Chapter 70: Eighteen Thousand
Eighteen thousand copies sounded like belief until the returns clause turned the number round.
On Wednesday morning, North Quay's commissioning committee placed the frozen model at the centre of the table.
The 18,000 figure was still a recommendation when I sat down.
No printer had started, no paper had been committed and no warehouse held one Saltmere copy.
The committee first verified PageTurn's approved aggregate summary under the public pilot-to-print MOU.
Paid completion, qualified shop demand, regional commitments and capped return exposure matched the frozen pack exactly.
The twelve independent shops remained confirmed for their redistributed 300-copy provisional allocation across separate accounts.
Ireland remained at 900 future copies of capped intention, not unrestricted guaranteed sales or stock.
The 420-copy regional amendment remained a proposed inbound allocation after manufacture, not existing inventory.
The chair asked whether I would accept a safer 12,000-copy opening run.
That route would narrow distribution to selected UK channels.
It would also remove the two-book first-look package and its Irish reach.
The larger route carried higher manufacturing exposure, freight cost and more possible returns across two territories.
It also carried the book into the regions where readers and shops had actually paid and committed.
I asked for the first-look carve-out to be read into the minutes.
It excluded Marian Crowe, all Blackwater worlds and the unaccepted optional final volume.
It covered only my next two wholly new, independently created and separately submitted proposals.
Each proposal gave North Quay thirty calendar days to consider it before automatic written release.
No ownership or licence arose without a separate written agreement.
The committee confirmed every exclusion in the numbered contract version lying before me.
I accepted the 18,000-copy opening run despite the additional six thousand above my private ceiling.
I accepted UK and Ireland distribution under the existing capped Irish returns condition and freight allocation.
I accepted the strictly carved-out two-book first-look obligation.
The chair recorded all three choices as one Saltmere commercial package rather than three detachable promises.
They did not alter my old-book royalties or the frozen shared pen-name position.
North Quay then opened the independent Larkspur outcome at approved aggregate level.
Its audio advantage supported a profitable but smaller physical commitment.
The committee authorised 9,000 copies for selected UK channels.
Its contract granted a conditional option only after 65 per cent sell-through.
Oliver and Pippa retained their lawful audio route and separately credited new-project roles.
I saw only the authorised quantity, territory and trigger, not their private contract, advance or customer data.
They received the same level of public commercial outcome about mine.
Neither project had been expelled to make the other's result dramatic.
The difference lay in verified demand, format strength, cost and return exposure.
At 11:47, the chair signed the first print-run authorisations for both new projects.
Saltmere changed from SLOT HELD — PRESS NOT AUTHORISED to PRESS START AUTHORISED — 18,000.
Larkspur changed to PRESS START AUTHORISED — 9,000.
Only after those signatures could production issue paper commitments and machine-start instructions under separate controls.
Nothing in the authorisation converted those quantities into warehouse inventory.
Actual inventory would exist only after manufacturing, delivery, scanning and formal warehouse receipt.
The committee archived its minutes, cost models and two separate contract packs.
The neutral administrator for shared old rights had not scored either project or attended the commercial vote.
That office received only the confirmation that no legacy licence had been used.
I signed the Saltmere commercial terms and authorisation acknowledgement under Grace Ellison.
The production manager released the held slot against the authorised quantity.
Eighteen thousand stopped being a hopeful recommendation and became my manufacturing exposure.
Then I turned to the financial schedule attached behind the authorisation.
My agreed advance amount and instalment dates had not changed.
The next paragraph applied only after that advance had been recouped from royalties.
North Quay proposed holding 35 per cent of every royalty pound then payable as a reserve against returns.