Piracy As Promotion of the Day: Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortés’s Go the F**k to Sleep won’t be released for another month, but the irreverent children’s book has already managed to land itself a top spot on Amazon’s Betsellers list.
The book — which started as a jocular Facebook status update — has also been optioned for a film by Fox 2000. How on earth does a title become so successful so quickly? Interestingly enough, the leading theory suggests piracy may have played a pivotal role in promoting the book to the top of the charts.
A few weeks ago, a PDF version of the book, which had been e-mailed to booksellers by the publisher, began circulating online and quickly went viral. “My wife, like, got it from this guy she works with, who, like, got it from his wife, who went to school with this dude who works at [REDACTED],” is what one guy told The New Yorker’s Macy Halford when she attempted to trace the leak’s origin.
The PDF is getting the lion’s share of the credit for boosting the book’s sales, but the subsequent inadvertent shilling in the media by way of articles about the viral nature of this book definitely did its part.
Hey, wait a minute.
[baycitizen / fastcompany / newyorker / kottke.]
![thedailywhat:
Piracy As Promotion of the Day: Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortés’s Go the F**k to Sleep won’t be released for another month, but the irreverent children’s book has already managed to land itself a top spot on Amazon’s Betsellers list.
The book — which started as a jocular Facebook status update — has also been optioned for a film by Fox 2000. How on earth does a title become so successful so quickly? Interestingly enough, the leading theory suggests piracy may have played a pivotal role in promoting the book to the top of the charts.
A few weeks ago, a PDF version of the book, which had been e-mailed to booksellers by the publisher, began circulating online and quickly went viral. “My wife, like, got it from this guy she works with, who, like, got it from his wife, who went to school with this dude who works at [REDACTED],” is what one guy told The New Yorker’s Macy Halford when she attempted to trace the leak’s origin.
The PDF is getting the lion’s share of the credit for boosting the book’s sales, but the subsequent inadvertent shilling in the media by way of articles about the viral nature of this book definitely did its part.
Hey, wait a minute.
[baycitizen / fastcompany / newyorker / kottke.]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llawb8x55q1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
![thedailywhat:
Adorable Science Experiment of the Day: The Audubon Research Center for Research of Endangered Species in New Orleans successfully produced two male African black-footed kittens — an endangered species of which only 40 remain — using frozen embryos created in 2005 from the in vitro fertilization of an egg with sperm frozen in 2003.
The efficacy of the technique may offer hope for the survival of other threatened species through long-term cell storage.
[geekosystem.]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_li49vkRqnU1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
