Update: “Go the — — to Sleep”
So the other day I posted this:
Last October, just before the deal-making frenzy of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the indie publisher Johnny Temple received an e-mailed book proposal that he was tempted to brush off.
The project, “Go the ____ to Sleep,” by Adam Mansbach, was an irreverent and foulmouthed parody of a children’s book, written in rhymey verse with profanities sprinkled throughout, giving frustrated voice to a universal problem for parents of small and stubborn children.
“At first I didn’t really take it seriously, because it’s so unlike anything that we publish,” said Mr. Temple, the publisher of Akashic Books, a tiny operation steps from the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn that is better known for literary fiction by black and Latin American authors.
Fishing for a second opinion, he e-mailed the proposal to his wife, Kara Gilmour, who responded with two words: “I’m weeping.” His friend Paul Holdengräber, a New York Public Library official, read the proposal and told Mr. Temple that he absolutely had to publish the book.
“There were these vehement, emotional reactions that people had,” Mr. Temple said. “This wasn’t just a funny PDF that I was showing around. It was something that had potential.”
That potential has begun to be realized, as Akashic has already printed nearly 300,000 copies and sold more than 50,000, many in preorders, since the book does not officially go on sale until next week. It has already spent 43 days in the Top 100 on Amazon.com, reaching the №1 spot weeks ago.