Tag: self-published

An Author’s Dilemma: Which of my Ten Books Do I Promote?
Christmas · Memoirs · My Books · My Thoughts · My Writing · Writing

An Author’s Dilemma: Which of my Ten Books Do I Promote?

Larada Horner-MillerLeave a comment
Larada Horner-Miller's 10 Books

I have published ten books since 2014. Every day I face the question: which of my ten books do I promote? Or do I promote my new book with snippets of my writing process, book cover reveals and such? Because it’s November, I face Black Friday and Cyber Monday and then Christmas in four weeks. So, I have decided to mainly focus on two!

First, My Christmas Memoir

Hair on Fire meme - ten books

Wins & Awards

In 2023 while we enjoyed our first Germany trip, I released Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir. Orchestrating that beforehand to come off while we traveled the beautiful landscape of Bavaria took some organization on my part. While the e-book was free on Amazon, I had 2899 downloads—the best ever for me. It went to #1 in several categories on Amazon:

E-book categories

  • #1 – Christmas
  • #1 – Historical U.S. Biographies
  • #1 – Christian Inspiration

Paperback categories:

  • #1 – Christmas
  • #1 – Holidays
  • #1 – Inspiration

Since then, it has won awards:

  • 1st Place – March, 2024 Nonfiction Book Cover Contest on AllAuthors.com
  • Silver Medalist – 2024 Global Book Awards in Christmas Books Category
  • 2024 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards Finalist in Two Categories:
    • Parenting & Family
    • Philosophy/Religion

What is It About?

Hair on Fire started as blog posts right here. I shared my favorite Christmas memories—poems and prose I wrote about them. I loved to play with the idea of “What would it have been like to have been present that first Christmas? From different perspectives—Mary’s experience of traveling to Bethlehem and nine months pregnant was one.

But my editor told me when I finished Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? that I needed to add more to it because I wrote a lot of it as blog posts on here too. I knew I had to do have more for Hair on Fire, so I did.

I love this book because it celebrates my Christmas experiences as a child growing up in a small ranching community in southeastern Colorado. From cutting down trees on our ranch to the Horner Family Christmas Eve celebration, I take you a long with me to those precious memories.

Also, I took you into my adult life and Christmas caroling in Loveland, Colorado and then into my teaching experience in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I gave away a fresh cut tree from our ranch to a lucky student and saw the joy he felt.

Also, it celebrates my Christian faith with Jesus’ birth front and center.

So yes, it’s a feel-good book. It could be used like an Advent read with thirty-three chapters. The chapters are short and could be read in one a day. Also, it could be a special gift for that family member who loves family traditions or needs an uplifting read for the holiday.

It’s available in e-book, paperback or audiobook format. And yes, I am the narrator for the audiobook. So whatever format, you like, it’s available for everyone.

For more information, visit my website at

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir

Also, here’s where to buy your copy: https://mybook.to/mxK9

Second, My New Book—An AutoFiction

Eyewitness to Healing - ten books
Not the real cover!

Status

Currently, I await the return of my new book, Eyewitness to Healing, from my editor. I finished the revisions she suggested and hope she likes what I did. I won’t get it back from her into November 18.

Publication Date

Originally, I had hoped to release it in 2026 sometime. Then I kept having to push back the date more and more, so now we’re running out of time in this year. By getting it back mid-November, I won’t have time to do all the promotions for it alone. Also, I won’t have time to lay it out and get it published because I do all the work on it. I have to do the book description, solidify the subtitle and then have 100Covers.com do the cover. That all takes time.

So, I’m thinking it will be January or February 2027 before it comes out, but I feel good about that. It just needs to be out.

Why Did Feel an Urgency to Release It?

After so much hype around the Epstein Files in 2025 and my heart going out to the survivors, I pulled out my 50,000-word manuscript and wanted to get going on enlarging it. Then we moved in September 2025, and that took all my focus.

After settling down after our move, I added to the manuscript and felt good about how it turned out. In fact, I had a serendipity in writing it. I might share that in a couple weeks—keep an eye out for that story. Recently the Cornell 7 (really 57) broke in the news cycle, confirming to me the need to get it out.

