As a YouTube vlogger’s debut tops the book charts and Britain’s first web series based on a novel begins, Katie Wright looks at how the internet and literary worlds are moving ever closer

Girl Online, the debut novel by the beauty blogger and vlogger Zoe Sugg, is 2014's fastest-selling book. It shot straight to the top of the UK Official Top 50, shifting 78,000 copies in seven days and outstripping first week sales of even JK Rowling.

How did the newbie novelist manage that? Largely thanks to the legion of fans who follow her Zoella YouTube channel. With nearly seven million subscribers, that means less than 2% have bought the book so far. And with plenty of Christmas wish lists still to be fulfilled, you can bet sales will continue to soar.

No doubt to her publishers' delight, Sugg has managed to leverage her internet fame to boost physical book sales. Meanwhile, an established British author is looking to harness YouTube in a similar way.

The Night School Web Series is a six-part video spin-off of CJ Daugherty's bestselling YA books that's just launched at www.youtube.com/user/nightschoolbook. Each of the sub-10-minute episodes features an original story but uses the same cast and setting as the Night School novels.

"I am barraged with emails and messages every single day from fans asking for a TV series or film of Night School," says Daugherty. "This was a way to give them what they want and to be at the cutting edge of something brand new."

Night School's online offering is a UK first, but over in the US, these literary offshoots are nothing new. There's a whole subgenre of classic lit reimagined for the Facebook generation, like The Autobiography Of Jane Eyre and the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, based on Pride And Prejudice, which started out on YouTube before spawning a book.

With millions of video views, not to mention millions of pounds spent on books and merchandise, clearly the multi-platform approach is a lucrative one. It's not without controversy though.

Both Sugg and her ghostwriter, Siobhan Curham, were forced to defend themselves when they faced online abuse and accusations that Sugg hadn't been transparent about how much help she had in writing Girl Online.

Sugg eventually announced she was "taking a few days out and off the internet because it's clouding up my brain". So will the vlogger-turned-author's experience deter other YouTubers from launching their own literary careers? One look at her record-breaking sales suggests not.

COOKIE CUTTERS

Their videos attract millions of views, but vloggers (video bloggers) have been warned that they need to make it clear which of their clips are paid-for promos. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) issued new guidance after an investigation by the BBC's Newsround found that several UK vloggers were paid to feature Oreo biscuits but didn't declare that their videos were adverts. The ASA now recommends sponsored clips have the word 'ad' or 'promo' in the title, and Oreo parent company Mondelez has promised not to show the videos again.

THE PSY'S THE LIMIT

YouTube has been forced to upgrade its counter after a music video exceeded the previous view limit. The culprit? You guessed it, the simulated horse-riding dance masterpiece that is Gangnam Style. Previously, the site used a 32-bit integer (a computer data unit), but the South Korean pop hit has now surpassed the previous maximum of 2,147,483,647. "We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer... but that was before we met PSY," a YouTube statement said. Now the counter has been upgraded to a 64-bit integer, the singer has got a fair stretch to go until he reaches 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 views - that's more than 9 quintillion.

SWEET TRUTH

Ever been so bored in a meeting that you've resorted to messing about on your phone to pass the time (under the pretence that you're checking urgent emails)? Then you'll probably have some sympathy for Conservative MP Nigel Mills, who was forced to issue an apology after he was snapped playing the notoriously addictive Candy Crush Saga game during a Commons committee hearing. He's not the only one in trouble though. A Commons spokesperson said the person who took the photos could be banned from the Houses of Parliament too.

BROWSING AROUND... SANTA CLAUS

Keep track of Santa's journey and play fun themed games - Santatracker.google.com

How did Saint Nicholas become Santa Claus? - http://tiny.cc/stnic

The scariest Santas ever - www.creepysantaphotos.com

The best Santa Claus fails - tiny.cc/santafails

The secret science behind Santa Claus - tiny.cc/santascience

tiny.cc/santascience

Mickey's Magical Maths World, the first of Disney's Imagicademy educational apps for kids - disneyimagicademy.com