S.K. Golden, author of The Socialite’s Guide to Sleuthing & Secrets, a Pinnacle Hotel mystery, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today to share with us how multi-level marketing leads to murder in her latest book.

Welcome S.K.. I’ll turn the floor over to you –

Have you ever found yourself sitting in a friend’s living room, nodding along as she demonstrates a gadget you never knew you needed – until now? And before you know it, you’re halfway convinced that everyone else needs this gadget too, and you could make some serious money telling everyone about it?

In this day and age, I’m willing to bet almost all women in America have, at some point, either attending or been invited to, a friend’s home to learn about their new business venture. They’re having a bunch of people over so they can demonstrate some new utensils. Or maybe your friend is having a makeover party and she’s doing everyone’s make up at her home. Or she’s found skincare that means she never has to wear makeup again and guess what? She can sell it to you, too. Maybe its jewelry – rows and rows of it and each piece five dollars or less.  Maybe your friend has gotten really big into fitness and they’re inviting you to attend a workout class that they’re leading.

Whatever you’ve been invited to, the end is the same: you, too, can sell the product, just like your friend. Isn’t it easy? You throw a party and people come! You post online, and people click the link. You go live on social media, and people clamor to be the first to buy. Your friend who convinced you to join is your mentor, and you are in her direct sales line, which means she gets a commission from every sale you make. And if you convince others to join, you’ll start earning commissions from their sales, too.

This style of business is called multi-level marketing. MLMs have been around since the 1920s but, the at home party came about some thirty years later, thanks to a woman named Brownie Wise, who we will talk about a little later.

I had friends who joined MLMs over a decade ago, though I didn’t know what they were called. I just knew they were suddenly, intensely concerned with skin care. They’d found a wonderful product, and if you joined their team, you could buy the product at a discount and maybe even make some money by selling it to other people. They were gifted expensive bags from their “boss” and were invited on cruises. I never bought the product or joined the team, because, well, I have so many kids and they were young, and I was busy. Plus, the price seemed too steep for skincare when I was in my late twenties/early thirties and having fine results with drug store products.

I still use CeraVe.

In 2017, I don’t even remember how now, I became aware of a podcast called The Dream and whew, boy. Did I fall into a MLM related rabbit hole. Since then, I’ve read books about MLMs, subscribed to YouTube channels that only discuss MLMs, and watched documentaries about MLMs. I just knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that a multi-level marketing team was a prime setup for a murder.

A fictional one, of course. I write mysteries. I’m always on the lookout for murders. The other day, I was cleaning my oven, and, anyway, the mind wanders to if I could murder someone in my oven or I’d need a gas oven to do that. But that’s beside the point. In an MLM, the likelihood that you will lose money is high. Super-duper high, if you want to get scientific. Close to 99% of people never turn a profit. (Don’t get me wrong, the people who do turn a profit make BANK which is the allure of this business structure. Want to get rich quick? It could happen to you!) And when it’s your friend who talked you into joining? Who cost you money? Well, the plot basically writes itself.

I created my own multi-level marketing company for my book, The Socialite’s Guide to Sleuthing and Secrets. Set in the 1950s, it’s the heyday of the Tupperware party. Which brings us back to Brownie Wise.

Brownie Wise did not invent Tupperware, Earl Tupper did. Tupper was having trouble selling the plastic containers, and Wise realized there was potential in home demonstrations. Show women how they worked, and the women would buy them. This was a smashing success. The Tupperware parties were considered social events and post-war housewives found a way to earn money while staying at home. Wise was even the first woman on the cover of Business Week. Now, she was fired by Earl Tupper in 1958 (Rumor has it, he was jealous of her success – typical) but her legacy lives on today. As I stated earlier, I’d bet every American woman has been invited to a social selling event at some point in their lives, whether it was makeover you won, or a free workout class, or an in home demonstration on a special cooking instrument.

Thanks to Brownie Wise, MLMs and at home demonstrations still thrive today – giving authors like me plenty of opportunities for betrayal and murder. Fictional, of course.

Thank you for sharing this with us, S.K., and good luck with The Socialite’s Guide to Sleuthing & Secrets, the latest book in the Pinnacle Hotel mystery series. Readers can learn more about S.K. Golden by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook, Instagram and Goodreads pages.

The book is available online at the following retailers:

 Amazon    B&N    Bookshop.org    Penguin RandomHouse    Kobo

About S.K. Golden: S.K. Golden writes cozy mysteries and crime capers. Born and raised in the Florida Keys, she married a commercial fisherman. The two of them still live on the islands with their five kids (one boy, four girls — including identical twins!), two cats, and a corgi named Goku. Sarah graduated from Saint Leo University with a bachelor’s degree in Human Services and Administration and has put it to good use approximately zero times. She’s worked as a bank teller, a pharmacy technician, and an executive assistant at her father’s church. Sarah is delighted to be doing none of those things now.