After swim class, the three of them were walking home when Emma suddenly looked up and asked, “Mommy, how much does an adult’s dress cost?”
Jolene murmured, “There are expensive ones and cheap ones. Cheap ones are around ten dollars, pricier ones are a few dozen, and the ones rich people wear cost even more.”
“Then, Mommy, can you use this $20 to buy an adult’s dress for yourself?” Emma pulled the $20 bill out of her pocket, stood on tiptoe, and pressed it into her mom’s hand.
Jolene froze. “Emma, are you trying to buy Mommy a dress?”
“Yes. Last time you bought clothes for Emma, but you didn’t buy any for yourself. Emma wants Mommy to wear something new.” Emma looked up with wide, serious eyes.
Jolene’s heart melted on the spot. She blinked. “Mommy didn’t buy clothes because she wanted to save enough first. And right now, we only need summer clothes. Mommy still has clothes to wear. When autumn comes, we’ll go shopping for both of us together. Mommy’s an adult—she doesn’t need new clothes every day. But Emma is growing, and her 3-year-old clothes don’t fit anymore, so that’s why we needed to buy her new ones. Still, I’ll take this $20—it’s a gift from my daughter, and I’ll keep it safe.”
Seeing that her mom accepted her wages, Emma beamed with happiness.
Summer vacation had started at the Inner Sunset District public elementary school, so Ben and Emma no longer had to go to school and stayed home all day.
Jolene didn’t have as much time to write anymore. During the day, she took the kids outside to soak up the sun and get more outdoor time. In the afternoon, she had them study and do homework. Before bed, they played the Escape Room game together, read picture books, brushed their teeth, and went to sleep.
Only after the kids were asleep could Jolene squeeze in two chapters of writing.
Now she finally understood why parents on social media always said “the little monsters are on the loose”—summer break really was exhausting when the kids were home all day.
Still, this was her actual job, so she accepted it without complaint.
She stopped following the news about her first book. Royalties were paid quarterly anyway, and it wasn’t time to collect yet. Even when it came, it’d probably only be a couple hundred bucks.
Just as Jolene had made peace with that, Brian suddenly called her.
“It’s blowing up—The Ex-Wife’s Revenge is going to be huge!” Brian’s voice nearly cracked. Before Jolene could even react, he rushed on, “I told you I had good taste! Oh my God, this world is so wild—someone actually used your book as a textbook? I’m getting a raise for this, hahaha!”
Jolene was dumbfounded. She had no idea what he was so excited about. He was just rambling on without her even saying anything.
“So,” Jolene had to cut him off, “what exactly happened?”
“Oh my God, you haven’t seen the news? Turn on CNN right now—it’s on a rolling broadcast,” Brian said rapidly. “I’m going to ask the editor-in-chief to ramp up promotion for you. We might even need to sign a reprint contract. This is amazing…”
Jolene turned on the TV—she rarely watched it, only when she needed to catch the news.
She switched to CNN. At that moment, they were broadcasting political news, with nothing about her book.
She was confused. Had some celebrity read her book, and that’s why it was on the news?
After watching for over ten minutes, the news finally cut to a segment.
On screen, a Black woman was holding up a copy of The Ex-Wife’s Revenge and saying something.
Her voice wasn’t very clear, but subtitles ran below: she said she’d read this book and discovered that her husband and lawyer had conspired to fabricate debts, leaving her with very little compensation when they divorced.
The book clearly described how the female lead’s husband had done the exact same thing—in great detail. The Black woman realized her situation was similar, hired a lawyer to gather evidence proving the debts were fake, and discovered it really had been her husband’s scheme. In the end, she finally got back the assets she deserved.
Even the news anchor looked surprised—clearly stunned that someone had actually used a popular novel as a textbook, learned from it, and successfully reclaimed her property!
In the segment, the woman held the book high and shouted, “So, sisters, I recommend you all read this book. The single mom in it really successfully took revenge on her husband. Let me tell you—when I bought this book, I was in a bad mood and just liked the word ‘revenge,’ so I wanted to see how it played out. I never expected that for only $10, I’d get back $30,000…”
The background audio faded, and the camera returned to the CNN anchor, who said with some surprise, “Our reporters have investigated and confirmed this is a true story. We also interviewed the lawyer representing this woman, and he personally confirmed that he recently helped his client recover $30,000 in shared marital assets—so this is not an advertisement…”
Jolene’s mouth dropped open. She was completely stunned. You could do that?
