SPA Girls Podcast

SPA Girls Podcast

SPA Girls podcast - self publishing for authors

Join the SPA Girls for a weekly show with information, tips and advice on how to get started with self publishing your books. If you're new to self publishing, we'll help you dip your toes in the water, answer the questions you were too afraid to ask, and generally show you that it's a great place to be!

SPA Girls Podcast – EP489 – Interview with Lucy Score (Classic Replay)

SPA Girls Podcast – EP489 – Interview with Lucy Score (Classic Replay)

Lucy Score is an instant #1 New York Times bestselling author and one of our all time favorite podcast guests (we’ve interviewed her twice now). She is a fantastic example of great branding, great writing, great team work and immense talent for connecting with her readers. In this Classic Replay episode (2021), Lucy talked about her wonderful facebook group, connecting with readers and why relationships are SO important in your publishing business. About Lucy Lucy Score is an instant #1 New Y

Feb 25, • 1:02:25

SPA Girls Podcast – EP488 – Kickstarter for Authors with Oriana Leckert

SPA Girls Podcast – EP488 – Kickstarter for Authors with Oriana Leckert

If you’ve ever wondered about Kickstarter – where to start, if it’s right for you, and tips for running successful Kickstarter campaigns, this episode is for you! We’re delighted to have Oriana Leckert from Kickstarter here today to explain All Things Kickstarter for authors! What is it, and why should authors be using it? Oriana answers best practices for running a successful campaign, the challenges of Kickstarter and common mistakes authors make – and how to avoid them! Explore Kickstarter

Feb 18, • 47:23

SPA Girls Podcast – EP487 – Strengths For Writers with Becca Syme (Classic Replay)

SPA Girls Podcast – EP487 – Strengths For Writers with Becca Syme (Classic Replay)

This is a SPA Girls Classic Replay of an amazing interview we did a few years ago with Becca Syme. Becca Syme holds a master’s degree in transformational leadership and has been a success coach (primarily utilizing the Gallup Strengthsfinder®) for over fifteen years. She’s coached over 5,000 individual authors and creatives through her Write Better-Faster and Strengths for Writers classes & coaching cohorts: six- and seven-figure authors, major award winners, midlisters, and new authors alike

Feb 12, • 52:14

SPA Girls Podcast – EP486 – Interview with Holly Roberds

SPA Girls Podcast – EP486 – Interview with Holly Roberds

Holly Roberds, spicy romance author and Booktok fav is here to tell us all about Building Fandoms and reaching Critical Mass with her publishing strategy. From facebook ads, pinterest boards, to her readers group, Holly gives actionable tips you can apply to your own author career, today! “People crave identity, specialness and a place to belong.” ~ Holly Roberds Resources mentioned: Ana Huang interview with the SPA Girls https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep404-in

Feb 5, • 1:02:42

SPA Girls Podcast – EP485 – Interview with Bella Andre (Classic Replay)

SPA Girls Podcast – EP485 – Interview with Bella Andre (Classic Replay)

Bella is a true Indie Superstar with more than 10 million books sold (so far!). We interviewed her when she visited New Zealand for the Romance Writers of NZ conference a few years ago and this is well worth a re-listen if you haven’t already heard it. Bella is inspiration and talks about her path to self-publishing, how she made it as an Indie, and her advice for people aiming to follow in her footsteps… Bella Andre is the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly and Wall Street Journal

Jan 28, • 54:37

SPA Girls Podcast – EP484 – Interview with Amy Award

SPA Girls Podcast – EP484 – Interview with Amy Award

You’ve heard of tropes – but have you heard of MICRO tropes? Today’s guest, romcom queen Amy Award, is sharing her incredible experience of incorporating readers fav micro-tropes, scene

Jan 21, • 59:13

SPA Girls Podcast – EP483 – Skye Warren Part 2 (Classic Replay)

SPA Girls Podcast – EP483 – Skye Warren Part 2 (Classic Replay)

Skye went from struggling to earn five figures while working all day, to earning over a million dollars a year working only four hours a day.  This is part two of two episodes where Skye covers money mindset and her facebook adverti

Jan 14, • 35:42

SPA Girls Podcast – EP482 – Million Dollar Author with Skye Warren (Classic Replay)

SPA Girls Podcast – EP482 – Million Dollar Author with Skye Warren (Classic Replay)

Skye went from struggling to earn five figures while working all day, to earning over a million dollars a year working only four hours a day.  This is part one of two parts you don’t want to miss!  Skye Warren is a publishing powerh

Jan 8, • 30:58

SPA Girls Podcast – EP481 – New Year Planning

SPA Girls Podcast – EP481 – New Year Planning

Start the New Year strong! From choosing your “word of the year” to planning tools that simplify your workflow, we share our picks. Tune in and make this your most productive year yet! 💗 The SPA Gir

Dec 31, 2024 • 45:23

SPA Girls Podcast – EP480 – Christmas Shenanigans

SPA Girls Podcast – EP480 – Christmas Shenanigans

Who’s been sassy and who’s been sweet, the SPA Girls bring the holiday heat!

Dec 24, 2024 • 32:51

SPA Girls Podcast – EP479 – Interview with Ines Johnson

SPA Girls Podcast – EP479 – Interview with Ines Johnson

We’re thrilled to have Ines back in the SPA to teach us about Direct Selling for Authors AND Special Editions in a very special episode packed with great advice for writers at all stages. Ines is a former television producer

Dec 18, 2024 • 1:01:55

SPA Girls Podcast – EP478 – The Productive Author with Samantha Price

SPA Girls Podcast – EP478 – The Productive Author with Samantha Price

A Replay Classic : Samantha Price is a USA Today bestselling author of Amish romance and cozy mysteries. Focused and organized, Samantha’s results speak for themselves, but it will amaze you to hear how prolific she is and

Dec 11, 2024 • 44:00

SPA Girls Podcast – EP477 – Interview with Kaci Rose

SPA Girls Podcast – EP477 – Interview with Kaci Rose

Kaci Rose is a steamy romance author who published her first book in March 2020 and has since catapulted into six figure income thanks to intentionally connecting her books within a universe. We’re rapt she’s in the SPA to share how she connects her books, intentionally putting characters into “guest” appearances, selling bundles via her direct store and many more pearls of wisdom you won’t want to miss!. About Kaci Steamy Contemporary Romance author Kaci Rose runs on coffee, chocolate, and Ore

Dec 4, 2024 • 1:04:08

SPA Girls Podcast – EP476 – Author Newsletters with Holly Darling (Classic Replay)

SPA Girls Podcast – EP476 – Author Newsletters with Holly Darling (Classic Replay)

Stop dreading writing another author newsletter and get ready to sell more books with email! Holly Darling (Mortimer) is the “newsletter queen” and has fantastic, actionable tips. Holly talked with us a few years ago and her advice is still as relevant today as it was then. Get ready to ramp up your author newsletter in 2025! Find Holly at: https://pages.hollydarlinghq.com/ 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by everyone who supports us on Patreon. Thank you so much, we love o

Nov 26, 2024 • 1:03:39

SPA Girls Podcast – EP475 – 5 Quick Tips For Career Growth

SPA Girls Podcast – EP475 – 5 Quick Tips For Career Growth

A short but impactful (hopefully!) run down of great tips for growing your author career and staying (relatively) sane and focussed. Topics include: Consistency, no matter the speed Diversification / be nimble AI Personal Connection You Do You 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by everyone who supports us on Patreon. Thank you so much, we love our listeners and our patrons! ⭐ Join us at the $10 tier, and you’ll be invited to our private Self-Publishing Mastermind group for authors

Nov 20, 2024 • 24:12

SPA Girls Podcast – EP474 – Interview with Kel Carpenter – Special Editions, Kickstarter, Mindset

SPA Girls Podcast – EP474 – Interview with Kel Carpenter – Special Editions, Kickstarter, Mindset

Kel Carpenter is a publishing powerhouse who has been a successful fulltime author since she was just 22 years old. With the goal of publishing 30 books by 30 years, she’s achieved that and more! Kel has incredible business-savvy and a “learning” mindset that has helped her achieve multi-six figure pa success, manage burnout, and diversify her income streams. As well as her fiction, Kel is the creator of the Rule Your Author Empire course (and book) at https://www.ruleyourautho

Nov 13, 2024 • 58:03

SPA Girls Podcast – EP473 – Interview with Cathy Yardley

SPA Girls Podcast – EP473 – Interview with Cathy Yardley

Cathy Yardley is an award-winning author of romance, chick lit, and urban fantasy, who has sold over 1.2 million copies of books for publishers like St. Martin’s, Avon, and Harlequin. We met Cathy at the 2024 Romance Writers of New Zealand conference, and immediately knew we had to get her on the show! This is a fantastic episode for writers at all stages of their careers. Cathy covers writing in your unique voice, writing your truth and how to ROCK YOUR PLOT. Books mentioned in the epis

Nov 6, 2024 • 1:01:25

SPA Girls Podcast – EP472 – Comparisonitis

SPA Girls Podcast – EP472 – Comparisonitis

Comparison is the thief of joy -Theodore Roosevelt Today we talk about comparisonitis in the SPA. A topic we’re sure is dear to many hearts. We live in a world where we can see what everyone else is doing online. Successes and failures. We are the ‘instant gratification’ generation, and have a need for success, so we compare ours with others! So sit back with your favorite beverage and let’s dive in, and see if we can work through a few things that may help. 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is s

Oct 30, 2024 • 21:35

SPA Girls Podcast – EP471 – Interview with Juliette N. Banks

SPA Girls Podcast – EP471 – Interview with Juliette N. Banks

Get ready to be inspired this week by our guest interviewee, romance author Juliette N. Banks. “In 2020 I wrote a book, pitched it to a few agents, got rejected three times, and waited another 35 seconds before deciding to self-publish. One of the best decisions of my life.” ~ Juliette N. Banks Juliette is a bestselling romance author who has taken the genre by storm with her popular series The Moretti Blood Brothers, The Dark Kings of NYC, and The Dufort Dynasty. She has written more th

Oct 22, 2024 • 1:04:33

SPA Girls Podcast – EP470 – Book Signings & Book Fairs

SPA Girls Podcast – EP470 – Book Signings & Book Fairs

This episode we discuss Book Signings and Book Fairs – in person events where authors get out of the writing cave and actually (gasp!) interact with readers and fellow authors. These can be great fun – and a little intimidating. Wendy’s just returned from RARE Edinburgh so we grilled her on how she prepped, her table “set up”, how preorders worked, what merchandise she took and how she handled the signing. Cheryl’s done a number of book fairs in New Zealand and there is a definite

Oct 15, 2024 • 29:49

SPA Girls Podcast – EP469 – Marketing, Selling Wide & Direct Sales – with Rebecca Hefner

SPA Girls Podcast – EP469 – Marketing, Selling Wide & Direct Sales – with Rebecca Hefner

Rebecca Hefner is a USA Today bestselling author who is a passionate advocate for authors to reach more readers through publishing their books across a wide number of retailers, as well as on their own store. This episode she shares how she juggles her writing over three pen names, creating a monthly schedule for easy marketing and social media wrangling, and lots more marketing advice for connecting with readers. Rebecca’s has also created an amazing tools for authors: The website is

Oct 9, 2024 • 1:19:35

SPA Girls Podcast – EP468 – Short Romance Success with Lana Love

SPA Girls Podcast – EP468 – Short Romance Success with Lana Love

Join us as we talk to Lana Love, the USA Today bestselling author of short romances featuring curvy heroines and the powerful men who can’t live without them. Lana talks to us about how she has achieved success in short romance in less than two years using a mix of mindset, research and plain old stubbornness (her words, not ours…). We talk about what she did to level up, including the research she did and the tough decisions she made. It’s a fascinating interview we k

Oct 1, 2024 • 1:06:13

SPA Girls Podcast – EP467 – Anne-Marie Meyer: Building a Multi-Million Author Career

SPA Girls Podcast – EP467 – Anne-Marie Meyer: Building a Multi-Million Author Career

Anne-Marie Meyer is an Amazon and Apple Top 100 best seller and a 3x USA Today Bestselling author.Sweet Romance Author, Anne-Marie Meyer is an Amazon and Apple Top 100 best seller and a 3x USA Today Bestselling author. With absolute intention Anee-Marie challenges herself to improve on how she sells. From Tik Tok to Direct sales she has hit heady heights, particularly in the last 12 months. After her Amazon account was shut down for 48 hrs in 2022 for false reasons, she’s decided that i

Sep 25, 2024 • 1:21:10

SPA Girls Podcast – EP466 – Covers That Convert

SPA Girls Podcast – EP466 – Covers That Convert

Your book cover is the “shop window” of your hard work, and it has to do the heavy lifting to attract potential readers to go on and read your blurb. So how do you figure out which cover is the best for you? This episode we give tips and tricks for choosing your cover and the elements that will connect with YOUR right readers. Resources mentioned (just put the episode number in your podcast app, or our website search bar) SPA Girls Podcast #457 Kindletrends SPA Girls Podcast #46

Sep 17, 2024 • 54:52

SPA Girls Podcast – EP465 – Theodora Taylor: Writing Buttery Blurbs

SPA Girls Podcast – EP465 – Theodora Taylor: Writing Buttery Blurbs

Theodora Taylor is back! And she’s here to tell us how to craft our blurbs that hook readers and skyrocket sales. Theodora Taylor is the bestselling author of the 50 Loving States Series. Despite writing within a niche genre (interracial romance), she has earned six KDP All-Star bonuses and grown a fanbase of rabid readers through the power of Universal Fantasy. Her book, 7 FIGURE FICTION: How to Use Universal Fantasy to SELL Your Books to ANYONE was an instant #1 non-fiction bestseller in th

Sep 11, 2024 • 1:05:23

SPA Girls Podcast – EP464 – Switching Genres and TikTok Success with Alexa Rivers

SPA Girls Podcast – EP464 – Switching Genres and TikTok Success with Alexa Rivers

When she decided to write a palate cleanser novel in a completely different genre – with a brand new pen name – Alexa Rivers had no idea she would have a hit on her hands. In this interview she talks about why she wrote the book, how she picked the new pen name, the marketing she did, and how a book she wasn’t expecting to do much at all… kinda did awesome. 🙂 She also talks about the ups and downs of her journey with TikTok, and gives some great pieces of advice for e

Sep 3, 2024 • 52:11

SPA Girls Podcast – EP463 – Get The Most Out Of Writer Conferences

SPA Girls Podcast – EP463 – Get The Most Out Of Writer Conferences

Attending conferences helps us network with professionals in the author world and gain insights and ideas to make our jobs easier or to upskill. What can you hope to get out of conference? > Conference helps us find our tribe. The SPAGirls wouldn’t be here without RWNZ and their conferences. > Conferences show us we’re not alone. > Conferences are inspirational in so many ways. eg. Make us write more regularly, show us that we’re doing okay. > Conferences help us see where we

Aug 27, 2024 • 42:34

SPA Girls Podcast – EP462 – Are You Making Boring Mistakes?

SPA Girls Podcast – EP462 – Are You Making Boring Mistakes?

Welcome back to another SPA Girls minisode. This one is a bit of a controversial take on mistakes writers make that make their work B O R I N G. How do we know these? Because we’ve all made them! So learn from us in ten minutes or less with a quick SPA Girls minisode. Enjoy! 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by everyone who supports us on Patreon. Thank you so much, we love our listeners and our patrons! ⭐ Join us at the $10 tier, and you’ll be invited to our priv

Aug 20, 2024 • 8:39

SPA Girls Podcast – EP461 – The Best Places To Publish Your Books

SPA Girls Podcast – EP461 – The Best Places To Publish Your Books

The best places to publish your books are the one/s that best suit you the best given your audience, energy, time and publishing philosophy. So how do you decide what platform is right for you? Should you “be Amazon exclusive, “go direct”, “publish wide” and/or use an aggregator? And what do those terms even mean? Firstly the definitions: Amazon Exclusive – means publishing your ebooks exclusively on Amazon and in the Kindle Unlimited subscription reading program for at least the initia

Aug 13, 2024 • 38:04

SPA Girls Podcast – EP460 – How to Get Reviews and Find ARC Readers

SPA Girls Podcast – EP460 – How to Get Reviews and Find ARC Readers

If you’ve been scratching your head over how to get some more reviews on your newly published book, this is the episode for you! We break down how we have each built up and managed our ARC teams, and how we’ve gone from no reviews to hundreds of reviews. Loads of practical tips in this episode! Good resource: How to Get Free Book Reviews with No Blog, No List, and No Begging Reedsy’s blog on book review blogs: The Best Book Review Blogs in 2024 • How to Get Your Book R

Aug 7, 2024 • 42:50

SPA Girls Podcast – EP459 – Why Your Book Isn’t Selling

SPA Girls Podcast – EP459 – Why Your Book Isn’t Selling

Why is it some books sell well right out of the gate, and others wither on the retailer vine? Do you know why YOUR book isn’t selling? It can be for a number of reasons and this episode we run through the most common (and fixable!) options that’ll put you back on the right track. Resources mentioned: Kindletrends (make sure to listen to our recent episode with Nat Connors, creator of Kindletrends for a discount) Publisher Rocket Bklnk.com Bookbub 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by

Jul 30, 2024 • 30:18

SPA Girls Podcast – EP458 – Interview with Historical Women’s Fiction Author Soraya Lane

SPA Girls Podcast – EP458 – Interview with Historical Women’s Fiction Author Soraya Lane

The decision to self publish her first historical women’s fiction novel – after a career writing romance – turned out to be a lucrative one for today’s guest, Kindle #1 bestselling historical women’s fiction author, Soraya Lane. The same year she self-published the novel – one that her agent told Soraya she couldn’t sell – she picked up a publishing deal (for the same book) with Amazon, and the rest, as they say, is history. Fast forward 10 yea

Jul 24, 2024 • 57:14

SPA Girls Podcast – EP457 – How To Understand Your Market on the Amazon Store – with Nat Connors, Kindletrends

SPA Girls Podcast – EP457 – How To Understand Your Market on the Amazon Store – with Nat Connors, Kindletrends

Nat Connors of Kindletrends returns to the SPA with a new analysis tool for indie authors – an interactive infographic to help us make sense of the book categories on the Kindle Store. Knowing where your book (or story idea before you’ve written it) fits into the market, and how it stacks up against the packaging (cover, pricing, categories etc), for the current top sellers in your specific genre is really important. It allows you to directly target the right readers and sell more books

Jul 16, 2024 • 1:25:29

SPA Girls Podcast – EP456 – How Long To Make $1K?

SPA Girls Podcast – EP456 – How Long To Make $1K?

Wondering how long it’s gonna be until you’ll make enough to quit the day job? Listen to this SPA Girls Minisode all about how long it will take you to make your first $1,000 dollars in self publishing! Full of great tips, sage advice and some vulnerable moments from our own self publishing careers. If earning money from your writing is your goal, there are certain things you can do to make this happen faster. Work out how much money you’ve spent on editing, covers, formatting (c

Jul 11, 2024 • 21:19

SPA Girls Podcast – EP455 – Interview with Clare Connelly

SPA Girls Podcast – EP455 – Interview with Clare Connelly

First published in 2014, romance author Clare Connelly hit success from her very first self-published book. Now with over 120 books published, she talks to us this episode about the pros and cons of hybrid publishing, balancing writing life with a young family, how to be focussed and productive plus the mindset new writers and self publishers MUST have! *** CONTEST CLOSED – THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED *** ABOUT CLARE: Clare Connelly is the bestselling author of more than one h

Jul 11, 2024 • 56:30

SPA Girls Podcast – EP456 – How Long Will It Take to Make $1K??

SPA Girls Podcast – EP456 – How Long Will It Take to Make $1K??

Wondering how long it’s gonna be until you’ll make enough to quit the day job? Listen to this SPA Girls Minisode all about how long it will take you to make your first $1,000 dollars in self publishing! Full of great tips, sage advice and some vulnerable moments from our own self publishing careers. This is an awesome, must-listen minisode, just for you. 🙂

Jul 10, 2024 • 21:19

SPA Girls Podcast – EP454 – Craft Tips To Help You Sell More Books

SPA Girls Podcast – EP454 – Craft Tips To Help You Sell More Books

Writing great books with emotional impact is key to building your readership. Today we discuss craft tips that will help you attract new readers, build your fanbase and sell more books! Resources mentioned:Lisa Cron on the SPA Girls Podcast EP249 Sacha Black on crafting great characters EP422 Writing For Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by everyone who supports us on Patreon. Thank you so much, we love our listeners and our patrons! ⭐ Join us at the $10

Jun 26, 2024 • 22:58

SPA Girls Podcast – EP453 – Are You Ready To Be A Full-Time Writer?

SPA Girls Podcast – EP453 – Are You Ready To Be A Full-Time Writer?

Want to make the leap to full time author? How do you know when it’s the right time to make that leap? Going from hobbiest to full time writer has been a different journey for all of us. Today we discuss: how much money you need to make the leap other considerations do you have the right personality? what support do you have will you automatically double your productivity? is there a middle ground? taking a positive risk self discipline and self care and lots more! Resources mentioned: SPA

Jun 18, 2024 • 42:42

SPA Girls Podcast – EP452 – Book Formatting Made Easy

SPA Girls Podcast – EP452 – Book Formatting Made Easy

Got your final manuscript all ready to go, and wondering how to format it for publication? This is the SPA Girls episode for you! Welcome back to another 20 min SPA Girls mini-tips session, where we break down the basics of self publishing, just for you!  SHOW NOTES: What is formatting? It’s creating a file of your book so it’s delivered to readers smoothly, that it looks professional, meets the requirements of the publishing platforms and is accessible for readers with disabilities. What

Jun 12, 2024 • 0:00

SPA Girls Podcast – EP451 – Contracts for Authors with Maggie Marr

SPA Girls Podcast – EP451 – Contracts for Authors with Maggie Marr

If you’ve ever wondered how to deal with contracts and other business issues, this is the podcast for you! Maggie Marr the founder of Maggie Marr Legal PC and a USA Today Best Selling author of over 20 books. A former ICM motion picture literary and subsidiary rights (books to film/tv) agent, Maggie is the co-founder and legal advisor to the not-for-profit Women’s Fiction Writers Association and a member of Women In Film. The firm has negotiated deals with Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, Uni

Jun 5, 2024 • 0:00

SPA Girls Podcast – EP450 – Interview with Melanie Harlow

SPA Girls Podcast – EP450 – Interview with Melanie Harlow

Branding, Marketing Books and Going All In with Small Town Romance USA Today and #1 Amazon bestselling author Melanie Harlow writes sweet, sexy, feel-good romance. She is a powerhouse of publishing, starting in 2013 with historical romance to today where she focuses on small town contemporary romance. In this incredible conversation, Melanie details her approach to: How She Changed Her Approach To Publishing Commercially Marketing & Branding Making Intentional Decisions Writing The B

May 29, 2024 • 0:00

SPA Girls Podcast – EP449 – 7 Ways To Boost Your Positivity

SPA Girls Podcast – EP449 – 7 Ways To Boost Your Positivity

Feeling a bit blah about your writing and / or author career? Welcome back to another 15 min SPA Girls mini-tips session. Today’s topic is 7 easy ways to boost your positivity that you can put into action TODAY! 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by everyone who supports us on Patreon. Thank you so much, we love our listeners and our patrons! ⭐ Join us at the $10 tier, and you’ll be invited to our private Self-Publishing Mastermind group for authors, where we discuss all things se

May 22, 2024 • 12:00

SPA Girls Podcast – EP448 – Changing From Frontlist to Backlist Focus with Maggie Dallen

SPA Girls Podcast – EP448 – Changing From Frontlist to Backlist Focus with Maggie Dallen

This week we talk to regency romance and young adult author Maggie Dallen, who tells us how she changed her mindset and her author business model, with huge success! Maggie is a prolific author who was writing up to twenty books a year, but she was reaching a point where she wanted to slow down and diversify her writing skills by learning script writing. She realised she needed to find a system that would take advantage of her extensive backlist, and allow her more time for her other writing

May 15, 2024 • 59:36

SPA Girls Podcast – EP447 – Overcome Doubts & Back Yourself!

SPA Girls Podcast – EP447 – Overcome Doubts & Back Yourself!

#WritingLife How to hone your instincts, trust your gut and back yourself! We all have that moment of cold dread that we’ve picked a dream we can’t turn into a reality, and it’s those moment we need to remember why we started. Find that self belief that set you on this journey and carry on. You got into this game because it was something you believed in. Believed that it was something you could do. Then you started listening and reading. Trying to understand about this business you want

May 7, 2024 • 56:43

SPA Girls Podcast – EP446 – Patreon, Kickstarter & Serials – with Tao Wong

SPA Girls Podcast – EP446 – Patreon, Kickstarter & Serials – with Tao Wong

How do you build superfans and a sustainable income through patreon*, kickstarter, subscriptions and serial works? Bestselling author Tao Wong joins us this episode to reveal all the secrets of keeping readers begging for more (cliff-hangers anyone ?!), building a thriving community of superfans and, most importantly, diversifying your income streams. ‌(For those who don’t know, Patreon is a subscription service, where people pay a monthly fee for different benefits/exclusive opportunities of

Apr 30, 2024 • 1:01:14

SPA Girls Podcast – EP445 – 7 Easy Tips For Building Your Newsletter List

SPA Girls Podcast – EP445 – 7 Easy Tips For Building Your Newsletter List

How the heck do you build a reader newsletter list when you're first starting out? We're back with another SPA Girls minisode, to get your author career rocking. Listen up for how we built our own reader newsletters and what tools and services we recommend.

