If the specialist writer agrees to proceed then it would cost another £15,000 to get a draft book from him. Give a copy to the book publishing company to see if they consider it publishable. You may have to jettison the project if they say they wouldn’t want to invest in it.
Given the controversial nature of the project you need to set aside £20,000 for legal clearances. Some rewrites may be necessary. These rewrites also need to be submitted for legal clearance. Some books never survive this stage.
By the way, legal clearance doesn’t mean you can’t be sued. You should try to get insurance for this.
So unless you can get your hands on £60,000 then forget about the project”.
Darren asked “What income can I expect from book sales?”
The friend replied “It might not even cover its costs. Under 1% of books make a good profit. Don’t forget, biographies are not good sellers”.
Darren was aghast at the costs involved and concerned about ending up being sued in court, He asked “What is your gut feeling about the project?”
Felix replied “A book solely about other people’s sex lives is unusual. This novelty makes it an attractive proposition”.
Darren asked if his friend wanted another lager, which he did. They clinked bottles.
Felix continued “If you can get a specialist biography writer to agree in principle to undertake the task you need to approach a few “Angel” investors to fund the first stage. The Angels take the first bite of any profits. If you can find 2 Angels to invest £10,000 each II will also invest £10,000 of my own money”.
Darren thought that this was a generous gesture by a close friend. He didn’t know that Felix was the man that Brenda had spoken about to Ms A. This investment was also a way of keeping in touch with Brenda. He still harboured hopes.
A year later Darren had a book, totally financed by professional book investors, with legal clearance and approved by a Biography Publishing Company and printers waiting to be told of the release date. Darren wanted to launch the book as soon after Alan’s sacking as possible
Humiliating Alan At A Public, Press Attended Event
Darren’s plan had 3 stages. First, Darren intended to use a charity event to humiliate Alan. By now Darren, Brenda, Rosie and I were friendly. I felt that Darren was now going OTT in his plans for revenge. To be fair Alan worked hard to publicise and fund a local kids charity.
The Charity’s main funding event was a golf themed weekend at the Studland Grand. It was a chance for people to go 9 rounds with a 2 handicap golfer on a small pitch.
Darren had some obscene ideas, like giving this now teetotal man alcohol. Another idea was to engineer an argument which the press would publicise.
We agreed to get a par 2 golfer to bet Alan £50, payable to the kids charity, that he would beat him. The money was an irrelevance. The revenge came because we all knew Alan hated to lose at golf. But a crowd of people seeing it happen would make it worse for him.
After 9 rounds they tied and had a one hole decider. When they tied this hole (and the crowd were getting bored) they agreed to each donate £50 to the charity. The local press had a photo and small article about this “epic”.
The End Results
Shortly after the event, Alan was suspended and then dismissed. Three weeks later the book was published.
Alice left Alan and ran “York Swingers Club” which specialised in “lowest card strip” events. She married her lesbian girlfriend.
Felix got a return on his £10,000 investment as the book made a respectable profit.
Brenda was sacked for revealing sensitive information about Ms D. She regretted ever telling Darren about Alan. She left Darren to live happily with Felix.
Darren lived a lonely existence after Brenda left. He suffered from depression for many years afterwards. He regretted the book and the plan for revenge.
Rosie and I never really got used to the sniggers of our neighbours. We regretted getting involved with Darren’s rotten book. It soured our relationship but we stayed together,
Alan’s shares doubled in value after 2 scripts he had project managed were accepted for filming. He sold all his shares and lived quietly in a remote Essex village. He remained teetotal and supported a local charity. He had a few romances but never married again.
He was glad that one of his young staff members was now a Director. When he died he left some money to Rosie and I as an apology for his past behaviour.He left money for the child charity and his local charity.
Most of his estate was left to provide money to help develop young scriptwriters.
The specialist biography writer went around the world on expenses to promote the book. He earned a decent living from subsequent books.