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Alberta Sequeira’s Books

By  BMGN |  May 28, 2021 | #Global Authors Directory, Alberta Sequeira’s Books We Welcome Our Visitors. Thank You For Your Support! Readers:  1,772

Welcome To Author Alberta Sequeira’s Book Page. Alberta Invites You To Explore Her Page, Download The PDF, And Support Her Through Book Sales. Thank You For Your Support.Author Alberta SequeiraDownload

Someone Stop This Merry-Go-Round: An Alcoholic Family in Crisis by Alberta H. Sequeira

Someone Stop This Merry-Go-Round is a heartfelt memoir of a woman’s life living with and losing a husband to alcoholism. Slowly their happy life as a secure family with their two daughters started to fall into tiny pieces.

Family members ride on the merry-go-round of hardships and struggles only to watch their loved one die from this demon. Readers who are living in the same dark hole, will relate to the constant confusion, broken promises, and abusive behavior with no winners. Hopefully, they will come to learn that alcoholism is not a weakness, it’s an illness. We are far from being alone with this battle.

This story describes the heartache caused by alcoholism on the whole family. It’s a painful journey filled with honesty, hurt, confusion and the fear of losing someone from alcohol abuse. It reveals the sadness and despair alcoholism places on those who love an alcoholic and the consequences that follow.

Product Details:
Paperback: 384 Pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 2nd edition (July 8, 2015)
Language: English
Global Library: Self-Help (Alcoholism Recovery)
Global Library: Self-Help (Sexual Abuse)

Amazon Print:
https://www.amazon.com/Someone-Stop-This-Merry-Go-Round-Alcoholic/dp/151205979X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/Someone-Stop-This-Merry-Go-Round-Alcoholic-ebook/dp/B011C6IX68/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Please, God, Not Two: This Killer Called Alcoholism by Alberta H. Sequeira

Please, God, Not Two is the sequel to Someone Stop This Merry-Go-Round. It follows the silent suffering after a woman married loses her husband, Richard Lopes of North Dighton, Massachusetts, in 1985 at forty-five years of age from his alcohol abuse.

She had ignored the same familiar signs with her daughter, Lori Cahill. It wasn’t until the last two years of her life that family became aware of her addiction and becoming bulimic.

After three rehab stays, Lori loses her battle on November 22, 2006 at thirty-nine. She had been put to rest alongside her father at the St. Patrick Cemetery in Somerset, MA.

Readers living in the same confused life with enabling, fear, physical abuse and denial, will relate to this true story. This is a worldwide problem that has been killing millions of people leaving broken-hearted families behind.

The author’s talks given publicly and behind closed doors to the alcoholics and drug addicts are in this memoir without holding back the reality of this disease with no one coming out a winner.

From The Inside Flap Introduction: Please, God, Not Two: This Killer Called Alcoholism is the sequel to Someone Stop This Merry-Go-Round: An Alcoholic Family in Crisis. The first memoir goes behind closed doors into my private life and personal hardships of living with an alcoholic husband. I wanted the readers to share in the reality of our fears and frustration in trying to deal with his drinking. The birth of our two daughters, Debbie and Lori, were followed by confusion, broken promises, abuse, our divorce, and his death.

This sequel is the continuation of our lives after my husband, Richie, died and our subsequent realization that our daughter, Lori, had been taking the same path as her father with alcohol abuse. The family wasn’t aware that she had become addicted to alcohol until her last two years of fighting this disease.

Our families wanted to unite and hopefully reach not only the drug and alcohol abusers, but also the parents, children, siblings, and friends who are trying to understand the disease of substance abuse.

We are far from being alone in this fight, but we know that family members need to come together to learn how to help the abusers overcome their addiction by showing support and love. It’s so important for the abusers to know that it’s not them we hate, but the disease itself. That alone, will help a great deal in their recovery.

When we lose a loved one, our lives are overwhelmed by all the questions: if I had done something different, could I have, should I have, and what might have been if I had. If there was a possibility of my going back and making changes, would they have saved Richie and Lori? I’ll never know, but some changes in my actions might have helped me live with less guilt about how I handled certain circumstances.

I’m not a professional counselor or trained speaker; my writing and talks come from the heart of a wife and mother who has lost two people I loved to alcoholism.

Please, God, Not Two is based on my years of loving and raising Lori, only to lose her to alcoholism. Slowly, our happy lives as a secure family started to fall to pieces at different stages. It was completely incomprehensible to me that I ignored the signs of Lori’s serious drinking problems after seeing her father die from this uncontrollable demon.

