After the contest finished, Aiden stayed in the hall for a while as a lot of people wanted to talk to him. Famous authors who have attended, some Hollywood studio executives who hadn't expected to see Aiden and even the two other winners.
Out of the two of them, Carl was pretty friendly towards him and told him that he would buy his book when it comes out.
Zac, while still coming out as a bit too proud, congratulated him for his win. Aiden guessed that he wasn't exactly a bad person. Just he had a habit of thinking of himself highly and downplaying others.
He left the hall with Lisa after talking to them for a restaurant to celebrate. Uncle Sam didn't join them as he had left with James somewhere already.
Nevertheless, it was a very special day for him as he truly took another step in his writing career.
The next day, Wade and he visited Vikings publishing office to go over the negotiations of the contract. In the previous contest, the books that had won had been published pretty soon after the contest.
It had taken only a month for most books.
Vikings publishing had a lot of connections and they knew how to market a book well. That's why they were very successful.
When Aiden reached their office, he noticed that posters of movies that had been adapted from books that were published by Vikings were everywhere. There were also covers of great novels which had won awards.
It seemed like they were displaying what their publishing house had achieved till now.
Seeing that, Wade remarked, "Let's hope your book is there someday."
"Yeah, I hope it makes it there."
After that, both of them have taken the elevator to meet the owner and senior editor of Vikings publishing, Marshall White.
From what Wade told him, Marshall White was an editor in a small publishing house where he began his career but one day, after the senior editor there rejected a novel he was pushing for, he left the job and opened up Vikings publishing.
That novel he was pushing for became the first novel from Vikings and won several awards, including a movie adaptation.
He was a very passionate person about stories and considered it his duty to let a good story reach its audience.
"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you."
When Aiden entered the office of Marshall White, he looked at the both of them with a gleaming smile. He was a white man, wearing a suit and donning a thick beard and glasses.
"Aiden Silvereye, it's nice to meet you. He's my agent."
"Wade Spectre."
They introduced themselves and sat down for the discussion on the novel.
"Do you always meet the winners like this?" That was the first question that Aiden asked. Something that he was very curious about.
After all, a man like Marshall wouldn't be so free.
"No, not really." He said. "I do eventually have a discussion with authors who publish their books with us. In your case, I was just curious about you, so I read your novel last night. It truly stunned me. You have a brilliant mind."
"Thank you. Were you curious because I'm an actor?"
Marshall nodded without hiding anything.
"Yeah, I have met a few actors and I don't really think that most of them have the patience to sit down to write a book."
"I think it changes if you are really passionate about something."
They talked like that for a while. Marshall was a man with a lot of different thoughts about novels and people and he enjoyed the little chit chat with Aiden but soon, the conversation shifted to the main topic.
"So, we want to release your book in January. As the contest has just ended, it's good to release as fast as we can. Marketing could take up a large chunk of time but it's not going to be hard."
Marshall said with a smirk. His calm and astute demeanor changed a bit into one of a businessman.
"Because of my name?"
"Yeah, my team is expecting good sales and I do understand your followers and fans would play a big part of it but it's just a part of the business. The bigger the name, the more sales we get."
"We understand that."
Wade said, agreeing with what Marshall was pointing at. A book selling well was important for both the publisher and author.
He already had a talk with Aiden and he was not going to shy away from using his brand as a celebrity. In the end, it didn't matter a lot.
He just wanted people to like his work.
"Anyway, so, I think we should go over the contracts."
Saying that, Marshall pulled over the contract from a desk and Wade took over the conversation from Aiden. He had only come here today to negotiate the contract as his agent.
The negotiation was always a tough process as both the publisher and agent would try to get more. But in the end, they needed to settle on something.
The market rate for new authors was 8-10 percent of the royalty but Wade argued that Aiden was bringing up a large number of followers with him and that was going to help out in the marketing.
He also argued on other points and went over several clauses with Marshall. Even Wade had to admit that he was a tough opponent to argue with.
Marshall had great business skills which he had used to get Vikings publishing to the top but in the end, both of them reached the point people called 'Sweet spot'.
"I think we both could agree to 13 percent in royalty."
"Yeah, that's fine with me."
Aiden said and shook hands with Marshall. He knew that as his writing career would grow, the royalty fee would just increase slowly.
"I hope we work together for a long time."
Marshall gave a sincere smile to Aiden after the meeting between them finished.
***
After signing the contract with Vikings publishing, Behind the scenes> was ready to be released in the first week of January in America and all over the world.
Aiden was pretty excited about it but at the same time, he had other works to look forward to. Gaining a team had really made him feel more like a professional celebrity.
Each of the members of the team were working on different things. Wade was overseeing everything as the agent and at the same time, he was handling how Aiden's next projects would go.
The album and his next acting job.
For the latter, he was still looking for a good script but for the former, he was already talking with a few record labels to collaborate together.
At the same time, Aiden also got his first commercial that would air straight on television and it was not from just any brand but a truly big brand.
A soft drink brand called Spirit.
It was a brand that has been running long since the 90s and was one of the top soft drinks all over the world. They were paying him 300k for coming in one of their commercials which was a great amount.
So, he had immediately signed the contract after going through it with his new legal counsel, Haines.
Other than that, Wade was also in contact with a few fashion brands and sports wear who wanted to sign Aiden as one of their models.
"So, what you need to do here is just to run through here and jump here. We have a green screen here, so it would all be handled in post production and David, you need to come out of the other way and look a bit surprised. I don't think I need to tell you two how to act."
The director of the Spirit commercial, who looked to be in his 40s said as he looked at Aiden and the man standing beside him called 'David'.
"Don't worry, I will handle it." David said with a bright smile and the director nodded, happy that he was listening to him.
After he left, David sighed and turned to look at Aiden.
"I don't really like directors but it's way better to just smile when they are telling what to do in the ad."
"Ah, why?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.
"Because if you don't do what they are saying or even complain a bit, you are labelled as a big actor who is disrespectful. Sometimes worse. It happened with me once in early 2000s, an ad director blabbered about me to a news agency and then, it became the news. Most people in Hollywood either way don't have a great reputation."
"They must suck."
"It does. That's why, just nod whatever they are saying."
David said, patting Aiden's shoulder. He was a head taller than Aiden who himself was 6ft.
For this commercial, Spirit had gotten both Aiden and David. For the record, David Sylvester was an A-lister actor who had made his debut in the 90s and was one of the oldest action actors in Hollywood.
While Aiden was getting 300k for the commercial, David was getting over a million dollars. That was the difference between both of their star powers.
Since he had met David, he was telling Aiden all sorts of things about his career and how to deal with certain situations.
His appearance was very burly and in some days, his stature gave off a deep impression but he was very friendly.
Because of him, Aiden's first commercial was going pretty well.
...
