The Publicist Book One and Two

by Christina George

  Pete scowled and left her office. Kate was certain that if Pete had the chance, he’d throw her in front of a bus and then beg the driver to let him drive.

  Kate had decided to take the call in the conference room. Pete was already there, of course. Kate sat down and dialed into their conference line. The recording said that three people were already on the call.

  “Hello everyone. This is Kate Mitchell. Pete, who is assisting me on this project, is also on the call.”

  A high-pitched and almost singsong female voice came on the line. “Kate and Pete, we are grateful and pleased to have you on the call. Master Yee Woo is joining us momentarily.”

  “Who else is on the call?” Kate asked.

  “Just observers of Master’s work,” the woman replied.

  “And your name is?” Kate asked. This call was starting to creep her out.

  Another ding. “Master, is that you?” the woman asked.

  “Yes, my child, Master Yee Woo is on the call.” Pete started snickering, and Kate threw him a dirty look.

  “Master Yee,” Kate began, “we’re here to talk about your book release next week. We’re very excited and…”

  “We must start with our chant first,” the woman’s voice said.

  Kate blinked. “I’m sorry?”

  “We need to shift the energy on the call so it aligns with the highest goals for this book. Chanting will help to shift this.” Suddenly there was a series of voices and chanting sounds. Pete covered his mouth to keep from bursting out in laughter. Kate rolled her eyes. Another nut case. Freaking great, she thought, just what I need to round out my already perfect life.

  The chanting wore on. Kate looked at her watch; they’d been at this for three minutes. She wondered if she should interrupt, go get herself some coffee, or better yet, get a Cosmo. Sometimes she was amazed she didn’t drink more.

  “We may begin,” a female voice finally said.

  Thank freaking God, Kate thought. For a minute, she worried the chanting was never going to end.

  “So, Master Yee,” Kate said, “as you know, the book didn’t make a review in Publishers Weekly, but we’re looking at some nice media coverage in your market.” Kate ran off a list of publications that would feature his book.

  The silence on the line was deafening.

  “Why is there no morning show coverage?” he asked. “This message should be on national television.”

  No, Kate thought, it shouldn’t. God forbid you start an interview off with chanting. If he thought the energy was bad at a publishing house, he should try going on television.

  “We didn’t get any takers for TV, I’m afraid.” Kate hoped they wouldn’t suspect it was a lie. She’d never pitched national TV for this; it was too risky. As it stood, Yee had a lot of followers, but a lot of people thought he was a fraud. There were entire websites dedicated to Yee with one-time followers chiding him for being a fake and a thief. Still, MD insisted on publishing him. He had a lot of social media platform and they really felt this title could work. Also, with The Continued Promise on the horizon, the publisher wanted to beef up their New Age list, knowing that a lot of eyes would be on their newly released and upcoming titles. If one did well, likely they all would. Rising tide and all.

  “This is a grave disappointment. My book must be a bestseller,” Woo said.

  “One caller has disconnected,” the automated voice said.

  “Mr. Woo?”

  “Master Yee Woo has left,” the yet-to-be-introduced female voice said.

  “I’m sorry that he’s gone. I wanted to chat with him about his book events.”

  “We’ll have to do another call for that.”

  “No, I need to finish this now. We have the book out next week and he has appearances scheduled. It’s taken far too long to coordinate this call. Can you get him back on the line please?”

  “Sorry, Master is gone. Please email me the specifics.”

  “One caller has disconnected,” the automated voice said. Then repeated it three times. The female caller and the other creepy, non-descript callers also left.

  Pete stood up, grabbing his soda and note pad. “That went well.” He smiled as he left the room.

  Fuck you, Pete, Kate thought and then dropped her head on the desk.

  Chapter Twenty

  Kate was making dinner in Mac’s kitchen. It was odd to be here and be cooking in his apartment, but in the past several weeks since they’d been back from Whistler and the whole “Delia thing” happened, she’d been spending more and more time at his place. She almost felt like she lived there. She only seemed to return to her apartment when she needed some fresh outfits.

