What a difference a day makes.

June 2, 2010, 4 Comments

Tuesday 1 June has been a red letter day in my diary for a very long time, marked as my last day at work before leaving for the launch of my book in Britain. That was so yesterday. Now Tuesday 1 June means something totally different to me. Now it marks the day my book was noticed.

It started with updating the bestseller list for Stauffacher English Bookshop, as we do on the 1st of every month. Swiss Watching was Number 1! After just a few days on sale, it had outsold the next two titles together. That was a great way to start the day – changing the bestseller display to make my book Number 1. It was even more satisfying to do that knowing that it wasn’t only my friends and regular customers who had been buying the book; it was tourists and strangers. The fab cover helps (how glad am I that I came up with that design idea?!) but the book seems to be selling itself.

If I thought that would be the best part of the day, I was very wrong.  By mid-afternoon I’d finished work and was out shopping for all those last-minute things I’d forgotten (mainly chocolate). An hour away and the whole world went mad. I got back to find my email inbox full and over 3000 extra new visitors to this blog. And all thanks to one article.

A week or so ago Jonathan Spirig, a very nice man from the Berner Zeitung, came to interview me in German about my book. Yesterday his article went online, and then was picked up by newspapers all around Switzerland: Der Bund, Tages Anzeiger, Basler Zeitung, even the Thuner Tagblatt. That was why my blog exploded into life. That was why I was suddenly getting comments, not just from Zürich and Basel but New York and Virginia. That was why 1 June is now a memorable date for me.

By 22.01 Swiss Watching was a number one bestseller on Amazon in the UK (and number nine in the US). I say ‘a’ number one because it was top of the list in the ‘Books about Switzerland’ category. Not quite the big bestseller list but still outselling Lonely Planet, Rough Guide & Co. There must have been an awful lots of online readers of the Thuner Tagblatt living in the UK somewhere. Definitely a day to remember.

Now I’m in the UK, getting ready for the official launch of my book next week, followed by a much-needed few days off. I’m not taking my iPhone, let alone a laptop, so I may not catch up with your comments every day. But do carry on reading and writing back. My parents always told me not to talk to strangers, but there’s nothing better than getting comments and emails from people scattered around the world. It makes all this so much fun. Sometimes, it’s good to talk, even to strangers. After all, isn’t that what the blogging is all about?