Deborah 3

Flamboyant Joel wiggles his behind, fruity tone, "wonder what they want to see us about?"
Drily I reply, "maybe dress code, wish you to be less colorful and me more so."
He roars with fruity laughter, then, "after you, abandon hope all ye who enter in."
Murray, the gray-haired owner and editor-in-chief starts, "I've asked Norman to put together a synopsis on publishing trends."
Norman, his son, quotes a number of sources, stuff we already know. Changings demographics of book buyers. There being no questions, Murray allows him to leave.
With a sad smile, Murray says, "I'm afraid he has the people skills of a gnat. To business, now the logical knee jerk reaction would be to lay you both off. After all, our general fiction area has fallen on harder times. It never works for a number of reasons.
"First, like every other firm we compete for shelf space in the bookstores. The iron law says publish less, you get less space. Doesn't work in reverse. Space once lost, and easily, comes back slowly and hard.
"Second, economies of scale, company wide fixed costs, spread over fewer titles means each title is more costly.
"Third, people, anyone who has enough intelligence and sense of balance to manage in publishing can make more money anywhere else. Let them leave, they soon are seduced by monetary success, simply never return.
"So, we don't publish less titles, simply different items. First, think Harlequin style of romance. All these books are mostly sold to the 40+ crowd, younger people don't have the time. I'm planning a line of six romance novellas a year, everything from tame to wildly sexual, so the line does not become hackneyed over time. Science fiction, market research shows it mostly goes to those 45+. Same logic, a line of six novellas a year for the younger and busier crowd. Now, since we aren't stealing readers from elsewhere, but creating new ones, sky is the limit for this type of opportunity."
Joel and I murmur agreement.
"Now the hard part, Joel, you actually have the sexual energy, hedonism, emotial tack to handle the romance line, even though it'll all be straight romances at the start. It's that or sci fi, do you agree with me?"
"We-ell, only if in the second year, we publish one gay novella. Need I remind you we are 10% of book buyers?"
"I can live with that. If it makes money, we'll try two in Year Three."
"Done."
Murray smiles awkwardly, "and Deborah, your entire life you have been cool and calculating. Marriage to the computer geek has turned that into cold and calculating. You've seen his whole crowd of friends, know the jargon, know what is doable on computer and what isn't. Seen the sort of holograms they'll use as a joke. Now it may not sound flattering to you, but you above all others in the firm have the ability to handle the sci fi line."
"But Murray, I've never been a fan."
"Better yet, means you won't have the sort of prejudice of believing time travel is inherently better than say lost world stories. You'll be perfectly objective, have shown you can spot good stories in general fiction."
What can you say to that? "I consider it an honor to be a pioneer, try out the brand new."
"That's the spirit, got any idea how much purchasing power the younger set has?"
Joel, Murray and I agree on the wording of the notice posted on the website, seeking romance and sci fi novellas of 80 tp 120 pages.
Joel's start is slow, no one is doing that stuff yet. Mine, think blitz in football. Lot of sci fi novellas were prepared for the American magazine market, rejected for whatever reason, often not being sufficiently America-centric. I don't mind, far rather have too many to choose from than not enough.