Case Study — Author PR
One Square Foot of Skin: launching Justine Bateman’s book on women, aging and the faces we’re told to fix.
A campaign for East 2 West Collective client Justine Bateman and Akashic Books, built around a single question: why can’t women feel free to age on their own terms?
Justine Bateman and Akashic Books brought us on to handle the public relations campaign for Bateman’s second book, Face: One Square Foot of Skin, released April 6, 2021. The book is Justine’s own exploration of society’s negative attitudes about women’s aging faces, told through her own experience in front of the camera for decades.
Our objective was straightforward and not easy: shine a light on the issue of women and aging, and start conversations that actually meant something, not another beauty segment that comes and goes in a news cycle.
“Her concentrated approach caused Amazon.com to sell out of the book twice within the first week of the book’s release, and caused outlets like Time Magazine and 60 Minutes Australia to knock on our door, unsolicited.”
Justine Bateman
Built a strategic list spanning national broadcast, women’s-focused digital platforms and high-end magazines, the exact outlets whose audiences would sit with the topic instead of skimming past it.
Seeded strong pitches around one central question: why has plastic surgery and changing your face become the norm, and why can’t women feel comfortable and free to age naturally today?
Identified the right venue for a virtual event, giving the conversation a room to happen in beyond a single interview segment.
Kicked off the campaign on April 1, 2021 with a one-on-one interview between Justine and Hoda Kotb.
Listed Face in their spring reading list.
April 2, 2021: Paulina Porizkova joined Justine to widen the discussion of women and aging, especially for women who built careers in front of the camera.
Amazon.com sold out of the book 2× within the first week of release.
Time Magazine and 60 Minutes Australia came knocking on their own, without a single pitch sent their way.
If you’ve got a launch date and a story worth telling, we build the media list, write the pitch and get the right people knocking. Talk to East 2 West Collective about your book launch campaign.
