How A Funny Kids Book Became A Bestseller Before It Was Even Released
Something remarkable happened today. A children’s book hit the No. 1 spot on Amazon.com’s best-seller list. And it did so a month before the book is even slated for release.
You may have heard of the book—it’s a best-seller after all. Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach, began its life as a joke Facebook post in June. It was a particularly trying instance of bedtime with his 2-year-old daughter, and Mansbach let off some steam in the form of a humorous status update to his friends: “Look out for my forthcoming children’s book, ‘Go the — to Sleep.’ “
The response from his friends was so fierce that Mansbach decided to make his joke book a real one. Go the Fuck to Sleep, which he bills as a “children’s book for adults,” will hit stores on June 14, published by the Brooklyn press Akashic. If it’s not even due for a month, though, how did a little 32-page book already snag a film option deal with Fox 2000 and, today, reach the pinnacle of online publishing commerce world?