Apr 23, 2024 • 17:16

SPA Girls Podcast – EP444 – Five Steps to Being a Resilient Author with Patricia McLinn

SPA Girls Podcast – EP444 – Five Steps to Being a Resilient Author with Patricia McLinn

Being a resilient author means being able to bounce back after experiencing a knock – and we all know that being a self-published author can knock you around sometimes! This week we talk with Patricia McLinn, an author who’s been writing for more than 35 years, and who knows a thing or two about how to keep going when the going gets tough.   Pat gives us her top five pieces of advice so you can stay focused and keep the positivity flowing when it seems like everything is falling a

Apr 17, 2024 • 1:03:25

SPA Girls Podcast – EP443 – Book Marketing and TikTok with Kate Hall 

SPA Girls Podcast – EP443 – Book Marketing and TikTok with Kate Hall 

Kate Hall is a paranormal romance and non-fiction author who has taken her marketing expertise and used it to kick butt on TikTok. She started Alyne Digital Solutions in an effort to help authors make a sustainable income from their books, and since starting has scaled two of her businesses and several others’ to six figure incomes. As well as discussing facts and figures for TikTok, we’re also delving into marketing for authors, and why you’re probably using the wrong hooks in your soc

Apr 10, 2024 • 1:05:07

SPA Girls Podcast – EP442 – Newbie Mistakes / Chapter Endings

SPA Girls Podcast – EP442 – Newbie Mistakes / Chapter Endings

Welcome to the first SPA Girls double-minisode where we invite you into the SPA for a double mini-tips session. This week we’re covering two burning topics: what are the worst mistakes newbies are making, and how to write chapter endings that keep readers reading! Let us know what you think of this new sub-30 minute episode! Click the images below to watch on YouTube 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by everyone who supports us on Patreon. Thank you so much, we love our listeners and

Apr 3, 2024 • 19:45

SPA Girls – EP441 – Discovery Writing With Kimboo York

SPA Girls – EP441 – Discovery Writing With Kimboo York

In this podcast we talk to KimBoo about her latest book Secrets of Discovery Writing.We dive into how you can successfully use discovery writing when crafting your novel. It’s an awesome podcast and one the pantsers among us will really enjoy. KimBoo York is a GenX elder-goth whose main life purpose is to provide a good life for her rescue mutt, Keely-Boo, who is perfect and beyond reproach in every way. She is also a librarian, former project manager, and a professional

Mar 26, 2024 • 1:01:46

SPA Girls Podcast – EP440 – Launching a Successful New Pen Name with Melissa Pearl

SPA Girls Podcast – EP440 – Launching a Successful New Pen Name with Melissa Pearl

Our guest today, Kiwi author Melissa Pearl, has five pen names across multiple genres and has been learning about self publishing since she published her first book in 2011. Since then she’s published more than 80 books, and shares with us some real and raw insights into the career of an indie author, including all the highs and the lows. When she launched her latest pen name last year, she made sure she used everything she’d learned over that time to ensure her new pen name was s

Mar 20, 2024 • 1:06:12

SPA Girls Podcast – EP439 – Using The Enneagram For Authors with Claire Taylor

SPA Girls Podcast – EP439 – Using The Enneagram For Authors with Claire Taylor

The Enneagram is a personality typing system, where each person falls into one of nine types. Today we’re talking with author, educator and fiction strategist, Claire Taylor, about how understanding our enneagram type liberates writers from the “shoulds” and self-judgement, and helps us become more successful as authors. About Claire Fiction strategist and owner of FFS Media, Claire Taylor publishes her fiction through her company, under four pen names. She also helps authors through her St

Mar 13, 2024 • 1:06:08

SPA Girls Podcast – EP438 – Overcoming Procrastination – with Kathryn Burnett

SPA Girls Podcast – EP438 – Overcoming Procrastination – with Kathryn Burnett

Procrastination takes many forms for writers, and it holds us back from writing, publishing and promoting our work. We discuss how to get out of your own way with our guest today, Kathryn Burnett. Kathryn is an award-winning screenwriter, playwright, author and writing coach who has worked in the television/film/arts industry for over 25 years. “It’s never been easier to put your work into the world and yet many writers don’t write as productively as they’d like to. They have the

Mar 5, 2024 • 1:07:07

SPA Girls Podcast – EP437 – Facebook Ads For Beginners

SPA Girls Podcast – EP437 – Facebook Ads For Beginners

Creating and running Facebook ads has gotten a lot easier! Wondering how to delve into facebook advertising or had poor experiences in the past and wondering where you went wrong? This episode is for you! We’re joined by Senior Marketing Manager of Written Word Media, Clayton Noblit, who’s an expert in getting authors books in front of the right readers through advertising and promotion. Clayton generously shares his top tips for getting your ads working well, and takes us through setting up

Feb 27, 2024 • 1:14:29

SPA Girls Podcast – EP436 – Fast Decisions, Big Results

SPA Girls Podcast – EP436 – Fast Decisions, Big Results

Ever hesitate over making an important decision because you were trying to figure out what the ‘right’ thing to do was… and then miss out on an awesome opportunity because you didn’t take a leap of faith? Yeah, us too. That’s why this episode is all about making good decisions in your author career. In fact, we’re not only advocating making decisions and moving forward, we’re also suggesting that a FAST decision is even better than an average sp

Feb 21, 2024 • 49:29

SPA Girls Podcast – Episode 435 – Interview with Dan Wood from Draft2Digital

SPA Girls Podcast – Episode 435 – Interview with Dan Wood from Draft2Digital

Today we’re interviewing Dan Wood, Chief Operating Officer at Draft2Digital, one of the best known distributors for eBooks, print and audio books. We last spoke to Dan in 2019 and a lot has happened since then! D2D has not only merged with Smashwords to make their reach even stronger, they build tools and services that let you focus on writing while they take care of layout, publishing, distribution, print-on-demand paperbacks, and more. If you’re a new author or simply want to level up and e

Feb 13, 2024 • 1:00:45

SPA Girls Podcast – EP434 – Top 3 Mindset Tips For Authors with Heather Hildenbrand

SPA Girls Podcast – EP434 – Top 3 Mindset Tips For Authors with Heather Hildenbrand

Your brain is a liar! Heather Hildenbrand is a bestselling author and business coach for creatives. This episode she demystifies how our results are determined by our beliefs first, and our efforts, second. Listen up for amazing (and do-able!) mindset tips for authors and how to overcome our blocks with less woo and more “do”! About Heather: Heather Hildenbrand was born and raised in a small town in northern Virginia where she was homeschooled through high school, and says she’s only s

Feb 6, 2024 • 1:03:56

SPA Girls Podcast – EP433 – Selling Direct With Katie Cross

SPA Girls Podcast – EP433 – Selling Direct With Katie Cross

In this episode we chat to YA Fantasy author Katie Cross. She has so much passion and enthusiasm for what she does, and loves her readers! We talk about direct sales and how to relate to your readers, and these are just two of the topics we covered. Sit down with your favorite beverage and enjoy because it’s action packed and full of information! We first interviewed Katie back in 2017. Then she talked about a military wife, and learning to be a nap-time authorpreneur, and making every

Jan 30, 2024 • 53:52

SPA Girls Podcast – EP432 – What To Do When You’ve Finished The Book

SPA Girls Podcast – EP432 – What To Do When You’ve Finished The Book

You are your own publishing house when you self-publish. There’s lots to do, and lots to think about, especially the first few times you publish a book. That’s why we’ve created this helpful, back-to-basics SPA Girls Podcast episode – to help you go from rough manuscript to published book, with our notes on what you need to plan for and schedule, and how to figure out what you’re going to need to actually do to get your book published on all the platforms.  We haven’t given a specific o

Jan 24, 2024 • 46:51

SPA Girls Podcast – EP431 – Graphic Design For Authors – with Book Brush

SPA Girls Podcast – EP431 – Graphic Design For Authors – with Book Brush

This episode, we’re joined again by the effervescent Kathleen Sweeney from Bookbrush. Book Brush is a platform where authors can easily create their own professional-looking ads and marketing images for social media. Kathleen is going to update us on best practices, new additions to Book Brush software and added service options that can save authors time and stress producing graphics. Kathleen’s kindly given us a coupon code for listeners that gives you 15% off a single author plan. Visit boo

Jan 17, 2024 • 1:01:17

SPA Girls Podcast – EP430 – Just One Thing: How To Simplify Your Writing Life

SPA Girls Podcast – EP430 – Just One Thing: How To Simplify Your Writing Life

Inspired by Dr Michael Moseley’s JUST ONE THING (https://michaelmosley.co.uk/ ) we use his framework to give practical tips for uncomplicating your writing and author business life. Keep It Simple Be Realistic Create A Trigger Know Your Why Stick With It For At Least A Month Try To Replace Bad Habits With Good Ones Try To Do It Daily Involve A Friend Or Loved One Be Kind To Yourself Keep A Record Dr Michael Mosley is a No. 1 international bestselling author and journalist. He trained as a

Jan 10, 2024 • 38:11

SPA Girls EP – 429 – How To Create Your Author Business Plan

SPA Girls EP – 429 – How To Create Your Author Business Plan

Business Planning for authors isn’t too often discussed, but the minute you go from hobbyist writer to publishing-for-profit, congratulations! You’re now a business entrepreneur. So what is a business plan? It’s the foundation of your business, a road map of your business structure, future projects, markets, earnings and expenses. It sounds more complicated than it needs to be. With that in mind, we’ve put together a simple SPA Girls Business Plan template you can download for free from http

Jan 2, 2024 • 42:42

SPA Girls – EP428 – 8 Awesome Tips to Kickstart your New Year

SPA Girls – EP428 – 8 Awesome Tips to Kickstart your New Year

Want to set yourself up for an awesome 2024? Then this is the SPA Girls podcast episode for you. We go through our top eight tips to help amp up your career and kickstart your year! From looking at the data and knowing what you want, to getting your newsletter humming and revamping blurbs, we give you all our best advice for 2024.  SHOWNOTES:  Our Top Eight Tips: 1. Know what you want 2. Reverse Engineer 3. Fine Tune Your Processes 4. Check Look Insides&nb

Dec 27, 2023 • 41:08

SPA Girls Podcast – EP427 – Our 12 Christmas Wishes for you!

SPA Girls Podcast – EP427 – Our 12 Christmas Wishes for you!

We’re celebrating you, our wonderful listeners, in the SPA today by sharing our 12 Christmas Wishes for you and your self-publishing journey. We want you to know how special to us. We’re so proud of this journey we’ve all embarked on and with what everyone has achieved. No matter where you are in the publishing process, it really is time to celebrate! May your holiday be filled with love, joy, good food, fun, books and time to relax and recharge yourself. 🥰

Dec 19, 2023 • 35:18

SPA Girls Podcast – EP426 – How To Launch A Successful Series with Helen B. Scheuerer

SPA Girls Podcast – EP426 – How To Launch A Successful Series with Helen B. Scheuerer

Are you dreaming of an easy approach to create successful book releases? Listen up, because we’re joined again by the bestselling fantasy author, Helen Scheuerer, who shares all the secrets of a Successful Series Launch, including: How You Should Handle Your Book’s Backmatter Using Pre-Orders Effectively Getting ARC readers Running A Successful Street Team Easily Best Timing For Book Releases Helen is a rare “three timer” guest on the SPA Girls Podcast. Previously she was on EP#282 A Full T

Dec 12, 2023 • 46:57

SPA Girls Podcast – EP425 – Book Launch Strategies

SPA Girls Podcast – EP425 – Book Launch Strategies

Congratulations! You’ve finished your first book (or series) and are ready to hit the publish button! So what can you do to get your book noticed in the sea of other new books, and how can you find the right readers for you? In this episode, we’re getting down and dirty with practical suggestions for you to create your own successful launch plan, even if you have no existing fans / mailing list / backlist! If you’re releasing rapidly, we recommend listening to our podcast with Elana Johnson

Dec 5, 2023 • 40:01

SPA Girls Podcast – EP424 – BookFunnel Tips for Authors

SPA Girls Podcast – EP424 – BookFunnel Tips for Authors

Most authors know what BookFunnel is these days (just in case: it’s a platform that helps you deliver reader magnets, ARC copies, audio files, and so much more to your readers) but do we all know how to use it the best we can? I’m pretty sure the answer is no! That’s why we spent this episode with Damon Courtney, creator and CEO of BookFunnel, going over all the functions, from the innovative ways that successful authors are using this platform to deliver eb

Nov 28, 2023 • 1:15:05

SPA Girls Podcast – EP423 – Turn Setbacks Into Success

SPA Girls Podcast – EP423 – Turn Setbacks Into Success

Bumps on the publishing path are unwelcome yet inevitable and they can affect us in a variety of ways. So how can we reset ourselves when the wobbles and disappointment set in? Today we’ve got a SPA Girls 6 – Step Guide to turning those setbacks into success: Embrace The Rain Reheat The Pasta Rapunzel It Be Like A Dog Jump Off The Cliff Be An Antelope, Not A Hyena (For an explanation of these and how to use them, you need to listen or watch the episode!)

Nov 22, 2023 • 29:36

SPA Girls Podcast – EP422 – Writing Side Characters – with Sacha Black

SPA Girls Podcast – EP422 – Writing Side Characters – with Sacha Black

Side characters – how do you make them memorable, but not over-take the spotlight? And what purpose do they serve in the story? This episode, the awesome author and educator, Sacha Black, gives us the scoop on developing incredible side characters that will take your story from blah to bleepin’ amazing. She takes us through three different types of side character and how to create juxtapositions that SELL BOOKS. Sacha says: “If your book is a body, then your protagonist is the hea

Nov 15, 2023 • 1:04:20

SPA Girls Podcast – EP421 – Book Marketing With Carrie Elks

SPA Girls Podcast – EP421 – Book Marketing With Carrie Elks

This week we talk to Carrie Elks about amping up your book marketing. It’s a fantastic and informative interview packed with great tips and advice that you won’t want to miss! Carrie writes contemporary romance with a sizzling edge. Her first book, Fix You, has been translated into eight languages and made a surprise appearance on Big Brother in Brazil. Luckily for her, it wasn’t voted out. Carrie lives with her husband, two lovely children and a larger-than-life black pug called

Nov 8, 2023 • 53:50

SPA Girls Podcast – EP420 – Why Forward Planning is Vital for Authors

SPA Girls Podcast – EP420 – Why Forward Planning is Vital for Authors

This week we talk about the forward planning we all do for our author careers. Because we’re all so different here in the SPA, we all plan differently, and have different goals. But that means there will be nuggets of gold for everyone in this episode! We go through what it means to forward plan in your author business, why it’s important, what we think about when we do our planning, and how to actually get it down in a format that works for you. No two people do it the same, an

Nov 1, 2023 • 51:09

SPA Girls Podcast – EP419 – The Best Mindset for Organisation and Productivity with Sarra Cannon

SPA Girls Podcast – EP419 – The Best Mindset for Organisation and Productivity with Sarra Cannon

Self-publishing since 2010, Amazon top 100 best-selling Amazon author with 1 million books sold, Sarra writes magical contemporary fantasy novels with both teen and college aged characters (and lots of twists you’ll never see coming). Do you feel like a hamster on a wheel? Sarra talks to us about her solution to planning without all the heartache and leading us to be more joyful. “When we sit down to plan we see the perfect scenario. Then Life gets in the way.” About Sarra Cannon:

Oct 24, 2023 • 1:01:15

SPA Girls Podcast – EP418 – Publishing Wide, Selling Audiobooks Direct, Working With Your Spouse – Interview with author Sarah Piper

SPA Girls Podcast – EP418 – Publishing Wide, Selling Audiobooks Direct, Working With Your Spouse – Interview with author Sarah Piper

We’re thrilled to welcome UF/PNR author Sarah Piper to the show today. Sarah has seen great success publishing across a number of genres, and we discuss her strategy moving from Amazon-exclusive to publishing wide, selling her audiobooks direct and working with your spouse! This episode is packed with incredible information and actionable advice from Sarah, so you’ll want to listen more than once – with a pad and pen nearby! About Sarah Piper Sarah Piper is a witchy, Tarot-card-slinging

Oct 18, 2023 • 58:51

SPA Girls Podcast – EP417 – How To Correctly Select Your Amazon Categories – with Alex Newton

SPA Girls Podcast – EP417 – How To Correctly Select Your Amazon Categories – with Alex Newton

Amazon has moved the furniture again! This episode, Alex Newton, founder of K-Lytics, explains Amazon’s category changes, what they mean for authors, and how best to categorize your books now. We also discuss other recent Amazon changes dating back to September ’22, the impact on authors’ rankings and specific romance category changes and general trends. Alex Newton is the creator of K-lytics (www.k-lytics.com) a website where you can get in-depth reports on various genres and sub

Oct 10, 2023 • 1:15:10

SPA Girls Podcast – EP416 – Emotional Wounds with Angela Ackerman

SPA Girls Podcast – EP416 – Emotional Wounds with Angela Ackerman

This week we chatted with Angela Ackerman, one of the authors of the classic writing book, The Emotion Thesaurus.  If you’ve never picked up one of the amazing thesauruses by Angela Ackerman and her co-writer, Becca Puglisi, you’re missing out! Created especially for writers, the ten different thesauruses will help you add emotion, be more creative, and make your book sing! In this particular episode (aside from Trudi and the other SPA Girls singing the praises of Angela&#82

Oct 5, 2023 • 1:07:53

SPA Girls Podcast – EP415 – How To Get Unstuck

SPA Girls Podcast – EP415 – How To Get Unstuck

There are many ways we get stuck as authors. Some ways you can get stuck is in the writing, editing, time management and making decisions areas. Getting unstuck is much harder and yet easier than we think. Letting go of perceptions of our writing or our characters helped Trudi a great deal when she put off writing the last book in a series – for years! Cheryl had to get past the fear of getting edits back and find a way to embrace the process to get them done. For Shar, it’s being done wi

Sep 26, 2023 • 44:43

SPA Girls Podcast – EP414 – Publishing Powerhouse, Kathryn Le Veque

SPA Girls Podcast – EP414 – Publishing Powerhouse, Kathryn Le Veque

We’re thrilled to welcome back Kathryn Le Veque to the SPA! Kathryn is a Publishing Powerhouse, with years of experience as a bestselling author, and CEO of Dragonblade Publishing. After first interviewing her back in 2018, we wanted to discuss what industry changes she’s seen in those five plus years, and what she predicts for the future in the wider publishing landscape. Kathryn shares her unique publishing insights and forecast, historical romance trends, why she doesn’t have an author new

Sep 19, 2023 • 1:02:49

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 413- Back Engineering a Bestseller

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 413- Back Engineering a Bestseller

Today’s topic was prompted by a commenter on youtube who asked us about reverse engineering bestsellers. What makes a book, be it your second one published or your tenth, sell more than others. We believe there are many variables to that. Timing, tropes, the first 10% of how a book starts. The cover, blurb, and other popular tv or books that may have similar aspects. There are many things to consider, and today we take a dive into why a book can launch a career! SPA Girls’

Sep 12, 2023 • 38:41

SPA Girls Podcast – EP412 – Being Successful as a Hybrid Author with Katlyn Duncan

SPA Girls Podcast – EP412 – Being Successful as a Hybrid Author with Katlyn Duncan

This week we talk to fiction and non-fiction author Katlyn Duncan, who wrote the non-fiction books The Successful Hybrid Author (all about being a hybrid author) and Take Back Your Book (all about how to get your rights back after being traditionally published). She shares her path to becoming a hybrid author, but also what you need to know about being hybrid, how it works, the pros and cons of traditional publishing versus indie publishing versus hybrid publishing, and how to get your rights

Sep 7, 2023 • 54:50

SPA Girls Podcast – EP412 – Hybrid Publishing with Katlyn Duncan

SPA Girls Podcast – EP412 – Hybrid Publishing with Katlyn Duncan

This week we talk to fiction and non-fiction author Katlyn Duncan, who wrote the non-fiction books The Successful Hybrid Author (all about being a hybrid author) and Take Back Your Book (all about how to get your rights back after being traditionally published). She shares her path to becoming a hybrid author, but also what you need to know about being hybrid, how it works, the pros and cons of traditional publishing versus indie publishing versus hybrid publishing, and how to get your rights

Sep 6, 2023 • 54:50

SPA Girls Podcast – EP411 – YouTube for Authors with Jenna Moreci

SPA Girls Podcast – EP411 – YouTube for Authors with Jenna Moreci

Author Jenna Moreci is a YouTube sensation! With almost 300k subscribers on her YouTube channel “Writing with Jenna Moreci“, ten years of making videos, and over 28 MILLION views, she’s produced an incredible body of work and large community. So how has this impacted her writing and publishing, especially as her audience is both writers AND readers? We cover Jenna’s YouTube and writing journey, her best practices and tips for authors starting out (and whether it’

Aug 29, 2023 • 54:23

SPA Girls Podcast – EP410 – What To Do When Your Marketing Isn’t Working

SPA Girls Podcast – EP410 – What To Do When Your Marketing Isn’t Working

Marketing but not achieving results? Maybe you need to do a bit of a deep dive into why. -Steady is good and not doing things at warp speed, but I think consistency is the real key. We tend to think if we try something and don’t get instant results, they don’t work. But that’s not always the case. Often what didn’t work first up may the second time around. We in the SPA have tried soooo many things, and what works for one of us doesn’t necessarily for another. So why is your marketing not wor

Aug 23, 2023 • 52:55

SPA Girls Podcast – EP409 – Six Figures with Short Romance – with Sadie King

SPA Girls Podcast – EP409 – Six Figures with Short Romance – with Sadie King

USA Today Bestseller, Sadie King has grown her publishing business from zero to six figures in less than four years, writing short instalove romances. Knowing her reader’s journey is vital to her success. In this episode we discuss Sadie’s: short romance publishing strategy rapid release strategy targeted wordcounts for Amazon Kindle’s 60m, 90m and 2 hour reads categories Techniques for writing short fiction Gaining visibility especially when you’re just starting out Keep readers hook

Aug 16, 2023 • 1:06:42

SPA Girls Podcast – EP408 – Branding for Authors

SPA Girls Podcast – EP408 – Branding for Authors

This week we take an in-depth look at author brands – starting with what branding actually means, what your branding should look like as an author, and then how you can make sure your author brand is the best it can be. We talk about how newbie authors can set up a brand for the first time, and how more experienced authors can reassess your current brand and make any necessary changes. As always, we talk about decisions we’ve made with our own books, what we’ve done to

Aug 9, 2023 • 44:04

SPA Girls Podcast – EP407 – Making Your Books Addictive with Alessandra Torre

SPA Girls Podcast – EP407 – Making Your Books Addictive with Alessandra Torre

A New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author, Alessandra Torre has written twenty-three novels, including multiple New York Times bestsellers. She is also the creator of Alessandra Torre Ink – an authors community and online school with over 20,000 members. She is also the founder of INKERS CON, an annual authors conference. A self-publishing advocate, Alessandra speaks frequently to universities, conventions and author groups and we’re delighted to welcome he

Aug 1, 2023 • 54:11

SPA Girls Podcast – EP406 – Subscriptions For Authors & Ream

SPA Girls Podcast – EP406 – Subscriptions For Authors & Ream

Today we’re joined by two dynamic guests – author Emilia Rose and Michael Evans, who, along with Emilia’s husband Sean Patnode, founded the REAM subscription service for authors. We cover a LOT in this episode – from “what is the Creator Economy” to making subscriptions work for authors, so settle in for a great episode! We first interview Emilia mid-2022 where she shared how she built a six-figure subscription income through her romance writing in a very short time. At the time o

Jul 26, 2023 • 1:11:06

SPA Girls – EP405 – Hotwire Your Publishing Plan For The Holidays

SPA Girls – EP405 – Hotwire Your Publishing Plan For The Holidays

We know there are still 5.5 months to go until the end of the year! But!! We think it’s important to start getting organized for the final push. Ads, blurbs, covers. In the SPA today we talk about the things you need to focus on! 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by everyone who supports us on Patreon. Thank you so much, we love our listeners and our patrons! ⭐ Join us at the $10 tier, and you’ll be invited to our private Self-Publishing Mastermind group for authors, where we di

Jul 18, 2023 • 29:33

SPA Girls Podcast – EP404 – Interview with Ana Huang

SPA Girls Podcast – EP404 – Interview with Ana Huang

This week we go in-depth with New York Times, USA Today, international and #1 Amazon bestselling author of new adult and contemporary romance, Ana Huang. Aside from being very successful (check out her Twisted series!) Ana is a super smart and hardworking author with a tonne of great advice that she generously shared with us in this information-packed episode.  We range in topics from marketing, to TikTok, to branding, to translations, and everything in between. I guarantee there’s some

Jul 12, 2023 • 58:19

SPA Girls Podcast – Ep403 – How Not To Fail at Self-publishing

SPA Girls Podcast – Ep403 – How Not To Fail at Self-publishing

In this episode, we’re looking at failure and putting a different slant on it. By changing the way you think of failing at a certain thing and thinking of it as simply a part of learning. You are future proofing the way you react to any result. Fail = First Attempt In Learning. Don’t measure yourself by how others are doing. They had their own journey and would have failed at something along the way. Successful people use those moments to push through, pivot, or try a new iteration. Learning

Jul 4, 2023 • 38:44

SPA Girls Podcast – EP402 – GMC for genres

SPA Girls Podcast – EP402 – GMC for genres

Back in 1996, author Debra Dixon published Goal, Motivation and Conflict and ever since the letters GMC have been tattooed on our brains. This simple, yet powerful, concept is the driving force behind writing compelling fiction and building strong plots and character growth. This episode we cover the differing GMC’s found in different genres, including romance. Enjoy! Further reading: http://blog.janicehardy.com/2019/02/goals-motivations-conflicts-engine-that.html 💗 The SPA Girls po

Jun 28, 2023 • 48:00

SPA Girls Podcast – EP401 – Lynn Raye Harris, Let’s Talk Series!

SPA Girls Podcast – EP401 – Lynn Raye Harris, Let’s Talk Series!

Today we talk to the amazingly talented author Lynn Raye Harris about series. Everything from multiple connected to branding. This is a must listen podcast! Lynn is a Southern girl, military wife, wannabe cat lady, and horse lover. She’s also the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the HOSTILE OPERATIONS TEAM Ⓡ SERIES of military romances, and 20 books about sexy billionaires for Harlequin. A former finalist for the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart Award an

Jun 21, 2023 • 1:01:25

SPA Girls Podcast – EP400 – Why On Earth Are We Still Here?

SPA Girls Podcast – EP400 – Why On Earth Are We Still Here?