All those plot points—she’d researched some at the library, some were common tropes from her past-life writing, some came from U.S. legal cases, and some she’d completely made up. And it actually worked?!
Wait—this didn’t even have much to do with her book. The real credit went to that woman. She was amazing!
This was CNN news, and that meant free exposure was coming her way.
Before long, Brian called again.
“I’ve already gotten approval from the editor-in-chief. We’re going to run a book promotion in The New York Times and recommend your book to Oprah’s Book Club—using today’s news as the perfect marketing hook. Also, we’ve decided to increase the print run. We’ll need to sign a reprint contract,” Brian said rapidly. “I’ll mail the contract to you right away.”
“Wait—is the royalty still 3%? How many copies are you reprinting?” Jolene wasn’t letting success cloud her judgment. She’d read the contract carefully—there was no mention of reprint royalties, because nobody had expected this book to blow up over a news story.
On the other end, the editor who’d been chattering nonstop suddenly hesitated. He cleared his throat and lowered his voice. “Here’s the thing—you haven’t really built up your name yet. If I suddenly ask for a higher royalty rate, I’m afraid the editor-in-chief might cancel the promotional plans altogether. So why not wait until you’re more established to renegotiate?”
Jolene understood. He didn’t want to take the blame. Everyone was out for themselves—Brian wasn’t going to stick his neck out for her and argue with the editor-in-chief. From his perspective, he was her discoverer, the only one who’d believed in her book from the start.
Jolene didn’t mind. This was only her first book—she’d have much more leverage for the second one.
“Fine. Send the contract over. How many copies are you reprinting?” Jolene continued.
Brian let out a sigh of relief, glad she was being so easy to work with. “We’re reprinting 50,000 copies. Whether the later marketing strategies work, I don’t know—traffic is one thing, but the book’s quality and whether readers actually like it is what really matters…”
“Okay, I understand,” Jolene said calmly.
She did the math: if all copies sold out, she’d earn a total of $18,000—not bad at all, equivalent to about half a year’s income for a middle-class family.
Of course, that was only if everything sold. She was satisfied with that.
Early on the third day, Jolene received the contract, signed it, and mailed it back.
Soon, Jolene spotted her book in major bookstores everywhere—and The New York Times had published a story about both the book and the woman’s case.
Sure enough, making money for the publisher was what mattered—they were willing to promote her now.
When Jolene visited the bookstore, she saw her book back on the central display shelves.
Some middle-aged women with kids would pick it up, flip through it, and eventually head to the register to pay.
At $10 a copy, it wasn’t expensive—and housewives were willing to spend that much.
Jolene felt happy inside. It meant her book had a real market.
Meanwhile, at HarperCollins, young editor Garden Hall was fuming as he read the New York Times coverage.
He’d told the editor-in-chief from the start that this book had market potential. No matter how many times he’d applied, the editor-in-chief wouldn’t even give it a chance.
In Garden’s view, once the September movie came out, if the publisher just invested a little in promotion, this book would sell big. He’d read the first ten chapters—the prose was average, but the pacing was great. Especially the first three chapters—they grabbed readers immediately, different from current popular styles. There were always readers who liked stories that got straight to the point, with tight pacing and strong conflict.
Unfortunately, Garden was just a junior editor, and the editor-in-chief didn’t think much of him. He could only sit there stewing.
But he couldn’t help himself—he vented to a colleague, saying a few things about that book.
And as luck would have it, the editor-in-chief overheard.
Yes—Garden was out of a job.
Turning back to look at the HarperCollins sign on Broadway, he felt a pang of disappointment. He’d interned and worked there ever since graduating—he had emotional ties to the place.
But maybe it was for the best. A smaller publisher might offer more room to grow.
So Garden decided to apply only to publishers that focused on popular fiction—specifically smaller ones. His big-name experience paid off, and he was quickly hired by Dell Publishing.
Dell Publishing was also on Broadway, close to his old employer, slightly smaller in scale. They specialized in mass-market paperback bestsellers, covering romance and mystery—aimed at the general public. It suited his goals much better than his old company.
And the first thing he did after joining? He knocked on the editor-in-chief’s door.
Leave a Reply