Baby Memory Books

The hardest part of being a new mother is taking the time to simply enjoy your new child and store away all of the precious memories. New babies require a tremendous amount of time and energy

Preserving Those Precious Memories

The hardest part of being a new mother is taking the time to simply enjoy your new child and store away all of the precious memories. New babies require a tremendous amount of time and energy. You are completely consumed caring for your infant, when suddenly, your baby is a toddler, and you never had a chance to start, much less finish his baby memory book. This scenario is so common that it’s actually embarrassing to mothers everywhere. There are ways to be sure those memories are preserved, however.

Plan Ahead

The best plan of attack, especially if you are expecting your first baby, is to fill out the baby book before he is born. Obviously you don’t know his birth weight or have those tiny footprints yet, but a significant portion of most baby books contain information seemingly unrelated to your little bundle of joy. Family trees, information about Mom and Dad, grocery store receipts, popular movies, and the like can all be dealt with before baby’s arrival.

As the third trimester draws to a close, young mothers-to-be are left with a great deal of anticipation with no outlet. You can only fold tiny clothes so many times, after all. Why not use that time to work ahead? Assemble the photographs of baby’s first house, the nursery, and family members. Write amusing anecdotes about your pregnancy and baby showers. Find those ultrasound pictures and paste them onto the right page. Do as much as you can, because you will never have this much spare time again – or at least not for eighteen years.

The Early Days

Immediately following the birth of your baby, follow your doctor’s advice and sleep as much as possible. Hopefully, you will feel much more rested a week or two after baby’s arrival, and can start using his sleeping time as your work time. During the long naps of a newborn, assemble the materials from the hospital. Birth weight and length, birth certificates, wristbands and hospital photos are now ready to take their place of honor in the baby book.

Write as much of the birth story as you can, or even simpler, print out the email you sent to all of your friends and family and paste that into the book. Reading an email designed for others to read, your grown child will truly get a sense of the love and pride his mother feels for him, her new baby. After the birth information is recorded, there are surprisingly few pages left to fill. These involve monthly updates, teething, and milestones. Unfortunately, these are actually the hardest to finish.

The Rest of the Year

After a couple of weeks, newborns realize it is much more fun to be awake than asleep, and the real work of motherhood begins. As you spend the next twelve months exclaiming over every burp, coo, smile, and step, jot a note about important dates or milestones and throw them into the baby book as they occur.

Don’t try to find the time now to fill the book in, just stick the occasional note, especially those from the doctor with height and weight measurements, into the book. Descriptive emails should be printed out and shoved into the book as well as extra copies of your digital pictures. When you print your pictures, get a few extras of your favorites and throw them into the baby book, too.

Someday, when your child is sleeping through the night, and before you have another newborn, you will find the time to actually fill in all of the little blanks. The notes, emails, pictures, and doctor statistics should cover most of the necessary material. As for the few remaining spots, leave them blank, take a guess, or make it up. Don’t worry, every mother does it. After all, your focus is on loving and reveling in your little miracle, not the exact moment his third molar came in.

Benefit From 50 Books Each Year.

Benefit From 50 Books Each Year... Without Creating Any Extra Time To Read

I didn't believe it the first time I heard a friend of mine say -

"I benefit from the reading of 50 books each year... in my spare time".

Knowing how demanding her time was because of her top position in her job and being a single mom, I was certain she was lying and I told her so.

Smiling, she insisted that it was the truth. I would have continued arguing with her until she pointed out to me that she didn't have to physically "read" them, but they were "read" to her while she listened... in her spare time.

Not giving me any opportunity to argue, she went ahead and played an audio book on her CD player for my perusal.

She explained that this was how she had almost any book she wanted read to her as audio books while she prepared for work in the morning, while she prepared her daughter for school, while she did her exercises each day, while she commuted to and from work and any free time she had on hands that didn't involve using her mind.

I was surprised, to say the least, that I could have been doing the same thing in my spare time.

From what this friend of mine explained to me, I knew I had to give audio books a try.

I did and was very impressed.

Now, I can proudly say I also benefit from the reading of up to 50 books each year.

Still don't think it's possible?

Fine, let's do the math:

For an audio book that takes 4 hours, you can have it read to you in just two days - 1 hour each day while preparing for work in the morning and 1 hour each day while commuting to and from work. That's 4 hours in 2 days.

So, if it takes you 2 days to have one audio book read to you, that will be 365 days in a year divided by 2. That will equal about 133 books each year!

That's over double the original 50 audio books we were targeting, right?

Audio books are indeed the secret formula that many people use to get the value from the best books they want to read. With audio books, you can forget the frustration you always had whenever you force yourself to read any book.

For the bookworms back in college that want to continue reading but can't afford the time anymore, you now have a solution in audio books.