It's celebration time! We've reached another milestone here in the SPA - FOUR HUNDRED EPISODES!  And that's 400 weekly episodes with no repeats, no "best of"s, and no stopping during the eight years we've been doing this. Phew! *wipes brow*  This episode we're looking back on that time, trying to figure out why we're still here, and what we've learned along the way. Go behind the scenes with us as we discuss some of what we've learned, advice we wish we'd been given, and try to give you inspir

Jun 14, 2023 • 35:27

SPA Girls Podcast – EP399 – Diversification with Rachael Herron

SPA Girls Podcast – EP399 – Diversification with Rachael Herron

Rachael Herron is the internationally bestselling author of more than two dozen books, including thrillers (under R.H. Herron), mainstream fiction, feminist romance, memoir, and nonfiction about writing. She received her MFA in writing from Mills College, Oakland, and she’s taught writing extension workshops at both UC Berkeley and Stanford. She is a proud member of the NaNoWriMo Writer’s Board. A New Zealand citizen as well as an American, she lives in Wellington, New Zealand with her banjo-

Jun 7, 2023 • 17:45

SPA Girls Podcast – EP398 – Marketing Books That Straddle Genres

SPA Girls Podcast – EP398 – Marketing Books That Straddle Genres

How do you market a book that doesn’t quite fit a genre – or is a mash up of more than one genre? We talk on the SPA all the time about the importance of knowing what genre/sub genre you’re writing and what reader expectations for that genre are. But what happens if you’ve written a spectacular mashup of genres? Or you wanted to write a romance cross memoir? There’s no doubt it can be harder to market an off-genre book, so where do you start? Questions to consider: Is it one or

May 31, 2023 • 34:12

SPA Girls Podcast – EP397 – Marketing Audiobooks with Rebecca Hefner

SPA Girls Podcast – EP397 – Marketing Audiobooks with Rebecca Hefner

Author Rebecca Hefner is passionate about marketing audio books wide. After several years of struggling early on, her audiobook sales now surpass her ebook sales most months. As Rebecca says, “I had an excruciating learning curve with wide audio and want to save other authors from this torture!” She shares her best practices and tips for wide audiobook success in this must-listen episode. Download Rebecca’s free tips for audiobook marketing here: Self-Publishing Advice & Resources A

May 23, 2023 • 1:00:22

SPA Girls Podcast – EP396 – The Secrets of Story with Matt Bird

SPA Girls Podcast – EP396 – The Secrets of Story with Matt Bird

If you’ve been working on amping up your characters and writing a more compelling novel, this is the episode for you. We talk to Matt Bird – the Amazon bestselling author of The Secrets of Story: Innovative Tools for Perfecting Your Fiction and Captivating Readers and The Secrets of Character: Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love – about characters and other secrets involved in writing an awesome story your readers will love. Matt talks to us about what readers ex

May 17, 2023 • 1:02:42

SPA Girls Podcast – EP395 – Conquer your Author Career with Erin Marcus

SPA Girls Podcast – EP395 – Conquer your Author Career with Erin Marcus

Get ready to be encouraged! Erin Marcus is a business coach who helps authors take charge of their career and get results.

May 9, 2023 • 1:00:26

SPA Girls Podcast – EP394 – Career Sustainability with Brenna Aubrey

SPA Girls Podcast – EP394 – Career Sustainability with Brenna Aubrey

This is a really important discussion for writer at all stages of their careers. Brenna has experienced publishing highs and has also dealt with the darker side of the writer’s journey. Her candour and courage discussing some difficult topics in this interview made it a very humbling experience for us, and we truly appreciate Brenna’s openness in wanting to help her fellow authors. From mindset and productivity, to branding, social media and your writing community – we cover the gamut of how

May 3, 2023 • 1:22:49

SPA Girls Podcast  – EP393 –  Genre Expectations

SPA Girls Podcast  – EP393 – Genre Expectations

Today in the SPA we’re covering genre expectations for readers of romance and it’s subgenres and mystery. All are our opinion based on decades of reading and 20+ years writing romance and it’s various subgenres. It can be a bit messy and confusing and it’s subjective. But it’s also important to know the genre expectations for the “wrong” answers more so than the right. So let us help you define what sub category your book should be virtually “shelved” on! Links mentioned: EVLind – Supernatura

Apr 25, 2023 • 51:31

SPA Girls Podcast – EP392 – Translations with Skye MacKinnon

SPA Girls Podcast – EP392 – Translations with Skye MacKinnon

Skye MacKinnon is a USA Today and International Bestselling Author whose books are filled with strong heroines who don’t have to choose. She embraces her Scottishness with fantastical Scottish settings and a dash of mythology, no matter if she’s writing about aliens in kilts, Celtic gods, cat shifters, or the streets of Edinburgh. She’s also doing great with German translations and this week in the SPA she breaks down everything she’s been doing, including how to get s

Apr 18, 2023 • 1:05:07

SPA Girls Podcast – EP391 – How to Successfully Publish Wide with Erin Wright

SPA Girls Podcast – EP391 – How to Successfully Publish Wide with Erin Wright

USA today bestselling author of Western Romance, Erin Wright, has worked every job under the sun, including library director, barista, teacher, website designer, and ranch hand, helping brand cattle, before settling into the career she’s always dreamed about: Author. Despite starting out in KU in 2016, she went wide on all platforms in 2017 when she discovered she couldn’t get her books in libraries if she was exclusive to Amazon. She started the Wide for the Win Facebook group in 2019,

Apr 12, 2023 • 1:07:43

SPA Girls Podcast – EP390 – Thrifty Tips For Authors with Vanessa Vale

SPA Girls Podcast – EP390 – Thrifty Tips For Authors with Vanessa Vale

This episode is for everyone who struggles with paid advertising! Today we’re joined by romance author Vanessa Vale. When her facebook ad account was shut down, Vanessa had to learn how to sell books WITHOUT paid ads and she shares how she came up with her solid marketing strategies in the episode. She not only writes amazing books, but also runs the Thrifty Tips For Authors group on Facebook where she shares ways to brand, market, publish, write, promote and THINK about selling b

Apr 4, 2023 • 1:05:37

SPA Girls Podcast – EP389 – Small Town Romance with Kait Nolan

SPA Girls Podcast – EP389 – Small Town Romance with Kait Nolan

In today’s podcast we talk all things small town romance with the wonderful Kait Nolan. Kait is a USA Today best selling, RITA® Award-winning Mississippi author of smart, sassy, small town Southern romance. She calls everyone sugar, honey, or darlin’, and can wield a ‘Bless your heart’ like a Snuggie or a saber, depending on requirements. She believes in love, laughter, and that tacos are the world’s most perfect food. When she’s not writing, read

Mar 28, 2023 • 1:07:20

SPA Girls Podcast – EP388 – Getting the Words Down

SPA Girls Podcast – EP388 – Getting the Words Down

The number one thing you need to produce as an author is WRITTEN words, but sometimes that’s the hardest thing to do. So when words are hard to come by, when you’re avoiding the blank screen or finding yourself doing housework for hours instead of sitting your butt on the office chair (or couch) with your laptop, you need a cheerleader, an advocate, and champion… a human cattle prod, if you will. And that’s where we come in. This week we’re sharing our best tips and advic

Mar 22, 2023 • 49:32

SPA Girls Podcast – EP387 – TikTok For Authors With Brighton Walsh

SPA Girls Podcast – EP387 – TikTok For Authors With Brighton Walsh

Do it the easy way! Award-winning USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Brighton Walsh spent a decade as a professional photographer before taking her storytelling in a different direction and reconnecting with her first love—writing.  After getting a publishing deal, Brighton went on to become a hybrid author and is now mainly indie. She started on TikTok in January 2022 and used mainly page flips back then which went viral immediately. She has since developed her own brand of

Mar 13, 2023 • 1:07:51

SPA Girls Podcast – EP386 – Productivity Hacks For Writers

SPA Girls Podcast – EP386 – Productivity Hacks For Writers

Ten proven productivity hacks for self-publishers, brought to you by the letter “P” 1. Planning – Make a plan and stick to it 2. Preparation – know what you’re going to do, and when you’re going to do it, and then stick to it. 3. Procrastination – look at whether it’s actually positive or negative procrastination, if it’s negative, look at what stories you’re telling yourself. 4. Prioritize – figure out what is most important, learn to say no to things/peo

Mar 8, 2023 • 42:27

SPA Girls Podcast – EP385 – How to Write a Compelling Hero

SPA Girls Podcast – EP385 – How to Write a Compelling Hero

Alpha, Beta, Tortured or Bad Boy? How do you like your heroes? This week Cheryl, Wendy and Shar discuss how to write a great hero (in their opinion) complete with controversial examples! In particular, we cover: Character Connection Creating Conflict from Character Main Characters Should Be Equals Characters Should Have Complementary Strengths Hero should Show Vulnerability Different hero types including Alpha, Beta, Bad Boy, Tortured and Playboy Don’t miss out on our take on wr

Mar 1, 2023 • 35:47

SPA Girls Podcast – EP384 – Write And Plot Faster with Plottr

SPA Girls Podcast – EP384 – Write And Plot Faster with Plottr

Wanting to speed up your plotting and writing time? Today we’re talking about a writers tool that promises to do just that. Plottr is visual book planning software for writers that helps us outline faster, organize smarter, and turbocharge our productivity. Today we’re joined by Cameron Sutter and Troy Lambert of Plottr. Cameron is an independently published author and software engineer and the inventor and lead developer of Plottr. Troy is a mystery author, editor and Education Lead at

Feb 22, 2023 • 1:13:50

SPA Girls Podcast – EP383 – Our Valentine To Writers

SPA Girls Podcast – EP383 – Our Valentine To Writers

Love your Writing Self this Valentine’s Day Who says Valentine’s Day has to be about couples? We think it should be about all kinds of love and this year we’re promoting a little self-love. Go on, you deserve it! Treat yourself to a craft course or something else you would enjoy – find a course and do it! Do something awesome for your body – manicure, pedicure, massage, facial. Regular exercise – walk, run, bike, swim, yoga, pilates, sport. Combat stress – read, listen to music, have a bath,

Feb 14, 2023 • 45:56

SPA Girls Podcast – EP382 – Which Course Is Right For You?

SPA Girls Podcast – EP382 – Which Course Is Right For You?

This week Trudi and Shar go rogue … and discuss courses along with our writing friend and writing tutor Tania Hutley / Talia Hunter. We discuss the courses we’ve done over the years on craft, marketing, self-publishing and mindset and what we’ve learned from them.Disclaimer – we only discuss our personal experiences, and we are not affiliates for any of them with the exception of SPF. How do you know your best learning style?What do you need to be prepared for before y

Feb 8, 2023 • 59:47

SPA Girls Podcast – EP381 – Marketing Biases

SPA Girls Podcast – EP381 – Marketing Biases

So many times we’ve heard authors say that they don’t like this or that when it comes to promoting themselves. Like email marketing. Social media. Advertising Book signings Sure there are many who feel as you do, but not everyone does! So how can we work with our biases and not fight against them? 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by everyone who supports us on Patreon. Thank you so much, we love our listeners and our patrons! ⭐ Join us at the $10 tier, and you’ll be invited t

Jan 31, 2023 • 40:34

SPA Girls Podcast – EP380 – Facebook Ads with Mark Dawson

SPA Girls Podcast – EP380 – Facebook Ads with Mark Dawson

If there’s one person in the self publishing world who’s considered a bit of an expert at advertising… it’s Mark Dawson. This week Mark joins us in the SPA to talk about Facebook ads – how to set them up, what to do if they’re not working, and some of his best tips and advice to get them running well for you. He’s a genuine guy, and he still does all his own ads – which means he knows exactly what works and what doesn’t! Learn about Mark and the

Jan 25, 2023 • 57:40

SPA Girls Podcast – EP379 – How To Make a Trailer with Bookbrush

SPA Girls Podcast – EP379 – How To Make a Trailer with Bookbrush

Kathleen Sweeney is Bookbrush’s Customer Service Manager & Marketing Lead. She brings over 17 years of client service experience, business assurance, strategy and problem solving to Book Brush. Kathleen loves creating images and is happy to share her knowledge. We’re talking trailers for Tik Tok, instagram, and other social media, as well as QR codes and where to use them. And so much more! 6 Typography Tips for Graphics and Book Covers (with 35+ font pairings) – Book Brush Pricing

Jan 17, 2023 • 55:37

SPA Girls Podcast – EP378 – Be A Newsletter Ninja with Tammi Labrecque

SPA Girls Podcast – EP378 – Be A Newsletter Ninja with Tammi Labrecque

Tammi Labrecque is an indie author, a mailing list whiz-kid, and the author of the best-selling non-fiction books for authors – Newsletter Ninja, and Newsletter Ninja 2. Tammi lives in Central Maine with three spoiled cats, two neurotic dogs, and dozens of fictional characters that keep her awake nights. When she’s not penning awesome books on how you can become a Newsletter Ninja too, she writes under a variety of pen names across several genres, including urban fantasy, thriller, and

Jan 11, 2023 • 1:15:59

SPA Girls Podcast – EP377 – New Year New You

SPA Girls Podcast – EP377 – New Year New You

Happy New Year from the SPA Girls ! In this episode we talk about what goals and plans we have for 2023, Rom Com style using Billy Mernit’s book, Writing The Romantic Comedy. We work through his story beats. Set Up. Catalyst. Turning Point. Midpoint. Second Turning Point. Crisis Climax. Resolution. The SPA Girls open a vein and talk about what we want to implement and change in 2023. (there will be no fries with this, ignore Trudi) The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by everyone who supp

Jan 3, 2023 • 36:48

SPA Girls Podcast – EP376 – Top Tips from 2022

SPA Girls Podcast – EP376 – Top Tips from 2022

This is an awesome episode just for you! We went through all of our episodes from 2022, and picked out the best pieces of advice, the most actionable tips, and the things we definitely think you should be doing for your writing career in 2023 and gave them to you here in one easy episode. You’re welcome. 🙂

Dec 28, 2022 • 29:59

SPA Girls Podcast – EP375 – Celebrations And Things We’re Grateful For

SPA Girls Podcast – EP375 – Celebrations And Things We’re Grateful For

The Spa Girls wish you a wonderful Christmas and today we’re sharing our celebrations and things we’re grateful for. From Shar’s first taste of travel in three years and reaching 1000 subscribers on Youtube, all Wendy’s historical books hitting the top in that category and doing German translations, Cheryl achieving her goal of four books for 2022 and opening a store, Trudi finally finished a series and found a course that resonated more than she could have hoped for, there is plenty celebrat

Dec 20, 2022 • 34:38

SPA Girls Podcast – EP374 – 6 Tweaks To Improve Your Books Sales

SPA Girls Podcast – EP374 – 6 Tweaks To Improve Your Books Sales

If your book is not selling, what can you do? USA Today Bestseller, romance writer Leanna Morgan is here to day to help us sell more books PLUS offer wise ideas on advertising. Leanna discusses how to tweak your: 1. Cover 2. Blurb 3. Editing 4. Formatting 5. Universal links. 6. Categories. to improve your sales and find your readers. Bio: Leeanna Morgan is a USA Today bestselling author of more than 35 books. She lives in New Zealand and is surrounded by green hills on one side and the ocean

Dec 14, 2022 • 57:56

SPA Girls Podcast – EP373 – Lightbulb Moments of Writing Advice

SPA Girls Podcast – EP373 – Lightbulb Moments of Writing Advice

Lightbulb moments about writing and publishing that have turned you from gloomy to galloping along – have you had them? We have and today we’re sharing the nitty gritty self publishing and writing tips that positively impacted our craft and careers – plus, of course, the mentors who’ve given us great advice. Resources mentioned: Cora Seton – #EP230 The Organized Author https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep230-interview-with-cora-seton-the-organised-author/ Laurelin

Dec 7, 2022 • 32:35

SPA Girls Podcast – EP372 – SciFi Romance with Honey Phillips

SPA Girls Podcast – EP372 – SciFi Romance with Honey Phillips

This episode is another deep dive into an intriguing genre that’s been doing really well for indie authors in recent years. USA Today bestselling author Honey Phillips joins us in the SPA to talk about Science Fiction Romance – what it is, what are readers looking for, how she got started writing in it, and everything in between. Sci-Fi Romance is a distant cousin to Monster Romance (see episode 368 with Lillian Lark), and there are some similarities between the two genres, but Ho

Nov 30, 2022 • 51:36

SPA Girls Podcast – EP371 – Interview with Dionne Lister

SPA Girls Podcast – EP371 – Interview with Dionne Lister

Part Time to Full Time in 1 year! Today we’re talking to Dionne Lister about how she made the leap from part-time to full-time in one year, writing in two genres. USA Today bestselling author, Dionne Lister is an Australian with a degree in creative writing and two Siamese cats. Daydreaming has always been her passion, so writing was a natural progression from staring out the window in primary school, and being an author was a dream she held since childhood. Her books have reached #1 on Amaz

Nov 22, 2022 • 43:23

SPA Girls Podcast – EP370 – Running A Successful Kickstarter – with Steffanie Holmes

SPA Girls Podcast – EP370 – Running A Successful Kickstarter – with Steffanie Holmes

USA Today Bestselling romance author, Steffanie Holmes, returns to the SPA to educate us on how to run a successful kickstarter. Inspired by the knockout success of Brandon Sanderson and many other authors, Steff ran an incredibly successful kickstarter in 2022 to fund limited-edition hardcovers of her books – in fact, it was fully funded in just FIVE HOURS! In this episode Steff walks us through all the steps needed – from deciding what to fund, to how to set reward levels, how

Nov 15, 2022 • 1:08:59

SPA Girls Podcast – EP369 – Make Luck Through Belief

SPA Girls Podcast – EP369 – Make Luck Through Belief

Today we talk about not relying on luck to build your career. We believe you can make your own luck, but don’t wait for it to happen! Ron Weasley (or not, we’re not really sure) says believing in yourself is 100% more powerful than luck! Overnight success may happen for some, but if you dig deeper often, what appears to be a lucky break is actually from years of hard work to get to that point. Wendy, Cheryl, and Trudi dig deeper into this subject in the podcast. ❤️ The SPA Girls podcast is sp

Nov 8, 2022 • 35:35

SPA Girl Podcast – EP 368 – Monster Romance With Lillian Lark

SPA Girl Podcast – EP 368 – Monster Romance With Lillian Lark

In this fun episode with Lillian Lark, we learn about monster romance – what it is, how it’s defined, who’s writing it well, and how to write one for yourself! Not only is Lillian doing well in the genre of monster romance, she’s also doing amazing things on TikTok, so we were able to quiz her on her tricks and techniques for the social media platform as well.  About Lillian Lark: Born and raised in the saltiest of cities in Utah. Lillian is an avid reader, cat mom to

Nov 2, 2022 • 48:28

SPA Girls Podcast – EP367 – How To Self Edit Your Second Draft

SPA Girls Podcast – EP367 – How To Self Edit Your Second Draft

There are many types of editing and today we’re discussing how the SPA Girls approach a second draft. Plus, we’ve produced a checklist, which is an amalgamation of all our processes. First, we suggest you start with a break from the project altogether, and how long that is will depend on your timeline, so going forward factor this in.There are many types of editing and today we’re discussing how the SPA Girls approach a second draft. Plus, we’ve produced a checklist, w

Oct 25, 2022 • 39:01

SPA Girls Podcast – EP366 – How To Recover When You Screw Up

SPA Girls Podcast – EP366 – How To Recover When You Screw Up

Even the most experienced writers and self-publishers make mistakes. It’s not what you do wrong – it’s how you overcome the hiccups and potholes in the road. This episode sees the SPA Girls sharing their own Big Oops and how they recovered / learned from them. Inspiration plus for indies at all stages of their careers 🙂 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by everyone who supports us on Patreon. Thank you so much, we love our listeners and our patrons! ⭐ Join us at the $10

Oct 17, 2022 • 41:17

SPA Girls Podcast  – EP365 – Write To Riches with Renee Rose

SPA Girls Podcast  – EP365 – Write To Riches with Renee Rose

In this episode we talk to the amazing Renee Rose about her new release Write To Riches! We love having Renee on the show; she’s an amazing guest, and we always finish feeling so much more motivated and inspired. We hope you feel the same way. 🙂 Renee is a 15-time USA Today bestselling romance author who loves a dominant, dirty-talking alpha hero. In her career she’s sold over two million copies of steamy romance with varying levels of kink. She’s also passionate about h

Oct 12, 2022 • 50:57

SPA Girls Podcast – EP364 – Superfans with Steffanie Holmes

SPA Girls Podcast – EP364 – Superfans with Steffanie Holmes

Ever wondered how authors create a reader base full of raving superfans... and how you could do it too?? Well, wonder no more! This week we have bestselling paranormal and contemporary romance author Steffanie Holmes on the show to talk about how to create superfans for your books. Steff talks about the methods she's used to create stronger connections with her readers, including having a strong author brand, newsletters, interconnected stories, and so much more! We love having Steff in the

Oct 4, 2022 • 1:04:18

SPA Girls Podcast – EP363 – World-building with Nalini Singh

SPA Girls Podcast – EP363 – World-building with Nalini Singh

A long-time friend of the SPA Girls Nalini Singh is here to talk about world-building, and if anyone knows how to do this–it’s Nalini! New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the Psy-Changeling and Guild Hunter series of paranormal romances, Nalini also writes New Zealand-set thrillers, the most recently released of which is Quiet in Her Bones. Her contemporary romances include the Rock Kiss and Hard Play series, the latter of which revolves around a rugby-loving family in Au

Sep 27, 2022 • 1:10:42

SPA Girls Podcast – EP362 – Book Marketing Organization Made Easy

SPA Girls Podcast – EP362 – Book Marketing Organization Made Easy

Looking for tips to make your marketing tasks more organized and less stressful? This is the episode for you! From marketing bibles to free online tools, your book marketing should become a whole lot less overwhelming. Plan your marketing early • Know your goals• Write out a simple plan• Be consistent• Take action on your plans• Complicated vs simple• Perfect is the enemy of done• Limit what you’re doing – don’t try to do it all• Brainstorm everything, then pick the most important to do first

Sep 20, 2022 • 33:31

SPA Girls Podcast – EP361 – Mia Brody and Instalove Short Romance

SPA Girls Podcast – EP361 – Mia Brody and Instalove Short Romance

This week we talk to the amazing Mia Brody all about how she makes a fulltime living writing instalove short romances. It’s an informative episode with plenty of wow moments, that you won’t want to miss! Mia writes steamy stories about alpha men who fall in love with big, beautiful women. She loves happy endings and every couple she writes will get one. When she’s not writing, Mia is searching for the perfect slice of cheesecake and watching way too many K-dramas. You can find her

Sep 13, 2022 • 51:50

SPA Girls Podcast – EP360 – How To Find What Works For You

SPA Girls Podcast – EP360 – How To Find What Works For You

One size doesn’t fit all – we’ve all heard that saying, but how do you know what DOES work for you? In this episode, we discuss how to identify what best works for you in three areas: Your Writing ProcessYour Publishing StrategyYour Marketing Strategy …and share tips and resources that we’ve learned along the way. Resources mentioned: Book Decoding Greatness by Rod Friedmanhttps://www.amazon.com/Decoding-Greatness-Reverse-Engineer-Success/dp/1982135794 Becca Syme

Sep 7, 2022 • 43:45

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 359 – Film & TV Options for Authors with Michele Scott

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 359 – Film & TV Options for Authors with Michele Scott

It was our great pleasure to interview Michele Scott, a NYT, Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestselling thriller and cozy mystery author of over forty novels and the CEO/owner of equestrian sports medicine company Professional’s Choice, Inc. Michele has written in various genres including thrillers, mysteries, young adult mysteries, fantasy, and women’s fiction. Her thriller Daddy’s Home from her Holly Jennings’ Thriller series written under her pen name of AK Alexander has sold over on

Aug 31, 2022 • 54:06

SPA Girls Podcast – EP358 – Six Figures through Subscriptions with Emilia Rose

SPA Girls Podcast – EP358 – Six Figures through Subscriptions with Emilia Rose

Emilia Rose is an international bestselling author of steamy paranormal romance. With over 18 million story views online, Emilia loves creating the newest and sexiest paranormal romances for her fans. Emilia shares how she started by releasing her work for free on Wattpad and other serial platforms, and building a ravenous audience there. At that time she didn’t have the resources to invest and ads, covers or professional editing and thus her subscription-publishing concept was born: her fans

Aug 23, 2022 • 54:46

SPA Girls Podcast – EP357 – Direct Selling with Morgana Best

SPA Girls Podcast – EP357 – Direct Selling with Morgana Best

USA Today Bestselling author of more than 50 books, Morgana Best writes cozy mysteries featuring witches, psychics, ghosts, mermaids, and anything else that tickles her imagination. Her books have landed on the Top 10 spot on Amazon and are beloved by readers in over 70 countries. Today she is talking to us about selling direct from your own author store, something Morgana has been doing for many years successfully. It’s an info-packed packed episode you will not want to miss! Morgana&#

Aug 16, 2022 • 57:25

SPA Girls Podcast – EP356 – Running With Your Ideas

SPA Girls Podcast – EP356 – Running With Your Ideas

This week we talk about how to find new ideas, and how to use those ideas in new ways. How to find them in the everyday hustle and bustle of our lives, and how to turn them on their heads to create something intriguing and interesting to our readers. We go through a series of story starters, of intriguing kernels that you can use to create an awesome story that your readers will love to read… SHOW NOTES: Places to find ideas: 🌺 Invent something from irritation – c

Aug 10, 2022 • 40:28

SPA Girls Podcast – EP355 – Six Figure Amish Romance and Cozy Mystery Author Samantha Price

SPA Girls Podcast – EP355 – Six Figure Amish Romance and Cozy Mystery Author Samantha Price

Samantha Price is a USA Today bestselling author of Amish romance books and cozy mysteries. Raised Brethren, she has a deep affinity for the Amish way of life, which she has explored extensively with over a decade of research.  She is mother to two pampered rescue cats, and a very spoiled staffy with separation issues.  Focused and organized, Samantha’s results speak for themselves, but it will amaze you to hear how prolific she is and how she built her career in a smaller niche than us

Aug 2, 2022 • 44:00

SPA Girls Podcast – EP354 – It’s Time To Question The “Hustle”

SPA Girls Podcast – EP354 – It’s Time To Question The “Hustle”

This week we discuss burnout, protecting our creativity, being productive and not buying in to the hustle culture. You could say we’re “anti hustle” but pro making careers out of our writing! Recommended listening : SPA Girls Podcast with megastar BELLA ANDRE SPA Girls Podcast with Helen Scheurer – Six Figures with One Book A Year 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by everyone who supports us on Patreon. Thank you so much, we love our listeners and our patrons! ⭐ Jo

Jul 26, 2022 • 35:20

SPA Girls Podcast – EP353 – Book Launch Strategy

SPA Girls Podcast – EP353 – Book Launch Strategy

SPA Girl Wendy Vella has been self-publishing successfully since 2013 in Historical Romance and Contemporary Romance. Her romances are loved by a huge global audience who appreciate her trademark wit, strong family depiction, unique settings, and swoon-worthy heroes. Today, Wendy is a USA Today Bestseller and consistent Amazon bestseller, with 50 books published, and close to 3 million copies sold worldwide. Wendy has seen it all, and tried it all, self-publishing wise! We grill her on how

Jul 19, 2022 • 45:06

SPA Girls Podcast – EP352 – Interview with Dave Chesson from Kindlepreneur

SPA Girls Podcast – EP352 – Interview with Dave Chesson from Kindlepreneur

Dave Chesson joins us in the SPA to chat about some of the awesome apps that he’s designed for authors on the Kindleprenuer website. Dave is a smart guy, and he knows his stuff when it comes to self publishing, so the apps are all super useful and on-point. This includes the free apps, such as the Book Description Generator and the Hashtag Generator (if you’ve ever struggled with finding good hashtags on any of the socials, that’s the app for you!) and his two powerful

Jul 13, 2022 • 1:10:42

SPA Girls Podcast – EP351 – The Calm Entrepreneur, Corinne O’Flynn

SPA Girls Podcast – EP351 – The Calm Entrepreneur, Corinne O’Flynn

When you feel the frantic need to achieve and you don’t, it’s easy to get stuck or suffer burnout. If that’s happened to you, then Corinne has some ideas to get you through. The Calm Entrepreneur was born out of a series of aha moments over the past several years. After a long time writing-to-market and chasing the algorithms with rapid release, she found herself in deep burnout. Deciding to write a book about recovery from burnout, Corinne soon realized that it wasn’t just about recove

Jul 5, 2022 • 1:06:39

SPA Girls Podcast – EP350 – Let’s Celebrate!

