How, did this happen?  In this particular case it is clearly the recommendation of Coding Horror’s Jeff Atwood.  His single post about the book sent it flying off Amazon.com’s virtual shelves, and started a conversation that included over 100 comments on Jeff’s blog and created a viral effect as several other blogs picked up on the story.

The lesson here for authors is not only do you need positive reviews of your books, but certain reviews can be  more effective than others.  You need a targeted approach to get your book not just in front of many people, but also the right people.

Think about who might have the biggest impact on your book.  The answer is not Oprah Winfrey – let’s keep it realistic.  Who is a trusted adviser, or connector within the community of your readership?  We use tools like the Author Questionnaire to help us answer these questions.  If your publisher is not using a similar tool, create your own and work with the marketing an PR departments on a targeted approach to get your work in front of the right people.

UPDATE: Looks like Charles Petzold is discussing this on his blog as well.