I remember laying in bed one night. I’d decided to write the book that was going to make me crazy rich. I had inside knowledge of a field, I could really help people negotiate the insane hurdles of an entrenched bureaucracy, I could put the book together fast.

I got it ready for publication and – to this day it’s never sold a single copy! Ouch!

Could I have been spared my delusions?

Could I have looked at historic trends about what DOES sell?

Could I have tweaked my content to address a better audience?

Could I have actually sold a copy by now?

Perhaps so!

And right now the service that let’s me learn such things is absolutely free!

The service is Title Z

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If a writer self-consciously follow’s Thomas Nelson’s content guidelines in producing these self published works and the sales “take off”, it might be a way to join the “big time”. Thomas Nelson publishes many stellar authors and will be monitoring sales from the self publishing unit to identify future stars as well as to create a new profit stream in an industry that’s seeing hard times.

Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson tells about this new program and offers his reasons for the company’s move in this direction: Should You Consider Self-Publishing

No – not the Get Rich Quick ebooks, but the digital copies of books formerly in print according to the Financial Times. What’s especially being hit are the profits from hardback best sellers.

Google Books are a big culprit in this but Amazon’s Kindle is doing it’s damage too. (That’s why I’ve been writing about how almost anyone can become a Kindle Publisher [affiliate link] but I digress!)

Some publishers like Thomas Nelson are producing packages where the price includes a print and electronic version of the book, but Kindle is making things difficult because they want publishers to charge $9.99 or less for their Kindle editions.

But opportunity wise, this means that if you were to become a become a Kindle Publisher [affiliate link] and things sold well for you there, you’d be able to take the books that sell in that format and republish them on new readers as they become available. It’s their crisis, but it is still an opportunity for you.

That’s where some people I really respect come in… they have lots of experience with menu planning and they produce some really great PLR on a monthly basis for your website or blog.

It’s YummyPLR (yes, that’s an affiliate link!)

You can buy one time packages of their material or subscribe to their monthly PLR service if you are putting new content on your blog. (And who isn’t putting new content on their blog?)

And you can get free samples of course to see what they offer at YummyPLR .

Here’s how they describe their service:

How to Attract More Readers to Your Mom Blog

If you’ve been on the Internet for more than 5 minutes, you’ve probably heard of the ever growing popularity of the “mom blog.” You may even have one yourself. Mom blogs are great ways to connect with other moms, share your thoughts and feelings on being a mom, and maybe even make a little dough (not the kitchen variety this time) too.

One problem many moms have is getting people to read and participate their blogs. After all, without readers you can’t do any of the things mentioned above with your blog. So, how do you attract more readers to your mom blog? And, once you have them how do you keep them there? Here are a few tried and true ways to increase readership and maybe even make some life long online buds in the mom community.

Be Yourself

No one likes to read a blog that is nothing but a copy and paste of articles, news topics, and pictures. Yes, those things are interesting, but to really get people coming back for more you have to show them you are a real person. Don’t be afraid to let them in and give readers a taste of the true you. If you have an opinion on something don’t be afraid to share it, after all it is YOUR blog so it should represent the person you really are.

Hold a Contest or Giveaway

There’s nothing moms like more than getting free stuff they can actually use. As a mom yourself you probably have or know people who would be willing to donate prizes to a contest or giveaway on your blog. Think of something fun and create or do a random drawing from those who post comments. Get creative and come up with something other moms would be happy to enter and happier to tell their friends about.

Post Reviews

People love to know if something works or doesn’t work before they decide to buy. Have you used products that you think are the greatest thing since sliced bread? Or maybe you want to warn others to steer clear of something you wished you hadn’t wasted your money on. Either way, let your readers know. There are even companies that love to send product samples to mommy bloggers specifically for their opinions. Your opinion does matter, especially because you’re a mother.

Create a Recipe of the Day Section

If there’s one thing all moms are looking for it’s something different for dinner. To feed your reader’s hunger for new meal ideas as well as their family’s bellies, set up a section on your blog dedicated solely to recipes. Post a new recipe once a day. It doesn’t take long and you don’t have to write all (or any) of the recipes yourself if you don’t want to thanks to private label rights (PLR) content.

Mommy blogs are created and visited by others for many reasons, but if yours is informative, comical, shows the true you and gives moms what they are looking for, chances that more readers will come are higher. Enjoy your mommy blog and make it your home sweet home on the web where friends feel welcome and love coming back. Ready to add a recipe section to your blog to increase readers?

Get 30 recipes every month at YummyPLR

From Yahoo Business

Philip M. Parker has generated more than 200,000 books, as an advanced search on Amazon.com under his publishing company shows, making him, in his own words, “the most published author in the history of the planet.” And he makes money doing it.

