​Authors
The authors we have chosen for this project are H. Daniel Pfeiffer and Zeynep Tufekci. They are both leaders in their field and have a lot of experience with both the type of content and the type of analysis we’re asking them to do for this book.
Pfeiffer, who will be doing our political analysis, worked closely with the Obama administration for almost 8 years. He worked on the communications team for the 2008 election, before being promoted to Deputy White House Communications Director after Inauguration day. He filled this position for a year before being promoted when the former Communications Director left. He served in this capacity for the rest of the term and was promoted again to Senior Advisor for Strategy and Communications during Obama’s second term. He left the White House in 2015. This experience in the political communications sphere makes Pfeiffer an ideal writer for our political analysis.

Born in 1975 in Wilmington, Delaware, Pfeiffer graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University. He worked as a spokesman for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) before joining Al Gore’s communications team during the 2000 election.
In 2007, Pfeiffer joined the Obama campaign and was later promoted to communications director. After the 2008 inauguration, he was promoted first to Deputy White House Communications Director and then toe White House Communications Director a year later. During Obama’s second term, he served as Senior Advisor for Strategy and Communications before leaving the White House in 2015.

Tufekci is a techno-sociologist and associate professor at the University of North Carolina. She has done a lot of work in the field of political and corporate responsibility in the face of social media and technological advancement. Her years of research on the subject make her an ideal choice for our social media analysis, especially because of the political connection that these Tweets have.

Tufekci, born in Istanbul, Turkey, is a techno-sociologist with a focus on the social implication of new technologies and the political and corporate responsibilities associated with them. She is an associate professor at the University of North Carolina in the School of Information and Library Sciences, as well as being a faculty associate at Harvard University in the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Tufekci is often invited to speak on her research and has given two TED talks (in 2014 and 2017) on social media and social change. She has also been featured by The Economist and is a regular contributor to The Atlantic and the New York Times page on technology and social impact.

Pfeiffer and Tufekci’s analyses will work well together, as their writings and credentials both overlap in topic but are also unique. Pfeiffer’s history in the communications department of the White House as well as his book on politics and social media make him an ideal political analyst for our purpose. Tufekci’s history of calling politicians and corporations out on their social media practices as well as her title of techno-sociologist make her one of the best choices to write the social media analysis.
We are still discussing who we would like to have write the forward for this book. Ideally, it would be someone with a vested interest in the topic. The challenge therein lies in finding someone affected who is also credible enough to lend to the repute of the book. Some ideas we’re working with right now are different social media influencers, socio-political scholars, and other authors on the subject.

Title
The title we are currently working with is 140 Characters: Politics and Twitter in the Modern Age. This title was decided on because it was attention grabbing while still being up front and direct about the topic and content. It was also chosen because of the iconic bit about Twitter only allowing 140 characters in their tweets. Yes, Twitter did change this recently, but most, if not all, of the tweets we are using for this book are from the 140-character era. This also denotes it as a book about Twitter, firmly placing it in the social media genre.

Genre
The interesting genre overlap made it hard to fit this book within the BISAC categories. The categories determined to be the most relevant are: Political Science/Political Process/Campaigns & Elections and Computers/Web/Social Media. The books in these categories cover a very broad spectrum, but they all present a different aspect of relevance to the content. Since this content is focused partially around the 2016 election year, which was a social media-heavy election, it plays into the campaign and election category as well. Finally, the social media categorization is important because this book’s content is comprised almost entirely of social media posts. Knowing that, categorizing this book under social media just makes sense. The presence of short analyses of the posts and their accompanying responses will help to explain the overall interplay between these many genres.

Specifications
The amount of content that we have combined with the forecasted lengths of the analyses have us sitting around a comfortable 250 pages. This is not an exact number, as the formatting and amount of content that makes it past editors will change that. Printing this book on 100# satin paper will keep the images of Tweets clear, but also allow the text to be very readable.
Sales records for books of this type depend entirely on the market and relevance of the content at the moment of release. Planning our release to coincide with a rise in marketability of this genre will boost immediate sales. Judging by this analysis, a 2,000 copy first run seems reasonable.
The optimal publishing date we’ve come up with is the week of January 22, 2019. This date will contextualize our content, as the 22nd is the date of the State of the Union address. Considering that this book will be heavily comprised of controversial tweets from Donald Trump, it makes sense to publish it during a time when he will be called under more scrutiny than usual. This scrutiny can work to our advantage in marketing, as, especially in the case of the Trump presidency, people are drawn to every bit of drama this man stirs up.
As for price, books in this genre generally average around $25, even at softcover. We want our book to compete well, so pricing the book around $19.99 would be ideal. This price is the average for the books in this genre, which means that we’re sitting right in the middle of the competitors.

