Tag: self publishing advice

• September 25, 2024Guest Interview, Marketing, Advertising & Sales, Selling Direct To Readers

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP467 – Anne-Marie Meyer: Building a Multi-Million Author Career

  Sweet Romance Author, Anne-Marie Meyer is an Amazon and Apple Top 100 best seller and a 3x USA Today Bestselling author. With absolute intention Anee-Marie challenges herself to improve on how she sells. From Tik Tok to Direct sales she has hit heady heights, paticularly in the last 12 months. After her Amazon account was shut down for 48 hrs in 2022 for false reasons, she's decided that it would be best to bring her stories directly to her readers hands and it has worked! Listen up for all her tips. You won't be disappointed.

• August 7, 2024Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP460 – How to Get Reviews and Find ARC Readers

  If you've been scratching your head over how to get some more reviews on your newly published book, this is the episode for you! We break down how we have each built up and managed our ARC teams, and how we've gone from no reviews to hundreds of reviews. Loads of practical tips in this episode!

• June 5, 2024Guest Interview, Marketing, Advertising & Sales

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP451 – Contracts for Authors with Maggie Marr

  If you’ve ever wondered how to deal with contracts and other business issues, this is the podcast for you! Maggie Marr the founder of Maggie Marr Legal PC and a USA Today Best Selling author of over 20 books. A former ICM motion picture literary and subsidiary rights (books to film/tv) agent, Maggie is the co-founder and legal advisor to the not-for-profit Women’s Fiction Writers Association and a member of Women In Film. The firm has negotiated deals with Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, Universal, Warner Bros, Disney. The firm provides services such as entertainment and publishing representation, trademark & copyright, packaging and sales, business legal affairs and corporate, production and distribution legal.

• February 21, 2024Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP436 – Fast Decisions, Big Results

  Ever hesitate over making an important decision because you were trying to figure out what the 'right' thing to do was... and then miss out on an awesome opportunity because you didn't take a leap of faith? Yeah, us too. That's why this episode is all about making good decisions in your author career.  In fact, we're not only advocating making decisions and moving forward, we're also suggesting that a FAST decision is even better than an average speed decision. Research has shown that fast decisions are often higher quality, perhaps proving that our subconscious brain can move faster than our conscious brain... or maybe it's just our intuition is more capable than our overthinking brain? Whatever the reason, it's a powerful reminder that we know more than we think we know...  In this episode you'll learn some ideas and techniques on how to assess decisions, learn when to make fast decisions and hear about some of the decisions we did and didn't make in our careers and what we learned from them.

• January 30, 2024Guest Interview, Mindset, Health & Writing Life, Self-Publishing Process & Tools, Selling Direct To Readers

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP433 – Selling Direct With Katie Cross

  In this episode we chat to YA Fantasy author Katie Cross. She has so much passion and enthusiasm for what she does, and loves her readers!  We talk about direct sales and how to relate to your readers, and these are just two of the topics we covered. It's action packed and full of information!

• January 24, 2024Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP432 – What To Do When You’ve Finished The Book

  You are your own publishing house when you self-publish. There’s lots to do, and lots to think about, especially the first few times you publish a book. That’s why we’ve created this helpful, back-to-basics SPA Girls Podcast episode – to help you go from rough manuscript to published book, with our notes on what you need to plan for and schedule, and how to figure out what you’re going to need to actually do to get your book published on all the platforms. We haven’t given a specific order for these tasks to be done in – we know too many successful authors who get different aspects of the checklist done at different times. There are also tasks that can be finished quickly and others that will take time. The important thing is to know what you need to do, to work out a schedule that suits you and your life, and then to actually do the tasks! To help out, we’ve also created a handy checklist for you to download; just click the links in the show notes to find it, or head to the show notes for the episode on our website!

• January 3, 2024Goal Setting, Planning & Productivity, Mindset, Health & Writing Life, Self-Publishing Process & Tools, Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls EP – 429 – How To Create Your Author Business Plan

  Today we discuss business plans. Need help creating yours? It doesn't need to be complicated, just download our simple SPA Girls template in the show notes.