SPA Girls Podcast – EP350 – Let’s Celebrate!

This week we broadcast our 350th episode and in complete contrast to how laid-back Kiwis generally approach milestones, we’re celebrating the heck out of it! What have we learned, what have we regretted and what’s next? 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by everyone who supports us Patreon. If you join us as a $10 Patreon patron, you’ll have access to us in our private Self-Publishing Mastermind group for authors, where we discuss all things marketing, mindset and publishing and a

Jun 29, 2022 • 37:36

SPA Girls Podcast – EP349 – How To Build Reader Connection With Your Characters

SPA Girls Podcast – EP349 – How To Build Reader Connection With Your Characters

Building a deep connection between your characters and your readers is what creates raving fans, books that stick like glue to the sales charts and fuels word-of-mouth recommendations. So how do we do this?

Jun 22, 2022 • 41:20

SPA Girls Podcast – EP348 – Millionaire Author Mindset with Lee Savino

SPA Girls Podcast – EP348 – Millionaire Author Mindset with Lee Savino

USA Today best-selling author Lee Savino is a bubble of energy, and this week’s podcast with her left us all feeling motivated and inspired. We know you’ll love this episode too! Lee talked to us about how the mindset of an indie author is vitally important, more important than any other aspect of writing and publishing, including all the tactics and systems we hear about all the time. If you can get your mindset right, you can achieve anything. We talk with Lee about

Jun 16, 2022 • 56:11

SPA Girls Podcast – EP347 – The Power Of Writing Sprints

SPA Girls Podcast – EP347 – The Power Of Writing Sprints

Are you struggling to get your words down each day? Why not give writing sprints a try? You can do them alone, however, you might find they work better with others like we did. How it works: Find a friend or a group and set aside a certain amount of time. Now break this into doable time slots. For example, if you had two hours, then the time could be 4 slots of 30 mins, or 2 times 1 hour each, or 8 times 15mins. Or any number that suits the majority. Sometimes it’s better to start small. It’s

Jun 6, 2022 • 30:42

SPA Girls Podcast – EP346 – Interview with Julia Roberts, Creativity Coach

SPA Girls Podcast – EP346 – Interview with Julia Roberts, Creativity Coach

* we apologize for the technical gremlins that appear occasionally in this recording. Stick with it because the info is gold! Today we’re joined by Julia Roberts, MSc, writer, creativity coach, and soon-to-be Ted Talker. Julia is going to talk us through procrastination and the tools we can use to manage it. Goodness knows we all need this help! Her expertise is the creative process – she focuses on writers and writer’s block. She has her Masters of Science in Creativity and

Jun 1, 2022 • 48:41

SPA Girls Podcast – EP345 – How To Write A Successful Series

SPA Girls Podcast – EP345 – How To Write A Successful Series

Do you want to learn how to design a series that will hook and keep readers, AND set you up for long term success? Helen Scheuerer, YA fantasy author of the bestselling series, The Oremere Chronicles and the Curse of the Cyren Queen quartet, joins us today to discuss how we can write a successful series. Topics covered include: The REAL reasons you should write in a seriesHow to find and use your target market to satisfy hungry readersHow to use foreshadowing and cliffhangers to create binge

May 25, 2022 • 1:04:40

SPA Girls Podcast – EP344 – Managing Book Projects

SPA Girls Podcast – EP344 – Managing Book Projects

This week, in answer to a listener question, we talk about how we manage the process of writing a book. How many do we write at one time? Do we work on multiple projects at different stages, or just write and edit one book at a time? What do we do to ensure we stay on track and don’t procrastinate? Listen to this week’s podcast and find out!

May 18, 2022 • 44:57

SPA Girls Podcast – EP343 – Interview with Asa Maria Bradley

SPA Girls Podcast – EP343 – Interview with Asa Maria Bradley

Ignite your career with collaboration. Bestselling Author Asa Maria Bradley suggests collaboration as a way to get creative again. Asa grew up in Sweden surrounded by archaeology and Norse mythology, and uses her background to inspire her sexy and paranormal romance series. She also writes urban fantasy about empowered heroines who kick ass while saving the world. Her work has received a double nomination for the Romance Writers of America’s RITA contest, a Reviewers Choice Award nomination,

May 10, 2022 • 1:15:30

SPA Girls Podcast – EP342 – Interview with Mary-Theresa Hussey

SPA Girls Podcast – EP342 – Interview with Mary-Theresa Hussey

Ten Mistakes Authors Make With Their Editing & How To Fix Them Today we’re thrilled to welcome editor extraordinaire, Mary-Theresa Hussey, to the SPA. Prior to becoming a freelance editorial consultant, Mary-Theresa (known as Matrice) worked at Harlequin for more than 25 years, editing nearly a thousand titles. As editor, senior and executive editor, she read, acquired, revised, rejected and critiqued triple that. Many of the books she has edited went on to find places on both the NYT and

May 3, 2022 • 1:19:00

SPA Girls Podcast – EP341 – Graphics For Authors

SPA Girls Podcast – EP341 – Graphics For Authors

Today’s podcast comes from a listener question. Thanks to Rachel, who asks “- I’ve been wondering about all the visual stuff that ISN’T a cover. For instance, how do you get nice, branded, coordinated headers for your website, your emails, your Facebook profile? Is that something an illustrator does, or a cover designer, or someone else? And logos? For instance for a series? Or I’ve noticed some writers have logos for themselves. How do you prefer to use them if

Apr 26, 2022 • 36:43

SPA Girls Podcast – EP340 – Successful First Drafts

SPA Girls Podcast – EP340 – Successful First Drafts

Hit the ground running with this episode all about how to successfully finish the first draft of your novel! We talk about how we stay motivated, what you need to know before you can start, how we keep going when we get to the saggy middle, what we plan beforehand, and what we leave to figure out as we go.  If you’ve been struggling to get started on your first draft, or you’re wallowing somewhere in the middle, this is the episode for you!

Apr 20, 2022 • 43:31

SPA Girls Podcast – EP339 – Becoming a Full Time Writer

SPA Girls Podcast – EP339 – Becoming a Full Time Writer

Do you want to be a full-time author? Today we discuss how we transitioned to writing full time, including: how we approached the financial and business planning balancing the creative and business sides of the job mindset tips and corrections along the way our expectations versus reality courage and resourcefulness Show Notes: There are as many reasons to quit your day job, as there are to keep it. From being over your job, to making more than you ever could at it, or being able to do wha

Apr 12, 2022 • 44:01

SPA Girls Podcast – EP338 – Psychology Tools For Authors

SPA Girls Podcast – EP338 – Psychology Tools For Authors

Struggling to write compelling characters and compelling but realistic conflict in your stories? Well, have we got a show for you! Darian Smith is a prize winning fiction writer with a degree in psychology, and is a member of the New Zealand Association of Counsellors. He combines these two sides of his background to provide simple, easy to follow tools that make use of established psychological theory to help writers develop fully rounded, interesting, realistic characters and inject conflic

Apr 5, 2022 • 55:49

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 337 – Creating Audio Books

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 337 – Creating Audio Books

In the Spa this week we talk to Audiobook Narrator Naomi Barton. With more people listening to audiobooks now, there has never been a better time to learn about this side of our industry. Naomi has produced audio books for many authors including our very own Cheryl, under CA Phipps, her cozy mystery pen name. We talk about processes, cost, and the industry. You won’t want to miss this one!  https://www.naomibartonvoice.com/ You’ll find all the show notes and SPA Girls podcast episodes at: www

Mar 30, 2022 • 1:03:29

SPA Girls Podcast – EP336 – PR for Authors with Lilian Sue

SPA Girls Podcast – EP336 – PR for Authors with Lilian Sue

This week we talk to long-time PR coach and publicist Lilian Sue about how authors can successfully use PR to help with their author business. Her aim is to help authors fulfill their potential and become global industry leaders by focusing on how to build a healthy PR mindset above any strategy. We talk about authors can develop strong and healthy PR mindsets (by busting down fear and imposter syndrome) and how to use the right tools, knowledge, and resources to fulfill their goals. It&#821

Mar 23, 2022 • 1:03:09

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 335 – Romance Your Goals with Zoe York

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 335 – Romance Your Goals with Zoe York

Today we welcome back for a record 3rd time, Zoe York, to talk about Romancing Your Goals. Zoe is a thirteen-time USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance, often with military heroes, and always with scorching heat between the pages. Between her two pen names (she also writes erotic romance as USA Today bestselling author Ainsley Booth), she has published more than seventy books since her debut in 2013 with What Once Was Perfect.  Like so many authors it was hard to read and write

Mar 15, 2022 • 1:03:33

SPA Girls Podcast – EP334 – Amazon Ads with Deb Potter

SPA Girls Podcast – EP334 – Amazon Ads with Deb Potter

We’re thrilled to welcome fellow Kiwi author, Deb Potter, to the SPA today to give us the breakdown on how to create, optimize and manage Amazon ads. Many of us have tried different methods to get AMS Ads to work: from creating hundred of ad variations to wrangling spreadsheets with thousands of keywords to try. And then there’s the whole bid price – how do we know what to bid? Can we trust auto ads? As a statistician by trade, and also a self-published author, Deb is fantastic a

Mar 9, 2022 • 51:04

SPA Girls Podcast – EP333 – MM Romance With Jay Hogan

SPA Girls Podcast – EP333 – MM Romance With Jay Hogan

Jay is a 2020 Lambda Literary Award Finalist in Gay Romance and her book Off Balance was the 2021 New Zealand Romance Book of the Year. She is a New Zealand author writing mm romance and romantic suspense, primarily set in New Zealand. She writes character driven romances with lots of humour, a good dose of reality and a splash of angst. She’s travelled extensively, lived in many countries, and in a past life she was a critical care nurse, nurse educator and counsellor. Jay is owned by

Mar 1, 2022 • 51:35

SPA Girls Podcast – EP332 – TikTok Tips with AK Mulford

SPA Girls Podcast – EP332 – TikTok Tips with AK Mulford

This week we talk to fantasy author AK Mulford about how she got started on TikTok! We cover TikTok for authors in depth: how to start, who to follow, how to get your follower count up, best length of videos, what to post, how to create the videos, hashtags, sounds, dealing with comments, batching, duets, stitching, etiquette plus differences from other social media platforms. And most importantly: does it sell books? If you’ve ever considered jumping on TikTok, this is the episode fo

Feb 23, 2022 • 1:08:40

SPA Girls Podcast – EP331 – Reignite Your Writing Joy

SPA Girls Podcast – EP331 – Reignite Your Writing Joy

Feeling a bit blah about your writing? Struggling with getting good words down and your word count UP? Today we’re taking inspiration from Marie Kondo, and we’re sparking back the joy in our writing lives! Our SPA Girls tried-and-true steps are: 1. Re-commit to your Why 2. Re-evaluate your ideal writing life / writing day 3. Let gooooooooo 4. Start with Simple 5. Be Like Marie and ask Does It Spark Joy? As always, a brutally honest and real-time discussion how we’re all st

Feb 15, 2022 • 40:15

SPA Girls Podcast – EP330 – Covers That Sell

SPA Girls Podcast – EP330 – Covers That Sell

How do you get a cover that finds readers and converts to sales? Today we’re unpacking exactly how you can do that. What your cover needs to do What SHOULDN’T be on your cover What cover images risk getting your cover banned from advertising The Anatomy Of A Cover Why are fonts so important? How to find a good designer What to expect to pay for a good cover SPA Girls Podcasts mentioned: Nat Connors and Kindletrends  – EP281 Rebecca Haskell – Cover Design – EP224 Chris Fox &#821

Feb 9, 2022 • 48:24

SPA Girls Podcast – EP329 – Success With Short Romance

SPA Girls Podcast – EP329 – Success With Short Romance

Today we’re delighted to welcome Ella Barnard to the SPA. Ella is an author, a podcast host on Author Like A Boss podcast, and an author coach. She’s here today to talk about how she found success publishing short romances as Liz Fox, going from zero to $3k per month in just three months. You can find her at: http://authorlikeaboss.com/ Going from zero to $3k per month in just a few months is a dream for many of us and today’s guest achieved just that. Ella Barnard is here t

Feb 2, 2022 • 1:00:52

SPA Girls Podcast – EP328 – All About Preorders

SPA Girls Podcast – EP328 – All About Preorders

Confused about preorders? Wondering if you should start using them? Wondering if you should stop using them? This is the episode for you! We talk about what preorders are and how they work, how we use them successfully, and when we think you shouldn’t use preorders. Show notes: Why Dave Chesson doesn’t recommend preorders. Jane Friedman Blog post by Penny Sansevieri on preorders   SpaGirlsPodcast.com Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter with tips and resources for self-pu

Jan 26, 2022 • 31:04

SPA Girls Podcast – EP327 – 8 Steps To Build Your Fictional Setting

SPA Girls Podcast – EP327 – 8 Steps To Build Your Fictional Setting

Today we share our SPA Girls patented 😉 foolproof steps to create an awesome fictional setting for your book or series. Working through these steps will help solidify that setting in your mind, give your characters a realistic and compelling “stage” and help you build a complete world (whether contemporary, historical or futuristic) that resonates with readers. Location – where on the map is your setting located? What’s the geography, flora and fauna of the settin

Jan 18, 2022 • 30:58

SPA Girls Podcast – EP326 – How To Find Your Why

SPA Girls Podcast – EP326 – How To Find Your Why

What’s the real reason you’re a writer? We’ve talked about finding your why before on the podcast, and today we’re delving deeper. Inspired by Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why, and Find Your Why, Trudi has us “on the couch” again, which Wendy, in particular, absolutely loves (not)! Sinek’s book is based on the idea that we’re a sum total of the experiences we’ve had growing up, the lessons we’ve learned and the teachers we’ve had and the things we’ve done. The process is all about looking fo

Jan 12, 2022 • 33:29

SPA Girls Podcast – EP325 – All About Kobo with Tara Cremin

SPA Girls Podcast – EP325 – All About Kobo with Tara Cremin

We’re delighted to welcome back the lovely Tara Cremin, Director of Kobo Writing Life. In this episode Tara brings us up to speed on Kobo’s new audiobook platform, other updates from Kobo including Kobo Plus, and top tips for marketing your books and audio. Enjoy! About Tara Cremin: Tara has an MA in American Literature and Film from University College Cork, Ireland and has worked for KWL since inception. Responsible for the overall author experience on Kobo Writing Life, from optimizing curr

Jan 4, 2022 • 44:10

SPA Girls Podcast – EP324 – Recharging For Authors

SPA Girls Podcast – EP324 – Recharging For Authors

Happy New Year people! It’s a crazy time of year, and this episode is all about why you need to take time out, recharge your batteries and come back in the new year ten times more productive and energised!!!

Dec 30, 2021 • 24:54

SPA Girls Podcast – EP323 – Christmas Special 2021

SPA Girls Podcast – EP323 – Christmas Special 2021

Despite 2021’s best efforts we’ve managed to do some great work this year and had some good times. From launching as planned when health or life got in the way, to self-improvement on many levels, we’ve hit the markers. Maybe not on time or in an effortless ballet-like movement, but we’re taking the wins and so should you! Listen in for: Our favourite moments of the year. Apologies as Wendy tells us dad jokes! Christmas recipes we love! Show Notes: Cheryl’s proudest moment: Launched 3 books a

Dec 21, 2021 • 34:15

SPA Girls Podcast – EP322 – Uncommon Writing Advice

SPA Girls Podcast – EP322 – Uncommon Writing Advice

Uncommon Advice for Authors We’ve all heard the conventional wisdom for fiction writers – but is it actually appropriate for self-publishing today? We break down five pieces of uncommon advice that have stood us in good stead and why we think they’ll work for you too: Don’t Write What You Know In Austin Kleon’s book Steal Like An Artist, he notes the advice to “write what you know” leads to terrible stories in which nothing happens. And we agree! The best advice is to write the kind of

Dec 14, 2021 • 43:03

SPA Girls Podcast  – EP321 – The Writing Process

SPA Girls Podcast – EP321 – The Writing Process

In the SPA today, we talk about the evolution of our writing process. We delve into the changes that have taken place in our writing journeys over the last few years. Wendy discusses her collaboration with her son, and how merging two styles makes life interesting! Are you someone who has storyboards? Do you write linear, or do you start at chapter one and then skip to chapter five? Some authors need to see the cover of their book before they write it, others, pictures of the main characters.

Dec 7, 2021 • 51:45

SPA Girls Podcast – EP320 – What Do I Write Next?

SPA Girls Podcast – EP320 – What Do I Write Next?

If you’re considering changing genres, starting a new series, trying new tropes, or are even just so confused about this writing malarky that you’re not even sure you’ll write anything next… this is the episode for you. It’s a difficult decision to move to a new genre, or to move on from a series that’s not doing as well as you’d like, or even from a series that you love, but just can’t write any more, but it’s a decision we’ve all

Dec 1, 2021 • 46:57

SPA Girls Podcast – EP319 – Reader Reach with Written Word Media

SPA Girls Podcast – EP319 – Reader Reach with Written Word Media

It’s no secret that we use Written Word Media for ads and while we don’t have affiliate links, we can’t think of a reason not to try Freebooksy and Bargainbooksy. But what would you say to them running Facebook ads for you? Today in the SPA we have Clayton Noblit, Senior Marketing Manager, along with Grant Shepherd, Ad Fulfilment Manager at Written Word Media, and they’re here to talk to us about Reader Reach. Reader Reach is a data-driven all-in-one ad solution that allows authors to reach

Nov 23, 2021 • 55:36

SPA Girls Podcast – EP318 – Lessons For Writers from Brene Brown

SPA Girls Podcast – EP318 – Lessons For Writers from Brene Brown

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends hims

Nov 16, 2021 • 46:37

SPA Girls Podcast  – EP317 – StoryOrigin

SPA Girls Podcast – EP317 – StoryOrigin

Evan Gow is the indie developer of StoryOrigin, a marketing tool and community of authors that work together to find reviewers, build mailing lists, increase sales, and stay on top of deadlines Evan studied the strategies that authors use to build their mailing lists, find reviewers, increase sales, or manage deadlines for nearly 4 years, while building features to make using all of those strategies easier. Cross-promotionGroup Promos (multiple authors promoting a landing page where you all l

Nov 10, 2021 • 1:04:07

SPA Girls Podcast – EP316 – Interview with Nicholas Erik

SPA Girls Podcast – EP316 – Interview with Nicholas Erik

Wondering how to get started with Facebook ads, but not sure where to start? Join us for today’s podcast with Facebook ads guru, Nicholas Erik! Nicholas is a science fiction author with more than 20 books to his name. He’s also written books for authors including The Ultimate Guide to Book Marketing and The Ultimate Guide to Productivity, as well as running courses about Facebook Ads, Amazon Ads and BookBub Ads for authors. He was awesome to talk to and gave a huge amount of use

Nov 3, 2021 • 1:17:56

SPA Girls Podcast – EP315 – Interview with Theodora Taylor

SPA Girls Podcast – EP315 – Interview with Theodora Taylor

After logging time as a music journalist, playwright, and radio writer, Theodora Taylor fell in love with penning hot books with heart. Since deciding to become an author, she’s published 54 books in a range of genres—but with one thing in common—universal fantasies. When not thinking of ways to write and sell even more hot books with heart, she enjoys spending time with her amazing family, going on date nights with her wonderful husband, learning German, watching ALL the Shonda Rhimes

Oct 26, 2021 • 1:03:13

SPA Girls Podcast- EP314 – Interview with Linda Pucci

SPA Girls Podcast- EP314 – Interview with Linda Pucci

How To Stop Being Your Own Worst Enemy! The Key To Success Is Between Your Ears! Linda Pucci, Ph.D is a retired psychologist who has turned into a romance novelist (under a separate penname). After working with people in therapy for 35 years and coaching for 20, she’s realized the key to building lasting relationships and being happy involves letting go of emotional baggage – something her fiction demonstrates through character arcs. Today Linda is here to talk about h

Oct 19, 2021 • 1:00:52

SPA Girls Podcast – EP313 – The Best Writing Advice You Shouldn’t Take

SPA Girls Podcast – EP313 – The Best Writing Advice You Shouldn’t Take

Feeling a bit bombarded by conflicting advice re writing and self-publishing? Got FOMO about courses and conferences others are experiencing, but you can’t afford or attend? And how do you figure out what advice works best for YOU? Friends, you’re not alone – we’ve been there too. This episode we discuss The Best (and Worst!) Advice and …WHERE is it coming fromWHO is giving itHOW it can derail youHOW it can also put you on the right pathWHAT filters to apply so you&#82

Oct 12, 2021 • 38:41

SPA Girls Podcast – EP312 – What To Do When You’re Stuck In A Creative Rut

SPA Girls Podcast – EP312 – What To Do When You’re Stuck In A Creative Rut

Author and host of Become A Writer Today Podcast, Bryan Collins, joins the SPA today from Ireland. We love our Irish guests and are super stoked to welcome him here today to talk all things Creativity and how to pull yourself out of a creative rut. Topics covered include finding the time to write, author expectations, free writing, conquering writers block, simple ways to improve productivity and the power of crafting a personal mission statement for your own writing. About Bryan Bryan Collin

Oct 6, 2021 • 42:09

SPA Girls Podcast – EP311 – Top Ten Takeaways for 2021

SPA Girls Podcast – EP311 – Top Ten Takeaways for 2021

This episode we’re sharing the key things that have moved our writing careers, and creativity, forward so far in 2021. It’s a typical “SPA Girls on the couch” episode with some raw honesty and bad humor thrown into the mix. We cover a lot of ground, so grab a coffee (or whatever you prefer) and get comfortable. SHOW NOTES: The first topic we all agree is super important – How to celebrate (and remember) your achievements. And why you should! Working less for mo

Sep 28, 2021 • 49:33

SPA Girls Podcast – EP310 – The Power Of Clever Copywriting with Jacob McMillen

SPA Girls Podcast – EP310 – The Power Of Clever Copywriting with Jacob McMillen

Jacob McMillen is a professional copywriter, content strategist & freelancing coach and he’s here to share how we can use the power of clever copywriting to connect with our readers and build sales. We often struggle with what to write in our newsletters and social media posts in a way that’s authentic and reaches the right readers. And then there’s the copywriting skill needed for our book blurbs and advertising. So we’re thrilled to have an expert in the SPA tod

Sep 22, 2021 • 1:05:58

SPA Girls – EP309 – Writing trilogies in successful settings with Jayne Castel

SPA Girls – EP309 – Writing trilogies in successful settings with Jayne Castel

Today we talk about writing successful trilogies, and successful settings with award-winning author Jayne Castel. Jayne writes epic Historical and Fantasy Romance. Her vibrant characters, richly researched historical settings and action-packed adventure romance transport readers to forgotten times and imaginary worlds. Jayne is the author of a number of best-selling series. In love with all things Scottish, she writes romances set in both Dark Ages and Medieval Scotland. When she’s not

Sep 15, 2021 • 1:05:43

SPA Girls Podcast – EP308 – Interview with Virginia Milner from Kindle Vella

SPA Girls Podcast – EP308 – Interview with Virginia Milner from Kindle Vella

If you’ve been considering taking the plunge into Amazon’s new serials platform, Kindle Vella (and yes, Wendy asked if they’d named it after her), then this is the episode for you! We talked to Virginia Milner, the principal product manager for Kindle Direct Publishing, and leader of the Kindle Vella project, all about the new platform. She explained how Kindle Vella – which launched in July 2021 to readers – works, how authors are already using it to their advan

Sep 8, 2021 • 1:01:22

SPA Girls Podcast – EP307 – Step Up Your Marketing Strategy with Roseanne Cheng (Pt 2)

SPA Girls Podcast – EP307 – Step Up Your Marketing Strategy with Roseanne Cheng (Pt 2)

From Pinterest to Amazon Ads, Roseanne is back in the second part of our extended interview to help you step up your marketing!

Sep 1, 2021 • 53:39

SPA Girls Podcast – EP306 – Finding Joy In Book Marketing with Roseanne Cheng

SPA Girls Podcast – EP306 – Finding Joy In Book Marketing with Roseanne Cheng

PART ONE of a two part series Today we welcome Roseanne Cheng of Evergreen Authors to the SPA and we’re going to talk about all about Book Marketing with Joy – especially for the reluctant or overwhelmed author. How do you decide what to do when people tell you to “Do All The Things”?! When the hustle is just too much, Roseanne has guidance for what works and what doesn’t. Roseanne, and her business partner Josie, run Evergreen Authors and offer courses and coach

Aug 25, 2021 • 42:21

SPA Girls Podcast – EP305 – Talking Police Equipment For Fiction Authors

SPA Girls Podcast – EP305 – Talking Police Equipment For Fiction Authors

This is our second podcast with Veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, who spent seventeen years of his almost 25-year law enforcement career as a detective. Today we talk to Adam about the police duty belt (gun belt), and what they carry on it. Adam goes into detail about each item and explains their use and when it would be needed. So strap in (see what I did there) for an amazingly informative podcast. Adam hosts The Writer’s Detective Bureau podcast where he answers questions about cri

Aug 17, 2021 • 1:07:06

SPA Girls Podcast – EP304 – Interview with Rachael Herron

SPA Girls Podcast – EP304 – Interview with Rachael Herron

International bestselling author Rachael Herron joins us in the SPA today to talk to us about her writing journey, how she has created a career with multiple genres (including thriller (under R.H. Herron), mainstream fiction, feminist romance, memoir, and nonfiction about writing), how she deals with procrastination and blocks in her writing, and the main differences she sees between having books traditionally published and being an indie. It’s an awesome interview, and we loved having

Aug 11, 2021 • 52:37

SPA Girls Podcast – EP303 Cleansing Your Writing Palate

SPA Girls Podcast – EP303 Cleansing Your Writing Palate

Are you bored, or disheartened, with your writing? Many of us hit the wall of blahhsss or burnout. When persevering and grinding through it just doesn’t work, sometimes you really need to shake things up. From writing in a completely different genre, to rekindling your creative spark, we discuss how to cleanse your writing palate. Soon you’ll be moving from the wahs to the wahoos! Lots of practical tips in this episode including:-try changing things up like font, (bigger smaller)-writin

Aug 3, 2021 • 34:05

SPA Girls Podcast – EP302 – Writing Cozy Mysteries with Nancy J. Cohen

SPA Girls Podcast – EP302 – Writing Cozy Mysteries with Nancy J. Cohen

Cozy Mysteries are hugely popular with readers and authors alike, and Nancy J. Cohen is with us today to share her fantastic advice for writing the successful cozy. Alongside her fiction, Nancy has also written the acclaimed “how to” for cozies “Writing The Cozy Mystery”, so we’re thrilled she agreed to give us the scoop on all things cozy. We discuss: Nancy’s writing journey. How she transitioned from traditionally published to self-published Shifting from writing romance to cozies Elemen

Jul 27, 2021 • 54:36

SPA Girls Podcast –  EP301 – 50 Shades Of Writing: Does Size Matter?

