"So those are the publication conditions for our company."
"Perfect, I definitely want to write for Sugar Bunsha!"
"Of course, I don't expect us to come to a conclusion right away, we can call it a day an... Wait, what!?"
With a bang, the table starts to shake.
"A-are you sure? I'm sure you haven't had the time to listen to offers from other companies. There are many writers who listen to multiple offers and wait a while before coming to a decision."
I can sense that she's pretty shaken up by this.
"It's fine. If I have to be honest, when I got your message, I immediately decided that I would write for your company no matter what."
Sugar Bunsha is part of the Big Three for publication companies. That alone is enough to make me intrigued by the offer, but there is another reason why I jumped on board right away.
"I started writing because I wanted to be just like Maple Satou."
"Ah, Maple Satou."
Amami-san claps her hands together like she understands where I'm coming from. The memory of that day in second grade is something I will never forget. The Sunday night broadcast of "The Sweet Continent" featured the renowned light novel author, Maple Satou. Maple Satou's passion and dedication left a deep impression on me, those values inspiring me to work my hardest.
Of course, the publication company Maple Satou worked for was Sugar Bunsha. The rest is history. This might be a bit naive for me, but it would be a great honor to have my stories published under the same company as my idol.
"I've talked to Maple Satou quite a few times at company parties."
"Wait, really?"
My body jumps up on its own.
"Every year we hold a thanksgiving meeting for authors and illustrators."
"So I'll have the chance to meet...?"
"Maple Satou has shown up every year so far, so I'm sure you'll have the chance to meet!"
"Oh! So this party is for people at the company who publish books, yeah?"
"Yep. Once you start publishing, I'll make sure you'll get invited!"
"Ah, thank you goddess! I will follow you to the ends of the Earth!"
In a flash, I put my hands together and bow my head down to praise my new lord and saviour.
"Ahaha, now you're just going overboard. Come on, you don't need to bow."
I lift my head back and and see her laughing in a cute way. Ah, how divine.
"Once again, I'm pleased to be working with you. Mr. Yonekura. Let's work together to create something amazing."
"Yes, my goddess, I'll be forever grateful."
"I know I said you can call me whatever you want, but could you stop?"
"Sorry, my goddess. I'm just literally shaking with excitement right now."
"I told you to cut it out with the goddess stuff!"
And she snaps just like that. It seems like my worship fell short. I'll have to devote myself even more.
Anyways, back to the main point.
"How long are you free today?"
As we continue to down our drinks, Amami-san asks me that.
"I'm pretty much free until the morning the day after. I can stay the whole time if you want."
"I don't want to stay in a cafe for a meeting for two days straight. I just wanted to talk a bit about your story."
"Oh..."
Wow, she's sort of like a writer herself. Well, I guess she already has one feet in the world already.
"Sure!"
"Good response. Let's start off with what we can fix about the whole thing."
Amami-san pushes up her glasses and takes out a tablet from her bag. Displayed on the screen is my work, laid out in vertical text.
"Your work will be published with vertical writing."
"Wow, it's looking like a real book."
"I mean, it is a book after all!"
My chest starts feeling all hot hearing that. I was tempted to dump the rest of the cola on my head to make sure I wasn't dreaming or anything, but I decided against it because it could affect future communication with Amami-san.
"Alright, this is how it will be organized."
Amami-san would read small doses of my story, day by day as I uploaded them onto the web. Of course, that experience would be different compared to reading it all at once in a 100,000 character novel.
Amami-san suggested some scenes to remove to and to add to make the reading experience better and to also fit within the page limit given to us by the publisher. And so, the heavy revising process begins.
"Okay, so starting from the beginning of the prologue..."
Using her stylus, Amami-san circles a group of words in red.
"The exposition here is also in the next chapter, so we can just delete it here. Also, the protagonist's actions in the beginning are hard to relate to, so I suggest changing it up a bit. Then there's also..."
She uses her stylus as she goes on with her amendments. Having someone read and critically analyzing something I wrote is a really weird feeling, but it's also an opportunity for me to learn and get better. Every time Amami-san says something, I nod in agreement and give the occasional statement.
Pros really are in another league. Even with everything I studied up until now, I can't even hold a candle in comparison. I can feel my body shaking, but it's probably not because of the cafe. After an hour, we take a look back on all the edits we made.