I strongly feel that early 2027 or whenever will be right. Our world has to deal with the issue of sexual abuse and the believability of survivors.

My book, Eyewitness to Healing, offers up my incest story in a fiction genre, but also the healing available to anyone who seeks it. I know it’s not for everyone, but it is for anyone who has gone through the horrors of sexual abuse.

Finally,

Having ten books to promote every day, I face this question: which book do I promote now? It’s an ongoing dilemma. Because I knew I needed to get organized, I created a book promotion plan. It has guided me more this year than ever, but I need to update it for next year.

PS—I will have discounts on Amazon for all my books on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and during the Christmas holiday, so stay tuned!

Larada Horner-Miller meme
Have you bought Hair on Fire yet? If not, what are you waiting for?

Professional Reader

Alliance of Independent Authors

My Newest Books

Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, Book #2 e-book

ISBN – 9798989688654

$3.99 for limited time

is my truth universal? book cover

Is My Truth Universal?: A Woman’s Poetic Odyssey e-book

ISBN – 979-8989688623

ALWAYS FREE

Was It a Dream? book cover

Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, Book #1 – e-book

ISBN – 979-8989688630

 $3.99

Hair on Fire book cover

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir e-book

ISBN – 978-0996614498

$3.99

Buy My Audio Books:

This Tumbleweed Landed

This Tumbleweed Landed audiobook cover

Let Me Tell You a Story 

Let Me Tell You a Story audiobook cover

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir audiobook cover

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One Year Later! Let’s Celebrate Flippo’s Biography!
Book Production · Marshall Flippo · My Thoughts

One Year Later! Let’s Celebrate Flippo’s Biography!

Larada Horner-Miller3 Comments
One Year Celebration!
Photo by Rakicevic Nenad from Pexels

Let’s celebrate one year since I released Flippo’s biography!! So much goes into publishing a book! Here’s what I did with Flippo’s. On May 3, 2020, I uploaded three formats of Flippo’s biography to Ingram Sparks’ publishing company. Flippo wanted hardback copies available, so that’s why I selected Ingram to publish his biography. I also published the paperback and Kindle e-book version through KDP on Amazon with the publication date of May 8, 2020. Whew! A year ago, I met myself coming and going for sure!

One year—that’s hard to believe! Because I self-publish, I do all the work to prepare a book to be released: create the cover and the interior. What made this an outrageous task is I had three covers to make: the hardback, paperback and e-book formats. Then I had to format the interior for each also, making sure each version had its own unique ISBN number! I really worried about messing up on that!

COVERS

Dust jacket for Flippo's hardback book
Hardback Dust Jacket with Template from Ingram Sparks

The hardback version required a dust jacket, which is a much larger space than a paperback cover, so I had to alter it considerably. (See image above.) I battled with the layout, making sure the title stayed on the spine and the text didn’t run over on the folds of the dust cover—tricky for sure!

Previously, I had laid out paperback and e-books covers for my other books, so I had less trouble with these two, and their dimensions were similar, so that helped!

But prior to the actual layout of these, I had to come up with the design. John and Neeca Flippo and I wanted the picture of Flippo calling as a young man with a live band. What a wonderful picture depicting Flippo calling as a young caller! It needed to be the focus point of the cover. Then I searched for the background graphic, and I wanted something that looked like a dance floor and found that.

Then, I experimented with the font and the color of the title, arriving at the one I felt stressed the title and went with the color scheme of the picture and the background. I love all these parts of design work!

Bryan and Kenta Swift helped me with the back cover. I wanted to feature Flippo’s favorite places he called, and they suggested I cluster them around the edges. I first added the four on the top: Asilomar, Kirkwood Lodge, Wagon Wheel, and Chula Vista. Flip had identified those four as his favorites. Then I knew I had to add Japan! He loved his trips to Japan and the Japanese people.

Early in my self-publishing career, advisors encouraged me not to write the book description on the back of the book, so I paid to have someone do that.

