Now this is one of the more interesting marketing developments I've seen in quite some time. As the popularity of the Virtual Reality social networking site Second Life - where you can do pretty much anything you do in real life from shopping, listening to music, spending virtual money and hanging out with friends - grows to over a million visitors, it's no wonder that corporate entities like Toyota, the BBC and Reuters are jumping on this bandwagon.

And now, as the Guardian reports, it's Penguin UK's turn - and, appropriately, it has chosen Neal Stephenson's SNOW CRASH as the book with which to test the waters. With its invention of the notion of a "metaverse" (a contraction of "metaphysical universe") it is acknowledged as the inspiration behind Second Life and other virtual worlds. "It was the obvious entry point," says Penguin's digital publisher, Jeremy Ettinghausen (avatar name Jeremy Neumann.) "We are always looking for new ways to connect with online communities and Second Life is undergoing a huge amount of growth. However, it is still a small community when compared with MySpace or iTunes and we wouldn't want to bring authors in who didn't have a connection with that world yet."

Penguin's not the only publishing-related entity finding its footing within Second Life. There's a virtual version of the famed Paris bookshop Shakespeare & Company, and Winged Chariot, a small press devoted to children's literature in foundation, is also functioning in virtual format. "Right now the live music scene in Second Life is exploding, so we've seen that grow. And with more and more universities and businesses, Amazon included, becoming part of Second Life, I think it will be huge eventually," predicts poet and artist Shannon Ritter. As long as the site solves its technical issues, it may well be...