This title is too long!:Volume2 Chapter5
Volume 2 Chapter 5 - May 8, I was touched by her
I'm a High School Boy and a Bestselling Light Novel author, strangled by my female classmate who is my junior and a voice actress.
This is my current predicament.
She—
Eri Nitadori continued to choke the sides of my carotid pulse with her icy hands.
Her hands were really, really cold. I could feel time from the sides of my neck.
I remained prone on the floor, and Nitadori was crouched on me. The only thing appearing in my sights was her upper body.
That would mean her hands reaching at my neck, her face, and the long black hair draped down the sides like curtains.
The backlight dimmed her teary face. It look really tragic.
Having cried so much, the tears gathered on the inside of her glasses, and slowly rained upon my cheeks. The tears fell gently, wetting my face little by little.
Nitadori opened her mouth, probably trying to say something. Once she was done inhaling, she uttered,
"W—"
It's long,
"h—"
In fact, it's probably rather fast.
"y—"
But I guess it's rather slow to my ears.
Why?
Why did things end up like this?
The ghost lights continued to linger in front of my eyes.
May 8, Thursday.
I took the usual Limited Express train from the local station, and sat at the usual seat.
It was the week after Golden Week ended, and the number of passengers riding were obviously fewer than the prior week. I might say it was back to normal.
The weather was clear, but the gusts were strong since morning.
My body shook violently along with the gusts as I waited for the train on the platform. It was said that there were strong winds in Kanto, where I am going to, but I hope the train won't delay because of this.
I hear the announcement in the train before it departed--
I recalled the After Record during the prior week.
Last Friday, at the After Record of the 'Vice Versa'.
Nitadori was dressed in plain clothing easy for moving in, and arrived earlier than the editor-in-charge and me, greeting her seniors over and over again.
Then, the recording began.
The 5th episode of the anime--
The last battle in the first volume of 'Vice Versa' was about to begin.
The first half of the anime episode was dubbed as 'part A', and Shin knew of Sin's struggles.
Sin would only show his tender side to his little sister Ema. In fact, Sin hated war, but understood that only a crusade could save his country.
And so Shin, who unwittingly knew of this, decided to take Sin's place so that Shin's country would not be 'defeated' in battle.
Shin disguised himself as Sin, and deliberately allowed himself to be captured by Pluto's forces.
In the ancient city where the enemy's main army was stationed, Shin was dragged to Pluto--and easily revealed to be an imposter.
We caught Sin! The subordinates were exuberant, but Pluto retorted,
"You fools! He's just an imposter who really looks alike! Does this guy's eyes look like one of a King?"
Shin nodded,
"I suppose."
And Pluto stood in front of Shin, smiling amicably,
"Well, I do praise you for having the guts to sneak in alone."
"Th-thank you very much! Can I head back now?"
"Sure, I shall send you on your way."
And with that, Pluto personally drew the sword, and sliced Shin apart.
His corpse broke apart.
After that was the commercial.
The anime After Record--
Before recording every main segment, they would have rehearsals, (Typically, it would be twice, but if the recording time they arranged for at the studio was insufficient, they would go through with once), actual recording, checks for mistakes, and preview records.
I don't know how it goes for other anime, but this is the case for 'Vice Versa'.
The break after Part A's recording was about to end.
They were about to start recording 'Part B'.
At the beginning of part B, Meek finally spoke for the first time.
This pretty glasses girl who sits behind me in class, who sat beside me in the train the day prior, and loved horse sashimi--
Had the script in hand, facing the thick soundproof glass, standing in front of the microphone.
Right beside her is a famous male voice actor playing the role of Shin. He's rather handsome, has amazing acting skills, and practically had no NGs in the recording of part A.
I--
And most of the people there realized it.
Nitadori's script was shaking terribly.
Of course, the script of paper and ink wouldn't shake on its own.
Nitadori's left hand was shaking slightly.
The left hand wasn't shaking much, but the front end of the script was shaking rather hard.
Nitadori's mouth was opened slightly, and she appeared to be muttering something.
