The First Department Meeting Contd…
Chapter - 36
"Owww... Alex, why are you being so shy? Just tell us, even if nobody likes them, you will get to know what and where you are lacking," Elaine said playfully, as she encouraged Alex to speak up.
"Yeah, and it's even possible that we might end up using them with some or no changes," Jennifer said, telling him of all the possibilities.
"You listened to them, go on". Karen said as she gestured for him to go on.
"I don't know. The more I think about it, the more I feel how naive these ideas...," Alex tried to build up the situation.
"Boy, I will crack you like a glowstick if I don't hear the ideas the next time you open your mouth," Karen said, without a change in emotion. She still sat there with her palms supporting her chin, looking at Alex.
Under Karen's calm yet dangerous gaze, Alex could only gulp down his next words, "I..." Alex started to say.
"Hmmm...?" Raising her eyebrows, Karen had a questioning look.
Now Alex could only come back to the topic and share his thoughts with everyone, "Well, I don't know why the upper echelon of this company is so adamant about going forward with this plan," Alex started. We need to keep in mind that in this day and age, everything is available online. Not many people might end up buying our books," Alex said as he told everyone to not have their hopes high.
All of them nodded while Karen remained calm, listening to Alex. She was well aware of this problem. But it was already instructed to her that this project of theirs was not there for profit. Profit was something secondary, or maybe tertiary, in the list of priorities. Because of this, she was more interested in the promotion and management of the company.
"Well, first of all, we all know there is something always going on here at Theation. There is always a movie or drama being produced at any given time, right?" Alex said.
They didn't know where Alex was going with this, but they still nodded in agreement.
"Now, with her exceptionally creative brain, Ellaine here suggested that we ask for a celebrity to endorse the company, right?" Alex asked.
"In a sense, yeah," Ellaine said.
"Now, on the same idea, we can have a different method of promotion. We do produce quite a few projects in the romantic genre, don't we? And there is always a cafe or bookstore scene in romantic movies. So why don't we use a bookstore or cafe scenes to promote the books of our own publications? Seeing the leads of the movie or series, reading a book, people might get curious and end up searching about them or even buy them," Alex said, "And since we are already producing the project, no need to pay an extra dime to the lead, "Alex said, and by the end, he was very excited about his idea.
At first, all of them thought that Alex was just going to give some silly suggestion to Ellaine's idea, but after hearing what he had to say, they have to admit that not only was it simple, but cost-efficient as well. All of them looked amazed at his suggestion.
"Why didn't I think about it? We don't need any resources for this. We can just go to any set and hand them over a book," Ellaine said as she lamented over her foolishness.
"That's brilliant Alex, way to go man," Hazel, who was beside Alex, said as she patted him hard.
"Ouch... Ouch... calm down, will ya? That's not a sure shot. This may not necessarily increase the sell of our hard copies. People might just download pdf from the internet". Alex soon poured water on their excitement.
"So, what do you suggest we can do to increase that?" Karen asked. She was beginning to get interested in Alex's ideas. Though she knew profit was not a priority. The company will welcome any profit with open arms. This is why she has not told anyone about this. And with the way Alex was going, he might end up giving them a good idea.
"Chief, let me ask you something. If you have to pass two or three hours, but you have no access to your phone, nor do you have anything else? What will you do in that situation?" Alex asked.
"I don't know... never really thought about it," Karen said.
Hearing Karen, Alex looked at others for an answer.
"Cook,"
"Laundry?"
"It's Laundry for me,"
.
.
.
.
"I would rather sleep," Jennifer was the last one to answer.
"Sleep it is," Alex said, pointing at Jennifer.
"What are you getting at? Can you stop with the riddles?" Karen asked.
"I am getting to the point, but before that, answer one more thing. If you are about to sleep because of boredom, and I offer you a book to read. What will you do?" Alex asked.
"If it's out of boredom, and I can do nothing else. I would rather read the book," Karen said.
Alex clapped in excitement, hearing Karen, "This can be our way to sell our books," Alex said.
"What are you saying? Can you be more specific with your words?" Karen asked. She was slowly losing her cool.
Alex's gaze moved from one person to the other before settling on Karen, "The second suggestion is..."