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First, though, there were some apologies to be made. He had stepped on her glasses, and she had seemed upset. Hence, Blake had given her the remaining cash in his wallet. He’d been in a hurry to find his cousin, Amelia, which he had.
With a fucking ring on her finger and a grin on her face.
Moments later, her engagement to Senator Rutherford had been all over social media. Aidan, then Logan, then the rest of the Dufort family had phoned him after one of the photos had gone viral with him in the background.
That had been fun.
Trying to explain that he knew nothing about it was like being interrogated by the FB-fucking-I.
Jack seemed like a good guy and was clearly in love with his cousin, so Blake had told them all to chill and wait to hear from Amelia.
Then he’d had to rush to get changed for dinner.
Tonight, he was committed to helping Taylor, and if Bella turned out to be more than she appeared to be, they could have some fun. Then Blake could spend the weekend focusing on a small business matter.
He nearly snorted at his own private joke.
Small.Right.
The small issue that could destroy everything he’d built. His company.
After dating a girl in high school whose mom was an author and hearing her complain about her publisher, the clogs in Blake’s head had begun spinning. By the time he was halfway through his bachelor’s degree in computer science and business studies in college, he’d learned all he could about the publishing industry. Both traditional and self-publishing. It felt like there was a big hole which would serve both readers and authors.
One that was fairer.
One that gave them more choice.
One that was going to make him unpopular to the existing models out there. Oh well, never mind. He loved the idea of disrupting the marketplace.
And he had.
He’d begun programming and creating InkWell.
InkWell was a subscription business model which allowed authors to sell their book idea to readers before they wrote it. It funded their stories, offering bonuses like hardcover editions, bonus chapters, stickers, and other merchandise depending on what they paid.
It quickly took off.
Thousands of authors jumped in to create their InkWell account and began raving about it online to their fans. It went viral and...Bob’s your uncle.
Blake had a ready-made company to step out of college, and he began building it.
Now he had hundreds of employees and was a wealthy man. And he loved this part—authors increased their income.
Or had.
In the three years since he opened the doors to InkWell, Blake had been close to taking the company public.
Until six months ago, when an email had landed in his inbox from monster book retailer K-Books. They’d taken his idea and launched K-Scribe—their version of the subscription model and were offering authors 5 percent more.
That was no surprise. He’d expected competition and copycats and for his model to be cheaper.
Blake had begun doing the numbers to see if they would lower their rates now. They were off the ground, but then his finance manager had pointed out the small print he’d missed.
Authors using K-Scribe had to be exclusive.
Meaning they couldn’t use any other subscription model. Including InkWell.
And the banger?
