Rich authors complain about rankings

Guo Jingming can definitely afford Prada

An annual list of the top 25 authors in China, ranked by earning power, was released earlier this week. As usual, the Chinese media has had a grand time getting quotes from authors about how the whole thing’s wildly inaccurate and then running op-eds making fun of them for protesting too much.

Guo Jingming, who ranked fifth on last year’s list, is tops this year, with estimated royalties of 11 million yuan. Last year’s leader, essayist Yu Qiuyu, drops to 10th place this year. Han Han (#3 last year) is now in 12th, and other popular writers like Eryuehe (#2 last year) and Su Tong (#4) have dropped off completely. CCTV lecturers Yu Dan and Yi Zhongtian are in second and third place, respectively (Yu for the first time; Yi moved up from seventh. His response: “Yay! I’ve improved!”)

There’s some question as to whether Guo Jingming deserves to be #1, not just because he writes frivolous fiction for teens, or because he still refuses to issue a court-mandated apology to the author whose work he plagiarized, or even because his induction into the Chinese Writers’ Association with the backing of Wang Meng means that he’s now part of the establishment. No, it’s because his role as editor of Top Novel, a fiction magazine, and I5land, an anthology series, means that a good deal of his book-related income can’t strictly be called “royalties.”

His former collaborator Hansey, who led a group of editors to break away from Top Novel magazine in late September amid complaints of overwork and underpay, told the Shanghai Morning Post that because salaries at the magazine were fixed, Guo Jingming “took away more than 95% of the magazine income.” Wu Xiaoyao, who compiled the rich list, said that Guo really only earned 3 million in royalties this year; remainder of the 11 million figure came from his magazines, making him more of a publisher than an author.

Lu Jinbo, the publisher behind Han Han and Wang Shuo, make a similar observation. He also remarked that the numbers across the board would be more realistic if they were knocked down 30%.

The Beijing News reported complaints from a number of other authors:

Even though Lu Tianming complained loudly on his blog that he was wrongly entered on the list — that his real earnings last year were far from 2.5 million yuan — this reporter was led to believe that a number of authors on the list actually made even more than the figure reported for their income. Ms. Zhang, a representative of Red Bookstore, which publishes the works of Sharon (Rao Xueman), stated outright: “Sharon’s income is more than the 5.2 million on the list.” Sharon herself just smiled, and said only that she could confirm that the number made public was not correct. Qin Yingzhi, marketing manager at the Boji Tianjuan Book Distribution Company, which handles Cai Jun’s books, revealed that Cai Jun’s income was definitely higher than the 4.05 million mentioned on the list. And Yang Hongying, who placed 7th with 4.8 million yuan, dodged the question, saying only that the figure was incorrect; the correct figure could be found at the tax bureau.

Lu Tianming’s argument is pretty convincing:

In 2007, I published no new books and finished no new books or TV shows. The only thing was a 5000-copy reprint by People’s Literature of my County Party Secretary, and I have yet to get my hands on the royalties for that. And how much can I get for 5000 copies? I suspect that you all know the answer. Apart from this, I received a bit of royalties from reprints, like Changjiang Publishing House’s reprint of Pure Snow and People’s Literature’s first edition of County Party Secretary, but that too was just 10,000 copies.

He goes on to list a few more minor sales and a couple television adaptations that were completed several years back, but none of them seem popular enough to put him among the 25 highest-earning writers (particularly since he wasn’t on the list list last year).

Zheng Yuanjie, who moved from eighth place to fourth this year, responded to the list with a complaint about publishers. Last year, the popular children’s fairy-tale writer called the royalty numbers bribes; in a blog post this year, he hails the list as a way to keep publishers honest:

Normal Chinese publishing houses pay fees to authors in two main ways: royalties, and a base manuscript fee plus a fee based on print numbers. The two methods are closely tied to the print number; that is, there is a direct relationship between the print number and the fee amount. So the print run of a book has a direct influence on an author’s income. It is difficult for authors to precisely supervise the print numbers of their works. Out of profit motives, a publisher may violate professional ethics and hide the true number from the author, thereby seizing the wealth that by rights belongs to the author. In the 1930s, when Lu Xun discovered that publisher Li Xiaofeng was hiding print numbers from him, he exploded in anger. Evidently, Chinese publishers’ practice of hiding print numbers from their authors is firmly entrenched.

In the 1990s, my twelve-volume series, Zheng Yuanjie’s Zodiac Fables was published by a certain children’s book publisher in the south. Before signing the contract, the publisher and I engaged in a brutal round of back-and-forth dealing over the royalty issue. By haggling over every little detail, the publisher had me absolutely convinced that it would not hide the print numbers from me: even an idiot knows that if you can hide the numbers, why go to all that trouble to wrestle with an author over figures? But what I experienced later astounded me: that publisher hid more than 100,000 copies from me. To say that it struck me like a bolt from the blue would be putting it lightly. After that, I found out that another partner had been hiding figures from me. The matter of money is insignificant; the question of trust is a big deal. Piracy is done by people you don’t know, but hiding print numbers is plotted by your acquaintances and even your friends. The latter is even more detrimental to an author’s enthusiasm to create.