  “So the Woo Woo call went well?” Mac smiled, pouring her a glass of wine.

  Kate stirred the pasta. “Master Woo, as he likes to be called, is a freak. Why do we publish these books, Mac?”

  He shrugged. “He has followers, I guess. Do you think it’ll do anything?”

  Kate shook her head. “I don’t know. I really don’t. I have to be careful where I book him. The guy is a total lunatic and his ‘people’ are so odd. None of them introduced themselves on the call; they were all these anonymous voices on the phone.”

  Mac chuckled. “He’s an odd duck, that’s for sure. But his last two books did really well, so there’s hope for this one.”

  Kate sipped her wine. “Yeah, but that was a few years ago. Since then, he’s had a ton of bad online press. Websites popped up just to blast this guy.”

  Mac hesitated. “Kate, look, I ran the Madeline Masters book by Eddie. He doesn’t want it.”

  Kate stopped stirring the pot of pasta and set the spoon down. Suddenly she felt totally deflated. She turned to Mac. “Why?”

  “I don’t know. You were right—it’s a good book. He says we have enough of these titles. I really pushed it, Katie, I hope you know that.”

  “Mac, I don’t get this. We publish books by convicts and these airy fairy new age freaks, and he won’t touch a book that actually has a chance to maybe do some good.”

  “All of our books do some good, even as bad as some of them are.”

  “The Shenkman twins title does good, Mac? How so?”

  Mac shrugged. “You got me there. That one is just trash.”

  “I want to help Madeline get published.”

  “Katie, you have enough to do.” Mac walked over to her, putting a hand around her waist. “I’m really sorry. Look, if it helps, I’ll make some calls and see if I can find her a good home.”

  “Thanks, Mac.” Kate turned to him and kissed him lightly on the mouth.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “I just don’t know what to do, Allan,” Kate said to no one. She was sitting at Allan Lavigne’s kitchen table in his abandoned apartment. Nick hadn’t put much muscle into renting or selling it, which was fine with Kate. She’d pop in every so often, just to be near Allan. She missed him more than she could put into words. He had been her best friend and trusted confidant. Now he was gone, and all she had left were empty conversations in his apartment. She was certain if anyone ever walked in on her, they’d have her committed.

  “I have such a bad feeling about The Continued Promise. Now that it’s been moved up, I feel like it’s going to ruin this title. If you were here, you’d probably tell me to march right into Edward’s office and demand an explanation.” She paused for a moment, looking around the empty space.

  “But you’re not here, and now I have to figure this out myself. I’m not very good at this,” she added softly. The apartment had a slight chill, typical for most New York apartments, though all of the units were heated through the same system. Kate stuffed her hands deeper into her jacket pockets. Suddenly she knew what she needed to do. Kate got up, headed out the door, and went straight to the office.

  …

  “Edward, I need to speak with you.” Kate didn’t even bother knocking or letting Sara announce her. She breezed right in. Mac was in his office, too. He turned an
d smiled, well aware of the determination in her voice. Kate closed the door behind her. He got up to leave.

  “Mac, please stay. This involves you, too.”

  Edward looked over the rim of his glasses at her, which he gently removed and set on his desk. He didn’t like unexpected interruptions—even Kate, as pleasing on the eyes as she was.

  “We’re in a meeting,” he said impatiently.

  “I know, but I need to speak with you both. I realize that the change in pub date for The Continued Promise is now set in stone, but I think I deserve to know why the date was moved.”

  Edward cleared his throat. “It was an internal decision. We felt it was better for the book.”

  Mac frowned; he knew Kate wouldn’t accept that.

  “Summer is not a better time for this book, Edward. With all due respect, I think there’s a different answer.”

  “What are you implying, Kate?” Edward wasn’t happy. Mac saw this going south very quickly.

