Spa Girls Podcast

What do you do when you're running out of steam and you're only in the middle of the book? Or you're just running out of steam in general?

Bonus content is an awesome marketing tool that can be used in a variety of ways - from encouraging people to sign up to newsletters, to convincing them to buy the next book in the series, or thanking superfans for their ongoing support. This week we talk about the ways we've used the bonus content we've created for our readers, from bonus scenes and epilogues, to short stories, prequel novellas and everything in between! We talk about what's worked, what hasn't, and what we think is the best option, no matter where you are in your writing career...

Want to make sure you give your first book the best possible chance of success... and then have readers auto-buying the next in your series? Then this is the podcast for you! This week we give you a checklist of elements for a successful first book in a series, before you even start writing a single word! We talk about everything - including the tropes that sell, what back matter to use, what kind of characters readers love and much more in this overview of how to make sure the first book in your series is awesome and automatically sells the next book in your series to your readers! 

Why does Amazon choose someone else's book over yours to show in a search? And how can we make sure to use the best keywords for sales? Well wonder no more! We've got the answers for you in this info-packed episode ...

Today’s podcast is all about reader groups. Are they worthwhile? How they work and why you would want one? Wendy has recently started one, and we discuss how that is working for her, and also talk about some more established reader groups the SPA Girls belong to like, Lucy Score, C N Crawford, and Marie Force.

A good old fashioned craft episode from the SPA Girls this week. Shar, Wendy and Cheryl discuss insider writing secretes from James Scott Bell's book Fiction Attack! They pull out five important secrets that have most impacted them, and discuss what they mean and how they've used them in their writing. From using conflict and suspense, to description, fuzzy POV, cliches and info dumps, they go deep on some of those writing secrets that will take you from average to amazing!

In this episode we’re answering listener questions - a couple around the change of life many are experiencing right now. We have a few suggestions that helped us through switching to full time writing and the fickle motivation issue. Then we discuss how to tackle being visible in your local market. If you’ve had to deal with these things or are going through them now, please tell us about it on our Facebook page or comment on this post.  Keen to join the SPA Girls in a live workshop? Join our mailing list here and we’ll let you know the minute we have workshop bookings open. https://selfpublishingworkshop.co.nz/index.html Come say hi on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SPAGirlsPodcast/ and Twitter @spagirlspodcast.

This week's podcast had us (good-naturedly) arguing a wee bit. Shar and Trudi typically were ALL OVER doing Gretchen Rubin's online test to identify which of the four tendencies they identified most closely as. Cheryl, super organized as always, also came to the podcast fully prepped and self-tested.  Then there was our favorite Rebel, Wendy - whose self motivation and discipline continuously inspires us, but who also has no time for our self-help discussions 

Today we're delighted to welcome back mindset coach, Amira Alvarez after such an amazing response to our earlier episode with her. Today, we're taking a deeper dive into Imposter Syndrome - something that a lot of us experience! BONUS - here's how to win a FREE ticket to the Unstoppable (Virtual) Summit in November!

This week we have an intriguing chat with author Danielle Romero (Danielle Annett), who has recently switched genres from Urban Fantasy to Contemporary Romance, with some amazing results. She talks us through the decision to change genres, and what she did to make it a success, including some of the big decisions she had to make, such as whether to create a new pen name, how to market it, and what kind of social media/website and newsletter presence she wanted to have with the new genre/name. 

This week we look at the major email advertising sites we use, as well as some of the smaller, and talk about our success, or lack of it, with each. We also talk about how to prepare for advertising during the upcoming holiday season.

This episode is a DOOZY! We're thrilled to interview author and marketing expert, Holly Mortimer. We talk all things email marketing with Holly, and get you some 'next level' tips that'll have your author newsletter nailed!

Today we're going to talk with author Connie Dowell about juggling family responsibilities, pandemic postponements, and upheaval, with the responsibilities of being a working writer.

In response to a listener question, this week we attempt to answer the question: Knowing what you know now, if you were starting out in publishing today, would you go straight to self publishing, or would you try out traditional publishing first? It's a hard question, because we're not starting out now, we do know an awful lot more than we did when we first started and when we started (7-8 years ago) everything was different. And also, we all clearly believe in self publishing over traditional...! But... in the interests of helping our listeners make these kinds of decisions, we decided to give you the pros and cons of traditional vs self publishing. It's a little skewed, we admit that. But we did our best... :) So join us for another great episode!!

This episode we discuss our (very!) different newsletter strategies: what provider we use and why, how we build our lists, our content, how frequently we email subscribers and what tips have worked for us. We also cover where to start for newbies - ie, keep it simple and doable! Resources mentioned: Our interview with Larissa Reynolds (two parts): https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep177-successful-newsletter-strategies-with-larissa-reynolds/ Our interview with Maria Luis (two parts): https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep182-facebook-ads-with-maria-luis/ Our interview with David Gaughran: https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep225-amazon-decoded/ Our interview with Tammi Labrecque : https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep145-newsletter-ninja-tammi-labrecque/ Tammi's book: Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert Tammi L. Labrecque https://amzn.to/2Q9wZD5

Today we're joined by fabulous Alaskan author, Tamsin Ley, who is seeing great success writing SciFi Romance! We talk about Tamsin's writing journey, marketing strategies, paranormal romance quirks and her advice for self-publishers.

Amira Alvarez is the founder and CEO of The Unstoppable Woman, a global coaching company helping entrepreneurs, empire builders, athletes, creatives, and rising stars in all fields achieve their dreams and goals in record time. Today we're going to talk to Amira specifically on how we can find focus in this chaotic time, and be productive without burning ourselves out.

One thing we really believe in here at the SPA is that simple is better. There's so much noise on the internet, and so many different things that we're told that we "have" to do to be successful as self publishers, it can get confusing and overwhelming. So we decided to talk about ways to keep things simple in your publishing career, to prove that it doesn't have to be complicated to be amazing. With that in mind, this week we talk about our own experiences of keeping things simple, and how it worked out for us. We also give our tips on ways that you can simplify what you're doing, whilst also amplifying your career...

Alana Terry is a 6-figure, USA Today bestseller with more than forty published Christian suspense novels. She hosts the Successful Writer Podcast which is a  fabulous marketing-focused podcast for indie authors of any genre. Alana has also created several highly regarded courses to help authors reach their dreams of achieving creative and commercial success. Today we're going to talk with Alana about how she uses advertising to grow her readership and how authors can navigate the sometimes confusing waters of Amazon ads and Facebook ads!

Celebrating our 250th Episode! We go right back to our first episode (don't worry, we won't replay it), discuss the ONE piece of advice we'd give to new self-publishers, and talk about what we've learned / what's changed, over the years.