I wanted to talk about the powerful and emotional feelings of my physical and mental pain, being blind to the signs of Lori’s drinking, even after being knowledgeable about the illness when trying to cope with Richie’s addiction. This book was written for families who are living in this same dark hole and who need to come out of hiding and seek help without fear or embarrassment

We can’t force our loved ones to get help. All our begging, crying, and pleading won’t always work. They have to want it themselves; we can only try to support them.

Writing this book has made me see that there were missed opportunities that could have turned Lori’s life around and helped her to let go of the demons that kept her from being able to move toward recovery. I’m ashamed to say that there were many.

If our family’s experience can help others recognize the warning signs of alcohol abuse and save one abuser, then this story will have been worth telling. Every family member and close friend of the alcoholic suffers along with them. As sick as we become from this disease ourselves, we have to keep focused on the possibility of losing the abuser. Because of the high percentage rate of deaths from alcoholism, we need to keep fighting for our loved ones, no matter how hard the task, to help them take the steps to recovery.

There’s no reason to remain silent about this illness. There are many diseases that kill, and this is one of them. Families need to open up about substance abuse and seek counseling. This fight can’t be fought alone; the dependency is too powerful. Once the disorder seizes a person, the demon holds them with more strength than we can imagine. Alcoholism is something abusers have to fight the rest of their lives; there is no cure. We should try to help them attain the desire to go into rehabilitation and recovery, and more importantly, with our love and support, the willpower to stay sober. We are far from being alone in this battle; it’s a worldwide problem. –This text refers to an alternate kindle edition.

Product Details:
Paperback: 404 Pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 2nd edition (August 4, 2015)
Language: English
Global Library: Self-Help (Alcoholism Recovery)
Global Library: Self-Help (Sexual Abuse)

Amazon Print:
https://www.amazon.com/Please-God-Not-Two-Alcoholism/dp/1514106612/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011ELJ5GI/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

Message From Alberta H. Sequeira: Hello everyone.I wrote two serious books on Alcohol and drug Abuse. My reason was from losing a husband and grown daughter to theirs. I wanted to show how I had no knowledge of their habits and wanted to share what I should have done better.

With Someone Stop This Merry-Go-Round you will learn:

1. How enabling only brings the substance abuser deeper into their addiction.

2. How fights only make a distance between you both. Listening is more loving and takes down the walls.

3. The silent treatment only pushes the problem in the background.

4. Don’t make threats you can’t keep.

5. allowing the action to go on too long, starts the blackout.

6. How to leave safely without putting your life in danger

Book Two: Please, God, Not Two

1. When your child starts hanging out with new friends

2. Skipping school

3. Not realizing this I can be a family disease

4. Getting them help before the age of 18 years old or they will be able to refuse help

5. Stop keeping the blinders on thinking it’s a FAZE.

6. Don’t believe in “They have to reach rock bottom: Richie and Lori’s was their death

7. Get them help even if they hate you. At least they will be alive

Both books show my actions and what I should have done. The sequel Please, God, Not Two, contains my talks behind closed doors to the substance abusers.

I have the conclusion, a Narrative Nonfiction, to both books The Mindset of an Alcoholic and Addict: 34 Americans and Canadians Share Their Struggle with Alcohol and Drugs, looking for a publisher. Hopefully, they will believe in this book as writing and stories that will help many: doctors, counselors, family members, the substance abuser, and the public to understand what we all need to do to get the addict into recovery.

Amazon Author’s Page:
https://www.amazon.com/Alberta-H.-Sequeira/e/B0036ULRL2

Professional Website/Blog:
www.albertasequeira.wordpress.com

Website for Writers and Authors:
www.albertasequeira.org

Speaking Engagements:
alberta.sequeira@gmail.com

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/albertasequeira

Author’s Page At Book Marketing Global Network:
https://bookmarketingglobalnetwork.com/global-authors-directory/alberta-sequeiras-books/Tagged Alberta Sequeira, Alberta Sequeira’s Books, Book Marketing Global Network, Please God Not Two: This Killer Called Alcoholism by Alberta H. Sequeira, Someone Stop This Merry-Go-Round: An Alcoholic Family in Crisis by Alberta H. Sequeira. Bookmark the  permalink.

