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.

Unfortunately, some cat lovers have perceived this as me taking a shot at poor, defenseless Dewey.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

It’s just that ‘Dewey’ was #1 on the New York Times best-seller list AND has been on Facebook for over TWO years.

‘Vito’ clearly has no book deal (yet!) and has only been on Facebook since July, so for me this is a HUGE deal.

Why? Because it means I now have a legitimate narrative for a publisher.

In the meantime, please keep sharing ‘Vito’ with your friends and go Team Vito!

The latest 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

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!

And don’t forget that I did promise to post one chapter for every hundred followers we gain until we hit the magical 1,000 mark.

Why so magical? Because I think there is some cache with quadruple digits, not to mention the addition of a numerical comma!

I may even try the press route at that point and see if I can’t drum up a little buzz for my quest!

So as always, any ideas and/or words of encouragement are most welcome.

DiG…

So as promised, Chapter 12: Pushing Around My Girlfriends is now live.

Another 100 Twitter followers will bring Chapter 13: Going to the Vet in a Beer Box.

And don’t forget to keep those comments coming.

Honestly, each and every comment brings a smile to my face and makes me believe, just a little bit more, that we can get this story published.

DiG…

It’s been on my list for a while as I realized long ago that the blog format simply did not work as the first page of a site dedicated to a book and the quest to get it published.

So let me know what you think of the change — everything is still the same under the hood, it’s simply a new, uh, hood?

You will also note that I have added a scoreboard of sorts at the top right of every page, showing how many Twitter followers I have and how many comments people have left.

My thought all along has been that if I can generate enough palpable enthusiasm, someone in the  publishing world is going to have to take notice of what I am doing.

Well, Twitter followers seems to be the leading indicator. So if you haven’t followed me yet, please do so now here.

Because once we hit 200 followers, I’ll will add Chapter 12: Pushing Around My Girlfriends.