  “I’m not implying anything, I’m saying that I think there’s more going on here, and as the publicist on this book, I think I deserve to know.”

  “You’re right; there’s more going on here. Our author, Michael Singer, was getting anxious to release the title, so I decided to push it up.”

  Jesus, Kate thought, what a horrible liar he is. “Since when do authors dictate their release dates?”

  “Singer is very important to MD, Kate.” Edward leaned back in his chair and smiled. It was not a good smile, it was his ‘I’m about ready to fuck with you’ smile, and Kate knew it all too well.

  “Kate, my dear.” God she hated it when he called her ‘dear.’ “If you think it’s too much for you to handle, we can give it to another one of the team members.”

  Yeah, maybe kiss-ass Pete would like this one.

  Mac was still silent, knowing full well that getting in the middle of her battle was not a good idea for either of them.

  “Mac has weighed in on this and agrees. Don’t you, Mac?” Edward turned to him. Mac remained silent. Both he and Ed knew he had never agreed to move the title. Edward had made that decision all on his own.

  “I can handle this. I just wanted to know.”

  “And now you do. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have a meeting to finish.” Edward put his glasses back on. “Please close the door behind you.”

  Kate slipped out the door without saying another word. She knew Edward was lying, but she didn’t know why. One thing she did know: Edward wasn’t about to screw up this book. they needed The Continued Promise to do well, or it would affect everyone from the mail room staff all the way to the King himself. Kate had to trust that, despite her misgivings with Edward, the reason for the date move was unimportant. Kate prayed she was right.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  To her surprise, the Master Woo title (or “Woo Woo book,” as Mac referred to it) actually hit the list. It was number two on the New York Times, number five on Publishers Weekly, and number three on USA Today. No one was more shocked than Kate. Ten minutes until the sales meeting. She’d have good news with the sales of this title and the buzz that a bestseller brought with it. Kate pulled up Master Woo’s file, making sure she had all of her notes for the meeting. Pete, who was still trying to weasel his way into the promotion of this book, had been oddly quiet since the book had hit the list. Though Kate was surprised, she figured at some point he’d be the one taking all the credit for it. Kate also pulled the file for The Continued Promise. She was eager to hear the bookstore update. Whether a bookstore decided to stock a book or not could make or break a title. Though with the original fall date they’d gotten huge buy-in from most of the major locations, the date switch was tricky.

  Mac poked his head into her office. “Ready, Katie?” he smiled. “You’re gonna wow ’em today with your bestseller. Talk about pulling a rabbit out of a hat!”

  Kate nodded and headed toward the door. “It’s such a freaky thing, this guy. I just don’t get how this happened.”

  “Don’t question the book gods, Kate. Books never cease to shock the shit out of me. I’ve seen more titles that seem DOA go gangbusters. It makes no sense.”

  They walked into the conference room for the weekly sales meeting. Only half the chairs were filled. Other staffers followed Mac and Kate in. Pete was there, of course, sipping on his Coke and looking especially devious.

  Once everyone was seated, Edward called the meeting to order. “Let’s begin,” he said, turning the meeting over to Charlie Manning, who headed up their sales staff and oversaw the bookstore push for each and every title MD published. Then, in order, each of the teams reported on their books. Finally, it was Kate’s turn.

  “So, our big title of the week is the Master Woo book, which is on all of the bestseller lists as we speak.”

  Pete cleared his throat rather loudly. Kate felt annoyed; a thread of it wove through her stomach.

  “Sorry,” she continued, “Pete was of course helpful with this book, too.” She could hear Mac muffling a laugh beside her.

  “Kate,” Pete stood up. He looked sullen, though Kate could tell he was feigning it. Something about his look set off alarm bells in Kate’s head. “I’m sorry to say,” he continued, “that we, or I actually, discovered that Master Woo was buying up copies of his own book.”

  There was a soft shuffle in the room as Pete took center stage. “I got confirmation of this a little while ago; they just found his storage facility with thousands of his own books. He rigged the lists and now everyone will know.”

