Chapter 004: Tempted
Chapter 004: Tempted
“So, Eric, can you let my publishing house handle this book?” Michael Klaus made no effort to hide his intentions and spoke directly.
Eric glanced at the Black girl, who had already finished printing and was currently binding the manuscripts, before saying to Michael Klaus, “Sorry, Michael. Although I appreciate your recognition, you know, I still want to try my luck with some larger publishing houses. Just like every parent hopes their child can get into an Ivy League school, right?”
Michael showed no displeasure at being underestimated and smiled instead.
“Eric, have you really done enough research on those large publishing houses? Perhaps we can find a place to talk. I know a café not far from here. My treat. How about it?”
Eric accepted the bound manuscripts from the Black girl and packed the original draft into his bag before directly refusing.
“Sorry, Michael. I’m about to be late for work. If the manuscript gets rejected by those publishing houses in the future, I’ll contact you.”
After speaking, Eric carried his backpack out of the print shop, started his car, and drove toward the Italian restaurant.
Inside the print shop, Michael only hesitated briefly before immediately rushing out the door and following after him in his car.
He had a feeling that if he missed this opportunity, he might regret it for the rest of his life.
Three parts of that intuition came from the novel called Jurassic Park. The remaining seven parts were directed toward Eric himself.
Although he had only read the first half of the novel, Michael was astonished to discover that Eric had integrated high-tech concepts such as genetic engineering, chaos theory, and nanotechnology—things many teenagers his age had probably never even heard of—into the story, while not sacrificing the novel’s entertainment value at all. The plot twists were compelling and fascinating.
It was not as though he had never seen novels that incorporated advanced technology before, but most of them used those concepts very awkwardly. Some even turned the novels into living science textbooks. That kind of novel was clearly unappealing to every type of reader.
Eric parked the car in the parking lot and turned around, only to discover a black sedan stopping not far away. Michael Klaus stepped out of the car, clearly having followed him here.
This gave the small bit of vanity in Eric’s heart a slight sense of satisfaction, and unconsciously, he developed a somewhat better impression of Michael.
“Hey, Eric.” Michael waved at Eric and was just about to continue speaking when Eric pointed at his wristwatch.
“Well, Michael, look—it’s almost nine o’clock. I work as a waiter at this Italian restaurant. Maybe you wouldn’t mind ordering another breakfast? The restaurant stays pretty quiet before ten. We’ve got an hour.”
Michael nodded in understanding and followed Eric into the restaurant.
After Eric changed clothes and came back out, Michael was already seated by the window. A breakfast plate sat in front of him, already mostly finished.
“I already explained things to Mr. Jeff, but you’ll need to be quick.” Eric sat across from Michael before smiling and saying, “I may be young, but I’m not that easy to persuade.”
Michael smiled.
“I believe once you hear my explanation, you’ll definitely hand that book over to me. I already mentioned earlier that you may not understand those large publishing houses very well. As it happens, I once worked at Simon & Schuster for eleven years. I started from the most basic manuscript-review editor position. Later, after failing to compete for a department manager position, I left and founded Night Elf Publishing House myself.”
“What does any of that have to do with what we’re discussing right now?” In his previous life, as a loser, Eric hated listening to people tell their success stories the most, so he could not help interrupting.
“Don’t be impatient, young man. I’m only saying this to let you know that everything I’m about to say is true and trustworthy.
“You know, when I first worked as a manuscript-review editor, I had to review tens of thousands, sometimes even hundreds of thousands of words of manuscripts every day. Although there were... well, a lot of terrible manuscripts among them, there were also plenty of works with publishing value accumulated over time.
“At its peak, we published as many as two thousand different book titles in a single year. Can you imagine, as a newcomer, even if your book were published, how many promotional and marketing resources you could possibly receive among those thousands of publications?”
After speaking, Michael paused to take a drink of water, deliberately giving Eric some time to think.
Inwardly, Eric acknowledged that Michael’s words made sense, but he said nothing and merely signaled for him to continue with his eyes.
Michael raised a hand slightly, almost as if giving a speech.
“My publishing house may be small, but I have extensive experience in book publishing and marketing. Moreover, over the past few years, my publishing house has primarily specialized in science fiction, adventure, and thriller novels. Although we only publish around a dozen novels a year, we’ve already established a certain reputation within the industry.
“If you hand Jurassic Park over to me, then for the foreseeable future, I guarantee I’ll use every resource at my disposal to publish this novel and build its reputation as quickly as possible. And based on my experience, if I put my full effort into promoting it, this book has a very good chance of entering the bestseller rankings.”
