Lame Pigeon's business performance had been disappointing.
Ever since his publishing house, Harbor Pigeon, released The Bride of Dragon Gold City, its reputation had steadily declined.
It was a tragic romance that sold reasonably well, but the vast majority of its sales came from Miss Mary Sue's loyal readers.
Word spread throughout the industry that Harbor Pigeon was a publisher that catered to women and published nothing but romance.
If all he wanted was stability and modest prosperity, continuing to cultivate the tragic romance market might have been a good choice.
But as Miss Mary Sue's fame grew, the publisher had to give her an ever-larger share of the proceeds—The Bride of Dragon Gold City alone had already resulted in a loss for them.
If Mary Sue's next work continued to receive a lukewarm response while he kept conceding more of the profits, theirs could hardly be called a harmonious partnership.
That was why he had been looking for other opportunities, hoping to publish books in other genres.
But perhaps the "tragic romance" label had become too firmly entrenched. With the business running at a loss, the share he could offer authors was not attractive enough to entice quality writers.
As a result, most authors still chose to take their new books to the publishers they regularly worked with.
There were no promising newcomers at the moment either, which only made expanding into new markets an uphill struggle.
"Actually, that Twilight Forest Guide had plenty of potential. With a little promotion, quite a few people would probably enjoy it.
"The dwarf jokes in it were the gold standard. Witty, humorous books like that never lacked an audience.
"Except dwarves. But that hardly matters. There aren't many dwarves in Dragon Gold City, and they don't like reading anyway."
Gnomes valued happiness.