This week's episode is a Spa Girls retrospective of how our 2019 went - what our two big Hits were, and what we found challenging. As usual, we get deep and personal. And cheeky! We've also got a wee teaser about our teaching plans for next year - stay tuned for those! Thank you to all our listeners who've been so amazingly supportive this year. Your downloads, your comments, your social media shares and your reviews are very VERY appreciated!

Check out our website at SpaGirlsPodcast.com for all our shownotes and previous episodes.

Today we interview Kathleen Sweeney, Customer Services Manager and Marketing Lead at BrookBrush, an online platform designed to help authors with all their image creation needs.

Kathleen helps us delve into what we as writers can get out of BookBrush, and all the features that we can use to create amazing social media and advertising images. She explains the platform, how it works, what options are available and some of her favourite tips to create the right images for your needs. Kathleen also tells us they're always evolving and working on new and exciting things to help us create those wonderful graphics.

"As someone who can be at times technologically challenged, I find BookBrush easy to navigate and am always pleasantly surprised at the quality of the graphics I'm able to produce in a short space of time." – Wendy xx

It's that time of year when we start looking back on the year, wondering how it all flew by so fast, and thinking about what we can do for the coming year.

This week we're talking about another lesson we learned at the Romance Author Mastermind (RAM) - making sure that you've crossed the t's and dotted the i's on all your backlist books, and even in your author career. It's about making sure everything is as tight and sharp as you can make it.

If you want to learn how to sharpen up your author career, this is a must listen episode!

If you're anything like the rest of us in the SPA, you're quite happy in your writing cave. You don't really want to leave the comfort of your keyboard.

But this episode is all about why you really should take risks, be brave, and learn how to say yes to some of the really scary things in the self publishing industry.

We're just recently back from the wonderful Romance Author Mastermind conference put on by Skye Warren, so we use examples from information we learned at this amazing event to help us illustrate our points for this podcast as well. :)

This week's episode comes to you from 20BooksVegas, where Trudi Jaye caught up with fantasy author and fellow podcaster Lindsay Buroker and interviewed her about her successful self publishing career.

Lindsay talks about how she makes writing in multiple genres work so well for her career, how and why she switches between fantasy to sci-fi and, of course, how she's so productive.

Even if you're not a total fan-girl like Trudi Jaye, this is a must-listen episode from a super-smart self-publishing author.

This episode we talk with author, podcaster and coach Bryan Cohen about how we can make small changes that can have big results for authors. It's all about how we can make small, incremental changes that increase revenue and other results by smaller amounts, but add up in the long run.

We talk about why authors often overlook making small changes, and what we can do to improve one tiny step at a time.

We also discuss some of the most common tweaks that Bryan sees authors making that have made a difference to their success.

We all love it when we're reading and we fall in love with a character.

Not just in the book boyfriend way - although that's cool too - but in a isn't-she-so-great-I-wish-I-could-be-just-like-her-or-maybe-just-her-best-friend way.

As an author, how do you make that happen for your readers?

That's what we're talking about this week in the SPA. What makes a great character? How do we make them so memorable that our readers keep coming back for more? What do you need to know about them before you start? And how do you bring them to life on the page?

Join us as we dissect everything you might ever need to know about writing great characters!

If you don't take care of yourself, odds are no one else will.

So what does it take to make ensure you're firing on all cylinders?

This week we'll give you tips on doing exactly that.

Why do we sabotage ourselves? How can we make life easier? What can we do to be more focused and achieve the results we desire?

We've all got our own take on self-care and yet there are plenty of similarities.

You'll find all the show notes and SPA Girls podcast episodes at: www.spagirlspodcast.com

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. Info here: https://selfpublishingworkshop.co.nz/index.html

Come say hi on Facebook and Twitter @spagirlspodcast

Serenity Woods is a New Zealand self-publishing superstar with more than 70 books published (both traditionally and indie). She's a USA Today bestselling author of sexy contemporary romances, most of which are set in the sub-tropical Northland of New Zealand, where she lives.

Serenity joins the SPA Girls again this week to discuss her publishing strategy and the road to six figures - hint, it's a marathon, not a sprint! Her episode from when she last appeared with us at the beginning of 2019 (https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep171-interview-with-serenity-woods/) is one of our most downloaded episodes ever. This latest one is sure to be just as popular, with Serenity's frank honesty, encouragement and keen insight into how you too can be a six-figure author.

Find Serenity at: https://www.serenitywoodsromance.com/ * * *

You'll find all the show notes and SPA Girls podcast episodes at: www.spagirlspodcast.com

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. Info here: https://selfpublishingworkshop.co.nz/index.html

Come say hi on Facebook and Twitter @spagirlspodcast

Confused about the editing process? Today we talk with talented editor Anne Victory, founder of Victory Editing.

Anne has always been a stickler for grammar, and at every job she was "volunteered" (or volun-told) to either write or proofread everything from menus to game manuals to advertising copy. That business writing and editing experience came in handy when she started to work in fiction.

She enjoys reading and polishing the written word. Common wisdom says do what you love and you'll live a long and happy life. With her background in English literature, grammar, and library science, it was a fairly easy decision to work with authors.

We discuss what it takes to work with an editor. What you need to think about when you are editing your manuscript and much more.

Anne has written a wonderfully informative book that is a must-read! How to Polish your manuscript in 10 days: https://www.amazon.com/How-Polish-Your-Manuscript-Days/dp/1793364052

Check out Anne at her website: http://victoryediting.com/