SPA Girls Podcast

Getting Organized: Business Systems For Authors with Lorna K. Bailey Self-published a book? Congratulations you’re now running an author business (whether you want to or not). Whether you have 5 books or 50, being an author is a LOT of plate-juggling. This episode we talk to the amazing Lorna K Bailey who as worked with bestselling authors and entrepreneurs, helping them organise and systemize the...

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. This classic replay of an interview we originally recorded in August 2020 is just what we need to get our mindset right for the new year and how to be productive without bu...

Happy New Year from The SPA Girls! 🎉 Whether you wrote one chapter or one hundred in 2025, we’re so proud of you. Here’s to fresh pages, new stories, and another year of chasing your author dreams together. Let’s make 2026 your best publishing year yet! 💗 The SPA Girls podcast is sponsored by everyone who supports us on Patreon. Thank you so much, we love our listeners and our...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the SPA Girls! It’s time to check off our 2025 Publishing Naughty or Nice list for what worked, and what really didn’t!

Lee Savino is a whirlwind of positive energy, and this classic replay of an episode we recorded with her a few years ago will inspire and motivate you – we guarantee it! Lee Savino  is a seven-figure romance author with multiple  USA Today  and Top 100 Amazon bestsellers who also has coached multiple authors. She has extensive expertise in selling direct, going wide, rapi...

From Traditional To Indie – USA Today Bestseller Lucy Monroe shares her publishing journey, mindset and marketing wisdom, and business strategy advice – especially useful for rolling with the publishing-world ups and downs! About Lucy With more than 12.5 million copies of my books in print worldwide, Lucy Monroe is an award-winning and USA Today bestselling author with over 90 publishe...

Every book you write is part of a world and you need to know as much as possible about the world before you start writing—but be prepared to pivot! So how do you build a fictional world (whether contemporary, paranormal, fantasy, or historical etc) that sets your story up well and captures readers imaginations? A long-time friend of the SPA Girls, Nalini Singh talked with us about worldbuilding in...

We’re delighted to welcome Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, historical fiction author and writing instructor. We’re diving into how dictation can totally transform the way you write: think faster drafts, more creative flow, and less stress on your body. Sarah has written 13 books solely by speaking words into her smartphone. Once she switched from typing her first drafts to dictating them, she doubled her...

This is a fabulous classic replay of our interview with USA Today Bestseller, Lucy Lennox . 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&#82...

In just a few years, Stacia Stark gone from unknown new pen name to Amazon #1 Bestselling Author of Romantasy. She has also signed a major trad deal with Avon with her trad debut coming out in December 2025. Stacia is an inspiring guest who breaks down exactly how she approaches hybrid publishing, writing romantasy and meeting spice/story/trope expectations, how to find an agent and what to look o...

This is a classic replay of a very popular episode with USA Today Bestseller, Honey Phillips. Honey joined 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...

Planning, Priorities & Publishing We’re thrilled to welcome back Becca Syme to the SPA to talk about Planning, reducing your Decision Fatigue, the difference between anxiety and intuition, and how to decide what publishing strategies work best for YOU. As a community, indie publishers are so fortunate to have Becca’s Clifton Strengths work and writer psychology understanding to help us navigat...

Writing compelling short romance targeting the timed short reads categories (2 hours or less) is a real skill and this is a classic replay of one of the Queens of instalove / short romance: Mia Brody . No matter what length book you’re writing, there is something in this episode for you, not least of all Mia’s inspiring persistence working with health challenges and her incredible busi...

Wondering how to juggle a demanding full-time job with having an author career too? We’re joined today by the fabulous Chloe Archer, who is doing exactly that! Chloe Archer writes popular queer sci-fi and paranormal rom-coms. And alongside her author career, Chloe also works full-time as a Film Studies Professor, which makes her perfect for this episode! And if that’s not enough, Chloe is organisi...

Within five years, USA Today Bestselling romance author, Vanessa Vale, forged two pen names from scratch to seven figures , using the strategies and techniques she discusses in this episode and in her Thrifty Tips for Authors class. The beginnings of this program came when she was banned from Facebook ads, forcing her to develop strong branding and marketing steps that are enduring and withstand t...

On 2.10.2015 we published our very first SPA Girls Podcast episode and OH THE NERVES! But we persisted and here we are, ten years later, ten years wiser, 520 episodes later and a million magic moments of inspiration, advice, publishing wisdom and fellow author interviews and shenanigans recorded. So what are our “acorns of wisdom” we’ve learned from these ten years that have stood the test of time...

Author Business and Marketing Strategist, Olivia Zugay, is here with some wonderful tips on gaining discoverability, improving reader retention and focussing on long-game thinking without overly relying on chaotic social media! About Olivia Olivia Zugay is a business and marketing strategist for self-published fiction authors. As the founder of Story Flow Solutions , she helps authors market and s...

Feel like a hamster on a wheel trying to get ALL THE THINGS accomplished but never quite managing to do the important stuff? This is your episode! A classic replay from 2023 that’s well worth a relisten! Self-publishing since 2010, Amazon top 100 best-selling Amazon author with 1million books sold, Sarra writes magical contemporary fantasy novels with both teen and college aged characters (a...

Mark Leslie (Lefebvre) is an author, professional speaker and bookseller with more than thirty years of experience in the publishing and bookselling business. In this episode, he brings a wealth of experience and reassurance to those of us somewhat battered by the realities of author life! This is more than a “mindset” episode, it’s a reality check, encouragement and call to follow your passion, t...

A classic replay of our interview with the awesome Michele Scott, originally published in August 2022. It was our great pleasure to interview Michele Scott, a NYT, Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestselling 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 adul...

It’s conference debrief time! We’re here with all our best writer tips and reflections from the recent Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference! Links mentioned: Sadie King talks series planning : https://selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep409-six-figures-with-short-romance-with-sadie-king/ AK Mulford talks TikTok : https://selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls...

Writing bestselling romance with incredible character chemistry is something that NYT Bestseller Annika Martin excels in. Annika, who also publishes romantic suspense as Carolyn Crane, has seen incredible success writing two books a year (on average) and publishing wide. This is a classic replay episode (originally recorded in 2021) where Annika reveals her plotting and writing process, getting th...

When the going gets tough, it can be really hard to get (or keep) going. Today’s episode has empathetic and practical advice from the incredible Anya Mora about working through life challenges, recovering from burnout, trusting your instincts and dealing with things that often throw us “off course” from our author life. About Anya Anya Mora is the bestselling author of domestic suspense and...

You’re worth it and your work is worth it. 15-time USA Today bestselling romance author Renee Rose is passionate about helping other authors find and maintain an abundance mindset to catapult their careers and create their best future. She employs energetic tools and techniques to help her clients clear resistance and money blocks, access their inner guidance, and tap into their love and app...

Wendy, Cheryl and Trudi are off to RARE Melbourne in October 2025 and busy organising ALL the things! So this episode we share all our BEST TIPS (merchandise sourcing, what works, what doesn’t), table set up, what to wear, how to approach reader events, how many books to take (or offer on preorder) and how to calm the nerves / talk to strangers (ha!) Links mentioned: Author websites: Wendy Vella /...