The Blank Bestseller: How an Empty Book Became Amazon’s Sensation

Who's buying a blank book, translated into multiple languages, on 'The History of the Palestinian People – From Ancient Times to the Present'? Ask Asaf Wohl, the author who has captivated millions of shoppers on Amazon.

Wohl says that he originally intended to write this book as a sort of joke, but somehow it was perceived as an incredibly 'important' book, and today it ranks second among Amazon's bestsellers.

What do we mean by a blank book? Literally. The Hebrew version contains 120 blank, white pages. The English version has 132 of these pages, while the German version has already "exceeded 140 pages, and we're still halfway through the translation," Wohl jokes, explaining how the idea came to be.

Asaf Wohl (Channel 2 Screenshot)

"It was about two months ago, marking the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War, and left-wing groups organized protests against the occupation. It really annoyed me, so I wanted to prove to them that there's no such thing as a Palestinian people and release a book about a non-existent history."

Wohl decided to take a stand and be the pioneer 'researcher' of ancient Palestinian people's days. "Every researcher wants to break through in their field, so I also found myself in this 'fascinating' world that I didn't know existed, and apparently no one knows. I've never heard the history of the ancient Palestinian people."

And since no one knows anything about this book, all that's left is to publish the 'unknown.' The real question isn't how to publish a book empty of content (which itself has an amusing answer) but who actually buys such a book? "Convincing the virtual store managers to publish the book wasn't easy. Initially, they thought it was a joke, but in the end, I managed to convince them that this is the book and the message I genuinely want to convey." And to the question of who buys such a book, Wohl's answer would be, "It's not a lie - if you believe in it."

Finally, the agreement was signed, with the book's title being published in a 'watermark' at the top of each page, in exchange for publishing the book and ranking it on the leading products list.