Jack Of Arts

April 12, 2012 – Saturday 9 am – Nasiri Hill, Nabla

Tayaw is currently in his process of learning how to play the piano. He just bought his portable electric keyboard because he did not want to always borrow Bay-an's or go to the bas.e.m.e.nt to play the expensive keyboard there to avoid disturbing the band's practice sessions. Because of his perfect pitch, he already memorized all the keys of the piano before he even learned how to play the bare basics of it.

Because of his mastery of all the keys, Tayaw also recently and very easily mastered playing chords and the different ways to play them. His fingers are still iffy in the positions, but because of his quick reflexes, he can still manage to play chords in succession smoothly. Tayaw is just not comfortable with the discomfort of the way he's doing it, so he's practicing his hand positions.

Aside from practicing piano, Tayaw is also practicing his vocals and exploring what more he can do with his voice. Since Nashville, Tayaw always sung songs that are not challenging his technical skills as a vocalist so he decided to go to his land in Nasiri to belt out as loud as he wants. He is also training his skills in splitting a beat and inserting subtle vibratos or vocal cracks in them. If he can do it on the spot without any preparations, that would be just as great as his guitar solos and improvisations.

"WhooHHHoohHOohhOO-" As he started hitting a high note,*Ring Ring* he was interrupted. "Cough! Cough.. Cough cough cough. Oughghh. What the F.u.c.k." His business iPhone suddenly ringing startled him and he went into a coughing fit. He picked up his phone and saw that the call is from an unknown number.

"Hello?" Tayaw picked up the call. [Mr. Dagem? This is Erik Goomal, President of Topaz Publishing.] Erik introduced himself. "Good morning, Mr. Goomal. What's wrong?" Tayaw asked, curious about the hint of panic in Erik's voice. [Oh Thank God! You agent told me to avoid calling you, but we have a problem.] Erik said.

"Please tell me." Tayaw said. It's already been more than a year since Chala told him that his business phone number was handed to the president of Topaz in case of emergencies. He's actually impressed that Topaz honored his privacy for so long.

[Someone just published a book and it's obvious that it has parallels from 'The Halfling'!] Erik finally reported. Tayaw's eyebrows rose at this. It's a surprise but when he thinks about it, it is bound to happen. He basically opened the marketability of fantasy novels.

"Alright, relax for a moment. Did you read it?" Tayaw said. [Yes. It's called 'The Dwarf King'.] Erik answered simply. "Well? Is it any good?" Tayaw asked. [I don't think so… It's not comparable to your book at all. The characters are basically the same, only with different names.] Erik replied.

Thinking about it for a moment, Tayaw was disappointed. If it was good, Tayaw would check it out. If the author of 'The Dwarf King' had an interesting take on the world of 'The Halfling', he would be glad to see it. But if what Erik said was true, then 'The Dwarf King' is indeed just a copy.

"Did you see how well 'The Dwarf King' is going right now? How are the reviews?" Tayaw asked. [Well, it sold thousands of copies since its release last month. The reviews say that it's readable or it's good, but a lot of the reviews are criticizing it too.] Erik replied.

"Erik, if it's not as good as my book, what are you worried about?" Tayaw asked. [It's just… The market share man! You know. You're the only one in your genre right now and if others would be writing the same thing, our share wo- ] "Alright. Stop, stop." Tayaw interrupted Erik.

"Don't worry about it. Look. If you want to talk market, how much is the book?" Tayaw asked. [uhh… 49.99, same price as your book.] Erik replied. "Okay. What's your favorite pizza?" Tayaw asked. [Pizza? What does this ha-] "Just tell me your favorite pizza." [Pizza from Dice's.] Erik answered honestly, strangely compelled by Tayaw's tone. "Okay. If the price of a pepperoni pizza in Dice's is the same as the price of pepperoni pizza from McDougie's, which one would you choose?" Tayaw said, comparing a good fast food pizza to a bad one. [Of course I'll choose Dice's.] Erik replied.

