Love Burned, She Rose Unscathed

Stoner was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement. "60k!"

Madge was a bit dazed, her mind trailing as she asked, "What do you mean, 60k?"

"The daily sales! Yesterday, we broke through 60k! We've smashed the record set by The Weapon back in the day! In nearly ten... no, twenty years, no book has hit these numbers!"

"Ms. Madge," he stressed each word, "your new book-it's a hit!"

Not just "hot," but "hit!"

Initially, Stoner was feeling down. He was prepared for a rocky start with the new release, but he hadn't expected it to tank this badly.

A rival editor, who had been at odds with him for ages, saw his chance to throw a jab, saying Stoner had lost his touch, that he was past it for signing the book without a second thought, despite millions of eyes watching. And what was the outcome? A colossal flop.

Stoner brushed off the mockery. He was deep in thought, trying to pinpoint where things went wrong.

He had read Madge's books, and whether it was the choice of themes or the plot itself, everything seemed impeccable, each one brimming with potential to be a hit.

This time, they even led with what they believed was her best work, yet it ended up like this...

It didn't make sense!

Was it that Madge had fallen out of favor?

from the mystery scene for

School were still on the

She wasn't washed up!

he thought about it, the more it didn't add up, so he decided to pull the marketing team into

was nothing wrong with the content or Madge's reputation, the

And he was right.

Stoner discovered that the marketing efforts were concentrated on

Madge's reader base was primarily

there was no splash;

team to focus on book

that day,

did it truly break

month ago, with a post from

who aced math in high school but barely scraped by in Literature-the kind of guy who'd rather die than write an essay is actually reading a

engrossed in

was

a book blogger, he shot to fame with quirky stories about his dad. So, in a strict

more popular

"Procrastination Dad," and the sight

title, finding