Michael laid all his cards on the table and then quietly waited for Eric’s decision.
Originally, Eric had been somewhat absent-minded toward Michael’s grandiose claims. A small—or rather, micro-sized—publishing house could only have so much power even if it devoted all its resources.
Deep down, he was already a middle-aged man.
In his previous life, within that complicated circle, he had seen every kind of pig running around everywhere. Naturally, he was not the kind of hot-blooded youth who would change his original intentions simply because of a few seductive words from Michael Klaus.
However, one sentence from Michael truly struck Eric’s heart: build Jurassic Park’s reputation as quickly as possible.
No matter the era, fame was an intangible yet extremely useful resource.
Right now, Eric’s greatest weakness in carrying out his plans was his age. A young person naturally gave others a sense of being unreliable.
But if he possessed enough fame, that flaw would be effectively concealed.
If an eighteen-year-old high school graduate directed a movie, everyone would accuse him of being reckless and not knowing his place.
But if an eighteen-year-old genius novelist directed a movie, the result would definitely be different. Criticism would still exist, but more people would probably say, “Oh, that genius kid is doing something astonishing again.”
Eric probed cautiously.
“I have to admit, Michael, your terms really are tempting to me. But all of this is only your side of the story. I know absolutely nothing about your publishing house.”
“That’s easy to prove.” Michael remained calm.
“One of the books from my publishing house happens to be on the latest The New York Times bestseller list. Although it’s only in last place, the film rights to that book have already been purchased by 20th Century Fox, and it’ll very likely be adapted into a movie within the next few years.”
Eric believed him.
There was no need for Michael to lie about something that could so easily be exposed.
“In that case, how about we find some time to discuss the details of our cooperation?”
Michael froze for a moment in surprise.
“You... you agree?”
“Yes.” Eric nodded and smiled. “To be honest, I already can’t wait to see my novel turned into an actual published book.”
“Then how about tonight? I imagine you need to work right now.” Michael pointed toward the steadily increasing number of customers in the restaurant.
After the two agreed on a meeting location, Michael left the restaurant in satisfaction.
“Eric, what were you talking about with that man just now? You look really happy,” Jeff asked. Earlier, Eric had only said he was discussing something with a friend, so Jeff was curious.
Eric handed the order slip from a customer to the kitchen staff before saying to Jeff, who was temporarily helping out as a waiter, “Good news, Jeff. That guy just now is the owner of a publishing house. My novel is about to be published.”
Jeff looked somewhat disoriented and suspicious at the same time.
“A novel? Didn’t you say yesterday that you were writing a screenplay? Why did you suddenly switch to writing novels? Don’t tell me you already gave up on your dream of becoming a director and decided to become a writer instead?”
“Of course not.” Eric shook his head. “My goal isn’t something I’ll casually change. Becoming a director and writing novels don’t conflict with each other, do they? Oh right, my novel is in my backpack in the changing room. Jeff, you can go take a look and maybe give me some suggestions.”
Still filled with doubt, Jeff turned and walked toward the changing room.
He had originally assumed Eric’s novel was only a short story of a few thousand words. But when he saw the thick stack of manuscript pages, his eyes nearly popped out.
This had to be over a hundred thousand words, right?
He had probably never written that many words in his entire life.
After the busiest lunch rush passed, the restaurant finally became somewhat quieter.
Only then did the staff notice that the boss seemed to have disappeared continuously for several hours already.
For that fat man who loved wandering around everywhere to show off his presence, this was an extremely rare occurrence.
Just as the employees were discussing whether they should go look for the boss, Jeff emerged from the changing room, patted Eric on the shoulder, and said, “Very impressive novel. I’m now certain of one thing—you’ll be resigning very soon.”
After saying that, Jeff calmly walked away.
The moment the boss disappeared, a crowd immediately surrounded Eric, asking what exactly had happened.
As a result, throughout the entire afternoon, waiters and even kitchen staff occasionally slipped into the changing room during breaks to take turns reading Eric’s manuscripts.
By the time work ended, one pretty waitress at the restaurant even coquettishly asked whether she could borrow the manuscript to take home and read.
Although the pretty girl’s flirtatious eyes made Eric somewhat restless, he could only politely refuse such a request.
Even though those copied manuscripts had already become somewhat unnecessary, and lending them to her would not really matter, the novel still had not been published yet. He did not want any accidents happening before then.
The act of taking someone else’s work and claiming it as one’s own had existed throughout all times and places.
In his previous life, he had personally experienced such a thing himself.