Everyone Makes Money but the Author


I believe in this saying more and more as time passes. When I first became an author in 2006, I read you had to have a great platform to get the attention of agents and publisher, especially traditional.
I worked hard through the years to push myself from shyness in front of an audience with knee-shaking speaking engagements. My ambition was strong because I believed, after losing a husband and daughter from substance abuse, it was a worldwide topic. The death rate was not going down.
I felt the addict had to hear what the family members fear and their pain. It wasn’t that they hated their loved ones, they hated the disease. The family has to listen to what the addict wants.
I listened for years to Steve Harrison, who runs free telephone training program helping authors to advance in marketing, seminars offered with top TV producers, and wonderful personnel to get you there. I felt strongly my topic would go anywhere with their help. I’d reach a huge audience. I wanted to go to one of his seminars but couldn’t come up with $5,000. That’s not including the hotel and travel. Steve offered many important people to help an author be seen on television or anywhere else. Another event I had to “pay” for to move ahead with no money for it or guarantees. But everyone else would walk away with money whether I made it or not.
Steven Harrison explained the difference between a poor author and a rich one. The talk really hit me. The poor author did no more than depend on book signing. The rich one pushed ahead to be seen. I spoke in halfway homes, substance abuse rehabs, court-ordered programs, jails, libraries, bookstores, U Mass in Boston, Massachusetts; wherever I could to help substance abusers and their family members.
At first many locations wanted me to talk at their events claiming not having money in their budgets to pay me. I wanted to get known. After awhile, there was no money of my own to pay for my books to sell at events, put on workshops, or hold other talks.
I went from a regular author to a three-time nominated author with reviews with Publisher Weekly. Even then, I had to “pay” for the review. Nothing developed with the great write-ups, interviews in newspapers, radio blogs, or cable television appearances. My speaking engagements started to sell books and then the pandemic arrived.
After 14 years, I became a co-founder to Authors Without Borders (www.awb6.com). We’re a great group of four women authors helping other authors and writers to avoid the mistakes we faced climbing up the ladder. I was a producer, director, and co-host to the NBTV-95 Cable TV out of New Bedford for five years, a writer for seven years on substance abuse with the Cape Cod Today blog. I thought I just might become an author with a great platform.
I wrote about my family life with a husband and two daughters behind closed doors during my young years of marriage in Someone Stop This Merry-Go-Round; An Alcoholic Family in Crisis. I lost my husband, Richard Lopes, of Dighton, Massachusetts at the VA Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island from cirrhosis of the liver when he was only forty-five years of age.
I never thought the demon would return and take my daughter, Lori (Lopes) Cahill of Dighton at the age of thirty-nine from the same worldwide problem of alcohol and drug abused. I wrote my heart out with tears in the sequel, Please, God, Not Two: This Killer Called Alcoholism.
The two books are not just memories. I have my speaking engagements behind closed doors to private events in the sequel. In the story of Richard, I tell how I would have handled each event differently if it were today. They are books of lessons.
They are buried together at the St. Patrick Cemetery in Somerset, Massachusetts. There I pray to Richard and Lori, wishing I could change my actions for the better now that I have grown in education on the topic. I would have handled everything with more love and caring than with yelling, blaming, threats, fights, and pulling our poor daughters into adult conflict that they never should have endured.
Like all parents who lost children from addiction, we suffer from the agonizing questions, “what if I, could I have, why didn’t I,” or most of all for me the question, “what are we all doing wrong not being able to save our loved ones from this disease that is destroying lives?” What do they need from us?
From there I did research to get into the minds of the addicted; no guessing just the raw, honest answers of what they feel family can do to help them desire professional help. I have 34 contributors from the United States and Canada who have opened their hearts to tell us. I wrote The Mindset of the Alcoholic and Drug Addict; Healing Shattered Lives.
After fourteen years having found an agent for the book, she claimed within the a year that the pandemic stopped her from finding a traditional publisher. I returned writing query letters to agents and publishers. No one knows more about substance abuse than the person who has lived through the suffering and pain watching a loved one slowly kill themselves.
I’ve had six traditional publishers offer to represent me. For some reason, my book didn’t fall under their traditional side but they “all” offered self-publishing which ran between $6,000 to $14,000, especially if you wanted a “top” traditional publisher. Again, they win whether my book made it or not. One well-know traditional publisher would have taken my book if I was an “International speaker.” Being a professional speaker didn’t count.
It’s hard for an author to push forward. Any author can get published within days on Amazon. I wanted a publisher to believe in this book as myself, not to drown in money but to see a smile on one addict’s face showing they have hope after my talk. I wanted family members to see the points I listed for working together with communication. The hope to others if The Mindset of the Alcoholic and Drug Addict found it’s way in bookstores, schools, universities, class assignments, homework, a demanded topic in education, in other countries, and maybe see a small change going in the right direction.
If it’s a family disease, let’s start treating it that way. Treat the person who is struggling with addiction. Why are they hooked on addiction? What emotional trauma caused them to turn into numbness? Help them before finding treatment for the disease with pills.

