is not comparable to the original. But the other party did not understand, but threw out a series of "Western-style" speculations: because of the income problem? Because of Culture?
Doctor Who officially Chinese postcard made on the cover of the novel
Baguangfen had to do a comprehensive data analysis for the other party, explaining in detail that "A Song of Ice and Fire" sold well because it began to operate in 2005, comparing the number of scorers marked on Douban by "Sherlock" and "Doctor Who", etc., and the conclusion was clear at a glance - "Doctor Who" was really shallow in China's cultural soil.
By the time the copyright of "Doctor Who" was finally taken down, five months had passed, on the day of receiving the formal contract, Yao Xue and her colleagues happily found the designer who designed and decorated the company, customized the classic props in "Doctor Who" - a space-time machine disguised as a telephone booth, and colleagues searched and printed out the design drawings of various foreign space-time machines on the Internet, and the rest of the people were together giggling and selecting, discussing, and celebrating the end of the first stage.
As for the copyright negotiations, the company released the news in December 2016 to win the copyright, the result was ridiculed by the doctor fans, and later when the contract was finalized, 2 companies found the BBC, hoping to get a part of the copyright and other episodes, now look, Yao Xue can already laugh and pass.
<h1>Turtle Hair BBC</h1>
The publication of the entire Doctor Who and Yao Xue's pregnancy coincide highly.
In the early stage, Yao Xue has severe morning sickness, every day with dishes dizzy on the go to work, "everyone does not dare to provoke every day", in the company, even if you see a person eating small snacks, it may cause a reaction. According to the recollections of colleagues, on January 5 this year, when he learned that the company's offer was approved, Yao Xue suddenly "had blood on his face".
"The doctor put me in bed from the first time I checked, but I couldn't do it at the time, and I really didn't do it – I'm sorry baby." Yao Xue smiled.
After three months, the whole company was waiting for the BBC to send a formal contract, as a state-owned enterprise, the BBC inevitably had a "yamen" color, layer by layer approval, the procedure was very cumbersome, baguang points had to urge over and over again, and finally the copyright agent was impatient: people are urged once a month, where there is like you once a week.
Doctor Who 1 to 12 Doctors genuine coasters
"No way, the contract has not arrived, the variables are too big, and we can't do anything else." Only one or two of them took the risk to translate. Yao Xue said that from the beginning of the project, the daily conversation of the whole company was: "How did you serve the BBC dad?" "Is our service BBC Dad satisfied?"
Another point of entanglement with the BBC is that the BBC requires that the Chinese version be exactly the same as the English version, including the cover, binding, waist seal, etc., which is also unacceptable in the view of the eight-light division.
"Elements of the BBC Hmm... It is ugly, and it is not the same as China's aesthetic taste. Yao Xue said with a smile that the English version is made of a picture of a series, and once it is made into a paperback book, "it is not elegant enough, it looks very cheap." ”
Yakumitsu then did a lot of design and decoration work, and decided to do hardcover books, and the sealing office also made a unified plan, and they repeatedly applied to the BBC with the plan. There are many interesting small details in the negotiation process, in 2013, the BBC launched a set of "Doctor Who" 50th anniversary commemorative model, Yakumitsu also wanted to use the logo on the commemorative model this time, wanted to explain to fans that this set of books was selected into the 50th anniversary collection edition, thus showing the status and reputation of the book in foreign countries. As a result, the other party did not agree - you are already 53 or 54 years old. In the end they had to redesign a new logo.
"The copyright holder of Sherlock is also the BBC, but its book was exactly the same as the original when it was introduced to China - but the number of attention it marked on Douban is 200,000! However, the publisher did not put a lot of effort into the book, but waited for the fans to pay for it. Yao Xue gave an example, "Doctor Who has only more than 10,000 marks, but we are still willing to repeatedly complain to the BBC and finally present such a work." ”
Doctor Who book in English
In September this year, the first sample book of "Doctor Who - The Only Human Being" in the publishing plan was finally finalized, and Yao Xue, who was on maternity leave (or working from home), heard about it and came to the company the next day to "drag the family with the mouth", handed the baby to her husband when she entered the door, and then "pounced on the sample book". She thought of the half-human-high reference books that she and the company's friends brought back from major bookstores in order to formulate a design plan, and felt that it was the most "amazing" of her own books.
Also recalled are the difficulties in book editing, because "Doctor Fantastic" is full of British cultural memes, so the annotation is extremely headache, from the Shakespeare period to the contemporary British soap operas, variety shows, the screenwriters basically checked it over, "it is equivalent to you just look at the annotation, British culture can give you popular science again." ”
In addition, translation is also a problem, many domestic fans are holding the English version, the folk translation team is also a high generation, eight light points in how to make the finished product meet everyone's cognition spent a lot of effort.
Fans' three-line letter to Doctor Who
On December 12, Yang Feng sent four circles of friends in a row to celebrate the official launch of "Doctor Who - The Only Human Being" on major online platforms, and the dust settled and was jubilant. She had previously told Jun the Hedgehog that as a person who has been immersed in science fiction literature for about 15 years, she feels that "Chinese science fiction can come to this day, with the support of too many science fiction fans, and only by being in it, do you know that it is not easy to insist", in the era of large online articles, excluding the flow of romance science fiction, even with Liu Cixin's "Three-Body Problem", China's science fiction literature industry still needs to develop, one example is that many Chinese science fiction writers are writing part-time.
"On the basis of not losing money, we can also meet some of the psychological needs of our small partners in our company, and we can also recommend good things to everyone." Yao Xue said. In the process of chatting, she will be surprised that now a network TEXT IP can sell for millions or even tens of millions, but she feels that "everyone don't worry, don't think about it overnight, and immediately dig a gold mine from science fiction." ”
"Slowly enter this market, it will be valued one day." She said.