An author of a romance novel spurred fading sales by making personal appearances at book clubs.

Shors is the author of “Beneath A Marble Sky,” a romantic novel about the building of the Taj Mahal. The book got decent reviews, but didn’t sell much until he added a note to the paperback edition. “I came up with the idea of putting the letter in the back of the paper back, with my e-mail address, and inviting book clubs to invite me to their evenings,” Shors explains. That was 200 book clubs ago.

The authors of “WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future” tried to hack the publishing system by getting people to buy the book at Amazon at exactly the same time. The goal: Make it the number one book, if just for one day.

It is possible for a relatively small number of people to time their purchases right and, for a short period of time, drive the book they wish to support up the charts…every other bookseller, reviewer, producer and store manager will hear about Worldchanging, and our odds of getting the traction we need to bring worldchanging ideas into the public debate will dramatically increase.

Did it work? According to one commenter, the book got up to #12 but that’s as high as it went.