The Thorne at My Side

CHAPTER 33

For The Record, Again

AUSTIN

"The start-up costs are personnel, the first few author advances, and production people. Printing is outsourced and quickly off set once the copies start selling."

"And you're confident these would sell." I ask as I thumb through the presentation.

"Absolutely, the romance genre is the fastest growing and highest selling subset on the market." Meredith tells me, which I already knew. She's an editor for TMC's book review section and has been working on the side to put together a business plan for a romance focused publishing house for me and Elle.

"Talk me through who I would need to hire." I say as I set the presentation down and look at Elle.

"Well, you two would be the C suite. CEO," she points to Elle, "would be in charge of directional choices and big picture thinking. Then Austin, as CFO you'd manage all the finances. To start you'd need a couple of agents, editors, designers, and marketers. But it is pretty easy to find independent authors on social media since they all use hashtags to get discovered."

"And what's that put us at for salaries, five million?"

"Probably. It depends on how seasoned the candidates are but figure 150-400k per hire including benefits."

I jot the numbers down. "Okay, thanks so much Meredith. Elle and I need to chat but I’m fairly confident we’ll be moving forward. Elizabeth, can you schedule a time for us to follow up in a few days?”

"Thank you Mr. Thorne, Ms. Thorne," Meredith says with a nod in both our directions before she stands up and leaves the office with Elizabeth escorting her out.

"Mr. Thorne?"

"Ms. Thorne?"

Elle and I both roll back with laughter.

"That's rule number one of this new company, no Mr or Ms's. Unless we're publishing a regency romance and then we could all use titles to get in the mood." Elle says as she stands and gathers up the presentation papers.

"So you're on board with this?"

"Yeah, it's not something I was seriously considering but when Meredith shared the data about women's sexual liberation through smutty romance novels, I was on board."

I knew she’d like that part of it. When I walked out of TMC two months ago I didn’t know what I was going to do next. When I came across an article about how the romance genre doubled in size over the last three years the idea hit. I had Elizabeth, who also left TMC, contact Meredith and get her working in the background.

"Is it going to be an issue that we're brother and sister?" I asked. Something about my sister saying the words “sexual liberation” makes me uneasy.

"We just won't let you read any of the books. Your little sentimental heart couldn't handle it."

I laugh, "I think there might be some stories out there inspired by me."

"Ew, no. Nope. We are not talking about your sexploits being inspiration for romance novels."

"Fine, but I could be and you’ll never know." I inform her. Maybe this is going to be fun after all.

"You will not be reading any of the submissions." Elle says.

"Submission sounds nice."

"GROSS!" Elle yells and then she storms out of the room. I laugh because she makes it a little too easy.

Just then my SMS Connect phone pings in my pocket. I pull it out and read the message from Maggie.

TalkShopGirl: I'm not sure if I told you this but I lost my job back in November. It was a job I had been working towards my entire career and one I thought I would do for years to come. When I was let go I felt really lost.

I went home for a while and tried to figure out what to do next. Right around New Year's I was offered a new job that would last until March. I've never taken a short term role before but I wanted to get back to D.C..

Now this job will wrap up soon and again I find myself questioning what I should do next.

But this morning I woke up to an email from someone who I didn't think even knew who I was, someone with a lot of influence and resources, someone who has been aligned with people I didn't want to do business with. He offered me something I don't feel great about but the paycheck is big. Like eyeballs bugging out of your head big.

So now, as I sit here in my chair, I find myself wanting to talk with you through the details. I want to get your opinion. I want to know if you think I should take the money and run or turn it down and trust something else will come my way.

It's funny, everyone else in my life that I could ask about this is predictable. I know what my parents, my siblings, and my friends would say. But I don't know what you would say.

I finish reading the message and am dying to know what offer she got. The urge to text her as Austin and say "so anything new?" is strong enough to have me pulling out my iPhone. Instead of sending a note to Maggie, I place a call to someone we both know. Time for phase two.

◆◆◆

"Welcome back to the podcast Austin Thorne, we were excited when you reached out to us."

"Thanks for having me, Charlie."

"We've got a lot to cover, so let's dive right in." Charlie says and then he turns towards me. "Give us an update on AI Media."