Even the powerful microphone could not pick up on the voice, so I guess she probably was just muttering in her mind. This continued on for a while.
Her hands were shivering, her mouth moving as though she was chanting a spell.
I wondered how nervous Nitadori really was--
I was in a safe zone buffered by a layer of class, and I couldn't comprehend that at all.
It was the first time she was voicing a named character.
The first scene where her character would speak.
And inside this studio, the one who really 'wanted to run away at this moment'--
Was me.
But no matter my thoughts, the monitors everywhere aired the animation.
The production of the anime 'Vice Versa' appeared to have gone really well, and most of the animation was already comparable to the quality of the actual broadcast (though without the voices).
I heard from the editor-in-charge that this was a rare occurrence.
It was said that during the After Record of most anime, the visuals showed--
Would typically be the moments of the characters, uncolored, or hand-drawn manga styled straight from the storyboard.
In such moments, they would use the character names and marks to indicate the moments the voice actors are to speak.
According to an editorial I saw on a magazine, if the anime is complete, it would be much easier for the participating voice actors to follow the expressions of the characters.
Part B--
At the beginning of that scene was Meek, pushing a wheelbarrow that contained the severed parts of Shin.
The location was the dark basement of the castle, where nobody else was at.
Meek was obeying her master's orders, silently pushing the wheelbarrow to dump the corpse.
She threw Shin's corpse into an underground drain that acted as the waterway, and there were several ploops heard.
Meek was about to return after she was done with her mission, but she turned around upon hearing water, and found Shin revived--
"KYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
Meek's first line was a shrill, long, long, long scream.
In the novel's narration, I wrote,
"Her scream shook all the stones forming the tunnel"
I liked seeing all kinds of animation, and viewed the voice actors as stars.
So, during the 5 weeks I observed the After Record, I was so happy that I forgot I was working, and I enjoyed the actors' performances as much as I could.
The performance of these famous voice actors is really amazing, and I feel really moved every week to be able to personally witness their performance.
And then--
As for that rookie voice actress who is younger than I am, the girl was so nervous, her hand was shivering all this time.
"KYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
Her performance did not move the underground rocks, but instead, moved something deep within my heart.
I didn't remember exactly when Nitadori's hand stopped shaking.
The shaking of a script couldn't be recorded, so she probably regained her composure before the recording began.
I was completely mesmerized by her vocal performance that was displayed before my eyes.
Shin, who was supposed to be a corpse in pieces, revived after his body dipped in the water, and he emerged from it.
Why did he take so long to revive? The readers would often comment when it came to this point. My main focus back then was to express, and back then, I didn't notice this part at all.
Also, since Shin was chopped up, the clothes on his body fell off, so in this scene, Shin was naked.
Stark naked as he stood in front of her.
"..."
Meek shrieked, and fell limp on the floor, remaining silently.
Normally, in a novel, this will be passed off as an ellipsis--
But in an anime, a voice actor will use a breath to indicate the reason why a character is remaining silent. In this situation, all Meek felt was fear.
I heard Nitadori's breathing as she shivered due to fear.
"Arghh! It's cold! I'm freezing!"
And Shin deliberately said such exaggerated words so that this girl (though she's a homunculus) who's timidly looking up at him wouldn't feel scared.
"Erm, sorry for scaring you--eh, woah!"
Then, Shin realized that he was naked, but there was nothing that he could use to cover his body.
"It's cold!"
Shin had his back turned on Meek, rubbing his body with both arms.
Till this point, I saw that Shin's crotch was nicely covered by Meek's body or the torch on the wall--
Looks like a little bare butt is okay.
Then, Meek asked,
"A-are...you not going to kill me?"
Instead, Shin turned back, asking with a dumbfounded look.
"Hm? Why?"
"I'm your enemy...I intend to kill you."
Meek slowly stood up, and finished her words.
"Ah...well, but...I guess that's fine. Go ahead if you want to kill me. That'll be useless though, so I don't really recommend that you do that..."
"...?"
"Well, I'm immortal...in this world...you can tell, right?"
Meek stared at Shin for quite a while. The color of the beautiful eyes are different, one wine red, and one yellow, and they are emphasized.
