Don’t you just love statistics! Strictly speaking, the headline is accurate. Here, though, is the real story.

Only one Melbourne bookshop has copies on the shelves. You can order it from other shops, who will then ship your order in. Readings in Carlton, though, has copies on the shelves.

They had nine of them.

When he read my recent blog post (Shoutout to four bookshop managers), the manager at Readings (Mark Rubbo) sent me a quick email and the following exchange took place:

Mark : Hi Steve. Thanks for this. I’m afraid we haven’t had a lot of success so far. [Just one copy had been sold.]
Steve : Hi Mark. Never mind. I’m just grateful you’ve taken it. Maybe my blog will generate something. If not, I’m having lots of fun!
Mark [the next day] : Someone just bought four copies – for Easter gifts she said!
Steve: I’ll bet it was my daughter! :-)
Steve texts daughter: Have you been to Readings? Just got an excited email from the manager to say someone just bought 4 copies. I told him I bet it was you!
Daughter texts Steve: NOT ME!
Steve emails Mark: It wasn’t my daughter. 😊
Mark: A real person – exciting!

So the headline, technically, is accurate. Over 50% have been sold. And it would take just one more buyer like this morning’s to make it a sell out. If that happens, watch out for the headline on my next blog post.

:-)