SPA Girls Podcast – EP109 – Interview with Melissa Storm – What Your Readers Really Want
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This week our guest is the lovely Melissa Storm, who runs several author businesses, and is also a very successful indie author in her own right. Along with her training courses through the Author Engine, and editing, marketing and formatting services through Novel Publicity, Melissa also runs LitRing, an author promotions company that helps authors connect with readers.
This year, through LitRing, she created a survey that asked readers what kind of books they were reading, what they wanted to see from authors, and whether they read mostly free or paid books, among other questions. With an extensive background in research, and in particular survey creation, Melissa was able to design, implement and analyse the data from over 10,000 readers, making it quite possibly the largest survey conducted by an independent author. She talks to us, among other things, about the insights we can take away from this amazing survey, and how we can use it in our own author careers.
Learn more at:
LitRing Facebook group for authors
Episodes 100 – 200 List
200 What we’ve learned so far…
199 Interview with Adam Croft – Mindset and Marketing
198 Find Your Sparkle – with Julie Schooler
197 Hack Your Muse – with Kelly McClymer
196 Public Speaking For Authors – with Alena Van Arendonk
195 The Magic Pill – with Laura Van Arendonk-Baugh
194 A Day In The Life Of A Writer
193 Keep It Simple
192 Interview with Skye Warren: Money Mindset and Facebook Ads
For Authors (Part Two)
191 Interview with Skye Warren: Time Management & Advertising
For Authors (Part One)
