Publishing books is a great way for celebrities to expand their personal brands and show their hidden literary talents, but the results ain’t always pretty:
That said, Andy Lee recently became an author, with the publication of Do Not Open This Book, a picture book written for his young nephew George, and by every indication so far, it seems like a bloody ripper.
Lee initially wrote the book as a surprise for George his birthday, and for several months, worked in secret with illustrator Heath McKenzie, before unveiling the finished product on the big day. Yes, the whole thing was pretty damn adorable:
Lee had initially intended to produce only one copy, but publishers Lake Press suggested a wider release, and it’s probably a good thing that they did – since it was revealed on Wednesday this week, Do Not Open This Book has racked up sales of more than 40,000.
That’s an absolutely massive number, especially given that Lee did no pre-publicity, and that most Aussie kids’ books have an initial print run of 3000 copies. Demand for the book was so high that at one point, the Lake Press website couldn’t cope, and went down.
Do Not Open This Book had an initial print run of 60,000, but at this rate, they’ll probably be sold out soon, and we’ll see the emergence of a black market on Gumtree where desperate parents buy copies for upwards of a hundred bucks.
“When you don’t think something is going to be published, you have less worry about it,” Lee said of his writing process. This probably won’t be the last we see of his kids’ book-writing prowess.
Source: The Guardian.
Photo: Facebook.
