Warren exclaimed excitedly, “60 thousand!”

Stunned, Mindy asked reflexively, “What do you mean, 60 thousand?”

“The daily sales! Yesterday’s daily sales exceeded 60 thousand books! It broke the sales record set by Murder Weapon back then! In the last ten… no, 20 years… there hasn’t been a book that achieved this level of sales!”

Warren emphasized each word he spoke, “Ms. Harrison, your new book has exploded!”

It wasn’t just a success, but it exploded in popularity!

At first, Warren also felt frustrated. Although he was mentally prepared for a tough start after publishing her new book, he hadn’t expected such dismal results.

Another editor, who had a long-standing rivalry with him, took this opportunity to mock Warren. He said that Warren was old, and his judgment had dulled. Warren offered Mindy a deal worth over a million dollars and signed her without hesitation, only for the book to be a total failure.

Warren ignored his rival’s taunts. Instead, he focused on figuring out what the problem was. He had read all of Mindy’s books. They were flawless in terms of theme selection and plot twists in the content. Each book had the potential to be a huge hit.

This time, they had even chosen the best of her works to be published first. Warren never thought that this would be the result…

It didn’t make sense!

Was Mindy considered outdated? Indeed, she had disappeared from the thriller novel industry for ten years. But Murder Weapon and The Deserted School were still on the charts, consistently selling month after month. The sales numbers weren’t low either. Clearly, it wasn’t that she was forgotten! The more Warren thought about it, the more puzzling it seemed. He decided to call a meeting with the publicity and marketing team. The content was solid, and Mindy’s reputation was maintained. That meant the problem had to be with the marketing strategy!

Sure enough…

After some thorough questioning, Warren discovered that the publicity team had focused their efforts on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, which were popular with younger audiences. However, most of Mindy’s readers were in the age group between 30 to 50 years old.

No wonder there was no traction. The target audience was completely wrong!

Warren immediately readjusted his strategy and shifted the promotional focus by the publicity team to book blogs and writing forums. He even put up billboard ads. Seven Days sold over ten thousand copies that very day, and sales continued to rise steadily over the following days.

But when was the moment the book started to go viral?

It all started about half a month ago.

A book reviewer with the social media handle, “Chubbyreader,” posted a status update on his account:

“Back in high school, my dad was a student who aced math but failed miserably in language and literature. He hates writing essays with all his being, and yet he is actually reading a book right now!”

He attached three pictures to his update, showing his own father engrossed in reading the book, along with a shot of the book’s cover.

“Chubbyreader” was also known for his hilarious antics online. Despite calling himself a book reviewer, he had become popular by sharing embarrassing stories about his dad online.

Strictly speaking, his dad was more famous than “Chubbyreader” was. Many of his followers were actually fans of his dad. When they saw the usually laid-back old man reading a book so seriously, they were utterly shocked.

Curious fans rushed to search for the book’s title. To their surprise, it was published in print. There was no electronic version to be found online.

Most people’s curiosity stopped there, but a few were determined to dig up the book’s content. They were curious to know what could possibly make a lazy, middle-aged man so absorbed in reading.

Conveniently, the book was available for purchase online, so they eagerly placed their orders. And then…

“Oh my gosh! Even someone like me who never reads novels was totally hooked!”

“I started reading at midnight under the covers with a flashlight. I can’t help but tremble with fear!”

“My mom walked in on me in the middle of the night. She thought I was sleepwalking or having a seizure. She almost called the ambulance!”

“I read the whole book in one go. There were no boring parts at all. Then, I went and found the author’s other two suspense thrillers… Let’s just say I was scared half to death!”