And then, Meek was on the verge of tears saying,
"If only I can't die...if that happens, I can continue to fight on and protect my master..."
"Humans are born, and fated to die. This goes for me too, but my presence here is just an exception...I just came to this world for a little while...I don't have any idea as to how I'm to head back to my own world..."
And upon hearing Shin's sad reply, Meek's voice became harsher.
"But I'm not human!"
"...?"
Shin tilted his head.
From here on, Meek let out a long spiel of words.
Meek was smiling, but it was not one of happiness, instead being one born of anguish.
“I'm a Homunculus, a created being—not a human!”
“...”
“Please look at these eyes! The left and right eyes are different in color! This is the proof of a homunculus...you probably don't know that, do you? The materials used to create us are gathered from corpses. When we are created, we are granted with only one eye. We are then brought to our masters...and we have a gemstone put inside. That is the other eye. The gem eye is a proof of loyalty, and a symbol of one not being a human!”
When she rattled off with this long line of words, shown on the screen is a terrifying scene of the 'eye embedding moment'.
It probably would be too grotesque to be shown directly, so the anime displayed it through silhouettes.
“I'm a homunculus, only to live for my master...”
Meek's monologue.
She muttered as she slowly put her hands at the back of her waist. Over there were her favorite daggers that were cross sheathed.
A flashback aired, showing Meek's past.
In the visuals, the others showed her some curious stares, looking at her as though she was a monster. In the town, she was scorned mercilessly by the people around her, and occasionally, brutalized without reason.
About this part—
Even I thought it was 'too dark'.
The homunculus in 'Vice Versa' were typically unfortunate.
They were born to be slaves, and had to obey their master's orders. Due to their unique eyes, anyone around them would be able to determine who they were, and not think of them as human.
Homunculus had far superior athletic abilities than humans, and if they had that intent, they could easily kill any master who was careless, but they could not do so. That is because their hearts were infused with the order 'to absolutely serve their masters'.
Because of such characteristics, the people who became the masters of the homunculus would typically think of them as 'puppets with a conscience'.
Well, I did write the relationship between Pluto and Meek (This has to do with the fact that Pluto's actually female) as a beautiful relationship between master and servant.
Pluto's personality was that of cruelty and lack of mercy. She viewed all subordinates as equal, no matter homunculus or humans.
In other words, she would call out to her subordinates however she wanted, and they would do their best to fulfill her orders.
Shin heard Meek's words with his butt facing her, and turned around.
Shin really wanted to tell her something, so he forgot that he was completely naked, saying with utter seriousness.
“Please don't be so frustrated about comparing yourself with other people.You—are you after all.”
Meek's hands were weakly slumped, not holding anything.
“...”
She was viewed as a 'human' for the first time in her life, and widened her heterochromia eyes.
“Ugh, it's cold...”
To settle a showdown with Pluto, Shin walked off while feeling really cold.
In the strategy both Shin and Sin came up with, Shin was to create a ruckus, die, and revive, and then die again, causing chaos in the enemy camp. He's the main character, but his actions feels like some zombie or some demon king in a horror flick.
Shin moved on to completely his mission.
“Wait!”
Meek called out with a serious voice. It was sudden, and Meek was different from before, not using any formalities. This was the first time Meek spoke like that.
“...”
So a fight is inevitable? Shin turned around sadly, but saw Meek take off the muffler on her neck, handing it to him, saying,
“Please...use this...”
“Eh?”
Shin hesitated for a while, and then smiled,
“Oh!”
He immediately beamed, and took the muffler with both hands, but right when he was about to put it on his waist—
“I guess it has to be like this after all.”
He wrapped it around his neck.
The protagonist—
Was naked, wearing only a muffler.
Of course, I actually wrote the story with this in mind.
In fact, after it was animated, it did look rather hilarious. He really looked like an unabashed pervert there.
Laughter could be heard from the control room.
“Thanks, it's warm.”
Shin beamed at Meek.
“Next, I want some pants...”
Shin muttered as he began running.
“...”
