By the time it was weekend they were ready with twenty thousand copies of previous year questions booklet and ten thousand copies of previous year solution books. Arjun and his father decided that they would price the questions booklet at six rupees a piece and the solved question papers booklet at eighteen rupees a piece.
With the quality of their booklets they found it reasonable to price the questions booklet at six rupees a piece because most of the already existing booklets were selling at similar price or were even a little more costly.
The All in One though was not yet ready for printing but Mallesh informed him that they would start the printing process today. Selling it though was a proving to be a headache. He wanted to use school kids to do the selling instead of approaching the distributors was the final answer he could come up with, this would help his margins stay high and not affect the popularity of the book because of lack of shelf space.
His issue was even if this plan could be implemented by him in the surrounding villages, he did not know where to go from there. He did not have any connections that could help him reach other parts of the state.
He and Bhargav together started their journey towards Vijayawada after taking samples of the question and answer books as well as a xerox copy of their final version of All in One.
It was then that Arjun remembered Bhargav speaking about his brother who was still in college on their last trip to Vijayawada when they had shared the same hotel room. He also mentioned something like him being vice president of SJU a state level students union. As he thought more about it this seemed a very good starting point.
If he could meet up with this guy and could somehow convince him to sell his books perhaps they both could benefit from each other. He went on to enquire more about his brother from Bhargav, Once learning that he had a dependable and trustable character he explained his plans to Bhargav and asked if he could set up a meeting with him on this trip.
Bhargav was surprised by the idea Arjun proposed at first but the more he thought about it the more it seemed feasible. He mentioned he could directly take Arjun to his brother's office once their meeting with the distributor was done.
They reached Vijayawada after a couple of hours and directly proceeded to the Hanish distribution center Madan had affliations with. Sundar who was the general manager welcomed them into his cabin and started discussing some regular matters with Bhargav.
Once they were done with the pleasantries Sundar asked their purpose of visit. Bhargav mentioned about his purpose and motioned for Arjun to continue.
Arjun took out their sample previous year questions booklet and solved papers booklet and handed them to Sundar. Sundar who was confused about what a kid was doing at the adults table, but still took the samples he was offered and started browsing them.
He was impressed by the format they had chosen to go with. Even the answers in the solution book were very concise and to the point without any wordy jargon. The cover design was impressive too, He was sure that kids would love the design.
He thought about it for a while and sighed. "Bhargav i am very impressed by these books, were they made at your publishing house?". to which Arjun replied "Yes sir these were printed at our publishing house". Sundar who was already dissatisfied with a kid trying to meddle in their affairs wanted to say something but before he could Bhargav interfered and mentioned Arjun was the owner of the publishing house that made these books.
Sundar was stuck in his thoughts, what did Bhargav say? this kid owner of a publishing house? perhaps this was how the rich operated, letting a kid play a publishing house manager was something he could not make sense of, still he was willing to accept it. Perhaps negotiating with this kid could be much easier.
Sundar exclaimed "Sigh, i really like these products Arjun, But we have our own line of books in the same line, If we were to sign a deal with you would'nt it make us our own competetors?".
Arjun : "is there no other way sir?"
Sundar : "There might be a way, if we could sign a exclusive deal for this year perhaps we could work something out. If you could accept this and dealer price of four rupees for the question booklet and fourteen rupees for the solutions book we can accept these books for distribution."
Arjun who was already expecting some exhorbant demands was stunned by this offer. Especially the two conditions Exclusive deal and the deal lasting only one year, these were things he could not really accept.
He understood very well why Sundar offered only one year deal. Within a year they too would manage to make similar products and by then all of the advantages Arjun had right now would vanish.
The deal of Exclusivity was another trap too, this would tie their publishing house with these distributors for the whole year. To Arjun who wanted his books to spread all over the state this was unacceptable too.
Arjun vehemontely rejected both the proposed conditions he was happy with the price offered and tried negotiating a better deal which Sundar shot down ruthlessly. Sundar mentioned he would not accept the deal until these conditions were met.
Arjun asked for a day's time for him to consider matters further before the negotiations reached a point of breakdown. When they reached outside Bhargav started consoling Arjun, "It's okay Arjun this is already a very good deal. Maybe we could work with these people for a year and move onto something better."
It was not until Arjun explained his thoughts that Bhargav realized how lop-sided this deal was. Perhaps if he was him, he would have already been fooled. Bhargav could only admire how good Arjun was at these things.
"So what do we do now Arjun?" asked Bhargav.
"Hehehe it's not like this is the only distributors anna, even though this might be the biggest book distributors in the state they have competitors too, do you know where their biggest competitors distribution center is at? let's head there" beckoned Arjun.
I got it let's go to Mannath distribution center. Even though they are not the biggest out there, they are the main competitors to Hanish and have considerable reputation for being very trustworthy.
Ravi who was the chief editor for the Mannath distributions invited them both to his office once he was made aware about the purpose of their visit. Arjun handed him the same samples he had given to Sundar earlier and waited for him to check them out.
Ravi was very impressed with the materials he was presented with. They were very attractive looking and very suited to the present day kids tastes, being very straight to the point. Ravi complemented them for their new way of editing and design.
Arjun : "Thanks for the praise sir, we have already been to Hanish distributors and they offered a price of four rupees for the questions booklet and fifteen rupees for the solution books. I wonder what prices you could offer."
Ravi did not see this coming. He did not know whether this was true or not, but verifying it would not be so difficult. He asked Arjun and Bhargav to stay seated for while. Ravi then proceeded to enquire his spies in Hanish distributors to confirm whether this was true, They confirmed that this was the price that was offered.
Ravi returned to them and made his offer, Arjun i am very impressed by these products but the most we could do is four and half rupees for the questions booklet and fifteen and half rupees for the solutions book.
Anymore and they would not make any money on them he reckoned. Ravi also mentioned this deal would only last for an year and the publishing house should also include their distributors name in the books that were handed to them.
By now Arjun realized getting the deal for over a year would only be wishful thinking on his part. He then remarked he was very happy with the prices Ravi had offered and was okay with the time period of the deal too but printing their distribution house was not a possible option as this could change perception of their users considering the distribution house was already established meanwhile their publications had just started. He instead asked them to stamp their name on their own once they were delivered to the distribution house.
They proceeded to discuss furtehr details of the cooperation. Ravi wanted a monthly payment system while Arjun was adamant he would only accept the deal if they dues were paid every two weeks.
He also demanded the payment for first shipment to be done on spot rather than waiting for another couple weeks. He mentioned this would help ease their funding issues as they were newly founded and did not have much liquidity.
Ravi who wanted to get this deal done as it would help in their competition with Hanish distributors. So he accepted the deal but could only sigh in his heart, Haaa this kid was too good.