Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 145123 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 726(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145123 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 726(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
“Don’t be nervous, sir,” she replies. Thankfully, this time with vigor. “I’ve never seen anyone believe in anything as much as you believe in this book, and they’re going to notice that too. You’ve got this, Chase Dawson. You’ve so got this.”
“Okay, that was really good. So good that I’ve completely forgotten the first lame attempt.” I sigh heavily and smile. “Thank you.”
“I’d do almost anything for someone in as pathetic a state as you.”
“Well, thank you. How kind,” I say with an almost scoff sticking at the top of my throat.
Dawn laughs. “I have a husband and two sons at home. I only have so much energy left for taking care of a man. Don’t take it personally.”
I consider her for a moment. She’s put together perfectly with an ironed blouse and made-up face and well-placed hair. But if you look closely, the skin beneath her eyes is darkened with fatigue, and she has a small stain on her blouse that has been worked over with a Tide pen.
She carries the façade well, but the truth, I fear, is that my assistant Dawn is a nightwalker of sorts, doing her best to survive.
“I’m really lucky you put up with me, aren’t I?”
She shrugs. “You’re the easiest male I deal with—usually—and you pay me. So, you’re in a pretty good position. Still, there’s a reason that show Snapped is a thing.”
I laugh, my eyebrows rising to my hairline. “So, I’ll make a mental note of that horrifying fact and keep it in mind moving forward.”
Dawn stands up to give me a firm pat on the shoulder and then pushes me in the direction of the conference room so hard I have to jog to keep my footing. “Go get ’em, tiger.”
I thought I’d stall a little bit more, but as I walk down the hallway and approach the glass-walled conference room in the center of our office floor, I see that Dawn was right to push me.
Three of the other editors have already arrived and are shooting the shit while they wait for the big man, Jonah Perish himself.
Jonah is the grandson of Carl Longstrand, the founder of Longstrand Publishing and the main reason we’re as big as we are today. It’d be easy to dismiss his position as president and CEO of Longstrand as a showing of nepotism, but anyone who knows Jonah knows he’s a shark in his own right. Not only has he modernized his grandfather’s vision, but he’s also taken an ever-changing publishing landscape and flourished in it. When other publishers saw downturns because of KDP and self-publishing, Jonah saw to it that business at Longstrand picked up.
He saw an opening to give authors the kind of support they were longing for—one of the only things missing from the setup of a one-person self-publishing show.
We market and distribute at a higher level than anyone else and carry a lot of the workload when it comes to all the things a self-publisher would have to contract out to freelancers. But overall, what really sets us apart in my eyes is the willingness to fuss over our authors. They’re the value of the company, and keeping them happy and comfortable is our number one goal. In the end, it benefits everyone.
I enter through the door with a stack of synopses clutched to my chest, and the heads of my colleagues turn in my direction.
“Oh, man. You brought props?” Frank Bowman asks with a teasing smile. “This oughta be good.”
I shake my head with a smile and toss one in his direction quickly enough that he has to scramble to catch it. Regina Swanson and Meryl Hargrove, two of the best editors in the business, laugh.
“He’s still in his honeymoon, suck-up phase, Frank. It’ll pass,” Regina adds with a wink that’s friendly enough to make me move right past her remark without addressing it.
“It’s going to be great, Frank,” I announce with the kind of confident smile that is the opposite of how the inside of my body feels. “Prepare to be amazed.”
He smirks with a shake of his head. “Man, I remember when I used to be a cocky little shit like you. The good old days. Now if I let my dick swell too much, my back hurts.”
Regina and Meryl laugh again, coughing to correct it as Jonah enters the room, his assistant shutting the door behind him.
“Good morning, ladies.” Meryl and Regina smile and return the sentiment before Jonah turns to us, his face transforming from jovial to serious. “Don’t disappoint me, gentlemen.”
Frank and I both smile at Jonah’s less-than-enthusiastic greeting and, quite frankly, thrive on it. At some point in his career, Jonah figured out that women thrive with affection and men thrive with pressure, and he started employing it. We’re all at our best working under him. I’m still in the fledgling part of my career here at Longstrand, but I have no doubt that taking the job here and mentoring under a man like him will get me much further than any other moves would have.