Publisher
Our publisher, Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins, has a wide variety of political books. As an imprint of a larger company, Harper’s publishing reach is a lot wider than a smaller company would have. This also affects the range of books that we publish. Being part of a larger company, Harper can get away with publishing a larger range of books. This genre is relatively small, and Harper is the imprint that can help really expand the genre. The wide range of political titles provide evidence towards this fact, with interesting titles on the 1968 protests and Cold War coming out soon, as well as a long history of publishing books authors want to write.
Their American roots are also a contributor, as this is a book on American political analysis. Their rich history with working for and with their authors was also important to our decision. There are definitely challenges that first time authors face while working with an imprint backed by a global power like HarperCollins, but we feel they are worth it to get this book to the widest possible audience. HarperCollins has made an impact in their history, and they intend to keep doing so. They may be the second largest consumer publisher in the world, but their commitment to their authors seems genuine and sincere.

Audience
Our audience is made up of those who are interested in politics, those interested in social media, and those interested in current events. These groups hold a lot of overlap, especially in age group. The state of the political world today has teenagers and young adults (around ages 16 – 35) incredibly involved. The involvement of social media has also increased the interest of this age group, which is made up of both Millennials and Gen Z. These groups are currently trying to reclaim the political landscape from the older generations and are looking for guidance in many places. This book would appeal to them because it would provide some guidance for navigating the interplay between politics and social media. Gender and race don’t seem to play a part in the marketing for this book, but age is one of the most important audience factors.

Selling Points
The key selling points of this book come hand in hand with the release date, as all the president’s missteps will be under scrutiny, and this book is an analysis of many of those missteps. Another key selling point is that this book looks at the ever-evolving landscape of social media and its role in politics. This will really appeal to those who have a vested interest in how social media works, like internet personalities and communications teams for politicians and corporations. The third selling point is much shallower than the rest, but it’s the truth: scandal sells. This book is a collection of analyses of some of the largest scandals the world has seen in a while, especially from one person. People curious about what Trump has said over the past years will want to read this book, even if only to revisit the scandalous things he’s said over the years.

Scope and Content
The scope of this book falls within a two-year period, which limited the amount of content we have to sift through. Most of our Tweets are mined from Donald Trump’s Twitter archive, not due to any particular bias on our part, but because his Tweets tended to be more inflammatory than Hillary Clinton’s from that same era. To showcase the difference and round out our analysis, other Tweets from this time frame will be included, and Tufecki and Pfeiffer will analyze them the same as the more inflammatory ones.
This collection of tweets showcases the effects of the election on the social media sphere. It is a roadmap of controversy and the abuse that public figures face online, especially in political spheres. The tweets are all featured on their own, followed by a selection of replies that exemplify the randomness and relevancy of the internet. Some replies are relevant, some are not, and some are indecipherably confusing. Common patterns are attacks against candidates and public figures, bragging about how well they’re doing, and encouragement to participate in politics. The commentary that will go along with this has not yet been written, but the authors’ commentary will be placed alongside the tweets in the format shown in the sample pages.
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Marketing Plan
​Our marketing plan focuses quite heavily on social media, due to the book being about social media. Ads will be bought and distributed on Twitter and Facebook. The group criteria we will use to reach the largest number of interested individuals will be carefully determined by sales patterns and demographics research. Some of these categories will involve an age range of 16-35, all genders, and interests in politics, social media, Trump, Pfeiffer, Tufekci, and current events. These ads will draw attention to our book using the platform it discusses, bringing buyers who are interested in the platform directly to us.  Another way to advertise are the authors themselves, on their websites and social media platforms. They have decent followings, and those who follow them are already interested in what they have to say.