190 Dragon Wrangling with Scott Baker: secrets for
Successful dictation
189 Interview with Patricia McLinn: Writing by the seat of
Your pants
188 Interview with Morgana Best: Writing & Marketing
Cozy Mysteries
187 Interview with Geoff Symon: Wounds & Crime Scenes
186 Interview with Natasha Bajema, WMD for Authors
185 The Writer’s Detective with Adam Richardson
183 Facebook Advertising with Maria Luis ~ Part Two
182 Facebook Advertising with Maria Luis ~ Part One
181 Learn dictation with Kilby Blades
180 Interview with Brian Meeks, Mastering Book Descriptions
179 Interview with Tara Cremin, Kobo Writing Life
178 Interview with Larissa Reynolds – Newsletters Part Two
177 Interview with Larissa Reynolds – Newsletters Part One
175 Wrangling Facebook: How To Make It Work For You
174 How To Write A Regency Romance
173 How Do You Identify Your Writing Weaknesses?
172 Interview With Dan Wood, D2D
171 Interview With Serenity Woods
169 5 Goals You Need To Make In 2019
168 Jumpstart Your 2019 Marketing with 31 Quick To Dos for Jan.
167 Scheduling For Writing Success
166 Our 2018 Roundup
165 He Said, She Said: Creating Dazzling Dialogue
164 Interview with Steffanie Holmes: Reverse Harem
163 Interview with YA author Kelly St Clare
160 Amazon Excl v Wide – things to consider and how to market
159 Interview With Kathryn LeVeque
158 Some Like It Hot – Or Not. Heat Levels In Romance
157 Interview With Louisa George
156 The Kindness Factor: Helping You Achieve More and Stress Less
155 Editing
153 Characters: From Cookie Cutter to Kapow
152 Interview with Tina Dietz: Audiobooks
151 Interview with Grace Burrowes
150 Should You Prune Your Mailing List?
149 RWNZ18 Interview with Damon Suede & Geoff Symon
148 Interview with indie superstar, Bella Andre
147 Top Ten Traits for Success
146 Write Better Faster with Becca Syme
145 Newsletter Ninja Tammi LaBrecque
144 Looking After Your Creative Health
143 Interview with Carlyn Robertson from Bookbub
142 Personal Branding For Authors with Lauren Clemett
141 Ten Free Online Tools For Authors
140 Tempting Taglines & Heartstopping Hooks
139 Findaway Voices with Kelly Lytle
138 Get Your Writing Mojo Back
137 Interview with Toni Kenyon: facebook live & serials
136 Dealing with misinformation and change in Sp-ing
134 Interview with Kevin Tumlinson, Draft2Digital
133 Interview with Sara Rosett
132 Organization For Authors – how to keep track of your
research and book details without losing your mind
131 Interview with Ricardo Fayet of Reedsy
130 Critical Care: Leveraging feedback for success
129 Brand You
128 SAS Special: Interview with Johnny B. Truant & Sean Platt
127 Industry Insiders with Damon J. Courtney of Bookfunnel
& Christine Monroe of Kobo
126 SAS Debrief with Jami Albright
125 SAS Special: Interview with Michelle Spiva
124 SAS Special : Interview With Michael Anderle
123 Sports Psychology for Authors – Interview With Nate Vella
122 Using Sub Plots To Amp Up Your Writing
121 Interview with Scott King: Outlining Your Novel
120 Pen-names Pros, Cons and Possibilities
119 Reader Engagement with Nalini Singh
118 Writing the Small Town Setting
117 Handling Negativity and Naysayers
116 Tough Mindset Questions For 2018
115 Interview With Nicola Davidson: Sex and Sensibility
114 Tropealicious
112 Interview With Honoree Corder & Ben Hale: Write Like A Boss
111 Ten Health Hacks For Writers
110 Interview with Kathryn Burnett: Your Writing Audit For Future Success
109 Interview with Melissa Storm: What Readers Want
108 Interview With Zoe Dawson: Writing Across Genres
107 Interview With Dave Chesson, The Keyword King
106 Pros and Cons of Kindle Unlimited
105 Why YOU should do Nanowrimo
104 Ten Truths For New Self Publishers
103 Find 30 Minutes A Day EXTRA!
102 Your Christmas Presence: Maximizing the Holiday Season for Authors
101 The Writing Life: Interview with Katie Cross
100 100 Episodes! Retrospective with funny moments; changing AO title
SPA Girls Podcast – Episode 111 – 10 Health Hacks For Writers
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Staying healthy (and sane) especially during stressful times and holiday periods can be a challenge for us all. This week Cheryl, Wendy and Shar talk about the health hacks they’ve found have helped to calm the chaos, stay sane (sort of) and keep our bodies and minds working well. It can be hard to put self-care on the top of your Priority List, but it’s vital. From mindfulness to stretching, gratitude to social media-strangling, we hope you’ll find our healthy hacks helpful. As a wise commercial says, you’re worth it.
1) Mindfulness
According to mindfulness teacher, Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally, to the unfolding of experience moment to moment”.
It’s not magic, or mysterious. It’s simply focussing on what you’re doing when you’re doing it, without thinking about anything else. Turning our brain “off” isn’t the goal here – what we’re aiming to do is practice being present. This slows down the monkey chatter going on it your head and it’s particularly helpful when you’re writing (helps that negative self talk shut up) and when you’re editing and proofreading (focus, grasshopper). If a pesky thought enters your head, distracting you, you “observe” it with detachment.
A clear and focussed mind is a beautiful thing, and there’s a reason this is called a “practice” – ie it’s something you need to consciously do throughout the day! One app many of us have tried is Headspace.com which is guided meditation.
Other mindfulness app recommendations here: https://www.mindful.org/free-mindfulness-apps-worthy-of-your-attention/
2) Water
Pure H20 – the stuff you splash in with your whiskey doesn’t count.
Keep a bottle by your desk and stay hydrated. Side benefit: all the getting up and going to the bathroom enforces you to get off your chair!
3) Fresh Air / Exercise
Fresh air (for mental and physical health) is vital every day. We all know the benefits of exercise – the key we’ve found is to find something you enjoy (eg walk while listening to podcasts) and change things up so you’re not bored.
4) Healthy Fuel
Not going to get into dietary advice, except to say “stop eating crap” and remember that to function well your brain and body need good fats and protein. No secret that many of the top tier of romance writers we met at RWA over the years pay good attention to their health and wellness. We’re in this for the long haul people! Ass-spread as a result of sitting is a very real danger. As is heart disease, diabetes and a host of other illnesses. You’re a Ferrari Of Awesomeness – give yourself the right fuel to run.
5) Healthy Sleep Habits
Who hasn’t lain awake at night wrangling plot problems in their head? But poor sleep can have a really negative impact on your health and your writing, so it’s worth paying as much attention to your healthy sleeping as it is when you’re awake. Consider: bed time routines, exercise / fresh air, healthy food to aid sleep, magnesium and other natural supplements, turning off “blue light” devices before bed. Many writers struggle with depression and anxiety of which poor sleep is a symptom. Courage is asking for help, no need to suffer alone.
Our fellow podcasters James Blatch and Mark Dawson had an excellent episode with sleep expert Dr Anne Bartolucci which is well worth a listen at: https://selfpublishingformula.com/episode-76/
6) Trim back on Social Media
- Especially at this time of year, social media, holiday stress and buy-buy-buy emails can be really anxiety-inducing. This is where tips we’ve talked about previously can help. In our Author Overwhelm book, we suggest:
Understand what you’re trying to achieve by using social media
- Take a step back and look at your overall social media strategy. Do you want to engage with fans? Do you want to meet other authors to find cross promotion buddies? Or do you want to just sell more books? Each of these aims would require a very different social media strategy. Once again, as soon as you have a specific goal in mind it becomes easier to decide what actions to take, and where to spend your time.
Pick one social media platform to learn at a time
Pick Facebook first
Limit your daily social media activity
- This means only looking at certain times of the day. And turn off your Facebook feed between those times. You’ll only get sucked into a cute kitten/sexy-firemen-holding-puppies time-warp that will steal your writing time.
