SPA Girls Podcast

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 EVER...

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 suppo...

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...

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 r...

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...

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...

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 invi...

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 th...

#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 co...

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 subsc...

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. 7 SIMPLE WAYS TO BUILD YOUR NEWSLETTER LIST: Join bookfunnel Provide a tasty sample Sign ups on social media Sign ups in books Joi...

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 s...

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 a...

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...

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...

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...

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,  Cl...

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...

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...

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 m...

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, distribut...