Shed is currently trying to crack the States with his blank book. His blog is below:
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I DREAMED A DREAM: ‘RED, WHITE & BLANK’…
‘Ideas Man’ and entrepreneur Shed Simove (in)famously got a blank book to number 44 on the Amazon UK Charts last year. Now, he’s got his sights on cracking the States – and needs your help…
Whirlwinds. They can be fun, especially when they’re media ones. They also create much less stress and damage to farmhouses than real whirlwinds. For the past twelve months, I’ve found myself at the centre of one such media whirlwind and I’m about to ask if you can help create another one…
Last year, as you might have read, I published a book called ‘What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex’, which contains two hundred completely blank pages. To my enormous surprise, the book became a global hit and was reported on throughout the world. It further astonished me by generating multiple enquiries from foreign publishers who wanted to pay me to release my (totally blank!) book in their territory.
To date, I’ve signed nine publishing deals across the globe. And because I was careful to stipulate that I wanted to be physically present at the launch of these books, in the last few months I’ve travelled to Spain, Amsterdam and Croatia to launch their respective versions. It seems that the ‘nothing’ inside ‘What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex’ contains a universal truth that crosses cultural and linguistic barriers.
As you can imagine, these trips abroad to launch the foreign versions of the blank book have been truly magical (and often quite wonderfully surreal too), and if being wealthy can be measured in terms of the adventures and richness of one’s life experiences, then I feel I’m most certainly giving Soros and Zuckerberg a run for their money.
Because of the international deals for ‘What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex’, coupled with strong sales in the UK, the book quickly became a bestseller, reaching number 44 on the Amazon UK chart. Not bad for a book with no words, you might agree. During all the deals I signed, from countries as diverse as Mongolia to Germany, I constantly yearned to crack one certain territory. Just like a British Pop Star who makes it big in the U.K., I dreamed of ‘cracking the States’. Even though I discussed the book with various American publishers, and got tantalisingly close to a deal a number of times, nothing was signed, and a Stateside distribution deal continued to elude me.
Since the original book was released, I’ve received countless emails from people in America asking to buy it, because they couldn’t purchase it from the US Amazon site. But now, it seems like I might be in with a fighting chance to make the book a hit in America. Due to a fortuitous sequence of events that’s led to an alliance with a distribution company in the States, thrillingly, the book will now be available to buy on the U.S. Amazon site from May of this year. Because of this exciting development, I’ve now got massive ambitions for the book Stateside and dream of seeing it blow big there too. Let’s see what you think of my list of ‘American Dreams’:
1) STERN WORDS
I firmly believe that Howard Stern, the most famous radio presenter in the world, might well relate to the subject matter of ‘What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex’ and also to the poetic aim of getting a blank book to the top of the US Amazon charts. So, my dream is to appear on his show (or indeed any mainstream show) in order to get the backing of the American people, get a blank book to the number one spot – and make publishing history in America.
2) HEFF-ING AND BLINDING
I’m hugely keen to be photographed at the Playboy Mansion whilst Hugh Hefner holds a copy of the book. Hef has already rejected me once, but my whole life is all about never giving up. By changing strategy and trying again, success often follows setbacks. So the flame still burns firmly and fiercely for my Playboy fantasy.
3) UNI-CYCLE
I’d love a forward-thinking University in America to deem the book ‘compulsory reading’ for their students, if only for a term. Well, it is educational.
All these ambitions are pretty enormous, but I’m very hopeful that even one of them might be achievable. If you fancy being part of this adventure and can help in any way, I’d be thrilled, chuffed and hugely grateful, of course. After all, I always remember the quote that I had printed on my business card, from one of the most famous American’s of all time, Walt Disney, who said “If you can dream it, you can do it!”. So, here’s to ridiculous dreams and fairytale endings…
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If you can help Shed crack the States, then please mail him at [email protected]
Find out more about Shed at www.ShedSimove.com and add him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Shed’s blank book ‘What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex’ is available to pre-order on Amazon now.
