Atlantic Books sell one million copies of #1 bestseller The Courage to Be Disliked; buy new work The Courage to Be Yourself

Clare Drysdale, Group Associate Publisher of Atlantic Books, and Anna McFarlane, Publisher at Allen & Unwin in Australia, have bought UK and Commonwealth rights in Fumitake Koga’s The Courage to Be Yourself from Victoria Hobbs at AM Heath, acting on behalf of Poplar Publishing Co., Ltd. represented by Manami Tamaoki at the Tuttle-Mori Agency. The Courage to Be Yourself (Japanese title: Samishii Yoruni Wa Pen Wo Mote) will be published in hardback and ebook in both the UK and Australia in September 2026.

Atlantic Books have now surpassed one million copies sold of their print and ebook editions of The Courage to Be Disliked, written by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, since it was first published in 2018. Sales of the Australian edition exceed 270,000 copies, while combined audiobook sales total a further 320,000 units.

The British edition has now spent over a year in the top 10 of the Sunday Times Paperback Nonfiction bestseller list, reaching the #1 position in October 2025. In May, Atlantic’s Creative Director Felice McKeown was shortlisted for Marketing Strategy of the Year at the British Book Awards for her work on the title, which also won the IPG Impact Award.

The Courage to Be Yourself is a fully-illustrated children’s book, set in an underwater world, which distils some of the themes of The Courage to Be Disliked – such as issues related to self-esteem, and letting go of things you can’t control – for a younger readership.

Clare Drysdale says:

‘The recent sales trajectory of The Courage to Be Disliked, a backlist self-help title, has been nothing short of phenomenal. It’s exciting to be able to share the messages from that book, which have proved so resonant to readers throughout the world, with a younger audience, and in a beautifully illustrated edition too.’