SPA Girls Podcast – EP301 – 50 Shades Of Writing: Does Size Matter?

Conventional wisdom says ‘bigger is better’ for books, but is that really true? In this episode, we discuss what different word counts and book sizes mean for successful publishers today, how you can use different sizes to your advantage, and how to find your sweet spot. The Right Size isn’t a black and white thing – in fact, there are 50 shades of writing (size) to embrace! There is NO ONE RULE for word counts: Example: The Romance Writers of America defines a novella

Jul 20, 2021 • 41:25

SPA Girls Podcast – EP300 – Pride and Perseverance

SPA Girls Podcast – EP300 – Pride and Perseverance

Join Shar, Wendy, Cher and Trudi for the 300th EPISODE of the SPA Girls Podcast! EEEEEEKKKKK!!!!! Can you believe it? It’s been a crazy ride, but we’ve loved every minute of it. 🙂 In this episode we talk about having pride in your work and being proud of everything you’ve achieved, and then how to persevere in the face of all the odds! This is a fun episode where we open up about some of the things we’ve been through over the last six years, and give our best advice

Jul 14, 2021 • 49:18

SPA Girls Podcast – EP299 – Book Marketing On A Shoestring

SPA Girls Podcast – EP299 – Book Marketing On A Shoestring

Get Results Spending $100/month (or less!) Marketing doesn’t have to mean Big Bucks spent on advertising. In fact, some of the best marketing you can do is free or low cost. If you’re just starting out there probably isn’t much left in the budget for paid marketing. We’ve been there! In this episode, we’ve dug deep to find all the tools we used instead of heavy investments—and some we still do. One thing to note, you’ll need to invest something in your marketing—

Jul 7, 2021 • 1:09:50

SPA Girls Podcast- EP298 – Interview with Lucy Lennox: Success with MM Romance

SPA Girls Podcast- EP298 – Interview with Lucy Lennox: Success with MM Romance

We’ve got a very special treat for you this episode – the incredibly talented and savvy, Ms Lucy Lennox, is in the house! Lucy saw extraordinary success straight out the gate, from when she first published her MM romance, Borrowing Blue, in November 2016. In fact, by her second month of publishing, Lucy was earning five figures per month! Since then, Lucy’s books have soared the bestseller charts consistently and she’s built an incredible career, publishing prolifica

Jun 30, 2021 • 1:07:50

SPA Girls Podcast  – EP297 – Fallyn Briggs, Writing To Trend V Writing To Market

SPA Girls Podcast – EP297 – Fallyn Briggs, Writing To Trend V Writing To Market

Dive into this amazing episode with six-figure author Fallyn Briggs, where she discusses the hot topic of writing to trend v writing to market! She has spent most of her life within the pages of a book and now she is thrilled to have the opportunity to invite people into the worlds she creates. When Fallyn is not writing sweet romances, she is traveling, eating too much cheesecake, and thinking about writing sweet romances. Fallyn says, “writing to market may have hungry readers, but wr

Jun 22, 2021 • 46:46

SPA Girls Podcast – EP296 – Developing Character Wounds

SPA Girls Podcast – EP296 – Developing Character Wounds

In this episode of the SPA Girls Podcast we talk about emotional wounds, and why they’re so important in developing your characters, and creating an awesome story! From possible wounds that you could give your characters, to how those wounds will develop the story, and how you can use them to amp up the tension, and create a story that your readers will love – we talk about it all! SHOW NOTES: Emotional Wound Thesaurus – Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi Website – Wr

Jun 16, 2021 • 30:18

SPA Girls Podcast – EP295 – How To Build Your Author Village – with Celeste Barclay

SPA Girls Podcast – EP295 – How To Build Your Author Village – with Celeste Barclay

Celeste Barclay joins us to discuss finding your village and what doing so did for her. Celeste has published an incredible 27 books since 2017, primarily in historical romance. Her popular series includes the medieval The Clan Sinclair novels and The Highland Ladies series which has an impressive 15 individual books and counting. Before becoming a full-time author, Celeste was a Social Studies and English teacher. She holds degrees in International Affairs (BA), Teaching Seconda

Jun 8, 2021 • 51:50

SPA Girls Podcast- EP294 – How To Embrace Change

SPA Girls Podcast- EP294 – How To Embrace Change

This episode we’re back “on the couch” with the SPA Girls to discuss tools and resources we’ve used to cope with the ever changing climate of self-publishing, AND those big life events that we all face at times. As always, we share our own experiences and hard-won tips for rolling with the punches and utilizing change as a tool for growth and learning. Resources mentioned: BBC – Why Embracing Change Is The Key To A Good Life 🌸 SpaGirlsPodcast.com ✔️ Subscr

Jun 2, 2021 • 29:40

SPA Girls – EP293 – Abundance Mindset for Authors with Renee Rose

SPA Girls – EP293 – Abundance Mindset for Authors with Renee Rose

You’re worth it and your work is worth it. This episode will blow your mind! Renee is passionate about helping authors and creatives get their mindset dialed to SUCCESS. So many nuggets of creativity and business wisdom in this episode, you’ll want to listen more than once. Scroll down for the link to join her private author’s Facebook group. USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR RENEE ROSE loves a dominant, dirty-talking alpha hero! She’s sold over a million copies of steamy r

May 26, 2021 • 56:54

SPA Girls Podcast – EP292 – Wide vs Exclusive

SPA Girls Podcast – EP292 – Wide vs Exclusive

It’s a heated debate that occurs regularly in the bars and cafes of self-publishing-land – should you go exclusive to Amazon and get the benefits of Kindle Unlimited, or should you go wide, and get the benefits of being able to upload your books on retailers like Kobo, Apple Books and Nook, as well as Amazon? There are arguments both ways, and in this episode of the SPA Girls Podcast, we take you through all the pros and cons of both, and try to give you some information tha

May 19, 2021 • 40:59

SPA Girls Podcast – EP291 – 9 Writing Tools We Love!

SPA Girls Podcast – EP291 – 9 Writing Tools We Love!

We absolutely have more than 9 tools we could recommend because we don’t all use the same ones. Listen to find out which ones we can’t do without and who uses the others and why. Cheryl has a few homemade spreadsheets and tables – no surprises there – which she may be inclined to share. 😉 Resources mentioned: Plottr – https://plottr.com PromoRepublic – deal via AppSumo https://appsumo.com/ Cher’s Plot Timeline spreadsheet Trello – www.trello.com Readerlinks – h

May 9, 2021 • 43:48

SPA Girls Podcast – EP290 – Dealing with Edits and Critiques

SPA Girls Podcast – EP290 – Dealing with Edits and Critiques

Getting edits and critiques is part of every author’s career, but sometimes it can feel worse than getting stung by a wasp on your eyeball. Like directly in the middle of your eyeball. By a really big wasp. Where it would really, really hurt. So that’s what we’re talking about this week in the SPA – how our thoughts on critiques have changed over the years, how we deal with the pangs when someone says something mean about our book babies, and why we think you ca

May 5, 2021 • 39:55

SPA Girls Podcast – EP289 – Writing Romantic Comedy with Annika Martin

SPA Girls Podcast – EP289 – Writing Romantic Comedy with Annika Martin

Writing bestselling romance with incredible character chemistry is something that NYT Bestseller Annika Martin excels in, and today she joins us in the SPA to give ALL THE TIPS! Annika, who also publishes romantic suspense as Carolyn Crane, has seen incredible success writing two books a year (on average) and publishing wide. This episode, she reveals her plotting and writing process, getting the most "comedy" in her writing, editing tips for deepening characterization, what point of view to ch

Apr 27, 2021 • 1:10:27

SPA Girls Podcast – EP288 – TikTok and Instagram with Anne Malcom

SPA Girls Podcast – EP288 – TikTok and Instagram with Anne Malcom

We have a terrible confession to make. The SPA Girls have no idea what we’re doing when it comes to Instagram (well, Shar does, but the rest of us have no idea) and TikTok. It’s true. Shocking, I know. So we got in an expert. Someone who could tell us everything we ever wanted to know about how to post on social media to engage with readers and develop a deeper connection. (Because that’s what it’s about!)  Anne Malcom is an awesome Kiwi author, kicking butt and taking names in the Dark Rom

Apr 20, 2021 • 1:01:33

SPA Girls Podcast – EP287 – Plotting for Pantsers

SPA Girls Podcast – EP287 – Plotting for Pantsers

Are you one or the other, or something in between? While Trudi is an outright plotter, Cheryl considers herself a hybrid and Wendy is a confirmed pantser. Shar isn’t with us today but we know she’s tried it all! But is this a hard and fast thing? You’ll find out when and how we plot and the struggles involved with pantsing. The differences intrigue us and we think you’ll agree there is a wide scope to fit in either camp or somewhere in between. If you’re starting out, plotting is a grea

Apr 13, 2021 • 40:46

SPA Girls Podcast – EP286 – Writers’ Fears

SPA Girls Podcast – EP286 – Writers’ Fears

Resistance. Fear. Procrastination. Avoidance. Most of us writers struggle with these challenges at some point in their career (or day!). This episode we cover everything from the struggle to finish a manuscript through to fear of publishing, and everything in between. This blogpost inspired today’s episode : http://positivewriter.com/scared-writer/ Blog post by Harrison Demchick excerpt: Two Kinds of Scared WritersDuring my weekly writing group, I’ve been working on a screenp

Apr 7, 2021 • 54:46

SPA Girls Podcast – EP285 – Interview with Janie Crouch : Launching a romance series

SPA Girls Podcast – EP285 – Interview with Janie Crouch : Launching a romance series

Get ready to be inspired! Our guest today, USA Bestseller, Janie Crouch, writes passionate romantic suspense (both traditionally published and self-published) and she’s recently launched her indie Linear Tactical series to six-figure success. Janie is a winner and/or finalist of multiple romance literary awards including the Golden Quill Award for Best Romantic Suspense, the National Reader’s Choice Award, and the coveted RITA© Award by the Romance Writers of America.When she’s n

Apr 1, 2021 • 1:02:07

SPA Girls Podcast – EP284 – Lucy Score talks Reader Groups, Releases and Relationships

SPA Girls Podcast – EP284 – Lucy Score talks Reader Groups, Releases and Relationships

If you’ve ever considered starting up a Facebook reader group, then you need to listen to this episode. Lucy Score’s group is an example of a well run group that is positive, supportive and fun – everything you want in a reader group. She talks to us about how she set it up, and what makes it so great, as well as why she loves her readers so much. Lucy also gives us insight into her most recent book launch, how she connects to readers and why relationships are such an impor

Mar 23, 2021 • 1:02:25

SPA Girls Podcast – EP283 – Interview with Kaye Kennedy

SPA Girls Podcast – EP283 – Interview with Kaye Kennedy

Success – Lucky or hard work? This episode we’re talking with Kaye Kennedy who had the successful experience we all hope for when we start out. Using her business acumen and spending years studying how to do it right, Kaye managed a million page reads in 6 months and she’s going to tell you how she did it. A CEO by day and a contemporary romance author by night, in her novels, you can always expect a happily ever after that kisses and tells. She’s had a love affair with reading an

Mar 16, 2021 • 1:12:21

SPA Girls Podcast- EP282- Interview with Helen Scheuerer

SPA Girls Podcast- EP282- Interview with Helen Scheuerer

Making six figures a year while publishing one book a year, isn’t the usual career path for most indies, but for our guest today, it absolutely is! We are thrilled to welcome Aus-Kiwi, Helen Scheuerer, to the SPA today. Helen is a talented YA Fantasy author who’s taken her traditional publishing education and transferred that to a highly successful indie career over the past four years. We discuss how Helen got into writing, her education and specifically what led her to self-pu

Mar 10, 2021 • 1:02:06

SPA Girls Podcast – EP281 – Kindletrends with Nat Connors

SPA Girls Podcast – EP281 – Kindletrends with Nat Connors

This episode we’re thrilled to welcome Nat Connors, founder of Kindletrends (and fellow New Zealander #gokiwis) to the SPA! Nat has been a self-published fiction author since 2016, and is also a research academic and data scientist. Kindletrends is a weekly data newsletter that tells you all about what’s happening across 12 different genres in the Kindle Store. Nat started using the information in Kindletrends to help outline, write and launch books, and then started s

Mar 3, 2021 • 1:04:44

SPA Girls Podcast – EP280 – Scheduling Like A Superstar

SPA Girls Podcast – EP280 – Scheduling Like A Superstar

Trying to figure out how to finish your book? Keep getting distracted or discombobulated? This is the episode for you! We break down the processes we use to plan and schedule a book, from start to finish, including everything from booking a cover designer to working with your editor. We show how easy it is to get your writing done, when you know exactly how much you have to write and by when. Join us for another information packed episode…  ✔️ Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter wit

Feb 23, 2021 • 47:37

SPA Girls Podcast – EP279 – Overcoming Technology Barriers

SPA Girls Podcast – EP279 – Overcoming Technology Barriers

For many of us, the thought of overcoming the technology barriers to self-publishing can be overwhelming and cause us to delay (or not try) publishing. Many authors have likely heard the talk about the all-important “meta data” and “algorithms” like they’re the bogeymen. Something to be avoided – and best done by someone else! WE GET IT. WE’VE BEEN THERE! But if we can do this, trust us, YOU can too! How we overcame our own barriers– mindset&#8

Feb 16, 2021 • 43:16

SPA Girls Podcast – EP278 – 7 Simple Steps To Self-Publishing

SPA Girls Podcast – EP278 – 7 Simple Steps To Self-Publishing

It’s super easy to be overwhelmed by all the steps required to self-publish. Whether you’re a traditionally published author looking to self-publish now, or a new author straight out of the blocks, we break down the seven simple steps to self-publishing. Step 1: Write the BookStep 2: Get It EditedStep 3: Get a CoverStep 4: Write A BlurbStep 5: Format ItStep 6: Upload to retailersStep 7: Market and repeat Breaking news: If you’d like the SPA Girls to hold your hand through t

Feb 10, 2021 • 45:52

SPA Girls Podcast – EP277 – Answering Newbie Questions

SPA Girls Podcast – EP277 – Answering Newbie Questions

Today we’re responding to questions from listeners who are just starting their self-publishing journey. From earning expectations to how to learning “All The Things” and being overwhelmed, we’ve got you covered! Some of questions answered: What type of writing SHOULD I focus on? Is genre important for good earnings? Are my expectations realistic? How am I going to support myself during this process? How much can I expect to earn? What do I have to know about self-publishing, there’s so much

Feb 2, 2021 • 31:52

SPA Girls Podcast – EP276 – Character-centric Plotting with Alexa Rivers

SPA Girls Podcast – EP276 – Character-centric Plotting with Alexa Rivers

Today we’re joined by fellow Kiwi romance author – and one of the SPA Girls’ star pupils from their self-publishing workshops – ALEXA RIVERS. Alexa has written and published nine small town romance to date and has really nailed her plotting process, starting with a character. If you’ve been struggling to find a way to plot and love the idea of starting with those characters who are burning a hole inside your head, this is the episode for you! LISTENER BONUS: Clic

Jan 27, 2021 • 1:03:34

SPA Girls Podcast – EP275 – Read Through on a Series

SPA Girls Podcast – EP275 – Read Through on a Series

Are your readers staying for the next book? This week’s podcast is all about read-through – ie what percentage of readers read from the first book in your series to the next, and onwards. Learn all about what it means, why it matters and how to increase your read through in this information-packed episode! We cover: * how to calculate read-through and why its important that you do! * What is the ideal percentage you should be aiming for * Red flags to look for if you DON’T

Jan 19, 2021 • 33:44

SPA Girls Podcast – EP274 – 5 Golden Guidelines For 2021 Goal Setting

SPA Girls Podcast – EP274 – 5 Golden Guidelines For 2021 Goal Setting

Have you already listed your goals or resolutions for the upcoming year? Before you start whipping yourself into action, consider your ANSWERS TO THE GOLDEN QUESTIONS FIRST...

Jan 13, 2021 • 44:11

SPA Girls Podcast – EP273 – The One Right Way to Sell Books

SPA Girls Podcast – EP273 – The One Right Way to Sell Books

Isn’t that what we’re all after? The ONE RIGHT answer to everything – the BEST newsletter strategy, the RIGHT way to sell books, the ONE secret to making ads work? Well, listen up folks because in this episode we’ve got the Magic Wand! Resources mentioned: Bella Andre with the SPA Girlshttp://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep148-interview-with-indie-superstar-bella-andre/ Becca Syme’s Strengths For Writers Coursehttps://betterfasteracademy

Jan 6, 2021 • 35:02

SPA Girls Podcast – EP272 – How To Believe In Yourself

SPA Girls Podcast – EP272 – How To Believe In Yourself

Ever wondered why on earth you’re spending all this time writing? Ever think to yourself that maybe your writing isn’t that great? Ever think this self publishing lark is just too hard? Yeah, so have we. But this episode is all about how to throw away those dumb old negative thoughts, and learn how to believe in yourself and your writing! We talk through some of the most common misbeliefs that authors have, and give you some awesome ways to change your thinking, and learn to bel

Dec 30, 2020 • 30:32

SPA Girls Podcast – EP271 – Christmas Roundup 2020

SPA Girls Podcast – EP271 – Christmas Roundup 2020

Celebrating the season with a quick recap of our Words For 2020. Hahahahahaha And then onto Important Burning Questions about our Christmas favorites.  Sometimes controversial, always tongue-in-cheek, our “unplugged” conversation will hopefully add some Christmas cheer to your day. click here to watch the live recording Thank you for all your support this year and we do hope, despite the 2020ness of the past 12 months, that you’ve made steps forward in your writing a

Dec 22, 2020 • 37:25

SPA Girls Podcast – EP270 – From Great Idea to Sellable Story

SPA Girls Podcast – EP270 – From Great Idea to Sellable Story

You’ve had a great idea for a story – now how do you turn it into a workable outline?This is a “live action” recording where the SPA Girls take a “great” idea – an Elf who hates Christmas – into a workable outline! Probably NSFW, you’ll hopefully find this episode informative and a lighthearted break from holiday stress! And don’t forget to visit us on facebook and let us know which story you think we should write! Included in the

Dec 15, 2020 • 33:28

SPA Girls Podcast – EP269 – What To Do When You Run Out Of Steam

SPA Girls Podcast – EP269 – What To Do When You Run Out Of Steam

What do you do when you’re running out of steam and you’re only in the middle of the book? Or you’re just running out of steam in general? This episode we share our suggestions for getting yourself re-energized and moving again.Some topics we cover: writing sprints writing with others either in person or on zoom/skype sexy times add more conflict change up environment – add music, go to a cafe or outside (depending on local quarantine measures) try dictation Trudi fo

Dec 8, 2020 • 34:08

SPA Girls Podcast – EP268 – How to Use Bonus Content to Sell Books

SPA Girls Podcast – EP268 – How to Use Bonus Content to Sell Books

Bonus content is an awesome marketing tool that can be used in a variety of ways – from encouraging people to sign up to newsletters, to convincing them to buy the next book in the series, or thanking superfans for their ongoing support. This week we talk about the ways we’ve used the bonus content we’ve created for our readers, from bonus scenes and epilogues, to short stories, prequel novellas and everything in between!  We talk about what’s worked, what hasn’t

Dec 1, 2020 • 31:21

SPA Girls Podcast – EP267 – Get Your First Book Right

SPA Girls Podcast – EP267 – Get Your First Book Right

Want to make sure you give your first book the best possible chance of success… and then have readers auto-buying the next in your series? Then this is the podcast for you! This week we give you a checklist of elements for a successful first book in a series, before you even start writing a single word! We talk about everything – including the tropes that sell, what back matter to use, what kind of characters readers love and much more in this overview of how to make sure the fir

Nov 25, 2020 • 42:13

SPA Girls Podcast – EP266 – Nail Your Keywords With Dave Chesson

SPA Girls Podcast – EP266 – Nail Your Keywords With Dave Chesson

Why does Amazon choose someone else’s book over yours in a search? How do we make sure we’re using the best keywords for sales? What exactly is a keyword, anyway? We have all these answers and more for you in this info-packed episode!  We’re joined again by the awesome and knowledgeable Dave Chesson, Founder and CEO of Publisher Rocket and Kindlepreneur. Dave breaks down all the best practices for getting the right keywords to deliver your book to the right readers, every ti

Nov 18, 2020 • 1:08:04

SPA Girls Podcast – EP265 – Reader Groups

SPA Girls Podcast – EP265 – Reader Groups

Today’s podcast is all about reader groups. Are they worthwhile? How they work and why you would you want one? Wendy has recently started one, and we discuss how that is working for her, and also talk about some more established reader groups the SPA Girls belong to like, Lucy Score, C N Crawford, and Marie Force. Once again an episode chock full of information! You’ll find all the show notes and SPA Girls podcast episodes at: www.spagirlspodcast.com Make sure you’re signed up to our weekly s

Nov 10, 2020 • 51:44

SPA Girls Podcast – EP264 – Insider Writing Secrets

SPA Girls Podcast – EP264 – Insider Writing Secrets

A good old fashioned craft episode from the SPA Girls this week. Shar, Wendy and Cheryl discuss insider writing secretes from James Scott Bell’s book Fiction Attack! They pull out five important secrets that have most impacted them, and discuss what they mean and how they’ve used them in their writing. From using conflict and suspense, to description, fuzzy POV, cliches and info dumps, they go deep on some of those writing secrets that will take you from average to amazing! SHOW NOTES: 1. T

Nov 4, 2020 • 37:43

SPA Girls Podcast – EP263 – Listener Questions: Motivation, Time Management, Local Market

SPA Girls Podcast – EP263 – Listener Questions: Motivation, Time Management, Local Market

In this episode we’re answering listener questions – a couple around the change of life many are experiencing right now. We have a few suggestions that helped us through switching to full time writing and the fickle motivation issue. Then we discuss how to tackle being visible in your local market. If you’ve had to deal with these things or are going through them now, please tell us about it on our Facebook page or comment on this post. Keen to learn from the SPA Girls in a virtua

Oct 27, 2020 • 32:56

SPA Girls Podcast – EP262 – The Four Tendencies For Writers

SPA Girls Podcast – EP262 – The Four Tendencies For Writers

Ever wondered why your best friend can organize her way out of anything, but you can’t follow the same processes she does? We might just have an answer: Gretchen Rubin has a system that involves what she calls the four tendencies. (Find the free online quiz here to identify your tendency here: https://quiz.gretchenrubin.com/?fbclid=IwAR05fTL0NJEPsCUJ6OqGMJrm4EHY7tnHcXCmg56_HroP0qLkIhe0GOT5yL4) Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness

Oct 21, 2020 • 47:09

SPA Girls Podcast – EP261 – Imposter Syndrome with Amira Alvarez

SPA Girls Podcast – EP261 – Imposter Syndrome with Amira Alvarez

BONUS – enter before Friday 16 October to win one of three FREE tickets to the Unstoppable Woman virtual summit in November 2020 Here’s how to enter: Post on facebook (make it public – you may need to change settings for the post) and tell us ONE reason why you’d like to attend the summit, then hashtag #unstoppablesummit #spagirlspodcast SIMPLE! >> Earlybird tickets for the summit close Friday 16 October (if you purchase a ticket, then win our lucky listener draw

Oct 13, 2020 • 1:02:55

SPA Girls Podcast – EP260 – Interview with Danielle Romero

SPA Girls Podcast – EP260 – Interview with Danielle Romero

This week we have an intriguing chat with author Danielle Annett aka Danielle Romero, who has recently switched genres from Urban Fantasy to Contemporary Romance, with some amazing results. She talks us through the decision to change genres, and what she did to make it a success, including some of the big decisions she had to make, such as whether to create a new pen name, how to market it, and what kind of social media/website and newsletter presence she wanted to have with the new genre/name.&

Oct 7, 2020 • 52:32

SPA Girls Podcast – EP259 – Email Advertising Lists

SPA Girls Podcast – EP259 – Email Advertising Lists

What’s working for us. Plus, How to prepare your holiday season Advertising. Christmas is coming whether we like it or not and starting now, as far as advertising is concerned, you need to get your ducks in a row. Spaces will already be dwindling as authors lock in their ads and if you want to have any decent ones, take our advice and get to it today. This week we look at the major sites we use, as well as some of the smaller, and talk about our success, or lack of it, with each. The most imp

Sep 29, 2020 • 0:00

SPA Girls Podcast – EP258 – Nail Your Newsletter with Holly Mortimer

SPA Girls Podcast – EP258 – Nail Your Newsletter with Holly Mortimer

This episode is a DOOZY! We’re thrilled to interview author and marketing expert, Holly Mortimer. Holly is the owner of the consulting firm, The Socialvert, and runs a successful membership base and mastermind for romance writers, The Socialvert Society. Her mission is to teach romance writers how to use digital marketing and email list building to increase their sales and cultivate a loyal fan base. We talk all things email marketing with Holly, and get you some ‘next level&#8217

Sep 22, 2020 • 1:03:39

SPA Girls Podcast – EP257 – Juggling Writing & Family Life with Connie B. Dowell

SPA Girls Podcast – EP257 – Juggling Writing & Family Life with Connie B. Dowell

Today we’re interviewing author Connie B. Dowell about juggling family responsibilities, pandemic postponements, and upheaval, with the responsibilities of being a working writer. Connie B. Dowell is an author of historical and cozy mysteries and nonfiction for writers. She is the host of the Book Echoes podcast for authors. After having two kids in less than two years, Connie developed a passion for time management and loves to chat author productivity and work-life balance. A former u

Sep 16, 2020 • 42:46

SPA Girls Podcast – EP256 – Self Publishing Versus Traditional Publishing

SPA Girls Podcast – EP256 – Self Publishing Versus Traditional Publishing

In response to a listener question, this week we attempt to answer the question: Knowing what you know now, if you were starting out in publishing today, would you go straight to self publishing, or would you try out traditional publishing first? It’s a hard question, because we’re not starting out now, we do know an awful lot more than we did when we first started and when we started (7-8 years ago) everything was different. And also, we all clearly believe in self publishing ove

Sep 9, 2020 • 43:29

SPA Girls Podcast – EP255 – Newsletter Strategies

SPA Girls Podcast – EP255 – Newsletter Strategies

This episode we discuss our (very!) different newsletter strategies: what provider we use and why, how we build our lists, our content, how frequently we email subscribers and what tips have worked for us. We also cover where to start for newbies – ie, keep it simple and doable! Resources mentioned: Our interview with Larissa Reynolds (two parts): https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep177-successful-newsletter-strategies-with-larissa-reynolds/ Our interview wi

Sep 2, 2020 • 59:02

SPA Girls Podcast – EP254 – Interview with Tamsin Ley

SPA Girls Podcast – EP254 – Interview with Tamsin Ley

Today we’re joined by fabulous Alaskan author, Tamsin Ley, who is seeing great success writing SciFi Romance! We talk about Tamsin’s writing journey, marketing strategies, paranormal romance quirks and her advice for self-publishers. You can find Tamsin at: TamsinLey.com About Tamsin Tamsin Ley builds worlds full of sexy heroes who don’t know they need a mate – that is, until they meet the woman they can’t resist. The romance is sizzling hot, a surprise twist wai

Aug 25, 2020 • 47:08

SPA Girls Podcast – EP253 – Maximize Your Mindset with  Amira Alvarez

SPA Girls Podcast – EP253 – Maximize Your Mindset with Amira Alvarez

Amira Alvarez is the founder and CEO of The Unstoppable Woman, a global coaching company helping entrepreneurs, empire builders, athletes, creatives, and rising stars in all fields achieve their dreams and goals in record time. As someone who has made a quantum leap (going from barely making 6-figures to making $700k in one year, then onto 7-figures) and has lived to tell about it, she knows exactly what tactical strategies and mindset shifts are required to get out of your own way, live life

Aug 18, 2020 • 58:45

SPA Girls Podcast – EP252 – Uncomplicate Your Publishing

SPA Girls Podcast – EP252 – Uncomplicate Your Publishing

One thing we really believe in here at the SPA is that simple is better. There’s so much noise on the internet, and so many different things that we’re told that we “have” to do to be successful as self publishers, it can get confusing and overwhelming. So we decided to talk about ways to keep things simple in your publishing career, to prove that it doesn’t have to be complicated to be amazing. With that in mind, this week we talk about our own experiences of k

Aug 12, 2020 • 33:20

SPA Girls Podcast – Ep251 – Alana Terry, Facebook Ads for Authors

SPA Girls Podcast – Ep251 – Alana Terry, Facebook Ads for Authors

Alana Terry is a 6-figure, USA Today bestseller with more than forty published Christian suspense novels. She hosts the Successful Writer Podcast which is a  fabulous marketing-focused podcast for indie authors of any genre. Alana has also created several highly regarded courses to help authors reach their dreams of achieving creative and commercial success. Today we're going to talk with Alana about how she uses advertising to grow her readership and how authors can navigate the sometimes conf

Aug 4, 2020 • 54:41

SPA Girls Podcast – EP250 – Celebrating 250 shows!

