SPA Girls Podcast

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 also has one of the best author taglines we've seen to date: "Writing romance so steamy, her family can't look her in the eye!"

IT'S IMPORTANT TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND WHY YOU'RE POSTING ON SM:  Have a specific goal, and know why you want to achieve it. Just doing it because everyone else is doing it is a terrible reason. You won't be motivated to continue and you won't know what kind of content to put up, and you won't achieve anything.  Listen to this podcast, www.spagirlspodcast.com, where we give you some ideas and explain what platforms are available and what their focus is.

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. We had the privilege of hearing Cora speak at last year’s Romance Author Mastermind, and we knew immediately she was someone we desperately wanted on our podcast and to share her wisdom with you, our listeners.

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 teachers. We’ve compiled extensive notes to give you ideas on how to use description effectively in your writing, without overwhelming or underwhelming your readers (or yourself!) …

We are delighted to welcome back NYT and USA Today bestselling romance author, Zoe York. Zoe is not only a fabulous writer, but she's a marketing whizz who talks to us today about building a marketable genre fiction series.

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.

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 important part of her very successful Indie career. The best thing about Lucy? She's awesome, genuine, and super smart. We love having her on the show, and we know you'll get a whole bucket load of useful information for your author career in this podcast. Enjoy!

Today we’re talking with Kaye Kennedy who had the successful experience we all hope for when we start out. Using her business experience 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 and writing for as far back as she can remember, which led her to earning her degrees in English Literature. Kaye taught college composition & literature classes before switching gears entirely and becoming an entrepreneur, starting multiple businesses.  Originally from New York, Kaye now lives on the Florida coast with her husband, who often inspires her characters (she's a sucker for an alpha with a soft side).  When she isn't busy writing or running one of her companies, Kaye spends as much time as she can cuddling with her rescue mutt, Zeus, paddling on the water, or relaxing on the beach with a good book. Kaye’s Timeline: August 5, 2020: Published Book 1 August 18, 2020: Published Book 2 September 30, 2020: Published Book 3 November 11, 2020: Published Book 4 December 6, 2020: Published Christmas Novel (priced at $2.99) December 19, 2020: Published Box Set of books 1-4, plus exclusive short story (priced at $9.99) January 19, 2021: Published Book 5 February 18, 2021: Publishing Book 5.5, which is a short novella (I haven't officially announced this yet) March 18, 2021: Publishing Book 6 Kaye's website:  kayekennedy.com You’ll find all the show notes and SPA Girls Podcast episodes at: www.spagirlspodcast.com

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!

Today we're delighted to welcome fellow Kiwi, Nat Connors. Nat has recently launched KINDLETRENDS (www.kindletrends.com) - the research newsletter for authors so you can find out what's trending immediately in the kindle store in major categories, covering what's trending with new releases, covers, blurbs, keywords and a whole lot more. The SPA Girls have got the scoop on Kindletrends, so listen up! ...

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... 

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 who've have likely heard publishers talking 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 - you tube - courses - reading - group support - screwing up - unpublishing and republishing - out sourcing - pacing ourselves - facebook groups Useful links: David Gaughran talks with the SPA Girls http://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep225-amazon-decoded/ Identify Your Learning Style: https://www.uow.edu.au/student/learning-co-op/effective-studying/identify-your-learning-style/ You’ll find all the show notes and SPA Girls podcast episodes at: http://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/ Watch episode recordings on YouTube @ http://www.youtube.com/c/SPAGirlsPodcast

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.

How much can you expect to earn when you start self-publishing? What should you publish for guaranteed success? We answer these questions and more in this episode ...

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!

