Slicing the Hype: A Simple Formula for Finding Great Nonfiction e-Books

By Michal Stawicki

Annoyed by All the Pseudo-Books Flooding Stores Recently?

You know the ones. They have alluring, professional-looking covers. They promise to solve a problem…nay, solve your life, but they rarely deliver that in the end. They might be overly short, more like a pamphlet. They may just lead you back to the author's website to buy more stuff. Are you ready to say "enough is enough" and find some decent books that actually deliver what they promise and are written by real people--no marketers or scammers?
 

New Markets = People Looking to Get Rich Quick

The e-book market is no exception, and so it's drawn a crowd of savvy people looking to make a quick buck while preying on your insecurities. Want to lose weight? Make your first million? Have a better relationship? And do it all in less than five minutes a day? Chances are there's a book for that. The trouble is that these books aren't real books. They're often empty, soul-less, time-sucks. So how can you tell the difference? How can you be sure you're not getting sucked in to these marketers' schemes?
 

Human Connection is More Important than Ever

Michal Stawicki is an author with firsthand knowledge of the so-called Kindle Gold Rush. In this book, Slicing the Hype, he reveals who's worth reading on Amazon and how to quickly discern them from the surrounding ocean of trash. In addition you'll learn:
- the value of human to human business and why this is so vital in today's marketplace of scammers and frauds
- how to get in touch with real authors for advice and comradery
- how to grow by getting personal mentorship from those you admire the most—they're probably more receptive than you think!
- the five-click connectivity test to instantly weed out phonies from the real deal
Find out why human to human business is the wave of the future: for e-books on Amazon and beyond.

Find valuable nonfiction eBooks today. Scroll to the top and download Slicing the Hype now!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michal Stawicki
• Release date: Jun 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781393758778

Michal Stawicki

Proven techniques from a practitioner. True stories.Does the concept of 'visualization' sound ridiculous to you?Do you consider mental exercises, the "law of attraction", "manifesting" and self development to be a waste of time or hokey-pokey?Has it been years since you thought seriously about your life?Welcome to the club! That describes me just a year ago. I was overweight, stressed, constantly worried about my finances and quietly desperate about my relationship with God. I was aimless. I had no plans for where my life would be in 2, 5 or 10 years.I'm a reader. I've read several thousands books in my life; there wasn't much else to do in Poland before the fall of communism. We had a black and white TV with only 2 channels; I didn't see my first computer until age 11. So, reading became my biggest habit.In August 2012 I read a book called "The Slight Edge" by Jeff Olson. It took me a whole month to start implementing ideas from this book. That led to me reading numerous other personal development books, some effective, some less so. I looked at myself and decided this was one person who could surely use some development. In November of 2012, I created my personal mission statement; I consider it the real starting point of my progress. Over several months I applied several self-help concepts and started building inspiring results: I some weight, greatly increased my savings, built new skills, got rid of bad habits and developed better ones.I'm very pragmatic, a "down to earth" person. I favor utilitarian, bottom-line results over pure artistry.Despite the ridiculous language, I found there is value in the "hokey-pokey visualization" stuff. I now see it as my mission to share what I have learned.My books are not abstract. I avoid going mystical as much as possible. I don't believe that pure theory is what we need in order to change our lives; the Internet age has proven this quite clearly. What you will find in my books are:- detailed techniques and methods describing how you can improve your skills and drive results in specific areas of your life- real life examples- personal storiesSo, whether you are completely new to personal development or have been crazy about the Law of Attraction for years, if you are looking for concrete strategies, you will find them in my books. My writing shows that I am a relatable, ordinary guy, not some ivory tower guru.I've been married over 12 years. I'm a father of two boys and one girl. I work full time in the IT industry, and recently, I've become an author. My passions are transparency, integrity and progress.

Book preview

Chapter 1: Navigating the Trashy Ocean

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Slicing the Hype is a quick how-to. It will help you find the best titles and authors on Amazon within minutes, not hours.

Maybe you’ve become annoyed by the multitude of pseudobooks flooding Amazon recently. These are usually poorly written, offering only regurgitated and useless information, yet often have nice covers designed to fool you.

In this book, I reveal who’s worth reading on Amazon and how to quickly discern them. As an avid reader, author, and book event organizer, I will provide behind-the-scenes insight into the Kindle market, which will make choosing your reading easier.

I remember buying my first book on Amazon like it was yesterday. It was at the beginning of May 2013, and I was finishing writing my first book. I was looking for a book about Kindle publishing. The first word that comes to my mind to describe this experience is confusing. You’ll find more of this story in the next chapter.

