“Caleb, we need our own public WeChat account and Weibo account. This doesn’t cost anything, so find a way to get that settled as soon as possible.”
At the conference table, Elena took a blank piece of paper and distributed the measly few hundred thousand dollars worth of funds.
“Also, find a way to buy a bunch of computers and artboards. Let’s make it 20 sets for the time being. I’ll give you 50, 000 dollars in cash.”
“Twenty high-spec computers and artboards?”
The comics’ manuscript format had a rather large file size. As a result, the computer’s memory and storage needed to be equally high as well.
In addition to that, for one to produce a high-quality drawing would require a similarly high-quality drawing board.
A high-spec computer plus an artboard would cost about two thousand and five hundred dollars. Should she not just go and rob someplace for that amount?
“You are very skilled at computers, so I’m sure you can work miracles on some old computers too.”
Elena patted Caleb’s shoulder and said with a smile, “I trust that you can get me loads of hidden treasure from the secondhand market.”
Caleb wanted to cry. There was no such thing as a secondhand high-quality drawing board, and new ones would cost more than a thousand dollars.
In other words, he could only do all that on a computer.
Still, she wanted high-configuration computers that cost more than a thousand dollars?
He felt as if he should crouch in a corner and draw circles on the ground.
Elena decided not to continue with that topic. She then turned to Luacs.
“This office has been renovated, but there are still many areas here that aren’t quite suitable for us. We will need to re-renovate it.”
Luacs nodded and waited for her to continue.
Elena said, “Well, is 50, 000 dollars enough for all the furnishings?”
Luacs pondered about the amount of money that he still had with him.
Finally, he nodded. “Enough.”
“Elena, 50, 000 dollars to renovate a thirty-square foot area? Are you kidding me?” Layla immediately gave Mu Luacs a confused look.
“This was originally an office. Many of the things have already been renovated, and plenty of them can be used immediately.”
Their funds were limited. How would they deal with anything that might pop up at a later stage?
“And we need matching desks and chairs. Along with those for our offices, we probably need more than twenty sets.”
“Also, appliances such as air conditioners and water dispensers.”
Elena counted her fingers and looked at Luacs quietly. “That 25, 000 dollars…”
“Okay.” Luacs nodded without a second thought.
Elena breathed a sigh of relief. Luacs always delivered on his promises.
Then she looked at Layla. “Layla, go to the previous forum and search for illustrators. Set a minimum price for them to start drawing.
“Give them 200, 000 dollars, and I guarantee that they’ll have 20 comics online within two months.
“Of course, from these twenty teams, some people will have to be with us during office hours. Otherwise, I’m worried that we won’t have any control over it.”
Layla almost fainted. The 200, 000 dollars for 20 books would average to about 10, 000 dollars per book!
Those illustrators already had it hard enough, and yet the price that they quoted could not even begin to move bricks.
Even though Layla was the part of the party that contributed the money, Elena’s pettiness made Layla want to stand up for those illustrators.
“I didn’t say it has to be finished. You just need to make sure that when the comics go online, they will have at least five updates with an additional five as their buffer.”
“There isn’t any special professional market rate at this time, so you’ll have to find a way to deal with it. As long as they are serialized for one month, I can think of ways to get more capital or sponsorship.”
“What if the funds are not available when the time comes?”
Illustrators who were requested to work on a specific project would definitely continue their commitment once they started painting.
However, if the funds ran out, and the illustrators’ remuneration could not be paid in time, complaints from various quarters would give their studios a bad reputation before they even kicked-off their business. How could they continue to operate like that?
“I’ll find a way to deal with that.”
It was only a matter of money anyway. She made a note to begin saving from then onward.
Of course, it was not enough to just save for fundings. She must find a way to make more money, as well.
“Well, I’ll try it, but at such a low price, I don’t know if there are any illustrators who would be willing to pick it up.”
“Layla, if you have nothing else to do now, I’ll give you 500 dollars per chapter as an illustrator, with two chapter updates every week. Would you accept it?”
Elena stared at her. Her aura made Layla stagger for a brief moment.
After a few moments, she began to think about the issue more seriously.
Two chapters a week, and 500 dollars per chapter. That would amount to a total of 1000 dollars a week and at least 4000 dollars a month.
If one were to put in more work and churn out more than ten chapters a month, then it would already amount to 5000 dollars a month.
Layla did not even get more than 10 dollars a day. At 5000 dollars a month, the deal seemed pretty good!
The more she thought about it, the more she felt that the 500 dollars per chapter were enough to sustain a living even though it was not a huge amount!
“I think there’ll be plenty of people who are willing to do this!”
She started to have more confidence about it after she thought things through!
Domestic illustrators did have it hard, but all of them loved their job.
As long as there were reasonable prospects and the pay was enough to make a living, many people who would still be willing to take up the project even if the remunerations were lower.
After all, it was a career that they loved.
“Tell them that once their work goes online, they’ll also be given corresponding bonuses based on the leaderboard.”
That was a great prospect!
“We’ll also promote it for them, and cooperate with many of the other parties. In the future, our exposure will increase, and the more outstanding works can also be adapted for animated films, movies, and television shows…”
Elena’s words made Layla listen with more and more excitement. The latter felt as if her life had reached its peak! It was a good kind of high!
Elena calculated her remaining funds.
She had managed to get a million dollars from the idea that she proposed to Eldest Young Master Williams. From that amount, she still had about 600, 000 in her pocket.
She had set aside 75, 000 dollars for rent and another 50, 000 dollars for renovation. Then there was the 25, 000 dollars for the furniture purchases and another 50, 000 dollars for the hardware that they would need. Another 20, 000 dollars was set aside to spend on the illustrators.
So far, she had used about 400, 000 dollars!
The rest of the money would be used on water and electricity bills, employees’ salaries, and remuneration fees for artists to continue their work.
She had started to save some money, but the sum seemed quite insufficient.
Even with Luacs’s 100, 000 dollars in savings, they only had about 300, 000 dollars left.
The comic industry was quite a slow-moving one, and the first few months of their business already required such a significant expense.
Three hundred thousand dollars was not enough to support a team of twenty people.
After they cleaned the office, all of them-save for Luacs, who was born with a naturally robust physique-was so tired that they could not even walk.
At seven in the evening, the four of them hung out in the alley behind the building.
“Unless we can sign a contract with the platform and get a few guarantees, I don’t think we’d have so many funds available.”
Layla and Caleb were part of the spend-all group. They had spent all the money that they had earned on summer vacations.
However, they could not simply sign a contract with the platform as they had editors who would review everything.
“As long as you can guarantee that we can sign an agreement for five of the twenty books, we should be able to decrease our expenses gradually.”
Elena sipped her tea. Her fingers shook slightly as she was exhausted!
“For those that we can’t sign an agreement for, we’ll pick a few books that have the potential to continue serialization. The others will have to be redrawn. Alterations will also be made to their contents.”
Unless the platform editors made an error in judgment, the comics that were not picked up would probably not achieve much anyway.
“Okay.”
Elena’s phone rang at precisely that moment. She answered the call casually, “Hey.”
At the other end of the phone, a low and magnetic voice echoed, “Where are you? Come home now.”