I am not sure that getting published, or just plain getting noticed, was any easier in the pre-digital era. Surely the number of books available at book stores and libraries has always been significantly less than the number of books written in hopes of publication. Nowadays, however, it is almost sickening trying to wade through the heaps of useless information to try to get a nugget of truth on exactly what an author should be doing nowadays to get published.
I think my problem is that I love fiction. If I were to produce an ebook full of useless rhetoric and out of date information, and call it something like "10 Explosive Ways to Impress an Editor" I would probably receive much more instant recognition.
One day you read that agents are interested in book proposals; the next you go online to find a plethora of dung heap token "advice", likely written by people who have never been successfully published in the first place. The day after I get published, the last thing I am going to have time to do is write a how to guide for other people. I'll be busy at book signings, or figuring out inventive ways to spend the truckloads of cash pouring in.
I have read websites that essentially say this same thing. Don't publish anything of value. Simply find a topic that people are interested in, and then do some half-brained research and throw a few facts together.
The moral of this story is, people who are successful generally figured out how to do it themselves. The likelihood that you will find any relevant or useful information on the internet by typing, "How to become an overnight youtube sensation" is pathetically low. People who become overnight youtube sensations did not waste their time on search engines. They were busy making videos of old ladies letting one rip during confession, or horses getting hit in the face with cream pies.
There should be wayyyyyy more videos of horses getting hit in the head with cream pies.
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