I let go of Master's enemy. But I've completed the mission of 'dumping off the corpse, and Master never commanded me on what to do after that. But that man's Master's enemy, but he treats me as a person, but—
“...”
Meek was starting to feel conflicted, and she let out some white breath, watching him leave.
Right in front of her eyes was a shaking butt.
Nitadori made no mistakes in her lines during the rehearsal.
The sound director gave all kinds of instructors, but as an amateur, I did not know what was the problem.
After some instructions, the sound director asked me,
“Sensei, is there any problem with Meek's parts?”
“None!”
I immediately answered.
After that, everyone made a rehearsal, and the official voice work began—
As for me, all I did was watch and just let myself be moved, shouting in my heart 'wow, it's amazing'.
I suppose that if I had turned around during Nitadori's recital, I would be able to see Nitadori as she was. However, work was different from class after all—
Wondering that, I observed the performance of these professional voice actors.
Something else also happened on that day.
It was when the recording ended.
I chatted with the anime makers and the editor-in-charge for a little while, so I left the control room a few minutes later.
I exit the studio lobby, and found the voice actor portraying Shin talking with Nitadori by the wall.
It was a scene of a senior talking to a junior, but Nitadori had her head slightly lowered, and she did not look right.
It might not be an appropriate choice of words, but I had the mental image of 'a handsome voice actor flirting with a female high school girl'.
When this voice actor was confirmed to be playing as Shin, I searched through the internet—
'A handsome guy who has scandals with many voice actress'.
I managed to find a website that contained such rumors, and looked through all of them.
There were many exploits on the website, but I did not know how truthful they might be. Besides, I decided not to believe in internet rumors that easily (if I do, my real identity will probably be 'an experienced female author in her 30s who writes with a different pen name and loves BL works.)
Personally, I don't hate this voice actor.
I think that his voice and acting skills are brilliant, really suited to act as Shin, who starts off timid, only to gradually get stronger.
But when I see him talk with Nitadori happily—
This voice actor just feels like some evil wizard aiming to bring Nitadori to another world I don't know of.
But even so, this isn't something I could gossip about, so it was fine.
I told the editor-in-charge,
“I'll be going first then.”
This was a line that could be used at any given situation, and right when I was about to pass by them,
“Ah, sensei! Please wait!”
The voice actor spoke to me directly. The voice was exactly the same as Shin's, so I thought I entered the world of 'Vice Versa'.
I stopped, turned around, and he asked,
“Yo, what do you think of her performance?”
Her, in this case, would refer to Nitadori. As for performance, it would refer to her acting.
I was surprised, but Nitadori appeared to be more surprised.
“...”
Her eyes were widened more than before, and it felt as though her eyes were about to pop out from her glasses frame.
I merely glanced aside at Nitadori, and immediately turned my glance to the handsome, pristine face of the voice actor.
“Really amazing.”
I answered earnestly, with no sense of pretense at all.
That voice actor isn't a mirror, so I can't tell what sort of face I made back then.
And I don't understand why that voice actor would suddenly smile like that.
“Of course, isn't it? I was telling Nitadori about this.”
But the voice actor then said,
“I do remember that you're 17, sensei?”
I nodded, and he then pointed his palm at Nitadori, saying,
“I heard that she's 16. It's really unbelievable. Both of you are way too young.”
And then, he lamented,
“From now one...it'll be the era of you youngsters...”
No wait. This guy should be 25.
Before I can understand his words while I remain rooted, this voice actor said,
“Nitadori. This sensei will be writing stories that will get animated. I know sensei has that kind of foresight from his scent. All I have are sharp ears, and a decent appearance. In other words, you might be in sensei's care from now on, so you should take the opportunity to shake hands with sensei now, and increase your chances of interacting.”
He said some words I couldn't coment on, and prompted Nitadori to reach her right hand.
Nitadori slowly reached her slender right arm.
“I'm a rookie, and I'll continue to work hard to play as Meek. Please continue to take care of me.”
“...”
After much struggle, I manage to reach out and hold her hand.
Besides, in this life of mine, I have never held a girl's hand before.
