“What?” he asked.
She turned her head and smirked at him. “Traditionally published books only pay the author about fifteen percent of the net on average of their sales. After their upfront contract amount. The publishers have overhead and take on the bulk of the advertising costs. When I publish a book myself, I get seventy percent of those sales. But I also have to pay for my advertising myself.”
“Got it,” he said. “Just like my agent gets a percentage of everything I do.”
“Yes, it makes them work harder if they want to get paid more, but they rely on us. My agent doesn’t get any part of my self-published books. I put out about six of them a year, give or take. That’s the bulk of my income, but it piggybacks on the success of my other three books.”
“Like me being a great quarterback gets me those sponsorships,” he said.
“Exactly,” she said, bumping her hip into his.
It wasn’t his long-game plan to make money that way, but once he realized he was marketable for it, he kept his nose clean to bring in even more.
Except for his house and his mother’s, he lived off his sponsorship money and invested his contract money.
“Did you think you’d be this successful?” he asked.
“I did,” she said. “Not because of my family name. I just knew I had what it took. I was lucky enough to get some short stories published in college. I had an agent fairly early. Some authors never get agents or publishing contracts and go on tohave extremely successful wealthy self-published careers. It’s all about marketing.”
“I know that,” he said.
“You’ve got to be every sponsor’s wet dream,” she said.
She shouldn’t have said that as he was taking a drink, causing him to cough and spit out some of his water.
Emma burst out laughing.
“I didn’t think you’d say that.”
“I say a lot of things people don’t think that I will,” she said. “Get used to that. I might not be good for your image.”
“I don’t care about those things,” he said.
Which was a lie.
He did care.
But he didn’t think Emma would do anything to tarnish her family name either.
If she was a little silly or funny, that wasn’t a big deal.
Normally, the media ate that shit up. Especially if it appeared human and not calculated.
“I think you do,” she said. “But you don’t need me for your career, and I don’t need you for mine. We should get that clear.”
“Crystal,” he said.
“I want you to know that news of us being seen together would probably make my readers or fans start watching football if they don’t already. That won’t impact your income though. I’m not so sure if your fans will check out my books.”
“They would,” he said. “You know that.”
And he hoped to hell that wasn’t part of a publicity stunt for her.
He hadn’t thought about it until now.
“Yeah,” she said, grinning. “They would. And it’d benefit me, but I don’t get to know people to benefit me for money. I don’t need to remind you what I stand to inherit, right?”
He snorted. “No. Which stands to reason what your family might think of me if they thought we might be dating.”