Alberta Sequeira
http://www.albertasequeira.wordpress.com
alberta.sequeira@albertasequeira
Books available at http://www.amazon.com/author/albertasequeira






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Spend your September weekends translating!Whether you’ve been waiting for the right time to try your hand or you’ve been honing your translation practice for a long time, our instructors are offering short online workshops, seminars, and intensives built to help you learn more about the theory, practice, and industry of translation!
 Browse All Don’t Translate Alone Courses If you’re enrolling in two or more Don’t Translate Alone classes, email us at classes@catapult.co and we’ll send you a coupon for 15% off each DTA class!

Classes:Translating Shape & Meaning in Concrete Poetry with SojePitching Translations with Bruna Dantas LobatoFrom Theory to Practice with Poupeh MissaghiTranslating Violence & Trauma with Jenna TangLiterary Translation Manuscript Check with Anton HurLearn from Translators with Poupeh MissaghiReviewing Literature in Translation as Community-Building with Kelsi VanadaRewriting K-Pop Lyrics with SojeGetting Started as a Translator with Elisa Wouk AlminoNavigating the Publishing World as a BIPOC Woman/Queer/Nonbinary Translator with Jenna TangTranslating Humor in Contemporary Arabic Literature with Sawad HussainTranslating Race, Class, & Gender in Contemporary Literature with Lisa Hofmann-KurodaTranslating Multilingual Texts with Christina Ng
Don’t Translate Alone is only the beginning of the translation programming we are planning to offer year-round. This September, we hope you’ll join us in one or more of these classes to begin developing your projects and connecting with other translators!
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Agents Looking for Clients

Publishing … and Other Forms of Insanity

Erica Verrillo has written seven books and published five. She doesn’t know why anyone with an ounce of self-preservation would ever want to publish. But, if you insist on selling your soul to the devil, learn how to do it right: marketing, literary agents, book promotion, editing, pitching your book, how to get reviews, and … most important of all … everything she did wrong. She’s a member of PEN, and in the interest of protecting democracy, she did not vote for Trump. 

6 Established Literary Agents Looking for Clients

Updated 6/8/21

Here are six established agents looking for clients. Each has years of experience and an impressive track record. Note: Always check the agency website before submitting. Agents can switch agencies or close their lists.

If you have any doubts about your query letter, go to Query Shark. Literary agent Janet Reid has provided invaluable critiques of query letters, which are instructive even to seasoned old hands.

Note: For a complete list of agents seeking clients see: Agents Seeking Clients.

Allison Hunter of Janklow & Nesbit Associates

Allison Hunter began her publishing career in 2005 working for the Los Angeles-based literary publicity firm Kim-from-L.A, and was an agent at InkWell Management and the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency before joining Janklow & Nesbit. Allison’s clients include bestselling novelists, memoirists, journalists and various experts in their field. She was also thrilled to work with InkWell client Lena Dunham on her bestselling memoir NOT THAT KIND OF GIRL.

What she is looking for: Allison is actively acquiring literary and commercial fiction, especially women’s fiction, as well as memoir, narrative nonfiction, cultural studies and pop culture. She is always looking for funny female writers, great love stories, campus novels, family epics, and for non-fiction projects that speak to the current cultural climate.

How to submit: For fiction submissions, send an informative cover letter, a brief synopsis and the first ten pages. If you are sending an email submission, please include the sample pages in the body of the email below your query. For non-fiction submissions, send an informative cover letter and a full outline to submissions@janklow.com.
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Courtney Miller-Callihan of Handspun Literary Agency

Courtney Miller-Callihan founded Handspun Literary Agency in 2016, after more than ten years with Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. She is a hands-on editorial agent whose eclectic list includes historical fiction, women’s fiction, romance, mysteries, YA novels, humor, and practical nonfiction. 

A graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz (B.A., Literature), and Johns Hopkins University (M.A., English), she lives in San Diego with her family, and travels frequently for meetings and conferences.

What she is looking for: For adult fiction, Courtney represents only mainstream fiction (including historical fiction and women’s fiction), romance (all subgenres except inspirational), and mystery novels.

For nonfiction, Courtney represents work targeting all age groups (children and adults). Though she will consider nonfiction on any topic, work that deals primarily with issues of religion or spirituality is unlikely to be a good fit.

She is not currently accepting new middle-grade, early reader, or picture book submissions.

Please note that the agency does NOT represent original screenplays.
Submission guidelines: Queries should be sent to query@handspunlit.com.

