Cooked Lane Books / Alcove Press

Crooked Lane Books/Alcove Press (CLB/AP) is seeking a process-driven, financially savvy Senior Marketing Manager to own our marketing and publicity operations and evolve the department into a high-velocity, data-backed growth engine. Managing an annual list of 110+ titles across two commercial imprints--Crooked Lane Books (crime fiction/thrillers) and Alcove Press (commercial fiction/romance/romantasy)--you will completely own our marketing execution pipeline, from distributor coordination and sales conference pitches to mailings and downpricing trees.

We are a flat organization that favors process and innovation over tradition, combining the speed of independent publishing with the powerhouse sales and distribution of Penguin Random House. In our flat, collaborative organization, you'll have the opportunity to take ownership of key initiatives and see the direct impact your work has on revenue growth. This position is the ultimate career accelerator for an ambitious professional looking to cultivate elite, full-stack operational mastery. If you are ready to expand your capabilities as a high-impact publishing professional and help construct the data-driven frameworks that drive our stories to the widest possible audience, join us.

Essential responsibilities:

• Lead Title Campaign Architecture: Design, blueprint, and execute bespoke, full-funnel marketing and publicity strategies for Lead ("A-Title") frontlist releases.
• Stakeholder Management & Communication: Personally lead onboarding and strategy calls for Lead authors and literary agents, securing alignment on mutual marketing and publicity milestones to set realistic, data-backed expectations.
• Schedule Discipline: Enforce a 100% on-time delivery rate for all TI Sheets, metadata assets, and Sales Conference deliverables to our distributor.
• Distributor Advocacy & Launch Optimization: Draft high-impact scripts, agendas, PowerPoint presentations, and Title Information Sheets for Seasonal Launches and retail positioning to secure distributor buy-in, while optimizing frontlist assets for organic search discoverability. Manage day-to-day communication with our distributor, keeping them informed on title updates, preparing reports, and coordinating the timely delivery of ad hoc requests.
• Portfolio & Budget Control: Deploy the house’s marketing capital, taking full accountability for achieving monthly and yearly revenue goals by executing real-time reallocations to aggressively capitalize on frontlist breakouts and maintain strategic alignment with leadership.
• Leadership & Workflows: Direct and mentor marketing and publicity staff to ensure the seamless, timeline-driven execution of core campaign logistics, including author onboarding, physical and digital galley distribution, influencer outreach, and award submissions.
• Revenue Expansion: Execute monthly BookBub and retail downpricing trees while launching and scaling an elite Kindle Unlimited (KU) pilot program.

About you:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher
• 3-5 years of trade publishing or media marketing experience, managing high-volume commercial fiction lists and handling distributor-facing launch ecosystems.
• Systems-First Thinker: Proven ability to build and enforce linear tracking systems (Asana, Monday.com, master sheets) that seamlessly route 110+ titles simultaneously through a multi-stage funnel.
• Data Modeling & Excel Expert: Mastery of XLOOKUP, pivot tables, nested formulas, and conditional data logic to track multi-channel spend against revenue lines; possesses a true math mind.
• Secure AI Operator: High proficiency in prompt engineering (Gemini/ChatGPT/Claude) to accelerate high-volume metadata generation and data analysis, backed by an unyielding commitment to IP data security.
• Algorithmic Copywriter: Exceptional writing skills with the capability to draft high-converting retail hooks, write persuasive conference scripts, and optimize KSPs for discoverability.
• Confident Communicator: Builds strong working relationships, removes roadblocks, keeps projects on track, and sets clear expectations with authors and internal teams.
• Performance Marketer: Deep, hands-on technical proficiency inside Amazon Ads Console (AMS) and Meta Ads Manager.

Founded in 2015, Crooked Lane Books is an independent publisher that strives to entertain the many readers of commercial crime and horror fiction. Alcove Press, an imprint of Crooked Lane, is dedicated to publishing upmarket book club fiction, romance, and speculative fiction. Both are responsive to readers' interests and agile within the industry to bring our authors' titles to the widest possible audiences.