In 2017, Sacks created a
vanity press imprint dubbed "Sunshine Beam Publishing" which he created "primarily to publish stuff no one else would publish."[12][20]
Episodes of the podcast, Doin' It with Mike Sacks... and Rob!, have been produced since January 2016.[citation needed]
The book received a starred review in
Publisher’s Weekly, saying “Sack[s] has compiled a lively compendium sure to captivate anyone who loves a good comedy.”[23]
The A.V. Club wrote that these comedy writers are “lucky to have a gifted chronicler like Sacks documenting their curious ways and odd customs for posterity.”[24]
Time Magazine wrote that “comedy writers tend to be depressed, brilliant, erratic and sometimes even funny. Mike Sacks' collection of remarkably frank interviews with 21 of them reads like a secret history of popular culture.”[25] The book was a Top 10 seller for
Amazon’s “Comedy Television,” “Biographies of Comedians,” and “Comedy.”
Other Books
Sacks, Mike; Thyre, Sarah (August 24, 2010). Sex: Our Bodies, Our Junk. Three Rivers Press.
ISBN978-0307592163.
Randy Dandy (September 11, 2018). Randy: The Full and Complete Unedited Biography and Memoir of the Amazing Life and Times of Randy S.!. Sunshine Beam Publishing.
ISBN978-0692135563.
E.L. Lessert (July 1, 2020). Passable in Pink: A Prom Com. Sunshine Beam Publishing.
ISBN978-0578706290.
Sacks, Mike (December 8, 2020). Slouchers: The Novelization. Sunshine Beam Publishing.
ISBN978-0578792057.
Skippy "Batty" Battison (February 22, 2022). Passing On The Right: My Ups, My Downs, My Lefts, My Rights, My Wrongs ... and My Career (So Far) in this Bizarro World of Comedy. Sunshine Beam Publishing.
ISBN978-0578329499.
Sacks, Mike (March 17, 2022). I Am Super Pumped! Let's Do This Shit!!!!!!!!!!!: The Marketing of "Passing on the Right". Sunshine Beam Publishing.
ISBN978-0578394985.
Sacks, Mike; Roeder, Jason (April 26, 2022). Welcome to Woodmont College. McSweeney's Publishing.
ISBN978-1952119439.
Sacks is popular with some comedians, including
David Sedaris[28] and Andy Richter.[29] Critics tend to appreciate his work, while the general public can be left confused.
This is evident in the reception of Sacks' two interview anthologies, Poking a Dead Frog and Here's the Kicker. While some critics saw and appreciated the interviews as a reflection on working in the industry, many readers expected a manual on how to make it as a comedian.[30][31][32][33][34]Dead Frog was also criticized for a lack of diversity: 7 of 44 interviews were with women.[31]
His early work[35] and works published under his own imprint have received both praise[36] and critique.[37]