Akashic Books is a

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

-based independent publisher. Akashic Books' collection began with

Arthur Nersesian Arthur Nersesian is an American novelist, playwright, and poet. Nersesian is of Armenian and Irish descent. He was born and raised in New York City, and graduated from Midwood High School in Brooklyn, New York. His novels include ''The Fuck-u ...

's ''The Fuck Up'' in 1997, and has since expanded to include

Dennis Cooper Dennis Cooper (born January 10, 1953) is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist. He is best known for the ''George Miles Cycle'', a series of five semi-autobiographical novels published between 1989 and 2000 and describe ...

's "Little House on the Bowery" series, Chris Abani's Black Goat poetry series, and the internationally successful "Noir" series, originating with Brooklyn Noir, since expanding to international titles such as "Delhi Noir" and "Havana Noir." Akashic Books authors include

T Cooper T Cooper (born Malibu, California) is an American writer. Cooper is the author of eight novels, the editor of an anthology, and the co-writer of a four-part young adult novel series. He has also written for television, and is the director/produc ...

Ron Kovic Ronald Lawrence Kovic (born July 4, 1946) is an American anti-war activist, writer, and United States Marine Corps sergeant who was wounded and paralyzed in the Vietnam War. His 1976 memoir ''Born on the Fourth of July'' was made into the Academ ...

, Derek McCormack,

Melvin Van Peebles Melvin Van Peebles (born Melvin Peebles; August 21, 1932 – September 21, 2021) was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. He worked as an active filmmaker into the 2000s. His feature film debut, '' The Story of a Three-Day Pass'' ...

Ryan Adams David Ryan Adams (born November 5, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, artist, and poet. He has released 23 albums, as well as three studio albums as a former member of alt-country band Whiskeytown. In 2000, Adams lef ...

Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...

Richard Hell Richard Lester Meyers (born October 2, 1949), better known by his stage name Richard Hell, is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and writer. Hell was in several important early punk rock bands, including Neon Boys, Television and ...

, Nina Revoyr,

Les Claypool Leslie Edward Claypool (born September 29, 1963) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and author. He is best known as the founder, lead singer, bassist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the ro ...

Pete Hamill Pete Hamill (born William Peter Hamill; June 24, 1935August 5, 2020) was an American journalist, novelist, essayist and editor. During his career as a New York City journalist, he was described as "the author of columns that sought to capture th ...

Carlos Pintado Carlos Pintado (born 1974 in Cuba) is a Cuban–American writer, playwright and award-winning poet who immigrated to the United States in the early 90s. He received the prestigious 2014 Paz Prize for Poetry for his book '' Nine coins/Nueve Moned ...

Lawrence Block Lawrence Block (born June 24, 1938) is an American crime writer best known for two long-running New York-set series about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and the gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Block was named a Grand Ma ...

Travis Jeppesen Travis Jeppesen is an American novelist, poet, artist, and art critic. He is known, among other works, for his novel '' The Suiciders''; a non-fiction novel about North Korea, ''See You Again in Pyongyang''; and for his object-oriented writing wo ...

, James Greer,

Joe Meno Joe Meno (born 1974) is an American novelist, writer of short fiction, playwright, and music journalist based in Chicago. Biography After attending Columbia College Chicago, Meno spent time working as a flower delivery truck driver and art ther ...

Elizabeth Nunez Elizabeth Nunez is a Trinidadian American novelist and Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College– CUNY, New York City. Her novels have won a number of awards: ''Prospero's Daughter'' received the ''New York Times'' Editors' Choice ...

Adam Mansbach Adam Mansbach (born July 1, 1976) is an American author. He has previously been a visiting professor of literature at Rutgers University-Camden, with their New Voices Visiting Writers program (2009–2011). Biography Mansbach graduated from C ...

, and Greg Prato. In June 2011, Akashic published the widely successful ''

Go the Fuck to Sleep ''Go the Fuck to Sleep'' is a satirical book written by American author Adam Mansbach and illustrated by Ricardo Cortés. Described as a "children's book for adults", it reached No. 1 on Amazon.com's bestseller list a month before its release, ...

'' by

. ''Go the Fuck to Sleep'' was subject to an unintended

viral marketing Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product mainly on various social media platforms. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people, much in the same way tha ...

campaign after PDF copies of the book, presumably from advance copies sent to booksellers, were distributed via email. While the book was originally scheduled for release in October 2011, by the end of April the book had hit #2 on Amazon.com's bestseller list, and by May 12 the book was #1. In the meantime, the publishing date was moved up to June, and Akashic increased its first printing to 150,000 copies. Akashic, which acknowledged the importance of social media in popularizing the book ("it's a miracle from the heavens for us"), is trying to prevent unauthorized copying of the book. Akashic Books was started by

Johnny Temple John Ellis Temple (August 8, 1927 – January 9, 1994) was a Major League Baseball second baseman who played for the Redlegs/Reds (1952–59; 1964); Cleveland Indians (1960–61), Baltimore Orioles (1962) and Houston Colt .45s (1962–63). Tem ...

, former bassist of

Girls Against Boys Girls Against Boys is a post-hardcore band which formed in Washington, D.C. and subsequently relocated to New York City shortly after their formation in 1989. The band released albums on the labels Adult Swim, Touch and Go Records, Geffen Record ...

and mid-80s

Dischord Dischord Records is a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label specializing in punk rock. The label is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded Dischord in 1980 to release ''Minor Disturbance'' by their band The Teen Idles ...

band

Soulside Soulside, also spelled Soul Side, was an American post-hardcore band from the greater Washington, D.C. area. The original name of the band was Lunchmeat which was formed by high school students Bobby Sullivan, Chris Thomson, Scott McCloud and ...

, with the mission "to make literature more part of popular culture, not just a part of elitist culture." The publishing house is currently run out of the (OA) Can Factory in Brooklyn.

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Small press publishing companies Book publishing companies based in New York City Publishing companies established in 1996 Companies based in Brooklyn 1996 establishments in New York City