SPA Girls Podcast

This week we have an intriguing chat with author Danielle Annett (aka Daniela 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 email promotion sites are 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...

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 ba...

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. 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 passi...

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 a...

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! You'll find all the show notes and SPA Girls podcast episodes at: www.spagirlspodcast.com

Today we're talking with 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 fantastic advice for all self-publishers. You can find Tamsin at: http://tamsinley.com/ About Tamsin Tamsin Ley builds worlds full of sexy heroes who don't know they need a mate - that is, until they...

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 exact...

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 this week we decided to talk about ways to keep things simple in your publishing career. How to un-complicate your publishing career, if you will. :) One thing we really believe in here at the SPA is that simple is b...

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 ab...

It's Our 250th Episode!  No, we can't quite believe we've been around this long either!  Five years of publishing a new 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'...

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 Rive...

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 am...

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! Visit our full shownotes at: SelfPublishingAuthorsPodcast for each of the SPA Girls tips, examples of Wendy's series rebranding befores and afters a...

The delightful Carlyn Robertson from Bookbub returns to the SPA today to talk all things Chirp and audiobook promotion! What is Chirp? Chirp is an audiobook retailer powered by BookBub that highlights unbeatable discounts on audiobooks. Chirp offers listeners access to a full catalog of audiobooks that they can purchase á la carte with no subscription fees, but focuses especially on surfacing amaz...

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 nov...

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 basical...

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 Instru...

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...

In this episode we talk about power words. Those take action words that entice someone to click the link on your ad. Click buy now on Amazon. Keep reading the next chapter of your book even though it's well past bedtime. There are different types of power words that you could use in your copy to trigger a response in your readers, to take them from merely browsing to actually buying.   Greed words...

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 e...

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. Shownot...

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. This 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...

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 eve...