“As you can tell yourself, I have been planning this book for years, with all its sequels and prequels in mind. So I want Warden Books to be a cooperative partner with whom I can work and publish all my books through.”
Terry reigned down on his assertiveness after hearing that. He was finally able to understand why Will was so successful at such a young age. He didn’t let the excitement of short term profit get to his head and wanted to clear out the details before proceeding.
His act of not mentioning his name in the manuscript alone was enough to check out the sincerity of many publishers. If they had known it was Will Evan’s book, at least some of them would have agreed to publish it, just based on his current fame.
“What do you want? What will be the interval of the sequels that you are planning?”
Terry asked, this time thinking of Will as more of a business partner than a random author to coax.
“I want all the sequels of the book to be published within the upcoming three years, excluding this year that has almost passed. I want the first book to hit the shelves as soon as possible. Apart from that, I want the sequels to be released after an interval of six months. You can use my name for publicity to extract the maximum potential from the books.”
Will replied. To Will, both the books and the movies were equally important, as the book would create a fanbase that would help the movie and vice versa.
“You do know that I can get the top publishing houses to publish the book for me as long as I reveal my name, right? What can you offer me that I don’t opt-out to those publishers?”
Will ask with a charming smile on his face. To Terry, it seemed more devilish than charming.
Terry shook his head as he said.
“You clearly don’t have much experience in the writing industry. I have worked in the industry for 20 years now. For 10 years, I had worked in top publishing houses as their department and regional manager. I had read tens of thousands of words per day of tons of manuscripts, and only a handful of them was selected for publishing. Of course, considering your fame, most publishers would agree to publish as long as you reveal that you’re behind this book.”
Terry said with a confident smile as he continued.
“But the thing is, even a mid-sized publisher like me publishes at least a thousand books per year, forget about those giants that can even go to ten thousand per year if needed. You yourself can think how much attention and publicity every book gets if so many books are published throughout the year. Only a handful of them become mentionable and even in them, only some become famous.”
At this point, Will already knew where Terry was going with his talk, but he still waited for him to finish his talk.
“I can guarantee that I will pour in a lot of resources to publicize the book and let it gain fame, especially on your name. With every bit of effort, I can put in. As long as you let us publish your book, it will have a higher chance of making it into bestsellers. While if you give it to other publishers, I am not sure if it will receive the same attention we can give, even when considering your own fame in the game.”
Terry finally finished talking and looked at Will with a confident smile as if saying that he had laid out all his cards.
“You’re promising a lot, what guarantee is there that whatever you promise here will actually be implemented?”
Will asked. He already knew Terry wasn’t the type of person to be scheming about something like this, still, he wanted to get a confirmation.
“We can sign a contract based on all these points and you can reject it if you find anything that is not to your liking.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Terry said, with a knowing smile forming on his face as he guessed that the deal was already done, they just need to sign a contract.
“Now, let’s talk about the royalties.”
Will said, and Terry nodded. It was an important topic because this was going to be the main source of income for Will from this book. The higher the percentage of the royalties he gets, the more earnings he would get.
“I am not going to beat around the bush. Since we both know what the normal royalties are, 20% should be a good call. I am just talking about the first book’s rights.”
Terry said, and Will was surprised inwardly. 20% was actually more than he had expected. But something suddenly clicked in Will’s mind.
“Is the movie rights included in that? As a director, you should know I won’t be selling the movie and merchandise rights.”
Will said apprehensively. The normal rates of royalties for the average authors were 8-12% at most. Of course, it was different for famous authors. Hence, the 20% that Will was offered was quite good.
“No. I don’t include the movies and merchandise rights, they’ll stay with the author. Of course, if you are willing to give up on those rights, the royalties would increase.”
Terry said. He was indeed an old player, and had already taken into account that Will won’t be selling the movie rights.
“Well, 20% would be a good call indeed. But it’s for your average authors. I even told you, you can use my name for promotions and publicity. Let’s make it 30% and we would have a deal.”
Will said, his eyes looking for Terry’s expression. Terry knitted his eyebrows a bit, yet his smile remained.
“You know, most of the royalties will go to the actual book stores and sellers. Just so you know, this also includes the royalties from e-books and trade paperback, not just the hardcover.”
And so, the talk proceeded and after some negotiation, the deal was decided at 25% royalties from everywhere, without the movie rights and such. As Terry left with the promise of finalising the deal at their second meeting, Will was extremely pleased with the deal he had made.
For Terry, this was an opportunity that can bring him near the top publishers if he played his cards right, and hence, he promised a big chunk of the total revenue to Will.
***
3rd September 2011.
In one of the top tabloids of Hollywood, Hollywood Daily, another article regarding the famous young director was posted. The article was as follows.
[A new agency has recently gotten winds about Will Evans' next projects. As all of us know, Will is currently one of the hottest commodities of Hollywood, especially because of his young age and his never ending and versatile talents that don’t seem to take a breath.
As most people know, he had opened his own studios and after the baffling success of his movie [Sherlock Holmes] which had broken many records worldwide, he had even opened a Talent Agency. The initial predictions were that it wouldn’t be much successful considering the competition in the market from top players like ICM and MCA. But after it was announced that both Micheal Robert Elrod and Ewan Rees had joined Will’s agency, most of this changed. Now there are young people from all around the corners of the country and the whole world aspiring to join Will’s agency and someday, become a youth sensation like him.
According to our sources, it was determined that Will has at least two movies already planned out and one of them would most probably be directed by Lucas Amspoker, one of the famous Oscar-nominated directors. Lucas had even mentioned how he liked some of the new actors that DTA had signed, clearly hinting to the point that he was going to work with Dream Vision with DTA’s actors.
Apart from that, there are many speculations about the relationship between the chairman of Foxstar and Will Evans. It is said that Will was one of the earliest to arrive when the news of Spencer Miller’s heart attack got out. Not only that, he was the one to leave the latest, hinting at a deeper relationship between these two.
It’s speculated that it’s due to the [Sherlock Holmes] movie’s deals and Will’s other future movies. Spencer’s bad health might stagnate the actual deal, hence Will went to meet Spencer earlier than everyone else.
Apart from that, there are many rumours surrounding Will, some are crazy enough that even a kid won’t believe them, and some are so detailed that they would seem like the real deal. But the fact remains, that the star rookie director of the past is no more a rookie, but a full-fledged Hollywood sensation.
Will Evans’ popularity is still rising every day and his current followers on Sparrow have crossed more than 10 million.
Everyone is expecting him to bring out another wave and shock Hollywood again. Although the wait is long, fans are willing to wait. With everyone’s expectations at the stake, it would create somewhat of a burden for Will Evans. Everyone is waiting to see what his next moves are going to be.