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 t...
May 12, 2020•43 min
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 (use html) line at the top of your...
May 06, 2020•47 min
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, traine...
Apr 28, 2020•44 min
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 unusual times (or even every day ...
Apr 22, 2020•35 min
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 establish a presence on this...
Apr 14, 2020•50 min
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 07, 2020•29 min
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 philosop...
Apr 01, 2020•1 hr 12 min
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 tagline...
Mar 25, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 232
Understand Social Media Importance With 5 Benefits to Using It 1 It Shows The World Who You Are With 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 business tr...
Mar 17, 2020•53 min
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 Auth...
Mar 11, 2020•1 hr 4 min
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 teachers. We’ve compi...
Mar 04, 2020•41 min
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 anoth...
Feb 25, 2020•1 hr 6 min
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 current WIP and the se...
Feb 19, 2020•49 min
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 average ...
Feb 11, 2020•1 hr 4 min
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 marketing str...
Feb 04, 2020•1 hr 10 min
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 definitely knows how to make ...
Jan 28, 2020•1 hr 7 min
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. Helpful resources: How to Craft an Inspirational Mantra to Us...
Jan 21, 2020•29 min
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 checked...
Jan 14, 2020•33 min
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 the old cover is good, peopl...
Jan 07, 2020•1 hr 1 min
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 2020!
Jan 01, 2020•35 min
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 min
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 also ...
Dec 10, 2019•33 min
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 the 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 tur...
Dec 04, 2019•34 min
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...
Nov 26, 2019•29 min
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 producti...
Nov 20, 2019•55 min
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 for h...
Nov 13, 2019•54 min
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 s...
Nov 05, 2019•28 min
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. Trud...
Oct 31, 2019•40 min
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 appeared with us at the beg...
Oct 23, 2019•42 min
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...
Oct 15, 2019•1 hr 3 min
