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?
Comments
He may understand marketing, but not be the best person to carry out the mundane tasks of his marketing ideas. Marketing and Sales are separate in most businesses for a reason -- the skills and talents for one do not make one good at the other.
The more you can get him to help with those things he's good at, and save some of the other tasks for yourself or someone who is more suited to them, the better.
The hardest thing for me right now is having a full time job.
Marja McGraw