Chapter 38: Call For Submissions For Future Film Star
At the doorway, Sakamoto Ken pointed to the broken wooden door at the other end of the corridor.
“Editor, the restroom is there. I’ll keep watch for you outside.”
“Keep watch?” Kaji Keiko asked doubtfully.
“The lock on that door is broken; it opens with a single push.” Sakamoto Ken explained.
“Oh, oh…” Kaji Keiko said, “Then I’ll leave it to you, Sakamoto Sensei.”
Kaji Keiko quickly reached the restroom door, knocked first, and then pushed it open.
Sakamoto Ken tactfully moved a bit farther away to avoid hearing any embarrassing sounds from her.
A few minutes later, Kaji Keiko came out.
Sakamoto Ken was still helping carry the manuscript paper, leading the way toward the Myo-in Temple parking lot where they had parked earlier.
Walking on the path to Myo-in Temple, Kaji Keiko drew closer and asked, “Sakamoto Sensei, are you… in a tough financial situation right now?”
After saying that, she added, “Sorry… for prying into your privacy, Sakamoto Sensei. If it’s inconvenient to talk about…”
“No inconvenience at all.” Sakamoto Ken shook his head and said, “I really am short on money. You’ve seen where I live, Editor. Actually, I have over thirty million in debt, and I don’t even know if it can be waived.”
He sighed and said, “If it can’t be waived, I’ll have to negotiate an installment plan with the creditors…”
In his previous life, he had this debt too, of course.
A public interest lawyer helped with the lawsuit, ultimately reducing the over 33 million amount to 25 million, and waiving interest for the next five years, but it was still a huge sum.
As a result, the mediation outcome was to start repaying the debt in installments after Sakamoto Ken graduated from university.
However, before he even began the installments, a certain rich young lady paid it off for him…
This time, Sakamoto Ken had no intention of living off a partner again. This huge sum could only be handled through his own efforts; after all, he wanted to live normally in society, and he couldn’t ruin his credit record.
“Thirty million?!” Kaji Keiko said in surprise, “How could it be so much?”
“Left by my father, it’s been accumulating interest for years.” Sakamoto Ken said calmly, “I was tricked into inheriting his estate back then, and ended up with nothing but debt. Even the house I was living in at the time had long been transferred to someone else’s name.”
“Sorry, for making you talk about these things…”
Kaji Keiko didn’t ask further; she felt her heart grow even heavier.
She recalled what his monk friend had said to him earlier in the parking lot.
Sakamoto Sensei used to be so poor he couldn’t even afford meals…
Living alone since middle school must have been really tough.
So, that’s why he’s drawing so desperately?
Just to earn more royalty fees to support himself…
“Sakamoto Sensei, normally we editors don’t want writers to get distracted, but considering your creation speed, so…”
Kaji Keiko took out her mobile phone, flipped through it, and said, “Actually, there’s a major manga award recently that requires short story manga suitable for film and TV adaptation. It has foreign capital backing, and the bonuses are exceptionally high.”
“Short story manga award?”
Kaji Keiko nodded and said, “You know Netflix, right? They’ve set up a film and TV team in Tokyo and hope to further develop the Japanese market. Once a work is selected, it gets copyright advance payments. Even third prize is 50,000, in US dollars.”
“Editor, I remember the contract stipulates that during our signed period, we can’t publish manga with other companies.” Sakamoto Ken said.
Kaji Keiko shook her head and said, “The manga part is in cooperation with Shueisha. We’ll handle the publication of any award-winning manga, but the film and TV adaptation rights need to be licensed to Netflix.”
“Does the Editor have a specific essay contest introduction? I’d like to learn more.” Sakamoto Ken said.
Kaji Keiko said, “I’ve already sent it to your email, Sakamoto Sensei, but you have to promise me that you must prioritize completing the 《Chainsaw Man》 manuscript.”
“Of course.” Sakamoto Ken agreed immediately, “I’ll prepare this short story in the time outside the weekly two chapters.”
“Oh? Sakamoto Sensei already has ideas?” Kaji Keiko asked.
