Accidentally, I had a great week promoting my new book, Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry!
Much of my promotions for most of my twelve years in the book business have been accidental—and this week it was for sure!
Part 1 – Accidentally
As a promotional idea, I did a Goodreads Giveaway from December 28 – January 09, 2026. I gave away 100 copies of this book. 736 readers participated in the Giveaway. Because Amazon owns Goodreads, they downloaded the 100 copies without paying for them. Because I have been checking my Dashboard in KDP.com often, where I publish my books, the 100 copies shocked me. So, it took me awhile to figure out the increase in sales of 100 books with no royalties. The good news—that movement of books made Time Measured Out! #1 in three categories:
You might wonder why I would do a Giveaway of so many books? Here’s the stats after the Giveaway on Goodreads: 661 want to read it and 694 added the book to their shelf in Goodreads. It now has a 4.2 rating out 5 there. So I could benefit it in the future.
Part 2 – Accidentally
Because of my excellent coach, Derek Doepker, and coaching group, I entered my book in the possible “BookBub New Release for Less” promotional. I had been warned by Derek any of BookBub’s promotionals are highly sought after and well worth it. I have entered other books in the past and not been selected. This time I was, and it was for January 13, 2026. Yes, it costs a lot, but the results were supposed to offset the cost.
Part 3 – Accidentally
No, the sales did not cover the cost, but the promotion caused an increase in sales. Because of the increase in sales, the book bounced between #1 Best Seller in the Poetry about Love category and #1 New Release in Poetry About Women on January 11. Then on January 12, it stayed #1 Best Seller in about Love and #1 New Release in Poetry About Women and stayed there until on January 14. Then it was Top New Release in Poetry About Love. Amazon algorithms likes all of those identifications, so then they do more organic promoting of that book.
Two above on January 11, 2026
January 12, 2026 see two!Only one on January 13, 2026January 14, 2026
Happily, the promotion increased the sales of the first book in the poetry series, Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry. And who know what the long-term results will be.
Finally,
Accidentally—yes, but I am going to write this formula down for my next book because it seemed to fit together nicely—first a Goodreads Giveaway and second apply for a promotion on BookBub in a timely manner. I’m proud of what happened, even if it was accidental.
I have a hard time with marketing and promoting my books. It costs money; it takes time to do all the work and it needs to be planned out and executed a month ahead of time—and I’d rather be writing! But guess what? I have put together a Marketing Plan for this year, so we’ll see what happens—wish me luck!
I’m working on my Marketing Plan for 2026. Any suggestions?
My Time Measured Out! Launch snuck up on me. I have been trying to get this book published for months, and I realized this weekend I had to move on it. I have two different release dates for the e-book and the paperback, but it’s set. So this afternoon I set up my launch plan.
Why The Delay?
Because of our move to Panama, I have been working on finishing this book for months! My editor finished her work in the end of July—right when we had scheduled a three-day estate sale from July 25-27. So, I put it on the back burner. This book haunted me since then because I wanted to get it out before we moved to Panama, but I had too many demands on my time with the move.
Then when we arrived here, the demands increased: buy furniture and get set up in our new home. Quickly, I returned to United States for five weeks. Naively, I thought I could work on it when I was there, but I was busy, busy, busy!
So, here we are—mid-December and finally I have it ready. The launch goes into Christmas, so I wonder about that, but this would make a great stocking stuffer for those who love e-books!
My ARC Team
Remember back in September, I offered an “Advanced Copy” to my ARC (Advance Reader Copy) team. As a part of their agreement for receiving it free, I will remind them this week to go and leave a review for this book on Amazon and/or Goodreads which helps boost the way Amazon promotes a book.
Pre-Order E-book
Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry e-book has a release date: December 18! I decided to try a Pre-Order from Amazon. I’ve never done one before, and I’ve wondered about it, so I decided to try it. If you choose to pre-order my e-book, you need to know the price is $4.99. If you pre-order the paperback, it’s $15. Just wanted to be upfront with you.
