SPA Girls Podcast

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls Podcast each week for 30 minutes of honest advice, tips and resources.  This week we interviewed the delightful Olivia Ventura, an editor at Hot Tree Edits, an editing service for self-published authors. They have several editors, and a streamlined service that we have personally used, and are happy to recommend to ou...

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, Wendy and Cheryl answer a few reader questions, from how to choose your editor, to finding time to write when you have a family and what to do if you hate social media. 

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, Cheryl and Trudi talk about writing for a Kindle World. Cheryl has just released the second book in the Laguna Beach Kindle World.  We grilled her about what it was like to be a part of the Kindle World programme, how she got involved, 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, Cher and Trudi talk about dealing with unavoidable distractions, and how to maintain a writing schedule even when things get busy.  With Christmas coming up we thought we'd talk about how we personally keep going when it seems that everyt...

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 open up and talk about the mistakes that we've made in our self publishing journeys and how you can avoid making the same ones.  From not editing enough, to rushing through the process, and not getting the best cover or knowing your genre, 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 we talk about the proposed launch of a project dear to our hearts - our new book about author overwhelm.  We've been working on this project for a while, and we're really excited about bringing it to you. We talk about the book, what it involves...

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for thirty minutes of honest advice, tips and resources.  This week we sit down with three talented authors, Talia Hunter, Toni Kenyon, and Yvonne Lindsay and discuss writing topics from advice for newbies, favourite writing tools, and why it's important to gather your writing buddies around you.  It's anoth...

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 how we launch our own self published books into the marketplace, and offer some suggestions for how you might launch your own book as well. 

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for thirty minutes of honest advice, tips and resources.  Indie author Kelly McClymer talks to us about her writing career, how she got started as an indie author, why she writes in multiple genres, and what she's doing this week in an attempt to get her historical romance book onto the USA Today Bestseller...

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 still without Cher (she arrives back from her dream vacation very soon) but we managed to get up from our respective sick beds to talk about creating awesome characters.  This is a big one in our books, because you can't have an amazing ro...

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 is a milestone episode - we've recorded 50 episodes of the SPA Girls podcast! We talked about the changes we've seen in self publishing in the last year, in our own careers, but also in the self publishing industry. Join us for a discussion of t...

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 again without the lovely Cheryl Phipps, so we decided to do another interview. We talked to best-selling contemporary romance author Tracey Alvarez about how she got started in self publishing, the results she's had from her two series, 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 Trudi Jaye interviews Steff Green, who writes as Steffanie Holmes in the paranormal romance genre.  They talk about Steff's journey into self publishing, the books she's written, how she's become so successful, and her advice for younger authors...

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 talked about advertising - what kind of advertising we do, our experiences with it, and whether it's worked. We cover off advertising with the email lists like Book Bub, Ereader News Today, Freebooksy and Robin Reads, as well as a mention for...

This is a bonus episode from the RWNZ16 conference. Three different short interviews with author Heather Graham, agent Courtney Miller-Callihan, and Hollywood story consultant Michael Hauge. Don't miss this episode! 

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 talked about series, what they are, what they involve and what you should write in one. 

In this episode of the SPA Girls Podcast we talk about the recent RWNZ conference, what we learned, who we met, and how much fun we had...! With international guests like Hollywood Script Consultant Michael Hauge, multi-award winning author Heather Graham, Australian superstar Rachel Bailey, New Zealand scriptwriting extraordinaire Kathryn Burnett, and many more, it was impossible to choose who to...

This is a special episode with just two of the SPA Girls at the RWNZ16 conference interviewing wonderfully successful self-publishing author Leeanna Morgan. Based on the Kapiti Coast, near Wellington in New Zealand, Leanna writes Contemporary Romance and has been self publishing for two and a half years. She's very business savy and the loveliest person you're likely to meet, so it makes for a fan...

This is a recording of Trudi Jaye and Talia Hunter on their last day at the 2016 RWA conference in San Diego. We give a run down on the workshops we'd been to, the best and the worst of the conference, and the things we learnt. Enjoy! 

This week we talk about covers for self-published authors. There's a lot of information, but basically we talk about what we've done with our covers, the highs and the lows and the things we've learned along the way.  We also talk about what you need on your cover to let your readers know what your book is about and entice them to read your masterpiece.   

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for honest tips, advice and resources for self publishing authors.

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the four SPA girls each week for tips, resources and tales from the self publishing trenches. This week we talk about what to post on your facebook author page and how to keep the fans coming back for more.

Thinking about self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for 30 minutes of honest and advice, tips and resources.  This week we talked about the way we pace our books to try and keep the action moving along. Pacing controls the speed and rhythm of a story, and it can be vital in creating a well rounded manuscript. We include things like plotting versus pantsing, d...

Thinking of self publishing and don't know where to start? Join the SPA Girls each week for 30 minutes of honest of advice, tips and resources.  This week we decided to go back to our challenge episodes, because we've decided that we need to get down and focus more on our writing careers. We talked through what we're frustrated about re our focus, and what we're going to do to fix it.  It's really...

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 writing sex scenes in your romance novel. We talk about how to do it for the first time, how to make sure they're good, and whether you even want to put one in your book.  FAIR WARNING: There's a few more swear words tha...