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. 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 get great read-through * How it affects advertising * How to deal with a "weak" book in the series * The difference between calculating wide read-through vs kindle unlimited * Tools for calculating read through including Readerlinks (https://readerlinks.com/) Great resource on Kindlepreneur from Malorie Cooper: https://kindlepreneur.com/calculate-series-read-through/ Malorie says : Your series sell-through is pretty easy to calculate. Take the sales of the last book in your series and divide that number by the sales of Book 1. Let’s say you sold 428 copies of Book 1, and 247 copies of Book 2. That gives us: 247 ÷ 428 = 57.7% That’s your total series read-through. “Many authors see something in the neighborhood of 50-60% from books 1 to 2. Unless you’re writing a more loosely connected series, the read-through from the first to the second book is very important." Knowing if a series is doing well or where it’s falling down can help to make it easier to fix going forward. Book 1 should be your best book but sometimes it’s not. What should you do if that’s the case? Listen to the episode for some great tips! ✔️ Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter with tips and resources for self-publishing authors http://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/join/ ✔️ You’ll find all the show notes and SPA Girls podcast episodes at: http://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/ ✔️ Watch episode recordings on YouTube @ http://www.youtube.com/c/SPAGirlsPodcast ✔️ Join us on Facebook and Twitter @SPAGirlsPodcast

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...

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!

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 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 believe in yourself and most of all, keep going! 

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 ...

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! Don't forget to visit us on facebook and let us know which story you think we should write!

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?

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, and what we think is the best option, no matter where you are in your writing career...

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 first book in your series is awesome and automatically sells the next book in your series to your readers! 

Why does Amazon choose someone else's book over yours to show in a search? And how can we make sure to use the best keywords for sales? Well wonder no more! We've got the answers for you in this info-packed episode ...

Today’s podcast is all about reader groups. Are they worthwhile? How they work and why you would 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.

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!

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 join the SPA Girls in a live workshop? Join our mailing list here and we’ll let you know the minute we have workshop bookings open. https://selfpublishingworkshop.co.nz/index.html Come say hi on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SPAGirlsPodcast/ and Twitter @spagirlspodcast.

This week's podcast had us (good-naturedly) arguing a wee bit. Shar and Trudi typically were ALL OVER doing Gretchen Rubin's online test to identify which of the four tendencies they identified most closely as. Cheryl, super organized as always, also came to the podcast fully prepped and self-tested.  Then there was our favorite Rebel, Wendy - whose self motivation and discipline continuously inspires us, but who also has no time for our self-help discussions 

Today we're delighted to welcome back mindset coach, Amira Alvarez after such an amazing response to our earlier episode with her. Today, we're taking a deeper dive into Imposter Syndrome - something that a lot of us experience! BONUS - here's how to win a FREE ticket to the Unstoppable (Virtual) Summit in November!

This week we have an intriguing chat with author Danielle Annett, 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.  Danielle is also an organisational superstar, and we talk a little bit about how she organises all the various segments in her life so successfully! We loved chatting to her, and we're sure you're going to enjoy listening to this episode. :) 

This week we look at the major email advertising sites we use, as well as some of the smaller, and talk about our success, or lack of it, with each. We also talk about how to prepare for advertising during the upcoming holiday season.

This episode is a DOOZY! We're thrilled to interview author and marketing expert, Holly Mortimer. We talk all things email marketing with Holly, and get you some 'next level' tips that'll have your author newsletter nailed!

Today we're going to talk with author Connie Dowell about juggling family responsibilities, pandemic postponements, and upheaval, with the responsibilities of being a working writer.

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 over traditional...! But... in the interests of helping our listeners make these kinds of decisions, we decided to give you the pros and cons of traditional vs self publishing. It's a little skewed, we admit that. But we did our best... :) So join us for another great episode!!

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 with Maria Luis (two parts): https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep182-facebook-ads-with-maria-luis/ Our interview with David Gaughran: https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep225-amazon-decoded/ Our interview with Tammi Labrecque : https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep145-newsletter-ninja-tammi-labrecque/ Tammi's book: Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert Tammi L. Labrecque https://amzn.to/2Q9wZD5

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.

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. Today we're going to talk to Amira specifically on how we can find focus in this chaotic time, and be productive without burning ourselves out.

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 keeping things simple, and how it worked out for us. We also give our tips on ways that you can simplify what you're doing, whilst also amplifying your career...

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 confusing waters of Amazon ads and Facebook ads!

Celebrating our 250th Episode! 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 / what's changed, over the years.

Having trouble getting to 'the end' of your work in progress then this is the podcast for you! 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 Nowhere) both published by Ten Speed Press.

