The No Asshole Rule: International Update

The No Asshole Rule has now been released in quite a few different countries.  I have written about Der Arschloch Faktor, and how it was released in Germany in October of last year. People ask me why it was released in Germany almost six months before the U.S. (and they had to take the extra time to translate the book into German, in fact, it was done twice because my editor Martin Janik was dissatisfied with first translation). 

The book industry is so strange that I don’t think that anyone actually understands it, but the reason Der Arschloch Faktor came out so early was -- in part- - so we could link a little book tour to the famous Frankfurt Book Fair in October.  This is the biggest gathering of people in the publishing business in the world. Der Arschloch Faktor has sold well in Germany. It was on several of their best-seller lists for several months, and like the U.S., the range of places that it has been written about is dizzying, from the tabloid Bild (one of the stories was on the same page as a topless woman), which is among the most widely read papers in Europe.  Another story was written in the far more respectable German version of the Financial Times, and a recent article was published in Chrismon, a publication of the German Lutheran Church read by 1.5 million Germans (see The Sacred and the Profane).

  

The news this week is that Objectif Zéro-Sale-Con just came out in France, and the initial reaction looks promising. The book has just started appearing in shops, but it has been in the top ten books on Amazon in France much of the time (at #7 as of this writing) and my publisher sent me a screen shot yesterday as it was briefly the #1 book overall.  I would be very curious to hear from any French readers about the apparent appeal of the book and how distinct  features of the French culture shape what assholes in your country do, how they are dealt with, and how French organizations take steps to keep them out  (or perhaps unwittingly encourage them, as so many U.S. companies do).

Finally, some of the other countries that the book will be published in during the coming months include Brazil, China, Denmark, Holland, Korea, Japan, Turkey, Taiwan, and Spain.

 

Comments

[Lupa loves pictures]

Great book you mentioned.
I is very well written.
I like the writing style of the writer very much, beacuse it is very refreshing, I find.

Thank you for sharing this story with me !

[Bob Sutton]

Yes, it is coming out it Italy, published by Elliot Edizione, scheduled for September. I have not heard yet how they are going to translate the title.

Bob

[Deirdré Straughan]

Any plans to publish it in Italy? I think it's very much needed!