"I think that should be everything."
As if she finished cooking a meal, Amami-san wipes her forehead as I bow my head.
"I can't express how much I've learned today. Thank you so much."
"No, not at all. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I'll save all the data and email it to you after. Once you get home, you can confirm you got it."
"Sounds good!"
In the next meeting, we'll be looking at the manuscript and brushing it up and making sure all the amendments have been added.
"But you know, everything's so high-tech nowadays. I thought we would be looking at a printout and all."
"Oh yeah, that's gera."
"Gera?"
"Yeah, gera is a type of print that's used for proofreading manuscripts."
Apparently in the past, once the major revisions like the organization and descriptions were finished, they'd have to wait before starting to fix minor stuff like typos and omitted words. That phase is where they would print it out and catch any minor errors.
I nodded my head, wrapping my head around how it all works, as Amami-san puts on a face that screams a high school girl wanting to talk about romance.
"Hey, so the heroine for your story, did you model her after someone?"
"Huh?"
My voice goes all shrill as I did not expect that question at all.
"Sorry, sorry! It's a weird question, I know, but I've been curious for a while."
She swipes her tablet as she says that.
"This is all based on conjecture... But you know, the heroine just feels "alive" if you know what I mean."
She says it's just conjecture, but the look in her eyes tells me she's confident. It feels like something is blowing over my stomach. I take a breath and open my mouth.
"She's based on my childhood friend."
"I knew it!"
Home run!
And with that Amami-san claps her hands together like a little child.
"That's what I thought! The in-depth descriptions, the intricate personality, it all felt way too real compared to other characters!"
"Yep. You really were able to piece it together."
"It's child's play, really. You must have a deep emotional connection with the heroine."
Amami-san gently closes her eyes.
"When I was reading it, I could feel the emotions. Sentence by sentence, I could feel the message you were trying to convey."
Amami-san continues her speech, a hint of envy coloring her voice.
"I could tell from your story that you, Mr. Yonekura, really do love this heroine so much."
That's what left the deepest impression on me. Hearing those words, I can feel my chest starting to squeeze. I really am so happy.
This is the story I wanted to write the most. That was the part I wanted people to see. I made sure to convey my emotions as best as I could. My mind and body are shaking, thinking about it.
Before I know it, Amami-san's smile changes into an impish grin.
"Hey, can I see a picture of her?"
"That'll cost you 3 quadrillion yen."
"That's the national budget! That's a sum a doctor on the black market would charge!"
"Well, it is priceless after all."
"So you won't show me?"
"Fine... it's like I mind too much."
Why's she so interesting in this? I open my gallery as I scroll to find the picture of Rin at the cat cafe from last week.
"Holy shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!! This image... it's way more than what I hope for! She's so freaking pretty!"
She's infatuated with the image on my phone, as if she pulled an SSR character from a gacha game.
"What's her name?"
"Rin."
"Rin-chan, what a cute name. Rin-chan. Hmm Rin-chan."
For someone I only just met today, them repeating the name of the person I love in such an entranced way is such a weird feeling. With calm eyes, Amami-san opens her mouth again.
"She's important to you, huh?"
"Of course. She's the most important thing in the universe."
With that, Amami-san takes sips from her cups many times over, as if she's swallowing her words. After each sip, she has a profound smile on her face as she cocks her head to the side.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, ah... nothing."
Her body starts jittering with excitement.
"I didn't think you would say that. That must be so embarrassing."
Now that she mentions it, I realize I said something pretty embarrassing. I wonder if the clerk accidently turned the AC to the heater instead because my head is getting really warm.
"But thanks for showing me something amazing."
With her sign of gratitude, she returns my phone back to me. Washing down her embarrassment with a sip of coffee, Amami-san then claps her hands together.
"Alright, that should be it for today."
"Sounds good! Thank you so much for today!"
As I bow my head, a hand comes into my field of vision.
"Let's work together to create a great story, Mr. Yonekura."
I clasp her hand as I stare into her eyes.
"Definitely, I'll be looking forward to it."
The meeting finally ended with a brief discussion on future meetings and potential deadlines. Amami-san takes her leave and I'm left by myself. My heart is racing like crazy.
At long last, the story I've been writing will finally be published into a proper book. As I think that in my head, the walk home seems to be glittering more than usual.