“Th-thank you.”
Saying that, I touched Nitadori's hand.
It was really, really—
Cold.
And while I was immersed in my thoughts.
"Yahoo!"
Nitadori was seated beside me before I knew it, and we were so close that I could feel her breathing when she greeted me, startling me.
"Woah!"
I let out a strange squeal, twitching my body, and ended up hitting my back against the wall. Nitadori laughed, and asked,
"What language is that?"
"..."
While the train accelerated gradually....
I recalled the sight of that Nitadori last week, and compared it to the her this week. This difference between them really confused me.
No. I do know both of them are Eri Nitadori.
I do understand that the one wandering between different worlds is me.
"Sensei, you're giving a distant look. After you think about anything? Is it about the next work?"
"Well, I guess."
I immediately replied. It was a lie, but the reply was smooth. No, this can't really be considered a lie after all; I can insist that everything I'm thinking is about the plot of my next work. It'll be fine if the topic of my next light novel is 'my classmate is a voice actress'.
"Wow, so cool; just like an author."
"..."
"Eh? Where's the usual reply?"
"...I'm an author after all."
"Good good."
Rather than Nitadori who's using formal language out of respect,
"Hello. Over here! It's Katsudon for today!"
I prefer the Nitadori who hands me the plastic bag filled with potato chips with a smile on her face.
Well, I suppose the term like is mostly a matter of contrast.
I pulled out a bag of salt flavored potato chips and tea groin the bag, and Nitadori said,
"I got a list of questions. Stone I have lots of things to ask, I went ahead to remember."
"It's like a magazine interview, isn't it? To be honest, you really helped me out here. I've been wondering about what I should talk about today?"
"Wow. Thanks for that."
Nitadori took out a little notebook, and opened it.
I had a little glance, and those are some nice words.
"Ah!"
Nitadori hides the questions from me, probably because she doesn't want me to know beforehand.
I guess anyone will be hungry at this moment, and I graciously munch on the chips and drank the tea.
I did ask Nitadori if she wanted to have some, but as before, she didn't take one.
I guess it's because it's a gesture to treat me? Or that she's refusing politely because she's worried about looking bad if she's to eat on the train? Or that--she already ate a packet before she boarded?
I don't know her actual intent (I guess I don't have to think about that last guess), but I can't force her to eat. I indulge myself in a third of the packet, tied it up, and drank some tea.
"Now then--fire away with the questions."
And I say this inside this train that's moving on against strong headwinds.
There's about 3 hours till our destination, and I guess we can have a really long conversation here.
"First off, I don't know...actually, I don't know whether I can ask this question…"
It's rare for Nitadori to stammer like this.
"Eh? Erm…"
In case of whatever question it may be, I prepare myself.
Nitadori sounds a little apologetic as she continues,
"Eh, I thought...I shouldn't be asking such questions. But I'm still curious about it no matter how I tell myself this."
What exactly does Nitadori want to know about me? Feeling terrified, I shivered a little--
"Ah."
I immediately thought of a few possibilities. If that's it, I heave a sigh of relief inside.
And then, I asked, just in case,
"Maybe--it's about my earnings?"
"Are you an esper…?"
Nitadori answered in surprise.
"No, I'm an author."
First, I answer that, and then, Am I wrong? I quipped.
Nitadori looked a little embarrassed as she answered,
"That's right...it's about money...I know it's rude manners to ask this question."
And then, she showed me a determined look,
"But since I finally managed to find someone who knows about this, I want to ask if he agrees to it. I feel that in my future life, I won't be able to find anyone willing to answer me such questions."
And while Nitadori's showing such an intense will,
"Yeah, sure."
I promptly answered.
The matter of asking someone else about his earnings was truly rude, and even I, a high school boy, know about this.
The following is all off-topic--
In the country of New Zealand, famous for their sheep, one simply does not ask a farm owner how many sheeps they had. That is because it appeared that people could estimate the earnings through the number of sheep they have.
That was a trivia I read in a miscellaneous magazine, and I don't know if it's real or not. However, if I'm to go travelling there, I might try asking such questions, so I think it's better for me to pay attention to this.
