Tempted

"Well, Eric, would you let my publishing house take care of your book ?" Michael Klaus didn't try to hide his intentions, as he very bluntly said.

Eric looked at the already printed and bounded manuscript that the black girl gave him, and said to Michael Klaus: "I'm sorry, Michael, though I appreciate your recognition, but you know, I want to try my luck with some of the larger publishing houses. Parents hope for their children to make it to the Ivy League, don't they ?"

Michael did not have the slightest expression of contempt or displeasure as he smiled and said: "Eric, you don't seem to have a full understanding of those large publishing companies, maybe we could find a place to talk, I know a cafe not far from here, my treat, how about it ?"

Eric took back the manuscript, and put it into his bag as he straightforwardly replied: "I'm sorry, Michael, I'm late for work, if in the future my manuscript gets rejected by those publishers, I will contact you."

Eric carried his backpack and got out of the printing shop, he started his car and drove towards the restaurant.

Michael hesitated a little, before immediately rushing out of the shop, getting into his car and following him. He had a feeling that if he missed this opportunity, he might regret it forever. This feeling he got was 30% because the Jurassic Park novel and 70% because of that young man called Eric.

Although he had only read the top half of the novel, Michael was surprised by the lad's knowledge. It had to be known that teens his age may have never heard of genetic engineering, chaos theory, nanotechnology and other high-tech factors. But not only was this kid well documented, he also used that vocabulary in a way that didn't actually make you lose interest in the novel, and instead added to the fascinating twists of the plot.

He had seen many types of sci-fi novels, but most of them used those scientific terms in a very boring way, that type of fiction was obviously not for all types of readers.

Eric parked his car on the parking lot and turned around to find a black car stopping not far away. Michael Klaus got out, he had apparently followed him. This served to satisfy Eric's vanity. His favourable impression of Michael was seriously growing.

"Hey, Eric-" Michael waved his hand and was about to speak when Eric pointed at his watch and said: "That, Michael, you see, it's nine and I work in this Italian restaurant as a waiter, if you don't mind ordering breakfast, the bar and restaurant are basically deserted before 10 o'clock." Michael nodded knowingly and followed Eric as he walked into a restaurant.

Eric changed his clothes and came out, Michael had been sitting at a window seat, an empty breakfast plate in front of him.

"I explained the situation to Mr. Jeff, but you have to hurry." Eric sat across Michael, smiled and said: "I might be young, but I'm not that easily persuaded."

Michael laughed: "I believe after you hear my explanation you will certainly give it to me to publish. As I just said, you probably don't know those big publishers, but, I have worked at Simon & Schuster for eleven years, I did everything, from the most basic things to editing. Because I failed in the competition for the department manager position, I left and founded my own The Night Elves publishing house."

"What does that have to do with me ?" Because of his past life as a loser, Eric feared hearing about other people struggle stories, and couldn't help but interrupt.

"Relax, young man, I just want to make you understand that I'm not kidding around and that my words are the truth. You know, I was originally editing reviews at first, every day I reviewed tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of words from drafts, although there were a lot of, ehm, bad manuscripts, there were also a lot of works that got published. At least 2000 different kinds of books make it each year. Even if you got published, they already have thousands of ongoing publications, how much promotional marketing resources do you think they'll use on a newbie ?"

Michael finished, stopped and took a sip of water, leaving Eric some room to process. Eric already got the idea but did not say anything, he kept staring at Michael, indicating him to keep going.

Michael followed: "My publishing house might be small, but with my years of experience and knowledge on publishing and marketing, it has always been doing well. Science fiction, adventure, and horror novels, although we only publish about a dozen novels each year, we still have a certain amount of reputation in the industry. If you give Jurassic Park to me, I promise to put in all the resources we have towards promoting your novel in the shortest time possible and help Jurassic Park build some fame. With my help, and under my guidance, your novel will have higher chances to make it into the bestseller list."

Michael laid all his cards on the table, then quietly waited for Eric's decision.

After hearing Michael's rant, Eric was still somewhat concerned. Even if a small publishing house put in all their resources, how much could that possibly be ?

His mind was still that of a middle-aged man, he had experienced a lot in his past life and had seen all kinds of people. So of course he wouldn't be so hot-blooded as to change his mind with only a few words. However, there were two points that Michael mentioned that kept hitting his sensitive strings: in the shortest time possible, and, help Jurassic Park build some fame.

No matter the era, fame had always been an intangible but incredibly useful asset. From Eric's point of view, the only obstacle to the implementation of his plan was his young age that would prevent him from receiving other's full trust and support.

But with enough fame, this shortcoming disappears. If an eighteen-year-old freshly graduated high school student were to become a movie director, people would just laugh in contempt. But if an eighteen-year-old talented writer becomes one, the results would definitely not be the same. Sure, there would still be criticism, but there would also be some who would think along the lines of: Damn, that genius kid is quite fierce.

Eric said: "I have to admit, Michael, you kinda moved me there. However, these are only promises, I still know nothing about your publishing house."

"It's very easy to change that," Michael calmly said: "One of the authors my publishing house is in charge of made it into the recent New York Times best-sellers list. Although he only made it into the last place, it didn't stop Twentieth Century Fox from purchasing the movie rights. It'll probably be made into a film in the following years."

Eric didn't doubt Michael's words, those kinds of things could be easily looked up. He said: "So, when do we start talking about this cooperation ?"

Michael was stunned for a second before stammering: "Y-you, you'll agree ?"

"Yes," Eric nodded and smiled, "To be honest, I just can't wait to see my novel hit the shelves."

"Alright so how about tonight ? I think you may need to work now." Michael pointed at the restaurant's entrance where guests were gradually increasing.

After the two men agreed on the meeting place, Michael left the restaurant satisfied.

"Eric, what did you talk about with that man ? You look unusually happy." Jeff asked. Eric had just told him that he had to discuss something important with a friend, so he was a bit curious.

Eric handed the menus over to the guests and then their orders to his colleagues in the kitchen, before replying: "Oh yeah, awesome news Jeff, that man is the owner of a publishing house, I will soon be published."

Jeff was a little confused, and asked as he looked at Eric strangely: "Publish a novel ? Didn't you tell me yesterday that you wanted to become a director, that you had written a script ? Are you going to give up on your dream so quickly to become a writer instead ?"

Eric said: "Of course not, my goal hasn't changed, writing won't prevent me from becoming a director now, will it ? The manuscript is in my backpack in the locker room, Jeff do you mind taking a look and giving me your opinion ?"

Jeff made his way to the locker room in puzzlement, he thought that Eric's novel would probably only be a thousand words short story, so when he saw the thick stack of paper that made up the manuscript, Jeff's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. There was definitely more than 150,000 words, in his entire life he probably hadn't even written so much !

He spent the lunch period busiest hours in leisure. The restaurant's staff was taken aback when they realized their boss seemed to have disappeared for several hours. For that old man who always hanged around to suddenly go AWOL, it was definitely weird.

When they were discussing if they should go look for him, Jeff came out from the locker room, patted Eric's shoulder and said: "Brilliant novel, you'll probably resign soon." With these words, Jeff left. Once their boss' figure disappeared, a group of people surrounded Eric to inquire about what happened.

And that's how, for the whole afternoon, from time to time waiters and kitchen staff members would take turns to go into the locker room to read Eric's work. A beautiful waitress even coyly asked him if she could take a it home.

Although Eric wasn't indifferent to the beautiful girl's flirtatious winks, he could only decline such a request. He had a few copies of the novel, and lending her one was not a problem, but before the book was published, he didn't want any untoward accidents to happen.