The Narrative Arc of Declining Margins
By Akiel Barton
Length11h 5m
About this audiobook
Three journalists. One corporate myth. Forty-five thousand dollars to bury the truth — or footnote it.
Some stories get published. Some get buried. And some get hidden in the footnotes, ninety-four words at a time.
When a regional media conglomerate commissions its own authorized history, it hands the contract to the three journalists it already destroyed. Delia, Calvin, and Priya are broke, uninsured, and professionally adrift — and they take the money, because of course they do. What they deliver is exactly what was promised: flattering, polished, corporate-approved prose.
What they also deliver is something else entirely.
Unfolding over one surreal autumn of bad coffee, worse faith, and increasingly elaborate academic citations, this is a story about what happens when the people who know the truth are handed the microphone — and choose to use it very, very carefully.
Audiobook details
GenreGeneral Fiction
Length11 hrs 5 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateApr 8, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Dedication
2Acknowledgments
3Chapter 1: The Severance Package, Reconsidered
4Chapter 2: Vantage Media Group: A Love Story
5Chapter 3: Three Journalists Walk Into a Corporate Lobby
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 4: The Contract
7Chapter 5: The Archive
8Chapter 6: Day One at the Content Factory
9Chapter 7: The Harland Voss Origin Myth
10Chapter 8: The Growth Years (Official Version)
11Chapter 9: The Footnote Question
12Chapter 10: Footnote One
13Chapter 11: The Carver Courier Chapter
14Chapter 12: Harland Voss, In Person
15Chapter 13: The PR Audit
16Chapter 14: The Footnote Architecture
17Chapter 15: The Dissenters (Internal)
18Chapter 16: The Competing Biography
19Chapter 17: The Personal Costs
20Chapter 18: Simone
21Chapter 19: Footnote Forty-Seven
22Chapter 20: The Legal Review
23Chapter 21: The Negotiation
24Chapter 22: Priya’s Decision
25Chapter 23: The Final Manuscript
26Chapter 24: Publication Day
27Chapter 25: The Long Game
28Character Guide
29References & Bibliography
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