What is the target market for your 'best-seller'?
In some sectors relatively few sales can put the book in the top ten for that sector.
I can't see this book at the sales level of the Da Vinci Code, for example, and I don't see Hollywood fighting over the movie rights. ;)
Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time' is #3,081 in Books BUT-
#1 in Books > Science > Astronomy > Cosmology
#1 in Books > Science > Physics > Cosmology
#1 in Books > Science > Astronomy > Universe
So - Define the category you are writing for.
Then try some test marketing to samples of that target readership who haven't already read your writing here and elsewhere.
The big reason for this is that you might get a very different reaction from sample marketing than the reaction you get from the few hundred enthusiasts who read you here. The results you get will guide you in constructing the book to suit your intended market. There is a difference between writing just what you want to write and producing a product that people want to buy.
BillK
One million cumulative daily visits! Woot n' stuff. Also we're in the top 5,000 of all blogs on Technorati, and one of the top 10 econblogs by Technorati rank.
Seems like a good time to mention that I'll be appearing at Penguicon, a combination open-source/science-fiction convention in Troy, MI, Apr 18-20, as a Nifty. I'll be doing an intro to Bayesian reasoning that you probably don't need if you're reading this, possibly a panel on the Virtues of a Rationalist, some stuff on human intelligence upgrades, and definitely "The Ethics of Ending the World" with Aaron Diaz (Dresden Codak).
After the jump, you can see some proposed cover art for the blook.
For the benefit of the humor impaired: Yes, this is a joke. Erin, my girlfriend, Photoshopped this when she heard I was planning to do a book.
This is all taking longer than I expected - as expected - but I do think I'm getting there.
My current serious strategy for the blook is as follows:
If you've got more experience in the publishing industry and you see some reason that any of this won't work, i.e., "No one will talk to you if you've ever done anything with Wowio or Lulu" or "Today's readers don't want short popular books, they want 500-page tomes" or something like that, please email me or comment.