The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep, a self-published children’s bestseller on Amazon, was picked up by Stockholm-based Salomonsson Agency earlier this week, and now Publishers Weekly is reporting that the world English rights to the book may have been bought by Random House in a seven-figure deal.
The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep, a self-published children’s bestseller on Amazon, was picked up by Stockholm-based Salomonsson Agency earlier this week, and now
Publishers Weekly is reporting that the world English rights to the book may have been bought by Random House in a seven-figure deal. Written by Swedish behavioral psychologist and linguist
Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin, the book, subtitled
A New Way of Getting Children to Sleep, claims to get youngsters to nod off fast. Forssén Ehrlin wrote the book, which has been translated into seven languages, using psychological techniques, such as instructing parents when to read slowly or emphasize a certain word. Parents are even told to yawn as they read it. Salmonsson calls the book a “worldwide phenomenon.” A message on Forssén Ehrlin’s website, which had featured a free download of the ebook, states: “At the moment, we are talking to publishers who want to buy the rights to give
The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep the possibility to be in bookstores and libraries around the world. Since not everyone has the ability to buy the book on the Internet, we think this is positive and the right way to go for us to make our bedtime story available to more people, and hopefully help more children to fall asleep.”
The Rabbit is the first by an independent author to reach the top of Amazon’s best-seller charts, not just in the United States and the United Kingdom, but also in France, Spain and several other countries, according to Salmonsson. Forssén Ehrlin’s previous books focus on leadership and personal development. With
The Rabbit, he has been able to tap into one of parents’ highest priorities—getting their children to go to sleep. “It’s all about giving the right suggestions to the child, to help it focus on relaxation and falling asleep,” according to Forssén Ehrlin’s
website. The book, illustrated by Irina Maununen, tells the story of a rabbit named Roger who gets help falling asleep from Uncle Yawn and other characters. Reviews of the book’s effectiveness have been mixed. Some parents say it hasn’t worked in their house, while others report that they are finally so relieved that they have found a solution for getting their child to settle down and get sleepy.
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