Consider scheduling posts and other automation assistance
Plan ahead and stay focused
- If you think you might be spending too much time on social media, it could be from lack of planning. If you don’t know how much you want to do, and how often, you can sometimes overdose because of the guilt from not doing as much as you think you should. If you have a clear plan, and you know on a week-to-week basis exactly what you need to have on your social media platform, it will be much more streamlined and effective. The temptation not to plan because you think it takes too long is a false economy (but for time, not money).
If you can’t do it regularly, don’t do it at all
- This applies to blogging most of all, but also to social media platforms. If you can’t give your audience what they need, perhaps it’s time to rethink your strategy. Honestly, the world will not fall apart if you’re not on Twitter.
Try taking a social media vacation
- This is the same as above, but less permanent. Try just having a break for a while. Trying to keep up with all the posts, retweets, and must-haves on social media can be tiring. Sometimes you just need to step back and take a break. You can use automation to keep a presence, but take yourself out of it for a month.
7) Be Grateful
Yes, we know Gratitude Journals, a la Gwyneth Paltrow and Oprah, can seem just one more darn “thing to do” but keeping the spirit / creative well / mind healthy is key to writing success, just as much as upping your marketing game or nailing tropes. This is an amazing, awesome time to be a writer and it’s easy to forget that when we’re lost in the fog of To Dos and If Onlys.
A team of researchers from the University of Limerick’s study published in 2017 found gratitude journaling had a significant, positive impact on well-being. Interestingly, those who were more depressed got the most benefit out of expressing their gratitude.
8) Ya Gotta Laugh
When we spoke with screenwriter Kathryn Burnett last episode, she reminded us of her sign than overcomes her resistance and helps ground her: it says, you will die. Which we all laughed at (a bit uncomfortably at fast) but that is SO true. And in the same way, laughing at your current (writing) situation is a huge stress release. Even the crazed cackling at 2am when Amazon won’t upload your darn cover image.
Humor not only helps with stress, it also has physical benefits (apparently a hearty laugh benefits your circulation, lungs and tummy muscles!) as well as boosting your creativity.
9) Stretch Yourself
Not just mentally, but physically. Take care of your back, your neck and your hands (dictation is worth mastering). Try Pilates (Wendy), Essentrics : http://www.essentrics.com/media.html (Shar) and read our Author Overwhelm book for more exercises and tips.
10) Anxiety
Can be a friend and a foe. Our previous podcast guest, Melissa Storm, talked about turning it into her Superpower (Spa Girls Podcast Episode #109). When a foe, it can be crippling, and many writers suffer. Getting some kind of help is vital – see your doctor, therapist, natural health practitioner and talk to other writers. You are not alone.
Author Overwhelm
Feeling overwhelmed? Panicked?
Frustrated by trying to juggle life, writing and the business of being an author?
Don’t worry, you are not alone. Author Overwhelm is a common and not unsurprising side-effect of being an author today. Beat Author Overwhelm with this informative, honest and practical guide that’s full of tips and techniques to become more focused and less stressed. Together, we’ll help you form an action plan that’ll help you manage your time, social media, marketing and actually getting those words written.
A SPA Girls Guide: Kick Author Overwhelm To The Curb is out now!
Available in ebook and paperback on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited!
Read an excerpt below …
What Are The Consequences of Author Overwhelm?
[OR]
Holy Cow, I’m Losing My Mind!
Before we go any further, we want to talk about why author overwhelm can be such a problem. Aside from the fact that it can make you feel awful, both inside your head and physically, there are a few very serious consequences…
Author burnout
Author burnout is actually pretty common—we just don’t talk about it all that much. While you’re trying to make it, you’re generally doing a lot of work for free, pushing yourself to spend time at the keyboard while living with hopes and dreams that it’s all going to work out. Sometimes it happens as you expect, sometimes it doesn’t. But when everything seems too much, you can’t focus and writing just seems way too hard. That’s when you’re most likely to burn out.
Writer’s block
This is when you’re staring at the screen and nothing is happening. You’ve lost your creative mojo, and all you can write is…nothing! Most often, this is when you’re feeling panicky, unbalanced or on edge, and is a direct result of author overwhelm.
Depression and anxiety
If you can’t focus, you won’t be achieving what you want to achieve, and everything can seem to be slipping away from you…that’s when the depression and anxiety can kick in. It’s a sliding scale, but this can lead to some serious issues for your wellbeing, and we really don’t want you to go there if you can help it.
Giving up entirely
Occasionally writers whisper to each other about a friend or acquaintance who actually gave up writing. Perhaps they moved on and decided to try something else instead. For some people, this might be the best decision they could have made. But for other people, it’s not because they didn’t have the talent or the will to succeed—they just became too overwhelmed to continue on.