"Well, as you probably know, initially it was well received. The users loved the customized content and our readership levels grew steadily."

"How did you measure readership?"

"We tracked daily users, the amount of time they spent on the app, and the number of articles they swiped through. There's a formula that uses those factors to determine the number of words read each day."

"Care to share why the product was shut down?"

"It wasn’t my call but the product was deemed a liability following the incident at the end of the year."

"For our listeners, AI Media was engulfed in controversy over an article it summarized and distributed with misleading information in it."

"It was one little mistake with a compound effect. We worked to correct the error as quickly as possible but the damage was done. I empathize with the families impacted."

"And empathy is important to you?" He asks.

"The most important. Without it we view every human we come across as a threat, as someone who might take everything from us. Instead, empathy allows us to think about how our advantages or disadvantages are different from others. Not better or worse, simply different."

"That's a very philosophical thing to say. This podcast audience might be in over their heads." Charlie says with a little laugh.

"Well then, they'll learn some empathy for the desk chair philosopher I am."

"Good point," Charlie says with a laugh. "Alright, let's get back to AIM and this other feature the public is only now learning about."

"Right," I say before I clear my throat. This was a quick decision I made after getting Maggie's SMS Connect text yesterday.

It was time for the world to know that she didn't lose her job because she was bad at it, she lost it because AI Media cheated. We used her words against her. And I haven't felt good about it for a long time. When I called the producer for this show I explained to her that I would be revealing an exclusive to this podcast.

"Well, when we first released AI Media back in the fall the public knew about the custom news features of the app. But what they didn't know was that we were also using the software to generate speeches."

"Speeches?"

"Yes, political speeches, debate scripts, media responses. That type of content was being written by our software to appeal to the target audience."

"So instead of custom news, people were hearing custom speeches?"

"No," I correct before the world spins out thinking the speeches weren't live or something. "The speeches would be delivered as usual, it's just that the wording was customized to who was in the audience."

"Kind of like how politicians always say "Go local sports team!" when they're on the road?"

I laugh, "sort of like that."

"This is interesting," Charlie says. "We're going to step away for a break but we'll be right back with Austin Thorne of TMC’s AI Media."

Because this isn't a live show all he does is look to the producer through the window who counts down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 on her hand before he picks right back up. "Welcome back, listeners. So Austin, you were telling us about the speech writing capabilities of AIM."

"Yes, this technology was utilized by political candidates in the fall."

"Can you tell us who?"

"No, I'm not at liberty to say."

"Fine." Charlie says with a little pout. "I want to ask about the lawsuit AI Media issued against some of it’s users.”

“Sorry Charlie, I cannot comment on ongoing legal disputes.”

“Man,” Charlie laughs, “You called us to be on the show! You’re not sharing anything. But actually, if you're not going to share who the speeches were for or what the lawsuit is about; can you tell us why you're sharing this information now."

"Well, a person I respect and admire lost their job because AIM was being used to write speeches. This person believes in elevating the discussion and the goal for AIM generated content was to find the lowest common denominator.

"I often disagreed with this person because I focused on the bottom line of this product. How more people would use it if they felt the news agreed with them. And, I was right, for the record, but I also saw in the data that people's opinions started to skew even further from the middle. They get stuck in an algorithm that took them further away from common ground. And that concerns me."

"How so?"

"Well, this country takes all sorts of people to make it work. It does best when diverse groups of citizens come together for the good of everyone. It feels like that is slipping away from us now. That we only want to interact with people who think like us. And while that might be easier, it's fucking boring."

He laughs, "You seem to feel passionate about this, Austin."

"Yeah, I do, I am, because I've found a person who challenges me and makes me think deeper about issues. She pushes me. She's the person I want to talk to about things. We come from different places. We have different opinions. We hardly ever agree." I let out a chuckle as Maggie's face comes to mind. "And even though she frustrates me to no end, I'm grateful she's in my life."

"Who is this lucky lady?"

"Again, I'm not at liberty to say," I reply with a smirk.

"Well you know we always get to dating on For The Record, so does this mean you, Austin Thorne, are off the market?"

"I hope so."