Whether you want to use your PC, CD player, MP3, it is now possible and within your reach for peanuts.

Use Children's Books

Use Children's Books to Encourage Kids to Read

As most parents know, reading skills are critical for preschool learning and childhood development. Studies have shown that children that are diagnosed with reading problems during their early school years, will continue having reading and learning problems through the 9th grade and beyond. Even more troubling, almost 50 percent of adolescents and young people with criminal records have reading difficulties.

Sadly, many of today's kids would rather watch TV or play video games than read a book. Being a bookworm, or even showing an interest in reading, is percieved as a “nerdish” activity. Most of the heros in today’s society are professional athletes, actors, or music icons.

But don’t despair, all is not lost. Getting your kids to read can be a challange, but with the use of quality children's books, it doesn't have to be an insermountable one. Here are some steps you can take in order to encourage reading in children:

The first step to read to your child at an early age. Many adults have fond memories of their parents reading them bedtime stories when they were toddlers, and reading to your child will help foster a love of words and reading.

Be a good reading "role model" for your children or grandchildren. Let them see you reading on a regular basis, and how much you enjoy reading books and magazines.

Another good idea is to fill your child's room with books. Kids who grow up surrounded by books learn to think of them as friends, and allies in their pursuit of reading, learning, and wonderful new adventures.

As your child grows and matures, introduce him or her to books that match their interests and hobbies. Show them how an informative book can deepen and expand their knowledge on a particular topic--and expand their horizons as well.

Make sure your child or grandchild has a library card. Libraries are wonderful resources for reading and learning. Show your children how libraries can be places of wonder and excitement, and can open up new worlds of learning that will last a lifetime.

And lastly, consider setting limits on the amount of time your child spends in front of a TV or video game console. While there's nothing wrong with playing video games or watching TV, those activities aren’t going to do much to develop your child’s reading and language skills. For that, you need to set them down in front of a good children’s book, and make sure they spend at least 30 minutes per day reading it.

They might not like it now, but chances are they'll thank you for it later on in life.

Collect Science Fiction Books

It all begins with sense of wonder, an almost magical attraction to books by a particular author, a distinctly engaging concept or theme, or the sheer joy of holding a unique volume with a compelling physical appeal. It is important to keep in mind that almost all book collectors begin as readers. Readers become collectors when they find that the books themselves have become important objects in and of themselves. The book has transcended the state of being merely a vehicle for passing on the author’s stories and thoughts and becomes an object with intrinsic beauty and value. Object and content enhance each other, heightening the unique experience the book brings to its owner.

By most accounts, the origin of Science Fiction as a distinct literary genre dates back to 1926, when Hugo Gernsback started publishing what he called "scientifiction" in a new magazine known as Amazing Stories. Gernsback said, “…sense of wonder comes not from brilliant writing, nor even from brilliant conceptualizing; it comes from a sudden opening of a closed door in the reader's mind.” Collecting the objects that initiated that amazement is the best way to keep it vivid, alive and immediately accessible.

Almost all SciFi book collectors begin as readers. This is an important point for by far the largest numbers of SF readers see books as consumables. They are content with reading a library copy or a paperback reprint and think of the book as simply a medium for conveying the author’s subject matter. They use, and often abuse, the book as they please, dog-ear corners, make notes in the margins, bend the covers back and break the spine. For them, books are as disposable as a McDonald’s hamburger wrapper. They are book consumers.

For such readers things like the edition of a book, or its condition don’t matter. They perceive little difference between a hardcover first printing and a paperback reprint. The joy they receive from a book, and one must acknowledge that very real pleasure, comes from the author’s content alone. All other considerations are inconsequential.

For those of us who are not book consumers but book collectors, the joy of the text is but one of several delights in a book. Look, feel, the very tactile uniqueness of a volume elevate the book from simple container to an object of physical beauty and romance which augments the thoughts and ideas of its author. We take care of our books like we would other valuable objects. We treat them gently, store them properly and do our best to protect them from injury. The very act of owning our books, being able to take them down off the shelf, turn them over in our hands and take pleasure in their presence, enriches our lives and gives continued delight.

Most collectors of SciFi books begin to do so because they have found something in the genre that is inspiring. Science Fiction stretches your imagination, introduces you to a future of endless possibilities and creates a sense of wonder. Included within the realm of Science Fiction are also Fantasy books that take you into the world of magic and myth and Magic Realism books where everyday life is transformed into the supernatural, while yet remaining grounded in reality.

There are other reasons to collect Science Fiction and Fantasy books, the economic value among them. As the popularity of science continues to grow at an astonishing rate the value and desirability of first edition and limited edition Science Fiction books continues to intensify as well. First editions and limited runs ensure that availability decreases over time. There exists a large expanding market for books. A carefully assembled collection of first edition or limited print volumes will become increasingly valuable.

