SPA Girls Podcast

Some authors are wary of Goodreads due to harsh reviews, but there are good reasons to use this platform and Allessandra explains why. 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 social media site - and use all of the free promotional tools it...

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 Lo...

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...

If you've been wondering about how to make the most of being in Amazon's Kindle Unlimited (KU) programme... 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 ga...

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 exp...

This week, we are absolutely delighted to talk with superstar romance author, Cora Seton , about writing organisation, branding, mindset and publishing 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...

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...

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...

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 done. 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 eth...

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...

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 Gaughran lives in Dublin, where the rain comes up from the ground and everyone has pints for hands. He is the author of the historical adventures Liberty Boy, Mercenary & A Storm Hits Va...

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 wha...

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 make any difference 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...

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 ov...

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).  About Laurelin Paige With millions of books sold worldwide, Laurelin Paige is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling Author. She is a sucker for a good romance and gets giddy anytime t...

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 hap...

Let's clear the air! All our lovely guests are special and they resonate in different ways with each of us. But, if we had to choose . . . Here they are, the ones who made us really think about what we do. The ones who push us to do better. And the ones who inspire us. We thank them all. And thank you for being here and giving us an added encouragement to do this thing we love. Merry Christmas!

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 sha...

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 ar...

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 your backlist books, and even in your author career. It's about making sure ever...

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 conferen...

This week's episode comes to you from 20BooksVegas, where Trudi Jaye caught up with fantasy author and fellow podcaster Lindsay Buroker and interviewed her about her successful self publishing career. Lindsay 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 n...

This episode we talk with author, podcaster and coach Bryan Cohen about how we can make small changes that can have big results for authors. It's all about how we can make small, incremental changes that increase revenue and other results by smaller amounts, but add up in the long run. We talk about why authors often overlook making small changes, and what we can do to improve one tiny step at a t...

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...

If you don't take care of yourself, odds are no one else will. So what does it take to make ensure you're firing on all cylinders? This week we'll give you tips on doing exactly that. Why do we sabotage ourselves? How can we make life easier? What can we do to be more focused and achieve the results we desire? We've all got our own take on self-care and yet there are plenty of similarities. You'll...