Back to the point.
I do know it's rude to ask others of their earnings.
But I also know that there are those driven by curiosity to understand the earnings of the unique jobs.
Since I was young, I too wanted to know about an author's earnings. What did it mean to 'live on royalties', and how much tax to pay.
When I became an author myself, earned the publishing fees and the experiences of declaring my earnings, I gradually began to understand them.
About my income--
Obviously, I can't talk about this with people who don't know that I'm an author; if the other party knows that I'm an author, I do feel that I can treat it as a normal conversation.
Leaving aside my mother, till this point, I often discussed this topic bluntly with the senior authors during the refreshments after meetings at the editorial branch, and the end-of-year parties over the past two years.
Of course, we weren't just doing this to satisfy our curiosity.
When my books started to sell well, the senior authors began to tell me about tax reductions.
Some of them blatantly told me of their yearly earnings (as what the words implied, the top selling authors' earnings are really on a different scale from the rest.)
I won't tell anyone of their yearly earnings. At the same time, I don't think Nitadori will let slip whatever I told her.
And besides, I don't think that Nitadori's approaching me for the sake of money.
Or I should say, though it's just a guess--
I get the feeling that Nitadori's family is really rich.
Upon hearing my answer,
"Really? About that money…"
The bespectacled Nitadori asked with a worried look on her face.
"Yeah, sure. Well, basically, keep this--"
"I won't say it out! I promise!"
She answered before I can finish my sentence.
Having decided to tell Nitadori, I scanned the train carriage as a precaution.
The train today is rather empty, and only two people are seated at the seats right at the front.
An author's earnings.
As anyone would know, an author's earnings is mainly derived by the publication fees of a book.
Also, there appears to be a 'manuscript fee' for publications in a magazine or a newspaper, a 'speaking fee' for speeches, 'source fee' and 'copyright fee' for an anime or movie adaptation, but I never received them.
The anime is yet to be completely made, so I've yet to receive the fees regarding this.
"Because of that, the scale of this will be the publishing fees in this company. Or to be precise, I'll only talk about publishing fees."
"Yep."
"Now then, before I talk about how much the publishing fee is--I'll like to talk about the definition."
"It's a Royalty, no? The publisher will be printing your work in books, sensei, so this money is a 'copyright fee' for you."
"Yep. That's impressive."
"Actually, I did research through the internet when I designed the questions. I did check on why it's called 'publishing fee'! It's not a tax, is it?"
As Nitadori had mentioned, the publishing fee isn't a tax.
Back when a publisher printed volumes, they would stick some kind of an author's stamp on the last page called a 'colophon', something called an 'inspection stamp'. (Some do stamp it directly on the book). The publisher will use the number of inspection stamps, and pay the money to authors directly.
This system is similar to 'printing fees', (like giving tax to the author), it is also called 'publication printing fee', and then simplified as 'publication fee'.
On a side note, this 'publication printing fee'--refers to the amount of money to be be paid when producing books. Authors with works in book form are paid according to the 'publication fee' pro-rata to the price plastered on the book.
In the end, people gave up on such a troublesome method, and chose not to go with inspection printing, so the method was scrapped.
In books that are slightly older, their back ends will contain the words 'inspection stamp is scrapped'. I did see them in an antiquarian bookshop.
"Well, even if I don't know that kind of history...anyway, the publisher will give the author a royalty known as 'publishing fee'--and the money is pro-rated "
"Uh huh, so how much is it, roughly?"
"Normally, the fee is around 10% or so. My situation is the same, and excluding the sales tax, 10% of the book price will be the publishing fee."
"Always?"
"I don't know if it'll change in the future. Of course, I do hope that it'll increase. I did hear that the rates for those extremely popular authors do increase, but I'm not sure what the actual situation is."
"I get it. Then, I'll use this 10%. In other words, if the book's sold, the fixed rate of 10% will be your earnings, right, sensei?"
Nitadori asked to confirm, but I shook my head.
"No, that's not it."
"Eh?"
It was not about 'once the book was sold'.
