Reborn in America

Chapter 34: Turning Point in Difficulties

At the entrance of Bantan Book Company, there is a wall with a huge bantam painted on it, which is the logo of their company.

The editors of Bantan Book Publishing House are busy reading manuscripts.

They have to find valuable manuscripts among thousands of submissions, and then sign contracts with the authors and publish them!

"Hey! Andrew! Do you remember where the magic school novel you showed me more than a year ago?" A middle-aged man wearing thick bottle-bottomed glasses rushed out of his office .

Andrew is the junior editor in the office, and he is turning to reviewing a manuscript. The person who yelled at him was the editor-in-chief of Bantan Books, named White, who managed more than a dozen editors.

"Editor-in-chief, what magic school? I have no impression." Andrew immediately stood up and replied. He is the editor of fantasy novels.

"It's a novel about a black-haired little boy with a lightning scar on his forehead. He is a little wizard, and so are his parents..." White gestured with his hands as he patiently explained the content of the book to Andrew.

"Uh... I'm sorry, I don't have any impression. How long ago did I give you that book?" Andrew tried hard to recall.

"It seems that it has been more than ten months, or not ten months? Who knows, I only know that it was written by a seven-year-old kid named Alex Carpenter! Well, he should be eight years old now, right? "White began to worry, he wondered whether this manuscript has been returned.

"Carpenter? That's a familiar name!" someone said from the side.

"Isn't there a Carpenter brother that is very popular recently? I heard that they are brothers, very talented, and have released a best-selling record." Another person immediately remembered the recent hot news.

"Oh! Yes, yes!" These words attracted more people to echo.

"Ah! I remembered, it was the novel called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"!" Andrew suddenly remembered, because the author was so young that he was impressed.

"Have you returned the manuscript?" White said, staring at Andrew very seriously.

Andrew said hesitantly: "I...I have returned it!"

White was furious, and he said angrily: "Didn't I ask you to wait for a while!"

Andrew secretly said in his heart: "It's not that you said that this subject matter is not suitable, and the writing style is not enough, so I let me reject the manuscript!"

At this moment, another editor suddenly said: "I seem to have seen this author submit a manuscript to our publishing house again last month. Did he modify it before submitting it?"

This editor is called Carl, a new editor, and he is in competition with Andrew. Carl had worked in other publishing houses before, and only half a year ago moved to the "bantam" publishing house as an editor.

"Then the manuscript? Where is it?" White asked, overjoyed, pressing Carl's shoulder.

"The manuscript...I took the manuscript home." Karl began to hesitate.

"Take it home?" White didn't blame Carl for it. He knew that sometimes there were too many manuscripts, even if it was taken home to read, there were many people. "Then go back and get it!"

"Okay! Okay!" Carl was relieved when he heard this. After he took the book back, he was seen by his eight or nine-year-old daughter. As a result, she was fascinated by the book at once, and she refused to let go of anything, so he could only wait for his daughter to finish reading the manuscript before returning the manuscript to the author.

In his opinion, the writing of this book is too straightforward. They are all common words, but considering that the author of the book is only seven or eight years old, it is understandable.

Originally Andrew was attracted by the story described in this book, the setting of the magical world, the strange magic, the life of the interesting magic school and so on. This is rarely seen in his usual times of similar novels, and because of this, the market prospects of this book are very unclear.

The risk of publishing a novel of a new genre that has never been available on the market is not small.

So he put the book in the hands of the editor-in-chief White and let him make a decision. Unexpectedly, White gave up because of the other party's writing and the subject matter of the novel. After all, their company is mainly for adult users. If the writing is not good, they will definitely not be able to sell it.

As a result, long after Andrew returned the manuscript, White listened to a recording of an interview with the Carpenter brothers on the radio. In that interview, Alex mentioned that he had written a novel, which reminded White of it.

He secretly estimated in his mind that with the current reputation of the Carpenter brothers, even if the book is terrible, he is sure to make a profit. However, he still wanted to read the manuscript first, so he immediately asked Andrew who was in charge at the time.

Unexpectedly, Alex's manuscript was sent to them again. It may be that Alex was rejected by the publishing house too many times, and as a result, he forgot that he had sent it once.

Fortunately, Carl who received the manuscript is a new editor, and he doesn't understand what happened. Otherwise, he should return the manuscript of the book and write a letter to tell the other party where the problem is, and then a few words of encouragement. Unexpectedly, he left the manuscript of this book at home with a slight negligence, and was "occupied" by his daughter. After a long time, let him forget it.

This was a serious omission. Carl had never had such a thing before.

"Could it be that White thought this book could be published? Fortunately, the author didn't write to ask for the manuscript back!" Carl thought to himself.

The manuscript was quickly handed over to White's hand, and he flipped it aside again, this time carefully.

Carl, who was standing on the side, didn't dare to take a breath. He stared at the editor's face nervously, for fear that the other party would suddenly lose his temper.

White quickly finished watching "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". He touched his chin, and then asked, "How do you think this manuscript is written? Does it have market value?"

"Uh, I think works of this subject matter are rare in the market, but from my daughter's feedback, this type of work is very attractive to children." Carl said carefully.

"Children's market! Yes, you are right." White patted the manuscript in his hand, and then continued: "Have you read the book "The Lion King, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"?"

"Lewis's "Sorcerer's Nephew" follow-up novel?" Carl suddenly remembered a set of children's literary novels, which was a fantasy novel written by British writer C·S·Lewis in 1950.

The beginning of the story tells that a little boy and a girl accidentally entered a different world and became Narnia, where they experienced a series of adventures and saw the creation of that world. After that, he buried an apple seed brought from another world in the garden, and it grew into a big tree.

"Yes!" White replied affirmatively.

"You mean, this book can also be used as a fantasy literary novel, targeting the market as a child user?" Carl was suddenly excited, and he thought this idea was a good idea. Most importantly, his position in the company has been consolidated. At least in front of the boss, better than Andrew.

"Do you know why I suddenly remembered this manuscript?" White continued to ask.

"Because of the Carpenter brothers?" Carl said with great satisfaction: "Could it be said that the author of this manuscript was really written by the Carpenter brothers?"

"At least it seems that it should have been written by Alex Capone. As for the specific situation, you can find out with the author." White handed the manuscript to Carl, and said: "You will do the real book. Responsible editor."

"Me? Ok! I'll call the author right away." Carl took the manuscript and stood up, preparing to leave the editor's office.

"No, you'd better come here in person. It's too late to buy a plane ticket now, go!" White commanded without hesitation.