YM778.TV Chapter 124 - Self Publish
Chapter 124: Self Publish
It was already 7:00 pm, and Meng Fan hadn’t eaten yet. After asking the opinions of the cute girls and discovering they had come without eating first, they decided on a place that served Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine.
As for the opinions of the other three people and Da Fei; he didn’t have to ask to know that they had none.
They happily ate a meal together, leaving the mall and hailed two cabs as a cluster of eight people. The four cute girls took one, and the four rough men took the other.
Da Fei and the other guys were headed to a place not far from the Academy of Arts, so they got out of the car first. Meng Fan directed the driver to his neighborhood without heading back to school.
He had finally gained the first point from the task [I am A Champion]. With this ticket into the city level qualifiers, Meng Fan would have a chance to enter the provincial level competition.
He had learned quite a bit from Da Fei. Although there were some master tier players in Hangzhou, as it was one of the top three provinces, he knew it wouldn’t be difficult to win the championship, which would win him another championship honor point.
After the city qualifiers came the provincial finals. If he could win that as well, that would be another point.
After that would be the national qualifiers. If he could win that, it would be two more champion honor points.
Meng Fan knew that it was a long-term goal to complete the task [I am a Champion]. Based on his current situation, arcade basketball was a feasible way to earn honor points, so he didn’t want to miss out on any events.
After taking the arcade’s championship, Meng Fan’s next task was undoubtedly his manga.
Qin Jiao had already helped him complete most of the procedures required for publishing. All Meng Fan needed to do was speed up his creations so he could finish a full volume for Qin Jiao to submit for trial.
Including the manuscripts he currently had, the manga had reached its eighth chapter. According to the length of “Guide to Campus RoMANce”, it would be easy to publish a volume with nine chapters. However, because of the plot development—which had no ups and downs but still carried a little plot—Meng Fan felt it was better to publish each volume with 10 chapters each.
He was okay with having broken chapters, but it would be too excessive if they broke each chapter.
He worked on the manga until 12:00 am and stopped for a break. After seeing a message from Wu Tong, he chatted with her for a while before checking his other updates.
Several of them were from the newly added campus editor from Penguin Animation Network.
“Hello, junior.”
“I’ve read all of “Guide to Campus RoMANce” and not just once either. I’ve also seen you stream the illustrations.”
“Your drawing skills are top-notch in the industry, and the style is very comfortable to look at too, forming your own unique style. However, it is undeniable that there are still some shortcomings in the mangas scriptwriting and storyboard. It seems that “Guide to Campus RoMANce” has its scriptwriter.”
“I’m disappointed that you can’t sign a contract with us because you want to publish your own novel, but at the same time, I still hope to collaborate with you. Coincidentally, I have a suitable collaboration opportunity here, which is the readaptation of a novel into a manga. We will provide you with a special story writer and scriptwriter. If you need an assistant, we can provide that as well.”
“Presently, we have a few novels that have been adapted into manga with a few famous ones. I don’t know if you have any plans to participate in a manga adaptation? You can choose any novel you like.”
After reading this, Meng Fan slapped his thigh. He suddenly remembered Mr. Sleepy!
Didn’t Mr. Sleepy speak to him about adapting his novel “There’s a Spirit Underground” into a manga? He agreed to give him a response within a week. It seemed like the time should be up by… now?
It was even more rare that Mr. Sleepy did not rush him. Even if his updates were not diligent, he was still diligent toward everything else. Maybe he was being so passive because of issues related to his novel?
With Meng Fan’s current skills, his drawing abilities far exceeded his scriptwriting ones. If he was going to take up manga creation, novel adaptations would be a wise choice.
On the other hand, Penguin Animation Network possessed a lot of resources to be mastered. Everything else aside, it was a warehouse of literature. There were way too many novels that needed to be adapted into a manga. The editor was right. He could pick any novel he wanted.
If Meng Fan really wanted to adapt a manga, his first choice would definitely be “There’s a Spirit Underground”.
Even if Mr. Sleepy hadn’t contacted him himself, Meng Fan was still familiar with the contents, so “There’s a Spirit Underground” would be his first choice, regardless.
As for his conditions, especially the pay was all an afterthought to Meng Fan.
He thought about it carefully before sending Mr. Sleepy a WeChat message. “Does the manga you mentioned the other day still need to be adapted?”
Mr. Sleepy responded very quickly. “Of course!”
He sent another message, a picture of a train ticket.
“I thought you forgot about it, I already bought a train ticket. I was prepared to go to Hangzhou tomorrow and block you at your school!”
Meng Fan smiled bitterly. “I agree to the adaptation. But it will be a few days before I can actually begin. Is that alright?”
Mr. Sleepy said, “That’s not a big problem, but you can’t make me wait too long. I’m good at loving but not at waiting.”
Meng Fan straight up did not reply and sent a message to Yi Xin. “Sorry senior, I already have a novel I will be adapting. But after I finish that one, it will be serialized on Penguin Animation Network, probably. We will have an opportunity for cooperation.”
“What’s the genre?”
“Spiritual/horror.”
“… I am the campus editor.”
“At this point, I can be the campus spooky spirit too.”
Meng Fan didn’t joke with him this time. The main character for “There’s A Spirit Underground” was a student, and the setting was inside a school campus. All the following scenes occur within the campus too, so it wasn’t an exaggeration to say he was the campus spirit.
After chatting for a while, he returned to his conversation with Wu Tong and continued to draw.
After Liang Qing left, Wu Tong also returned to the next stop of the Academy fine arts exhibition. There was a lot to share, and she had learned a lot. However, compared with the experience of being Liang Qing’s personal assistant, it was not enough at all.
For the next two days, Meng Fan spent most of his time on “Guide to Campus RoMANce”. After finishing ten chapters, he even found time to touch up some aspects to ensure it passed the assessment.
After organizing it, he handed it off to Qin Jiao.
Qin Jiao sent the publication to the publishing house that morning, and the results came back before 5:00 pm. He had successfully passed the trial. Since he already attained a book number, he could publish it at any time.
The publisher was also willing to publish the manga, but the given period was relatively long and uncertain. For the entire procedure to be complete, it would take at least half a month.
In fact, half a month was already very fast. But Meng Fan couldn’t wait, so he chose to pay it himself.
Of course, if it weren’t for his relationship with Qin Jiao, the publishing house might have scheduled it faster than if he paid for it himself.
But because of his relationship with Qin Jiao, the cost of reading, editing, typesetting, printing, packaging, etc were all greatly reduced, and the cost of publishing and management fees could not have been lower. Meng Fan decided to print 1000 copies initially, and with everything included, it added up to about ten or twenty thousand. The base cost of one copy was the same as a book that cost $5000, and the quality was great too.