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. That's why we decided to talk about how we've recognised our own limiting beliefs and what we're doing to change them, so that you can look at your own beliefs and decide if any of them are holding you back from your dream publishing career! 

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! Click READ MORE to see our full notes and examples of Wendy's entire series rebranding!

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

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.

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. In this episode Alex explains the reports and how to use them, talks about the Amazon environment and how it works, and also dishes the dirt on the romance genre, giving us some helpful tips along the way! This is a must listen episode!

Ines is back to give us great advice for incorporating screenwriting techniques to make our writing stronger and improve read through!

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 (Part one), we cover Pen Names and Productivity...

In this episode we talk about power words: those TAKE ACTION words you use in your ads, your blurbs and your writing to get readers to take action - ie BUY your book /READ MORE.

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. 

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 if that is the case because it won’t change anything or make you feel better. However, if you’re like us, you’ll be ready to get back in the game. Writing is our livelihood, and we’re doing okay, so we thought we’d give you a few things that helped us.

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.

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.

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! We talk with osteopath Freya Scollay about how to keep active in difficult times, 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 unusual times (or even every day times) this is the episode for you!

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, Alessandra explains why.

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.

We're joined by the awesome Ricci Wolman, founder of Written Word Media today. A marketing-tip-filled episode that covers how authors can best use promotions companies/mailing lists to boost their brand and their sales.

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 January 2020.  This is another amazing episode with a talented and hardworking indie author! 

Ever wondered how you could get more writing time in your day? Today in the SPA, we talk to uber-productive USA Today bestselling author Elana Johnson, about what she does to get her writing goals completed. She writes adult contemporary beach romance and christian cowboy romance under two different pen names and is currently publishing at least one book a month. And just so you know that her work ethic is paying off... in January 2020 Elana hit a 6 figure month for the first time. Join us for another excellent interview with a top indie author!

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, and how to make sure your covers are the best they can possibly be. Learn how to figure out the best cover for your genre, how to work with designers and what your cover needs to be doing for you.  I took copious notes, and we all learned something new about covers! 

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.

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: inspired by a workshop from Debbie Macomber, she's managed to check off every single goal she wrote down for 2007! Listen how she did it...

This week we talk with NYT Bestseller and marketing superstar, Laurelin Paige, about how we can revive and reinvigorate our backlists. Even if you're still building your publishing empire, this is a must-listen for Laurelin's marketing genius! Click read more for our show notes with Top Tips!

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!

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!

Today we interview Kathleen Sweeney, Customer Services Manager and Marketing Lead at BrookBrush, 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 also tells us they're always evolving and working on new and exciting things to help us create those wonderful graphics. "As someone who can be at times technologically challenged, I find BookBrush easy to navigate and am always pleasantly surprised at the quality of the graphics I'm able to produce in a short space of time." - Wendy xx

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 out that it's a vital part of your business. If you want to learn how to sharpen up your author career, this is a must listen episode! 

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 we learned at this amazing event to help us illustrate our points for this podcast. Another episode full of tips and tidbits that will help your self publishing career!

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, how she's so productive.  Even if you're not like me and a total fangirl, this is a must-listen episode from a super-smart self-publishing author.

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.

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 you start? And how do you bring them to life on the page?   Join us as we dissect everything you might ever need to know about writing great characters! 

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. This episode we talk about the ways that we take care of ourselves, and what you can do to make sure you're doing the same!

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!

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 live a long and happy life. With her background in English literature, grammar, and library science, it was a fairly easy decision to work with authors. We discuss what it takes to work with an editor. What you need to think about when you are editing your manuscript and much more.

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 writing to market was for you, or thought you'd spotted a trend early, this is the episode for you! 

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 Girls Podcast! 

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. In this episode we talk about how to run your ads in 30 minutes a day; how to run profitable advertising campaigns using a simple aggregate sales model; and how not to stress out over figuring out your read-through and cost per click numbers.

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! 

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 reached the end!).  Should you start with dialogue? What words should you cull? Exactly what are readers looking for? Find out the answers to these questions and many more in this episode of the SPA Girls Podcast!