For fiction: please send a query letter, short synopsis (5 pages or less), and the first three chapters or 50 pages of the novel, whichever is more. For nonfiction: please send a query letter and proposal.
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David Forrer of Inkwell Management

David Forrer began his career in publishing in 1997 after receiving a Masters in Creative Writing (fiction) from Boston University. He has been an agent with InkWell Management since it was created in 2004.
What he is looking for: His areas of interest and representation range from literary, commercial, historical and crime fiction to suspense/thriller, humorous non-fiction and popular history.
How to submit: Queries should be emailed to:

submissions [at] inkwellmanagement [dot] com

In the body of your email, please include a query letter and a short writing sample (1-2 chapters). Emails with large attachments will be discarded.
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Chris Bucci of Aevitas

About Chris: Chris began his career at the University of Toronto Press as an acquisitions editor in the social sciences. He joined HarperCollins Canada in 2003 as a non-fiction editor and then moved to McClelland & Stewart. In 2008 he joined The McDermid Agency as a literary agent and later bought the agency, along with Martha Webb. In 2017 they merged with the Cooke Agency to form CookeMcDermid where Chris was Proprietor and Literary Agent before coming to Aevitas in 2020.

What he is seeking: Literary fiction, mysteries, thrillers, historical fiction, commercial literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. For nonfiction, he seeks popular science, sports, popular culture, politics, essays, and history.

Chris does not represent picture books, poetry, erotica, or inspirational fiction.

How to submit: See his submission form HERE.
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Lisa Gallagher  of DeFiore & Company Literary Management Inc.

About Lisa: Lisa Gallagher joined DeFiore & Company Literary Management Inc., as a literary agent in 2014, after working at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates for five years. She has more than twenty years of publishing experience and insight from both sides of the Atlantic, and now as an agent, being a champion of authors and their work continues to be her passion. Formerly SVP & Publisher, William Morrow (an imprint of HarperCollins), Gallagher published many New York Times bestselling novelists including Tom Franklin, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Christopher Moore, Sena Jeter Naslund, Dennis Lehane, Laura Lippman, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, James Rollins, Marisa de los Santos and Neal Stephenson, as well as non-fiction blockbusters like Marley & Me and Freakonomics. Prior to joining William Morrow in 2000, Gallagher was Associate Publisher at Bloomsbury USA, following a move to New York from Bloomsbury’s London office in 1998. Gallagher was educated at St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, UK.

What she is looking for: She is actively seeking new clients both in fiction and non-fiction, who are great storytellers, delivering both narrative urgency and dramatic tension, combined with multi-faceted characters and a transporting sense of place.

How to submit: “Please submit your manuscript or proposal to lgsubmissions@defliterary.com as a word document: double spaced, 12pt, Times New Roman. I will do my best to read and respond to you within six weeks of receiving your submission. Unfortunately, due to the volume of submissions received, I am unable to respond to every one personally, so if you haven’t heard from me at all by then, it means that I am unable to offer you representation. It is acceptable to make multiple submissions to different agencies – just let me know – and if you get an offer of representation from another agent before hearing back from me, I would be grateful if you could let me know by sending an email with the subject line “Offer received”. Thank you very much.”

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Annette Crossland of A for Authors, Ltd. (U.K.)

About Annette: In a career spanning more than 30 years, Annette has worked in high-profile positions in some of the UK and USA’s most successful publishing companies. She has worked with some of the top bestselling authors in the world, touring overseas with Elizabeth George, Dennis Lehane and Frances Fyfield, amongst others.

What she is looking for: “We are always on the lookout for exciting new work and we welcome submissions across all relevant genres by email.”

How to submit: With your submission, please include your name, address, phone number, title of the material. All material should be emailed as Microsoft Word attachments. Downloadable material, e-books, or links to any such items are unacceptable. For fiction please send a synopsis and three sample chapters (50 pages or fewer) and for non-fiction send a letter outlining your intentions. No radio/theatre/TV scripts, poetry, SF/Horror genres, or short stories. Response time 12 weeks.FacebookTwitterPinterestShare

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Hints for a great cover letter

Here are a few suggestions for you to consider when approaching an agent. Remember to use these as hints…do not follow them slavishly as if a literary agent is going to spend their time critiquing your cover letter.

By the way, we make a distinction between a cover letter and a query letter. A cover letter is what goes on top of a longer proposal and sample chapters. The query letter is a stand-alone letter that goes by itself to the editor/agent without a proposal or sample chapters. We happen to prefer the cover letter along with the rest of the package. Why? Because a query only shows that you can write a letter. A proposal begins the process of showing that you know how to write a book.

Address the letter to a specific person. If sending something to The Steve Laube Agency, simply address the appropriate agent. Every proposal will cross the desk of the designated agent eventually.

