Taking Back Control

The Meetings

Chapter 57            The Meetings

In the last ten years, the Truncheon Books Publishing Co. had outgrown the building where Jess first published Subsect. They moved two years ago to 2300 Chestnut St, a building that once housed a small publishing company that relocated to another state. This building had a modern printing press and retail space on the first floor, where they sold artwork and books and held open mic author events. Since their move had built a book catalog with 200 books, and Jess no longer spent time repairing the old printing press.

Standing at the doorway of TBP, Jess realized how important the meeting today was to their growth. If they got the investments, they could compete with the larger publishing houses in the tri-state area.

Jess, Matt, and Chris knew they needed to hire more staff to continue publishing the recent number of books in their catalog. Their open mic night had become popular with many authors, allowing them to increase the number of books they published. They continued to publish the "zine," an online magazine, and small newspapers that came when they took over the building. One of the papers they inherited was the Star Hollow Gazette. They now published it once a month, with the help of Lulu, Kirk's wife, who enjoyed providing local news and stories about the community.

Jess walked around the building, entered through the ground level's backdoor, and headed up the stairs where the offices were located. Matt was leaving the break room, holding a cup of coffee, when he saw Jess walking up the stairs.

"Welcome back," Matt said, patting him on the back. "How did your meeting go for the new book?"

"Other than firing my agent, not bad. I go back on Monday for more negotiations; Hayden Publishing is very interested," Jess told him as the two men walked into the office.

Chris was sitting at the computer and looked up at Jess. "What do you mean you had to fire your agent?"

"She went rogue and contacted Chronicle Publishing, sending them a copy of Diner Man without my permission. Chronicle Publishing then sent me a contract and called while I was working with Rory at Hayden Publishing. Also, my agent contacted a few other companies and started a bidding war."

"I would imagine it would be to your advantage, as well as hers," Chris replied.

"Definitely to her advantage, but I would lose the right to choose whom I want to edit the book." Jess huffed and fell back into his chair.

"Guys, I'm all for this meeting today. If we can get the money to expand, and I can publish my book with the editor of my choosing."

"So, you still want Rory to edit the book?" Chris asked Jess.

"Yes, especially since she now works as the Managing Editor at Hayden Publishing."

Matt sat at his desk and frowned. "Wait, I thought Rory working as a journalist."

"Not anymore. She gave that up when she returned in the spring. She lives in Hartford with her father who is the owner of Hayden Publishing. They recently hired Eric Brady as the Publisher. Once she recovered from her operation, her dad offered her the Managing Editor position."

"Wait, you're telling me that Eric Brady, from Chicago, author of Using Technology and How it is Changing the Face of Journalism and Publishing is the publisher of Hayden Publishing?" Matt said in surprise.

"Yes, why do you know him?"

"No, but I would love to meet him. They call him the fixer. After he wrote that book he was sent to different publishing houses and helped them update their companies. I used his book as a guide to help us build Truncheon when we were expanding,"