Bell, Book, and Scandal

Sixteen

As Jane, Shelley, and Felicity left the restaurant, Jane remembered to ask Felicity about Vernetta's epubbed book. 'Is it still up on the Internet somewhere?'

'I have no idea. Interesting question though. She probably didn't even know to copyright it, much less remove it from wherever it is.'

'Do you know the title of it?' Shelley asked. 'Jane says she never wants to read it, but I'm curious.'

'Someone told me the title,' Felicity responded, 'but I'm sorry, I don't remember what it was. Something with a word like 'Quest' in it. Finding someone? Searching?'

Shelley interrupted with another insight. 'Isn't it odd that Vernetta and Gaylord don't brag about the book or the story? All that Vernetta seems interested in is bragging about the money she's made or will make.'

Jane said, 'I'd never realized that, but it's true.

How much of an advance did she receive? Do you know?'

Felicity frowned. 'That I do recall vividly. A cool million. Of course, the publisher will spread it out as far as they can and try to make it up by making a movie deal to earn back the money.'

'That's interesting,' Shelley remarked. 'Does Sophie Smith often pay that much for anyone's book? As cranky as she sounds, I assumed she'd be stingy as well.'

'She is stingy. When I was with her the first time, it was all promises of bestsellerdom, but my part of the deal was to buckle down and produce the book in four months and take a rock-bottom advance so the publisher's money could all go into promotion. Lots of blah-blah about how it's a good idea to plan your income this way — drawing it out for as long a time as possible to save on bumping yourself into a higher tax rate all in one year and making horribly high social security contributions.'

'Doesn't the publisher pay half of your social security like other businesses do?' Shelley asked.

'They most certainly don't. And they don't give you any retirement benefits either. The author has to pay it all. What's more, on my royalty statements they always have more returns from Canada than the number of books they claimed to have shipped.'

Now Shelley had the stunned look, too surprised to even speak.

'I presume it didn't make you rich?' Jane asked.

'What do you think? No. I never even earned out the pitiful advance. I was young and stupid then. It was only my second book. I had a wimpy agent who was afraid to tackle someone as powerful as Sophie. Sophie even forgot to put any mention of my book in the sales booklet for the month it was released. And to answer your first question, Shelley, she often pays authors a bundle. But those people are the ones who are already highly successful. Many are merely unhappy with something about the publisher they're with. She lures them away with lots of money, then treats them as badly as she treats everyone else.'

She did a little shake like a dog does when it's wet. 'I shouldn't complain. I'm now with a good agent and good publisher and make a very comfortable living on my advances and royalties. Even though I have to turn over outrageous amounts of it to the IRS in estimated payments.'

'You deserve it,' Jane said, changing the subject as quickly as she could. She didn't want Shelley to go off on her own highly inflammatory opinions of the Internal Revenue Service.

As they were drawing apart to go their separate ways, Shelley said, 'Oh, Felicity, would you ask around and see if you can find out what the epubbed version of Vernetta's book is called? I'm curious.'

'I will. I promise. My payment to you for letting me vent. I think two of the people who claimed to have read it are here at the conference. I'll make a point of hunting them down.'

Jane went to the front desk and asked if they'd received a fax for her of the page Zac was clutching in his hand when he was found. They hadn't. She feared that the page had simply been thrown away. She tried to tell herself she was being silly thinking the page meant anything at all. Although she was still convinced that it might have some significance.

She and Shelley went up to the suite to read for a while. The two evening seminars that were going on sounded useless. One was another one about grammar. The other was about costumes. On the way upstairs, Jane had stopped by the room where the costume seminar was to take place and picked up the handout that listed reference books and what periods of time they covered. That was all she wanted to know. She supposed the speaker would simply go through this sheet and explain endlessly what was already on the list.

She and Shelley made another run at the books they'd collected. Jane realized that two of them were by the woman Felicity said was a wonderful friend who, unfortunately, let her character go stupid and put herself in danger at the end of each book. Jane wondered if the bookseller might let her return it in trade for something else she'd like better.

She put the question to Shelley, who replied, 'I'd guess the bookseller would if it was still in good shape. You haven't broken the spine yet, have you?'

This was one of the points that Jane and Shelley disagreed about. Shelley felt that books should remain in good condition forever. Jane's feeling was that if she'd paid for it, it was hers to abuse if she chose. Shelley had often come to Jane's house and seen a book squashed open, face down, on a counter or over the arm of a chair. 'Buy bookmarks, Jane!' she always said.

'Waste of money. I usually try to use something like a grocery receipt,' Jane would counter. 'If it's my book, I can do anything I want with it. I could tear pages out to wash windows. Take it into the bathtub and know it might come back out wet. Or put it in the trash if I'm not liking it.'

She'd never let Shelley find out that the reference books she'd purchased for working on her book were highlighted in yellow throughout. That would have put Shelley completely over the brink.

The phone rang and Jane was closest. 'Yes, thank you. I'll be right down to pick it up,' she said to the caller.

'What was that about?' Shelley asked.

'I have a fax at the front desk. Mel must have found the page Zac was hanging on to,' Jane explained. 'I'll be right back.'

When she returned to the suite and opened the

envelope, she was disappointed. She knew Mel said it was an old page with yellow edges. Unfortunately, the yellow turned into gray when faxed. The words on the outside edge were virtually unreadable. She sat down with a pencil at the dining table and tried to puzzle out what the missing words were.

Shelley was pointedly ignoring her. She was buzzing around picking things up and putting them away. She finally broke down after twenty minutes when there was no longer anything to move or clean up. 'Is it interesting?'

'Not especially. It's grammatically correct is the best I can say for it. It's a guy named Malachi thinking over why it seems to be so important to him to find a woman he's only seen in a dream that he's had several times. I'd wonder the same thing if I were he, but wouldn't fret myself about it.'

'So it's not worthwhile,' Shelley said in a voice of triumph.

'Who knows?' Jane said. 'Maybe the rest of it was really good.' The phone rang again. This time Shelley picked it up. 'Let me write that down. Jane, where's a notepad and pencil?'

'You put everything that wasn't nailed down away somewhere,' Jane said. She handed Shelley a paperback book and a pen from her purse and said, 'Write it down on the first page.'

'No. I'd ruin the book.'

'Suit yourself,' Jane said, not wishing for another round of how-a-book-must-be-treated.

With great reluctance, Shelley wrote something on the reverse side of the back cover.

'That was Felicity,' she said. 'The title of Ver netta's e-pubbed book is Martin's Quest