Among the books published under his name are “The Official Patient’s Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea” ($24.95 and 168 pages long); “Stickler Syndrome: A Bibliography and Dictionary for Physicians, Patients and Genome Researchers” ($28.95 for 126 pages); and “The 2007-2012 Outlook for Tufted Washable Scatter Rugs, Bathmats and Sets That Measure 6-Feet by 9-Feet or Smaller in India” ($495 for 144 pages).

But these are not conventional books, and it is perhaps more accurate to call Mr. Parker a compiler than an author. Mr. Parker, who is also the chaired professor of management science at Insead (a business school with campuses in Fontainebleau, France, and Singapore), has developed computer algorithms that collect publicly available information on a subject — broad or obscure — and, aided by his 60 to 70 computers and six or seven programmers, he turns the results into books in a range of genres, many of them in the range of 150 pages and printed only when a customer buys one.

Here’s your slightly bizarre website for doing just that:

It’s the EVERYONE WHO’S ANYONE IN ADULT TRADE PUBLISHING, NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, BROADCASTING AND TINSELTOWN, TOO:

A Writer’s Guide to The All-Pervasive Propaganda Network

Last Edition, 2008

If you can’t find it here for free, maybe it’s not worth finding!

Actually, there are probably lots more LOCAL addresses you could use, but for national press, this is a great start.

HT 

Have them put your contact information in an end note or your website in the story.

Here’s an author seeking stories about empowering women via Dan P0ynter:

Stories of empowerment needed. I’m looking for your stories from WOMEN ABOUT HOW YOU BECAME EMPOWERED or how you might have helped another woman to succeed. This is for a women’s self-esteem project that I’m putting together. Your stories will be used as vignettes to be included in each chapter and may be posted anonymously or with your name included. No royalty payment, but will provide a F.R.E.E book to participants whose submissions are used. For more information, you can go to http://www.2higherground.ning.com or e-mail me at lonestoryteller AT yahoo DOT com. Submissions needed by February 14th, 2008.

The idea is that you will appear as a “Co-Author” on a book with someone famous to get people instantly oohing and aahing at how cool you must truly be to have this happen and to have you hobknobbing with the stars.

It’s really a new face for “vanity publishing” where you pay to publish your own book.

In this case you’ll be investing in 200 books to 500 books for $2500 to $5000.

You’ll “Co-Author” them with some of the stars listed on their home page.

You submit a 1200 word story and, according to the website, “they do the rest”.

I personally don’t see any “star” that sends shivers up my spine, but it depends on you and your market I suppose. And – they say – there are more… these are just “representative”.  One who might be known in direct marketing circles is “Jeffrey Paul” (He got his start selling marketing programs to financial planners but marketed to the general business market with titles like “How I make $4,000 a day sitting at home in my underwear”)

I think they’d have an easier time if they disclosed more “names” like Paul’s so people can see if there’s someone to associate themselves with who won’t embarrass them!

But the other aspect is that they include information (to what extent I’m not sure) on how to use this concept to create PR, interviews, sales, etc. for yourself and your business through having these books.

Here’s that link… Wake Up And Live What you do with it  is entirely up to you. As I say, it was thought provoking.  I am still trying to wrap my mind around it.

They are an interface, of sorts, between public domain book archives and Lulu.com the print on demand publisher.

1.7 million public domain books are available using this service. Really all you’re paying for is Lulu.coms printing and shipping which are fairly reasonable.

So this lets you SAVE money when looking for public domain books, especially if you can’t stand reading “ebooks” (I can’t).

Once you see how the system works can you use it to make money?

Possibly.

While public domain works that Google, for instance, archives are to remain free, you can produce study guides, introductions, and other original content to sell with them as part of a package. You of course determine what that should cost.

You’ll find ideas here for how to

* How to turn Gmail into a massive personal database (Gmail + the Google Toolbar)
* How to get real-time news updates in Gmail (Gmail+ Google Talk + Twitter)
* How to automatically store your bookmarks in Gmail (Gmail + del.icio.us + Yahoo Alerts)
* How to manage Calendar and To-Dos in Gmail (Gmail + Backpack + GCal + GTalk + iMified)
* How to blog from Gmail (Gmail + Wordpress/TypePad/Blogger + IMified)

I can’t recommend digesting this information enough if you’re

1. Blogging for money

2. Trying to publish ebooks or other unique content

3. Just having to manage information in your business.

It’s almost like Gmail makes Google Notebook obsolete if you know what you’re doing.

I also liked the way you can use Gmail to get instant news updates from various media thanks to linking Gmail Chat to these news broadcasts via Twitter!