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

still on the charts, selling consistently

She wasn't washed up!

it, the more it didn't add up, so he decided to

with the content or Madge's reputation, the issue had to lie with the marketing

And he was right.

deeper, Stoner discovered that the marketing efforts were concentrated on youth-popular platforms like Instagram

reader base was primarily aged

wonder there was no splash; they

team to focus

10,000 that day, with

did it truly break

ago, with a

in Literature-the kind of guy who'd rather die than write an essay

the blogger's dad utterly engrossed in a book, with the cover

blogger was a

he shot to fame with quirky stories about his dad.

popular than

Dad," and the sight

search for the book title, finding it was a published