SPA Girls Podcast – EP250 – Celebrating 250 shows!

No, we can’t quite believe we’ve been around this long either! Five years of publishing a new SPA Girls Podcast episode every week, countless amazing guests, industry experts and inspiring authors, lots of banter and (hopefully!) actionable self-publishing advice for our listeners. We go right back to our first episode (don’t worry, we won’t replay it), discuss the ONE piece of advice we’d give to new self-publishers, and talk about what we’ve learned / wha

Jul 29, 2020 • 40:50

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 249 – Interview with Story Coach Lisa Cron

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 249 – Interview with Story Coach Lisa Cron

Having trouble getting to ‘the end’ of your work in progress? then this podcast is for you. It’s packed with so much information you’ll have to replay it several times! Lisa Cron is a story coach and the author of Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers From the Very First Sentence and Story Genius: How To Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages that Go Nowher

Jul 21, 2020 • 1:06:25

SPA Girls Podcast – EP248 – Dealing With Limiting Beliefs

SPA Girls Podcast – EP248 – Dealing With Limiting Beliefs

We’re on the couch again this week! We’re talking about our limiting beliefs and how we’re tackling them. If you’re not sure if you’ve got a limiting belief… we’re pretty sure you do. Probably more than one. It’s a belief that’s holding you back, and it’s the kind of thought pattern that you definitely want to bring out into the open, so you know it’s there, and can work on ways to change or amend it. Limiting beliefs are

Jul 15, 2020 • 30:45

SPA Girls Podcast – EP247 – What Advertising Is Working For Us

SPA Girls Podcast – EP247 – What Advertising Is Working For Us

This week we discuss what advertising is actually working for our romance, urban fantasy and cozy mystery books. From facebook to series promotions, we’ve picked up some helpfully tips and strategies for getting the most bang of your advertising buck! Trudi’s notes on Facebook Ads: – need more than one book to make it work. (at least to make a profit, if your goals are to get eyes on your book, or get a rank, that might be different.) My new series ads aren’t making m

Jul 8, 2020 • 40:30

SPA Girls Podcast – EP246 – Chirp Audiobooks Promotion

SPA Girls Podcast – EP246 – Chirp Audiobooks Promotion

The delightful Carlyn Robertson from Bookbub returns to the SPA today to talk all things Chirp and audiobook promotion!

Jul 1, 2020 • 26:57

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 245 – Interview with Urban Fantasy author Keri Arthur

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 245 – Interview with Urban Fantasy author Keri Arthur

In this podcast, we speak to the wonderfully talented and successful Urban Fantasy author Keri Arthur. She talks to us about transitioning from traditional publishing to self-publishing and shares tips and processes from her writing journey. Keri Arthur is the New York Times bestselling author of fantasy, horror, and romance novels. She began writing at the age of twelve and has more than 70 novels to date. Her books have received many nominations and prizes, including nods from the Romantic

Jun 23, 2020 • 47:18

SPA Girls Podcast – EP244 – Alex Newton From K-lytics

SPA Girls Podcast – EP244 – Alex Newton From K-lytics

Knowing as much as you can about your category, genre or sub-genre is vitally important if you’re going to succeed as a self publisher, and Alex Newton is keen to help you with that. He’s the creator of K-lytics (www.k-lytics.com) a website where you can get in-depth reports on various genres and sub-genres on Amazon that will help you find your niche, boost sales in your chosen genre, and basically give you the information you need to stand out in this crowded publishing space.

Jun 17, 2020 • 1:12:59

SPA Girls Podcast – EP243 – Interview with Ines Johnson (Part Two) : Seven Screenwriting Secrets for Authors

SPA Girls Podcast – EP243 – Interview with Ines Johnson (Part Two) : Seven Screenwriting Secrets for Authors

Ines is back to give us great advice for incorporating screenwriting techniques to make our writing stronger and improve read through! Aside from being a writer and professional reader, Ines Johnson is a seasoned educator. She’s taught screenwriting, story development, and media history for an art college in Washington, DC. A lifelong learner (read: academic addict), she holds a Master’s in Instructional Design, and a Doctorate in Educational Technology. Here are those 7 Tips: 1. Season

Jun 9, 2020 • 44:48

SPA Girls Podcast – EP242 – Interview with Ines Johnson (Part One) : Pen Names & Productivity

SPA Girls Podcast – EP242 – Interview with Ines Johnson (Part One) : Pen Names & Productivity

This is a special two-part series with the awesome Ines Johnson, a highly successful indie author who has an extensive background in television writing, media production and college education. In this episode, we cover Pen Names and Productivity. Ines has three pen names (that cover different genres) and she is the epitome of an organised, savvy and productive author that has so much to share with us! Topics we discuss include: Her fast-draft process and why Ines doesn’t write by wordc

Jun 3, 2020 • 38:30

SPA Girls Podcast – EP241 – Power Words

SPA Girls Podcast – EP241 – Power Words

In this episode we talk about power words. Those take action words that entice your readers to click that BUY NOW button!  Research and numerous studies from psychologists and social scientists have come to a consensus on the five most powerful words in the English language.YouFreeInstantlyBecauseNew But first, remember it’s really important to know:– Who you’re writing your advertising copy for– How that person thinks– What that person needsSo before you craft your beautiful book descriptio

May 27, 2020 • 40:47

SPA Girls Podcast – EP240 – BETA Readers, ARCs and Reviews

SPA Girls Podcast – EP240 – BETA Readers, ARCs and Reviews

Have you been told you need more reviews, but you don’t know how to get them? Are you wanting to find some BETA readers, but can’t figure out where they lurk? Ever wondered who you send an ARC to, and what you get in return?  This is the episode for you! We go through each topic, explaining the terms, telling you how to find more of them, and why they’re all so important to us as writers.  SHOW NOTES Beta ReadersA BETA reader is a (non-professional) reader who receives a pre

May 20, 2020 • 42:01

SPA Girls Podcast – EP239 – How to Be Creative When You Don’t Feel Like It

SPA Girls Podcast – EP239 – How to Be Creative When You Don’t Feel Like It

Sometimes the muse has left the building. Or you’re tired. Or something happens that you weren’t expecting. Yeah, like a pandemic. That’ll do it! There are probably very few people who haven’t felt the panic or sense of doom and gloom in some small way, and others far worse than the SPAGirls. It’s fair to say that we all took a moment (read a week or three) to get our heads back in the game, and even if you didn’t, that’s okay. Don’t beat yourself up about anything you didn’t do or won’t do i

May 12, 2020 • 42:46

SPA Girls Podcast – EP238 – Simple Marketing You Can Do Right Now

SPA Girls Podcast – EP238 – Simple Marketing You Can Do Right Now

This week the SPA Girls cover free and cheap (and simple!) marketing activities you can do right now! Many of those we talk about require nothing but a short time block and some brain-juice. We hope this inspires you – but please don’t feel like you have to do them All At Once. Chip away, one activity at a time, as you have the time and energy and you’ll be on the road to better marketing. Here are some starters … (1) Tweak book description – add a single BOLD

May 6, 2020 • 46:42

SPA Girls Podcast – EP237 – Deep Editing For Beginners

SPA Girls Podcast – EP237 – Deep Editing For Beginners

In this episode, we talk with the wonderfully talented author Louisa George. She takes us through the editing process for those starting out in their publishing journey, or those of us who need a refresher on what should be done before we publish our books. The episode is packed full of wonderful tips and advice, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Award-winning author Louisa George has been a book addict her whole life. In between chapters she gained a degree in Communication Studies, tra

Apr 28, 2020 • 44:14

SPA Girls Podcast – EP236 – Wellness for Writers at Home

SPA Girls Podcast – EP236 – Wellness for Writers at Home

If you’re anything like us, you’re sitting around even more than usual at the moment… But never fear, the SPA Girls have you covered! This week we talk with osteopath and pilates instructor Freya Scollay about how to keep active in difficult times, especially if you’re having to stay home more than usual, as well as what we can do as writers to keep ourselves in the best health possible. If you want to find out how to keep yourself healthy and fit in strange and

Apr 22, 2020 • 35:11

SPA Girls Podcast – EP235 – Interview with Alessandra Torre

SPA Girls Podcast – EP235 – Interview with Alessandra Torre

Goodreads for Authors We’re joined in this episode by NYT Bestseller, the fabulous Alessandra Torre, to talk All Things Goodreads. Some authors are wary of Goodreads due to harsh reviews, but there are good reasons to use this platform and in this episode, Allessandra explains why. About Goodreads Founded by Otis Chandler and launched in January 2007, Goodreads is the largest collection of readers and reviewers – with over 55 million members. It’s important that you establi

Apr 14, 2020 • 50:06

SPA Girls Podcast – EP234 – How To Write When Your Schedule Is Disrupted

SPA Girls Podcast – EP234 – How To Write When Your Schedule Is Disrupted

Disruption – the entire world is feeling it at the moment, so how can we, as writers, keep our creativity bubbling and stay focussed? It’s hard – we’re not going to deny that – but looking at your schedule and productivity in a different way can help you stay a bit calmer, get some work done and prepare for when you’re on a more even keel. For the Spa Girls, we’ve pivoted a wee bit to bring you Lockdown Sessions – a daily video of around 10 minutes where we just hang out, sometimes discuss self

Apr 7, 2020 • 29:24

SPA Girls Podcast – EP233 – Ricci Wolman, Written Word Media

SPA Girls Podcast – EP233 – Ricci Wolman, Written Word Media

This episode we are delighted to welcome Ricci Wolman to the SPA! Ricci is founder and CEO of Written Word Media, the company that created author promo providers Freebooksy, BargainBooksy, Red Feather Romance, NewInBooks, and Reading Stacks. Ricci holds an MBA from Harvard and has over 10 years of experience building online audiences using data-driven customer acquisition techniques. (Which means she’s really good at building newsletters and connecting with customers!) She says that the philoso

Apr 1, 2020 • 1:11:49

SPA Girls Podcast – EP232 – Interview with Lucy Score

SPA Girls Podcast – EP232 – Interview with Lucy Score

If you’ve been wondering about how to make the most of being in KU…this is the episode for you! Lucy Score is the bestselling author of romantic comedy and contemporary romance novels and she’s been doing super well in KU. We asked her to be on the show to tell you how to make the most of being exclusive to Amazon as well! Lucy is smart and savvy, and gave us some fantastic tips, so be sure you have a pen and notepad with you as you listen to this one! She

Mar 25, 2020 • 1:01:40

SPA Girls Podcast – Ep 231 – What And Where To Post On Social Media

SPA Girls Podcast – Ep 231 – What And Where To Post On Social Media

Understand Social Media Importance With 5 Benefits to Using It 1 It Shows The World Who You AreWith social media, you have the opportunity to highlight all the best aspects of your business with one click. What information would be most useful for your potential and current clients to have easy access to? 2. Target and Attract Your Audience When it comes to the importance of social media, there are so many different purposes – it’s up to you to define how you want to use it! Is your busi

Mar 17, 2020 • 52:39

SPA Girls Podcast – EP230 – Interview with Cora Seton: The Organised Author

SPA Girls Podcast – EP230 – Interview with Cora Seton: The Organised Author

This week, we are absolutely delighted to talk with romance author and superstar, Cora Seton, about writing organisation, branding, mindset and having a stellar strategy. With over one million books sold, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cora Seton has created a world readers love in Chance Creek, Montana. She currently has thirty five novels and novellas set in her fictional town, with many more in the works. We had the privilege of hearing Cora speak at last year’s Romance A

Mar 11, 2020 • 1:03:40

SPA Girls Podcast – EP229 – How To Write Great Description

SPA Girls Podcast – EP229 – How To Write Great Description

How can we write more descriptively? Characters? Setting? What gives “visual” to readers? What is the point of description? – To enrich the readers understanding of a story, to move the story forward, and to help readers see a character. (Description by Monica Wood ;)) So how can we write great description without it sounding cliched, over-written or just plain boring? Listen up and we’ll share all our best description writing tips from ourselves and from some great writing

Mar 4, 2020 • 40:53

SPA Girls Podcast – EP228 – Interview with Elana Johnson – PART TWO

SPA Girls Podcast – EP228 – Interview with Elana Johnson – PART TWO

In this second episode with bestselling author Elana Johnson, she gives us all the juicy details of how she has created her bestselling career…  From the new release strategies that she uses, to the kind of advertising she does, and even the right mindset for being successful – Elana talks about it all. She talks openly about her career, tells us about the mistakes as well as the successes, and gives us all the details on how she managed to have her first 100K month in Janua

Feb 25, 2020 • 1:06:22

SPA Girls Podcast – Ep 227 – Elana Johnson Part One – Productivity

SPA Girls Podcast – Ep 227 – Elana Johnson Part One – Productivity

USA Today bestselling author Elana Johnson writes adult contemporary beach romance and Christian Cowboy Romance. She’s the author of over 130 books across two names, and in January 2020 just hit a 6 figure month for the first time. We talk to Elana about how she balances her workload because we know she’s doing well on the marketing front which is such a big topic these days and definitely needs to be factored in to your day. Elana works over 2 projects at a time. Once her cur

Feb 19, 2020 • 48:41

SPA Girls Podcast – EP226 – Romance Your Brand with Zoe York

SPA Girls Podcast – EP226 – Romance Your Brand with Zoe York

We are delighted to welcome back NYT and USA Today bestselling author, Zoe York, to the SPA! Zoe is a busy mom of two young boys and the creator of modern, sexy, small town contemporary romances, a sci-fi romance series and now non-fiction for authors. Since 2013, Zoe has published 56 books, lead numerous workshops both in person and online, and is a fellow podcaster – The SisterCast is where Zoe and her sister Amanda talk about media, marketing, and how awesome it is to be a perfectly a

Feb 11, 2020 • 1:03:32

SPA Girls Podcast – EP225 – Amazon Decoded with David Gaughran

SPA Girls Podcast – EP225 – Amazon Decoded with David Gaughran

Is Amazon just one big mystery that you’re struggling to unravel? Then this is the podcast for you! David Gaughran gives us some tips and advice from his soon to be released non-fiction book, AMAZON DECODED. David says it’s important to understand Amazon’s approach to bookselling, and how that differs from the rest of the industry. It’s crucial to get to grips with the Kindle Store and how all the various parts work. And it can be extremely lucrative to apply that knowledge to your mark

Feb 4, 2020 • 1:09:33

SPA Girls Podcast – EP224 – Amazing Covers with Rebekah Haskell

SPA Girls Podcast – EP224 – Amazing Covers with Rebekah Haskell

Are you about to get your cover organised? Or is there something wrong with the cover you currently have? This is a must listen episode for all authors, but especially for anyone who’s struggling with their covers. Rebekah Haskell is an illustrator and cover designer who has been doing graphic design since she was a kid. She was on the covers panel at 20Books Vegas 2019, and definitely knows what she’s talking about. She’s got some amazing insights into covers, a

Jan 28, 2020 • 1:07:27

SPA Girls Podcast – EP223 – What’s Your Word?

SPA Girls Podcast – EP223 – What’s Your Word?

We love the idea of visualising a word to describe how you’ll be in 2020. What difference could a word make? The answer is, it won’t unless you put it into play every day. If it’s a word that speaks to you, then make the most of it. Use it. Journal about it. Post it somewhere you can see it. Put it in your phone and calendar. You can find out our words and what we intend to do with them in this week’s episode of the SPA Girls Podcast.

Jan 21, 2020 • 28:49

SPA Girls Podcast – EP222 – Write It Down, Make It Happen

SPA Girls Podcast – EP222 – Write It Down, Make It Happen

Are you ready to make 2020 YOUR year?! This week we talk about the importance of physically writing down your goals to make them happen. Wendy is a perfect example of the power of writing them down: In 2006, superstar author Debbie Macomber, attended our Romance Writers of NZ conference where she gave each attendee an index card to write their wildest writing dreams down. Wendy kept her goalcard over the years and as she achieved each goal, she marked it off. Now her entire card has been chec

Jan 14, 2020 • 33:03

SPA Girls Podcast – EP221 – Reviving Your Backlist With Laurelin Paige

SPA Girls Podcast – EP221 – Reviving Your Backlist With Laurelin Paige

This episode we are honored to chat with NYT Bestseller, Laurelin Paige, specifically about how we can REVIVE OUR BACKLIST (she defines backlist as a book that’s more than 12 months old). Top tips she discussed in this podcast CRAMMED with amazing advice: 1. Keep a calendar for the upcoming year and write in your new releases, then pad around it with backlist titles for “working” once a month 2. The easiest thing to recharge a book is designing a new cover – even if t

Jan 7, 2020 • 1:01:18

SPA Girls Podcast – EP220 – Our Goals for 2020

SPA Girls Podcast – EP220 – Our Goals for 2020

Happy New Year! This episode is a round-up of the goals and visions that we, the SPA Girls, have for 2020. It’s gonna be a big year! It’s the year of opening ourselves up to all the opportunities out there, being efficient, and focusing on the daily wins. We talk about having the right mindset for achieving your goals, how we’re going to make everything happen for us, and how you can make it happen for you too. It’s going to be a great year. Bring on

Jan 1, 2020 • 34:58

Spa Girls Podcast – EP218 – Our 2019 Hits & Misses

Spa Girls Podcast – EP218 – Our 2019 Hits & Misses

This week’s episode is a Spa Girls retrospective of how our 2019 went – what our two big Hits were, and what we found challenging. As usual, we get deep and personal. And cheeky! We’ve also got a wee teaser about our teaching plans for next year – stay tuned for those! Thank you to all our listeners who’ve been so amazingly supportive this year. Your downloads, your comments, your social media shares and your reviews are very VERY appreciated!

Dec 18, 2019 • 31:11

SPA Girls Podcast – EP217 – All About BookBrush

SPA Girls Podcast – EP217 – All About BookBrush

Today we interview Kathleen Sweeney, Customer Services Manager and Marketing Lead at BookBrush, an online platform designed to help authors with all their image creation needs. Kathleen helps us delve into what we as writers can get out of BookBrush, and all the features that we can use to create amazing social media and advertising images. She explains the platform, how it works, what options are available and some of her favourite tips to create the right images for your needs. Kathleen al

Dec 10, 2019 • 32:46

SPA Girls Podcast – EP216 – Sharpen Up Your Author Career

SPA Girls Podcast – EP216 – Sharpen Up Your Author Career

It's that time of year when we start looking back on the year, wondering how it all flew by so fast, and thinking about what we can do for the coming year.  This week we're talking about another lesson we learned at the Romance Author Mastermind (RAM) - making sure that you've crossed the t's and dotted the i's on all areas in your author career, from your backlist to your website and everywhere in between. It's about making sure everything is as tight and sharp as you can make it, and it turns

Dec 4, 2019 • 33:45

SPA Girls Podcast – EP215 – Taking Risks and Being Brave

SPA Girls Podcast – EP215 – Taking Risks and Being Brave

If you’re anything like the rest of us in the SPA, you’re quite happy in your writing cave. You don’t really want to leave the comfort of your keyboard. But this episode is all about why you really should take risks, be brave, and learn how to say yes to some of the really scary things in the self publishing industry. We’re just recently back from the wonderful Romance Author Mastermind conference put on by Skye Warren, so we use examples from information w

Nov 26, 2019 • 29:20

SPA Girls Podcast – EP214 – Interview with Lindsay Buroker

SPA Girls Podcast – EP214 – Interview with Lindsay Buroker

I (Trudi Jaye) was VERY EXCITED to get to interview super-successful fantasy author and fellow podcaster Lindsay Buroker at 20BooksVegas, and (OMG!!) she didn’t disappoint. Lindsay’s doing really well in the genres of Fantasy, Sci-Fi Romance, Fantasy Romance, and is about to publish a new Urban Fantasy series next year – so she talks about how she makes writing in multiple genres work so well for her career, how and why she switches between fantasy to sci-fi and, of course,

Nov 20, 2019 • 55:14

SPA Girls Podcast – EP213 – Small Changes, Big Results With Bryan Cohen

SPA Girls Podcast – EP213 – Small Changes, Big Results With Bryan Cohen

This episode we talk with author, podcaster and coach, Bryan Cohen, about making small changes that can add up to big results for authors.  We talk about why authors often overlook making small changes and how they can be just as important as big ones. We also discuss some of the most common tweaks that Bryan sees authors making that have made a difference to their success. About Bryan Cohen: Bryan’s taste for improv comedy at UNC-Chapel Hill brought him to Chicago and provided inspiration fo

Nov 13, 2019 • 53:50

SPA Girls Podcast – EP212 – Writing Great Characters

SPA Girls Podcast – EP212 – Writing Great Characters

We all love it when we're reading and we fall in love with a character. Not just in the book boyfriend way - although that's cool too - but in a isn't-she-so-great-I-wish-I-could-be-just-like-her-or-maybe-just-her-best-friend way.  As an author, how do you make that happen for your readers?  That's what we're talking about this week in the SPA. What makes a great character? How do we make them so memorable that our readers keep coming back for more? What do you need to know about them before

Nov 5, 2019 • 28:04

SPA Girls Podcast – EP211 – Self Care Isn’t Selfish

SPA Girls Podcast – EP211 – Self Care Isn’t Selfish

If you don’t take care of yourself, odds are no one else will. So what does it take to make sure you’re firing on all cylinders? We’ve all got our own take on self-care and yet there are plenty of similarities. Wendy-Remember you are a work in progress, allow room to grow. (no one is perfect)-Call yourself a writer-Stop worrying about what everyone else is thinking.-Limit social media-Make goals achievable-Find your tribe-Take breaks.-Exercise and stretch. Find a stretching routine. Trudi &#8

Oct 31, 2019 • 39:41

SPA Girls Podcast – EP210 – Slow & Steady to Six Figures with Serenity Woods

SPA Girls Podcast – EP210 – Slow & Steady to Six Figures with Serenity Woods

Serenity Woods is a New Zealand self-publishing superstar with more than 70 books published (both traditionally and indie). She’s a USA Today bestselling author of sexy contemporary romances, most of which are set in the sub-tropical Northland of New Zealand, where she lives. Serenity joins the SPA Girls again this week to discuss her publishing strategy and the road to six figures – hint, it’s a marathon, not a sprint!Her SPA Girls Podcast episode from when she last appear

Oct 23, 2019 • 42:09

SPA Girls Podcast  – EP209 – Editing with Anne Victory

SPA Girls Podcast – EP209 – Editing with Anne Victory

Confused about the editing process? Today we talk with talented editor Anne Victory, founder of Victory Editing. Anne has always been a stickler for grammar, and at every job she was “volunteered” (or volun-told) to either write or proofread everything from menus to game manuals to advertising copy. That business writing and editing experience came in handy when she started to work in fiction. She enjoys reading, and polishing the written word. Common wisdom says do what you love and you’ll l

Oct 15, 2019 • 1:03:10

SPA Girls Podcast – EP208 – Writing to Market Versus Writing To Trend

SPA Girls Podcast – EP208 – Writing to Market Versus Writing To Trend

What does ‘writing to trend’ mean? Isn’t it just the same as ‘writing to market’? In the SPA, we say NO, they’re not the same…and here’s why: basically, Shar told us so. 🙂 In this episode we explore the two terms, look at the differences between them, what they both mean for you as an author, and how you can use writing to market and writing to trend to help your writing career. If you’ve ever wondered if writ

Oct 8, 2019 • 31:28

SPA Girls Podcast – EP207 – Meeting Reader Expectations

SPA Girls Podcast – EP207 – Meeting Reader Expectations

Ah, readers... They're elusive. Magical. Confusing.  But we all want them.  This episode, we break down the topic of reader expectations, discussing what they are, what it means for you the author, and how to make sure you are fulfilling your readers' expectations.   Why do readers love certain books? What makes them pick one book over another? And more importantly, how do you make sure your book is the one that readers gravitate towards...?  It's all covered in this week's episode of the SPA

Oct 2, 2019 • 30:53

SPA Girls Podcast – EP206 – Interview with Chris Fox: Ads For Authors Who Hate Maths

SPA Girls Podcast – EP206 – Interview with Chris Fox: Ads For Authors Who Hate Maths

This week we have the pleasure of talking with Chris Fox, author of 20+ SFF novels and very popular non-fiction books for writers including his latest, Ads For Authors Who Hate Math. Chris once worked in Silicon Valley developing iPhone apps but he’s now come over to the dark side and very successfully writes books about dragons tearing apart starships, and gods blowing up planets. He published his first book in October 2014, and, in his own words, has sold a shit-ton of books.&nb

Sep 25, 2019 • 55:05

SPA Girls Podcast – EP205 – Why Is My Series Not Selling?

