SPA Girls Podcast

Celebrating the season with a quick recap of our Words For 2020. Hahahahahaha And then onto Important Burning Questions about our Christmas favorites.  Sometimes controversial, always tongue-in-cheek, our “unplugged” conversation will hopefully add some Christmas cheer to your day. click here to watch the live recording  Thank you for all your support this year and we do hope, despite the 2020ness of the past 12 months, that you’ve made steps forward in your writing and publishing career.  As the SPA Girls always say, one step at a time. And we’re here for you, right through the holiday period, with information and inspiration on our podcast.  Merry Christmas, dear friends. Whatever you do, take care of yourself and those you love … and know that we are thinking of you. Love, The SPA Girls

You’ve had a great idea for a story – now how do you turn it into a workable outline?This is a “live action” recording where the SPA Girls take a “great” idea – an Elf who hates Christmas – into a workable outline! Probably NSFW, you’ll hopefully find this episode informative and a lighthearted break from holiday stress! And don’t forget to visit us on facebook and let us know which story you think we should write! Included in the tips we discuss … figure out wordcount you want / how many chapters. list the chapters and just start filling in what happens in each chapter snowflake method -The Snowflake Method is an approach to writing that encourages starting with the simplest premise possible. From there, you systematically expand it to include plot and character details. don’t feel you have to outline the whole thing at the start write the blurb and flesh it out more from there keep raising the stakes for characters know what genre you’re writing from the start – same for heat level and character ages Resources mentioned: How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method (Advanced Fiction Writing Book 1) by Randy Ingermanson  Gwen Haye’s book Romancing The Beat Jami Gold’s site Romance Beat Sheets

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? This episode we share our suggestions for getting yourself re-energized and moving again.Some topics we cover: writing sprints writing with others either in person or on zoom/skype sexy times add more conflict change up environment – add music, go to a cafe or outside (depending on local quarantine measures) try dictation Trudi found shifting from 3 act structure to 4 act structure helpful set a deadline mindset affirmations try background music – rock or classical / brain fm take a break and be understanding of yourself! Resources mentioned: Level Up Romance Writers Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LevelUpRomanceWriters Brain FM: https://www.brain.fm/ Check out our You Tube Channel where you can watch us recording our episodes : http://www.youtube.com/c/SPAGirlsPodcast Sign up for our free weekly self-publishing tips newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/bGkz8L Join us on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/SPAGirlsPodcast

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!  SHOW NOTES: Tropes – what sells? What covers sell best? Don’t be afraid to niche Don’t over-complicate your story Find comparable books (published by indies) Make your first book your BEST – it does the heavy lifting of selling the entire series Cast of characters Cover symbolism POV and tense Links discussed: SPA Girls Podcast with Zoe York: Romance Your Brandhttp://selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep226-romance-your-brand-with-zoe-york/ Zoe York’s book “Romance Your Brand: Building a Marketable Genre Fiction Series https://www.amazon.com/Romance-Your-Brand-Marketable-Publishing/dp/1989703232 SPA Girls Podcast with Chris Fox: http://selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep206-interview-with-chris-fox-ads-for-authors-who-hate-maths/ K-lytics : https://k-lytics.com/SPA Girls Podcast with Alex Newton of K-lytics: http://selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep244-alex-newton-from-k-lytics/

Why does Amazon choose someone else’s book over yours in a search? How do we make sure we’re using the best keywords for sales? What exactly is a keyword, anyway? We have all these answers and more for you in this info-packed episode!  We’re joined again by the awesome and knowledgeable Dave Chesson, Founder and CEO of Publisher Rocket and Kindlepreneur. Dave breaks down all the best practices for getting the right keywords to deliver your book to the right readers, every time.  About Dave Chesson A former Navy engineer and super-passionate online marketing and SEO geek, Dave Chesson is the creator of Kindlepreneur.com, a blog and website which specializes in demystifying the Kindle ebook marketing for authors. And because he couldn’t just stop there, he’s also the creator of the even more helpful Publisher Rocket, a program that helps authors do market research as well as figure out their keywords and categories. Over his career he has created multiple consistently bestselling books that generate income from all sorts of sources and not just Amazon. He uses those books to test his tactics, and then share them with his community on the Kindlepreneur blog. Even Amazon KDP acknowledges Kindlepreneur as one of the best by telling users to “Gain insight from Kindlepreneur on how you can optimize marketing for your books.” Having worked with such authors as Orson Scott Card, Ted Dekker and more, his tactics help both Fiction and Nonfiction authors of all levels get their books discovered by the right readers. Some helpful links to the articles mentioned in the interview: Kindle Keywords – Do I Use all 50 Characters? Best Writing Software Thanks for visiting the SPA Girls! Make sure to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter full of tips on writing and self-publishing. 

