Claude Bouchard Books

I worked for a number of years in the corporate world as a manager in both human resources and finance. I had a boss, I did my work, my performance was appraised, I received regular paycheques, raises and bonuses. I had a regular, normal life, working long hours and hectic schedules like millions of people around the globe.

That was then. Now I write crime novels. I’m hoping for a publishing deal, which my agent is confident that we’ll get but in the meantime, I’m self-published, an indie writer. My job consists of developing, writing, publishing and marketing my books. But, enough about me, let me tell you about my boss.

Some might think that I’m now my own boss. In a way, I am, since I set my own schedule, write when I want, promote my work how I see fit, etc. However, in reality, my boss, or bosses, are my readers. They hire me whenever they buy one of my books. If they feel I did my job correctly, they’ll hire me again. Otherwise they won’t. Some, though I must admit, not enough, actually give me feedback on my job performance. Sometimes it’s informal, a quick comment to tell me what they thought of my work. Other times, it’s a formal, written performance appraisal, those things we call book reviews. However, like many bosses I knew in the corporate world, many of my bosses today don’t let me know if I did my job to their satisfaction, though some do hire me again.

In regards to the working long hours and hectic schedules, that hasn’t changed, although the commute downstairs for coffee and back up to our study certainly beats the fifty daily kilometres back then. As for the regular paycheques, raises and bonuses, all I need is for more bosses to hire me.