SPA Girls Podcast

It's the start of Mystery May, and we have a doozy to start you off with! The SPA Girls spent time with Adam Richardson, an American cop who helps authors and screenwriters with their crime-fiction questions through his website and podcast called the Writer's Detective Bureau. He knows his stuff - Adam spent seventeen years of his 20+ year law enforcement career as a detective - and he was able to...

Do you have family and friends telling you not to write? Do they tell you that you've got your head in the clouds, and you need to get a real job? Perhaps people ask you how your little hobby is going, like it's not a real career?  Don't let them get you down!  Based on a listener question, this week the SPA Girls talk about how to deal with negativity from the people around you (especially in the...

Are your Facebook ads as successful as you want them to be? Do you wish you could make the kind of ads you've heard other authors boasting about? This is the episode for you! This week we delve back into Facebook Ads with Amazon Bestselling Author and all-around-lovely-lady Maria Luis... She takes what she talked about last week, and adds to it, giving us the lowdown on how to make an ad convert i...

Not sure about how Facebook Ads work? Need to learn the basics? Join the SPA Girls as bestselling author Maria Luis breaks down Facebook Ads for us, from the beginning steps, to how to choose the best images; plus what to do, and what not to do, and everything in between!  This is the first part of a two part series on Facebook Ads from an author who has been successfully running her own ads for t...

If you've ever thought you'd like to try dictation, this is the episode for you. We talk to award winning indie author Kilby Blades about how she amped up her writing rates by learning dictation.  It's the ultimate skill - being able to use that time in the car, on walks, or even as you're doing the dishes to keep writing.  The SPA Girls were all enthralled as we pumped Kilby for information, and...

Ever wondered if your book description could be better? Ever thought it should sell more books?  Then this is the episode for you.  This week, Brian Meeks, description-writer extraordinaire talks with us about how to write a kick-ass description that will sell more books, and help amp up your advertising sales to the next level.  Turns out, it's all about copywriting.  And writing the best hooks y...

This week we talk to Tara Cremin, Author Experience Manager from the self publishing platform Kobo Writing Life. As always it's great to chat to someone from the platform for the real insider information and Tara didn't disappoint! For those of you who've never loaded a book to the platform, Tara talked us through the process and why you should load direct instead of through one of the other aggre...

What's the one objection you have to overcome to get readers to buy your book? That question is the cliffhanger that Larissa Reynolds left us on in part 1. And now, here it is! The episode where you get to find out the answer... In this second episode about newsletters, Larissa Reynolds talks to us about how to sell your books consistently via your list.  She's been writing newsletters for more th...

If you've been wondering and worrying about whether your author newsletter is working as it should (or if you should even start one) then this is the episode for you!  Today we're talking to Larissa Reynolds, a marketing guru with years of experience working with authors on their newsletters, about what you need to have in your author newsletter.  It can be overwhelming when you first start out, a...

Ever listened to someone talking about self publishing and been mystified about what they're actually saying? Maybe understood about one in every three words? It's a common problem, and one we sometimes come across ourselves, as things change in the industry and new jargon hits the streets. Added to that, even if you decide to look it up online, it's sometimes not easy to understand. That's where...

We often get asked what authors should post on Facebook, and whether it's worthwhile even being on the platform at all.  The answer is a firm yes, we in the SPA believe Facebook is a really useful tool for authors, especially in romance. There are many positives to having a presence on the social platform, not least of which is the ability to do Facebook Ads, but also the ability to connect with r...

This episode we talk to our very own Wendy Vella about writing Regency romance. Since 2013, Wendy has forged a very successful indie career writing historical and contemporary romance. Her Regencies have been on the Amazon's top seller lists many times and collectively she's sold over one million books to date. Like many romance writers, Wendy cut her historical reading teeth on Georgette Heyer, a...

INTRO: Today's episode was inspired by a comment on our podcast website www. SpaGirlsPodcast.com by listener Carron, who asked "... when you're starting out (writing) how do you know what weaknesses to focus on? You don't know what you don't know. Love to hear an episode on things to work on, or things you ladies have struggled with and how you've gone about correcting them. " Carron makes a reall...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls for 30 minutes of honest advice, tips and resources.  The delightful Dan Wood joined us in the SPA today to talk about the Indie distribution channel Draft2Digital. It's an informative hour-long interview with Dan, who attends 20 plus author conferences a year, and has his finger on the pulse of Indie publishing. He n...

We are delighted to welcome romance author, Serenity Woods, to the SPA today. Serenity lives in the sub-tropical Northland of New Zealand. She is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance and has been published since 2011 and self-published since 2013. ​ Serenity is incredibly business savvy and prolific. To date, she's published 65 books across many different romance series, and she...

Are you motivated or disillusioned by all the "end of year earnings" screenshots some authors post? For some of us, it's incredibly inspiring; others find it a distraction or even a bit depressing! There is no "right" answer - the trick is understanding yourself and this week we talk about the things you CAN control and why you should feel super positive about that! We also discuss Melissa Storm's...

Goals! We're all so excited about them at the beginning of January, and then we feel them like chains around our necks by the end of the month. (Well, here in the SPA we do. Maybe you're able to make it into February without feeling like you're never going to make them work...hehe)  What we've decided is that instead of overwhelming yourself with ALL THE GOALS, if you set one goal in these five ar...

This year we decided to begin with something a little different. Instead of the usual "motivational and uplifting" or "beginning of the year goal setting" type show, we thought we'd give you 31 quick and easy author marketing ideas that you can do each day to give you a solid start to 2019. It's a great way to show you how little jobs done daily can add up quickly to make something pretty great. Y...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for 30 minutes of honest advice, tips and resources.  Scheduling some of the more repetitive tasks that you engage in each week can free up time for writing. This week the SPA Girls talk about the ways we use scheduling for different tasks, and suggest ways you can use it too! 

Thinking of self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for honest advice, tips and resources.  This week we look back on 2018, and try to figure out what went well, what went wrong, and what tips and secrets we can give you, our listeners, to help you with making 2019 the best year yet! 

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for 30 minutes of honest advice, tips and resources. This week we decided to dissect dialogue. Done well, dialogue can be very powerful. We know and understand the subtext of dialogue without having to be told, and writers can use this to create amazing scenes and tense moments. Done badly, dialogue can kick...

We've talked about Reverse Harem a little bit on the show, but this week we decided to get someone on who knows all about it, so we could pick their brains... Mwahahaha... So we convinced USA Today Bestselling paranormal romance author Steffanie Holmes to come on the show and chat about exactly what reverse harem is, how she came to write reverse harem novels, what you need to know about it, and h...

The delightful USA Today bestselling author Kelly St Clare talks to the SPA Girls this week about how she moved from being a physiotherapist in a busy clinic to being an Amazon bestselling author of young adult fantasy novels.  Kelly was fascinating because as well as all her fantastic tips on writing, time management and marketing, she was also able to give us some great advice on how to stay hea...

In response to a few recent questions we've been asked on this topic, we decided to talk through the basics of launch strategies for first-time or early career authors, or for authors starting off a new series or pen name.  It's sometimes difficult to know what you should do when you're launching a new book. We all want to make sure our book babies do as well as they possibly can when we launch, b...

With the holiday season fast approaching, the SPA Girls gathered to talk about their list of 12 Ideas For Christmas Promotion. Between the shopping, the relative wrangling, the wallet-aches and the end-of-year energy slump, it can be hard to manage your author promotion on top of that!  Listen up and we'll (hopefully) ease your stress and you can go into the New Year refreshed and ready to rock yo...