Importantly, bear in mind that a great title can sell your book for you, without the reader knowing anything of the usefulness, or otherwise, of its contents. To illustrate, consider that 'Everything Men Know About Women' has sold many, many copies over the years. Do the contents live up to readers' expectations? No-one really knows, because the pages, all 122 of them, are completely blank! If in doubt about what makes a great title and your own ability to create one, try creating a few titles for the same book, and test market these with similar sized advertisements and direct mailshots. Work out which have the highest conversion rates.

Other pointers to great titles include:

* Be specific. While 'blind, curiosity-grabbing' titles might attract increased orders, they're also likely to generate a higher return rate when readers find the book isn't quite what they guessed it to be. And you'll get to give more money back in refunds to disgruntled, soon to be ex-customers.

* Use subtitles if necessary. If you choose a 'blind' title for reasons other than to keep customers guessing, try explaining the contents of the book in the subtitle. For example, 'Callanetics' on its own is confusing, not so with its subtitle (10 Years Younger in 10 Hours).

* Familiar leads help customers and will generate an image for your company. Examples include the 'Ten Minute' series, 'How to ...' and 'The Joy of ....'.

* Be first with a new title. Do this by carefully studying your target market and attempting to spot a gap in the market for a title you obtain exclusive rights to sell. Pay very careful attention to what is being sold abroad and looking at ways to source similar products for introduction to the domestic market. Whether you do this by commissioning the new title for your own exclusive copyright or importing the product from its original source is for you to decide. Both should be equally profitable as long as your target market and audience have been properly researched. But, if you can't be first, for whatever reason, then at least try to be best in your chosen field. Or be both. As Scott Flanders, president of Macmillan Computer Publishing puts it: "We say that there are two successful books on a subject: the first one out and the best one." Macmillan tries to be both!

* Publish annuals and directories, attracting regular customers and establishing yourself as a specialist with all of the benefits listed in the previous section. Directories can, in fact, form the basis of an entire line of related books. Examples include: telephone and advertising directories, hotel and restaurant listings, tourist guides, home business directories, Who's Who titles, buying guides, catalogue collections, and so on. Again, if you can't decide on a line that isn't already well-catered for in your own country, look for titles published abroad which might be suitable for the domestic market.

* Look for a lead title, namely one for which a variety of spin-off products can be offered. A useful example is 'Is There a Book Inside You', which spawned a number of other books, tapes and reports on self-publishing.