Volume III - Pilot Chapter Pt. 1

My name is James. I work as an online author for an internet book site they call "Kind Pink Novels." Currently living in the Philippines in an isolated province we call Pampanga. I was a young aspiring writer at 11 years old. I am now turning 23 years old by half of the year soon on July 29th, 2022, yet I still look as if I am 16.

I have eleven years of experience writing fiction stories that get finished within a few days, non-fiction self-help and socio-critical stories, poems, and complicated sonnets that can be done within 1-3 minutes with their particular rhymes. And yes, I was this creative.

But the problem is that I had a weakness for numbers. I am a right hand/brain person, and I have become the most intuitive and creative for writing English stories. But I can't even count up to 100. That is how I dropped out of school.

But despite that fact, I was popular in high school. So, I switched my passionate hobby into a profession by starting as a self-published author on Amazon and Google Play. But it didn't work out much because self-publishing cannot guarantee you as much success as much as you'd expect; actually, it's the other way around.

It doesn't matter how good you are. It definitely won't get recognition unless you have enough cash to promote it. And have to work hard on getting more than a hundred friends online as connections for them to support you and spread your presence.

But the thing is, I have no friends. I was relentless and kept writing more and publishing more on these websites, not giving up because my dedication is something I put my mind to succeed as a bestselling author.

Then, after a year of not getting recognition, no matter how much I beg on Discord on servers, self-advertising everywhere there gets me banned because self-promotion is prohibited in the rules.

I was about to give until my prayers had been answered. Someone bought it but sadly, since companies such as Amazon are trademark companies so popular. They take 70% of what you earn because they distribute your books.

So, I only had $1.59 because of the planned royalty payment based on the terms and conditions of the website. The reason I self-publish is that my country only has two publishing companies. Anvil from National Bookstore takes me to Manila City and Pandayan Bookstore in Quezon City. I live in the furthest province.

And I don't have the cash to move there just to traditionally publish. So I just self-publish now. Despite my self-published books, they have been alive for a year, and only one person bought them. I descendent down to a spiral of depression. I could not eat or drink for the entire day.

Until that one night later, someone emailed me. The same person who bought my book says they want to hire me as one of their writers on their website. They told me my book has so much potential, and they want me to apply for an exclusive contract, saying they will promote my book and give me up to 1000 dollars a day. I thought this was my chance.

I signed up for their contract, and boy, I was wrong. I didn't know. I just made a deal with the devil.

I didn't even read the contract and just signed up instantly with no second thoughts because I was desperate for money and recognition. They paid me a hundred dollars to sign up for the exclusive contract. Which was good.

Truth be told, 20 dollars is already more than enough for every Filipino because it's a thousand pesos. And there is so much you can buy with a thousand peso but a hundred dollars?! Sign me the freak up. And the best thing is that I have my editor that will help me with everything, especially my writer's block.

I thought to myself, this is my only chance. But it turns out I turned into one of their pawns, and I did not become a king. I've seen their websites, and they're full of C.E.O., Billionaire, Vampire, Psychopath kidnaps good girl, rape, beta alpha omegaverse, werewolf, erotic romance tropes. There's not a single book that's suitable for my taste.

And they didn't even want me to write what I wished to or post the one I published on Amazon. They want me to write some 50 Shades of Gray novels for them. And it was pressuring. So, I thought to myself that this was a bad idea. I have to write 1500 words a day and finish the novel within the month. And I signed up for a 10-year exclusive contract, meaning I can't quit for 10 years, and I am forced to do and write what they tell me.

The first week was hell for me. The worst part is that they want to take the rights of my book. I can't post it anywhere else but there. I write for them, and the book is theirs despite my idea, and I'm the one who worked hard for it.

But the only one who cared about me in this company was my editor. She was sweet and wanted me to encourage myself more to write instead of forcing me into doing it. She even gave me references, gave me a free subscription to Netflix to watch the company's tastes for books because it's what teenagers love to read and watch nowadays, which are the same tropes mentioned before. She even mailed me lots of books to read in my house.

Then, I finally finished my first book. Sadly, I wrote only 60,000 words because it was hard to go on. I could have finished 230,000 words within the first week if it was my taste. Like that one time, I wrote that edgy vampire novel.

I got paid 250 dollars for this month because I didn't do well. I had to quit my labour jobs just to focus on this, and the books I write are my only source of income.

Then once it was finished, I had a thousand views every day for the same book. I don't know whether I should be proud of myself. It's a grey area between fame and fortune and my passion. So I've got myself ungrounded from reality from all the stress I had for the first month of writing. But it's good that my editor cares for me, and she's compassionate about me. My editor's name was Alex.

And she's always been there for me, not just for professional work but also for my well being from all this dumb crap I signed up for. The best way she ever encouraged me was to tell me that despite of my mental illness, I can use that as an advantage such as using my obsessions as topics for me to write about.

I got lots of people to message me from Discord because I put my Discord Tag on my book to message me just to tell me if they like the book. So I could say I'm pretty proud of my work despite it's not my taste and was forced into doing this. And the company owns it, and I don't. I got fame and fortune, and that's what matters. 250 dollars may not be much in America, but that's too much money compared to the Philippines.

Then, suddenly, someone on Discord messaged me at midnight, telling me she was watching me. And I asked her:

"Who is this?" I messaged.

"I love you, I know where you live." user F0RG0TT3N-ANG3L replied.

"Again, who is this?"

"You live in [REDACTED] San Juan Nepomuceno Guagua, right?"

"How did you know? Who are you?!"

"I'm your number one fan… I hope someday we'll meet and we'll marry… good night. I'll be watching you sleep."