Samantha H. Kim

Paper:

Overview

Expected to be released on April 1, 2025, mother, sister, daughter, and wife to well-known actor, Max Greenfield, Tess Sanchez’s life was like a top-rated sitcom. In this moving yet comical collection of personal essays, Sanchez examines the aftermath of losing her career as a highly successful casting director. This major shift throws her into the messier aspects of life. With her quick wit, humor, endearing voice, and unrestrained honesty, she recounts the resilience that came from redefining loss into hope. This relatable and clever essay collection is a reflection of how we perceive and define ourselves when we experience the many complexities of our lives. We’ve Decided to Go in a Different Direction will be published by Gallery Books and will be distributed by Simon & Schuster. 

 

Comparative/Key Titles

Based on previous titles for humorous and moving essay collections from other authors who have worked in Hollywood where they reveal what goes on behind the scenes and offer glimpses into grief, the entertainment industry, and motherhood, these comp titles include: 

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Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley (~16.5K sales):

This moving and suspenseful portrait of friendship is a book about loss and vigor for life. After the suicide of her closest friend, Crosley searches for answers in friends, philosophy, and art, hoping for a map on how to navigate the stages of grief. Her quest for the truth is candid, funny, and empathetic. It is a story of one’s struggle to remember and hold onto the past without allowing it to become all consuming.

 

I’ll Show Myself Out by Jessi Klein (~24.1K sales):

Written with her distinct candor, Klein’s moving and incisive collection knocks down the cultural myths and unrealistic expectations of motherhood while also exploring the humiliations, vulnerabilities, and possibilities of  midlife. 

 

Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions by Ed Zwick (~8.6K sales):

A combination of luck, help, and the contribution of colleagues, Zwick is known to have a gift for bringing out the best in the people he’s worked with, specifically the actors. During those collaborations, he seeks to uncover the vulnerability and comradery that helps actors realize their full potential. Zwick has interacted with all types of individuals during his four decades of directing, producing, and writing projects which earned him 18 Academy Award nominations (seven wins) and 67 Emmy nominations (22 wins). 

 

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli by Mark Seal (~45.8K sales):

In order to write “the definitive look at the making of an American classic” (Library Journal, starred review), Seal sifts through the evidence of the various aspects of the film’s creation, and his story of how The Godfather was made is just as dramatic, operatic, and captivating as the movie itself. Through extensive conversations with director Francis Ford Coppola, several silent sources, and colorful interviews with Al Pacino, James Caan, Talia Shire, and others, Seal gives readers a behind the scenes look into the cult classic. 

 

Target Audience

Demographic: 

Due to Tess's essays and experiences, this book would likely appeal to a predominantly female demographic ages 21 to 60 potentially working in the entertainment or other creative industries. 

 

Psychographic: 

We would target creative individuals who are interested in the behind the scenes aspects of the entertainment industry. We would also hone in on readers who can relate to being a working mom, experiencing life changes, having lost a job, those who are just starting their careers in a related industry, and those who are fans of New Girl.

 

Geographic: 

Since the memoir takes place in Los Angeles, those living or have lived in major cities predominantly in the United States will more likely be inclined to read this book. 

 

Behavioral: 

Those seeking out heartfelt, relatable stories and who have read other books on the entertainment industry like the aforementioned comp titles, would also enjoy this book. 

 

Goals

Goal 1: 3K pre-order sales

Based on the pre-order data of the comp titles mentioned above from Circana Bookscan, specifically Grief Is for People and I’ll Show Myself Out, at least 3K pre-order sales is a reasonable goal. 

 

Goal 2: 8K “Want to Read” shelves on Goodreads 

Looking at the information on Goodreads so far, since the announcement of Sanchez’s book back in July, 3,421 people have already marked the book on their “Want to Read” shelf as of October 15, 2024. Having only been about two and a half months since its announcement, an 8K “Want to Read” goal on Goodreads is within reach. If this trend continues where there’s approximately 1K shelves a month, we can easily reach at least 8K shelves by the time Sanchez’s book is out in April. 