Why collect books? Collect them because they engage your sense of wonder. Collect them because they are beautiful. Collect them because they are valuable. Most important of all, collect them because you love them.

Create Residual Income With E-books

Electronic books, or e-books, have been used as an internet marketing tool for several years. Electronic books can be purely informational or they can have a sales message that promotes your product or service. The many benefits of using electronic books for internet marketing include becoming known as an expert in your field, having a product that attracts visitors to your site, and having something you can give away to new subscribers or customers. In addition to providing your customers with solid information, e-books can also be used to create residual income and boost your income over time.

What is residual income?

Residual income is income that continues to flow even after you have already provided a product or service. The simplest way to think of residual income is “do the work once, get paid forever.” Residual income used to be limited to just a few professions such as voiceover artists and musicians. Each time their songs or voice tracks were used in commercials or at events, these professionals were paid a royalty. Now that Internet and in particular marketing on the internet is so popular, you can earn residual income by selling products that can have automated sales.

What is an electronic book?

An electronic book is a short book containing information or a sales message that can be used in a number of ways. You can use these e-books to create awareness of your brand, provide an added incentive for visitors to stay at your site, as a giveaway to provide added value for customer purchases, sell valuable information on a particular topic, and to distribute as a free gift with sign up to your newsletter or members only area. These books are usually done in PDF format, but there are software programs that can create books that have turning pages like a real book.

How can I use electronic books to create residual income?

Writing an electronic book may be time consuming, but once the book is written, you can set it up so that the sales and marketing are automated. This means that the time you spent writing the book and setting up your sales systems will continue to pay off again and again. In order to make the sales process automated, you can hire someone to market your e-book and take care of sales. Or, you can save yourself some money and purchase a software program that will allow you to sell your book even when you’re fast asleep.

These software programs make it possible to accept credit card payments and have each customer download your e-book as soon as the payment transaction is complete. Not only does this allow you to make money while you’re sleeping, it also increases customer satisfaction. People love instant gratification, so being able to pay and immediately receive the book download is an added bonus and a great customer retention tool.

These are known as “shopping carts” and many of the great ones have additional features like, auto-responders and an affiliate management platform. Yet another way to create residual income with an e-book is to embed your e-book with affiliate links. If you don’t have any additional products to sell you can make even more monthly income by adding links to affiliate programs that you belong to in order to sell other products.

So…not only did you just sell your own e-book but you now have other income opportunities embedded in your ebook.

How can I get started with using e-books to make residual income?

If you’re not a writer, you can find a freelance writer to develop an e-book for you before you market it as one of your products. Marketing can be accomplished with your web site, affiliate marketing, and special promotions. Once you have your book and marketing plan ready to go, you can set up an automated sales program so that you can start building residual income that will continue to grow as your sales increase.

Effective Are Poker Books

Recently playing poker has become very popular all around the world. One of the main reasons for that is because there are many international poker tournaments and celebrity poker events shown on television. In case you want to learn how to play poker or simply make your poker skills better, then I suggest you to find some poker books. There are many wonderful poker books that can teach you everything about poker, even how to play as a professional.

If you have never played before and you want to take a few basic lessons then it would best for you if you purchase poker books for beginners. They will teach you the basics - the rules, the etiquette and the card variations. Even if you are really interested in poker and you would like to become an expert in it, if you are a novice, you should get poker books and get down to studying.

Once you get started, the game will enchant you and you would want to learn everything about the different card combinations and the best way to play them. Of course, poker as many other card games is a game of chance. However, there are many things you can do after the cards are dealt, so that you will have better chances at winning. Poker books will provide you with information what you should and shouldn't do when playing the game. Many books have explanations how you should play every possible card combination. Whether you will pass on or go "all in" depends on your cards and if you want to take the right decision, you should read some poker books.

There are also many poker books for advanced players who wish to learn the more difficult and tricky moves and techniques. Many of the books we are talking about are written by famous professional poker players. If you get a book from a pro and you learn it, then no matter on what table you sit in, you will not look like an amateur. Apart from the poker tips and moves, these books often include interesting stories from the poker tables.

Poker is a wonder game that everyone enjoys. Being such a popular game, there are many stories to be told about poker games. Some of the poker books contain only stories but they can be interesting for both beginners and professionals. Reading about how a complete beginner participated in a poker tournament and got a million dollar award winning first place will make you put more efforts into learning how to play poker. It will also give you hope that maybe one day if you practice long enough you could also win a big tournament.

Writing Children's Books

Rejection is never easy. But some authors can't separate themselves from their work, and take rejection letters very personally. I get many emails from disgruntled writers who can't get past their anger to figure out why their work was turned down in the first place. So before you spend hours sticking pins in your editor voodoo doll, see if you recognize yourself below:

The complaint: "Editors practice age discrimination. I'm over 50 and editors believe only young authors can write for children."

