Thanks to Bookseller+Publisher magazine announcing the launch of the Mighty Tiny Book Shop, there has been much interest in this new online model for buying and selling books. The best part is that the best is yet to come, with plans under way for a truly unique approach to online book selling. All book shop owners considering listing their stock online are encouraged to sign up for a basic MTBS account which will let you subscribe to the newsletter.

One question put to me by Bookseller+Publisher was whether the Mighty Tiny Book Shop supports self-published Australian authors. The answer is "Yes!" We recognise the terms "second hand books" and "used books" are used on the site and will be updating these soon. Self-published authors are also encouraged to contact MTBS so they can work together with us to make the Mighty Tiny Book Shop the Number 1 Australian website destination for browsing Australian self-published authors.

Since launching, we have uploaded some 50 to 60 books using the website itself. More than anything this is the "real world" trial for the system.

We are close to testing the next major feature, which will be a "synch file upload". What's that? Basically you can maintain your list of books on your own PC using whatever system you choose, and as long as the system can output your data to a comma-separated text file (CSV) which conforms with this site's requirements, you will be able to maintain all your MTBS listings in one go. It doesn't matter if you have 5 or 5,000 books, the synch file will keep you updated with just a few mouse clicks.

What if you don't have an existing book cataloguing system? We'll give you one that we're developing right now.

Finally, a range of changes have taken place on the website itself. Here is just a selection of the more notable changes:

• Image thumbnails have been optimised to make your browsing experience as fast as possible
• The seller's name is now displayed alongside each item
• You now don't have to specify a shipping weight if you are not sure
• Once you submit a new listing you receive a link to "sell another in the same category" ... saving you time
• The site layout has been simplified - we believe in the 'keep it simple' rule
• We added text to explain that buyers are welcome to make offers below the asking price for items
• Social networking website "Digg" has been added to items ... more to follow
• You can now sign up for the MTBS newsletter right on the homepage without needing an account