Inside the conference room of the Fuji Jump Company's building, the group of people from Sakura City were confused and did not know what was happening.
A situation like this never happened before with them.
"We treat others with the same respect we are treated with. Now, you come to our city and try to bribe our employees to get confidential corporate information?" Sayuri said with a disgusted tone.
Yes, it was all Sayuri's scheme from the beginning!
As soon as the Fuji Jump was launched all around the country, Theo and Sayuri were expecting that they would attract the attention of companies from Sakura City.
So, at the beginning of the week, Sayuri had a meeting with all the employees to discuss and warn them that they might be contacted by a few people that were after the company's secrets.
When the first employees were contacted, they immediately told Sayuri about it.
After Theo bought the company, Sayuri fired all the employees that were not loyal to the company. And now, all the employees were extremely loyal to the company. They had a great boss and a great working place. There was no reason to betray it.
And even if there was a betrayer in the company, it would not be possible to discover the company's secrets. Sayuri held tight control of the company, and only a few people were aware of the information.
Theo's identity as the author of their successful works was even more secure. The only people who knew that he was the author were Sayuri and the chief editor of the company, and he was Sayuri's cousin.
"Miss Haruno, it is not like. We only wanted to meet Naruto's author." one of them said as he sweat profusely.
All of them corroborated as cold sweat dripped down their faces.
"And you think only because of that, your actions are justified?" Sayuri sneered.
They could not answer her question, because indeed it was no justifiable excuse for their actions.
"Seeing that you're so shameless and too bent after our author. I bought him here. If you guys can convince him to leave us, we will not make a fuss about it." Sayuri smiled playfully.
She wasn't even a little afraid of them enticing Theo. He had the ownership of the majority of shares anyway of the whole company!
He was not just a small mangaka drawing a manga to earn money to pay for his monthly expenses.
He was the owner, and all the royalties were his!
For example, in the Sakura Abode Country, most mangakas don't earn an hourly wage. Instead, they have contract-based employment with partial sales (royalties) agreements. This means that a mangaka makes XX number of pages per month for a set price. For a starting mangaka, this is around 500$ for 20-40 pages. On top of this, they still earn their royalties, which is around 5-15% per tankobon. These tankobons sell around $10 each which would make ~$0.50 a tankobon. Given that it takes around 5 hours for a page, we can say that an average starting mangaka earns about 10$ an hour.
(Tankobons: compilations or brochures of chapters that may form part of a series)
Is it possible to make money from manga creation? How much money do mangakas make? A mangaka in Sakura Abode Country can make over roughly $19,000 per year, or over $470 per volume. Eiichiro Oda, the top-earning mangaka in Sakura Abode Country, is rumored to have even made around 29 million dollars last few years.
But everything was tied with the potential of the manga, if the manga did not become successful, the mangakas could not survive by only creating mangas.
This brings to the pretty well-known fact that mangakas tend to have a second job. As for a starting mangaka, it is not sufficient to pay the bills.
The four publishing houses from Sakura City thought that Theo was a low-paid mangaka that was only starting in the manga industry.
With this mentality, they thought their proposition would entice the mangaka for sure.
They looked at the man that was seated beside Sayuri, he looked at the situation with an amused smile.
He didn't say anything the whole time, and with Sayuri at the command of the meeting, they did not even notice him before.
"I am Peter Green from Fury Jump. It's a pleasure to meet you, mister..." Peter said it first, he wanted to give a good impression to Theo.
"You can call me Theodore." Theo said with a smile.
"Mr. Theodore, it is also my pleasure to meet you." a man with yellow hair said.
The other two men in charge of their publishing houses also greeted Theo with polite smiles.
Suddenly, the yellow-haired man stood up and passed a document to Theo.
"Mr. Theodore, as the editor manager of my company. I came here intending to poach your talents into our company. We are prepared to present you a great offer."
"As you can see the offer on your hand. We are offering $1500 dollars for every 40 pages in the month. Also, we offer 7.5% of royalties for every tankobon sold. We will need you to move to Sak City, but we will take care of everything for your move over." the yellow-haired man said with a smile.
This offer was indeed capable of enticing mangakas from small publishing houses.
Small publishing usually only could offer $500 dollars for every 20 pages, and 5% of royalties for every tankobon sold.
If any normal starting heard this offer, he/she would be ecstatic.
But Theo's reaction was the same amused smile.
Even after he heard the next two offers, that were similar to the yellow-haired man, Theo did not show any reaction.
The three men, that just presented their offer, were confused with the lack of reaction of Theo.
Peter smiled triumphantly as he saw that.
"Mr. Theodore, I am representing the Fury Jump and we would ecstatic to have your talent in our company. We are offering $3000 dollars for every 40 pages you make in the month. Also, we offer 10% of royalties for every tankobon sold."
"In addition to that, we are prepared to negotiate royalties for merchandises of characters and if eventually the manga is adapted to an anime version." Peter smiled.
The yellow-haired man and the other two men in charge of the three publishing houses had ugly faces when they heard Peter's offer.
Fury Jump's was much better than their offer. He was offering almost the double money. An even the royalties of the characters' merchandise!
Making a comparison with their offer, hypothetically if Theo worked 10 hours per day and draw 2 pages in these 10 hours. He would draw 60 pages a month, he would receive $4500 dollars with the Fury Jump, but with them, Theo would only receive $2250 dollars.
And that was even without adding the royalties in the mix. Fury Jump's offer was 2.5% higher than theirs. This amount of percentage may appear low, but when talking about thousands of copies sold every month, Theo would receive much more with the Fury Jump's offer.
That was why Peter was smiling so triumphantly, he knew his offer was irresistible for a starting mangaka.
But when he saw Theo's face, Peter saw eyes full of mockery as if Theo was looking at clowns dancing in front of him.
Peter's smile froze and became bewildered.
Theo coughed and attracted all their attention.
"I am thankful that all of you like my work. It is a pleasure to have my work being so well received for such big companies as yourselves." Theo said with a polite smile.
All of them heard polite words and saw a polite smile, but they could not help having the feeling that they were being mocked.
"I analyzed your offers, but unfortunately none of them attracted my attention. Thank you again for coming here, but my answer is no." Theo gave a reply that none of them dared to dream.
He refused!
How was that possible!
Peter was even more disturbed; Theo's manga was the salvation of his company and that was why he offered such good conditions. He was certain that the manga was already his!
What they could not understand was that Theo did not even look at their meager offer.
Some thousand dollars for every page? Less than 10% of royalties?
That was laughable for Theo.
He owned all the royalties! The whole company was his!
After a moment of confusion, the four chiefs of the publishing houses became angry.
"How dare you, boy?" the yellow-haired man shouted.
"You are just a little author, and you don't even put us in your eyes?" another man said angrily
"I suggest you accept our offer, or you will regret it." Peter said with a cold voice.
Theo didn't react to their outburst, only giving them an amused smile.
It was Sayuri that replied to them.
"Oh, you are threatening our mangaka? I knew you guys had no shame, but this is much worse." Sayuri said with a disgusted tone.
"But I already expected such shamelessness. Let me show you some things." Sayuri smiled at them as she passed a document.
"This document is the proof that your companies committed industrial espionage by bribing our employees. We have all the calls you made recorded. And this meeting is also being recorded. So, I suggest you go back to the capital, or my company will sue all your companies." Sayuri smiled gently again.
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