The brown box

The story starts in a publishing office located in New York City. Jason is an author who dreams of getting his book he has been writing for seven years published by the same company he works for as a janitor. Every lunch, he attempts to speak with his boss, who oversees signing off on all stories before they are published. Jason was disregarded and told to return the following day for two weeks. Then, on the third week, while Jason attempted again, a delivery man entered the office with a suspicious package wrapped in brown paper: Why suspicious? Once opened, within the package, was another package that held a letter that read:

“To whom it may concern,

Welcome to the rookie’s got talent challenge. Each publishing company is provided with four months to find the next big story and publish ten thousand copies. The company that reaches the most sales within seven months of being published will win a cash prize of five hundred thousand dollars (four hundred thousand for the author and one hundred thousand to the publisher). In addition, the author must be willing to have their novel become a film directed by our team at brown papers production and me.

These are the rules: 1) The author has no published novel 2) The author is not currently in the process of being published 3) They accept their novel becoming a film, 4) The story must include details of the package provided. And 5) Each publisher can only choose one story. The most important thing to note is we’re only looking at the first sent by each company, as we’re limited in time and paying for the full publishment of the stories too if we enjoy them. If a submission is made and not approved by our company, that space opens back up, and the publishing company refused is not able to submit a second story.

Good Luck,

Brown papers production”

Excited by the news, Jason says, “Sir, in my Novel it included,” Jason gets cut off by his boss Fred. “Yeah, okay, Jason, we talk another day of your novel. I have a lot to finish in little time.” Disappointed, Jason looks to the ground and says, “fine,” then looks back up and says, “when can we meet? I promise you will love my novel, sir.” In a high tone, Fred says, “I said not now, Jason, try again tomorrow.” Jason leaves the office. On the intercom, Fred calls for all interns to come into the boarding room for a meeting about a special project. Once the meeting was complete, the interns began to work on their stories right away.

The following day Jason returns to his boss’s office with a printed copy of his novel: his boss instantly says, “Jason, I have no time today.” Jason replies while putting his novel on the desk, “You don’t have time now, but I promise you, you will want to make the time later sir, I will return in 2 weeks to see if you liked the overall idea or later if that is okay with you?” Fred, in a high tone, says, “Whatever gets you out of my office now’ he then lowered his tone and said, ‘I’ll take a look later, leave the story but please step out; I have an important call as Jason makes his way to the door, the phone rings, and Fred answers. Brown papers production is on the other end to discuss their first daily advances. The owner of Brown papers production announced they received their first novel from a teenager who has been trying to publish their book for years but did not have the resources. Once Fred hung up, he laughed and called his partner, “Johnny, could you believe they got a teenager as their first submission? Ridiculous. Do the interns have anything?” Fred’s partner Johnny laughs and says, “you have been so stuck on the interns but have a completed story sitting on your desk Fred. I understand you want upcoming journalists on this, but Jason’s story is amazing so take a read.” “Excuse me, and how are you aware he even brought forth the story?” replies Fred. Johnny, with base in his tone, says, “Jason let me know he will be leaving us in two weeks for the publishing company across the street if no one reads or listens to him speak of his story. Fred, please note, his best friend works for that company, and he already gave his boss the general idea of the story, if we’re not submitting it, they made it clear to him they will.” Fred laughs and says, “well time to find a new Janitor, let me know when the interns have something. These interns are the best journalist in their class; we are professionals, we work with professionals. Not Janitors.” Johnny says, “well our lost,” and hangs up the phone. By the end of the day, more than half of the interns submitted an idea for their novel, and Jason provided his two weeks’ notice too, as Johnny let Jason know, he had more chances across the street. Fred disregarded Jason when he came into the office to provide his letter of notice. Fred said he was too busy and to leave whatever he had to give on the desk. Jason followed his request and then went across the street to provide his written novel.

The following day Fred calls for a meeting with his interns and says none of the ideas will work. Disappointed, the interns return to planning the next big story. A week passes, and no advances. Fred has not approved any story yet; he decides to read Jason’s story. After reading the back page, Fred’s eyes light up, and he instantly picks up his phone and tells his receptionist to get Jason on the phone after the meeting with Brown papers production. In the call with brown papers production, they announced submissions were full, but the second company is no longer part of the challenge due to them not following the rules. As a result, one more company has a chance. But, they continue to add, at the moment, an author named Jason at bester best publishing has the top story. Fred’s face got pale instantly, and he put his hands to his head.

Once Fred hung up, he announced to the team Jason brought his story elsewhere and was approved. But, he continues to add, no Janitor will humiliate his company and added the interns needed to get their acts together, or people will start getting fired. Fred then made his way to Jason's office and told him to pack up because he was fired. Jason replies "thank you" and leaves. Shortly after an intern enters Jason's caretaker room and says, “Boss, you’re going to love this one.” Fred worried his company could not take part in the challenge, took the story without reading it and faxed it. As Fred got ready to announce their submission, another intern entered the office with a story that Fred enjoyed. Fred looked over the first story and told himself this was the worst submission provided. As a result, he instantly sent a fax of the second story and added a note saying he apologizes, but the receptionist sent the wrong story. He sent the story. The following day, brown papers production called every company and said, “they found the final author but wanted to provide a shout out to Fred and his crew. They continued to add the second story submitted was terrific; however, it cannot be processed as a submission, as they already read the first one.

Fred throws his phone across the room before the meeting was done and makes his way to the intern’s office area. He fired everyone but the intern who provided the second story. As a result, Fred could not keep up with the work coming in and started to owe his clients money. Eventually, Fred went Bankrupt because he owed a client over a million dollars for delaying their filming and release date. Jason, who won the challenge, became a best-seller, and the film was top at the box office. After a year of the novel being Published and being in theatre, Jason wins an award for his book. In his speech, he said, “…Even when I thought my work would never see the daylight, I continued to believe in myself, and now I am one of the best authors in the world. Always believe in yourself, ALWAYS.” Jason’s evening ends with him having to choose a publishing company that believed in him the most. The company selected by Jason would receive 5% of all sales made from the film. Jason smiles and says, “my best friend believed in me, and then his boss believed in me too. I have been told by many, you did not study the field of writing to be a writer, but my best friend and his boss always told me, you’re going to be big one day, and I am humbly saying, thanks to them for believing I will become the person, I am today.”

The moral of the story is “to be nice to people on your way up because you might need them on your way down (UnKnown).”