We just hit 25,000 fans on Facebook today.

25,000 wonderful fans who purr for Vito.

Absolutely amazing.

A real, honest-to-goodness web phenomenon.

As for my agent quest, let me just say that there is some potential interest. Fingers crossed and all that.

That said, let’s get to the real meat and potatoes of this post…

Chapter 17 is now live: Attacking Dot.

Next up? 35,000 Facebook fans and Chapter 18: The Dog and the Baseball Bat.

As a friend of mine is fond of saying, Onward!

I truly am speechless.

20,000 fans on Facebook in less than two month and growing!

Thank you for all the support. Thank you to all of you who purr for Vito.

Wow.

So as promised Chapter 16 is now live: Vito’s First Date.

Next up, when we hit 25,000 Facebook fans, will be Chapter 17: Attacking Dot.

15,000 Facebook fans.

Well, 15,848, at the time of this writing, to be exact.

I have to say that I am genuinely overwhelmed and humbled by the tremendous show of support for ‘Vito’.

I think once we hit 20,000 to 25,000, we’ll start to make some serious waves.

In other words, keep sharing ‘Vito’ with your friends and go Team Vito!

The revised publishing schedule:

• Chapter 15: His First Kill at 15,000
• Chapter 16: His First Date at 20,000
• Chapter 17: Attacking Dot at 25,000

Goodbye, Twitter. Hello Facebook.

With almost 10,000 Facebook ‘Likes’ in the books (!!!!), I have published the last promised Twitter chapter yesterday and have made plans to publish the next chapter when the Facebook chimes hit 10,000.

So the publishing schedule is as follows:

• Chapter 13: Going the the Vet in a Beer Box went live yesterday
• Chapter 14: Out for the First Time goes live at 10,000 ‘Likes’
• Chapter 15: His First Kill at 15,000
• Chapter 16: His First Date at 20,000
• Chapter 17: Attacking Dot at 25,000

In other words, share ‘Vito’ with your Facebook friends today!

UPDATE: Facebook hit 10,000 late tonight, so as promised – Chapter 14: Out for the First Time. Enjoy!

I figured with some advertising, I might be able to generate a little interest in the book.

Boy was I wrong.

I generated A LOT of interest in Vito.

Over 8,500 ‘Likes’ in one week (you can see the current total at the very top of this page)!

Wow!

It looks like I will be hitting my first major goal of 10,000 ‘Likes’ in short order!

If we keep this up, I think we might finally convince a few agents and publishers to take a chance on Vito!

So if you haven’t already, ‘Like’ me on Facebook and check out all the great comments and photos everyone has been posting!

Oh… and Chapter 13 is coming real soon!

Lots of changes going on over here at vitothecat.com (yeah, I know, finally!).

I’ve started a real, honest-to-goodness Facebook page for the book. I am coming to the conclusion that this might be the benchmark that really matters.

In other words, do me a favor and ‘Like’ me today….

You will also notice some changes around the edges of the site with updated artwork and messaging.

These updates will continue into the next week, as well a few surprises, such as an old girlfriend from the book surfacing to comment about my account of her escapades with Vito (see Pushing Around My Girlfriends)

Fun, fun!

So as promised, I have added Chapter 11: Summer in Philadelphia.

I want to thank everyone who has followed Vito so far, and give a very big thank you to everyone who has left a comment. You may not realize it, but I do get a big boost out of every single comment and new Twitter follower I get. If there was a camera on me when each new comment or follower appeared, you would see me perform a fist pump that would make Kirk Gibson proud.

But enough of that, let’s go to the official tally…

• ‘VitotheCat’ Twitter Followers: 102
• Vitothecat.com Comments: 38
• ‘Introducing Vito’ Diggs: 11

I have a hunch that Twitter followers and comments will end up being the prime gauge of Vito enthusiasm, but I will keep Digg there for the time being to see if we can’t get a bit of a lift. And while I do genuinely appreciate the donations to date, I think I will retire that as a metric. Of course, if you want to donate, you still can by clicking on the PayPal logo on the top right of the site.

When does the next chapter go live?

The moment we hit 200 Twitter followers, 100 comments or 100 Diggs.

So if you haven’t already done so, please follow, comment and digg today!

Now excuse me while I do my naked Vito victory dance.

DiG…

You can add a Vito graphic!

I’ve created three different sizes: 300×250 (above), 200×167 (below left) and 160×160 (below right):

So how do you use them? Simply copy the code below and insert into your website or blog.

For 300×250:

<p align=”center”><a title=”Vito: The Cat Who Wouldn’t Purr” href=”http://www.vitothecat.com/” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.vitothecat.com/images/vito-300×250.jpg” alt=”Vito graphic – 300×250″ hspace=”0″ vspace=”0″ /></a></p>

For 200×167:

<p align=”center”><a title=”Vito: The Cat Who Wouldn’t Purr” href=”http://www.vitothecat.com/” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.vitothecat.com/images/vito-200×167.jpg” alt=”Vito graphic – 200×167″ hspace=”0″ vspace=”0″ /></a></p>

For 160×160:

<p align=”center”><a title=”Vito: The Cat Who Wouldn’t Purr” href=”http://www.vitothecat.com/” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.vitothecat.com/images/vito-160×160.jpg” alt=”Vito graphic – 160×160″ hspace=”0″ vspace=”0″ /></a></p>

And if you have questions or need a different size, don’t hesitate to drop me a line at dig@vitothecat.com

I’ve pondered that Lilian Jackson Braun has made a career out of ‘The Cat Who…’ mystery series, beginning in 1966 with ‘The Cat Who Read Backwards’ all the way to 2007′s ‘The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers’.

Further, I’ve come to the realization that I don’t mind if my book title sounds like a something for young adults. As one wise emailer pointed out, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ sounds like a kids book, and who wouldn’t begrudge that sort of success?

But what I am trying to avoid is having a title that immediately conjures up thoughts of a children’s tale, like ‘Sheep in a Jeep’. Not that ‘Sheep in a Jeep’ isn’t a terrific book, spawning such sequels as ‘Sheep in a Shop’ and ‘Sheep on a Ship’, but this memoir is most certainly not a children’s story.

So after much soul searching and endless lists of book title possibilities, I am leaning towards the following, with ‘The Cat Who Wouldn’t Purr’ as a subtitle…

So let me know what you think and if I get enough positive response, ‘Vito: The Cat Who Wouldn’t Purr’ may very well become ‘Memories of Vito: The Cat Who Wouldn’t Purr’.

So when I asked readers who have enjoyed ‘Vito: The Cat Who Wouldn’t Purr’ to follow me on Twitter, and Digg the first chapter on Digg as a public affirmation of the story, I didn’t realize I was placing an obstacle in their path.

Long story short, it’s time for Plan ‘B’.

What is Plan ‘B’?

Encourage readers to share their enthusiasm for the story in a way that they’ve been doing all along — by leaving a comment.

Or more specifically, leaving on comment on THIS page.

It doesn’t so much matter what you write, as long as you leave a comment (though something positive would be preferred) because the more comments we generate on this page, the more we can show publishers that there are readers for this story.

And if you’re not sure what to say, perhaps you can suggest that not only would you buy ‘Vito: The Cat Who Wouldn’t Purr’ as a book, but you would also shower praise on any publisher wise enough to publish it.