• December 5, 2023Goal Setting, Planning & Productivity, Marketing, Advertising & Sales, Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP425 – Book Launch Strategies

  Congratulations! You’ve finished your first book (or series) and are ready to hit the publish button! So what can you do to get your book noticed in sea of other new books, and how can you find the right readers for you? The SPA Girls are here to help!

• November 22, 2023Mindset, Health & Writing Life

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP423 – Turn Setbacks Into Success

  Bumps on the publishing path are unwelcome yet inevitable. So how can we reset ourselves when the wobbles and disappointment set in? Today we’ve got a SPA Girls 6-Step Guide to turning those setbacks into success!

• October 24, 2023Guest Interview, Mindset, Health & Writing Life, Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP419 – The Best Mindset for Organisation and Productivity with Sarra Cannon

  Self-publishing since 2010, Amazon top 100 best-selling Amazon author with 1 million books sold, Sarra writes magical contemporary fantasy novels with both teen and college aged characters (and lots of twists you'll never see coming). Do you feel like a hamster on a wheel? Sarra talks to us about her solution to planning without all the heartache and leading us to be more joyful. “When we sit down to plan we see the perfect scenario. Then Life gets in the way.”

• September 27, 2023Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP415 – How To Get Unstuck

  There are many ways we get stuck as authors. Some ways you can get stuck is in the writing, editing, time management and making decisions areas. Getting unstuck is much harder and yet easier than we think. Letting go of perceptions of our writing or our characters helped Trudi a great deal when she put off writing the last book in a series - for years! Cheryl had to get past the fear of getting edits back and find a way to embrace the process to get them done. For Shar, it’s being done with the book and accepting it. No one wants to put up sub-standard work and we all do our very best to make sure that happens, but agonizing over a book doesn’t move you forward. We discuss how to do these things while facing fears and preconceptions, as well as the overwhelm of too many ideas and choices.

• September 13, 2023Marketing, Advertising & Sales, Mindset, Health & Writing Life, Self-Publishing Process & Tools, Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP 413- Back Engineering a Bestseller

  Today’s topic was prompted by a commenter on youtube who asked us about reverse engineering bestsellers. What makes a book, be it your second one published or your tenth, sell more than others.  We believe there are many variables to that. Timing, tropes, the first 10% of how a book starts. The cover, blurb, and other popular tv or books that may have similar aspects.  There are many things to consider, and today we take a dive into why a book can launch a career!

• July 19, 2023Goal Setting, Planning & Productivity, Marketing, Advertising & Sales, Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls – EP405 – Hotwire Your Publishing Plan For The Holidays

  We know there are still 5.5 months to go until the end of the year! But!! We think it’s important to start getting organized for the final push. Ads, blurbs, covers. In the SPA today we talk about the things you need to focus on!

• July 5, 2023Mindset, Health & Writing Life

  SPA Girls Podcast – Ep403 – How Not To Fail at Self-publishing

  We’re looking at failure and putting a different slant on it. By changing the way you think of failing at a certain thing and thinking of it as simply a part of learning. You are future proofing the way you react to any result. Fail = First Attempt In Learning. Don’t measure yourself by how others are doing. They had their own journey and would have failed at something along the way. Successful people use those moments to push through, pivot, or try a new iteration. Learning is a part of the process. Letting go of a perception is hard, we get that. However, you shouldn’t let that outcome define you. Don’t dwell on it. Instead, find a way to deal with it and to stop the negative talk. A way that moves you forward.

• May 23, 2023Guest Interview, Marketing, Advertising & Sales

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP397 – Marketing Audiobooks with Rebecca Hefner

  USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Hefner is passionate about marketing audio books wide. After several years of struggling early on, her audiobook sales now surpass her ebook sales most months. As Rebecca says, “I had an excruciating learning curve with wide audio and want to save other authors from this torture!” She shares her best practices and tips for wide audiobook success in this must-listen episode.

• April 25, 2023Self-Publishing Process & Tools, Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast  – EP393 – Genre Expectations

  Today we’re covering reader expectations for romance and it’s subgenres and mystery. Let us help you define where your book should sit on the virtual book shelves!

