The next day, Li Chengzhi went to the relevant departments in Taiwan to first understand the conditions for starting a newspaper company.
However, he was dealt a heavy blow!
Currently, Taiwan was in a martial law period and implemented a newspaper ban, keeping the Taiwan newspaper industry at a situation of only thirty-one newspapers.
Among them, fifteen were directly operated by the party, government, and military; and among the sixteen private newspapers, most were operated by people with close ties to the ruling party.
The management rights of the newspapers were completely manipulated by the party, government, and military.
If a newspaper suddenly published remarks unfavorable to the government, the government might intervene and demand the newspaper operators to transfer ownership.
Of course, the news Li Chengzhi gathered wasn’t all bad.
Taiwan’s book publishing industry adopted a Western social system with a very low threshold, making it very easy to register a publishing company!
After Li Chengzhi returned home, he told Li Zetian what he had found out.
Hearing this, Li Zetian suddenly realized.
In his impression, Taiwan allowed private individuals to establish newspapers, but thinking about it now, that must have been after the newspaper ban was lifted.
In fact, the ban wouldn’t be lifted until 1977!
The reason Li Zetian first thought of establishing a newspaper company rather than a book publishing company was that a newspaper is a mouthpiece with great influence.
Jin Yong’s “Ming Pao” not only made him a wealthy man in Hong Kong but also made him an extremely influential figure within the Hong Kong government!
“Forget it, meals must be eaten bite by bite, and roads must be walked step by step!
Let’s establish the newspaper company after Taiwan lifts the newspaper ban!
Establishing a publishing house now is also good!”
Li Zetian felt a bit regretful inside.
As a Chinese who loved his motherland, he wanted to own a newspaper in Taiwan that could uphold the position of a public instrument, adhere to freedom of the press, and maintain a transcendent, independent, and non-partisan stance.
He hoped the newspaper he created could become a breath of fresh air among the many newspapers in Taiwan!!!
“Dad, then let’s establish a publishing house!
Instead of giving the money to other publishers to earn, it’s better if we earn it ourselves!
I believe I will write more and more new books in the future, so our publishing house won’t have to worry about lacking good works!
When we have strong capital, we can also sign other authors!!!”
“Mhm, that’s the only way!”
The startup capital for the publishing house was considered sufficient.
“The Devotion of Suspect X” had earned Li Zetian over 30,000 USD, and “Journey Under the Midnight Sun” earned him even more, reaching 95,000 USD.
In addition, working for DEC brought him 35,000 USD in salary and bonuses.
Sam Hui’s new album was released early this year and quickly became a massive hit in Hong Kong and Taiwan, bringing Li Zetian nearly 40,000 USD in royalty income.
Therefore, his total net worth now was 200,000 USD. New chapters come out on g.com first.
At an exchange rate of 1:40 between USD and Taiwan dollars, he had 8 million Taiwan dollars, which was considered a huge sum in Taiwan.
Furthermore, during the time Li Zetian’s parents worked in Taiwan, they naturally also earned some money.
Especially Li Chengzhi, serving as the head of “Life” magazine, had a pretty good salary and performance bonuses, totaling 25,000 USD, or 1 million Taiwan dollars.
Li Zetian decided to take out 100,000 USD to give to his father for his startup in Taiwan, while he kept 100,000 USD for his own startup in the United States!
The next morning, Li Chengzhi officially submitted his resignation letter, ready to begin his own entrepreneurial journey.
Even if “Life” magazine wasn’t sold, with granduncle gone, he wasn’t very willing to work for Li Yuan and Li Jian.
Coupled with Li Zetian’s encouragement, it strengthened his resolve to set up on his own!
Hearing that “Life” magazine was going to be acquired by another large magazine company, the employees inside were in a state of anxiety.
With Li Chengzhi’s departure, the group suddenly became leaderless.
The crucial point was that he also took away the resources of Mr.
Li.
“Life” magazine was likely to fall back into a second-rate magazine again.
Subsequently, a dramatic scene occurred.
The company originally preparing to acquire “Life” magazine at a high price heard that Li Chengzhi had resigned and immediately slashed the acquisition price in half!
When Li Yuan and Li Jian got the news, they almost threw up blood from anger.
The person they usually looked down upon had slapped them hard in the face, causing them heavy losses!
However, what was even more serious was that employees of “Life” magazine resigned one after another, jumping ship to a publishing house called “Times Literature” registered by Li Chengzhi in Taipei!