I still shudder at the thought of the grueling process I had to go through to find that perfect book. It repeats on a smaller scale every time I look for a book in a new niche. If I’m familiar with the topic in advance, it’s not so hard. But when I’m trying to target a book on a subject I don’t know much about, the nightmare comes back. Irrelevant search results, plastic reviews, hyped book descriptions, reviews written by frustrated trolls ... a headache is guaranteed.

Unfortunately, it’s a process that must be gone through in order to distinguish trash from valuable books, because there are a lot of trashy books on Amazon. It’s not only talented, honest, and transparent folks who are making use of the digital revolution. Huge numbers are trying to utilize the amazing potential of Amazon’s customer base to get rich quick. In the Kindle marketplace, there is even a name for the phenomenon: The Kindle Gold Rush.

There are some (mostly traditional publishers) who blame independent authors (indies) for the mess the e-book market has become and highlight indie publishing’s consistently low quality. There is some merit in this criticism, but low quality is not a real problem for readers. Anyone who buys—or downloads free—a book full of spelling or grammar errors will just put it away and probably leave a negative review advising the author to proofread his work. Amazon allows the return of Kindle books during the seven days following purchase. Low quality is very easy to target and punish, and it doesn’t take you much time or energy to do either.

When I was looking for that first book on Kindle publishing, I didn’t have a problem with low quality books. I had a problem with a multitude of titles that promised to solve my problem but didn’t deliver. Kindle publishing is the latest big thing on the Internet. Every opportunity seeker seems determined to saturate the market with their work and make a fortune.

Those authors aren’t thinking of their readers’ interests.

Categories of Publishers

Today on Kindle, we don’t just have traditional publishers and indie authors.

There are also bloggers. Some try to turn book readers into blog visitors; others want to monetize their blog content.

There are hobbyists who want to put their works in front of readers for the fun of it. They have no interest in the business side of things or market needs.

There are Kindle Gold Rushers—publishers who look for hot trends, outsource the content production, do basic proofreading, and then spam the charts with dozens or even hundreds of almost-books.

There are online marketers whose publications are not much more than advertising fliers for their services.

There are entrepreneurs or celebrities who publish a single book as a badge of authority; best-selling author is the latest trendy label to wear.

There are indie beginners who haven’t yet learned what to do and/or are listening to the wrong advice.

Most of these works aren’t really books as we traditionally understand them. The torrent of choice causes enormous confusion when it comes to choosing a book from this vast Wild West marketplace.

You can’t count on Amazon to change their operating pattern and only allow good books. Whether it is a Gold Rusher’s book, a collection of blog articles by a mediocre blogger, a traditionally published book, or a flier or promotional piece penned by an online marketer, all deliver earnings to Amazon if you purchase. And Amazon uses an old and worn-out argument that the invisible hand of the market will deal with any unfair advantage that some may have.

I am skeptical. Months and years are passing, but the invisible hand has done nothing. The number of books-that-are-not-books on Kindle increases.

So, you are on your own. It’s possible to tell genuine books apart from the rest, but it takes diligent research, as I have had to do. This has a price in time and energy. You certainly should not pay for poor content when, in the same store, sitting next to the trash you’ve just purchased, is a perfect book on the subject at the same price.

Are all non-indie and non-traditionally-published books trashy? Not necessarily. Some of them are, but they are usually the lowest quality books—annoying but not threatening. The bigger problem is posed by products that are passable. These deter you from consuming the best books. They are like junk food. They look tasty. And they are tasty, some of the time, but they provide little in terms of nutritional value. The information in them is basically worthless.

Amazon leaves you on your own, so you need a solution for this unpleasant situation. You need to get educated about what’s going on and how to discern real books from hoax authors’ poor imitations. And so ... this book provides a simple system to help you tell if a particular title is worth your time and money.

Understand this system—and use it—and you will get to know different categories of content producers on Kindle and you will know how to quickly judge which of those producers are worthy of your attention.

A note for impatient

I got several reviews from readers saying that this book had really helped them to discern between genuine authors and copy cats, but they couldn’t wait for the actual formula of finding good books while reading.

I still believe my broad introduction will help you to navigate Amazon better, but if you absolutely must get to know the formula right now, jump to Chapter 12, read it as the sole introduction and you will find my formula in Chapter 13.

Jump to Chapter 12.

Chapter 2: Buying My First Book on Amazon

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