Stephanie Masters has everything a young editor needs to make it to the top in the book publishing world -- except a marketable author.
When junior editor Stephanie Masters stumbles upon a literary gem in her employer’s slush pile she envisions a rose-strewn path to becoming the youngest publisher at Icon. But she has hitched her hopes to an author who is unable to promote his own book. She concocts a scheme to create a marketable author who will appease her employer and charm the reading public. When it all begins to go wrong, she sees her world crumble.
Professional Reviews
A great story overall
An original and well-thought out plot and dynamic characters are expressed by some very high quality writing to make this book one of the best that I have read all year.
The author has a very captivating and smooth tone that is combined with a well-refined writing style that delivers an emotional and immersive story. I thought that each character was very unique in their own way and they each fit into the overall story very nicely, they all have just the right amount of detail for them to retain some life-like qualities without going over the top and I think that the author has found that perfect medium between making the reader wonder what is going to happen next and being descriptive.
I enjoyed the book a lot and I will definitely be looking out for future releases by the author, I hope that he can craft a story just as good as this one
Entertaining, educational, provocative
As a junior editor in a publishing company, Stephanie Masters is becoming increasingly unhappy about her obscurity--she has little hope for promotion, with the publishing industry as viciously competitive as it is. But one day, she chances on an astonishing little manuscript written by a virtually unknown Clay McKenzie. But dampened by the lack of access to the decision-maker in her publishing company, Stephanie takes the bull by the horns and calls up the manuscript's author directly. But Clay McKenzie, hounded by his own personal demons, couldn't see things in plain black and white and regards the enthusiasm of this young junior editor for his manuscript with suspicion and resentment: apparently, much to my own personal education, there is a difference between being a writer and being an author--the writer writes but the author sold books, and selling books is not what a "great writer" like Clay McKenzie had in his mind and heart when he wrote his manuscript. What ensues is a maddening, pulsating tug-of-war, a "race" for Stephanie to bring the manuscript to market with the help of friends who, often, brought their own dilemmas into the mix.
While immensely entertaining (here's a book for which the phrase `rollercoaster ride' is totally applicable), the book succeeds in educating the reader about the rigors of the publishing game--what it takes to get a book published, the author's responsibilities, and what are currently the new options brought about by digital technology.
The authors intimately understand the joys and sorrows of publishing, and they have articulately expressed it in the book--after all, author Ed Teja has years of experience in the publishing game.
In a post-coup America, an Illinois farm boy is drawn into the resistance by his brother's death. Captured, he is given a choice: betray his friends, or the girl he loves will be lobotomized.
