Justin Halpern Behind @ShitMyDadSays Gets Book, TV Deals

A 29-year-old man who started Twitter account titled @ShitMyDadSays has been offered a book deal by Harper Collins. The man who identifies himself as Justin Halpern managed to get over 700,000 people on Twitter to follow his Tweets in which he quotes what his 73-year-old father Sam Halpern says. It took Halpern 73 of dad's quotes to attract attention of hundreds of thousands of people and the Harper Collins publishing house just four months after he started Twittering. All because as Halpern says, "[his dad] is awesome... and [he] just writes down what he says."

Some of Justin's Dad wisdom is hilarious with subtle Family Guy undertones. Like,

And,

And,

Why people would want to spend money on a book that will contain the same Tweets currently available online for free is not clear. But, other publishing houses had success turning blogs and online diaries into paper-based best sellers. One of the most recent examples is the true story that became the basis for the movie Julie and Julia, in which young blogger Julie Powell takes on a challenge of trying all 524 recipes from Julia Child's French cuisine book in one year.  Julie Powell is a real person who took on the challenge and blogged about it, eventually landing a book deal to write her Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.  The book was eventually adapted by director Nora Ephron in Julie and Julia. 

Other people who have landed book deals from their activity on Twitter are wine guru Gary Vaynerchuk, controversial football player Larry Johnson, and college students Emmett Rensin and Alex Aciman who suggested putting world's literary classics in Twitter format of 140 characters. 

As to @ShitMyDadSays, there are also speculations that CBS is interested in making @ShitMyDadSays into a sitcom. It is alleged Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick will be producing the show.