Page 51 of Doctorshipped
“Yeah. At least there’s that. Can you see a movie with Grant as the main character? Who would watch that?”
My phone pings with a text. It’s my agent.
Jim:Call me.
“It’s Jim.”
“What did he want?”
“He wants me to call him.”
“Why doesn’t he just call you?”
“It’s a thing with him. I’d better call him, though.”
Shannon nods and gets up from the couch to give me space while I dial Jim’s number.
“Jayme! Good to hear from you,” Jim says as if he’s surprised I’m calling.
“Hey, Jim. Yeah. I was just sitting here thinking I ought to call you. I’m not sure why. Maybe you can fill me in on that part?”
He chuckles. “Yeah. Yeah. Listen. I’ve been in contact with one of the acquisitions editors over at Heracles Press. She really likes the vampire series.”
“That’s great!”
“And she has the same request that everyone seems to bat back at me when it comes to pushing your series.”
I groan audibly. It’s not the most professional response, I know, but I’ve been around this issue so many times, I’ve practically memorized the next lines to come out of Jim’s mouth.
“You need to increase your engagement on social media. You need more brand-recognition, and most of all, you need to increase your followers.”
I face-palm and then scrub my hand down from my forehead to my chin. Thankfully, Jim can’t see me.
“Listen, Jayme. I know you don’t like this part of the business. But you contracted with me to help you get your books out to a wider audience. This is the way it’s done. If you don’t want to play by the rules, let’s step out of the game.”
“I hear you,” I concede. “Social media.”
“It’s not so bad. You could even hire a social media manager.”
“With all my surplus riches?”
“Some of them aren’t too pricey. Heck. You could get some savvy high schooler who knows her way around these things and have her manage your accounts. Bottom line, I don’t care how you do it. You just need to get on this. Show some effort. Once you gain another thousand followers, I can pass the results on to our gal at Heracles. They ultimately want you at ten thousand, but a movement in that direction will show them you’re gaining traction. I think that could be enough to make them good to go with a contract. That’s what you want, right?”
I think it is. I do fairly well writing under JJ Culhane and publishing independently, but having Heracles behind this series would boost my exposure. I’m not taking all my books in this direction, but I want to see how far my most popular series could go if I signed on with a publishing house.
“Okay,” I say. I try to contain my resigned sigh, but it slips out anyway.
“Atta girl. Well, I’m going to run. Thanks for calling. Good talk.”
“Bye, Jim,” I say, but the line already clicked dead. Oh, to be an agent. But, I guess he has his work cut out for himself with me being so reluctant to do the thing most people my age consider a normal part of life. I loathe the idea of pushing myself or my books onto people. And I don’t have half a clue what to post on social media. They may as well be asking me to go free diving for conch shells on the reefs of Bermuda.
A thousand followers.
That word:followers. It implies I’m leading them. Where? To what? Gah. And a thousand. Our entire town population is just over two-thousand-five-hundred now that a few of my friends had babies and Grant moved into town. I’m pretty sure I may be able to teach Mabel, Esther, and Memaw how to use social media, but I don’t think I’m going to get half the town to follow me. Let alone ten thousand total strangers.
I stare at my computer and type another fortune.When faced with a mountain, take the first small step.
Then I type another one:If you’re reading this, you aren’t mindlessly scrolling social media. Good for you. I probably won’t submit that one, but it feels cathartic to write it.
