Chapter 199: Place and Receive Orders
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Actually, Meng Fan forgot something too. His stream.
The earliest group of fickle netizens had come to his stream for drawing. Then, most of them turned out to be manga lovers, who made up a large group of potential consumers.
He thought about it and decided 50,000 was not a lot, and there was no need for him to think of ways to buy it himself.
The biggest problem now with completing the [Professional Manga Artist] task was the lack of content. It took 11 chapters to be updated to make up one volume.
“8 chapters!”
Meng Fan flipped through the volume and the script Mr.Sleepy had sent him. Although publis.h.i.+ng 8 chapters in the first volume wasn’t a great move; one should at least publish 9 chapters to have a complete story; Meng Fan didn’t have time to worry about this. They did this so they could publish more single volumes.
Of course, the premise is that the number of pages in the first 8 chapters were enough to support a single copy.
“8 Chapters?”
Mr.Sleepy was familiar with the content… and had no objections to this at all. He actually chuckled as he responded to Meng Fan, “I think it’s great! Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 should be very connected, so that once they finish reading chapter 8… Hahaha this cliffhanger, it’s a killer! I like it!”
Meng Fan was speechless. He didn’t think that’s how Mr.Sleepy would interpret this.
It made sense. His favorite thing on earth was cliffhangers. And he left you hanging for days, too. He’d been cursed and scolded as a “cliffhanger dog”. After all, he graduated from the cliffhanger cla.s.s, so his brain must be fragmented too!
“Then it’s set. I’ll go place the order now.”
Mr.Sleepy hung up.
Place an order?
These wealthy people were so different from us mortals. Even the tone of his voice had substance.
The issue with the publis.h.i.+ng house had been resolved, and Meng Fan felt no matter how well the first volume sold, good or bad, they’d have no difficulty continuing publications in the future. Even if the sales volumes will decrease in the future, it was enough for the first few publications to sell 100,000 copies.
The System didn’t specify how many sales each volume had to make; it only said the total sales had to reach 100,000.
Turns out, this was indeed the case.
The [Professional Manga Artist] task was at 1/10 experience points. The 1 had come from the first volume publication of “Guide to Campus RoMANce”.
As for why the sales count was 0… This was because all of the single copies of “Guide to Campus RoMANce” had been gifted by Meng Fan after he printed them. He didn’t go through any sales channels, so the System refused him the experience.
Now that “Guide to Campus RoMANce” had updated to chapter 12 or so, he could think about publis.h.i.+ng the second volume, regardless if they planned to sell or not.
Meng Fan decided to find Qin Jiao again the next day to publish this manga since she’d helped him last time with her connections.
“No problem.” Qin Jiao then asked, “My studio has a slot for a single volume publication, so you can just deliver it. Are you going to pay for it yourself again?”
This time, Meng Fan wasn’t in a rush. Moreover, he could leave everything to the publishers to deal with it. He had to use the sales channels somehow; even a little bit counts.
And “Guide to Campus RoMANce” was very popular too; people might actually buy it.
“Let’s go.”
Qin Jiao asked Meng Fan to wait while she drove the car out.
“Where? The publisher?”
“The studio! Even if you’re just a shopkeeper, you should meet your employees!”
Shortly after, they arrived at the XiZi cultural center’s front gate. Meng Fan saw the Da Mei studio sign as soon as he stepped out of the car and walked towards it. He stepped in there to take a look and paused for a moment. The interior and exterior of the studio were from two different worlds!
Renovations?
It’s only been a few days, there’s no way they could have renovated in such a short time! The place also didn’t need much renovations either. Such a big change could only be caused by decor.
Brand new office furniture, potted plants, small accessories, equipment… it looked simple, but gave you a culturally rich and creative feeling. It was a vibrant studio, full of life.
“Professor Qin, Meng boss.”
There were already people in the studio and had gotten up to greet Qin Jiao and Meng Fan. they were all either alumni or current students from the academy. They also knew Meng Fan and were aware that he was one of the shareholders of this studio. They didn’t know what to call him, so they followed his netizens.
