44. Chapter 44
forty-four
While Chloé moved about the kitchen, putting together their dinner and opening a bottle of wine to breathe, Monroe pulled up the financial files for La Fée du Livre and began scrolling through them, jotting down notes.
“A glass of wine while you work?” Chloé offered, leaning in to kiss the top of Monroe’s head as she set the drink down beside the laptop.
“Thank you,” Monroe said, lifting it to her lips for a sip. “Mm, that’s good.”
“It might at least alleviate the boredom,” Chloé smiled. “Anything of interest so far?”
“Welllll…” Monroe drew the word out, eyes still on the screen. “Not going to lie—it doesn’t look great. Profits over expenses are miles apart.”
“Hm. So a lost cause,” Chloé muttered, taking a deeper glug of wine as if to atone for it.
“I didn’t say that…”
Chloé’s eyebrows lifted. “Are you serious?”
“I don’t want to get your hopes up. There are a lot of things I need to check and re-check, but— Okay, look,” she pointed at the screen, “here’s the breakdown: each genre, each author, each sale.”
Chloé watched as the cursor darted across the screen; clicking, copying, reshuffling figures. It all moved too quickly for her to follow.
“Okay…” she said cautiously, trying to make sense of it.
“So, what I’m seeing is a lot of money being spent on things that just don’t generate enough in return. I’m sure poetry has its niche, but sales-wise…not so much.”
“Of course, but it’s not about the money when it comes to language and words,” Chloé countered.
Monroe stared at her for a beat.
“Okay, go on.” Chloé sighed.
“Alright, hear me out.” Monroe grinned. “I was looking at sales figures for Shutler Fitch. They’re sky-high in three areas: Fantasy, Crime, and Romance.” She flipped to another page, pulling up comparative charts. “But what they don’t have is diversity.”
“Okay…”
“Which is why they wanted your company. You have that niche.”
“But what does this mean for La Fée du Livre ?”
Monroe turned to her. “What if, instead of selling your diversity to them, you simply diversify yourself? Open La Fée to a broader genre range, pull in that commercial readership, and use the money you make from that to fund the more niche areas.”
Chloé stood up, wine glass in hand, as she mulled over Monroe’s suggestion.
“There are thousands of wannabe authors out there, all looking for a traditional publisher and struggling to find anyone willing to take a punt on them. Now add in the fact they’re a person of colour, or part of the LGBTQ+ community…”
Chloé turned, eyes meeting Monroe’s as Monroe continued to give her thoughts.
“How many opportunities are there out there for those authors?” Monroe asked.
“Not many.”
“But you could provide them.” She leant forwards slightly. “You could create an arm of the business that focuses on high-revenue genres, marketing and promoting those properly. If you could capture even ten percent of what Shutler Fitch earns, you’d be okay,” Monroe finished.
“More than okay.” Chloé smiled. “But how do we do that with literally no funds to last more than a couple of months?”
“We create a proper business plan. Go cap in hand to the bank and ask for a loan.”
“I don’t know anything about Romance. Or Crime. And Fantasy? Ooh là là .”
“You employ twelve people,” Monroe said, shrugging. “Someone will have the knowledge.”
“If this could work…” Chloé mused. “I need to organise another meeting with my staff.”
Monroe grinned. “Let’s do it.”