We’re here to stop that happening to you!
FROM THE SPA GIRLS
Everyone experiences author overwhelm, but different problems cause each of us to turn into jittery balls of Jell-O. We’re all unique, right? So it makes sense that our pain points are unique to each of us as well.
Wendy’s story
I have a few general neuroses that hit me all the time. The main one is “OMG no one will read it!” closely followed by “She’s way more successful than me, why can’t I be that good?” Marketing is enough to make me go hide in the bathroom, and I’m always having thoughts like, “How can I hope to get my books noticed when there is soooo much competition?” and “I suck at this.”
Some days it’s more about my mindset. I tell myself, “It’s just toooo hard.” (Usually with the bed covers over my head.) And I also have a pretty strong competitive streak, so the thought “Why is that book winning all those competitions and not me?” often floats across my mind. (On the heels of that thought comes “Perhaps if you entered it would help?”)
I could go on, but as I want you to take me seriously, I think it best to stop here.
Cheryl’s story
The first thing is to realize that whatever you’re feeling, it’s okay. There is no right or wrong way to avoid author overwhelm, there’s no right or wrong way to become an author, and there’s no right or wrong way to deal with the results of being overwhelmed. Everyone experiences it, and it affects everyone differently. What we’re giving here are some examples of the ways we’ve dealt with it, so that you can find ways to make it work for you.
I don’t like to muck around with things. I get frustrated by inaction. Which all sounds good, until you find that you can’t move forward until you take the time from writing the story to learn. To be better at your craft, and to achieve something you will be proud of.
All the hard work and the long hours make sense when you see your book on a screen or in your hand. Believe this – it’s worth it.
Shar’s story
When I look at my own writing and publishing stacked up against the other SPA Girls I get that hot, prickly, uncomfortable feeling—equal parts inspiration, embarrassment and shame.
They’re the inspirational part. Heck, they’re actually producing and publishing great stories, while dealing with busy, complicated lives. The embarrassment and shame is that while I can talk a good game, I’m so far behind them on the publishing front, it’s not funny. Or inspirational. We (I) joke that I’m like the weak antelope at the back of the herd, running behind them frantically trying to keep up.
I’ve always been hampered by the twin Achilles heels of perfectionism and procrastination.
And you know what? That’s okay.
Because we’re all human and we all have different talents. My author overwhelm comes very much from internal, negative self-talk and thoughts. I’m not fast enough, not good enough, OMG what if someone I know reads this and hates it—or worse, what if someone I know reads this and actually likes it?
I had wrapped up my self-identity in ‘being a writer’, and after continually ‘failing’ at producing and publishing work for so long, I wasn’t able to see the bigger picture: that I’m producing successfully in other fields, and all the self-flagellation in the world ain’t gonna get this train rolling. It hasn’t worked for the past *cough* forty-something years, and it ain’t gonna work in the future.
Time to change the record.
I’ve spent many years working on this aspect of myself and will share in this book what’s really worked for me.
We’ve put together a whole heap of (hopefully) positive encouragement, useful advice and resources in this book. For me, I’d like to give you, gentle reader, a big hug and say…
Welcome to being a writer.
You can do this. You are not alone.
Trudi’s story
I’m the ambitious one in the group.
And I don’t mean to say that the other SPA Girls don’t have goals and haven’t achieved a whole lot, because they have, surpassing me by light years in many areas. What I mean is that I have high expectations of myself and what I can achieve. This is sometimes the very thing that hampers me, and causes me to stumble.
I want to do everything, right now. Yesterday, if possible. I take on too much, and I’m impatient to have it all done. Oh, and I have a terrible time saying no to other people. Did I mention I faff about, doing a little bit of a lot of things and never finishing anything? Oh, and then there’s the fact I have to learn about three new programs to update myself to the latest technology in the industry. Oh and…
Well, anyway, you get the idea.
There’s this big to-do list sitting on my desk, with about fifty-plus things on it. Every one of them is important and I know I must get them all completed if I’m going to make it in self-publishing land. I’ve started a few of them, changed my mind, and started another couple. I’ve dabbled and fussed and thought about it all in great detail. But nothing is finished.
Does this sound familiar?
It’s where I ended up last year after I quit my job and went full time as a writer (mostly—I have a five-year-old daughter who also needs some attention). I knew all the things I had to get done so I could start being a successful self-publisher. But instead of getting to work, I ended up stalled. I had so much to do, I couldn’t do anything at all.
In the end I managed to work through my overwhelm and get back on track. It was simple, hugely effective, and I’ll tell you exactly what I did later in this book.
That’s the kind of advice we’re planning to give you. Simple, effective solutions to get you back in the writer’s seat, pumping out those works of genius.
I hope you come along for the ride!
Buy now on Amazon
Read on Kindle Unlimited
