For the next two days (namely all day February 2 through to midnight, February 3, USA Pacific Time), I'm offering a FREE e-book to everyone. Here's the link: NIBBLES OF NONSENSE

"Nibbles of Nonsense Hilarious Comic Verse" will also be freely available for two days in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy and Spain, but you will need to do a search at the local Amazon Kindle for "NIBBLES OF NONSENSE".  

Here's another useful book: When I compiled Hollywood Classics Title Index,  I realized it could be used as a springboard to create my own titles. But I soon discovered it could also be used to evaluate titles for their reader appeal -- or non-appeal. This book is a list of movie titles from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, all decades when the book-buying, book-reading section of the audience was important for a movie's success. The above is the Amazon Kindle link. Other e-book stores such as Barnes & Noble, Apple and Sony also stock this book. And the price is only 99 cents. 

Aside from a few photos, this e-book is exactly the same as the print edition of 344 pages. And yes, if you confine yourself to 1930-1960, you can also use Leonard Maltin's book for this same purpose. 

Best-selling author, Sally Odgers, has kindly sent me a list of her titles. She writes, for example, that "Aurora" outsold "Taking a Chance" many times over. "Elizabeth" did exceedingly well, as did "Dreadful David" while "Angie the Brave" and "Emma Jane's Zoo" sold much less well. 

So let's check them out. "Taking" was avoided by classic Hollywood. "Chance" is listed once only. Both are very common words, so that makes the title a very risky word combination indeed. Also shunned were the words: "Elizabeth", Dreadful", "David", "Angie", and "Emma". "Zoo" was used but once, "brave" only twice, while "Jane" figured only in the context of "Jane Eyre". So the word score is seven out of eleven for Hollywood Classics. However, it should be remembered that in every case, Hollywood Classics has erred on the side of caution. Every title that sold less well was accurately predicted by Hollywood Classics Title Index.  

I also use "Hollywood Classics Title Index" to create appealing names for my characters. I simply mix first names with surnames!