Choices

Blog of Madeline Sharples, Author of "Leaving the Hall Light On"

Madeline Sharples

Madeline Sharples
Location
Manhattan Beach, California, United States
Birthday
May 20
Bio
Although Madeline Sharples worked most of her professional life as a technical writer and editor, grant writer, and proposal manager, she fell in love with poetry and creative writing in grade school. She pursued her writing interests to high school while studying journalism and writing for the high school newspaper, and she studied journalism in college. However, she only began to fulfill her dream to be a professional writer late in her life. She co-authored a book about women in nontraditional professions called Blue-Collar Women: Trailblazing Women Take on Men-Only Jobs (New Horizon Press, 1994) and co-edited the poetry anthology, The Great American Poetry Show, Volumes 1 (Muse Media, 2004) and 2 (August 2010). She wrote the poems for two photography books, The Emerging Goddess and Intimacy (Paul Blieden, photographer). She is pleased that many of her poems have appeared online and in print magazines in the last few years. Madeline’s memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, about how she and her family survived her older son’s suicide, as a result of his bipolar disorder, will be released by Lucky Press LLC on Mother’s Day 2011. She and her husband of 40 years live in Manhattan Beach, California, a small beach community south of Los Angeles. Her younger son Ben lives in Santa Monica, California with his bride Marissa.

MY RECENT POSTS

FEBRUARY 13, 2012 4:10PM

What makes a book sell?

Rate: 1 Flag


I attended the Digital Author’s Conference this past Saturday, sponsored by West Coast Writer’s Conferences with special recognition and discounts to Greater Los Angeles Writer’s Society members. Coincidentally, both are headed by Tony N. Todaro.

Tony and his staff do a great job in getting interesting and informative speakers to their events. I found some of the information presented on Saturday so beneficial to my writing life I thought I’d share a little bit here.

One was a mention of a blogger I recently started following (at the suggestion of Marketing the Muse’s Marla Miller) Seth Godin. I have been marveling at how much meaningful information Seth can impart with just a few lines of short sentences, short paragraphs, and a lot of white space on the page.

And Elaine Wilkes, Ph.D. who spoke about ways to place our books everywhere and how to write emails and books that get results said this is the kind of writing that is selling best right now:

Short – even one-line – paragraphs.

Two or three word sentences.

Not every sentence needs a subject and verb.

Another thing she stressed:  Our books are judged by our
Cover
Title
Subtitle that states the book’s benefit

Guess why? Buyers looking for books to place in their stores don’t have time to read book synopses.

Okay you be the judge: does my cover, title, and subtitle pass her test?



That’s it for today. I’ll get into more of what I learned last Saturday in the next few days.


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Comments

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Since you have asked for feedback, my honest opinion is that I'd shorten your subtitle a bit. How about "Living With My Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide".
Thanks for your comment Ashem. You are probably right, but alas, it is too late to change it now. My book is already published.
I understand ... sometimes it is too late to make changes! I bet your title will do fine - it's the content of your book that is most important, and it sounds like you wrote from the heart. I also like the "light" theme of your cover. Best wishes for your success, and I hope your memoir will help raise awareness for others who are dealing with mental illness in themselves or a family member.
Thanks again, Ashem. That's the point - to raise awareness, erase stigma, and hopefully save some lives.