Coincidence being the funny thing that is, there was of course an article in The Guardian today about how to become an ebook superstar with various dos and don’ts. Thankfully I seem to be doing much of right things (or at lease not doing the don’ts!) thanks in the most part to my new twitter pal Emily Tippetts.

With only half the day gone I’d passed the 100 downloads in a single day mark, and entended my reach in the US quite considerably, climbing UP 525,395 in the rankings which places me at:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,488 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#27 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > World Literature > Mythology
#37 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children’s eBooks > Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror > Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic

…in the US store placing me ahead of the Twilight Saga and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in number of downloads. Considering I’d only sold one copy in the US to date, I am pretty impressed with this and as it must have increased my visibility over there. Here’s hoping that half those readers are vociferous readers and keen reviewers! If it has then today will surely have been worth it.

To get The End Of All Worlds find it on Amazon with the below links, or search for it on your local amazon site…

( UK readers | US readers )

One of the problems that we face at work is actually getting students, staff, potential students… to engage with our twitter feed and our facebook accounts or have anyone to comment on our news stories other than spammers. So its the engagement bit that I’m interested in. After listening to a lot being said about social networking I think that I’m of the conclusion that that may well be one of the great unanswered questions. People who have it working well will tell you how great it is, and they will give you case studies over what you should and shouldn’t be doing based on their experience in their field. Asked what you should be doing in your field and they can’t help you. It’s clearly not an exact science.

What is clear is that, by far, the majority of people use the internet for learning, fun, and to socialise and that’s the same on mobile devices too. So to get with the engagement, and have people enjoying being around our social networking and our blogs and our website (and buying our products or studying at our univerAsity) I think we have to go against what our company bosses might think and give them the fun, and hope that when they decide what we can offer them, they remember our good name and come a-running.

I am tired after my day in London though. It’s nice but I couldn’t live there. It tires me, and come home feeling grubby and headachey. That said, I do like Baker Street station, all the old stonework the window shafts cut into tunnels, the decorative woodwork and the carved statues and the old Victorian tiles. Got to be one of my favourite stations.

I also saw a vision of the publishing future on the tube today. A girl who obviously works in publishing was reading PARIS IN LOVE – SECOND PASS PAGES, which I take it to mean the second pass proofs of a book on her kindle. Tonight I looked up the book on Amazon: an as yet unpublished book available to preorder.

Damn it, the girl worked for Random House! I should have got talking to her and made a contact to get my own book published…?!? *grins*