"Ah, the new batch of books arrived. This week, there are quite a few great titles. This one looks interesting and this one's cover is very petty. Oh, is this a thriller?"
A very pretty girl kneeled down next to a box and looked at all the books that they have received today. In her brown eyes, all of them looked very interesting.
"You should get to work instead of looking at those books."
As she was turning up the pages of one of the books, an old man appeared and stood behind her. He was the owner of the bookstore that the pretty girl worked at.
It was a part time job for her but as she was a fanatic about books, it was the best job she could get.
"Ah, boss, these just looked interesting. Can I read one of them while working?"
She pleaded and looked at the old man who shook her head.
"No, you do realise I don't pay you to read books."
"Yeah." She made a sad face and the old man squinted his eyes.
"I will let you read one of them during your break. Just you can't take them home without buying them. Read while you are here."
"Really? Thank you."
She excitedly said and walked towards the counter, hoping that her break would come soon. As it was only morning, the bookstore was mostly empty despite being the only one in the area.
But it didn't mean there wasn't any work.
The girl needed to clean up the store and arrange the books that were not placed properly and if a customer came, she needed to help them out.
It was much harder than people thought.
As she worked, a few people entered the bookstore, going through a few books. Observing them, she wondered when she would be able to read the books.
At that moment, one of the customers, a guy who looked like a teenager approached her.
"Excuse me, could you tell me where I could find <Behind the scenes>?"
"Ah, I don't know that one."
"The author's name is Aiden Silvereye. Don't you have it?"
The guy asked and the girl suddenly remembered that it was one of the books that had come just yesterday.
"Yes yes, we have it. That way."
She showed the guy the section where the new books were kept and he immediately bought the book.
But it didn't end there.
After a while, two more customers came to her to ask about <Behind the scenes>.
"Do you know where <Behind the scenes> is kept?"
"Excuse me, we are looking for Aiden Silvereye's novel."
Soon, they also left after buying the book but it did make the girl wonder about who this author was. She had never heard of him before even if the name sounded familiar.
At that point, she didn't know that it was just the start.
As time went by, more and more people entered the book store just to buy <Behind the scenes>. Seeing the influx of people wanting to buy a new book, she wasn't able to understand what was going on for a moment.
It was only after she focused on the conversation between two customers that she got a bit more context on the whole situation.
"Do you really think you should buy it? I mean it's not by an author but a celebrity. I don't think the book would be any good."
"I don't know. It says here that it won an award. Don't you think it should be good?"
"Maybe but it's safer to just get an ebook. That's less costly."
"But I want a hard copy."
As the girl listened to the whole conversation, she understood why so many people were looking for that book.
'So, it's by a celebrity but it looks like a good novel.'
She thought in her mind and became curious as to how the novel would be. Going by the name, it looked like a story based around movies but that didn't make her lose interest in it.
It just increased over time, especially because people kept coming to buy the book.
Other books were selling too but <Behind the scenes> was selling way more than the other books. In the end, she frowned.
"Ah, I want to read the novel now. Why is my break not coming?"
***
As <Behind the scenes> released, online reviews from book critics quickly came up. Even readers' reviews could easily be searched up.
The novel wasn't too long and was a pretty short read, so those who bought it were able to finish it quite early.
Most of these reviews were very positive, especially from the book critics who called it 'An exciting debut by a talented individual'.
<The book doesn't leave a lot to desire but it does make one question a lot of things. If you know you are going to die tomorrow, how will you act? Would you give up your morality? These questions resonated with me the most after going through the book. My score is 83 out of 100. A great debut!
-Grave critics.>
<<Behind the scenes> is a story that doesn't hesitate to show itself very realistically about the world of stars and darkness. The main character is the highlight and the ending of the book genuinely makes you cheer for him. Another highlight was the friendship between Harley and Rocco.
-Micha Eriskon from Retro novels.>
<The novel is one of the best debuts and it came out right at the start of the year. Pretty solid writing by a very talented individual who deserves every bit of fame he has.
-JK Fowling.>
These reviews helped out a lot in getting those people to check out the book who were hesitating due to Aiden being a celeb. A lot of people also just bought an ebook copy of the book and if they liked it a lot, they got a hardcopy.
<Behind the scenes> was a story that might not be the best out there but it did resonate with people who have struggled in life and was a great social commentary on the movie industry as a whole.
An old filmmaker who read the book by chance tweeted about it on Sparrow, "Harley Wright is a character that is extremely rightly done. In my life, I have talked to a lot of struggling writers and he gave the exact feeling. One of his lines really stayed with me, "When I was little, I thought Hollywood was full of heroes but when I found myself in LA, I realised how wrong I was. Heroes can't exist here because they follow morality and the only place morality is present in Hollywood is in movies."
He even asked his followers to read the book and tagged Aiden in the post.
All this made for a great opening for <Behind the scenes> and it was just starting out. With the word of how good it was spreading, Aiden's followers who were hesitating to get it decided to read it for themselves.
Vikings publishing also made MeTubers do reviews about the book, spreading it even more.
At the same time, Aiden started doing interviews with book magazines like 'The Yorker'. All this was slowly making the book become a big hit.
***
"Welcome."
A man entered the bookstore and looked around before approaching a female employee who was arranging a few books.
"Hello. Can you help me find a book?"
"Ah, yes."
The female employee looked at him but for a moment, her eyes were very surprised. The man in front of her was dirty in one word. His clothes had mud on them and he looked like he needed a bath.
Trying to not focus on it a lot, she pointed at a corner.
"You will find it here."
"Thank you."
After saying that, the man walked towards the display rack and soon found the book. A smile instantly appeared on his face.
He e examined the book for a minute in his hand, its cover and binding, opening it for a brief moment before closing it again, then flipping it to look at the reviews given by critics and other authors.
In the end, he took a deep breath.
'Somehow, I really want it to be good even though I have not written it.'
He thought and finally took a look at the first face and it was then, he froze for a second reading the words written there.
"Thanks to Harley Martin. Without you, this book wouldn't exist."
Those words were written in bold letters.
For a long time, the man was not able to say anything. He was actually Harley who had come to buy the book after a day of working as a crew member. The reason his clothes were dirty was because of that.
He has gotten dirty due to a scene.
'I never thought he would thank me like this…'
He thought in his mind as emotions overflowed him. In his life, he had only struggled and had never really achieved anything but seeing his name on the book, he felt that he had done something.
At least his life story was worth it to inspire a book.
Somehow, that much felt satisfying to Harley but before he knew it, tears were already flowing down from his eyes. He tried to control them but it wasn't as easy.
"Sir, are you okay?" The female employee walked towards him, noticing him crying.
"Ah, yeah… I'm fine. I want to buy this book."
"Yes okay."
The female employee took the book in her own hands while thinking of Harley as some sort of a weirdo.
It was only years later down the line when she would think that it was a very weird fate that she saw an A-lister actor in a dirty, crying state.
...