Don’t waste your time or ours. Do your homework! If you are submitting to an agent, visit their web site and follow their guidelines!!! We cannot emphasize this enough! Make certain to spell the person’s name right. (We’ve had people spell Steve Laube’s name as “Laub” “Labe” “Lobby” “Looby” etc.)

If you use a market guide book or some online database listing of agents or editors, make sure you have the most current information because addresses do change (go to the web site). Our main office changed its mailing address in February of 2007…and we still discover that material is being sent to the old address. You would be astounded by the number of calls or inquiries we receive from writers who have not done their research.

Whatever you do, do not say your book is the next Purpose Driven Life, Eat Pray Love, Left Behind, or The Shack, or that it will sell better than The Da Vinci Code, Twilight, Harry Potter, or The Chronicles of Narnia. That shows an ignorance of the market that is best left alone.

In addition, please do not claim “God gave me this book so you must represent or publish it.” We are firm believers in the inspiration that comes from a faith-filled life, but making it part of your pitch is a big mistake. Read this blog post for a larger discussion on this point.

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The 4-part Cover letter:

1) A simple introductory sentence is sufficient. Basically you are saying “Hi. Thank you for the opportunity…”

2) Use a “sound bite” statement. A “sound bite” statement is the essence of your novel or non-fiction book idea in 40 words or less.

The fiction sound bite could include:
a. The heroic character
b. The central issue of the story
c. The heroic goal
d. The worthy adversary
e. Action
f. The ending
g. A grabber
h. Or a twist

The non-fiction sound bite should include the main focus or topic.
One suggestion is to describe the Problem, Solution, and Application.

If someone were to ask about your book you would answer, “My book is about (write in your sound bite.)”

3) Tell why your book is distinctive-who will read it. (Targeted age group….adult, teen, youth) – point out what’s fresh, new, different.

One suggestion would be, for your intended genre, read a number of recent books in the same genre as your own to familiarize yourself with market.

4) Give pertinent manuscript details: a) mention whether or not book is completed (if it is not, then give an estimate as to when it will be finished) b) word length of the complete manuscript, even if it is an estimate (approximate – round off the number) c) pertinent biographical info d) tell the agent if it is a simultaneous submission e) let the agent know they can discard the proposal if rejected.

Click here to review a sample non-fiction cover letter from one of our clients who approached us via an email inquiry.

Keep letter to one page!!

Please don’t use narrow margins or tiny print to fit it all on one sheet. That is silly. We once received a cover letter written with an 8 point font and 1/4 inch margins. It was virtually unreadable.Avatar

About Steve Laube

Steve Laube, president and founder of The Steve Laube Agency, a veteran of the bookselling industry with nearly 40 years of experience. More About SteveView all posts by Steve Laube →

Secrets to Selling Books


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Seven Secrets for Successfully Selling Books
by Brian Jud 
Bowker | Tue Feb 23, 2021


 
My recent article (Why It Can Take Months To Sell Books To Non-Retail Buyers) described how the trek to special-sales success can be long, arduous and frustrating – but profitable. Through it all, a strong and determined attitude can serve as your GPS on your path to success. There are several basic axioms in book marketing in general — and special sales in particular — that may have a negative impact on your attitude. If you can know in advance that these are going to occur, the negative impact on your attitude may be reduced.
 
Rejection is a way of life. Be forewarned that you will be rejected far more times than you will be accepted, and this may wear away at your attitude. But do not take rejection personally. That is easy to say, but it can be done if you accept rejection as a challenge to learn, improve your strategy and tactics and thereby increase the likelihood that you will close the sale next time.
People make decisions on their schedules, not on yours. One of the problems with setting a sales objective is that it is based on your forecasts and your presumptions of what people will buy and when they will buy it. However, your potential customers do not know this. They only know what they want and when they want it. Their needs and deadlines may not coincide with yours. Your prospects may have promotions planned for next year and your book will fit nicely with them. But they will not buy until next year regardless of your goal.  
The order is rarely as much as you had hoped. Again, buyers purchase what they need, not what you forecast. And since many buy on a non-returnable basis, they will not commit to a large quantity until it has proven successful. 
 
Think of your attitude as you would the spokes of a wheel on an old Conestoga wagon. All the spokes must be in place if the wheel is to function properly for the length of the trip. If one or more of them is broken, the wheel could be crushed under the pressure of the wagon. Similarly, you have seven “spokes” to maintain for an effective book-marketing attitude. They enable you to remain competent, professional, enthusiastic and successful throughout your journey to sell your books in special markets. These seven Cs are:
            
1) Courage. It takes a little bravery to break free from your habits of selling only to bookstores. Leaving your comfort zone is never easy, yet it must be done. In special-sales marketing, it also takes courage to…
• seek assistance in your quest. You do not have to go through all this alone. For example, if you need sales help, hire a consultant or join an APSS Mastermind Group and benefit form OPM – Other People’s Minds. 
 
