Business as Usual

THE BOOK: Business as Usual: Corporate Notes From the Zombie Apocalypse.

THE AUTHOR: Jessie Kwak.

PUBLISHED IN: 2017.

THE ILLUSTRATOR: Natalie Metzger.

THE EDITOR: Tricia Callahan.

SUMMARY: Are you worried about the state of business during the zombie apocalypse? You’re not al;one. In my quest to document our new reality, I’ve spent the past year collecting stellar examples of how everyday business people like you and me are keeping their chins up during the apocalypse.

A collection of short, punchy zombie stories told through the medium of e-mail chains, webinar scripts and internal memos, Business as Usual is the laugh-out-loud break in your day you deserve.

THE BACK STORY: I wrote Business as Usual accidentally. A few years ago, a friend was publishing a collection of feminist bicycle science fiction stories with a zombie theme (specific, I know), and asked me to contribute. At first I thought, I don’t have anything interesting to say about zombies! But since I was in the midst of a freelance job writing catalog copy for a bicycle company, I immediately started imagining how the industry would shift to accommodate the zombie apocalypse.

I wrote the first story in the collection, “Notes to Creative on the Fall 1 Catalog: Zombie Apocalypse Special Edition,” in about 30 minutes, giggling the whole time.

The second story came a few years later, after I saw a call for submissions for a sci-fi anthology about woman educators. I had recently watched a webinar from one of my clients, a company that makes employee onboarding software, and within an hour I had the first draft of “Don’t Miss Today’s Webinar on ExitZ, the World’s Only Zombie Employee Offboarding Software Solution.”

After that I couldn’t stop. I wrote a blog titled “These Six Jaw-Dropping Stats about Zombies Will Transform Your B2B Content Marketing Program” and pitched it to McSweeney’s. It was accepted! Then I enlisted my friend Natalie Metzger to draw some comics, wrote a few more zombie stories, and pushed the thing out the door.

Basically, this was my twisted attempt to stop myself from inserting stupid zombie jokes into actual client projects. So far it’s worked.

WHY THIS TITLE? The title came to me in a flash, just like each of the stories had. (This is unusual for me — normally, I’m as slow writer and terrible at coming up with titles). As soon as I wrote it down I started giggling uncontrollably, so I figured I had a winner.

WHY WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO READ IT? This is a weird little book designed to bring some levity to your day. If you work in an office — or have ever been on the receiving end of a corporate memo — you’ll get a kick out of it.

REVIEW COMMENTS:

“Highly amusing tongue-in-cheek read. Trouble is, it could be where I work, it sounds so convincing.” — Angie.

AUTHOR PROFILE: Jessie Kwak is a freelance writer living in Portland, Oregon. When she’s not working on B2B marketing copy for clients, you can find her scribbling away on her latest gangster science fiction novel, road tripping with her husband, or attempting to tailor a three-piece suit for herself.

AUTHOR COMMENTS: “I’d forgotten how much fun I have writing humor — working on Business as Usual has sparked some really fun ideas for relates series — think Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets The Office, set in a coworking space at the onset of the apocalypse. Stay tuned!

SAMPLE CHAPTER: I’ll point you to the story on McSweeney’s, as well as the Amazon page, where you can see Natalie’s great illustrations.

LOCAL OUTLETS: Just on Amazon at the moment. I’m working on getting it into gift shops and book stores in Portland.

WHERE ELSE TO BUY IT: Amazon

PRICE: $2.99 ebook, $6.99 paperback

CONTACT THE AUTHOR: Come find me at www.jessiekwak.com, follow me on Twitter (@jkwak), or just shoot me an email jessie at jessiekwak.com.