It was about 'once the book was printed'.
The book would first be printed, and the meaning of that would be equivalent to 'being made into a commercial product'.
And,
"The number of volumes printed will determine the revenue."
"Then, for an extreme example--"
I knew what Nitadori was trying to get at, so I continued from her words, saying,
"Assuming that a book has 100,000 copies printed. The publisher estimates that the book can sell about that much--however, the book couldn't sell after it was printed, and in fact, only 5 copies were sold."
"That's really drastic! That means that he and his family were the only ones who bought that book, right?"
Nitadori giddily grinned as she said that, but after saying those words, I felt a little heartbroken within. How would that author feel? There's a chance that even I may end up like that.
Well, my books are selling well, so I won't mention it for now. I continue on,
"But the author is able to get the publishing fee of 100,000 copies. Assuming that a book is sold for 500 Yen, 10% of that would be 50 Yen, and multiply that by 100,000, that'll be 5,000,000 Yen."
"Eh...I never knew that before. I always thought it was counted based on sales amount."
"Allow me to say that I heard that such a system actually exists. Dengeki Bunko however counts this through printed volumes."
Then, assuming that I get the publication fee that's 10% of the book price.
As the name implied, Dengeki Bunko is a paperback publisher. As for what a paperback is, it'll drag on, so I decided to omit it--anyway, it's a really small book.
The price of a paperback light novel ranges from 500 to 700 Yen. The prices is dependent on several factors, and the easiest to understand will be--
"The book thickness? Number of pages?"
"Of course, I won't know the actual numbers of the prices, pages and volumes. That was what the editor-in-charge told me when I asked him on the pricing."
"So the pricing isn't done by you, the author, sensei?"
I shook my head, saying,
"It's decided by the editorial branch...or rather, the publisher. But as I said, the thinner the book, the cheaper it is. Using the series 'Vice Versa' as an example, the price is typically around 600 pages. Actually, I wanted to make the book cheaper…"
"Eh--why!?"
Nitadori was really surprised.
It's not unreasonable for her to be so shocked. If the book is pricer when sold, the author's income will increase accrordingly.
But even so, I state my actual thoughts.
"Well...it's because the main demographic of light novels are Middle schoolers and high school students, and there are younger kids in elementary school who will read them. I feel that readers do buy the books using their pocket change, so even if it's cheaper by 10 Yen, it'll make them happy."
"Ah...now that you mention it, that's true. The more I like such books, the more I want to look at other works."
A thicker book would have more ample content. Even as an author, I do find it worth it to write it,
However,
"I saved up, and I'm finally able to buy a new volume!"
Even so, when I do receive such comments from a fan younger than me--
I do feel that it's a good thing, even if it's 10 Yen cheaper.
Of course, I hope to attract more people to buy the books with a lower price, and increase the final sales volume (and earnings).
I said before that I do increase the number of paragraphs to improve the readability. Because of that, I do often feel a dilemma.
I continue on with the publishing fee.
"The book price is determined by all kinds of factors. The publishing fee is set at 10% pro-rata, and to calculate the earnings, there is one factor left--"
"The volume!"
"Yep."
"But how is the number of volumes set…?"
When talking about printing volumes, we'll be talking about income.
For an author, the total income = all the publishing fees receive. It's the same case as with the sheep in New Zealand.
While I intend to explain this, the Train Conductor arrived. It's a man today.
As usual, we show our tickets for him to stamp.
The explanation was paused, and I took a little breather, drinking some tea.
The conductor left, and there were no new passengers sitting next to us.
I begin to wonder, how exactly do I begin explaining the printing volumes--
And then, I realized that I had yet to explain what is the printing volume.
"Erm...I've been mentioning this 'printing' volume for a while…"
"Yes."
"The printing volumes can be classified as 'initial printing', 'reprints', and 'total prints'."
"Hmmm?"
Nitadori frowned, looking perplexed.
"I'll explain in order--"
The initial print refers to the number of volumes printed for the first time. If it is a profitable work, like a serialized sequel, there will be more volumes printed in initial print.