"See? It doesn't matter. If there's a product in the market that beats out, in all categories, other similar products at the same price, would you buy the inferior product?" Tayaw asked. [Of course not. Even if that's the case here, I think we still should do something.] Erik said.

"We don't have to. It's not like you can sue the author right?" Tayaw asked. [No. It's an obvious parallel of your book, but I think the author still followed fair use.] Erik said. "Alright. We won't sue nor discredit that book. It would not look good on my image; it might affect my book's rep too." Tayaw said.

[But if we do not do anything, a lot more people would write books similar to yours.] Erik argued. "Let them. Let my book spawn countless rip-offs or whatever. We've already established that my book is good, right? Readers of my books will always see me as the original and they will always buy my books." Tayaw said, his confidence worrying Erik more.

[You really don't want to take action?] Erik refused to give up. "No. *sigh* Let me ask you this. Did you ever argue with anyone about your favorite food or drink?" Tayaw asked again. As if it was a replay from earlier, Erik indulged Tayaw's analogy again. [Yeah. My brother lost his shit when I told him my favorite beer and said that his favorite beer is better.] "Okay. Did you have a taste of your brother's favorite beer?" [Yes. It was good, but my beer's still better, maybe it's the price.] Erik replied.

"So. It was good. Let's say a lot of people would like the novel that 'copied' mine, other people would argue to them that my book is a better novel. What happens then when they see my better written, original novel? You get where I'm going?" Tayaw asked. [So these other novels would open up to your genre, increasing the possibility of them buying your book.] Erik said in realization.

"Exactly. These books will not shrink our slice of the pie. They will instead increase the size of the pie. The pie will grow big enough that even a small slice of it is much bigger than the size of our pie right now." Tayaw concluded. [I see…] Erik said, his worry now replaced by excitement. [But. Are you sure that will happen? I'm not so sure.] He added however, still skeptical.

"I'm not but it has a great possibility of happening. You already said it sells well currently, right? I hope it sells even more so that other people would really see how much better 'The Halfling' is compared to others similar to it. What will happen then?" Tayaw asked. [Your book gets more reputation.] Erik replied.

"Right. Not only the book. I get more influence as an author; your publishing house gets the reputation of publishing the best fantasy novel so more business for you. Let's use this opportunity to have people indirectly market 'The Halfling' for us." Tayaw said.

[Alright then.] Erik said, even though he's still skeptical, he can't do anything for now. [By the way, are you planning on releasing a sequel to your novel?] Erik asked. "I am currently writing it." Tayaw replied. [Oh! That's good to hear. I must have bothered you then.] Erik said. "Yes. Yes you did. But thanks for informing me of this." Tayaw said. [I'm sorry about that. I was just worried.] Erik apologized. "It's fine. Call me if something like this happens again. I want to know." [Okay. Have a nice day, Mr. Dagem] "WAIT!" Tayaw almost yelled when he suddenly remembered something.

[What is it?] "Any foreigners looking for me recently?" Tayaw asked. [Oh! That's right! They came here last week, almost every day looking for you. I gave them Chala's number but the next day, they said that they can't call Chala's number. Where's Chala?] Erik said. "He's in America right now." Tayaw replied.

[I see … Oh! No wonder they suddenly stopped coming, you already sent Chala. Looks like you'll make bank again after you sell the movie rights. Congratulations.] Erik said. "Thank you. How about movie people from Teungeb? Are they looking for me too?" Tayaw asked. [Not anymore. I think they were scared away by the foreigners.] Erik explained. "Okay. Have a good day."

After he hung up, he could not help but chuckle. Imitations. Tayaw found it strange that his fairy tales didn't spawn imitations like 'The Halfling' did. Still, he's glad and excited at the effect his books will bring to the world. Sports novels? Romance Novels? They all tell the same story. What's left? His genre. It's fresh, and immersive. If Tayaw had things like 'The Halfling' for escapism in his previous life, it would have helped him tremendously.

Tayaw is also excited about what the imitations would bring. Although authors will be ripping off his novels right now, he hopes that eventually, maybe the next day, next month, or next year, an author will write something that is just as original as 'The Halfling'.