Why isn’t this more like Tina Fey’s book?” Lewis.” Kaling’s intro explores the anxiety of comedy/memoir/advice-book influence, imagining a reader who thinks, “This sounds okay, but not as good as Tina Fey’s book. Fey begins Bossypants by nodding to the book’s key demographics: “Each component of this book was selected to provide you with maximum book performance, whatever your reading needs may be,” she writes, acknowledging the “woman who bought this book for practical tips on how to make it in a male-dominated workplace,” the “parent who bought this book to learn how to raise an achievement-oriented, drug-free, adult virgin,” and the reader “looking for a spiritual allegory in the style of C.S. “I cannot change the fact that I am an American White Woman who grew up Lower-Middle-Class and had Children after spending most of her life Acting and Doing Comedy, so if you hate any of those buzzwords you may want to bail now,” Poehler writes. These women are aware that their books are crowding out the same niche, and they acknowledge it in their introductions.

Poehler satisfies the hat trick: She’s a famous woman with a remarkable life and an enviable success, perfectly positioned to preach to what my friend Michelle Dean calls the “smart niece demographic.” (Kaling skewers the concept in her own book: “thank you, Aunts of America,” she writes, “for buying this for your niece you don’t know that well.”) Women buy most books, and personal essay collections, self-help tomes, and celebrity tell-alls are all churned out to peg the demographic. Women are still underrepresented as writers, directors, and stars of comedy, but the few women who have clawed to prominence on TV can find a comfortable perch in the publishing world. Fey reportedly netted a near-$6 million advance for her book, and Dunham more than $3 million Poehler’s fee is undisclosed, but she fits the bill. “All are superb and infuriating,” Poehler concludes.

In her introduction, Poehler describes reading the works of Kaling, Fey, and Dratch (plus Lena Dunham’s Not That Kind of Girl, Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Woman, and Sarah Silverman’s The Bedwetter) in preparation for her own submission to the genre. This month, Poehler finally releases that handbook, the comedy/memoir/advice collection Yes Please.

Yes please by amy poehler