How Do You Fire Your Marketing Manager When You're Married To Him?

by Linda Thorne

My marketing manager is my husband. I realize I should feel lucky to have help because so many authors I know do not, and many of them work full-time jobs just as I do. Most of us can’t afford to pay for help either.

But, if my marketing manager misspells my lead character’s last name one more time, I think I’ll scream. He prepared return address labels with our street address so scrambled, I didn’t recognize it. When I complained, he called me a micro-manager. A couple of things were returned with no postage.

I’ve always had this dream marketing plan that every restaurant or place of interest where I’d set one of my scenes would have an owner ecstatic about putting up my book where visitors and/or customers would take notice. When patrons asked questions about why my book was there in full view, someone would tell them the book had just been released and an entire chapter was dedicated to their establishment. All those patrons would rush home and immediately order my book online.

So I assigned this task to my marketing manager, my husband, hoping I could keep writing my second book in the series with the limited time I had. But my husband got nowhere. He decided to send a general mailing out to each place. I thought a personal touch would work better, so I asked him to hold back one of the mailings and I’d try to make the contact myself.

I called the restaurant that I’d used for a setting in Chapter 18 and asked for the owner who promptly came to the phone. She was excited that I had a scene with her restaurant in my book, gave me her e-mail address, and asked if I wanted to come down for a book signing. Yes, she does want to prop my book up in her restaurant. So, why was this so easy for me, but so hard for my marketing manager? 

Then I checked out the Biloxi Yacht Club, the setting for another chapter. My husband said he tried, using the general phone number, and could not make contact. I checked online and saw that they’d named a new commodore who happened to be my husband’s doctor when we lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and his e-mail address was listed. This doctor knows my husband and would’ve remembered him if my husband had made direct contact. At this point I heaved a heavy sigh.

Okay, after I calmed down, humility hit center. Most of these places may want to talk directly to the author. I may need to take the time whether I think I have it or not. Also, I don’t know how I would’ve gotten a lot of things done without my husband’s help. He created my book trailer all on his own. He read about “branding” and created a new top for my website so the picture and header blended in with the business cards and bookmarks that he designed for me. I like being married. 

Keeping him around is much more important than my minor gripes. I’ll handle contacting the places on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where I’ve set scenes and I have a feeling if any of you visit any of these places, you’ll probably see my book out in the open somewhere.

Just Another Termination:

At long last, she lands a job with a good employer, but the trouble is just beginning…

Human resources manager Judy Kenagy hopes her days of running from bad bosses and guilt-ridden memories are over. But alas, she’s barely settled in when a young female employee is found shot to death, spinning her new workplace into turmoil. Small-town police chief, Carl Bombardier solicits Judy’s help in her role as the company’s HR Manager. While working with Judy, he shares his fanatical interest in a twenty-five-year-old double homicide he believes is linked to her last and worst bad boss. To make matters worse, the trusted assistant of her monster ex-boss starts showing up, keeping the unwanted connection going. When the pesky trusted assistant turns up murdered, Judy learns there’s a connection with the shooting death of the employee. She starts sleuthing at the crime scene and stumbles upon an important piece of evidence. Can she solve all of the murders with this single find? If she does, will she finally be freed from the demons of her past? Or are things not as they seem?

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