SPA Girls Podcast

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for 30 (ish) minutes of honest advice, tips and resources.  It's one of the big questions in the Indie author space, and hotly debated by many on either side. This week we talk about the pros and cons of going wide versus going exclusive to Amazon. No one seems to have a definitive answer to whether it's bet...

This week it is our honor to interview superstar author Kathryn Le Veque. Kathryn is a critically acclaimed USA TODAY Bestselling author, a charter Amazon All-Star author, and a #1 bestselling, award-winning, multi-published author in Medieval Historical Romance and Contemporary Romance. She is considered one o f the top Indie authors in the world with over a million copies in circulation. Her nov...

This week we put on our flame retardant suits and discuss how to define the heat level of your story – and why it's important to know. There is no standard or uniform code to heat levels, so writers and readers can face a few challenges: what one reader may consider "hot," another might consider "mild" or vice versa. With books there's no certified ratings system a la the movies.  And to further c...

Our fabulous guest this week is award-winning romance author Louisa George. We talk with Louisa about how she balances the demands of being a "hybrid" author, publishing traditionally (Medical Romance and Women's Fiction with Harlequin Mills & Boon) and self-publishing her romantic comedies. As Louisa says, self-publishing offers a creative freedom that we love, but that freedom can need some "str...

This week Wendy, Cheryl and Shar talk about " the Kindness Factor " – how we can achieve more but put less pressure on ourselves. Impossible you say?  As we push ourselves to write more, to learn more and to get up to grips with this self-publishing world, there's often an unwanted side effect: a lot of us are  really hard on ourselves and we're not enjoying our writer's life. Research shows that...

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 talk about self editing, and how to get your manuscript to the highest possible standard before sending it to your professional editor.  Everyone will have a different style, focus and ideas on the best way to do self editing, and it's the ki...

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 talk about the power of four, or how working and interacting with other authors can amp up your author career.  Using our experiences in the SPA Girls we talk about how having other writers to talk to, offer support, give advice and ideas, an...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for honest advice, tips and resources to help get you going.  This week we talk about how to create characters that your readers will love. We delve into what characteristics are important, how to create tension between the hero and heroine using their personalities and flaws, and how you can use your charac...

Thinking about self publishing but don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for 30 minutes of honest advice, tips and resources.  This week we have the fabulous Tina Dietz, an expert in the area of audio, podcasting and audiobooks, who talks to us about the ways we can be using audio in our writing careers.  She gives us the low down on audiobooks, how to get them recorded, how they...

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 have the delightful Grace Burrowes on the show, chatting to Cheryl and Wendy about her career, why she started writing, how she stays authentic, and why she uses blogging to connect to readers. A New York Times and USA Today Bestselling autho...

Thinking about self publishing but don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for honest advice, tips and resources.  This week we talk about mailing list health, what it actually means, and how to make sure your mailing list is the best it can be. This includes everything from when to cull people from your list, how to try to re-engage with people who don't seem to be engaging, how t...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for advice, tips and resources.  Wendy and Cher sat down in a fairly noisy cafe with Indie author Damon Suede and his partner, Geoff Symon. The f-bomb went off fairly early in the piece, so if you're offended by swear words... you should still listen, because all the rest of the words out of their mouths wer...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for 30(ish) minutes of honest advice, tips and resources.  Today's interview is a must-listen interview with... Indie Superstar Bella Andre! We were super excited to be able to chat to Bella, who it turns out is the most lovely, down-to-earth person we've interviewed so far. She was in New Zealand for the Ro...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for honest advice, tips and resources to help advance your self publishing career.  This week we talk about the top ten traits we believe you need to have to be a successful self-published author.  These include, among other things, having a thick skin, being willing to take risks and staying focused. They'r...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for an episode filled with honest advice, tips and resources.  We had a fantastic guest this week in the form of Becca Syme, Cosy Mystery author, writing coach, teacher of the Write Better Faster course, and podcaster at the Smarty Pants Marketing podcast.  Becca talks to us about how we can all Write Better...

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're joined by the Newsletter Ninja, Tammi Labrecque, who talks to us all about creating an amazing author newsletter that will help amp up your writing career.  She talks about why every author needs a newsletter, and how to take the people wh...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for 30(ish) minutes of honest advice, tips and resources.  This week we talk about our own creative health, where we are at, and how we are attempting to ensure our creativity wells don't try up. We use examples from our own writing lives, and give a whole bunch of suggestions for how you, too, can plan and...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for honest advice, tips and resources.  This week we were lucky enough to talk to the delightful Carlyn Robertson from BookBub about the email advertising platform, and how it can help you as an author.  Carlyn explains how BookBub works, how to apply, what to expect when you apply, and some of the ways to m...

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 were privileged to have personal branding expert Lauren Clement with us to discuss how to create your personal author brand, and why it's so important. If the thought of branding gives you hives, this is the episode for you! She takes us thro...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for 30 mins of honest advice, tips and resources. Are you looking for some new tools to help you in your publishing journey? This week we give you ten FREE tools and websites that you can use to help, upskill, inform and educate you in your self publishing journey. Every single tool we give you is something...

Thinking of self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for honest advice, tips and resources.  Join us for an explanation of what a hook really is and why it's important for you and your novel. Then we talk about how to craft a hook that will be so intriguing and memorable for your readers, that they will go straight out and buy your book! (Or just click on the Ama...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for honest advice, tips and resources.  This week we talk to Kelly Lytle from Findaway Voices about creating audio books for Indie authors.  It's a fascinating subject, and Kelly not only takes us through the process of creating and distributing an audio book with Findaway Voices, but also what you as an aut...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for 30ish minutes of honest advice, tips and resources.  This week we talk about how to get yourself motivated again after life gets in the way. It could be illness, personal issues, a holiday, an injury or even just your own negative self talk. Whatever it is that has stopped you from doing the amount of wr...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for 30(ish) minutes of honest advice, tips and resources.  This week we talk to Toni Kenyon, a New Zealand indie author of Pacific rockstar romances. She gives us the inside scoop on some of the new techniques she's using to attract readers. About two months ago, she decided to try two new ideas to attract r...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls for 30+ minutes of honest advice, tips and resources.  This week we talk about how to handle changes in the Indie Publishing environment without freaking out, including where to find the information you might need about any changes, and how to figure out if the information you're reading on Twitter is the real deal. ...