SPA Girls Podcast – EP114 – Tropealicious – Or Tropes for Beginners
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This week we dive into the world of tropes for self publishing authors, to explain exactly what they are, why they’re important and how you should be using them in your writing career.
Knowing and understanding the tropes in romance is important for everything from choosing your plot line, to writing the blurb and finding your readers. They’re also vital in helping us as authors understand our books and our readers. It’s an important cog in the publishing wheel, and this episode is another must-listen show!
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 – EP432 – What To Do When You’ve Finished The Book
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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 done 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 below!
SHOW NOTES:
I’ve finished the Manuscript, what now?
- Take a break – it’s always good to give yourself a bit of time to get perspective on your manuscript.
- Edits – once you’ve had a bit of time off, you can dive back into your edits with a fresh eye. We’re talking both self edits and then a professional edit.
- Get a friend to read through or get beta readers to check it over. Sometimes it takes someone who is completely removed from the book to spot the little niggling errors.
- Identify the genre, and where it sits on Amazon bookshelf, and find comparable books to yours. This will help with your marketing and to figure out what your blurb and cover should look like.
- Blurb – look at other blurbs, know what’s right for the genre you’ve chosen, write it, get feedback. The blurb is often the hardest piece of writing for this whole project! Don’t be afraid to get feedback from author friends.
- Cover – find a cover designer, or get a pre made cover that fits the genre.
- Set up the business side of things – this includes taxes, bank account, postal address, sole trader vs company etc, and your author email.
- Author nuts and bolts – this includes choosing a pen name, deciding on wide vs exclusive, setting up your social media, creating your newsletter and website, writing an author bio, and getting a headshot.
- Uploading prep – this includes formatting, choosing your categories and keywords, setting up the various platform accounts, Author Central.
- Press the go button, Good luck to you all!
PLEASE NOTE: There are a million other things that could be added to this list, but in the interests of avoiding overwhelm, we’ve kept it simple. We’ve also very specifically avoided talking about overt marketing (other than cover and blurb etc), because we have many other podcast episodes that cover marketing off separately.
Free Downloads For Listeners : I’ve Finished My First Manuscript … Now What Do I Do?
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About The SPA Girls
The SPA Girls are Trudi Jaye, Cheryl Phipps, Wendy Vella and Shar Barratt: four New Zealand authors who between them have had more than 100 books published.
They’ve been self-publishing since 2013, and Wendy Vella alone, has sold more than 2 million copies of her historical and contemporary romances.
The SPA Girls Podcast (SPA = Self Publishing Authors) is one of the industry’s leading publishing podcasts globally, with over five years worth of weekly top-rating episodes.
Aimed at the beginning self-publisher, the podcast has received rave reviews from listeners and guests alike! Each week the SPA Girls bring listeners a new episode covering all things self-publishing, writing craft, marketing advice, advertising strategies and expert guest interviews.
Listen and subscribe on your favorite podcast app (just search SPA Girls Podcast) or watch the fun on their popular YouTube channel
Trudi Jaye writes urban fantasy and young adult fiction. She’s a trained journalist, communications specialist and martial arts enthusiast. Her urban fantasy series Dragon Rising is set in an alternate universe that looks just like ours – except with dragon shifters and a kick butt heroine…
Learn more about Trudi at:
Cheryl is a USA Today and Amazon bestselling author from beautiful Auckland, New Zealand with two alter egos: C.A. Phipps writes cozy mysteries, and Cheryl Phipps writes contemporary romance.
She loves stories filled with feisty heroines, suave heroes and wonderful small towns, and crafting her own heart-warming tales of strong family ties, mixed in with a little romance, humor, and delicious baking!
Find out more about Cheryl at:
Shar Barratt is a marketing specialist by day and writer by night. Her clients include top entertainment brands, international retailers and NYT and USA Today bestselling authors. She’s got more how-to books than any person should have, and is currently working on a cozy mystery series under a secret penname that shall never be revealed (but she’s open to bribery-by-chocolate).
Shar blogs via images on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/sharbarratt/
Wendy Vella is a USA Today bestselling author of historical and contemporary romances. With more than two million books sold, over 40 books published, and having been an Amazon bestseller many times, Wendy absolutely loves being an indie author (she started in traditional publishing, then soon saw the light!).
Her extraordinarily popular Regency romances include: The Langley Sisters series, Sinclair & Raven series, Lords of Night Street series, Deville Brothers series. Her sizzling small-town romance series include the Lake Howling series and Ryker Falls series.
Find out more about Wendy at : www.wendyvella.com
