Page 67 of Between the Lines

“It shows,” Karey said. “As far as Centurion Publishing goes, we’re very interested,” she continued. “Not in the sense of making promises yet, but in the sense that we see real potential here.” She leaned forward slightly. “We think this could appeal to a broad market. Not just women your age, but also those who knew you as a supermodel, those who grew up with you, and those who are generally interested in celebrity books.”

“That’s great,” Blaise said, without hesitation. Although she didn’t, under any circumstances, consider herself a celebrity.

Karey smiled. “We do have some ideas about the book. One of them is the idea of the book’s structure. In other words, using key moments in your life as anchors for the story rather than a strict chronology. It would keep readers engaged without feeling like they’re reading a timeline.”

“That makes sense,” Blaise said. “I’ve been gravitating toward that anyway.”

“I suspected as much,” Karey said. “Which brings me to a few questions, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course.” Blaise exhaled. This wasn’t as intense as she’d imagined it would be.

Karey glanced at her notes again. “First, how comfortable are you with being very specific? Names, places, the brands you worked in, the financial aspect, those kinds of things. I guess I’m really asking where your boundaries are. How open you’re willing to be.”

Blaise reached for her water, took a sip to buy thinking time, then set it down. “I’m comfortable being specific when it matters to the story,” she said. “And I’ll be honest here. I’m not interested in protecting people who didn’t protect me. But I also don’t want the book to turn into some kind of scorecard. This isn’t a tell-all, except where it comes to my life.”

“We can live with that,” Karey said. She paused, then said, “Second question. What does success look like to you for this book? Sales are part of it, obviously, but on a personal level—what do you want out of this?”

Blaise didn’t need to think long. “I want it to make people feel less foolish for having trusted someone only to have that trust betrayed. I want people, especially women like me, to see it’s okay, and very possible, to start over. I want readers to see that losing everything doesn’t mean you’ve lost yourself.”

She also needed the money, but she wasn’t about to tell Karey that.

Karey nodded slowly. “Those are all wonderful goals.” She smiled again, wider this time. “Last question for now. Are you prepared for the fact that once this is out in the world, people will have opinions about it, and about you?”

Blaise met her gaze through the screen. “They already do,” she said. “This book isn’t about trying to control some sort of narrative. It’s about telling the truth. About telling my story.”

Karey sat back, visibly pleased. “That’s exactly the answer I was hoping for. I assume you’re shopping this to other publishers?”

“I am,” Blaise confirmed.

“Please let us know if another publisher expresses serious interest.”

“I can do that.”

“Thank you.” Karey closed her notebook. “This has been a great start, Blaise. I’ll be sharing my notes with the rest of the team, and we’ll be in touch soon about next steps.”

“Thank you,” Blaise said. “I appreciate the conversation.” Before Karey could wrap things up, Blaise glanced at the legal pad beside her laptop. “I have a few questions, too, if that’s okay.”

“Of course,” Karey replied. “Go ahead.”

“First,” Blaise said “I want to ask about rights. What are you typically looking for? Print, ebook, audio?”

Karey nodded. “Yes, all of those. We’d be looking for North American print, ebook, and audio rights to start. When it comes to audio, we might also want to retain you as a narrator. It’s very popular right now to have celebrity books self-narrated. Of course, there would be an additional consideration for that.”

“That’s good to know,” Blaise said, making a quick note. If there was extra money to be made, she was all for that.

“And what about foreign rights?” she asked.

“We usually ask for the right to shop them,” Karey said. “But again, that’s negotiable. Some authors prefer to keep those with an agent or handle them separately.”

Blaise nodded. She liked hearing the word “negotiable.” She did not, however, have an agent as of yet.

“What about distribution?” she asked. “What are you thinking? I guess I’m asking how wide your reach is.”

“We have solid national distribution,” Karey said. “Independent bookstores, chains, online retailers, big-box stores. This wouldn’t be a limited release. We’d expect to support it properly, especially if we move forward with the positioning we discussed.”

“I assume when you say you’d support it, you mean marketing?” Blaise asked. “What does that realistically look like?”

Karey didn’t hesitate. “So that would be a baseline campaign from our side. Advance reader copies, pitching to reviewers, podcast outreach, social media support, and in the case of someone with a name, like you, we’d pitch some talk shows as well.”