• accept responsibility for your circumstances. Blaming unresponsive prospects for lost sales will not solve your problem. Discover what went wrong and then correct it.
 
• go on the offense. At times you may feel as if you have lost control and that the potential customers “hold all the cards.” If you relinquish control of your actions, you will end up selling only to bookstores and libraries rather than soliciting new markets and opportunities.
 
One way to go on the offensive is to be assertive during negotiations. A sales call is analogous to a sporting event: you can only score when you have possession of the ball. If the interviewer controls the ball for the entire game, you may not get to make your presentation. If you simply “attend” a negotiation without actively participating, you will not score many points.
 
• try different approaches. It takes valor to attempt something untried, and this is exactly what you must do to shake up your thinking and be creative in the action you take.
 
2) Commitment is the knowledge that “If it’s to be it’s up to me,” as Brian Tracy implores. Commitment is also the ability to devote your entire focus on the attainment of your objective. It is the discipline to continue trying in the face of adversity and rejection. Commitment is the understanding that you are not perfect, and therefore you must continue evaluating your results and trying different tactics, using trial-and-error and learning from your mistakes. 
       
3) Competition, or the spirit of vying with others for a prize, may be more successful if you direct your competition toward yourself instead of others. Competition does not have to be against others for you to win.
 
Compete with yourself to contact one more person per day this week than you did last week. Look for ways to make your selling skills better than they were yesterday but not as good as they will be tomorrow. Seek one more idea to solve a problem. Attempt to improve yourself in some way, every day. Improve on your actions and skills and you are more likely to become successful more quickly.
 
From a different perspective, some authors feel that their content is unique and they have no competition. That is untrue in retail marketing where you are competing against other books for shelf space and share of wallet. It is also untrue among corporate buyers when you compete against coffee mugs, umbrellas, golf shirts and many other promotional items. 
 
4) Confidence is the ability to entrust yourself with your future. Self-confidence will bolster your courage to perform all the tasks you may be reluctant to do. It will enable you to make cold-calls in person or to pick up that “200-pound telephone” and make more sales calls. 
          
5) Concentration. The most points scored in a football game are made in the last two minutes before the end of each half. The players are concentrating on getting the points on the board before time runs out. They are not thinking about what happens if they lose, but on scoring the points necessary to win. Play the special-sales game as if you are always in the last two minutes of the second half. Concentrate on the rewards of success, not the consequences of failure.
 
Progress in special sales has less to do with speed than it does with direction. Concentration serves as the compass with the arrow pointed directly and unfailingly at your goal.
 
6) Creativity can help you make a molehill out of a mountain. The dictionary defines creativity, “to cause to exist; bring into being; originate.” If you are to be successful in special-sales marketing, you must cause opportunities to happen. There will be cases in which your prospective customers have never used books as a premium or sold books in their stores. Your creativity will serve you well by demonstrating to them how they could use books in new ways. Sell your romance novel to limousine services, or your book on leadership to coaches in high school or college sports. Find new ways to make sales happen.
 
7) Control. Some people define control as a restraining act, the need to hold back or curb something. But it is really a dynamic process, as one controls a horse with the reins. It is the ability to recognize an opportunity that comes to you on the spur of the moment, evaluate and pursue it even though it was not part of your original plan. Control requires adjustments to compensate for predictable and unforeseen circumstances as you move toward your objective. With control, you can apply your creativity professionally. It directs your commitment so you can pursue your goals. It helps you use your confidence for productive means. A controlled grip on your anxiety will give you the courage to continue with your efforts even after you have been rejected most of the time. And it ensures that you maintain your competitive edge.
 
Think of controlling your book-marketing activities as you would driving and maintaining your car. You turn it on, put it in gear, direct it toward your destination, determine the speed with which you move ahead, make corrections in your course, schedule it for regular maintenance and add fuel periodically. 
 
Work with the ideas presented here to control your attitude, then increase your sales and profitability in special-sales markets. Use what is good for you and your titles. Keep an open mind, look for new opportunities and make it happen. It is all up to you. 
 
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Brian Jud is the author of How to Make Real Money Selling Books, the Executive Director of the Association of Publishers for Special Sales (APSS – www.bookapss.org), and the administrator of Book Selling University (www.booksellinguniversity.com) Contact Brian at brianjud@bookmarketing.com or www.premiumbookcompany.com.
 