I do not know how many Chinese publishing houses have dirtied their hands by hiding print numbers from authors; I only know that it is even worse for Chinese literature than piracy. Even when you take away the economic elements, when an author knows that his book has a circulation of 200,000 copies, it builds up his confidence much more than if he thinks he has only 20,000 copies in circulation. And confidence spurs an author to create even more outstanding works.

From then on, my books have been published with houses that are immensely trustworthy and have an ethical bottom-line. Now that my Pipilu series is in the hands of the 21st Century Publishing House, my interests and confidence are guaranteed.

Even so, I will not reject other avenues of print number supervision. The “China Authors Rich List” can serve that end. The list relies on royalties calculated from sales figures for each author’s works obtained from bookstores across the country. I believe that this list can work to protect the economic interests of a portion of those authors. If you are certain that you have not received that much money, you may make an inquiry with your publisher. Authors have neither the time nor the energy to personally investigate how many books all of those bookstores across the country have sold. Now there’s someone to do it for you. Subtract the royalties you’ve actually earned from those public figures, and we’ll have reason to suspect that publishers are hiding print numbers from us.

The literary slave mentality that “publishing books is how publishers take care of authors” can be put to rest. When your works go into circulation they become a commodity, and they have surplus value.

To put it another way, hidden print numbers are a misrepresentation of quality. Third-rate, junky quality.

Post-80s author and race-car driver Han Han believes that 10 million yuan is the upper limit for a Chinese author’s annual royalties in the current marketplace. He calculated his own earnings at 2 million and change, substantially less than the 3.8 million reported on the list:

This year, I published one book, The Glorious Day, which gave me 2 million yuan in royalties, or 1.6 million after taxes. My earlier books were still selling, so I got a few hundred thousand there. So my royalty income might be a bit above 2 million. Aside from that, my income from racing is around 400,000. My income is transparent – it’s all right there, there are no secrets.

…in the publishing machine, authors seem to sparkle, but they can’t make all that much money. For example, the 14% rate I get is already pretty high. Any higher than that is BS.

The Rankings (with last year’s rank, if any):

1. (5) Guo Jingming (郭敬明) – young adult books and magazines: 11 million
2. (-) Yu Dan (于丹) – Lessons from The Analects: 10.6 million
3. (7) Yi Zhongtian (易中天) – popular history, particularly Three Kingdoms: 6.8 million
4. (8) Zheng Yuanjie (郑渊洁) – children’s fairy tales: 5.7 million
5. (-) Sharon (饶雪漫) – YA books for girls, Sandglass: 5.2 million
6. (-) Wang Shuo (王朔) – My Millenium, Letter to My Daughter: 5 million
7. (9) Yang Hongying (杨红樱) – children’s lit: 4.8 million
8. (-) Cao Wenxuan (曹文轩) – children’s lit: 4.5 million
9. (-) Wang Yuewen (王跃文) – corruption novels: 4.35 million
10. (1) Yu Qiuyu (余秋雨) – essays on culture and history: 4.3 million
11. (-) Cai Jun (祭骏) – thrillers, 19th Level of Hell: 4.05 million
12. (-) Du Liang (都梁) – military fiction: 4 million
13. (3) Han Han (韩寒) – YA, The Glorious Day: 3.8 million
14. (-) Bi Shumin (毕淑敏) – mainstream fiction, Female Psychologist: 3.65 million
15. (11) Annie Baobei (安妮宝贝) – romance, Padma (莲花): 3.5 million
16. (-) Wang Hailing (王海鸰) – domestic melodrama: 3.2 million
17. (16) Hai Yan (海岩) – crime fiction, Jade Guan-yin (玉观音): 3.15 million
18. (-) Yan Chongnian (阎崇年) – history: 3 million
19. (-) Zhang Muye (张牧野) aka Tianxia Bachang (天下霸唱) – adventure, Ghost Blows Out the Light
20. (-) Lu Tianming (陆天明) – corruption novels, Pure Snow: 2.5 million
21. (-) Shi Zhongshan (石钟山) – military writer: 2.3 million
22. (-) Dangnian Mingyue (当年明月) – popular history about the Ming Dynasty: 2.25 million
23. (24) Liu Xinwu (刘心武) – popular literary analysis, particularly Dream of the Red Mansion: 2 million:
24. (-) Yang Zhijun (杨志军) – Tibetan Mastiff: 1.8 million
25. (14) Jia Pingwa (贾平凹) – Shaanxi-centered fiction, Gaoxing: 1.5 million