Jack Of Arts

"Hello, Mr. Lee. It's a pleasure." Tayaw reached out his hand from the backseat, which Dae Ho shook.

"Likewise. Despite how much I wanted Chala to shut up about you, I have to admit, I regret not being able to work with you after I saw your book." Dae Ho complimented and gave Chala a drive-by as well.

"Thank you. Maybe in the future, I can contact you if I write another book." Tayaw replied teasing Chala. "That would be nice." Dae Ho said going along with the joke.

"Hah! Even if you're not kidding, what are you going to do? Drop your clients who are paying you just fine? You know it's rare for us to find decent authors." Chala said not willing to lose the game.

"Come on. At least you're independent. My agency, on the other hand is eating a large part of my pies. I can't simply quit either because they have me by the balls with my shares of the royalties." Dae Ho expressed his frustrations.

"That's why I quit the agency those years ago once I realized how their system worked. If I knew I can take care of you, I would have encouraged you to quit with me as well." Chala comforted in understanding.

Meanwhile, Tayaw who was listening in the back seat noticed the south Teungeb accent from Dae Ho, and found it interesting. Foreigners when learning Teungebian usually pick up Northern accents like Tayaw's Nabla – Ouigab accent.

Teungeb's Northern regions are where foreigners usually find work due its more internationally engaged industries like education, tech companies, sports, movies and fashion.

Dae Ho, with his southern accent, must have been a part of those foreign ventures that engage themselves in the research, manufacturing and farming industries of South Teungeb.

"By the way Tayaw, have you heard about Janus Paranik, the author of those basketball novels? Dae Ho here is his agent." Chala said trying to pull Tayaw in the conversation.

"I see. Although I have not read his books, I have heard of Janus, he's one of Ouigab's prides after all. Is he releasing a new book, Mr. Lee?"

Tayaw connected the dots. "Yes. I visited him today as he just finished his manuscript. You should read Janus' books if you want to have an idea how to write sports novels. " Dae Ho confirmed.

"I will." Tayaw politely agreed, even though he's not really a fan of the genre. "I'll give you a copy when it's printed out. I enjoyed the copy of your books that Chala gave me." Dae Ho said as he sincerely appreciated Tayaw's books. The two continued to talk about Janus' books until Chala cannot listen any longer.

"Enough, Lee. Why is it that every time we meet, all you want to talk about is books? I brought you here for drinks!" Chala wanted to change the topic.

"Just in time then, the bar just opened. Shall we? I have to prepare for tonight as well." Tayaw said as he pointed at the opened front door of the bar.

The trio exited the car and went to look for a table at the bar room. Tayaw proceeded to the green room to check tonight's line-up to introduce to the customers.

...

Tayaw's gig tonight is comprised mostly of lively songs. He performed acoustic covers of some popular dance and disco songs. Even though disco has had a relatively short popularity in Teungeb compared to rock and RnB, Tayaw's songs tonight still brought unexpected nostalgia to the customers.

His arrangement of the songs also received a warm response from other musicians in the green room. After his gig, he spent a few minutes in the green room among the musicians, and excused himself shortly thereafter.

After receiving his pay from Rudy, Tayaw headed to the bar room to also bid farewell to Chala and Dae Ho as he knew that the two will have a long evening. "Chala, don't forget to call for a designated driver. Mr. Lee, it's a pleasure meeting you. I have to excuse myself for tonight. I have to go home for some reading as I still have some assignments to finish." The two also understood Tayaw's situation and said their goodbyes.

October 1, half a month after his books hit the shelves, Tayaw woke up in his new accommodation. The two month rent deposit in his previous dorm ran out the day before so he decided to find a studio apartment a few days ago and moved in early.

The new place, just like his old dorm, is a five-minute brisk walk from Northwestern campus. It is also closer to more places he needs like the grocery store, a few restaurants and cafes, and the stationery store.

The reason he chose to live alone is so that he can have more privacy and a better sound insulation so he can practice his guitar and vocals more. He did not forget to notify his parents of his move, but lied about the place being a dorm room instead of a studio apartment.

Over the past half-month, Tayaw was also monitoring the View Points in his eyes. He currently has over 45,000 View Points. This gave him a mixture of pleasant feelings. 45,000 individual positive responses for the last half a month is a huge deal for him. He does not know the breakdown of his View Points but the total is enough to satisfy him greatly.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by a text from Chala. "Good morning, Tayaw. Topaz sent the statistics of the book sales to your e-mail. Who knows, maybe you already paid back the credit given to you by Topaz." This reminded Tayaw. He also hopes Chala's optimistic estimate is the case as well.

