How Neiman Marcus screwed me in the ass
After getting the hairbrained idea that I'd run the Disney Princess Half Marathon with a few other Shredheads last Fall, I decided I'd schedule a book event on the same weekend.
Two Birds. Stones. You get the idea.real porns
So back in November I called up my friend Barbara from Divine Tampa, a very cool mom events group in, you guessed it, Tampa, and asked what she thought might work.
She suggested doing something with Neiman Marcus, who often did fun evening mom-friendly parties, some of which her group had participated in, and with their Spring Fling coming up in March, maybe this was something cool.
So she reached out, sent her PR contact there my links, book, and all my info (read: I'm a mom who writes about SEX) and we waited.
And waited.real porns
December, January, and oh, February rolls around and no word.
We both kindly nudge the PR person, asking only to be told "yes" or "no" in a timely manner so we can make our plans accordingly.
And so, with great enthusiasm, she finally called me back to discuss the event, which had shaped up into something very cool - Ben from Project Runway, a live band, and booze - what else could you ask for?real porns
She asked me to tell her what my book was about (oy) and what I thought I'd do. I suppose I should have known that she apparently hadn't looked at my book or my sites when she asked if I should be in the kid's section of the store.
I suggested we do sexy mom makeovers in lingerie, keeping it tame and family friendly. They'd give away my book with a purchase, Divine Tampa would spread the word to their group, and all would be well.
But then the lovely and quite frankly awesome piece about the Mominatrix Book came out in the St. Petersburg Times, which did not necessarily cover the event (though it did mention I was appearing) but discussed post partum sex, the book itself, and some sexy tips from me.
The PR person emails me "please call me" on the Monday before the event, which is hilarious since neither I or Barbara couldn't get her to email or call me back for FOUR FREAKING MONTHS.
And so I do and she says "So.... bloggers."
"I'm sorry, what?" I said.
And thus came this long complaint about "bloggers" and how they "twist words" around and how "this is not the direction that we want to go with this event."
I asked here "What bloggers?" and she said she didn't know but was waiting for "the reports."
Nice.
Meanwhile, the only blog post that showed up with Google was mine though I later discovered a fun blog post from the above mentioned article's author which was, again, promoting my appearance. And I didn't see exactly how she or I twisted words or made it seem like I was going to be waving sex toys around Neiman Marcus.
And really, what PR person gets upset about really great press for an author coming to their store? But, she gave out the wrong RSVP email address for the event (that got published in the newspaper) so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.
Needless to say, I offered her the chance to cancel, but said I needed to know as soon as possible so I could make other plans. I didn't hear from her, and went about my business, though packed books in my suitcase just in case because I had a sinking feeling something was going to go wrong, arriving in Tampa on Thursday and getting a mall makeover (nails and hair) before my event.
