Page 106 of Driven Daddy

I knew Larsen was the best numbers guy there was. His strength was in manufacturing engineering, but he’d really taken on a lot of the backend parts of Duality Press. Things that I didn’t have the patience for.

“Not to be indelicate, but with newspaper distribution lessening, I was wondering if you might be interested in working with us to find a way to utilize the machinery you have. I didn’t realize you used to do magazine work, as well.”

Asher looked up from the packet. “It’s been a damn long time since those machines have been operational.”

“We’re willing to put our money where our mouth is, so to speak. As you can see from our sales, it wouldn’t be a small output. We’d make it worth your while to use the press for us. Perhaps, we could bring in more indie operations such as Rita, as well.”

Rita swiveled her head to where I was pacing near the window. “Right. I hadn’t thought about that. I’ve used print-on-demand things for my series and overseas for special editions through some crowdfunding.”

“Overseas,” Asher grumbled. “My printing presses are just as good as theirs.”

Pouncing on that, I moved to the front of his desk. “Exactly that. I prefer to keep my printing here in the US. And if I can use my hometown—maybe even add some jobs to the town— I would much prefer that to doing backflips to get in line with the larger press operations. I have the product, I just need help with the output.” At Asher’s frown, I continued. “And the numbers. Hell, I have so many preorders for Ryan’sTripodcollection that I’m not sure I can meet them without hunting down another place to do a second printing.”

Asher folded his hands over the papers. “I need to speak with some people—more importantly, find some people who can work that offset printer again. It’ll need a lot of work to get running again. You sure you can wait on that?”

“Better than the eighteen months wait I’ve been offered elsewhere. The only places who can print faster have overhead that is astronomical. And even then, I can’t trust the work to be prime. I refuse to put out a sub par product, and it’s fucking killing me.”

“What he means to say is?—”

I cut off Larsen. “No, that’s where I’m at. I went into this small press game to try and help artists get paid what they’re worth. I refuse to be the same as my former publisher. Overhead is a fact of life, but I don’t want it to be so stupidly high I can’t pay my people.”

“I appreciate the passion, Penn. And I confess that’s what makes me want to look into this further. Wainwright Publishing Industries was built to report the news. When that changed, I started forward thinking for the future to keep us afloat. The idea of returning to my roots is intriguing.”

When I opened my mouth, Asher held up a hand.

“But that means I have to crunch a hell of a lot of numbers. I have people to take care of too.”

I swallowed. “I appreciate that too.”

Asher stood and held out his hand. “Not how I expected today to go.”

“I hope that’s a good thing.” I said, shaking his hand.

“Remains to be seen.” Asher looked to Larsen. “These figures—if they’re not inflated—are damn good.”

“I lowballed them,” Larsen said easily. “Our preorder numbers are far greater for Penn’s ongoing series, but we’ll only be able to sustain that if we have the product to back it up.”

“Also, something to consider.”

“All our details are in the packet.” Larsen stood up.

Asher held his hand out to Larsen. “I’ll be in touch.” He came around the desk and stopped in front of Rita. “I should be unhappy with the ambush, but the idea of working with authors for special edition novels is just as intriguing as working with Penn. I hope you know that.”

She bit her lower lip. “I’d be interested in working with you there, as well.” She glanced at me. “Maybe through an imprint within Duality Press.”

She could have knocked me over with that sentence.

I moved close to her and took her hand then added a squeeze. "We can definitely talk about that."

Asher walked us to the door and down to the elevators. "I'd be interested in interviewing both of you for my new podcast. With the Hometown True Crime research team, we end up reading a hell of a lot of books. I've become quite interested in authors and how they work."

"I'm always down to talk about myself."

"Ain't that the truth," Larsen said dryly.

I laughed. "We'll set something up."

"And with you going solo, Rita might be a great way to talk to your fans." Asher hit the button for the doors to open.

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