• March 29, 2023Guest Interview, Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP389 – Small Town Romance with Kait Nolan

  Kait is a USA Today best selling, RITA® Award-winning Mississippi author of smart, sassy, small town Southern romance. She calls everyone sugar, honey, or darlin', and can wield a 'Bless your heart' like a Snuggie or a saber, depending on requirements.

• February 15, 2023Self-Publishing Process & Tools, Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP383 – Our Valentine To Writers

  Who says Valentine’s Day has to be about couples? We think it should be about all kinds of love and this year we’re promoting a little self-love. Go on, you deserve it! Treat yourself to a craft course or something else you would enjoy – find a course and do it! Do something awesome for your body – manicure, pedicure, massage, facial. Regular exercise – walk, run, bike, swim, yoga, pilates, sport. Combat stress – read, listen to music, have a bath, meditate - try Paul Mckenna and Youtube videos. Breathing exercises – breathe in for seven, hold for seven, out for seven. Eat healthy and drink more water. Try something different – puzzles, a new hobby like knitting, crochet or miniatures.  Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

• January 25, 2023Guest Interview, Marketing, Advertising & Sales

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP380 – Facebook Ads with Mark Dawson

  If there’s one person in the self publishing world who’s considered a bit of an expert at advertising… it’s Mark Dawson. This week Mark joins us in the SPA to talk about Facebook ads – how to set them up, what to do if they’re not working, and some of his best tips and advice to get them running well for you. He’s a genuine guy, and he still does all his own ads – which means he knows exactly what works and what doesn’t! Join us for another awesome podcast in the SPA.

• December 29, 2022Goal Setting, Planning & Productivity, Marketing, Advertising & Sales

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP376 – Top Tips from 2022

  This is an awesome episode just for you! We went through all of our episodes from 2022, and picked out the best pieces of advice, the most actionable tips, and the things we definitely think you should be doing for your writing career in 2023 and gave them to you here in one easy episode. You're welcome. :)

• November 30, 2022Guest Interview, Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP372 – SciFi Romance with Honey Phillips

  Join us for another deep dive into an intriguing genre that's doing well for indie authors. USA Today bestselling author Honey Phillips joins us in the SPA to talk about Science Fiction Romance - what it is, what readers are looking for, and how to make sure they get it! Honey was a delight to interview and there are definitely a few gems in here for everyone, whether you write in this genre or not!

• October 12, 2022Guest Interview, Mindset, Health & Writing Life

  SPA Girls Podcast  – EP365 – Write To Riches with Renee Rose

  In this episode we talk to the amazing Renee Rose about her new release Write To Riches!  15-time USA Today bestselling romance author Renee talks to us about the power of abundance mindset, manifesting your desires, and attracting wealth. She's an amazingly inspirational speaker and this is one episode you don't want to miss!

• September 14, 2022Guest Interview, Marketing, Advertising & Sales, Mindset, Health & Writing Life

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP361 – Mia Brody and Instalove Short Romance

  This week we talk to the amazing Mia Brody all about how she makes a fulltime living writing instalove short romances. It's an amazingly informative episode with plenty of wow moments, that you won't want to miss!

• August 17, 2022Guest Interview, Self-Publishing Process & Tools, Selling Direct To Readers

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP357 – Direct Selling with Morgana Best

  Do you want to have an author store and don't know where to start? USA Today bestselling author Morgana Best takes us through the process of setting up your store and best practices. This is an episode you won't want to miss!

• May 25, 2022Guest Interview, Marketing, Advertising & Sales, Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP345 – How To Write A Successful Series

  Do you want to learn how to design a series that will hook and keep readers, AND set you up for long term success? Helen Scheuerer joins us today to tell all!

