An International Book Exchange (Franerre-Ashigawa)

[callmedelta]

Éditions Granne-Tours was the largest publishing company in Franerre, and it was kept in steady business with the large numbers of books the many authors under their name could put out. EGT followed in the rest of the Franch economy's footsteps when the Elenrian border shut down, but due to the combination of EGT being hurt less than the Franch economy overall and the general recovery the Franch economy, EGT was now just below it's pre-shutdown levels. This left the company in the prime position to begin looking at expanding, and they had just the idea.

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"Arigatō," Soleil Granne said, stepping out of the Ashigwan cab. The woman looked up at the Kadokawa building, wondering how the upcoming meeting would go. The meeting was inside, however not out in the street where Soleil stood. So, Soleil stepped inside and quickly found herself shown to a meeting room, where her the Kadokawa representatives waited.

[aimway921]

There were 3 people waiting in the meeting room. 2 males - Morita Taji and Kuse Torio, and 1 female - Nakagome Mieko. All of them were wearing black business suits, with only Nakagome wearing a skirt rather tan trousers, but still had a shirt, a tie and a jacket.

"Good morning, Granne-san," Nakagome said, as she placed her hands on her hips and bowed, without standing up. "My name is Nakagome Mieko I'm the Head Director for Fukuinkan Shoten, a major children book publisher. These are my collogues, Morita Taji, Vice Director of Kaisei-Sha, one of the largest novel publishers and Kuse Torio, branch manager of Kadokawa branch that covers our two publishing houses. Unfortunately they do not speak Commons, so I will be interpreting." The two men repeated the bowing gesture as they were introduced.

"We've been told that you have an offer that would facilitate cultural exchange between our nations which, looking at the actions of the government, would be a good step forward to complement the already existing relations."

[callmedelta]

“Thank you, Nakagome-san,” Soleil said with a bow, “I wish I could go without a translator, but watashi no Ashigawan wa yokunai.” She wouldn’t have quite put the purpose of this deal in such terms, but it didn’t seem like a good idea to correct Nakagome. ‘Besides,’ Soleil thought, ‘a cultural exchange might not be the worst idea for the future.’ “ Éditions Granne-Tours is the largest publishing company in Franerre, and Kadokawa is similarly the largest publisher in Ashigawa. Considering our nations’ governments growing closeness, we at EGT believe that interests in Ashigawan culture in Franerre will begin to grow, and likely the same for Franch culture in Ashigawa. So, we wish to propose a deal between Éditions Granne-Tours and Kadokawa to allow our printers in Franerre to make copies of Ashigawan books, while your printers here can make copies of Franch novels.”

[aimway921]

Nakagome translated what was said to her collogues. All three of them talked for several minutes in Ashigawan, before Nakagome turned back to Granne.

"I believe we can come to an agreement. Kadokawa will need to review what books we could publish, to comply with Imperial government censorship laws. As much as we are hopeful they will be repealed by the new administration, they haven't yet, and we much comply while it still exists. Furthermore, Kadokawa will be expecting royalties on books sold in Franerre under EGT, and we will not be surprised if you also require royalties on your books we sell here."

[callmedelta]

“Of course,” Soleil said, “The exact rates of royalties will need to be specified, but we can come back to that point later. Thankfully for Kadokawa, the Franch Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, with the exception of ‘Anti-Franch’ speech, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen it used, to be honest. I doubt the government would care, and especially considering our governments’ closeness, I doubt they’d risk a scandal by doing anything. Another thing we must be concerned with, however, is the matter of translation. Commons is known by a large proportion of the Franch population, but it seems like it’s not as popular here in Ashigawa.”

[aimway921]

"Indeed," Nakagome said. "While Commons is taught in school, it's a minor subject that doesn't get the attention it needs, neither from the teachers nor the students."

"Now then. I believe we have a deal?" The Odaru all stood up, and Kuse had offered a handshake.

[callmedelta]

"A deal we have," Soleil said, taking Kuse's hand. "Now, we need to discuss exactly what books to be translated both ways. I brought a few copies of EGT's most popular books, but the translations are all in Commons, I'm afraid. We thought it best to strike while the iron for such a deal was hot, and as this would be our first foray into international markets, we don't have the staff to translate into languages besides Franch and Commons." Opening up the briefcase she brought with her, Granne withdrew three copies of the same book, Elantris.

[aimway921]

"Kon'nani hayaku torihiki ga dekite yokattadesu," Kuse said with a smile, as he shook Granne's hand. "We can put together a team who would work on translating the book to Ashigawan," Nakagome said. "Meanwhile, here is a number of books we have to offer.

"Morita-san, ima watashitachi no hon o teiji shimasu," she said to one of her colleagues. Both of them pulled out some books and moved them towards Granne.

"These are two children books published under Fukuinkan Shoten. This is "Gari and Gura", a series of short stories about morals. This one is called "Hidochi", a story of the life of an average teenage boy who's dream it is to move to the big city. The first is a traditional book, while the second is a Manga. I don't know if there's a word for it in commons, but it means "stories in pictures".

Taiji pulled out only one book. "This is "The Tale of the Ronin", a story about a Samurai who's master died in battle, and he became a Ronin. The story is set in the 1530's, and while it is set in Ashigawa, many elements have been fictionalized for artistic effect," Nakagome explained.

[callmedelta]

Granne frowned a bit while looking over the children's books. "Granne-Tours wasn't looking to enter the children's book market in this venture, though these options may have changed things. We have almost no share in that market in Franerre, and while I'm sure it would be possible to convince my father and the other executives to attempt an entry, I can't guarantee that I would be successful. If you would allow me, I will take these copies back to Franerre, where we can do a more thorough review of them. In better news, while I may not be familiar with the term Ronin, from the brief summary you gave me, The Tale of the Ronin sounds like it would be exactly what EGT is looking for, and would be quite popular novel as well." At this point, Soleil withdrew the final three copies that were in her briefcase, a novel called The Grand Frincallian Revolution, by Adrianne J. Beilles. "This book is one of our bestsellers. It's the tale of a son of a minor noble who joins the Grand Frincillian Revolution, after his father and brother died in the First Frincallian Revolution, taking place in a land heavily inspired by my own homeland, though still unique, as opposed to one taking place in a modified history, like The Tale of the Ronin. It's also a rather long book, however, so translation may take some time. The book also has two sequels, but it works as a standalone novel."