Is a book cover a secret weapon to get books sold? Many people think so. What does research say? I know what I’ve done recently!
Research on the Importance of a Book Cover
“A high-quality book cover not only looks great, but also communicates its genre and attracts the “right” readers with relevant trends, color schemes, and more.”
For my first three books, I designed the cover, not knowing any better, but since then I have had 100Covers.com do my covers. Why? Because I believed the research stated above.
I love what 100Covers.com have produced, and they are so easy to work with. We collaborate with resources I find and shared with them. Then they did the magic and created eye-appealing covers.
My First Book Covers
Somewhere I found a review I ignored about my first book, This Tumbleweed Land’s cover. On the original cover, I had a text box covering the tumbleweed in the picture. That’s the theme of this book, so what a revelation. I loved the photo I used with Mesa de Maya in the background (noted on some of the first maps every made of the southeastern part of Colorado). But that mesa wasn’t mentioned in my book, so I had 100Covers.com redo it and I released it last week.
Here’s the comparison:
What do you think?
My Newest Book CoverIs In a Contest
Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry is in a nonfiction book cover right now on AllAuthor.com. It has entered the final round and the winners (1st, 2nd and 3rd) will be announced March 31.
Right now my book cover is in 2nd place with 120 votes, but with another book, The Amazing Dinosaur Dictionary for Kids, hovers right behind me with 119 votes.
What do you think?
The book cover in first place, Phoenix Rising, has 186 votes.
Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir received 1st place in the nonfiction book cover contest at AllAuthor.com in May, 2024. It was so exciting to communicate with my different social media sites and my email lists to encourage people to vote, and I received comments back that encouraged me. They came through repeatedly, and this award added prestigious to my book.
Finally,
I have heard repeatedly from my many mentors the importance of my book covers. I truly believe a book cover can be a secret weapon to get people to buy and read my books.
If you missed the importance of your vote, it could make the difference for my book’s winning stance or not. Put down your cup of coffee, your beer, your book or your knitting. It will only take a couple minutes. Grab your phone, iPad or computer and go to https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/20500/
Vote like my book’s life depends on it because it does!
Goals get us there! I’m facing the third quarter of the year and the sales of my books has plummeted because I’ve focused on moving and recovering from the dog attack.
I know the power of setting goals. When I was the computer coordinator for Washington middle school back when the internet was new and we as the staff pulled the cable throughout the building to get connected, the computer committee had our beginning meeting of the year.
I said, “Let’s brainstorm what we want for our school. The rules for brainstorming apply: anything goes.”
So my futuristic committee listed things completely out of our budget. I watched amazed—yes, I caught the fever and threw my two cents in too!
After the meeting, I formulated the ideas and presented them to the principal. Then she and I presented them to our legislator (who just happened to have been the principal at Washington middle school before he got into politics).
Outlandish goals, futuristic goals, realistic goals? We received funds from the state for everything on our list! That lesson has stayed with me for decades. I’ve often said, “Goals pull us along. Goals get us there!”
So, as I face the third quarter of the year, September is the lead and planning phase as I move into October, November & December,
So, the goals I established today appear too ambitious, too much, outlandish, but I’m going to sure them anyway.
1st Goal: Work on my second poetry book in a series of five and published it
Just today, I got the final draft back from my editor, so now I have to read through it for corrections. She said there weren’t many. Then I import it into the publishing program I use, Vellum. Next, I need to email readers on my email list to be on my ARC (Advanced Reader Copy ) Team to read it, write a blurb I enter in the print of my book and write a review in exchange for a free .pdf copy of the book. I have the description in the works. After the book is laid out, I can get the cover down because they need the page count to correct an accurate cover. I’ve used 100 Covers .
Hopefully, I will launch this book late October, early November. I will let you know! If you want to be a part of the ARC team for this new book, email me at larada@laradasbooks.com and I will send you a copy of the new book.
2nd Goal: Revise my autofiction book on being an incest survivor and healing
Because of all the flurry around the Epstein files, I talked to my therapist about being an “Advocate for Survivors.” In the midst of this conversation, as an incest survivor, I remembered I had written a book about this, almost ten years ago. Who cares? I have it!
In 2016 I joined NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) to commit to writing about 1600 words a day, ending up with 50,000 at the end of the month. The results of the presidential election that year really spurred me on—I was devastated by the results.
Because of that dedicated, concentrated time, I wrote a 50,000+ autofiction. So, what is an autofiction?
Jane Friedman, a leader in the publishing industry says: “Short for autobiographical fiction, autofiction uses elements of autobiography and fiction to examine decisive aspects of the writer’s life. The writer then melds these realities with fictional plot elements, characters and events in a way that often reads like memoir or autobiography. With the lines of fact and fabrication blurred, readers are engaged in wondering what’s real, what isn’t, and how they can figure out which is which.”