After classes, Tayaw went to a coffee shop near his apartment. After he ordered his drink, he connected his laptop to the shop's wi-fi to check his e-mail. Clicking on Topaz's e-mail, a pdf file of September's nationwide sales of Grimm's Fairy Tales is attached.

The Children's version has sold about 14000 paperback copies and about 1000 hardcover copies, totaling to a little more than 15000. The a.d.u.l.ts' version has sold about 11000 paperback copies and 1300 hardcover copies totaling to around 12300 copies.

This brought a pleasant surprise to Tayaw. This is a little better than his estimates of the book sales he based from his View Points. Both versions' paperback copies are priced at 24.99 and hardcover copies at 34.99 at stores, with Topaz selling the books to those stores at net prices of 12.50 BGC for the paperback and 17.50 for the hardcover.

The calculation of his cut from the Children's version is as follows. The first 3500 paperback sales netted him 4,375 BGC from his 10% royalty on net paperback sales. The next 7000 paperback sales netted him 13,125 BGC from his royalty increase to 15%. Then the final 3500 paperback sales netted him 8,750 from his royalty increased to 20%. The hardcover sales netted him 2,600 BGC from his 15% royalty on net hardcover sales. Adding all up, Tayaw earned a total of 29,210 BGC in royalties on the 15000 books sold. Deducting the 12000 credit Topaz Publishing gave him when he signed with them, and Chala's 18% share of 5,250 BGC from what Tayaw earned, a total of 11,940 BGC is to be Tayaw's.

The calculation of his cut from the A.d.u.l.ts' version is as follows. The first 3500 paperback sales netted him 4,375 BGC from his 10% royalty on net sales. The next 7000 paperback sales netted him 13,125 BGC from the increased royalty to 15%. The remaining 500 paperback sales netted him 1,250 BGC from the increased royalty of 20%. The hardcover sales netted him 3,410 BGC from his 15% royalty share from net hardcover sales. Adding all up, He earned a total of 22,150 BGC from the a.d.u.l.ts' version sales. Deducting the 12,000 BGC credited by Topaz and Chala's 2,650 BGC from his share of 12% of whatever Tayaw earned in the a.d.u.l.t version's sales royalties, 7,500 BGC would be Tayaw's.

From what Tayaw can figure, the reason why the a.d.u.l.t version sold much more than he expected is because of the beautiful cover of the book. Teungeb has a current population of 120,000,000.

Out of the 120 million people, he does not know how many children and parents there are. What he knows though however is that the 27000 books sold is still very far from reaching the saturation point, therefore there are still millions in his country who has not seen his stories yet.

Satisfied with the numbers sent by Topaz, Tayaw headed to the nearest ATM machine to check his balance. 41,312 BGC. Never in his previous life would he expect to have this much money even after a five years in the work force.

The combined up-front payment of 20,000 for his two books paid by Topaz after the book deal was finalized was basically untouched. The "off the books" gift of 4000 BGC from Topaz was used by Tayaw as a two month rent deposit for his studio apartment.

With his expenses as a college student, the average 350 BGC per gig he receives from Rudy is more than enough for him to pay for his generous daily food budget of 20 BGC. In fact, Rudy was satisfied in his performances in September so he decided to hire Tayaw again.

He wanted to offer Tayaw the weekend gigs as well but Amelie beat Tayaw into it. Rudy has no choice but to offer Tayaw his previous Tuesday – Wednesday night schedule, which Tayaw also accepted. This is also the reason why Tayaw spoke to his parents to not worry about his daily expenses anymore with the excuse of "I still have plenty of savings".

Regarding his situation as a musician, he knows he is very fortunate. Usually for both solo musicians and bands, they work hard for a day or two practicing, arranging, and preparing just for an hour of gig. Tayaw, on the other hand already has plenty of experience arranging songs and plenty of practice from his previous life.

He and the Percussive Corrections also experienced this when they were starting out. It was only because they were all talented musicians and passionate for music that they all got by.

His current self, however is different. All he has to do is to brush up on the songs he arranged himself in his previous life or choose songs he knows he can easily arrange. After doing so, he will practice them for an hour or two before his gig on the same day. Tayaw can save up days' worth of work in his gigs.

Thinking of these things, he strolled back to his apartment. He still has home-works and projects to finish and submit before the start of the preliminary exams.