Today’s podcast is all about reader groups. Are they worthwhile? How they work and why you would you 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. Once again an episode chock full of information! You’ll find all the show notes and SPA Girls podcast episodes at: www.spagirlspodcast.com Make sure you’re signed up to our weekly self-publishing tips newsletter: http://eepurl.com/bGkz8L Come say hi on Facebook and Twitter @spagirlspodcast  

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! SHOW NOTES: 1. The two things every novel needs regardless of genre: Conflict (readers get emotionally hooked by TROUBLE)  and   Suspense (not just in suspense story – excite anticipation and don’t be predictable   2. Opening No Nos : excessive description, point of view fuzziness, cliches, info dumps, too much backstory  3. Go to the place you fear (see also Donald Maass’s craft books)  ask “what is something your character would never ever do or say ?”  Then find a place for that character to do or say that. Or at least Think it. It shows great inner conflict.   4. How to write a novella :(20-40k words)  A) one plot  b) one POV   C) one central question – eg will x get y?   D) one style and tone   5. The most important characteristics every writer needs   1. Motivation – desire drives discipline   2. Action   3. Assessment – at various times just like any business would you need to step back and asses where you are and where you need to improve   4 . Time – you must learn to manage time. That’s your real currency. James tips for finding time : (a) plan in advance (b) write it down and block it out (c) prioritise.    “Discipline beats talent where talent isn’t disciplined” 

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 learn from the SPA Girls in a virtual course? Join our mailing list here and we’ll let you know the minute we have course bookings open. https://selfpublishingworkshop.co.nz/index.html Come say hi on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SPAGirlsPodcast/ and Twitter @spagirlspodcast.

Ever wondered why your best friend can organize her way out of anything, but you can’t follow the same processes she does? We might just have an answer: Gretchen Rubin has a system that involves what she calls the four tendencies. (Find the free online quiz here to identify your tendency here: https://quiz.gretchenrubin.com/?fbclid=IwAR05fTL0NJEPsCUJ6OqGMJrm4EHY7tnHcXCmg56_HroP0qLkIhe0GOT5yL4) Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness and human nature. She’s the author of many books, including the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers The Four Tendencies, Better Than Before, and The Happiness Project. She has an enormous readership, both in print and online, and her books have sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide. On her top-ranking podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin, she discusses happiness and good habits with her sister Elizabeth Craft. (Gretchen is an Upholder, Elizabeth is an Obliger). In this podcast episode, we’re talking about the four tendencies and how they each might deal with situations relating to organisation, overwhelm and others. https://amzn.to/3ocV8YA From Gretchen Rubin’s website:One of the daily challenges of life is: How do I get people – including myself – to do what I want? The Four Tendencies framework makes this task much easier by revealing whether a person is an upholder, questioner, obliger or rebel. By asking the one simple question, “How do I respond to expectations?” we gain exciting insight into ourselves. And when we know how other people respond to expectations, we understand them far more effectively, as well. We all face two kinds of expectations—outer expectations (meet work deadlines, answer a request from a friend) and inner expectations (keep a New Year’s resolution, start meditating). Our response to expectations determines our “Tendency”—that is, whether we fit into the category of Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, or Rebel. Knowing our Tendency can help us set up situations in the ways that make it more likely that we’ll achieve our aims. We can make better decisions, meet deadlines, meet our promises to ourselves, suffer less stress, and engage more deeply with others. Just as important, knowing other people’s Tendencies helps us to work with them more effectively. Managers, doctors, teachers, spouses, and parents already use the framework to help people reduce conflict and make significant, lasting change. About the Four TendenciesIn just about any role we play—as manager, health-care professional, team member, teacher, coach, spouse, parent, or colleague, to name a few—it’s helpful to know our own and other people’s Tendencies. It’s hard to grasp just how differently we can all see the world. When we can see other people’s perspectives, we understand why, from their point of view, their actions make sense. In a nutshell, remember: Upholders want to know what should be done.Questioners want justifications.Obligers need accountability.Rebels want freedom to do something their own way. WATCH the recording of this episode (complete with weird faces) at