Because of this, when I finish book #2 of the poetry series, Time Measured Out, I will focus on revising the autofiction and get it to my editor who has already heard about it. Then I will return to my poetry series.
3rd Goal: Continue with the Click Ad program for my Christmas book
In April 2024, I bought Steve Pieper’s Click Ad program to create profitable ads on Facebook doing click testing and had worked my way through most of the lessons, ready to promote my Christmas book. I bought it because my book coach did a webinar with Steve. Also, his reviews and results blew me away!
Christmas is coming, so this would be a great time to go back to whatever lesson I’m on and finish it. I may have to redo a couple of the ad copy. I’m excited because many authors have had good results with Steve’s program.
4th Goal: Energize my back-list sales
I have nine books (soon ten), three cookbooks and three audiobooks just sitting there for ready to buy, but I have to have a plan to promote them. I have multiple competitors in each area, so I have to work at this.
Here’s my action plan to be implemented in September and beyond:
BOOK TITLE
PROMOTION
DATE
RESULTS
This Tumbleweed Landed
October
When Will Papa Get Home?
October
Let Me Tell You a Story
October
Is My True Universal?: A Woman’s Poetic Odyssey
October
A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir
November
Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?
November
Just Another Square Dance Caller: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo
November
Is My True Universal?: A Woman’s Poetic Odyssey
November
Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir
December
Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry
December
Is My True Universal?: A Woman’s Poetic Odyssey
December
We will see how the plan goes. You can see it’s real sketchy now!
5th Goal: Do an audiobook for my 1st book in my poetry series
I love recording audiobooks—reading my own words out loud is magical. So when I finished Was It a Dream? and published it, the recovery from the dog attack consumed me. I couldn’t stand up at the mic in my make-shift recording studio (my walk-in closet) that long—too physically taxing. Also, I was on heavy pain medication and publishing an audiobook has many intricate steps. I have used Derek Doepker’s program, Audiobooks Made Easy. This program spells out exactly what you have to do and Derek is great support if you have any problems.
As I sit here and lay out this plan, I step back! In the midst of all this, I have a move to Boquete, Panama and am starting a new life there, so I’m writing these goals out to remind myself—I am an author no matter where I live. I have the last quarter of 2025 to get my book sales going.
Also, because of the recovery of the dog attack, I lost a year of promoting my books, so I am way behind!
Will I accomplish all these goals?
Maybe yes, maybe no, but seeing them in black and white make them concrete! Easily, I can carry any no fulfilled to first quarter of 2026 and add to the list.
All this talk of promotion made me think, “Have you bought one, two or all of my books?” Let’s start here with promoting them. Go to my Author’s Page on Amazon where you can get them all!
Keep scrolling and you can see links to my audiobooks. I only sell my cookbooks directly until August 30 through my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft.
As a writer, I have regrets but just a few! Since 2014, I’ve self-published seven books and three cookbooks and recorded two audiobooks—sounds prolific! In a friendly conversation this week with a friend and my husband, we talked about our regrets. I listed a couple of life regrets but not writer’s regrets. Here’s my writer’s regrets.
Let Me Tell You a Story Regret
During the spring of 1987, I had visited my parents in southeastern Colorado. As usual, we went out to our family ranch and revisited many favorite spots. The Phillie Place always topped my list as my favorite, a homestead belonging to Philadelphia Cardenas.
Charlie Garlutzo was working for the County Sheriff Department. Bob Gleason had “Phillie” (Philadelphio Cardenas) up on cow theft. Charlie got the one hundred and twenty acres bought from Phillie for seventeen dollars and fifty cents an acre while he was scared him about the charges. Garlutzo had the choice of selling the land to either Horner or Doherty. He chose to sell it to Horner.
Phillie was sentenced for a one-year term but got out in seven months for good behavior. Had Garlutzo not got the land bought from Phillie when he was scared, he would have been right back out there, back in business.
Larada Horner-Miller, Let Me Tell You a Story, (Horner Publishing Company, 2016), 17-18.
When visiting my favorite spot that time with the folks, I found a blue marble at the front door, between the door jam and a rock out front.
I asked Dad, ”Who do you think it belonged to?”
“Probably someone out fossil-hunting and rummaging through this homestead.”
That answer didn’t satisfy me. I stashed that marble in my pocket, and the question whirled around in my head the rest of our visit. When I returned home to Denver, Colorado, creative juices flowed and I wrote, When Will Papa Get Home? feverishly, staying up late into the night, writing on my 2-E computer in my two-piece bathing suit after visiting the swimming pool at my mobile home park. I completed it in a couple days, but it went in a file deep inside my computer to be forgotten until 2015, publishing it November 26, 2015! Twenty-eight years later! My busy life took over, and I forgot about this story.
When I took it up in 2015 to revise, I researched the setting and the timeline, and it became a much more solid story.