 

Goal 3: 25K sales in the first year 

From the data on Circana Bookscan, across the board the sales range from about 9K sales to 24K sales with the exception of the 46K sales from Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli. This title is an outlier but that could be attributed to the fact that it’s about the making of The Godfather which has an extreme cult following. However, it’s still considered a comp title since it has to do with the behind the scenes of the entertainment industry. Aside from that and based on the other comp titles, the goal is to be on the higher end of these numbers and shoot for 25K sales. Similar to how Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli leveraged The Godfather’s fanbase, we can leverage Sanchez’s husband, Max Greenfield and the New Girl audience which also has an enormous and loyal following. Since fans of New Girl and Sanchez’s book share a similar sense of humor,  25K sales isn’t an impossible goal. 

 

Marketing Plan

We plan on achieving these goals with the following strategies and tactics in the timeline:

*Note: The following expenses are all approximations based on class PowerPoints and on Goodreads and Edelweiss advertising resources.*

 

Strategies and Tactics

Some strategies to achieve these goals include:

 

Strategy 1: 

Build Sanchez’s Author Platform By Creating Author Authenticity 

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Strategy 2: 

Leverage Goodreads and Social Media to Engage Readers and Target Audience

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Strategy 3: 

Utilize Online Marketing Tools Like Edelweiss to Market to the Publishing Industry

 

Prepublication Phase: 

The Cover Reveal: As currently seen and pinned on Sanchez’s Instagram feed (48.2K followers), the cover of We’ve Decided to Go in a Different Direction was revealed in July. From there, sponsored posts/social media ads on Instagram and TikTok will be created. We can measure this through post interactions such as likes, comments, reposts, and shares. 

 

Pre-order Campaign on with Boosted Posts on Social Media (~$8K due to it being a debut book): To achieve the goal of 3K pre-order sales, we’re planning on crafting social media posts in the form of a casting call, actor deal memo, and/or SAG contract style poster promoting the book across social media platforms with the book’s description, Tess’s bio, and hashtag #DifferentDirection. It will be posted on Gallery Book’s social media, Simon & Schuster’s social media, Tess’s accounts, and notable celebrities that have connections to Sanchez such as Mindy Kaling (6.2M followers on Instagram) or Max Greenfield (1.8M followers on Instagram). We can measure this through the number of pre-orders we receive.

 

Goodreads Giveaways ($119/giveaway according to Goodreads site): We will conduct ongoing Standard Goodreads giveaways (approximately two to three  giveaways) throughout the course of prepublication and launch. Standard Goodreads giveaways consist of: 

• Readers who enter the giveaway would have We’ve Decided to Go in a Different Direction automatically added to their “Want to Read” shelf. This promotes Sanchez’s book by updating readers’ feeds and showing their friend’s what they’ve saved and thus builds and reaches an additional audience for Sanchez’s book. 

• Sanchez’s followers and anyone who has already added the book to their “Want to Read” shelf would get a notification alerting them to a new giveaway starting. This creates buzz and generates more entries which creates more stories in the updates feed. 

• Giveaways are featured in the Giveaways section of the Goodreads site which allows readers to find new books that they might not have thought to pick up before. 

• This would help us reach our 8K “Want to Read” shelf goal and contribute to our 25K total sales goal in the first year. 

 

Pre-order Sweepstakes: Another step we can take is to do a pre-order sweepstakes. When a book is pre-ordered, readers will be entered to win a signed copy of the book by Tess with an exclusive piece of life advice in the format of an email which is a reference to an aspect of the book. Sanchez and her father would always correspond through email and in the emails, he would offer pieces of advice. An embroidered red wool beanie with the title of the book in reference to one of the chapters where Greenfield wore a red wool beanie when he first met Sanchez, and a Spotify/Apple Music QR playlist keychain with songs curated by Tess mentioned in the book and more. This sweepstake will help us in reaching our goal of 3K pre-orders and success will be measured by how many submissions we receive.