The reprint refers to the additional printed volumes due to the printed book being popular.
And as the name implied, the total volumes referred to the total of the initial print and the reprints till this point. However, the total volumes will be classified as 'total volumes for this particular volume, 'total volumes for this particular series', and 'total volumes for this particular author'.
"I see. I often hear reports in the news of 'a certain bestselling novel reaching a million copies, yet the initial print was a few thousands', and such."
"Such books weren't much of a topic, and once they got hot, they were printed over and over again, and it ended up like that. The reprint volumes might even reach a few thousands in an instant."
"So in other words, there's no fixed figures for the initial print volumes and reprint volumes?"
"Right. The initial print is determined by several factors. If it's a popular series by a renowned author, the number of printed volumes will increase."
For an author, the more volumes in the initial print, the happier they will be.
There are two reasons for it. First off--
"The more volumes printed, the more copies that can be displayed in the bookshop in one go, and the book will be bought easily."
"A book that's easily bought will be much more likely to be popular."
Another reason was that the publication fee will increase (Of course, this refers to the number of printed volumes.)
"Thus, authors do work hard every day, praying for the initial print numbers to increase."
"Praying is important, since wishes do come true--so, sensei, how many copies of the first volume of 'Vice Versa' was printed?"
Leaving aside the number of reprints--
I'll talk about the first printing of m volumes,
"The first volume of 'Vice Versa', the initial number of copies was 27,000."
"Is that...a lot? Little, or?"
Nitadori asked. It's a question to be expected.
Anyone unfamiliar with the industry won't have an idea of context with regards to this number. Speaking of which, when the editor-in-charge told me of this figure at first, I too timidly asked the same question.
And the editor-in-charge answered,
"It's about the same as the works of those who won awards in the Dengeki Novel Prize award! You didn't get an award, but the starting speed is the same!"
Nitadori exclaimed happily,
"Amazing! That's decent!"
"Yeah. To be honest, I'm rather happy."
I casually mention about this--but I heard from authors working under other publishers that the number of 27,000 is 'quite a lot'. It's Dengeki Bunko, so they can sell this much.
That author said that his debut work had less than 20,000 copies, and also said that the difference is due to the power of Dengeki Bunko, who had the largest stake in the industry. Of course, I never told Nitadori about any of this.
The factors leading to improved sales after a volume is published is of course down to an author's own ability. He taught me the important logic 'that if a really interesting story is written, it'll be popular'.
Leaving that aside, i continue with my own words.
"And then, 27,000 copies worth of publishing fee entered my pockets. The price of the first volume is 590 Yen."
"In other words…"
Nitadori began to ponder beside me, while I went the old fashioned way of relying on a tool of civilization. I don't have the mental capability to be able to calculate such numbers.
I took out the smartphone from my pocket, unlocked the screen, and activated the calculator.
Then, I quickly tapped in the numbers.
590 * 0.1 * 27,000, so the answer is 1,593,000 (in Yen).
The moment I intended to say this number.
"It's 1,593,000 Yen, isn't it?"
Nitadori simply said.
"Eh?"
I let out a surprised voice, and turned my head to the right.
"Hm? That isn't it?"
Nitadori nonchalantly asked.
"No...that's right."
Nitadori's hands were not holding a cellphone, and her notebook was closed.
Even if she wanted to peek into my smartphone screen, she couldn't. I often had inspiration of creation on the train, so I had a protective film on the screen to prevent people from peeking.
In that case, there's only one possibility.
"Did you just…do a mental sum?"
"Yep?"
"How…?"
"Multiply by 30,000, and I'll get 1,770,000, and then take 10% off."
"Ah, yes, I see…"
Hearing her say this, it seemed calculation wasn't that tough--
No, it's still not easy.
The time she spent doing mental sum is the same as me using a smartphone? How smart is Nitadori exactly?
"Amazing…"
I marvel earnestly, muttering,
"Yep, I feel the same too."
Nitadori then nodded her face and glasses, beaming as she answered,
"Huh?"
"1.5 million is a huge sum."
"Ah, you're referring to that…?"
"Hm?"
