“Good grief… It feels as if someone is banging on my head with a hammer or something,” Stacy says and I know exactly what she means. I have a throbbing headache and we both stumble over to the kitchen to have some black coffee and aspirin. After while I start feeling slightly better and Stacy and I go and sit in the lounge, just to talk.
“What exactly are your plans now?” Stacy asks, “I guess you no longer have to go and grovel in front of fat old men for a job?”
“Nope, that part of my life is over… I’m definitely going to start something of my own and I’ve kind of been thinking that I’d like to open up my own magazine. Would you be interested in coming on board?”
“Interested?! I’d absolutely love it!” Stacy says and I suddenly feel very excited, despite the fact that my head still hurts. We talk about it some more and decide that there’s no point in allowing any grass to grow under our feet. We make plans to go and look for office space that very same day and it’s not long before we start thinking about various possible names for the magazine.
“What about Jenny’s travels?” Stacy suggests and I immediately like the name.
“But won’t you feel like you’ve been left behind if your name is not also in the title?” I ask, slightly apprehensively. I really value the contribution Stacy has made to all of this and I don’t want her to be left feeling as if she’s pulling on the short end.
“I can’t feel that I’m being left behind when the name was my idea?” Stacy asks with undefeatable logic and I nod my head.
“Okay, Jenny’s Travels it is!” I say and we clink our coffee cups in celebration of the birth of our magazine. We spend some more time sitting in the lounge, drinking coffee and recovering from the excess of the previous night. When we finally feel up to it, we get dressed, put on some makeup and then hit the streets to start looking for some office space. It doesn’t take as long before we find an office which looks really nice and we quickly call the number on the sign in the window which announces that the space is for rent.
“Yes, how can I help you?” A male voice asks at the other end of the line.
“My name is Jenny and I’d like to rent this office space on seventh Avenue,” I say, getting straight to the point.
“Okay… Have you got any collateral to put up as security?” the man asks, clearly apprehensive.
“Well, I don’t own any real estate or anything like that, but I do have money in the bank if that would set your mind at ease,” I say with a smile and Stacy sticks both her thumbs up in the air to indicate that she loves what I just said.
“Oh! I think that would be just fine!” the man quickly says and an hour later we are sitting in his office, signing the lease for the offic
e space.
“Isn’t it amazing just how easily these doors swing open now that we have some cash on our hands?” I say and Stacy heartily agrees with me. “You can say that again, I can still recall how my mother had to sign surety for me when I got my shitty little apartment… I definitely prefer this way of doing things!”
Over the next couple of days we get real busy and buy office furniture and everything else we need to get the magazine started. We spare no expenses and a hundred thousand dollars later we stand in front of Jenny’s Travels, watching the guy as he paints the name of the magazine on the window.
“This is just like a dream come true!” Stacy exclaims and we hug and dance around excitedly on the sidewalk. Then we go inside and get down to the business of preparing our first issue for publication. Stacy has a bit of background in publishing, as she used to work as an intern at another magazine. But she’s quit that job now and I have offered her double her previous salary to work with me, as well as giving her twenty percent shares in the business. At first, she objected to my generosity, but then I reminded her that none of this would have been possible without her input and her suggestion that I should take part in the virgin auction. We’ve decided to concentrate on Internet publishing, so I’ve also called in the help of an appetizer to get the word out about our new magazine. The bulk of our articles are going to be about local attractions in Los Angeles and we’ve already decided that we will be visiting some great restaurants in the area to write reviews and articles about their food.
“I guess we’ll have to behave ourselves slightly better when we visit these new restaurants than we behaved in that French restaurant right after the virgin auction,” Stacy says as we sit and discuss which restaurant to visit next.
“Yes, you probably have a point there!” I chuckle. I think about the tough times Stacy and I have been through and how we often went out to bars and restaurants in the past where we knew there would be free snacks, just to have something to eat. I realize that those days are now gone forever and that going to bed hungry would never be part of our lives ever again. It feels great to think that we will now be eating out in Michelin star restaurants as part of our job. I’m also planning on traveling around a bit and writing additional articles about the sights and tourist attractions around the area, just to add a bit of flavor and variation to the content of our magazine. Stacy is going to be taking care of the technical side of things, such as putting the pictures, text and advertisements together on well composed webpages.
“How are things looking with our advertisers? Have we got any companies yet that are interested in advertising their businesses in our magazine?” I asked as Stacy gives me an update on her progress.
“Yes, I had to give some of these companies a special rate just to get them started, but I’m happy to say that we do have some people who seem to be very excited by this magazine of ours and I think you will soon see our advertising revenue climbing sky-high,” Stacy says with great confidence.
“And subscriptions? I ask.
“I’m happy to say that we already have more than twenty paid subscriptions, just from the teasers and email blasts we sent out to announce the creation of the magazine,” Stacy says.
“That’s absolutely amazing! You mean there are people willing to pay three dollars a month for a magazine they’ve never even seen before?”
“You forget that I worked at another magazine before,” Stacy says with a naughty grin, “I still have some of the email lists which they used over there and I used all of the addresses on it to send out the information of our new magazine to people who already trust me when it comes to subscriptions, special offers and the like!”
Over the next couple of days Stacy and I work really hard and it’s not long before we are ready to put out our first issue. It consists, mainly, of some restaurant reviews, articles about tourist attractions in the area and short references to coming attractions. As soon as the magazine goes live, Stacy and I sit in front of my laptop, trying to gauge the kind of interest it is generating. We soon see some remarks in the comments section below the articles and they are all very positive.
“I just love your new magazine!” and “I never knew that Los Angeles had so many wonderful attractions, thank you for publishing this!” and many other similar comments along those lines. But it is the subscription page which really stuns and amazes me and Stacy. On the very first day, within the first hour after our first issue has gone live, we have more than fifty new subscriptions!
“That means we now have in excess of seventy subscriptions… and at three dollars per subscription, that means we are already getting in two hundred dollars a month in our very first month of publication!” Stacy says and we high-five to celebrate the success of the magazine.
“At this rate we will soon be looking at clear profit,” I say with great satisfaction and Stacy nods her head.
“Who would’ve thought that selling your virginity at an auction can lead to such a wonderful opportunity,” Stacy remarks and I have to agree with her that I am totally blown away by how all of this has worked out. We spent the next couple of days working on our second issue and I feel truly happy professionally for the first time in my life.