INTERIOR OF THE BOOK

Vellum app - One year later

For the interior layout, I used an app, Vellum, which is only available for Mac computers, and I love it. That took time too, though, doing the three formats! Then I decided because this was a history book of square dancing and people might be interested in looking for a specific person or places, it needed an Index. I found an app to help index the keywords, but what a grueling experience that was!

UPLOADS

Finally, I was ready to upload the covers and the interiors for each format. Before this book, I’d only used createspace.com which has become KDP, and I knew their upload process. Ingram Sparks was totally different. It required the .pdf documents for the covers and interiors to be in a specific format, PDF/X-1a:2001.

Adobe’s InDesign app is the publisher’s standard and creates that format, but I don’t have it because of its expense. So, I researched every nook and cranny on the Internet and found a solution—I outsourced my covers and interiors to fiverr.com and someone there converted my files.

So, after I successfully uploaded the documents to Ingram Sparks, I uploaded them to KDP, as well. Each of these publishers provided me with a “eproofs” to look over and give my final approval.

SALES

Stack of books - One year later
Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels

After that, the sales poured in from the pre-order list, word-of-mouth and my advertising on the Internet, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, I had a heck of time getting the shipment of books. After several weeks’ delay, I’ll never forget opening the box of hardbacks and holding that precious book in my hands for the first time. I think Flippo would have been proud!

Also, because of the pandemic, CALLERLAB was canceled, and I had planned to release the book there. So, the travel restrictions forced me to have the release party online with Zoom, and we had a fabulous time swopping Flippo stories that night.

With the continued restrictions and no dancing, the sales have dropped off, but I keep Flippo’s biography in front of the dance world on square dance Facebook pages and through emails to possible interested parties.

ONE YEAR LATER

Release party for one-year anniversary of Flippo's biography

Here we are one year later. I know the sales will spike once we dance again. Also, I’m having a Zoom celebration on May 10, 2020 7:00 PM MST to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the release of Flip’s biography, so join me for a fun-filled night. Go to the Facebook Event page and click you are going or email me at Larada@icloud.com

A year later—so much has happened! Have you ever self-published a book? If so, how did it go?

Have you bought your copy of Flippo’s biography yet? If not, now’s a good time!

(Scroll down a little farther below to make comments!)

Previous Blog Posts You Might Have Missed

Just Another Square Dance Caller cover one year later!

~HAVE YOU ORDERED YOUR AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF THE FLIPPO BIOGRAPHY? AVAILABLE NOW! Go to the homepage on my website & pay for it there: https://www.laradasbooks.com

~One-Year Anniversary of the Release of Flippo’s Biography! Join me to celebrate on May 10, 2021 from 7:00—9:00 PM Email me at larada@icloud.com if you are interested!

~Here’s Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When Its Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A

ALL FOUR E-BOOK FORMATS OF FLIPPO’S BIOGRAPHY AVAILABLE NOW:

~Visit my website for all the information you need about me & my books: https://www.laradasbooks.com

~Visit my Amazon Author’s Page: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B00LLQTXSM

~ Give Mom a gift for reading this year! Visit my Etsy Shop for a Mother’s Day sale of 20% off select titles and bundles:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/LaradasReadingLoft

~VISIT MARY ZALMANEK, A FRIEND’S BLOG: Cooking in a One-Butt Kitchen | Eating Well in Small Spaces: https://cookinginaonebuttkitchen.com/

My Thoughts · Writing

Where Are the Readers?

Larada Horner-MillerLeave a comment

I am sitting at a craft fair at one of the top schools in our city trying to sell my books. The visual aversion people have to books is remarkable. I bet that 2/3 of the people I have offered a free bookmark to have refused. 

Where have all the readers gone? I offer historical fiction, memoir and non-fiction.  The most interest is in a cookbook series I created from my Mom’s recipes. The intrigue is in the fact that I scanned in her recipe cards but no buyers.

I self-publish my books and thought that Arts & craft fairs would be a good venue for selling–especially at a school,  it I had a similar experience last year at the top school here. 

Any suggestions?