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.  We chat to Maria Luis this week about her writing story, her launches, how she's changed what she's done as she's learned more about the industry, and what she's learned since she published her first book in 2017.  She's a very savvy marketer, and we...

NB technical note: we apologize for the audio pause in the first minute of the podcast, the gremlins (hobbits?) hit momentarily! Today we're delighted to welcome Kevin Tumlinson , bestselling thriller author, and Director of Marketing for Draft2Digital into the SPA! Kevin talks us through using Draft2Digital to format and publish your books on line, the best practices for keywords and a host of ot...

This episode we are thrilled to talk with USA Today bestseller, Sara Rosett, about the wonderful, (sometimes) wacky and hugely popular sub-genre of Cozy Mysteries . Cozies have a rabid audience, but writers need to be sure that they're meeting reader expectations and delivering a great puzzle, compelling characters and an intriguing setting. Sara has not only been writing a number of successful co...

How do you wrangle your research as a writer? Is keeping track of all your characters, setting details and story events driving you to reach for the chocolate (or vino)?  In this episode we share our processes and tips for getting organized, and tools for staying on top of those myriad of details you need to remember. Side note: this is your free pass to hit the stationery store people, so bring o...

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 to Ricardo Fayet, one of the founders of Reedsy, a curated site for matching authors and publishers to industry professionals like editors, designers, marketing professionals, and website designers.  He explains to us how the site works,...

Thinking about self-publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for tips, resources and honest advice.  This week we discuss how we each deal with criticism and leverage its powers for good, not evil! 

Thinking of 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 talking about author branding, using the example of four different authors who we think are doing a fabulous job of the branding for themselves and their series.  From Penny Reid's romantic comedy tag line and aptly named Facebook group to Mi...

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 Trudi Jaye talks to prominent Indie publishing personalities Johnny B. Truant and Sean Platt from the Story Studio Podcast (previously the Self Publishing Podcast) about their experiences in self publishing . They talk about why we should call o...

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 Damon Courtney, the guy who created and runs Book Funnel, and Chrissy Munroe from Kobo sit down with Trudi Jaye to discuss the Indie publishing market, what's hot, what's coming soon, and what they both see in their crystal balls for the future....

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 have a special guest, Jami Albright on to talk about the 2018 Smarter Artist Summit, which she attended along with SPA Girl host Trudi Jaye.  Trudi and Jami talk about their highlights of the summit including listening to presentations from Michael Anderle...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for interviews that will inform, educate and delight.  This week we have another special episode from the 2018 Smarter Artist Summit, where Trudi Jaye sat down with the first male Deputy SPA Girl Michael Anderle, and marketing guru and storyteller Michelle Spiva.  Michelle talks about how to amp up your conn...

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 a fascinating interview with Michael Anderle, direct from the Smarter Artist Summit in Austin, Texas. Trudi was lucky enough to attend the summit and meet Michael in person, where he took the time to chat to her about his journey in self...

This week we talk with elite sportsman, Nathan Vella, about using tools from sports psychology to help writers. Nate has been a professional rugby player for the last 7 years. In that time he has played in both NZ and Europe, and has amassed over 100 first class games, winning several championships. His strength besides his physical ability is his mental toughness. Nate talks with Wendy, Cheryl an...

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 talk about a craft topic that's been bugging Trudi - sub plots. How do you use them effectively, why should you have a sub plot, and what the hell is the sub plot???  We talk about what they are, why you should be using them in you...

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 had the pleasure of chatting to Scott King, author of such non-fiction writing books as The 5 Day Novel, Finish the Script! and his latest, Outline Your Novel.   Scott has a background in teaching writing, film and scriptwriting at a college...

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 our topic is whether or not to use a pen name. Choosing the name to represent your writing career might seem like a simple decision, but there's actually a whole host of things to think about when you consider what name to use - from marketing,...

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 lucky enough to convince the lovely Nalini Singh to come on the show. A fellow Kiwi, Nalini is also a very smart, savvy author who's been on the NYT Bestseller list an incredible 27 times, and has hordes of ravenous fans the world over....

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.  Small town settings are a common backdrop in romance. Writers love them because they give us a landscape that we can go back to again and again, with familiar secondary characters that our readers will recognise and become attached to. Readers love them b...

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.  Do you have one of those people in your life? Someone who thinks the glass is always half empty and wants to bring you down the whole time? Negative Nellys and Doubtful Dougs are around us all the time, and this week we talk a little about ways to deal wi...

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 three questions to help you get into the right mindset to be a successful self publishing author for 2018. It might seem simple, but the questions actually made us think quite a bit about what we really want to achieve this year, and wha...

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 Wendy and Cheryl talk dirty with Kiwi historical romance/erotica author Nicola Davidson, who gives them the real story of the sex lives of the aristocracy in Recency London.  Nicola has delved deep into the research, and she tells a captivated W...

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 dive into the world of tropes, to explain exactly what they are, why they're important and how you should be using them in your writing career.  Knowing and understand the tropes in romance is important for everything from choosing your plot...

Thinking of 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 look back over the last year and find the 12 top tips that have been successful for us in 2017. Join us to find some insights into our year, and steal our ideas to help you make 2018 your best year yet!! (And be prepared to laugh at us, cause we...

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 Shar and Trudi were lucky enough to interview Honoree Corder and Ben Hale, who've recently released a new book for Indie authors: Write Like a Boss , all about how to have the right mindset for being a successful author.  They talk to us about c...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls (Self Publishing Authors = SPA) each week for honest tips, resources and advice.