This Tumbleweed Landed Regret
In June 1992, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I participated in the Rio Grande Writing Project, a national professional development workshop for teachers. Teachers from all concentrations took part—math, science, social studies and yes language arts and literature! Being a language arts/literature teacher, it was a natural fit for me.
For one writing exercise, the instructor shared a children’s book and told us we could use children’s books in our classrooms as inspiration for students to write. She had a tub full of books and asked us to select one to read and then base a writing on it.
I selected Cynthia Rylant’s Waiting to Waltz, A Childhood—I love to dance so the title attracted me. Cynthia wrote poetry about Beaver Creek, familiar grown-ups and kids she knew. Her short, sweet vignettes in poetry form about where she grew up and the people there excited me. I could do that, and I did.
Again, I went home and the poems flowed about my hometown of Branson, Colorado, the lively characters I grew up with and the different places in Branson and on our ranch that had touched me so.
At first, sometime in 1993, I felt more positive that it could be published by a traditional publishing company, so I sent a query letter to one of the big five publishers. I received a request for a manuscript—Wow! Every author’s dream. I sent it off and received a rejection note which devastated me. Then it went in a file deep inside my computer to be forgotten, again!
On July 12, 2014, I published this manuscript, This Tumbleweed Landed, my first self-published book. It took me twenty years to publish it. Because of a workshop I’d taken in Santa Fe, New Mexico in December 2013, I added a few essays about ranch life to the book. I felt this suggestion enriched the manuscript and became the prototype I used for three of my other books. So, in this case, I feel the delay helped the end product!
Finally, and sadly, yes, I’ve had regrets as a writer, but only a few. If I had gotten a book published thirty-some years ago, I can’t imagine how different my life would have been—“shoulda, coulda, woulda!”
In the end, the long delays improved each manuscript and had its purpose. I can see that now!
Have you ever delayed in a project and later seen the benefit of the delay?
MAJOR SALE: Buy my first book, This Tumbleweed Landed, at a 60% discount at my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft!
Revising my Christmas book in July seems absurd, but I have been. You see—to get a book out for the holiday season, now is the time! I have been working on it for a couple of months! Here’s what’s happening!
Last year, I researched popular e-book genres and found out that travel books and Christmas books were on the list. I thought, “Wow! I have both hidden away!” Then I let it go!
So in the early spring of this year, I researched the best time to publish a Christmas book on one of my favorite writing/publishing apps, Publisher Rocket. I thought it would be October or November, giving me plenty of time to get it finished. No, I found out I needed to get it out into the hands of holiday readers by August/September (see chart below).
This app has guided me in a variety of ways as a self-publisher, and I respect Dave Chesson, who created this app and this helpful website: Kindlepreneur.com
So, with this in mind, I moved forward, contacting my editor I’ve used for my last three books. But I didn’t hear from her, and I was still suffering from neuralgia from the shingles I had in April 2022. Being on pain medicine for the neuralgia fogged my brain and my ambition, so I let it slip by for a month or two.
When I finally heard from my editor, physically I felt better, so I created a timeline with her: I sent my manuscript off to her on June 19, 2023. She sent back her critiqued version on July 12. Then I read her email comments and highlighted specific suggestions. After that, I went through the manuscript with a fine-tooth comb, enjoying her comments and accepting her revisions.
She suggested I write a couple of adult Christmas memories because I had just a few in the manuscript. That spurred me on to write four new chapters, enjoying the remembrances. Then I sent it back to her and am waiting for her final comments.
During this time my editor had my manuscript, I focused on the book cover and description. I paid 100 Covers to do the cover (see cover, but title isn’t exact).
I paid Bryan Cohen’s Best Page Forward to do the description. Gladly, I have finals for both of them. I need to tweak both before finalizing them.
I have wrestled with the title using a website, my book coach, and coaching group to help me. This is my title and subtitle so far: Hair on Fire: My Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir.
But here are other options for the subtitle. What do you think?
A Christmas Memoir
A Heartwarming Christmas Memoir
A Heartwarming and Humorous Christmas Memoir
A Joyful, Heartwarming and Humorous Christmas Memoir
Hair on Fire: A Head-Warming Christmas Tale
Now I am waiting, waiting, waiting for my editor’s final response. Then I complete my editor’s suggested revisions in August. I love this back-and-forth process. She assured me it would be back by August 8-10. When the manuscript looks exactly the way I want it to, then I use Vellum, a Mac app, to create the interior of the book. Finally, I upload it to Amazon and various other e-book distributors.
Holding the proof copy in my hands always gives me such a warm sensation—I almost have to pinch myself to see if it’s a dream. If it looks good, it’s available to buy.
Finally, I love revising my Christmas book—rereading those precious memories touches my heart each time. When you get your copy, I hope it touches yours.
Have you ever thought of writing a book? Which subtitle did you like the best? Let me know!