  Kate swallowed hard. The little bastard knew and didn’t tell her! She wanted to throttle his freckled neck until his eyes popped out, right there in front of everyone.

  Kate did her best to compose herself. She started to speak, but Charlie interrupted her.

  “Pete, where are you getting this information?” he asked.

  “The storage facility called for Kate, but she wasn’t at her desk.” The little prick emphasized not at her desk. “So, they transferred it to me. Turns out no one has paid the storage fees, so they were wondering what we wanted to do with the books.”

  Fuck, Kate thought. He could have come to her; he should have come to her. Pete was driving the bus and it just ran her over. She was certain he would back up and try hitting her again, just for good measure.

  Kate composed herself. “Pete, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t have come to me with this information. Why hold it for the sales meeting unless your intent was to embarrass me?”

  “Not everything is about you, Kate,” Pete responded.

  “Enough!” Edward stood up. “Kate, this is a disaster. If anyone in the trades finds out about this, well, I don’t need to tell you that we don’t need the press.”

  “Eh, Sir. Excuse me, but they already know,” Pete said, his voice now slightly shaky. Everyone feared Edward, even bottom dwellers like Pete.

  “How is that possible, Pete?” Edward asked, more pissed off than Kate had ever seen him.

  “Well, you know, you can’t do something like this and not have someone find out, right? I mean, we’re talking fifty thousand books. It’s kind of a big thing.”

  “What does this mean?” Kate asked, trying to level her voice. She did not succeed.

  “It means, Kate, that the storage facility realized they were onto a good story and decided to see if the New York Times was interested in covering it.”

  How did they know the Times? She wanted to ask, but didn’t. The answer was obvious. Pete wanted to undermine her, and he didn’t really care how he did it.

  Edward turned to Kate. “Fix this,” he said. He rose and walked toward the door. Before he left, he turned, “And tell that little book-buying prick he can damned well pay back his advance too.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “No one disturbs me,” she said to Lulu, who had overheard snippets of the conversation as the sales team passed by her desk. She knew it wasn’t good. “I mean no one,” Kate emphasized. She kn
ew Mac would wander up to see her, and she didn’t need any distractions right now.

  Kate wasn’t sure what she was going to do or how she was going to rescue this one. Well, technically, the book was beyond rescue, but she needed to figure out a way to redeem the entire project. Kate spun her chair around. The windows needed cleaning. There were days when she wished her windows opened up wider so she could jump out. That’s probably why they didn’t, or the streets of New York would see a lot of publishing people kissing the pavement. She leaned forward, watching the people scurry below. From this distance, they looked pretty small—just people going about their lives just as she was trying to do, though most of her time was spent fixing bad books, and even worse, authors. So far, she’d had Sasha’s fake reviews, a couple of sisters who’d hacked up their parents, and now this. It wasn’t even spring yet. She was on a roll. Then it occurred to her. Kate spun her chair around and dialed up her friend in the books department at the Wall Street Journal.

  “Henry.”

  “Henry, Kate Mitchell. How are you?”

  “Katie, it’s been a long time. What’s going on?”

  “I have a story for you, and it’s perfect for the Journal to run it since it doesn’t affect your paper.”

  “Tell me.”

  Kate told him the whole story; the angle would be how tough things have gotten in publishing and what some authors would do to succeed. First Sasha with her fakers and now this. She knew it would totally discredit Master Woo Woo, but she didn’t care. And though there was a marketing firm out there that bought up books to try and spike a bestseller list, having an author do it in such a sloppy manner was a better story. Sometimes she felt like she ran a daycare, and this guy definitely deserved a time out in the naughty chair. By the time this article ran, he would be beyond unpublishable. MD would take a hit on this, a big one. If they were lucky, the curiosity factor would sell a few thousand. At least by beating the other papers to the punch, they wouldn’t look completely clueless. She finished up with Henry and then tracked down the storage facility where Woo kept his books.