The curious incident of the bestseller on Amazon UK

When I first saw Catherine Boyle‘s piece today in the Guardian, I wondered – is this for real? But lo and behold, I check Amazon UK‘s bestseller list and the Institute of Electrical Engineers On Site Guide does indeed stand (as of 8 AM EDT) at #22 on Amazon’s list.

Boyle offers no explanation, but does get some tongue-in-cheek digs in at publishing in general, using IEE’s guide as a template. “Those same critics from earlier may cry, ‘But it’s just a textbook for students of electrical engineering!’ But, I reply, just think where it could be with a proper publicity campaign. Serialisation in national newspapers, interviews with the anonymous author in which he or she talks about their miserable childhood and sets up a few literary feuds and judicious placing in the 3 for 2 section at Borders and Waterstones. It took The Da Vinci Code a while.”

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.