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What if I told you that there WAS a short-cut to success?

In fact, there’s more than one. In this post, I’m going to show you five ways to fool agents and editors into thinking your platform is bigger than it really is.

How will this help you?

Think multi-million dollar book deals, houses on every continent, and only walking on red carpet from this day forward.

I thought you’d like that.

Way #1 Buy Fake Facebook Likes

How to Buy Likes

There are several ways to buy Facebook likes. The easiest way is through Fiverr.com. You can buy 1,000 fake likes for $5. There are also companies that will sell you likes that you can find with a simple Google search.

Why It Works

Most literary agents don’t know how to tell real Facebook fans from fake Facebook fans. They don’t use tools like Klout to measure influence and they tend to pay more attention to the number of likes rather than the number of people talking about your page.

Why it is a Bad Idea

These “people” who have liked your page are not real. They are robot or spam accounts made to look like real people. Having fake humans not reading your post will hurt your edge rank. So Facebook will show your posts to fewer of your real Facebook Fans. Also, if Facebook catches you buying likes, your account could get suspended. Savvy Agents will pay more attention to the “People Talking About This” numbers than to the number of likes.

Way #2 Buy Fake Twitter Followers

Fake Twitter Followers

How To Buy Fake Twitter Followers

Buying Twitter followers is even easier than buying Facebook likes. It is a time honored practice that even President Obama has used. Fiverr.com, the same folks who will sell you fans, will also sell you followers.

Why it Works

Publishers love authors with lots of followers on Twitter. They rarely use tools like FollowerWonkFakers or Klout to tell how many of those followers are real.

Why Buying Fake Twitter Followers is a Bad Idea

Remember, these “followers” are not real people. So while it may look like you have a big following, none of those robots are going to buy your book.

So you are taking a short term gain for a long term loss. Just because President Obama does it doesn’t mean it is a good idea.

If a publisher sees that your first book flopped, you may never be able to land another publishing deal again.

Also, it can cause quite the scandal when people find out that you have bought your followers. Savvy agents use tools to tell how influential you really are, like:

I encourage you to run these tools on yourself before your submit your proposal.

Tweetables:

  • FINALLY! // 5 Ways to Fool Agents & Editors Into Thinking Your Platform is Bigger.  – Click to tweet.
  • Don’t judge me. // @AuthorMedia explains how to fool agents & editors. – Click to tweet.
  • Is this an April Fool’s joke? // @AuthorMedia explains how to fool agents & editors. – Click to tweet.
  • Authors, don’t try these tips at home! – Click to tweet.
  • How to buy fake Twitter followers – Click to tweet.
  • How to buy fake Facebook likes – Click to tweet.
  • 5 Ways to Fool Agents & Editors Into Thinking Your Platform is Bigger – Click to tweet.
  • This may be the best – or worst – advice. You decide. – Click to tweet.

Way #3 Use “Follower Churn” To Get More Real Twitter Followers

How To Grow Twitter Followers With Follower Churn

Follow people on Twitter related to your area of interest or expertise. Then wait a few days and see if they follow you back. Then unfollow everyone who did not follow you. There are automated tools that can do this for you.

The key with this strategy is to keep the follower ratio as even as possible. So if you are following 1500 people and only 500 of them follow you back it looks bad. This combined with buying fake followers can give you very rapid growth.

Why it Works

This method actually gives you real humans who follow you on Twitter.

The problem is, none of them read your posts. They use tools like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to filter posts so they don’t see yours. But non savvy agents and editors may not know that.

Why Follower Churn Can Be a Bad Idea

The follower churn strategy can get your account removed from Twitter if you do it too aggressively. This happened to a prominent literary agent, who still uses this strategy with his new account.

Twitter may also give you other penalties like hiding your posts from search so non-followers can’t see your hashtags so it will have no effect on your FollowerWonk, or Klout score.

Way #4 Report Website “Hits” Instead of “Visitors” or “Pageviews” in Your Proposal

Website Hits

How to do it

Many people don’t know the difference between “hits” and “visitors.” But there’s a big difference.

Non savvy publishers may even use the words interchangeably. To find out the number of hits just go to your your web host. If you are not sure how to do this, you can ask your web host.

Why it works

Technically a “hit” is just a server request. So every image on a page creates a hit.

One curious website visitor could create hundreds of hits. Also non human visitors to your website generate hits. So your hit count gives you a big impressive number that doesn’t mean anything.

Why Reporting Hits is a Bad Idea

Savvy Agents and publishers expect to see Google Analytics info. This is the trusted industry standard for accurate website traffic reporting.

Of the ideas in this post, this is the one literary agents are most aware of. Any agent that accepts your hit count without verifying it on a site like Alexa.com or Compete.com is not worth your time. You don’t want an agent that you can fool.

Way #5 Get into a Comment Circle

Blog Comment Circle

How to Setup a Comment Circle

Work out a deal with a dozen or so other authors to always comment on each other’s blogs. This way each of you has at least 12 comments on every post. This makes your blog look like it is getting more traction than it really is.

Why They Work

Some agents look at how many comments you get to gauge how big your following is. So getting friends to inflate your comments can help you look better.

Why Comment Circles are a Bad Idea

Comment Circles are such a waste of time!

You should be working on writing new blog posts or on your manuscript, not leaving comments to help comment inflation. Only leave a comment when you have something valuable to add to the conversation. Your number of comments is only a small part of your platform and savvy agents look at the whole package.

How to Grow Your Platform the Right Way

Sorry, there are no silver bullets when it comes to growing your platform. It takes work. That is why we are here, to help authors like you get famous, not just published.

Every week we post tips and advice on how to grow real influence and a platform that actually sells books. If you want help building your platform the right way we encourage you to subscribe to our free email newsletter or schedule a consultation with one of our book marketing experts.

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