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.”