• May 10, 2022Guest Interview, Marketing, Advertising & Sales, Mindset, Health & Writing Life

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP343 – Interview with Asa Maria Bradley

  Bestselling Author Asa Maria Bradley suggests collaboration as a way to get creative again. Growing up in Sweden surrounded by archaeology and history steeped in Norse Mythology, inspired her sexy and paranormal romance series. She also writes urban fantasy about empowered heroines who kick ass while saving the world. Her work has received a double nomination for the Romance Writers of America’s RITA contest, a Reviewers Choice Award nomination, a Holt Medallion win, and Bookseller’s Best Award win. The last couple of years were rough on Asa’s creativity, and almost by chance she joined a bunch of collaboration projects. With different strategies and aims, working with other writers gave her the creative spark needed to enjoy writing again. Besides providing accountability, the projects validated and inspired her work. Today she shares the challenges and rewards that she experienced from writing for and promoting several collaborations.

• March 23, 2022Guest Interview, Marketing, Advertising & Sales

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP336 – PR for Authors with Lilian Sue

  This week we talk to long-time PR coach and publicist Lilian Sue about how authors can successfully use PR to help with their author business. Her aim is to help authors fulfill their potential and become global industry leaders by focusing on how to build a healthy PR mindset above any strategy. We talk about authors can develop strong and healthy PR mindsets (by busting down fear and imposter syndrome) and how to use the right tools, knowledge, and resources to fulfill their goals. It's another awesome episode!

• January 27, 2022Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP328 – All About Preorders

  Confused about preorders? Wondering if you should start using them? Wondering if you should stop using them? This is the episode for you! We talk about what preorders are and how they work, how we use them successfully, and when we think you shouldn't use preorders.

• January 19, 2022Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP327 – 8 Steps To Build Your Fictional Setting

  Today we share our SPA Girls patented 😉 foolproof steps to create a fictional setting that'll keep your readers coming back for more!

• December 8, 2021Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP321 – The Writing Process

  In the SPA today, we talk about the evolution of our writing process. We delve into the changes that have taken place in our writing journeys over the last few years. The point is, there is no right or wrong way to do things! This is your journey.

• November 11, 2021Guest Interview, Marketing, Advertising & Sales, Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP317 – StoryOrigin

  Evan Gow is the indie developer of StoryOrigin, a marketing tool and community of authors that work together to find reviewers, build mailing lists, increase sales, and stay on top of deadlines.

• September 29, 2021Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP311 – Top Ten Takeaways for 2021

  This episode we're sharing the key things that have moved our writing careers, and creativity, forward so far in 2021. It's a typical "SPA Girls on the couch" episode with some raw honesty and bad humor thrown into the mix. We cover a lot of ground, so grab a cuppa and get comfortable.

• August 18, 2021Guest Interview, Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP305 – Talking Police Equipment For Fiction Authors

  We talk to Veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson about Police equipment for fiction authors today. Adam spent seventeen years of his almost 25-year law enforcement career as a detective.

• June 8, 2021Guest Interview, Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP295 – How To Build Your Author Village – with Celeste Barclay

  Celeste Barclay joins us to discuss finding your village and what doing so did for her. Celeste has published an incredible 27 books since 2017 primarily in historical romance. Celeste says her author village "made her career" and today she talks to us about what that means to her, how to find and build your own village, and why it's so important.

• March 16, 2021Guest Interview, Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP283 – Interview with Kaye Kennedy

  Today we’re talking with Kaye Kennedy who had the successful experience we all hope for when we start out. Using her business experience and spending years studying how to do it right, Kaye managed a million page reads in 6 months and she’s going to tell you how she did it! You don't want to miss this episode!

• June 18, 2020Guest Interview, Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP244 – Alex Newton From K-lytics

  Knowing as much as you can about your category, genre or sub-genre is vitally important if you're going to succeed as a self publisher, and Alex Newton is keen to help you with that. He's the creator of K-lytics (www.k-lytics.com) a website where you can get in-depth reports on various genres and sub-genres on Amazon that will help you find your niche, boost sales in your chosen genre, and basically give you the information you need to stand out in this crowded publishing space. In this episode Alex explains the reports and how to use them, talks about the Amazon environment and how it works, and also dishes the dirt on the romance genre, giving us some helpful tips along the way! This is a must listen episode!

• February 19, 2020Goal Setting, Planning & Productivity, Guest Interview

  SPA Girls Podcast – Ep 227 – Elana Johnson Part One – Productivity

  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 completed. 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 ethic is paying off... in January 2020 Elana hit a 6 figure month for the first time. Join us for another excellent interview with a top indie author!

