Do you wanna know how to outsell Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code on Amazon?
Write a book called What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex.
Except, don’t actually write anything. Fill it with 200 blank pages and reap the benefits of mocking manhood.
That’s what Sheridan Smove did, and his book has steadily made its way up the Amazon charts, breaking into the top 750. Smove is a 39-year-old Oxford University Psychology graduate. He once tried to change his name to “God” and also sells a bath product called the Martin Loofah King. It took him nine days—from idea to publication—to get the book published.
“What is wonderful about it is that people want to laugh,” he says of the book.
As we’ve written about many times before, the image of the dumb dude sells. If you’re producing something that makes guys look like idiots, you’re probably gonna make money. It’s either that or the hyper-manly Old Spice guy and the rock-climbing, tequila-preferring Dos Equis man. There’s no in-between.
No one wants to read a book about what guys actually think about—apart from sex—because, well, that would be a really boring book. And it should be. Right now, I’m thinking about cardboard. Other times, I think about mayonnaise. That’s some pretty damn boring stuff. The point is: as obvious as it should be, guys think about everything from the mundane to the intricate. But that’s not what anyone wants to hear about. We want and we consume men as caricatures, not reality.
Which is why a guy can make money by binding 200 blank pages together and calling it a book.
It should be sold as an adult novelty or a journal. Selling it as a book is misleading, it is a sexist joke and jokes should be sold in some form of novelty store. The book is blank. That is fine for a journal. But marketing it as a book is misleading to the consumer.
Not sure why a man is trying to put men down like this. If men thought of nothing other than sex I don’t think there would be such a thing as a book in existence for him to create this gimmick.
Pet Rock, version 2.
This pisses me off. I greatly hate the “men are dumb” commercial media joke. But this guy gets away with it for the simple fact that he is a man himself and no one is holding him accountable.
He’s hardly ‘getting away’ with something. Frankly, I thought it was amusing myself and I’m a man.
I think I’ll write the same book with the following title:
“What woman think about aside from themselves.”
or
“What women think about aside from looking sexy.”
or
“What women can actually accomplish without getting a man to do it.”
HAR HAR HAR!
Hey, who know, if wit is your stock in trade, you might get somwhere with it.
Are you a woman? No. Then it’s not funny. Just sexist.
“He’s hardly ‘getting away’ with something. Frankly, I thought it was amusing myself and I’m a man.” You failed to understand my context. Which was he gets away with dumbing down men because he’s a man himself poking fun at men in general. If a woman tried to put something like that through, I think there would have been more of a stigma against it. And I think there should be a stigma against it. I think it’s crappy when we dumb down men to just sex. Just because your a man yourself and thought it was funny doesn’t mean… Read more »
I’m a footnote geek. How would I quote from such a book?
Good. This book’s self-published. As a writer, I would have shat a brick had this been picked up by an a real publisher.
Oh, I don’t know. People still have to contend with the Bible and Ayn Rand’s entire oeuvre.
So do asexual men think about nothing at all? Or do they simply not exist in this fantasy realm?
Dang, I was hoping there would be nudie pictures inside. Never mind, back to what I was doing.
You have to admit, this is a bit sassy, a bit funny. And sort of bizarre that people are so willing to buy it. Emperor’s new clothes, anyone?
Not all that original though. When I lived in San Francisco, I used to participate in a blank-book handout every Easter with fellow members of American Atheists. The title: “What 5,000 Years of Religion Has Given to Humanity.” Still, I like Smove’s moxy.
“Still, I like Smove’s moxy.”
Would you like the moxy of an author that wrote a blank book entitled “What women think about apart from shopping”?
Bigotry and hatred look a lot less funny when the target is closer to home. Why don’t we all stay away from cheap racism and sexism, and stick to discussing the issues?
I think that’s a problem. I agree that if someone made such a but there would be hell to pay and said writer would get raked over the coals and no amount of “yeah we know all women aren’t like that” would save them.
Yes, I would like such moxy, AntZ. I’d find it humorous and to be honest,. I’ve wondered, more than once, what women think of apart from shopping.
By the way, that ‘closer to home’ business was priceless. You do know I’m a man, don’t you? And a father.
The difference is… men try to use this ‘I think about sex all the time’ as cop out in everyday situations. Women don’t often say- ‘I can’t help it. I have a one track mind… all I can think about is shopping.’ There are benefits men get from claiming to be so oversexed. For example: Checking out other women in front of girlfriends or wives. It’s rude… but we claim to have a ‘instinctual need’ to ogle women. Which is a bunch of bollocks. We also have MINDS and SELF CONTROL to use manners. So we really need to get… Read more »