THEY LIE

There once was a movie where the hapless hero discovered

that aliens had taken over and disguised themselves as humans.

The aliens possessed the best jobs

and they rigged the economy so that humans could not succeed.

If you search on the net for ways to attract readers to your book, THEY will tell you:

1.) CHOOSE A HOOK OF A TITLE

 

2.) CREATE A STUNNING, EYE-CATCHING COVER

 

3.) PUT A LINK TO ANOTHER OF YOUR BOOKS AT THE END OF EACH NOVEL

 

4.) INSERT POPULAR KEYWORDS IN YOUR PRODUCT DESCRIPTION & METADATA.

 

5.) NETWORK AND PROMOTE YOUR BOOK WITH COVER REVEALS & TOURS

{There was one post that actually put:  "Sell Lots of Books on Amazon --

The more popular your book is on Amazon, the more it will get noticed."}

Ah, DUH!

THEY LIE!

There are thousands of self-published books out there.  Yours and mine are tiny rafts in a huge cyber-ocean of books.

There are dozens of cover reveals and tours weekly.  You are singing to the choir with these even if you hit a receptive chord. 

Authors selling to authors will only squeeze out a few sales.  The initial numbers are promising, and then they dwindle.

Amazon and Google constantly change their Algorithms and Keyword sensitivities.  Amazon puts its bolder font and color where it will. 

A book: HOW TO SELL FICTION ON KINDLE,
http://www.amazon.com/Fiction-Kindle-Marketing-Amazons-Ecosystem-ebook/dp/B00BR6G3ZW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1383879349&sr=8-2&keywords=make+a+killing+on+kindle

let you use HTML to do it yourself.  Uh, oh.  Like a Medici Pope, Amazon put its foot down this past November 1st.  Remove them or else!  Ouch.

Essentially, we are in a Ponzi Scheme:

The first to think of a novel way to attract readers wins, the followers just lose.

Amanda Hocking used TWITTER. Now, everyone uses TWITTER and FB and no one listens.

John Locke sold his books at 99 cents.  Now, Amazon's algorithms count TWO 99 CENT sale as one book sale in their ranking. Ouch.

If you can visit 100 blogs daily for a year, you will sell books.  But most of us cannot.

The only winners in this Ponzi set-up are those who write HOW TO SUCCEED books and sell their seminars on SUCCESS WITH YOUR EBOOKS. 

To break out of the author-to-author ghetto, you have to be tapped from the OUTSIDE by a widely read source. 

You cannot buy that kind of tap.  It comes unexpected in various ways:

one of your posts strikes a chord in the consciousness of American internet users;

you are featured in a major newspaper or national TV network,

you are asked out by Miley Cyrus, President Obama, or Madonna.

It is out of your hands. 

All you can do is position yourself with a string of the best books you can write with fantastic covers and hook titles ...

so that should the lightning strike, you can take advantage of it.