SPA Girls Podcast – EP205 – Why Is My Series Not Selling?

Are your sales getting you down?  Do you wish your series was selling better?  Can you resuscitate it or is it DOA? This episode we talk through some of the possible reasons that your book or series might not be selling.  From cover, editing and blurb writing, to content, tropes, meeting reader expectations, and much, much more.  We attempt to help you troubleshoot what might be wrong, and what you can do to amp it up, make it work, and sell more books!

Sep 18, 2019 • 34:56

SPA Girls Podcast – EP204 – Snappy Beginnings With Amy Andrews

SPA Girls Podcast – EP204 – Snappy Beginnings With Amy Andrews

Ever been in a bookstore and opened a book to read the first couple of pages? (Or clicked the look inside on Amazon?) Ever put the book back, deciding it wasn’t that interesting? Yep, we have too. And that’s exactly what we talk to Australian romantic comedy author Amy Andrews about this week. She takes us through the concept of first pages, and how to make sure readers not only pick up your book, but find they can’t put it down again (until they’ve r

Sep 11, 2019 • 43:40

SPA Girls – EP203 – How to Fail to Succeed

SPA Girls – EP203 – How to Fail to Succeed

Do you feel like your writing career is filled with mistakes? Failures? Problems? Good! That means you’re putting yourself out there, trying new things, and moving in a positive direction in your writing career. If you’re not doing any of the above…start right now! Why, you ask, in horror? Because having a pile of failures next to your name means you’re getting out there and doing things in your author business. If you talk to the most successful entr

Sep 4, 2019 • 32:31

SPA Girls Podcast – EP202 – Bookbub Ads With Melissa Storm

SPA Girls Podcast – EP202 – Bookbub Ads With Melissa Storm

If you’ve been thinking about trying out Bookbub ads, then this is the episode for you! Melissa Storm was at the RWNZ conference in Christchurch with us, and we stole her away and made her tell us all about Bookbub ads just for you, our lovely listeners… From what Bookbub ads actually are, to what you’ll need to set one up, and all the tips and tricks in between, Melissa gives us everything you’ll need to be successful. Don’t miss this episode,

Aug 28, 2019 • 36:35

SPA Girls Podcast – EP201 – How To Avoid Saggy Middles

SPA Girls Podcast – EP201 – How To Avoid Saggy Middles

We’ve all had experience with saggy middles… (And no, we’re not talking about our stomachs…) Have you ever gotten to the middle of your manuscript and wondered what on earth you’re doing? Do you end up cleaning the whole house instead of getting back to your daily word count? Does it feel like you’re typing through concrete, and you couldn’t concentrate on getting more words down for the life of you? This is the episode for you! We talk about th

Aug 21, 2019 • 32:13

SPA Girls Podcast – EP200 – What We’ve Learned From Our Amazing Guests

SPA Girls Podcast – EP200 – What We’ve Learned From Our Amazing Guests

Here it is. Our 200th Episode! Yay! Who’d have thought that we’d ever make it this far?? First of all, we’d like to say thank you to everyone who listens to the show, we appreciate you all! It’s been an amazing few years, and we’ve loved every minute of it. This week is a celebration episode, where we look back over those 200 episodes, and talk about the common traits of all the successful self publishers we’ve spoken to.  From the humbleness of Bella And

Aug 14, 2019 • 43:48

SPA Girls Podcast – EP199 – Interview with Adam Croft

SPA Girls Podcast – EP199 – Interview with Adam Croft

Want to hear how a world-wide bestselling author got to where he is today?  Join us as we talk to UK crime novelist Adam Croft about his writing career, including how he generates his ideas, how he writes, and how he creates those amazing hooks that he’s so well known for. (No, really, would you murder your wife to save your daughter? And what would happen if you were married to a serial killer?)  He also discusses the mindset shift he had to have before he could become a bestselling author a

Aug 7, 2019 • 30:32

SPA Girls Podcast – EP198 – Find Your Sparkle With Julie Schooler

SPA Girls Podcast – EP198 – Find Your Sparkle With Julie Schooler

Has your sparkle gone soggy? Are you wondering why you’re not happier? Have you lost your creativity? Then this is the episode for you! We talk to fellow Kiwi author, Julie Schooler, about how to find your sparkle, and wake up happier! Many of us have lost the ability to dream big. We’re dealing with problems at every turn. It’s actually harder to be happy than it is to be sad. So in this episode, Julie gives us a whole bunch of really cool ways to ac

Jul 31, 2019 • 40:34

SPA Girls Podcast – EP197 – Hack Your Muse With Kelly McClymer

SPA Girls Podcast – EP197 – Hack Your Muse With Kelly McClymer

Are you struggling to write? Wondering why you can’t just sit down and do it, when it’s your passion? This week we talk to Kelly McClymer about “Hacking Your Muse”, or how to convince yourself to sit down and write when you don’t seem to be able to do it…  We all give ourselves excuses for why we can’t write, and Kelly breaks down the thoughts we have around writing, and how to change them so we can more easily get into the chair and write.&nbsp

Jul 25, 2019 • 56:40

SPA Girls Podcast – EP196 – Public Speaking for Authors

SPA Girls Podcast – EP196 – Public Speaking for Authors

Terrified of public speaking? Don’t know what to say on Facebook Live? Wondering how to keep your cool in that podcast interview? This is the episode for you! Public speaking for authors is about more than just talking in front of fans at your local bookstore. These days we’re also expected to do online speaking such as Facebook Live events, videos for our newsletters, podcast interviews, and YouTube discussions. Our guest today has ALL THE TIPS for any ki

Jul 16, 2019 • 45:57

SPA Girls Podcast – EP195 – The Magic Pill For Authors

SPA Girls Podcast – EP195 – The Magic Pill For Authors

We all want a magic wand to be waved over us, or to swallow a pill and instantly be amazing authors. But that’s just not possible.  Learning to write takes time and hard work. There’s no way around it. This week’s guest, fantasy author Laura Van Arendonk-Baugh, talks about our expectations as authors, and why we think we’re going to be amazing right from the moment we first pick up a pen (or put fingers to the keyboard).  And she should know. She’s a behav

Jul 9, 2019 • 37:32

SPA Girls Podcast – EP194 – A Day In The Life Of A Writer

SPA Girls Podcast – EP194 – A Day In The Life Of A Writer

Ever wondered how the SPA Girls spend their days? Imagining champagne and caviar at fancy hotels? This is the episode where you find out for sure… We talk through how we spend our days; from when we get up, how many hours we work, how many words we write, and how much marketing we do. We talk about our distractions, how we structure our days and the challenges of working from home. Before you ask, this was a reader question, so we’re not just doing it becau

Jul 3, 2019 • 47:22

SPA Girls Podcast – EP193 – Keeping It Simple

SPA Girls Podcast – EP193 – Keeping It Simple

There’s so much advice out there in Self-Publishing-Land. We’re told you have to do this, and you have to do that, and you have to do the next thing to be a success in self publishing. There’s so much conflicting advice that it can actually do your head in… This week, we go through some of the things that you can do to keep your self publishing career on track. How to keep it simple and not get caught up in ALL THE THINGS… Keeping it simple is a

Jun 26, 2019 • 37:18

SPA Girls Podcast – EP192 – Seven-Figure Success With Skye Warren – Part 2

SPA Girls Podcast – EP192 – Seven-Figure Success With Skye Warren – Part 2

This is the second episode in the interview series with bestselling author and Facebook guru, Skye Warren. Skye has had a fascinating author journey, and in this second episode she talks to us about the changes she had to make with regards to her mindset before she could become successful as an author. If you’ve ever said that you can’t do something that you know you need to do for your career, then you have to listen to this episode (and you probably need to have a look at

Jun 18, 2019 • 35:42

SPA Girls Podcast – EP191 – Seven-Figure Success With Skye Warren

SPA Girls Podcast – EP191 – Seven-Figure Success With Skye Warren

Ever thought that if only you had more time in your day, you’d be successful? Rich? How you’d get all your writing done? Well, this is the podcast for you! When romance author Skye Warren went from being able to work all hours of the day to only being able to manage two hours every day, she had to figure out how to keep money from her writing coming in. And fast. She had a mortgage and other bills to pay. What she learned was that by focusing her efforts, she was

Jun 12, 2019 • 30:58

SPA Girls Podcast – EP190 – Dictation With Scott Baker

SPA Girls Podcast – EP190 – Dictation With Scott Baker

Are your wrists giving you problems? Thinking you need to get out and walk more? But still have to write all those books?? Then this episode is for you… We talk to dictation expert Scott Baker about all aspects of dictation, from the right software to get, the products and technical knowledge you need to get started, and how to train that dragon to within an inch of its life!! Scott talks to us about everything from how to set up the dictation equipment correctly, the

Jun 4, 2019 • 59:11

SPA Girls Podcast – EP189 – Pantsing with Patricia McLinn

SPA Girls Podcast – EP189 – Pantsing with Patricia McLinn

If you’re a writer who struggles to outline, you’ll love this week’s podcast! We talk to Patricia McLinn, a USA Today bestselling author of mystery and romance, who is also a pantser who writes out of sequence. She’s here to tell you that it doesn’t matter how you write it, as long as it comes together in the end!  Patricia worked at the Washington Post for more than 20 years, is a past president of NINC, and has published more than 50 novels (at least that&#8217

May 29, 2019 • 1:02:11

SPA Girls Podcast – EP188 – Cozy Mysteries With Morgana Best

SPA Girls Podcast – EP188 – Cozy Mysteries With Morgana Best

Morgana Best is the best-selling author of over 40 Cozy Mysteries, and she joins us in the SPA to tell us everything she knows about writing Cozies. From word counts to reader expectations, and even her writing process – which involves using Dragon Dictate, and is totally fascinating – Morgana gives us insider information on how to put together a bestselling Cozy Mystery. She also talks about her daily schedule, her marketing techniques and how she chooses her victims&#8230

May 22, 2019 • 54:46

SPA Girls Podcast – EP187 – Interview With Forensics Expert Geoff Symon

SPA Girls Podcast – EP187 – Interview With Forensics Expert Geoff Symon

Want to figure out how to create the perfect crime for your cozy mystery character to solve? Or find out how your investigator protagonist would investigate a murder? Perhaps you just want to discover what investigators look for at a crime scene so you can figure out what to plant at your fictitious scene? Well, your questions will all be answered during this in-depth chat with Federal Law Enforcement Special Agent, Geoff Symon. For more than 20 years, Geoff has been using

May 15, 2019 • 59:54

SPA Girls Podcast – EP186 – What Authors Get Wrong About Weapons of Mass Destruction

SPA Girls Podcast – EP186 – What Authors Get Wrong About Weapons of Mass Destruction

Have you ever wondered whether your character would survive holding highly enriched uranium metal in their hand? What about if they’d handled that green goo from the barrel marked with a radiation symbol? That’s the kind of knowledge that you’ll get from listening to this hilarious episode of the SPA Girls Podcast. We talk to Natasha Bajema, an expert in national security issues, especially weapons of mass destruction (WMD), nuclear proliferation and emerging technolog

May 8, 2019 • 52:01

SPA Girls Podcast – EP185 – Interview with the Writer’s Detective, Adam Richardson

SPA Girls Podcast – EP185 – Interview with the Writer’s Detective, Adam Richardson

It’s the start of Mystery May, and we have a doozy to start you off! The SPA Girls spent time with Adam Richardson, an American cop who helps authors and screenwriters with their crime-fiction questions through his website and podcast called the Writer’s Detective Bureau. He knows his stuff – Adam spent seventeen years of his 20+ year law enforcement career as a detective – and he was able to answer all our silly/strange/just-plain-dumb questions about being a cop in

May 1, 2019 • 55:47

SPA Girls Podcast – EP184 – Keeping The Faith

SPA Girls Podcast – EP184 – Keeping The Faith

Do you have family and friends telling you not to write? Do they tell you that you’ve got your head in the clouds, and you need to get a real job? Perhaps people ask you how your little hobby is going, like it’s not a real career? Don’t let them get you down! Based on a listener question, this week the SPA Girls talk about how to deal with negativity from the people around you (especially in the beginning when you’re starting out) and how to turn it around

Apr 24, 2019 • 37:10

SPA Girls Podcast – EP183 -Facebook Ads with Maria Luis (Part Two)

SPA Girls Podcast – EP183 -Facebook Ads with Maria Luis (Part Two)

Are your Facebook ads as successful as you want them to be? Do you wish you could make the kind of ads you’ve heard other authors boasting about? This is the episode for you! This week we delve back into Facebook Ads with Amazon Bestselling Author and all around lovely lady Maria Luis… She takes what she talked about last week, and adds to it, giving us the lowdown on how to make an ad convert into sales. Maria is super knowledgeable and informative, and gives us some amazing

Apr 17, 2019 • 55:32

SPA Girls Podcast – EP182 – Facebook Ads with Maria Luis (Part One)

SPA Girls Podcast – EP182 – Facebook Ads with Maria Luis (Part One)

Not sure about how Facebook Ads work? Need to learn the basics? Join the SPA Girls as bestselling author Maria Luis breaks down Facebook Ads for us, from the beginning steps, to how to choose the best images; plus what to do, and what not to do, and everything in between! This is the first part of a two-part series on Facebook Ads from an author who has been successfully running her own ads for the last two years. It features loads of tips and advice for running ads, how to tell if it&#

Apr 10, 2019 • 50:55

SPA Girls Podcast – EP181 – Learn Dictation With Kilby Blades

SPA Girls Podcast – EP181 – Learn Dictation With Kilby Blades

If you’ve ever thought you’d like to try dictation, this is the episode for you. We talk to award-winning indie author Kilby Blades about how she amped up her hourly writing rates by learning dictation. It’s the ultimate skill – being able to use that down-time in the car, on walks, or even as you’re doing the dishes to keep writing. The SPA Girls were all enthralled as we pumped Kilby for information, and she didn’t disappoint! Learn about her methods, h

Apr 3, 2019 • 48:50

SPA Girls Podcast – EP180 – Book Descriptions with Brian Meeks

SPA Girls Podcast – EP180 – Book Descriptions with Brian Meeks

Ever wondered if your book description could be better? Ever thought it should sell more books? Then this is the episode for you. Brian Meeks, description-writer extraordinaire, talks with us about how to write a kick-ass description that will sell more books, and help amp up your advertising sales. Turns out, it’s all about copywriting. And writing the best hooks you possibly can. Lucky for us, Brian takes us through every aspect of writing hooks to help you writ

Mar 27, 2019 • 1:01:10

SPA Girls Podcast – EP179 – Interview with Tara Cremin from Kobo

SPA Girls Podcast – EP179 – Interview with Tara Cremin from Kobo

This week we talk to Tara Cremin, Author Experience Manager from Kobo Writing Life. It’s always great to chat to someone from each of the platforms for the real insider information, and Tara didn’t disappoint! For those of you who’ve never loaded a book to Kobo, Tara talks us through the process and why you should load direct instead of through one of the other aggregators. She also gives us the down-low on boxed sets, pricing, and promotions through Kobo, and how to make su

Mar 20, 2019 • 35:10

SPA Girls Podcast – EP178 – Newsletter Strategies with Larissa Reynolds, Part 2

SPA Girls Podcast – EP178 – Newsletter Strategies with Larissa Reynolds, Part 2

What’s the one objection you have to overcome to get readers to buy your book? That question is the cliffhanger that Larissa Reynolds left us on in part 1. And now, here it is! The episode where you get to find out the answer… In this second episode about newsletters, Larissa Reynolds talks to us about how to sell your books consistently via your list. She’s been writing newsletters for more than 20 years, and says it’s about more than just sending regular email

Mar 12, 2019 • 46:40

SPA Girls Podcast – EP177 – Successful Newsletter Strategies with Larissa Reynolds

SPA Girls Podcast – EP177 – Successful Newsletter Strategies with Larissa Reynolds

Have you been worrying about whether your author newsletter is working as it should? Or perhaps you’re wondering if you should even start one? This is the SPA Girls episode for you! Today we’re talking to Larissa Reynolds – a marketing guru with years of experience working with authors on their newsletters – about what you need to have in your author newsletter.  It can be overwhelming when you first start out, and a newsletter can sometimes seem like a step too far.

Mar 6, 2019 • 45:19

SPA Girls Podcast – EP176 – How to Speak Self Publishing

SPA Girls Podcast – EP176 – How to Speak Self Publishing

Ever listened to someone talking about self publishing and been mystified about what they’re actually saying? Maybe understood about one in every three words? It’s a common problem, and one we sometimes come across ourselves, as things change in the industry and new jargon hits the streets. Added to that, even if you decide to look it up online, it’s sometimes not easy to understand. That’s where the SPA Girls come in. This episode we go through all the self publishing jargon we could think o

Feb 27, 2019 • 28:35

SPA Girls Podcast – EP175 – How To Make Facebook Work For You

SPA Girls Podcast – EP175 – How To Make Facebook Work For You

We often get asked what authors should post on Facebook, and whether it's worthwhile even being on the platform at all. The answer from the SPA is a firm yes, we believe Facebook is a really useful tool for authors, especially in romance. There are many positives to having a presence on the social platform, not least of which is the ability to find and connect with readers and other authors.  So this week we break down the platform and talk about the different areas that are useful to know about

Feb 20, 2019 • 33:46

SPA Girls Podcast – EP174 – How To Write A Regency Romance

SPA Girls Podcast – EP174 – How To Write A Regency Romance

This episode we talk to our very own Wendy Vella about writing Regency romance. Since 2013, Wendy has forged a very successful indie career writing historical and contemporary romance. Her Regencies have been on the Amazon’s top seller lists many times and collectively she’s sold over one million books to date. Like many romance writers, Wendy cut her historical reading teeth on Georgette Heyer, and then discovered the wonderful worlds of Eloisa James, Stephanie Laurens, Julia Quinn and Lisa

Feb 13, 2019 • 30:11

SPA Girls Podcast – EP173 – How To Identify Your Writing Weaknesses

SPA Girls Podcast – EP173 – How To Identify Your Writing Weaknesses

Today’s episode was inspired by a comment on our podcast website www.SpaGirlsPodcast.com by listener Carron, who asked “…when you’re starting out (writing) how do you know what weaknesses to focus on? You don’t know what you don’t know. Love to hear an episode on things to work on, or things you ladies have struggled with and how you’ve gone about correcting them.“ Carron makes a really good point and we’re kinda kicking ourselves that we haven’t discussed this before. We’ve all been in “the

Feb 6, 2019 • 30:36

SPA Girls Podcast – EP172 – Interview with Dan Wood from Draft2Digital

SPA Girls Podcast – EP172 – Interview with Dan Wood from Draft2Digital

The delightful Dan Wood joined us in the SPA today to talk about the Indie distribution channel Draft2Digital. It's an informative hour-long interview with Dan, who attends 20 plus author conferences a year, and has his finger on the pulse of Indie publishing. He not only explains everything that Draft2Digital offers indie authors - from free formatting for your ebooks and Universal book links to audiobooks and print books - he also talks knowledgeably about the industry, gives advice on how to

Jan 30, 2019 • 1:04:17

SPA Girls Podcast – EP171 – Interview With Serenity Woods

SPA Girls Podcast – EP171 – Interview With Serenity Woods

We are delighted to welcome romance author, Serenity Woods, to the SPA today. Serenity lives in the sub-tropical Northland of New Zealand. She is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance and has been published since 2011 and self-published since 2013.​Serenity is incredibly business savvy and prolific. To date, she’s published 65 books across many different romance series, and she is a USA Today bestselling author, reaching #53 on the USA Today bestseller list with her Three Wis

Jan 23, 2019 • 59:56

SPA Girls Podcast – EP170 – Get Your Head In The Game

SPA Girls Podcast – EP170 – Get Your Head In The Game

Are you motivated or disillusioned by all the “end of year earnings” screenshots some authors post? For some of us, it’s incredibly inspiring; others find it a distraction or even a bit depressing! There is no “right” answer – the trick is understanding yourself and this week we talk about the things you CAN control and why you should feel super positive about that! We also discuss Melissa Storm’s Litring Reader Survey which shows some very encouraging reader buying behaviour that can help yo

Jan 15, 2019 • 28:53

SPA Girls Podcast – EP169 – 5 Goals You Need To Make In 2019

SPA Girls Podcast – EP169 – 5 Goals You Need To Make In 2019

Goals! We’re all so excited about them at the beginning of January, and then we feel them like chains around our necks by the end of the month. (Well, here in the SPA we do. Maybe you’re able to make it into February without feeling like you’re never going to make them work…hehe) What we’ve decided is that instead of overwhelming yourself with ALL THE GOALS, if you set one goal in these five areas, for a shorter period of time (we’re suggesting 12 weeks) then you’re more likely to make them happ

Jan 9, 2019 • 44:11

SPA Girls Podcast – EP168 – 31 Marketing Ideas To Jumpstart Your Year

SPA Girls Podcast – EP168 – 31 Marketing Ideas To Jumpstart Your Year

This year we decided to begin with something a little different… Instead of the usual “motivational and uplifting” or “beginning of the year goal setting” type show, we thought we’d give you 31 quick and easy marketing ideas that you can do each day to give you a solid start to 2019. It’s a great way to show you how little jobs done daily can add up quickly to make something pretty great. You’ll be amazed at the results you can achieve from what seems like a tiny daily effort! You can do each an

Jan 2, 2019 • 26:24

SPA Girls Podcast – EP167 – Scheduling To Save Time

SPA Girls Podcast – EP167 – Scheduling To Save Time

If you’re trying to find a few more minutes in your day for writing, then this episode is for you. We talk about how you can use scheduling to be more productive, free up time and get stuff done. Each of the SPA Girls uses different kinds of scheduling to make certain repetitive tasks easier and faster, and we share them all for you in this informative episode!     SHOW NOTES:  WHAT IS SCHEDULING? WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? It’s easy to let the time fly away through your fingers, telling yourself it’

Dec 25, 2018 • 52:17

SPA Girls Podcast – EP166 – Retrospective Of The Best Of 2018

SPA Girls Podcast – EP166 – Retrospective Of The Best Of 2018

Merry Christmas from the SPA Girls! We hope you all have the best of everything this festive season, and that you get to spend the big day with the people you love. (And failing that, some chocolate and a good book.)  In the spirit of giving, we've created an episode full of tips and tricks, advice, with the best of 2018 crammed into one small (ish) episode. (Okay, not so small). Join us for a retrospective of 2018 to find out what we did right, what we did wrong, and how you can learn from us

Dec 19, 2018 • 58:30

SPA Girls Podcast – EP165 – He Said, She Said – Creating Dazzling Dialogue

SPA Girls Podcast – EP165 – He Said, She Said – Creating Dazzling Dialogue

Love or hate it, dialogue is an essential element to fiction writing. Done well, dialogue can be very powerful. We know and understand the subtext of dialogue without having to be told, and writers can use this to create amazing scenes and tense moments. Done badly, however, dialogue can kick your readers out of the scene, make them frustrated and ultimately stop reading. So how do you make sure your dialogue sings instead of stinks? Easy peasy! Just listen to this episode… 🙂 Today in the SPA

Dec 12, 2018 • 0:00

SPA Girls Podcast – EP164 – Talking Reverse Harem with Steffanie Holmes

SPA Girls Podcast – EP164 – Talking Reverse Harem with Steffanie Holmes

We’ve talked about reverse harem a little bit on the show, but this week we decided to get someone on who knows all about it, so we could pick their brains… Mwahahaha… We convinced USA Today Bestselling paranormal romance author Steffanie Holmes to come on the show and chat about exactly what reverse harem is, how she came to write reverse harem novels, what you need to know about it, and how she so successfully launched her recent series. Steff is a very smart author, and she’s steeped in the

Dec 5, 2018 • 59:45

SPA Girls Podcast – EP163 – Interview With Kelly St Clare

SPA Girls Podcast – EP163 – Interview With Kelly St Clare

The delightful USA Today bestselling author Kelly St Clare talks to the SPA Girls this week about how she moved from being a physiotherapist in a busy clinic to her current career as an Amazon bestselling author of young adult fantasy novels.  Kelly was fascinating because as well as all her fantastic tips on writing, time management and marketing, she was also able to give us some great advice on how to stay healthy as an author.  We all had some epiphany moments in this episode, from Kelly's

Nov 29, 2018 • 51:48

SPA Girls Podcast – EP162 – How To Launch Like A Pro

SPA Girls Podcast – EP162 – How To Launch Like A Pro

In response to a few recent questions we’ve been asked on this topic, we decided to talk through the basics of launch strategies for first-time or early career authors, or for authors starting off a new series or pen name. It’s sometimes difficult to know what you should do when you’re launching a new book. We all want to make sure our book babies do as well as they possibly can when we launch, but there’s also a whole lot of often contradictory advice out there on the best way to do it. This ep

Nov 21, 2018 • 47:33

SPA Girls Podcast – EP161 – Cracking Christmas Promo Ideas

SPA Girls Podcast – EP161 – Cracking Christmas Promo Ideas

With the holiday season fast approaching, the SPA Girls gathered to talk about their list of 12 Ideas For Christmas Promotion. Between the shopping, the relative wrangling, the wallet-aches and the end-of-year energy slump, it can be hard to manage your author promotion on top of that! Listen up and we’ll (hopefully) ease your stress and you can go into the New Year refreshed and ready to rock your goals! 1.Do your own 12 days of Christmas promo 2.Plan out your FB posts, run holiday themed ads 3

Nov 15, 2018 • 31:55

SPA Girls Podcast – EP160 – Wide Versus Exclusive – Which Is Better?

