Chapter 8 - Settling down

A razonable person would think that with such a short amount of time, having two ongoing book series and a comic book may be too much work for one person. And I completely agree.

But to my misfortune, the masochist inside me had other plans. Is that so that I had even added another book series, three new comic runs, and a freaking game to my 'to do list'.

In conclusion, I was progressing way faster of what I had planned, or wanted to. I'm not complaining though, it was only natural for me to give it my all in the 'race' I was participating. Which brings me to this busy day.

"Alex good to see you, how did all go?" I immediately asked. The time was limited, and I needed to hear good news.

"Boss! Everything went great, I selected the amount of artist you wanted. All of them are good and will start on monday" He said once he saw me enter.

I didn't liked when he called me 'boss', but I learned that complaining makes it worse. Besides I had to get used to it, after buying the comic publisher company I'll be called that often.

"Perfect, you already know what stories we'll be publishing, and the schedule we'll be following, right?"

"Yes, we'll have 'Batman' released every two weeks now. 'Wonder woman', 'Doctor Strange' and 'Spiderman' will be the projects the new artist will take under the scripts you left, and will be released once every month"

"That's right. We still need more people to work here, so I'll have to depend on you for the time being. At least until we get a footing with our new brand" I apologized.

"Hahaha, don't worry boss. The promise that I'll have my own comic run released under this brand, motivates me to work hard for the success of it" He said with conviction.

Like every passionate artist, he preferred the possibility of getting his own work published instead of more money. Which works for me.

"Well, I'll trust you then. I would like to stay for longer, but I have to go immediately. I'll see you on monday" I said my goodbyes and then I walked towards my mother who was waiting for me in the car.

"Sam are you ready?" My mother asked me with a worried face once I entered the car.

"Yeah mom, don't worry. I got this" I said with confidence.

"Very well. I'll help as usual, but it will be on you" She said with a light smile and then started the car to go on our way.

In the other meetings, my mother left me handle the terms while she supported me from the side. It was my responsibility to negotiate, and I could only be grateful that my family was so blindly supportive of it, because I sure wouldn't if I was in their shoes.

It wasn't the first meeting we had with studios to get my books made into movies, and now we'll be reuniting with people working under the same company where I got my work made cartoons.

It took us a while to arrive thanks to the vehicular congestion of the city, but we still were on time. The guards outside let us pass once they confirmed our identities. And after some indications we were in our way to the meeting place.

Inside the room there was Christopher, the head of the studio, along with a pair of middle aged men who I assume were his advisors.

As the 'experts' we were on this kind of situations, making some small talk to start things felt more natural to us. It wasn't as complicated when you knew what to expect.

"Ok, let's cut the chase" Christopher said in a serious tone once we were done with the formalities.

"Like you already know, our studio wants to buy the movie rights to your books.

I'm being told that you want a similar deal to the one you got with our tv division. A five year period to get the movies in production, with ten years in total of us holding the rights, including the majority of the merchandise rights"

"That's right. And in exchange for it, I'll be aloud to distribute indefinitely the movies via internet under my own name, and under any company in which I'm the sole owner or majority share holder" I said calmly.

The internet at this time was barely useful in comparison to the potential I knew it has. This kind of deal was appealing to them and perfect for me.

"Exactly" He said with narrowed eyes, "When I heard about that deal at the moment, I thought that this in particular was a weird petition, especially when it was stated the minimum quality the video has to have, among other conditions, to be allowed in the first place.

Naive was the adjective associated with you when you came back and extended the deal made with other properties you own.

But now, after some time passed and the internet keeps improving, I can't help but thinking that we were tricked somehow"

He had his eyes on me the whole time. I suppose that he was looking for any clue that confirmed his suspicions.

Unfortunately for him, I was prepared. Since the beginning I knew how out of the box the condition I asked for was. I was beyond surprised that it got accepted without further discussions in the first place.

"There's no trick. I'm just betting that the internet will make great advances in the near future, and it will be possible for anyone with internet access to see videos in great quality" I admitted.

"So young and with such vision... I don't know if that will happen with us still alive, but it's commendable to bet on it.

Then, if you're right we'll spend a big amount of money and time in making those movies as successful as we can, while you will benefit of that work with no risk associated. Isn't that a bit unfair?" He asked with some curiosity.

"Not that all. As you just said it's a bet of mine, there's no way I could know if what I said it's even possible in the first place.

Besides, the studio is who will receive all of the benefits, while I'll get nothing in the short to medium future. And even if I'm right, I can't say if having those rights would be profitable in the end" I replied with a self mocking intonation.

Of course I was lying. I know how the technologies will develop, and that fact was the foundation of my future plans.

"The deal includes that you'll get a percentage of the merchandise we license though" One of the advisors mumbled when the silence reigned for a moment. He was ignored though.

"You're really interesting young one" Christopher commented after a while with an amicable smile on his face.

"Excuse me... " My mother said suddenly, "Our position is clear, so I'm curious to know if do you agree or not with the terms proposed?"

Her tone was somewhat harsh, which took them by surprise. Christopher even twitched his lips in discomfort, although it didn't take long for him to reorganize his thoughts. He coughed lightly and returned to his 'business mode'.

"Well, as you know this meeting in particular is about the first volume of the 'princesses collection'. But we're aware that there's other studios interested in your other works, especially 'Harry Potter' which is becoming a phenomenon.

So I wanted to meet you personally to propose a especial kind of deal... What do you think of the idea of working with us in exclusivity?" He asked with the same serious tone from before.

It was an interesting offer, but I'm guessing that he already knows the problem with that. It just didn't work with my plans.

"I'm not interested" I replied quickly. I didn't want to be rude, but staying quiet was even worse.

"Why not? You haven't even heard our terms!"

"Exactly, if you knew what we're offering you would..."

"I understand" Christopher said with a defeated look, interrupting his consultants which were left with surprised faces before they could continue.

"If the future you're betting on comes to fruition... You're betting that there will be no need for the old distribution chain. With the ability of directly reaching people's computers, it could open the doors to others competitors.

You plan to be part of that, don't you?" He asked with a small smirk.

He's smart. There were some major details left out that I could point out, but he got the general idea. Which was the reason why I wanted to work with different studios, so even if I shared the distribution rights, no entity would posses all of my 'work'.

"That's right, I'm glad you understand" I smiled back. I wasn't afraid of him knowing about it, there's nothing he could do. He can't even be sure if what I said was going to happen in the first place.

"Well, now that we understand each other maybe we could reach a deal that benefit both parties"

That did get my attention. Even if he doesn't believe in my 'foresight', he now knows my motivations. So from now on, any deal he offers will be worth of taking into consideration at the very least.