At first, everyone was curious why Qin Jiao decided and opened a studio with Meng Fan. Although they still don’t know why it didn’t prevent them from respecting Meng Fan.
They knew he was incredibly talented at manga, and ill.u.s.trations as well, and the manga adaptation he’d been working on was top-notch in the industry. On top of that, he was a talented sand artist too.
“h.e.l.lo everyone.”
Meng Fan saw that there were already a dozen people there, some whom he recognized as well. Seeing Zhang Zhou Wei was there as well, he paused for a while once again. “What are you doing here?”
Zhang Zhou Wei smiled bitterly and pointed towards w.a.n.g Ya Nan, who was just coming down from upstairs. “Ya Nan is a member of the studio, I was dragged here to be used as free labor.”
Meng Fan was satisfied by this answer as it made sense. Zhang Zhou Wei was way too lazy a person to come out and do labor for free. Only Ya Nan could order him to move a bit.
Everyone says that one thing leads to another, and Meng Fan felt Zhang Zhou Wei could be considered very lucky. With w.a.n.g Ya Nan to restrain him, he was able to improve as a person. Despite that, he was still managing to find ways to slack off.
Qin Jiao introduced all the members to Meng Fan, then clapped her hands. “At the moment, our studio’s biggest job is ill.u.s.trations. On this, your Meng boss has good experience, so let’s invite Meng boss to share with us his knowledge.”
As she spoke, she began to drag Meng Fan into the conference room.
Was Meng Fan just there to meet the employees?
That’d be overestimating how good of a person Qin Jiao was.
Qin Jiao had not only prepared a conference room for him, but she’d provided a PPT presentation as well. The content consisted entirely of Meng Fan’s hand-drawn ill.u.s.trations and posters for the different movie production companies.
On the topic of Meng Fan’s hand-drawn posters, everyone was ecstatic to listen. His art was too good!
At the moment, Meng Fan had finished hand-drawn posters for almost a dozen film crews. The presentation was already at the 5th group’s commission, and each poster was regarded as a top tier industrial standard. His drawing skills and creativity were also top-notch.
The earliest job had been introduced to Meng Fan by Qin Jiao, so naturally, she’d been following all the news regarding these jobs. Plus, now that their studio was formed, she’d be even more focused on this industry.
He didn’t care if it made money or not, but the employees did.
Hand-drawn posters for film crews are a popular job in this industry. With Meng Fan’s invisible touch, Qin Jiao now felt that it wasn’t impossible to expand their ill.u.s.tration business into hand-drawn posters. They didn’t need Meng Fan to draw all of them, but they did need his guidance.
He can’t teach with such incredible drawing skills? Impossible.
Although his attributes were a great help, he still relied on real skills. Like a herded duck, Meng Fan gathered his words and entered the role very quickly. For the entire hour, he provided only knowledge and experience, benefitting the studio members greatly.
Qin Jiao, who’d been listening on the side, continuously nodded again and again. When Meng Fan finally finished, she raised her hand with a smile on her face. “Meng boss, can you explain your experience in getting these commissions? Our studio’s current business volume is a bit behind!”
She’d even used the formal term of ‘you’! She wasn’t asking for experience, she was straight up asking for commissions alright!
Meng Fan took out his phone and pulled Mr.Sleepy, FlatHeadBro, and everyone he’d collaborated with from the web novel industry into a WeChat group. He then messaged them. “I’ve set up a studio and we’re currently looking to do commissions involving ill.u.s.trations for novels. Didn’t you guys say there were several online authors who required an ill.u.s.tration service? You can invite them to this group as well and our studio members will contact them. We can also display sample work in the chat room, so you guys can find an artist based on your needs.”
Meng Fan was not prepared to accept any more novel ill.u.s.tration jobs, so he could leave these commissions to the studio. All of the employees in the studio had graduated or were attending the academy of fine arts, so their professional abilities were certainly no joke.
As for these online authors, well, they have saved the time of searching since there was a mob of professionals right here.
It was a win-win situation.