With all the talent gone, the speed of “Life” magazine’s decline was shocking.
The company that originally said it would acquire “Life” magazine immediately changed its tune, declaring it was abandoning the acquisition of “Life” magazine!
Although Times Literature Publishing House had just been established, although the sparrow is small, it has all its vital organs.
The art editing department, publishing department, financial department, distribution department, proofreading department, review room, and administrative office were all present.
This completely exceeded Li Zetian’s expectations.
He never expected that so many people would be willing to follow his father to start a business together.
However, one more person meant one more mouth to feed, and the financial pressure was quite significant.
Li Chengzhi was an honest and compassionate person.
Seeing that others had lost their jobs and specially came to seek refuge with him, he had to take them in no matter what.
Li Zetian thought about it and decided to use the copyrights of “The Devotion of Suspect X” and “Journey Under the Midnight Sun” as collateral to borrow money from the bank to pay the employees’ salaries!
Fortunately, they also knew this was a startup company and didn’t have high salary demands.
After Li Chengzhi promised them that everyone would get stock options once Times Literature Publishing House grew, they felt reassured and became even more motivated to work. Get faster updates on NovelPing.
Currently, the primary task for the first phase of Times Literature Publishing House was to publish the two books written by Li Zetian: “The Devotion of Suspect X” and “Journey Under the Midnight Sun”!
Of course, if they could sign works from well-known authors, that would be even better.
Due to the lack of funds, they couldn’t print a large number of books.
Li Zetian suggested his father use the “empty glove white wolf” (making a profit with no initial capital) tactic!
First, get the money from the distributors first, then deliver the goods later.
Second, let the printing factory print the books first, and pay the money later.
Admittedly, not every distributor and printing factory would be willing to do this.
Some distributors even relied on their “channel is king” status to demand that goods be delivered first, and only pay after the books were sold.
However, there were always some distributors and printing factories with unique vision who were optimistic about “The Devotion of Suspect X” and “Journey Under the Midnight Sun”.
They were willing to do as Li Zetian requested.
Of course, for these kinds of partners, Times Literature Publishing House could yield more profits to them.
Next, they could take the contract signed with the printing factory to look for distributors.
Once the distributors saw the contract, they naturally had a bit more confidence in “Times Literature Publishing House,” and thus more distributors became willing to pay in advance.
On the other hand, taking the contracts signed with distributors to the printing factory, the factory would see the contracts and think: since you have already secured sales channels, the printed books won’t have to worry about not being sold, so it’s fine to pay later!
Under this virtuous cycle, Times Literature Publishing House could complete large-scale book publishing without spending too much money!!!
Li Zetian only had to move his lips; everything was actually executed by Li Chengzhi and his team.
At this moment, taking advantage of the fact that his leave hadn’t ended yet, Li Zetian simply prepared his new book at home.
The popular novels in this era were martial arts novels, which had successively produced a large number of famous martial arts novelists.
Among them, Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yusheng were collectively known as the Three Grandmasters of Chinese Martial Arts Novels, hailed as the founding ancestors of the new school of martial arts novels.
Li Zetian also wanted to be a founding ancestor for once.
Once “Zhu Xian” (Jade Dynasty) comes out, who can compete with it!!!
That’s right, this time he planned to write out the great Xiao Ding’s “Zhu Xian”, pioneering the Xianxia (immortal hero) fantasy novel genre!
Back then, once this book was published in Taiwan, it immediately skyrocketed to the top of the Hong Kong and Taiwan bestseller charts.
With its unconstrained imagination and grand, vigorous narrative, it quickly became the pinnacle of Chinese fantasy literature and gained fame overseas.
Along with ” Journey of the Misty ” (缥缈之旅) and ” Legend of the Little Soldier ” (小兵传奇), it was known as one of the “Three Great Strange Books of the Internet” and was the only martial arts novel among them.
Online, it was regarded as a classic novel on the same level as the works of Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Huanzhu Louzhu, hailed as a new generation domestic fantasy masterpiece with strong Chinese character that could rival Huanzhu Louzhu’s “Legend of the Swordsmen of the Mountains of Shu”!
However, Xiao Ding himself also once said that this book had many regrets, including character descriptions and story processing, which were not done perfectly.
Li Zetian rewriting “Zhu Xian” this time aimed to create a more perfect “Zhu Xian”!
To this end, Li Zetian secluded himself for three days and three nights, writing down a 50,000-word outline!!!