Day in the Life (Remote): Francesca Cardinale (née Vultaggio)
Marketing & Publicity Manager at The Quarto Group.
Day: Friday, October 2nd, 2026
8:30 AM: It’s Friday, October 2nd and the fall weather has already come and gone! Today is a steamy 83 degrees, but thankfully I am working from home and can avoid sweating on my commute. Still, I embrace the spooky season with a homemade iced pumpkin spice latte in (of course) a ghost-shaped coffee mug.
9:00 AM: When I clock in for the day, I start the morning by answering any outstanding emails from the previous evening and checking if I have any calls scheduled. Friday is usually a no-meeting day for me but today was an anomaly – two back-to-back meetings!
11:30 AM: I joined my first call of the day with one of my fellow marketing managers and a media database representative from Cision. We use Cision to send out pitches and find relevant media contacts for our campaigns, and we’re hoping to renew our contract with them! We discussed some exciting new upgrades that they’re launching on their website, and we can’t wait to reach even more audiences with our pitches now!
12:30 PM: Next, I had my monthly catch-up with our team’s Marketing Director. It’s a super informal meeting just to check in and see how I’m managing my workload, meeting deadlines, etc. We also always use this time to chat about music and books since our tastes are very similar – we’re both seeing Olivia Rodrigo on her upcoming tour! I’m totally not jealous or anything that my boss gets to see her in Boston this month, and I have to wait until the NY shows in February… sigh!
1:30 PM: Lunch time! I headed over to a nearby Italian café for lunch and listened to Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros on the way. We’re Team Xaden over here! When I arrived, I ordered an iced green tea and a slice of pizza for lunch and set up my computer to work there for the rest of the afternoon.
2:30 PM: After a yummy lunch break, I started working on my Day in the Life Assignment! Once I finished, I needed to book a few trade and consumer ads for our upcoming sound book, The Story Orchestra: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I’m really excited to be working on such a beloved series! My team and I are also diving into podcast advertising for this title, and I’m tasked with picking the sounds to use. How can I choose just one when they’re all so magical?!
4:00 PM: I spent the last hour and a half of my workday handling some upcoming award submissions for my list. I always like to keep the easier, straightforward tasks for the end of the day so I can ease into my weekend while still feeling productive! For all of the award submissions I did today, I just needed to transfer the committee members’ addresses into one spreadsheet and write a quick award submission letter for each book. Then, I sent a shipment request to our warehouse team at Hachette. Fingers crossed for an award selection!
5:15-5:30pm: At the end of each week, I like to write a brief to-do list for Monday so I have an idea of what should be prioritized for the next week of work (I’m also a huge fan of writing my to-do lists by hand!). Then, I shut down my laptop and it’s time for the weekend. There’s an Oktoberfest parade happening this weekend in my city, so I’ll be sure to stop there and get a massive pretzel and apple cider! TGIF!
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