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 charts, selling consistently well month

She wasn't washed up!

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

the content or Madge's reputation, the

And he was right.

efforts were concentrated

reader base was

no splash; they were targeting the

strategy, directing the marketing team to focus

that day, with

did it truly break

a post from a book blogger known as

scraped by in Literature-the kind of guy who'd rather die

engrossed in a book, with the cover prominently

blogger was a peculiar

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

more popular than

fans of this "Procrastination Dad," and the sight of him reading a book sent

drove many to search for the book title, finding it was a published work with no e-book available