And therein lies the problem. If I knew the answer to your question, I'd be selling more than just my Jane Austen Paraliterature. If you've been burned by bad writing, formatting, editing (or total lack thereof), how can I convince you to try my book?How does a self-published author get average joe readers like to me read his/her book? I've been burned once and I'll not try again without seeing real reviews by real reviewers (I can tell the difference now) and I'll not drop $18 + on a complete unknown...
Lulu has book previews on their site, which authors can customize, but what if I don't know which part of my book is most likely to appeal to people? How do I decide which are the best scenes? What if using one of the best scenes provides too much of the spoiler effect? Or what if the preview is the only good part of the book, and the reader is disappointed with the overall story?