• February 4, 2020Guest Interview, Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP225 – Amazon Decoded with David Gaughran

  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.

• June 4, 2019Guest Interview, Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP190 – Dictation With Scott Baker

  Are your wrists giving you problems? Thinking you need to get out and walk more?  But still have to write all those books??  Then this episode is for you... We talk to dictation expert Scott Baker about all aspects of dictation, from the right software to get, the products and technical knowledge you need to get started, and how to train that dragon to within an inch of its life!!  Scott talks to us about everything from how to set up the dictation equipment correctly, the different ways you can dictate and how to make it as accurate as possible.  He's hugely knowledgeable, and is very generous with his information, so if you've ever wondered about dictation, or are considering getting it set up (or even tried and couldn't get it to work properly!) then make sure you listen to this episode!  

• February 28, 2018Guest Interview

  SPA Girls Podcast – Episode 123 – Interview With Nate Vella

  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 seven years. In that time he has played in both New Zealand 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 and Shar about applying what he has learned in the competitive high-performance environment he thrives and works in.

• October 4, 2017Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP102 – Maximising Book Sales At Christmas

  This week we tackle Christmas. Not literally. I mean we're not going after Santa or anything. No knocking him to the ground, and sitting on him til he gives us presents. That would be weird, right?  No, this week we're talking about what self-published authors should be doing over the Christmas period to promote their books to the hoards of eager Yuletide book buyers. It's a prime book buying time of year, and no one wants to miss out, right? In order to do the best research for our eager listeners, we talked to several other authors (in forums and people we know) for their advice on this topic, as well as using our own experiences. We even discovered a few tips that we didn't know about and are planning to use this year for ourselves!  If you've been wondering what you should do to promote your books this Christmas, you need to listen to this episode! 

• September 13, 2017Guest Interview, Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP99 – Interview with Arianna Golden

  This week we have authorpreneur and automation expert Arianna Golden. She's great at helping authors set up systems in their business, to amp up their productivity, and enhance their ability to write. She talked to us about some basic automations that are simple for authors to put in place, and gave us some fantastic tips on how to save time.  Automation doesn't have to be a scary word. As Arianna says, think of it as a tool, like a cheese grater. Used correctly, a grater can get you yummy grated cheese to go on top of a baked potato. It's only if you don't use it correctly that you might get into trouble... (I'm scared of graters, but not of automation, so I'm not sure where that leaves me...) It's another fascinating interview, and hopefully a good introduction to automation for people who don't know much about automation. Enjoy! 

• April 6, 2017Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP76 – First Quarter Goals

  This week we sit down and talk through our self publishing goals for the first quarter, and how we've been going with our writing. It's a bit of a mixed bag, with some of us having achieved our goals and others not so much. But there's always something to learn from our highs and lows, especially how to recalibrate your writing and marketing goals when things happen outside of your control, and how to keep yourself going when times get tough!

• December 21, 2016Guest Interview, Marketing, Advertising & Sales, Mindset, Health & Writing Life

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP61 – Interview with Joanna Penn

  This week we had the honour of interviewing the one and only... Joanna Penn! She's a best-selling author, an international speaker, a podcaster, and a trainer, and one of our role models in this industry. We were super-excited to have her on the show, and she didn't disappoint. She gave us a huge amount of self publishing advice in this information-packed episode - making it an episode that you don't want to miss!

• August 28, 2016Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP46 – Should I Write a Series?

  This week I (Trudi Jaye) was away, so against my better judgement, I let the other three do the podcast without me. Surprisingly, against all expectations, they managed to do an episode that was moderately okay. :) Don't miss this episode as Wendy, Cher, and Shar talk about writing in series - why you would do it, what it involves, how to remember all the characters, and some hot tips on marketing your series.

• November 16, 2015Guest Interview

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP09 – Interview With Author Toni Kenyon!

  This week's episode was a huge amount of fun for us... We did our first ever proper interview (if you don't count the one we did with SPA Girl Wendy Vella) with author Toni Kenyon! Toni was a delight to have on the show, and she was a wealth of information on being a self publishing author