 
 
Category: 
Inside Publishing
Marketing & Publicity

Your Audience

Mitch Jackson, Esq.
Mitch Jackson, Esq.
@https://twitter.com/mitchjackson
Did you know that your audience will forget 90% of what you say within 60 minutes after giving a speech?
10 Ways to Start Your Next Speech, Presentation, Blog Post, Live Video, and Social Audio
Did you know that your audience will forget 90% of what you say within 60 minutes after giving a speech?
The fact of the matter is that one hundred years ago, the average attention span was 20 minutes. Today, some experts say it’s as short as nine seconds, the same attention span of a goldfish.
Now I’m not sure if our attention spans have decreased to that of a Carassius auratusor (the common goldfish) or if it’s more of a factor that we’re exposed to substantially more information and interruptions than ever before. Either way, I think we can all agree that a lot is going on in all of our lives, so it’s essential to immediately capture our audience’s attention if we want to have our message heard and avoid them from clicking away.
So how do we do this? How can we immediately grab attention?
The key is to IMMEDIATELY grab your audience’s attention. Don’t wait around for people to join your live broadcast. Don’t spend time going through your impressive resume or talking about the weather or traffic. If you do this, you’ll be boring your audience. Nobody cares.
Instead, start with an attention-grabbing 60-120 seconds and then roll the conversation over to your topic or interview.
So how do you do this? What’s your next step?
Let’s say you’re giving a presentation titled “The Power of Persuasion and Communication.” Depending on your unique skillset and audience, you may want to start things off with one of the following ten approaches. Include metaphors because they’re easy for my audience members to remember and recall in conversations later that day, week, or year. This approach has worked well for me for more than 30 years, and it’ll work well for you too.
So when it comes to the topic of persuasion and communication, you might start with:

1: A Quote- “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” -George Bernard Shaw. Combine this quote with a short story highlighting how easy it is for misunderstandings and miscommunications to take place. Add a memorable metaphor.

2: A Statistic- “The next time you deliver a speech, keep in mind that 90% of what you say will be forgotten within 60 minutes after you finish.” I used this statistic at the beginning of my email. Did it capture your attention?

3: A Question- “Do you know what the biggest communication challenge is in today’s noisy and busy world? It’s probably not what you think!”

4: A Current Breaking News Item- “Becoming an effective communicator got me on the evening news last night to discuss the Olympic Games in Japan. Would you like to know the communication steps I took to get noticed and invited to offer my commentary?

5: A Short Story That Relates Directly To Your Topic- “I watched opposing counsel give his closing argument last Wednesday morning. He stumbled through the whole thing. It was a mess. Using three simple steps I’ll be sharing with you today, when counsel was finished, I stood up, walked over to the jury, and gave a closing argument that resulted in a multi-million dollar verdict. Want to know what these three steps are?”

6: A Sincere Thank You- “Rotary International is truly one of the top community service organizations in the world. I want to thank Bob Smith for including me in this extraordinary event to share several of my favorite communication tips with you.”

7: Have Your Audience Write Something Down- “There are five steps that exceptional communicators use to share their message. I’ll be sharing them with you today. Grab a pen and paper because you’ll want to write these down.”

8: Humor- “The mind is a wonderful thing. It starts working the minute you are born and never stops until you get up to speak in public.” Quick tip- only start with a joke if you’re good at telling jokes.

9: Make a Prediction- “By the time I’m done with my presentation and share these seven tips, I predict that you will increase your ability to persuade others by 25% to 50%.”

10: A Poem, Rhyme, or Metaphor- “Communication is the key to moving forward in life, but my hands are shaking as I hold the key while turning it to try and start the ignition. How many of you feel this way when you stand to deliver a speech or presentation?” (or for the trial lawyers in the room, when you stand to give your opening statement?)

Do you have a favorite approach you use to start your presentations? If so, please hit “reply” and share it with me. I’m writing a follow-up blog post in a few months, and I’d enjoy sharing your tips.

Three Great Books:
The Tall Lady With the Iceberg: The Power of Metaphor to Sell, Persuade & Explain Anything to Anyone (Expanded edition of Metaphorically Selling) by Anne Miller https://amzn.to/3ixs4ZL
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath https://amzn.to/3wT1Je6
Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds by Carmine Gallo https://amzn.to/3rpoN2N

Between now and next week, enjoy the journey and never stop making each day your masterpiece!
Mitch Jackson, Esq.
Streaming.Lawyer (my audio and video blog)
LegalMinds.Lawyer (my mastermind)
P.S.- Please share my newsletter if you feel it adds value. Also, please note that past issues are available here.