SPECIAL OFFER FOR MY BLOG READERS: If you pre-order this book which is book #2 in the five-book poetry series, I will email you a FREE e-book copy of book #1, Was It A Dream? Just email me at larada@laradasbooks.comwith your receipt when you receive my new book! Two books for the price of one! What a deal!
Paperback Release
It will be released December 21 because I delayed the finishing step because Amazon has a focus time for new books: 30 days after publication, so I wanted to be wise about that. I plan to continue promoting this book through mid-January!
My Launch Plan
A couple days ago, I researched the sites I have used during the launch time of my last couple books, and because I had waited too long, many of the sites were sold out, so I had to delay the special prices. I put together a list of the sites I used to launch my first book in this five-book series that help get it to be #1 in three Amazon categories:
#1 – Contemporary Poetry
#1 – Poetry About Specific Places
#1 – Women’s Poetry
The list of promotional sites I used for this book launch I’ve used for the last couple books and it’s worked well for me.
It’s so strange to work so hard on a book then to give it away FREE for five days. The reasoning: the book ranks high in at least three categories, and you can claim that success!
On December 22 , I will have a Zoom Launch Party at 7:00 PM MST. Come and hear some of the poems read and get the inside scoop of what this five-book series is about.
A Free Copy?
FREE is appealing to lots of us! If you’re interested in a FREE copy of Time Measured Out!, it will be on the following book promotional sites and many others:
Would this be your first book of mine? Come on, and go to one of the sites listed above, download the book, read it and leave a review! That would be a great Christmas present to me!
Merry Christmas—Feliz Navidad—and be sure and download my new book!
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.
My 2025 Marketing Plan has been hard to figure out this year. Being on gabapentin and dealing with the nerve pain, I haven’t been able to focus! Now is the time though! 2025 is slipping away!
So, I have three prongs to focus on:
Face-to-Face sales
Paperbacks
Hardbacks
Online sales
Books
Cookbooks
Audiobooks
Free Poetry Chapbook
My Nine Books
If you have forgotten the titles to my nine books, here they are and the titles are links to their Amazon page!
Right now, I have a surplus of books on hand, especially copies of Flippo’s biography, Just Another Square Dance Caller: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo.
I overbought copies at what I thought was the end of the pandemic May 2021. Our annual square dance festival, Hot August Nights, was coming and would be a great venue to sell more of Flippo’s books, so I loaded up for that event! It was canceled, so that ended that. And I ended up with extra copies, both hardback and paperback.
Another factor contributing to my excess inventory: Flippo passed away November 8, 2018, so he died before we published the book May 8, 2020. At first, I had a run on orders—mostly through my website because of the pandemic. Fans stayed engaged for a couple years, but two years ago, I went to the CALLERLAB convention in Reno, Nevada and several callers didn’t know who Flippo was! Callers and dancers haven’t forgotten Flippo and the importance of his life to the square dance world.
So, this continues! During the holidays, I offered the paperback and hardback half-price and got little movement.
So, I have extended the half-price sale on all my books except my new poetry book, Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry. Visit my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft, https://www.etsy.com/shop/LaradasReadingLoft, to take advantage of the sale on most of my books, but not my cookbooks.
Etsy Shop & Shopify Store
Do you want an autographed copy of one of my books? Then you need to go to my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft, or my Shopify Store, Larada’s Bookstore, and I will do that!
Online Saleson Amazon
Are you a regular at Amazon? I’m proud to say I have eight books on Amazon and three audiobooks. You can buy paperback, hardback, e-book or audiobook of three of my books. I plan on focusing on a different e-book each month with major discounts, so read everything you get from me.
My Audiobooks
My three audiobooks are available on Amazon, Chirp and other audiobooks sites. See the listings below for your favorite distributor.
2025 is my eleventh year of self-publishing my books! You have two choices if you are interested: buying directly from me through a face-to-face event or from my two online stories or buying from Amazon or other distributors online.
So, the question is: have you bought one or more of my books? If you haven’t bought one, now would be a great time to buy one or two or more. Don’t hesitate!
