The Best Thing Since Amway is Amazon E-books

Surprise! There are ways to make sure that your book sells well that have nothing to do with writing your book sell (see this: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323864304578316143623600544.html). I had never actually talked to someone who was serious about sharing this information, but all of these pieces of advice were from a real talk I went to recently. I have no idea if the hundreds of other people who listened were as skeptical and amused as I was, but I suspect not.

The most useful thing to come out of going to this talk for me was the realization that I didn't care as much about my books selling way as I thought I had. I cared a lot more about people actually liking my books and admiring my writing. With no further ado, however, here are the million-dollar tips:

Make sure your cover looks like other best-selling covers in your field

If you don't have a blurb, put something else in the blurb spot.

If you're not a NY Times bestseller, say something else in that same spot—no one will be able to read it in a thumbnail size cover on amazon.

“It doesn't matter how good your book is. It's all about marketing.”

“We buy things because people tell us to buy things.”

Get 10 reviews as fast as you can. Pay for them if you need to.

People want books now and they want them cheap.

If you cut a book into smaller pieces, you earn more money and your customers are happier because they feel good about how many books they have finished.

Write one-page chapters. People like them.

1 thing will guarantee success: writing more books.

Do you know anyone out there who has 50 titles and doesn't sell? (Um, yes.)

The only thing you can control is how many books you write. (Or how good those books are.)

The era of a book a year is over. You need to write 4-5 books a year.

If you have 100 books published, then people will now you are a good writer. (Really? What about Margaret Mitchell? Or Harper Lee?)