 

Launch Phase:

Edelweiss Campaign (~$7K based on Edelweiss Advertising Kit): On Edelweiss, we could include banner advertising, digital review copy posting, and a suite of sell-in materials. Bookseller sell-through kits can also be made available on Edelweiss. This could include shelf-talkers, table tents, reading group kits, newsletter banners, and more. A tag line could include a rave review or “‘Lights, Camera, Action!’ From casting to the end credits, experience a story of emotions that reflect the human condition in times of love and loss.”

 

A TikTok Influencer Campaign (~$1,500 based on slide 19 of the Class 4 PowerPoint): We will send out book boxes with the finished copy and tote mailings to BookTok influencers who are prominent in the book community such as @quinthebooks who has 144.5K followers and reviews essay collections along with other genres (see TikTok from 3/8/22 for example) and @dakotabossard who has 23K followers on TikTok and recommends essay collections and other books whose content is similar to each other (see TikTok from 9/5/22). They would film an unboxing promoting the book on their pages with the hashtag #DifferentDirection. This could help get the book to a wider BookTok audience since Booktokkers’ followers can vary across genres. This will build more buzz within the community and potentially increase sales and engagement.

 

Integrating the Audiobook Into Podcasts: We want Sanchez to be relatable and authentic to build rapport with readers, so to promote the book, we will work with the publicity team to get Sanchez to guest on podcasts specifically We’re Here to Help hosted by Jake Johnson and Gareth Reynolds and The Mess Around hosted by Hannah Simone and Lamorne Morris. The significance of these podcasts is that the hosts are the stars of New Girl which has a major following. Sanchez’s husband, Greenfield, was also a main character on the show and sometimes guest stars on their podcasts, too. The book’s foreword is by Greenfield, and we can use that to leverage the New Girl fanbase and promote the book further. This can be tied into marketing if we ask the podcast to integrate an excerpt from We’ve Decided to Go in a Different Direction’s audiobook (which will also be released on April 1, 2025) as a bonus for listeners along with free copies to give away.

 

Book Launch Party: If we have the funding, although book launch parties technically fall under publicity, it can also mix with marketing if we take into account the sales/account marketing arena. We can market to these bookstores and other booksellers by creating launch kits which contain material they can use at their launch parties.

 

Bestseller Phase:

Refreshed Ads: On Goodreads we will refresh the ads to feature bestseller and top review updates. This will include refreshed targeting updates and retargeting throughout the platform’s “Want to Read” mailer. It will email all the readers who marked We’ve Decided to Go in a Different Direction ”Want to Read” but haven’t read the book yet. This will continue to target more readers and contribute to our goal of 25K sales in the first year. 

 

Longtail Phase:

Mother’s Day and Summer Reading Ads: Due to the fact that this book will be published in April, we can continue marketing the book through Mother’s Day since Sanchez is a working mother and has a close relationship with her family. Additionally, the candid voice and relatable content of the book makes for a great summer read. Although there are some sad moments in the book, overall, it is a universal reflection of what we, as humans, experience throughout our lives. We will do this by refreshing the ads to feature Mother’s Day specific messaging and retargeting along with refreshing ads to feature “Read of the Summer” or “Summer Reads”-specific messaging. We can also revise our plan and strategy based on the reviews of the book the longer it has been out for. This could help us reach a bigger audience as this book could be a Mother’s Day gift or a book to be read on the beach. 

 

Paperback Launch: Since paperbacks tend to cost less and are more affordable, those who were hesitant about spending more money on the hardcover, can now purchase the book for less. The paperback could potentially have a different cover which could be designed to look like a casting call or casting contract designed similarly to the social media posts from the prepublication phase. It can also be designed to feature a director’s chair or look like an audition room to keep the theme consistent.

 

Conclusion

Overall, based on the budget, Sanchez’s connections, and the other resources utilized in  this campaign, we are set to reach our three goals of: 3K pre-order sales, 8K “Want to Read” Shelves, and 25K sales in the first year of publication.