Chapiter 4 : Problemes

I go up to my room and start looking through and reading all the documents Karl brought in detail.

"Knock knock."

Elena gently knocks on the door before entering with my lunch.

Elena: William, I've brought your lunch. I made you something light. You shouldn't work too hard, you know. I didn't want to disturb you, but you've been in here for more than five hours.

William: Thank you, Elena. Don't worry, I'm fine. There's a lot to do, but it's manageable.

She gives me a kind smile before leaving, wishing me good luck.

Elena: Good luck, William. If you need anything, I'm here.

I settle down at my desk, surrounded by piles of documents. According to the reports, Majestic Publishing released 63 works in 1989, of which only three sold more than 100,000 copies. It's even worse than I thought. It's truly catastrophic for a publishing house once ranked seventh in America.

The company spent over $25 million just on advertising, only for its total sales last year to be limited to 3 million copies, five times less than three years ago.

Our books typically sell for around $15, and we sell them to libraries at $10. Given that we spend an average of $5 per book, we are left with a modest profit of $5 per book.

I continue calculating mentally.

William: With nearly three million books sold in the year, we barely made $15 million in profit. After deducting the authors' shares, which average 10%, we're left with $13.5 million. With $25 million spent on advertising and bank interest amounting to $500,000, we ended 1989 with a loss of around $12 million, bringing our cash reserves down to less than $8 million. Another year like this could be fatal. I don't have much leeway.

The figures are really overwhelming, and I feel a knot of anxiety forming in my stomach. The steep decline in sales, the massive loss in advertising, all paint a very grim picture of Majestic Publishing's current situation. I strive to stay focused, examining each line of the reports with meticulous attention.

Three million copies... How did it come to this?

I review last year's publications, analyzing the genres and authors, looking for patterns or obvious mistakes. But all I see are works that failed to find their audience and investments that did not pay off.

The strangest thing is that we spent a lot and took risks on either purely artistic works or beginner works without names or experience. The most likely reason is that after our talents fled to competitors, the company found itself cornered with beginners as the only option.

The numbers are terrible, but there must be a way out. The documents also include notes on decisions made by my parents before their death, attempts to diversify literary genres, and partnership agreements with emerging authors. Unfortunately, these efforts did not suffice to reverse the trend and even worsened the situation by spending more without concrete returns.

I think about what Karl said earlier. Cutting costs might be a temporary solution, but it risks tarnishing the company's image and further demoralizing employees, and it's not the solution. Although I think we should perhaps limit publications to fewer than 15 books and focus our resources on them.

Seeking investors seems more promising, but I don't want to share what belongs to me. So, that leaves me with publishing a successful work as the only viable option. Fortunately, I have my skill for that.

What if I use my knowledge and the works from my former world to revive Majestic Publishing? I could introduce stories and concepts that have already proven successful elsewhere. I note this idea in my notebook, promising to revisit it later.

For now, I need to keep informing myself as much as possible about the current situation of the company. I know that to make decisions, I first need to understand the problems I'm facing. As night falls, with a clear idea of the company's status, I feel exhausted but determined.

I am aware that the road ahead will be difficult, but I am ready to do whatever it takes to turn the company around and honor my parents' legacy. After all, this publishing house represents much more than just a business to me. It is a dream to fulfill, a bridge between two worlds, and perhaps the key to achieving my ultimate aspiration of dominating Hollywood. I thought as I fell asleep.

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Hello everyone,

I hope you're all doing well and that you've enjoyed my story. Just a quick announcement: starting today, I will try to publish a new chapter every day.

Thank you for your support and happy reading!

Your favorite author LastKing :-)