Writing Web Novels In America-Chapter 53: Business Mindset

A week later.

Wang Jian had updated the second volume of "Arcane Throne" to 700,000 words.

And he had finally waited for the simple renovation of the office space to be completed.

This meant that Wang Jian no longer had to squeeze in his small apartment with Tom and Dorsey.

When the company officially started working at the new location.

The website had already started charging for readings of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone" and "Arcane Throne".

This brought the company nearly 300,000 US dollars in gross profit.

After deducting Rowling’s 70,000 and Wang Jian’s 80,000 in royalties, the company had 150,000 US dollars left on the books.

"Don’t these have to be taxed?" Wang Jian looked at the accounts and asked Tom, who was temporarily acting as the company’s accountant.

"Not for now," Tom shook his head and said, "This can be considered as the company’s operating costs, and we can first recoup the funds we invested earlier."

"What about afterward?" Wang Jian asked, "As I understand, the combined tax rate of the Federation and New York State can be up to 35%."

Mentioning that 35%, he felt a pang of pain in his heart.

"Go for charity," Tom said, "First, donate the money to some certified charitable organizations."

"Then use the donation receipt as a tax deduction certificate to reduce the tax amount."

"So we’re not actually spending any money?" Wang Jian calculated and asked.

"You can choose which organization you want to donate this portion of the money to," Tom shrugged and replied.

"What are the options?" Wang Jian asked, "Is it difficult to set up our own charity?"

"It’s not exactly difficult," Tom stroked his chin and said, "But there will be regular financial audits."

"Trying to evade taxes through financial fraud won’t work."

Wang Jian looked at the computer screen, looking at so many worthless works.

He also thought of the literature enthusiasts who were almost reduced to homelessness he had seen at the publisher’s.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head, and he quickly asked, "Can the charity choose who it wants to support?"

"It can, but they must be extremely low-income," Tom replied, "In New York, there are even charities that provide food only to white or black homeless people."

"But if the recipients have a higher income, then the charity will also lose its tax-exempt status."

"Then would giving funds below the average hourly wage to authors who publish on our website and don’t have high incomes count as charity?" Wang Jian immediately asked.

Tom was taken aback for a moment, then exclaimed, "You sure think broadly."

"It’s possible, but getting tax exemption certification for this charity might not be feasible."

"It doesn’t matter," Wang Jian replied, "We can try it."

"After all, at the moment we don’t have extra money to give them."

As Tom left, muttering "Why hasn’t anyone done this before?" to himself.

In fact, Wang Jian already had an answer.

It’s because except for singers and actors, no other industry has so many poor people.

And since singers and actors belong to different companies, setting up charitable foundations for them wouldn’t save much in taxes.

The situation at wangwen.com was different.

As long as you had a computer and could type, you could become an author.

Currently, there is no one on the market like them, who could have such a large group of authors.

And this huge group of authors could serve both as bestselling writers trained by the website and as aid targets for the charitable foundation.

Training while being tax-exempt...

It was simply perfect.

And Wang Jian believed.

Eventually, someone would emerge from these destitute authors and earn him even greater profits.

Just as Wang Jian was extremely pleased with his own idea.

The voice of the newly hired secretary-cum-editor came through the intercom,

"Mr. Mike Richardson is here for a visit, shall I let him in?"

Wang Jian thought about the information on the comic industry he had collected since his last meeting with him, and said, "Let him in."

A moment later, a middle-aged white man about 195 cm tall entered the office.

He spread his arms and said, "Good to see you again, Wang."

Wang Jian stood up and embraced him, asking, "I wonder, Mr. Mike, what brings you to my modest company?"

"It’s about the same issue of comic adaptation rights," Richardson replied, taking the coffee Wang Jian handed him. "This time, I’m here for ’Arcane Throne’ Volume One."

Wang Jian thought for a moment; Tom was no longer solely his copyright agent.

It seemed a bit inappropriate to involve him further in his private matters.

Thus, he dismissed the idea of having Tom come over again.

"I wonder what the price for the comic adaptation rights for ’Arcane Throne’ Volume One is?" Wang Jian asked.

"100,000 US dollars plus 10% of the comic royalties," Richardson answered.

Wang Jian pondered the current situation in the comic industry.

Marvel, backed by Warner Group and buoyed by ’Batman Forever,’ starring Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman, was temporarily staving off a crisis.

Meanwhile, Marvel was targeted by Wall Street’s malicious speculation, currently offloading comic adaptation rights everywhere, hoping a popular hit would restore investors’ confidence.

However, thus far, the results had been negligible.

As for Dark Horse Comics, not only was it affected by the overall market downturn, causing dismal comic sales,

the worst part was that its plans to go public were being indefinitely postponed.

Mike Richardson’s billionaire dream was about to shatter.

Wang Jian looked at the seemingly relaxed middle-aged white man across from him and inwardly sneered.

A merchant who does not take advantage of a crisis is not a good merchant.

With such an opportunity, not to bite hard would simply be a disservice to oneself.

Thus, Wang Jian spoke up, "I’m not sure if you’ve seen the current serialization of ’Arcane Throne’."

"My vision for the book is not merely a simple fantasy story but something similar to your comic industry’s ’parallel universe,’ ’multiple heroes’ setting."

"Most importantly, EA is also very interested in ’Arcane Throne’ Volume One, and they hope to launch a game of the same name."

"And to boost game sales, they could even release comics about the story background, just like ’Diablo’."

"EA?" Richardson furrowed his brows and then asked, "May I make a phone call?"

"Of course, go ahead," said Wang Jian, feigning ease.

But inside, he was extremely nervous.

This Richardson, he wouldn’t know someone from EA, would he?

Wang Jian prepared himself to be exposed.

But unexpectedly, shortly after, Richardson ended the call.

Then he looked at Wang Jian and said, "100,000 US dollars, 35% of the comic royalties."

"This is the bottom line; I can’t give any more."

Wang Jian: "?"

ps: I just consulted a friend studying law in the United States.

About the possibility of using charities to provide a minimum guarantee to authors to offset taxes.

The final conclusion is: if authors get even one dollar from a website subscription fee, it doesn’t count as charity.

But if they don’t receive a subscription fee, it’s not considered commercial activity and can be counted as charity.

As there was disagreement, I checked the data.

Sorry it’s late.

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