A couple of days ago, as we reported here, Joe Vitale beat Harry Potter for the #1 bestseller spot on Amazon.com, at least for a few hours.

Well, the Harry Potter following responded in an interesting manner, many of them insulting.

Yes, Joe did "beat" Harry for only a few hours, and yes, Harry isn't out yet.

But I don't think that many people out there can really understand Joe's marketing achievement (and it has been done before by him and some others as well, just not against Harry until now).

Joe Vitale is "just" one marketer, supported by some other marketing entrepreneurs. He has no serious marketing budget (compared to Harry's publishing house) and no money at all went in to any sort of media buying for this campaign. What he does have is his list, his marketing experience and a few supporting marketers, all entrepreneurs.

Harry on the other hand has a following of hundreds of thousands, backed by a strong corporation, an incredible marketing budget, the huge media conglomerate and a couple of movies as well.

Of course, Harry will sell more copies. It would have been sad if he didn't. But just for a few hours, an individual marketer outsold him.

And it's true --- Harry started out small, too. But today, things are different.

You can look at this and see an ego marketer fighting against a beautiful book series. But what I see is one marketer challenging the corporate world and an army of corporate marketers, and winning, even if just for part of the day.
And if this doesn't inspire every other entrepreneurial marketer out there, I don't know what will.