career

Zoe Foster Blake's book about farts proves to be a masterful career move.

Zoe Foster Blake is once again proving she can do no wrong as her latest business venture is shaping up to be a massive success.

The beauty guru, entrepreneur and author is celebrating the fact that her first children’s book, ‘No One Likes A Fart’ is proving so popular.

In fact, as she told her Instagram followers on Saturday, it has already outsold the other six adult-aimed books she’s written. In just a few measly weeks, too.

“My book about farts has outsold all my other far more elegant, grown-up books,” she wrote next to a snap of her excited outside a bookstore window display.

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Zoe, who is responsible for bringing us The Wrong Girl and Amazing Face among other books, pondered why her children’s book has been a better seller than her other literary works. 

“Maybe farts are in right now, or maybe you all suddenly had kids, or maybe it was all those threats I made, but either way: thank you,” the Go-To Skincare founder said.

Perhaps, part of the success of the mum-of-two’s book could come down to timing. Zoe’s always been a popular woman in Australia, but she’s never been this well-known.

Also, judging by the number of fans commenting that they bought the gift as a Christmas present for their niece/nephew/son/husband – sales were boosted by its November release date. It also may have something to do with the fact that it seems like most of us are more likely to buy a book as a gift to a child than to an adult, partly because we’re not so worried they ‘won’t like it’.

It could also be that children’s books are just far more popular in general.

In Kate Klise’s 2016 Huffington Post article listing ’10 reason’s you should write a children’s book’ she suggests that children read more books than adults – which makes sense as you can read most picture books in less than 10 minutes, vs the days, weeks, and potentially months it takes to read a novel.

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Listen: Wonder is another excellent kids book the children in your life would love. (Post continues.)

Andy Lee, Zoe’s good friend and her husband Hamish’s other half, also found similar success with the release of his children’s book ‘Do Not Open This Book’ in September last year.

Lee’s profile as a radio star, TV presenter and loveable larikin worked wonders for his book sales as 60,000 copies were sold within days of its release.

The 36-year-old told the Sydney Morning Herald at the time he felt a little bit guilty about the book’s success, given his sister is also an author.

“I don’t know how many words mine was, probably struggling to break 100, whereas my sister is dealing in the thousands,” he commented.

“Not only did I hope she liked the book, I hoped she didn’t think I was stealing her career.”

While writing a children’s book isn’t quite as easy as it seems, it certainly doesn’t take as long to write as a 300-page 75,000-word novel. So your profit-output ratio could be pretty good.

Whatever the reasons for Zoe’s success, we have no doubt a huge part of it is her quirky sense of humour and bucketfuls of talent.