The truth: Editors are interested in finding good books, period. It doesn't matter how old the author is. Take a look at the lists of award winners (ask your librarian, or do an Internet search for Caldecott or Newbery Awards) and note the ages of the authors. Many didn't start writing until their kids were in school full time, or took up writing as a second career. Editors also know that the best stories come from years of life experience, and older writers have more to draw from. Yes, occasionally a book written by a teenager will make the news, but more often than not it's the novelty of the author's age that gets the publicity, not the quality of the writing. And why does the editor know your age in the first place? There's no reason to mention it in your cover or query letter, unless it has direct bearing on the story. If you're writing historical fiction and you actually lived through the events in the plot, or your nonfiction book is based on years of study in the subject, then your age is a plus.

The complaint: "I'm a man, and editors think only women can write children's books."

The truth: Sorry guys, but this one's a little ridiculous. Again, look at that list of award winners. Men are well-represented. Glance through the names of editors in Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market published by Writer's Digest Books. Lots of men there too. The only time your gender might be an issue is with the readers themselves. For example, teenage boys might not buy a science fiction/adventure story written by a woman, or middle grade girls may think a man can't possibly pen a series featuring four adolescent girls at summer camp. They're wrong, but you can always use your first initial instead of your name to fool your audience.

The complaint: "They're just wrong about my writing! All editors want these days are famous names, not quality books."

The truth: Yes, many editors (especially those at larger houses) have to be concerned with making money for the publisher, and so rely on a certain number of established authors each year to pay the bills. But they also know they need to find new writers, because those standbys aren't going to be writing forever.

Sometimes it's almost impossible to interpret a rejection letter, and one or two form rejections does not mean you're a failure. Editors are people too, with personal tastes and the need to balance each list by subject matter and age group. However, several rejections in a row deserve a closer look. Are you submitting to appropriate publishers, who actually publish the kind of book you've written? Have any of the houses on your list recently published a book very similar to yours? Is your manuscript riddled with typos or grammatical errors? Even though a copy editor will fix these before the book's published, sloppy presentation can give an editor reason to reject a manuscript when she's got 50 others sitting on her desk waiting for her attention.

In most cases, though, it's the writing that gets the manuscript rejected. And since it's the editor's job to recognize good writing and help those authors make their books even better, there is a chance (admit it!) that the rejection is deserved. How can you tell? First of all, if you get personal comments about your manuscript in the rejection letter, take those to heart. Play devil's advocate and assume the editor's right, and see if those changes improve the work. Secondly, get objective input. Join a writer's group, get a professional manuscript critique, or pay for a personal critique session at a writer's conference (most Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators workshops--http://www.scbwi.org--have optional one-on-one critiques). Take writing classes, read books on writing. Do whatever you can to learn how to judge your work and make it better.

The complaint: "Publishers aren't interested in publishing books that will help kids."

The truth: Whoa! If children's book publishers didn't produce books that benefit kids, they'd go out of business in a heartbeat. Of course, we can all walk into a book store and find books that aren't worth the paper they're printed on, but that's true of any product. (Have you ever bought a T-shirt that disintegrated in the first wash, or a DVD player that self-destructed in a week?) I'm not saying that's a good thing, but our society seems to tolerate a certain amount of drivel in the marketplace. However, all publishers prefer commercially-appealing books that also have substance. This complaint consistently comes from writers whose goal is to "help kids," or teach them how to grow into solid, caring citizens through their books. This is admirable and even desirable, but very often the message is heavy-handed and preachy. The message smothers the story, and the book ends up sounded like a lecture. It's simply not good writing. Try reading several popular books wit h a message embedded in the plot (ask a teacher or librarian for recommendations) and work on the writing-improvement suggestions above.

The complaint: "I'm disabled/poor/have had a hard life and want to share my story, but no one will listen."

The truth: I imagine it's difficult for an editor to reject a manuscript that comes from someone who has struggled with adversity and is still determined to follow their lifelong dream of becoming a published author. The tough circumstances themselves don't work against the writer (very often they contribute to powerful stories) but an author's unique situation cannot outweigh less-than-stellar writing. What's on the page is what matters the most. If your story is too personal (it's about your life as an adult, or you haven't extracted the universal feelings and crafted them into a story that will be relevant to a wide audience), the book simply won't sell in the children's market. Again, learn what makes a quality children's book and get objective feedback on your manuscript. Remember, no one owes you a publishing credit just because you took the time to write a book. Writing is hard work, and requires self-education, practice, and persistence. There's no shame in p utting aside a manuscript that simply won't sell and writing something new. Every published author has a drawer full of those, and enough rejection letters to wallpaper an office. So join the club– it's worth the price of membership.