“Yeah, I’ll think about which one to choose.” Sakamoto Ken nodded and said.
“You already have many ideas at the same time?” Kaji Keiko was a bit surprised.
Sakamoto Ken shrugged and said, “It’s not sudden inspiration. Mostly accumulated from before.”
“Oh, oh, that’s really a good habit.” Kaji Keiko praised, “I’ve heard some famous writers talk about their creation experience, and they all share a common characteristic: accumulating inspiration over years.”
After escorting Kaji Keiko to the parking lot, she took out her car key and unlocked the door.
“Alright, then I won’t disturb Sakamoto Sensei anymore. If there’s anything you need, call me anytime.” Kaji Keiko made a phone-calling gesture and said, “For creation, daily life, all aspects are fine.”
“Got it. I’ll try not to trouble the Editor.”
“That’s being too polite.” Kaji Keiko waved her hand and said, “The writer profession is quite special. Everything in life affects creation, so taking care of everything for writers is our editors’ job.”
“Can you help writers pay off their debts?”
“Haha, I can’t afford that much money.” Kaji Keiko knew Sakamoto Ken was just joking; she smiled and said, “Sakamoto Sensei has royalty fees, and I’ll seriously study how to promote your works. Once the volumes become best-selling, it’ll be a steady money-printing machine.”
“Then I’ll leave it to you in the future too, Editor.” Sakamoto Ken said.
“Bye-bye~” Kaji Keiko got into the car and soon drove away from the parking lot.
Sakamoto Ken watched the White Toyota leave, then leisurely returned to his apartment.
He checked the email from Kaji Keiko on his mobile phone; it was an introduction PDF file about the call for submissions.
The call for submissions event is called “Future Film Star”.
It is indeed in collaboration with Netflix, only accepting short story works under 300 pages, with “reality” and “fantasy” tracks.
The former requires creation entirely based on the real world, like youth, romance, detective; the latter must include fantasy elements, such as superpowers, fantasy, sci-fi.
The two tracks are judged separately, with identical bonuses.
Gold Award, bonus of 150,000 plus 200,000 in copyright advance.
Silver Award, 100,000 + 100,000.
Bronze Award, 50,000 + 50,000.
Even entry awards have rewards from a few thousand to 10,000.
Crucially, all the above are in US dollars.
Scrolling down, Sakamoto Ken found that this contest also has a campus zone specifically for students.
If submitting as a student, you can additionally enter the “Campus Star” selection with a top bonus of 50,000 US dollars.
Though mainly aimed at university students, high school students are welcome too.
Sakamoto Ken has already graduated high school, and university starts in over a month.
Technically, he is not currently a student.
However…
Sakamoto Ken tried clicking the link in the document, entering the campus zone authentication page.
Here, you need to register as a student to upload manuscripts.
He pulled out his high school student ID; the validity period on it reads “April 1, 2012 ~ March 31, 2015”.
In other words, his high school student identity doesn’t expire until after March.
Before that, even without a university student ID, he can enjoy any student benefits without issue.
So, theoretically, the highest bonus he can get is 400,000 US dollars.
This amount would fully cover the debt and leave plenty left over.
Although Sakamoto Ken has full confidence in 《Chainsaw Man》, it’s still a long serialization work. Before the volumes launch and become best-selling, he can only earn original manuscript fees.
Later, moving from JUMP+ to weekly serialization, the original manuscript fee will rise from 12,000 yen per page to 20,000 yen per page, but it’s still slow money.
The “Shonen JUMP+ Manga Award” that 《Chainsaw Man》 entered will announce results in three months, with a top grand prize of 1 million, but unfortunately in yen—basically a token bonus, less than 7,000 US dollars.
This “Future Film Star” call for submissions has a deadline of March 31, over a month away.
For an ordinary manga author, even working to the limit, they might only finish around 100 pages of finished work, and that’s with assistants.
But Sakamoto Ken is different; his speed is about half an hour per page, and crucially, no time needed for conception.
For a full 300-page length, that’s 150 hours, and with over a month, plenty of time.
So the biggest issue is, which manga to choose?
