Jack Of Arts

August 30, Monday. Since his visit to the Writers' Guild office, Tayaw's two weeks was filled with fruitful events. Just three days after he sent his query letter to the agents through e-mail, 9 out of the 13 agents in the list Ms. Lei gave him responded.

7 of the 9 who responded expressed their regret of being unable to work together with him because of prior arrangements, and the remaining two agents asked for the complete manuscripts for their consideration, which Tayaw sent in .pdf format to their respective e-mail addresses.

A day later, the two agents expressed their interest in working with him. Both agents currently have their primary clients in their hiatus giving them free schedules which was great news. This however also gave Tayaw a difficult decision to make.

His choice ultimately fell upon which of the two agents is a native of Ouigab City. This left one agent in disappointment, and the other in gloating which means the two agents know each other.

Tayaw also agreed with the agent's final offer of 18% share in whatever Tayaw makes from his Grimm's Fairy Tales – Vol. 1. Normally, a book agent takes 12 - 15% of a client's earnings but because the agent Tayaw hired had more than 25 years of experience in the industry and has plenty of connections, Tayaw took the offer.

Matters regarding the book aside, after Tayaw hired his agent in the 21st, he found himself having more spare time. Rudy, the boss of ROH Factory had not contacted him at all as a substitute for any gigs.

He then decided to read his textbooks in advance on the major subjects he enrolled for the coming semester. As a civil engineer for almost two decades in his past life, he did not buy the text books of subjects he considered himself to be skilled in like Plane/Spherical Trigonometry and Engineering Drawing. Subjects like College Algebra and General Chemistry, on the other hand, he needed to brush up on or learn in advance.

On the 27th, his contract with the online tutorial company also ended. Before that, he was also able to save as much money as he can by increasing his quota, asking for co-workers for some of their regulars in exchange for shares of what he makes from their students.

On the 28th, Tayaw's dorm mates also arrived and moved in with their things. Because Tayaw this time, chose a different dorm than his previous life, also got strangers for dorm mates. Their dorm room is big enough for two bunk beds for four students. Tayaw, considering moving to another place to occupy solo after his deposit in the dorm is used up, did not bother getting to know his dorm mates aside from their names.

11 am in the morning, and Tayaw was rudely awoken by his ringing IPhone. He stayed up all night to learn as much as he could from his textbooks before the start of the term. Picking up his phone, he realized it is a call from his agent. It has been 8 days since his agent notified him that he started looking for a publishing firm.

"Mr. Rotala, what's up?" Tayaw answered the call, curious about what the call is about. Chala Rotala, the independent literary agent Tayaw hired, is a man in his mid 40s. Despite being a veteran in the industry, Chala did not give the impression of being an agent at all.

If someone would talk to him, they would think that he's just friendly, well-dressed neighborhood uncle who will often treat you to a beer. He also talks to strangers like they're already acquaintances regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or even the status of the person he's talking to.

Chala with his friendy demeanor and casual style has the ability to make any person who he talks to have a favorable impression on him. Tayaw noticed this during the day they met to sign their contract. It doesn't matter if Chala talks to a security guard, a waitress, or a lawyer, they always treat him favorably shortly after talking to him.

Chala's current demeanor, however, is comparable to a kid who just got a surprise gift from his parents. "Tayaw! I can't believe it! It's only been a week since I started pitching your book, and there are already two publishers interested! I didn't call you last Saturday when I got a call from a small company, but this call I got today, is from Topaz Publishing!" Chala's voice was loud it was distorting the internal speaker of Tayaw's phone.

"That's good news! Why does Topaz sound familiar to me though?" Tayaw replied, also feeling happy and excited. "You probably saw their name many times. They publish language textbooks of grade-school up to college levels!" Chala explained. Tayaw was enlightened at this.

He retraced his memory of his current self and realized that he indeed had English and Teungebian Language Textbooks.

After calming down, Tayaw assessed what Chala told him about Topaz and said "I'm happy of the news. I'm confused though. Why would a textbooks publisher be interested in my book?"

"Ah, I understand. You see, they have actually published numerous children's books in the past. It's just that they could only publish the same stories in different looks for so many times until their sales of their children's books were no longer worth the effort and gave away that pie to small publishing houses. Because of this, they have not published any children's books for almost ten years now. This is also the reason why Topaz is one of my priority firms to approach. I'm honestly feeling great about myself right now. Aside from my primary author, I have not worked so smoothly like this in years." Chala replied, with obvious pride in his voice.

Tayaw is also happy with Chala's work and satisfied with his decision of choosing Chala over the other agent who contacted him. "So, what's next?"

"I will head over to Topaz this afternoon to see what they would offer. You're not busy, are you? Would you like to join me?" Chala said and offered Tayaw to join him. Tayaw considered actually wanted to go, but decided not to after some consideration.

His currently physical age is 16, which is basically but a child in any creative industry. In addition to being a debut author, Topaz may also use his age against him to further lower their starting offer. Tayaw, despite publishing as a debut author, knew that the value of Grimm's Fairy tales deserve much more than a debut author's pay.

"I won't join you. Mr. Rotala, I know you often disregard people's backgrounds, but other people may not. Topaz might lowball us when they see me, so please prevent them from asking questions about my age." Tayaw replied.

Chala, hearing this, was surprised at Tayaw's foresight and was forced to acknowledge his own inexperience. In his 20 plus years of experience in the industry, he never worked for an author of Tayaw's age. Realizing this, he further realized that he has never heard of an author Tayaw's age.

He was relieved to have realized these facts before going to the negotiation. Sure, publishing firms only care about whether an author is new or has previous works but if he slipped up and bragged about Tayaw's age in comparison to the quality of his work, who knows what the consequences are.