The Book Job
In the episode, Lisa is shocked to discover that all popular young-adult novels are conceived by book publishing executives through use of market research and ghostwriters to make money.
Homer decides to get rich by making a fantasy novel about trolls, with help from Bart, Principal Skinner, Patty, Moe, Professor Frink, and author Neil Gaiman.
In addition, the episode was inspired by the Ocean's Trilogy, a film series about a group of criminals that heist casinos, and features many elements from it.
The episode was seen by approximately 5.77 million people during its original airing and since then it has received positive reviews from television critics, particularly for its satire of the book publishing industry and for its references to the Ocean's Trilogy.
The woman is an actress hired by the publishing company to pose as T. R. Francis, who is a fabrication, and says all young-adult book series are conceived by executives through market research and ghostwriters to make money.
When Homer learns of this, he decides to get rich by group-writing a fantasy novel with a team consisting of Bart, Principal Skinner, Patty, Moe, and Professor Frink.
Neil Gaiman overhears the team and offers his help, but they limit him to bringing food for them while they write the novel titled The Troll Twins of Underbridge Academy.
According to Selman, the article "was all about how these executives take market research and come up with the ideas for these books and farms them out and slaps the name of fake writers on them and fabricates backgrounds for these authors who don’t exist.
[5] In addition to literature, the episode spoofs the Ocean's Trilogy, a film series about a group of criminals that heist casinos.
[6] Selman revealed to Entertainment Weekly in January 2011 that the episode is essentially about "Homer and some people in Springfield hav[ing] to perpetrate an Ocean's Eleven–style heist in the non-Ocean's Eleven world of children’s fantasy book publishing.
On his blog, The Simpsons music editor Chris Ledesma wrote that Selman wanted "Gritty Shaker" to be played repeatedly throughout "The Book Job" because he erroneously thought that was how it was done in film.
"[12] Gaiman also noted that he does not think the episode gives an entirely accurate portrayal of him, commenting: "Truthfully, the real-life me almost never hangs around in Barnes & Noble-like bookstores waiting to find groups of local townsfolk who've decided to write pseudonymous young adult fantasy series, offering my services.
"[13] On his official Tumblr page, Gaiman noted that while he did not have much input on the story, he got to improvise while recording and gave suggestions on how to make his dialogue sound as close to something he might actually say in real life.
Josh Harrison of Ology named it one the season's strongest episodes so far, praising it for featuring "a brilliant appearance by author [...] Neil Gaiman and a slick Ocean's Eleven aesthetic".
With the successful guest appearances by both Neil Gaiman and Andy García, this episode delivered an increasingly rare treat for Simpsons fans: a well-written and well-acted half-hour that gets better and funnier as it goes.
"[4] Cavna particularly praised the episode for being based on real-life publishing, noting how Selman drew inspiration from the article on Alloy Entertainment.
"[4] Similarly, Cyriaque Lamar of io9 wrote that the episode "did justice to Gaiman's guest appearance...in that it made the author look like a total nutcase.
"[19] In addition, Lamar praised the episode for several of its gags, including the Far Side reference and the disclosures of Patty being able to speak fluent Dothraki and Twilight originally revolving around golems.