SPA Girls Podcast – EP160 – Wide Versus Exclusive – Which Is Better?

It’s one of the big questions in the Indie author space, and hotly debated by many on either side. This week we talk about the pros and cons of going wide on all platforms versus going exclusive to Amazon. No one seems to have a definitive answer to whether it’s better to do one or the other, and it can seem confusing and overwhelming. So the SPA Girls sat down and worked through what it means to go wide on all the publishing platforms, what you’ll get from it that you won’t get if you’re exclus

Nov 7, 2018 • 51:39

SPA Girls Podcast – EP159 – Interview With Kathryn Le Veque

SPA Girls Podcast – EP159 – Interview With Kathryn Le Veque

This is a powerhouse episode! Be warned – it’ll inspire you SO much to knuckle down and get to work, you may not come up for air for days! KATHRYN LE VEQUE is a critically acclaimed USA TODAY Bestselling author, a charter Amazon All-Star author, and a #1 bestselling, award-winning, multi-published author in Medieval Historical Romance and Contemporary Romance. Kathryn was the winner of Uncaged Book Reviews Magazine “Raven Award” for Favorite Medieval Romance (Vestiges of Valor) and Favorite Cove

Oct 31, 2018 • 47:31

SPA Girls Podcast – EP158 – Some Like It Hot ….Or Not

SPA Girls Podcast – EP158 – Some Like It Hot ….Or Not

This week we put on our flame retardant suits and discuss how to define the heat level of your story – and why it’s important to know. There is no standard or uniform code to heat levels, so writers and readers can face a few challenges: what one reader may consider “hot,” another might consider “mild” or vice versa. With books there’s no certified ratings system a la the movies.  And to further complicate things, if you’re looking at the hybrid route, publishers and agents also have different

Oct 24, 2018 • 45:19

SPA Girls Podcast – EP157 – Interview with Louisa George

SPA Girls Podcast – EP157 – Interview with Louisa George

Our fabulous guest this week is award-winning romance author Louisa George. We talk with Louisa about how she balances the demands of being a “hybrid” author, publishing traditionally (Medical Romance and Women’s Fiction with Harlequin Mills & Boon) and self-publishing her romantic comedies. As Louisa says, self-publishing offers a creative freedom that we love, but that freedom can need some “structure” to ensure deadlines are met and, most importantly, reader expectations are met. Louisa’s suc

Oct 17, 2018 • 30:42

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 156 – The Kindness Factor

SPA Girls Podcast – EP 156 – The Kindness Factor

This week Wendy, Cheryl and Shar talk about “the Kindness Factor” – how we can achieve more but put less pressure on ourselves. Impossible you say?  As we push ourselves to write more, to learn more and to get up to grips with this self-publishing world, there’s often an unwanted side effect: a lot of us are really hard on ourselves and we’re not enjoying our writer’s life. Research shows that the happier you are, the more productive you are, so with that in mind we have our SPA Girls Top Five

Oct 9, 2018 • 33:44

SPA Girls Podcast – EP155 – Self Editing for Authors

SPA Girls Podcast – EP155 – Self Editing for Authors

This week we talk about self editing, and how to get your manuscript to the highest possible standard before sending it to your professional editor. Everyone will have a different style, focus and ideas on the best way to do self editing, and it’s the kind of thing that’s different for different people. No one does it the same, and that’s okay. But as always, we give a load of tips and advice on how we do it, what works and what doesn’t. Find your own style Don’t get stuck self-editing first cha

Oct 2, 2018 • 52:10

SPA Girls Podcast – EP154 – The Power Of Four

SPA Girls Podcast – EP154 – The Power Of Four

This week we talk about the power of four, or how working and interacting with other authors can amp up your author career. Using our experiences in the SPA, we talk about how having other writers to talk to, offer support, give advice and ideas, and walk the same path gives you a huge boost. We’ve all said that none of us would be as far along in our careers if we didn’t have the other SPA Girls. And we don’t think we’re unique. There are thousands of other groups of writers who are helping and

Sep 25, 2018 • 42:33

SPA Girls Podcast – EP153 – From Cookie Cutter To Kapow: Bringing Your Characters To Life

SPA Girls Podcast – EP153 – From Cookie Cutter To Kapow: Bringing Your Characters To Life

Name your favourite character from any book you’ve ever read. What did you like best about that character? Was it how they acted? Was it their personality, or because they stood up for something they believed in? Those are the kinds of questions you should be asking when you’re designing the characters for your next book. This week our topic is how to create characters that your readers will love, and with that in mind we dissect what makes a good character and how you can create characters for

Sep 19, 2018 • 56:05

SPA Girls Podcast – EP152 – Interview with Tina Dietz About Audiobooks

SPA Girls Podcast – EP152 – Interview with Tina Dietz About Audiobooks

This week we have the fabulous Tina Dietz, an expert in the area of audio, podcasting and audiobooks, who talks to us about the ways we can be using audio in our writing careers. She gives us the low down on audiobooks, how to get them recorded, how they fit into the marketing of your other book formats, and how to promote/market them to your audience. She also talks about the expanding audiobook industry and why we should all be considering adding audiobooks to our inventory of books. Tina gave

Sep 12, 2018 • 41:19

SPA Girls Podcast – EP151 – Interview With Grace Burrowes

SPA Girls Podcast – EP151 – Interview With Grace Burrowes

This week we have the delightful Grace Burrowes on the show, chatting to Cheryl and Wendy about her career, why she started writing, and how she stays authentic, and why she uses blogging to connect to readers. A New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author, Grace says she’s a recovering child welfare attorney, who for years turned to the reliable HEA of romance novels to balance out the stress in her life as a litigator. This is a delightful interview with a smart, savvy author who is very o

Sep 5, 2018 • 34:06

SPA Girls Podcast – EP150 – Should I Prune My Mailing List?

SPA Girls Podcast – EP150 – Should I Prune My Mailing List?

The recent kerfuffles with MailerLite raised an interesting point for those of us in the SPA – should we be pruning our mailing lists, and if so, how do we go about doing that? This week we talk about mailing list health, what it actually means, and how to make sure your mailing list is the best it can be. This includes everything from when to cull people from your list, how to try to re-engage with people who don’t seem to be engaging, how to ensure you have the best quality list you can have,

Aug 29, 2018 • 34:56

SPA Girls Podcast – EP149 – Killer Interview with Damon Suede and Geoff Symon

SPA Girls Podcast – EP149 – Killer Interview with Damon Suede and Geoff Symon

This week Wendy and Cher sit down in a fairly noisy cafe with Indie author Damon Suede and his partner, Geoff Symon. The f-bomb went off fairly early in the piece, so if you’re offended by swear words… you should still listen because all the rest of the words out of their mouths were gold… 🙂 Damon published his first novel, Hot Head, in 2011, which has since been named one of ‘Top 100 Romance Novels of All Time’ on Goodreads. He’s currently on the board of directors for Romance Writers of Ameri

Aug 22, 2018 • 43:27

SPA Girls Podcast – EP148 – Interview with Indie Superstar Bella Andre

SPA Girls Podcast – EP148 – Interview with Indie Superstar Bella Andre

Today’s interview is a must-listen interview with… Indie Superstar Bella Andre! We were super excited to be able to chat to Bella, who it turns out is the most lovely, down-to-earth person we’ve interviewed so far, plus being super inspirational. She was in New Zealand for the Romance Writers of New Zealand conference, and we were able to kidnap and interview her about self-publishing, how she made it as an Indie, and her advice for people aiming to follow in her footsteps… We had such a grea

Aug 15, 2018 • 54:37

SPA Girls Podcast – EP147 – Top Ten Traits for Self-Publishing Success

SPA Girls Podcast – EP147 – Top Ten Traits for Self-Publishing Success

This week we talk about the top ten traits we believe you need to have to be a successful self-published author. These include, among other things, having a thick skin, being willing to take risks and staying focused. They’re not always easy, and some involve practice and mindfulness, but if you manage to get everything on this list right, we believe you’ll be on the road to success. It might seen weird to talk about stuff like this being super important over things like knowing how to put a boo

Aug 8, 2018 • 43:05

SPA Girls Podcast – EP146 – Interview with Becca Syme on Writing Better Faster

SPA Girls Podcast – EP146 – Interview with Becca Syme on Writing Better Faster

We had a fantastic guest this week in the form of Becca Syme, Cosy Mystery author, writing coach, teacher of the Write Better-Faster course, and podcaster at the Smarty Pants Marketing podcast. Becca talks to us about how we can all write better-faster in our writing careers, using our own unique skills to improve your chances of success. It’s not about tips and techniques for getting more words per hour – it’s about understanding who you are as a writer, your strengths within that, and using th

Aug 1, 2018 • 52:14

SPA Girls Podcast – EP145 – Newsletter Ninja Tammi Labrecque

SPA Girls Podcast – EP145 – Newsletter Ninja Tammi Labrecque

This week we’re joined by the Newsletter Ninja, Tammi Labrecque, who talks to us about creating an amazing author newsletter that will help amp up your writing career. She talks about why every author needs a newsletter, and how to turn the people who sign up for your list into super-fans who will buy every book you write. Tammi also gives us a whole heap of tips on what kind of content to put into your newsletter, how to find the perfect subscribers for your books, and when to cut subscribers f

Jul 25, 2018 • 57:03

SPA Girls Podcast – EP144 – Looking After Your Creative Health

SPA Girls Podcast – EP144 – Looking After Your Creative Health

This week we talk about our own creative health, where we are at, and how we are attempting to ensure our creativity wells don’t try up. We use examples from our own writing lives, and give a whole bunch of suggestions for how you, too, can plan and execute your own creative health plans to ensure that you can keep writing, despite the other stresses in your lives. As Shar says, it’s about keeping your muse massaged and your creative health tank topped up, and of course, the writing flowing…

Jul 18, 2018 • 41:20

SPA Girls Podcast – EP143 – Interview with Carlyn Robertson from BookBub

SPA Girls Podcast – EP143 – Interview with Carlyn Robertson from BookBub

This week we were lucky enough to talk to the delightful Carlyn Robertson from BookBub, all about how the email advertising platform works, and how it can help you as an author. For some authors, BookBub has literally been a game changer, and it’s well known in the Indie community as a way you can get a massive boost in sales. The downside is that every man and his dog wants to get a BookBub ad, and they get hundreds of applications every day, making it really freaking difficult to get a BookBub

Jul 11, 2018 • 54:42

SPA Girls Podcast – EP142 – Personal Branding for Authors with Lauren Clemett

SPA Girls Podcast – EP142 – Personal Branding for Authors with Lauren Clemett

This week we were privileged to have personal branding expert Lauren Clemett with us to discuss how to create your personal author brand, and why it’s so important. Based in Australia, Lauren has a wealth of experience with advertising, marketing and branding from a distinguished career in England, New Zealand and Australia. She now helps entrepreneurs understand their personal brand, and how they can use that to amp up their business, and find the right clients. For us, she talks about how to c

Jul 4, 2018 • 48:18

SPA Girls Podcast – EP141 – Ten FREE Online Tools for Authors

SPA Girls Podcast – EP141 – Ten FREE Online Tools for Authors

Looking for some new online tools to help you in your publishing journey? Curious about what online time-savers other authors have, and how they use them to make their careers work better, faster, smarter? Is your budget creaking at the seams? Don’t worry, we’re here to help! This week we give you Ten FREE Online Tools and Websites that you can use to upskill, inform and educate yourself in your self-publishing journey. Every single tool we give you is something that we’ve used ourselves, and th

Jun 28, 2018 • 30:52

SPA Girls Podcast – EP140 – Tempting Tag Lines and Heart-stopping Hooks

SPA Girls Podcast – EP140 – Tempting Tag Lines and Heart-stopping Hooks

Ever tried to distill your book down into the ultimate one-sentence tagline that will sell it to everyone you know? Yeah, so have we. It’s a nightmare, right? In this episode of the SPA Girls Podcast we break down hooks – what they are, why they’re important, and how to actually find one in your story. To make it just that little bit easier for you, we use examples from actual books, and then use those examples to understand hooks just that little bit better. Then we talk about how to craft a ho

Jun 20, 2018 • 44:32

SPA Girls Podcast – EP139 – Kelly Lytle from Findaway Voices

SPA Girls Podcast – EP139 – Kelly Lytle from Findaway Voices

This week we have Kelly Lytle from Findaway Voices with us in the SPA to talk about creating audio books for Indie authors. If you’ve ever considered creating an audio book, but were concerned about the price, the technology or the difficulty involved, then this episode is a must listen. Kelly takes us through the whole process of creating and distributing an audio book with Findaway Voices, from the very moment an author contacts them, to finding the perfect narrator, to pricing, and then to th

Jun 14, 2018 • 1:07:23

SPA Girls Podcast – EP138 – Getting Your Motivation Back

SPA Girls Podcast – EP138 – Getting Your Motivation Back

This week we talk about how to get yourself motivated again after life gets in the way. It could be illness, personal issues, a holiday, an injury or even just your own negative self talk. Whatever it is that has stopped you from doing the amount of writing you want to do, we’re here to bust those barriers down and find ways to get you back on track. We’ve all experienced it at some point in our lives; that feeling that you’re wading through the quicksand, your body and mind not working as quick

Jun 5, 2018 • 42:31

SPA Girls Podcast – EP137 – Talking about Facebook LIVE with Toni Kenyon

SPA Girls Podcast – EP137 – Talking about Facebook LIVE with Toni Kenyon

This week we chat to Toni Kenyon, a New Zealand indie author of Pacific rock star and billionaire romances. She gives us the inside scoop on some of the new techniques she’s using to attract and engage with her readers. About two months ago, she decided to try two new ideas: firstly to do a regular weekly Facebook LIVE session, and secondly to write a weekly serial, where she gets reader input to decide what happens next. She talks about what she’s doing, why she decided to do it, and how it’s a

May 31, 2018 • 44:22

SPA Girls Podcast – EP136 – Dealing with Misinformation and Change in Self Publishing

SPA Girls Podcast – EP136 – Dealing with Misinformation and Change in Self Publishing

This week in the SPA we talk about how to handle changes in the Indie Publishing environment without freaking out, including where to find the information you might need about any new changes, and how to figure out if the information you’re reading on Twitter is the real deal. Whenever a new change is made at Amazon, or a new law is passed somewhere or someone figures out a new way to do something, a certain percentage of people will freak out about it. Sometimes they even have a point. But what

May 23, 2018 • 45:47

SPA Girls Podcast – EP135 – Interview with Maria Luis

SPA Girls Podcast – EP135 – Interview with Maria Luis

We were lucky enough to have contemporary romance author Maria Luis talking to us this week. She’s super marketing-savvy, and talked on a range of topics, from how her launches have changed as she’s learned more about the industry, to what kind of advertising she’s been doing and her pricing strategy.   She’s done some great reader engagement activities, including a serial on her website where she allows her readers to vote on what’s going to happen next, and she talks about that, as well as div

May 16, 2018 • 1:03:39

SPA Girls Podcast – EP134 – Interview with Kevin Tumlinson of Draft2Digital

SPA Girls Podcast – EP134 – Interview with Kevin Tumlinson of Draft2Digital

(technical note: we apologize for the audio pause in the first minute of the podcast, the gremlins (hobbits?) hit momentarily). We’re delighted to welcome Kevin Tumlinson, bestselling thriller author, and Director of Marketing for Draft2Digital into the SPA today! Kevin talks us through using Draft2Digital to format and publish your books on line, the best practices for keywords and a host of other tips for indie authors.  For many of us living outside the US, Draft2Digital is the way to access

May 9, 2018 • 36:18

SPA Girls Podcast – EP133 – Interview With Sara Rosett: Writing Cozy Mysteries

SPA Girls Podcast – EP133 – Interview With Sara Rosett: Writing Cozy Mysteries

This episode we are thrilled to talk with USA Today bestseller, Sara Rosett, about the wonderful, (sometimes) wacky and hugely popular sub-genre of Cozy Mysteries. Cozies have a rabid audience, but writers need to be sure that they’re meeting reader expectations and delivering a great puzzle, compelling characters and intriguing setting. Sara has not only been writing a number of successful cozy-mystery series since 2006, but she also teaches an online How To Outline A Cozy Mystery course –  so

May 2, 2018 • 37:52

SPA Girls Podcast – EP132 – Organization For Writers

SPA Girls Podcast – EP132 – Organization For Writers

How do you wrangle your research as a writer? Is keeping track of all your characters, setting details and story events driving you to reach for the chocolate (or vino)?  In this episode we share our processes and tips for getting organized, and tools for staying on top of those myriad of details you need to remember. Side note: this is your free pass to hit the stationery store people, so bring on the colored flags, groovy folders and sparkly stickers.   As with all things writing, there’s no o

Apr 24, 2018 • 28:00

SPA Girls Podcast – EP131 – Interview with Ricardo Fayet from Reedsy

SPA Girls Podcast – EP131 – Interview with Ricardo Fayet from Reedsy

This week we talk to Ricardo Fayet, CMO and co-founder of Reedsy, a curated site for matching authors and publishers to industry professionals like editors, designers, marketing professionals, or website designers. He explains to us how the site works, what kind of services indie authors can find on Reedsy, and how to find the best person to work with you. Reedsy is highly curated – they only accept around 3% of the industry professionals who apply to be listed – so they’re confident in the qual

Apr 18, 2018 • 44:48

SPA Girls Podcast – EP130 – Critical Care: Leverage Feedback For Success

SPA Girls Podcast – EP130 – Critical Care: Leverage Feedback For Success

The sting of even well-meant criticism can leave us reeling and it’s very hard not to take it personally. This week we discuss how to cope with criticism – from all sides: friends, other writers, readers and editors – and then figure out what to discard, and how to use the Good Stuff to improve our writing success. “Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they a

Apr 11, 2018 • 47:40

SPA Girls Podcast – EP129 – Five Branding Tips You Can Use Right Now

SPA Girls Podcast – EP129 – Five Branding Tips You Can Use Right Now

This week we’re talking about Author Branding, using the example of four different indie authors who we think are doing a fabulous job of branding themselves and their series. From Penny Reid’s romantic comedy tag line (Smart Romance) and aptly named Facebook group (Sharks of Awesome) to Michael Anderle’s extensive author’s notes and Melissa Storm’s personal connections in her newsletters, we give a range of ideas and tips that are being used by these authors that you can use to improve your bra

Apr 4, 2018 • 50:46

SPA Girls Podcast – EP128 – Interview with Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant

SPA Girls Podcast – EP128 – Interview with Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant

This week Trudi Jaye talks to Indie publishing personalities Johnny B. Truant and Sean Platt from the Story Studio Podcast (previously the Self Publishing Podcast) about their experiences in self publishing in the last few years, from the early days when they didn’t know as much about writing or marketing their books to their experiences with non fiction and creating the Smarter Artist community of authors.   They also talk about why we should call ourselves simply publishers instead of self pub

Mar 28, 2018 • 35:24

SPA Girls Podcast – EP127 – Industry Insiders Episode – Damon Courtney and Chrissy Munroe

SPA Girls Podcast – EP127 – Industry Insiders Episode – Damon Courtney and Chrissy Munroe

This week Damon Courtney, founder of BookFunnel, and Chrissy Munroe, Senior Manager Author Performance at Kobo, sit down with Trudi Jaye to discuss the Indie publishing market: what’s hot, what’s coming soon, and what they both see in their crystal balls for the future. If you’ve never heard of BookFunnel, it’s a fantastic platform that started out to help authors give away their reader magnets to newsletter subscribers. More recently it’s branched out to other services, including helping author

Mar 21, 2018 • 48:16

SPA Girls Podcast – EP126 – Smarter Artist Summit 2018 Debrief

SPA Girls Podcast – EP126 – Smarter Artist Summit 2018 Debrief

This week we have extra-special guest Jami Albright on to talk about the 2018 Smarter Artist Summit, which she attended along with SPA Girl host Trudi Jaye. Trudi and Jami talk about their highlights of the summit including listening to presentations from Michael Anderle, Michelle Spiva, Honoree Corder, as well as getting to meet the huge array of smart and savvy self publishing people who all gather every year to network, connect and learn. They also talk about the presentation by BookBub repre

Mar 15, 2018 • 53:21

SPA Girls Podcast – EP125 – SAS Special Interview with Michelle Spiva

SPA Girls Podcast – EP125 – SAS Special Interview with Michelle Spiva

It’s ALL about your readers! This week we have another special episode from the 2018 Smarter Artist Summit, where Trudi Jaye sat down with the first male Deputy SPA Girl, Michael Anderle, and marketing guru and storyteller, the delightful Michelle Spiva. Michelle tells us how to amp up your connection with your readers via your characters, so that you’re writing stories they can’t put down – not even to go to the  bathroom… She covers everything from using narrative arc, pacing, and other storyt

Mar 12, 2018 • 53:16

SPA Girls Podcast – EP124 – SAS Special Interview with Michael Anderle

SPA Girls Podcast – EP124 – SAS Special Interview with Michael Anderle

This week we have an amazing interview with self publishing guru Michael Anderle, direct from the Smarter Artist Summit 2018 in Austin, Texas. Trudi Jaye was lucky enough to attend the summit and meet Michael in person, where he took the time to chat to her about his journey in self publishing, from writing his very first Kurtherian Gambit book, to creating an exciting new self-publishing model where he collaborates with multiple authors writing in his well-loved universe. Author and former SPA

Mar 7, 2018 • 1:00:55

SPA Girls Podcast – Episode 123 – Interview With Nate Vella

SPA Girls Podcast – Episode 123 – Interview With Nate Vella

Using Sports Psychology To Help Your Writing This week we talk with elite sportsman, Nathan Vella, about using tools from sports psychology to help writers. Nate has been a professional rugby player for the last seven years. In that time he has played in both New Zealand and Europe, and has amassed over 100 first class games, winning several championships. His strength besides his physical ability is his mental toughness. Nate talks with Wendy, Cheryl and Shar about applying what he has learned

Feb 28, 2018 • 33:54

SPA Girls Podcast – EP122 – How To Use Subplots to Amp Up Your Story

SPA Girls Podcast – EP122 – How To Use Subplots to Amp Up Your Story

This week we talk about a craft topic that’s been bugging Trudi – subplots. Ever since reading Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews, who does it really well, she’s been pursued by the idea that maybe she’s not doing them properly… “Subplot follows the same basic story architecture and flow as the primary plot.” ~ Story Engineering by Larry Brooks So this week, we discuss what they are, why you should be using them in your novels, and the different kinds of subplots that you could consider using in your

Feb 22, 2018 • 36:33

SPA Girls Podcast – EP121 – Interview with Scott King

SPA Girls Podcast – EP121 – Interview with Scott King

This week we had the pleasure of chatting to Scott King, author of non-fiction writing books The 5 Day Novel, Finish the Script! and his latest, Outline Your Novel. Scott has a background in teaching writing, film and scriptwriting at a college level, and has published multiple books in a variety of genres, so he’s perfectly placed to write and talk about writing to other authors. He’s also brilliant at breaking down information and making it understandable, and there were several ‘a-ha!’ moment

Feb 14, 2018 • 46:36

SPA Girls Podcast – EP120 – Should You Use a Pen Name?

SPA Girls Podcast – EP120 – Should You Use a Pen Name?

This week our topic is whether or not to use a pen name. Choosing the name to represent your writing career might seem like a simple decision, but there’s actually a whole host of things to think about when you consider what name to use – from marketing, to reader expectations and even cover dimensions – and it’s not just which name sounds the nicest. Authors have always had pen names and in the Indie environment, it’s not uncommon for an author to be managing several. We discuss our own decisio

Feb 7, 2018 • 38:17

SPA Girls Podcast – EP119 – Interview with NYT Bestselling Author Nalini Singh

SPA Girls Podcast – EP119 – Interview with NYT Bestselling Author Nalini Singh

This week we were lucky enough to convince the lovely Nalini Singh to come on the show. A fellow Kiwi, Nalini is also a very smart, savvy author who’s been on the NYT Bestseller list an incredible 27 times, and has hordes of ravenous fans the world over. Nalini is also the kind of pioneering author who knew that she would need to do more than simply write great books (you know, cause that’s easy, right?)  if she was going to make this writing malarky her career. She knew she would need to conn

Jan 31, 2018 • 1:00:12

SPA Girls Podcast – EP118 – How to Write a Successful Small Town Setting

SPA Girls Podcast – EP118 – How to Write a Successful Small Town Setting

Small town settings are a common backdrop in romance. Writers love them because they give us a landscape that we can go back to again and again, with familiar secondary characters that our readers will recognise and become attached to. Readers love them because once they’ve found a town with a cool cafe, a watering hole where all the locals hang out, and characters they can fall in love with – well, why would they want to leave? Wendy and Cheryl both have successful series featuring a small town

Jan 23, 2018 • 40:40

SPA Girls Podcast – EP117 – Dealing with Negativity and Naysayers

SPA Girls Podcast – EP117 – Dealing with Negativity and Naysayers

Do you have one of those people in your life? Someone who thinks the glass is always half empty and wants to bring you down the whole time? Negative Nellys and Doubtful Dougs are around us all the time, and this week we talk a little about ways to deal with the negativity in our lives. If you’re going to achieve everything you want to this year, you need to have some strategies to deal with the negativity and turn it around into something more positive.

Jan 19, 2018 • 48:04

SPA Girls Podcast – EP116 – Tough Mindset Questions for 2018

SPA Girls Podcast – EP116 – Tough Mindset Questions for 2018

Are you all set to achieve everything you really want to achieve in 2018? If you’re still not sure, this episode will help! We ask three really great questions around our mindset as self publishing authors for 2018, and try to answer them as honestly as we can. There are some home truths, some deep and meaningfuls, and some nearly-tears (we don’t do real tears, we’re too tough…!!) as we try to unravel what’s going to make 2018 great for the SPA Girls. It might seem simple, but the questions actu

Jan 10, 2018 • 43:32

SPA Girls Podcast – EP115 – Interview with Nicola Davidson

SPA Girls Podcast – EP115 – Interview with Nicola Davidson

This week Wendy and Cheryl talk dirty with Kiwi historical romance/erotica author Nicola Davidson, who gives them the real story of the sex lives of the aristocracy in Recency London. Nicola has delved deep into the research, and she tells a captivated Wendy and Cher (who, I imagine, blushed their way through the entire interview…) exactly what it was like in the sex clubs and private parties of the regency: from orgies and threesomes to dildos and birching, they cover it all…. 🙂 It’s a fascina

Jan 3, 2018 • 43:24

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