REINKED-After A Hearty Moment With A New Fan, I Receive Few Sales and Many Good Lessons

After Mami, our customers were practically nonexistent. Keisuke managed to get quite a few, but apparently, his name was rather large in the doujin world, so it’s hard to be surprised or feel cheated. We did manage to make three sales from people feeling bad enough for us to spend their pocket change on our quickly made manga. For some reason though, this wasn’t hurting as much as I was expecting. Rather, I think what happened with Mami has coloured my experience with this story. It’s done more than it needed to for me to feel like I’ve done a genuinely good job. However, there was something that did start to make me feel regretful.

“Hmm, Sami Reese? Now that’s a familiar name.” The man looked rather well built. His shirt signified a rather strong attachment to Time Change Infinite, making any negative opinion he may have all the more legitimate to me. And my lord, did he have some negative opinions for us to feast on. He flips open the manga and skims through it. After a few seconds he…starts chuckling. “Uhm, hey, this is a joke, right?” He asks, shrugging his shoulders. That comment digs deep. I grit my teeth behind closed lips.

“Uhm, what do you mean by that sir?” Sami keeps her cool, digging perhaps for advice.

“I mean, it’s pretty obvious you didn’t even care a bit about this. Just look at this art. Your doujins look so much better than this. The story too. What, some edgelord crap decide to overtake your brain? No, wait, that’s this guy’s fault, isn’t it?” Once he realizes who’s responsible for the story, he goes even harder. “Come on man, I don’t know if this is your first time writing or something, but surely you can do better than this. It’s just some flimsy emotional feeling meant to justify a gore-fest. Maybe try a little harder next time?”

“Sir, I understand you may not like it, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t harass my partner.” Sami says, doing her best not to glare at the man. He seems ticked.

“Look, I’m just tired of amateurish crap showing up at these cons. There’s enough guilty stuff actually worth being bought that stuff like this should be staying on the internet. All I’m saying is, if you’re not gonna give it your all, why try at all?” The man rolls his eyes and sets our manga back down. “Whatever, I’m out of here.” He grumbles, walking off.

“Douche.” Sami says once he’s out of earshot.

“Yeah…but he may not be entirely wrong.” I say, picking up the manga that was just in his hands. “It’s not like we had the opportunity to make this something really special. We only had a few days to make it. Still, if that was the case, then I think we may have been aiming too high.” I say. “Its 20 pages, yeah, and it’s a simple story concept, but I think for the time we had, it may have had too many complicated aspects to it. Like, of course you weren’t gonna be able to get all these complicated faces down with the time given. And the crashing alien ship? That’s such a complicated thing to draw that of course it was gonna come out bleh under these circumstances.” I sigh, putting it down.

“...you’re right.” Sami sighs. “I don’t wanna just throw the baby out with the bathwater though. We had good ideas, and some of those panels really do slap.” She argues in the work’s defense, and I don’t think it’s right to just say she’s wrong. It’s true. The whole thing isn’t just bad. It has merit. Clearly it does if it could make someone cry.

“Yeah, this work was far from a mistake.” I say. “We learned alot about the way we each work. We know now what we are capable of in a short amount of time. So, imagine what we could do with way more time.” I continue. Sami nods.

“Yeah, exactly. Let’s not be down that something we made in two days isn’t a success. Let’s be happy we’ve taken our first step.” She says, smiling bright. I feel my hand turn into a tight fist.

“Next time, I know it…we’re gonna create a masterpiece.” I promise to her, my eyes full of hope.

“I can believe it. Let’s change the world, my writer.” She takes my hand.

The next hour goes on with no more customers.

…

Walking along the many tables covered in books and comics, I click my tongue. The whole place feels alive with a passion that’s so palpable you can almost see it in the air. Every item feels full of love, making me desire it so. I grab each one I know I would kick myself for not grabbing. Light novels, manga, doujins, 4-koma collections, they all slowly fill up the bag I’d received at the front. The money in my wallet continued to dwindle down, making me realize I definitely need to get a job soon if I’m really gonna start living away from the apartment soon.

It’s as I’m thinking this that I spot a table with only one copy of something left. I walk up, and the seller makes eye contact with me. He smiles.

“Welcome. Pretty popular, so if you wanna grab what’s left you may wanna be quick.” His words of convincing don’t go unheeded, as I quickly pick up the light novel. The title? Clockwork Wasteland. The cover is absolutely gorgeous, showing off a desert covering massive pieces of clockwork. I feel the urge to go sit down and read it then and there, but I hold off. I look around, seeing no one else approaching, and find myself compelled to ask a question.

“Hey…I’m also an author. Would you mind if I ask you for some advice?” I politely inquire.

“Hmm…well, no sense refusing a fellow wordsmith.” The man jokes. “Go ahead, I don’t have anything to sell anymore anyways.” I gulp.

“How do you write what you want while also appealing to people?” I ask. He makes a strange sound to that.

“Very interesting question. Hmm, let’s see.” He begins to scratch his chin. “Well, I’d say it’s pretty simple. Just make it good.”

“...that’s it? I mean, good is pretty subjective.” I say. He laughs.

“You know what I mean. Make something you know fits your definition of good, then be confident in it. If you don’t love it, it’s likely people are gonna notice.” He leans back. “It sounds obvious, but that’s actually a pretty hard thing for a lot of people to grasp.” The man says. “It took me a long time to come to grips with myself.” He points a finger at me. “Just remember that, and don’t you dare give up on yourself.” He adds.

“Don’t give up, huh?”

“As soon as you do that, you’ve lost. No matter the words you hear, the hatred you feel towards yourself, you keep going.” The man smiles. “No good author lets themselves drop their pen.” That phrase…it impacts my brain hard. I thank him for his time before making my way along. For some reason, shopping has become the last thing on my mind

…

I return to the table to find Sami with her head down, sleeping peacefully. Meanwhile, Kei has finally completely sold out. He looks over his earned cash with glee. He notices me come up and waves gently. I stand next to him, leaning against the table.

“Hey Kei?”

“Hmm?” He cocks his head.

“Don’t give up on my stuff yet, okay?” I say. “I’ve been sloppy up till now. Next time, I’ll definitely blow your socks off.” I guarantee with a thumbs up. Kei smiles, returning the favor.

Slowly, the con comes to a close.