SPA Girls Podcast – EP171 – Interview With Serenity Woods
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We are delighted to welcome romance author, Serenity Woods, to the SPA today. Serenity lives in the sub-tropical Northland of New Zealand. She is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance and has been published since 2011 and self-published since 2013.
Serenity is incredibly business savvy and prolific. To date, she’s published 65 books across many different romance series, and she is a USA Today bestselling author, reaching #53 on the USA Today bestseller list with her Three Wise Men Box Set. Also, writing as Freya Robertson, she won the NZ Sir Julius Vogel Sci-Fi/Fantasy Award for Best Novel for her debut, Heartwood.
Serenity shares her self-publishing journey with us – the highs and the lows – from her modest start with a publishing a novella, to her success selling wide. She also very honestly talks about her decision making behind moving to Amazon exclusively and the strategies for maximizing KU sales.
We were so inspired by Serenity’s persistence, smarts and courage and promise this is an episode you’ll want to listen to more than once. Because it’s PACKED with so much information for you, we kept recording for an hour (and could have continued, but we’ll have Serenity back on the podcast again for sure 😉 )
Links:
Serenity Woods’ website: https://www.serenitywoodsromance.com/
KDP Rocket /Kindlepreneur: (see Dave Chesson’s free videos for AMS ads) https://kindlepreneur.com/book-marketing-101/
SPA Girls Podcast website: https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/
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 – EP210 – Slow & Steady to Six Figures with Serenity Woods
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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 SPA Girls Podcast episode from when she last appeared with us at the beginning of 2019 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/
SPA Girls – EP203 – How to Fail to Succeed
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Do you feel like your writing career is filled with mistakes? Failures? Problems?
Good!
That means you’re putting yourself out there, trying new things, and moving in a positive direction in your writing career.
If you’re not doing any of the above…start right now!
Why, you ask, in horror?
Because having a pile of failures next to your name means you’re getting out there and doing things in your author business.
If you talk to the most successful entrepreneurs in the world, they’ll all tell you stories of the times they failed, the businesses that didn’t quite go as expected, and the problems they had to overcome.
And that’s okay, because learning how to fail is integral to succeeding.
It teaches us resilience, determination, and persistence. It shows us that we’re human, and that it’s okay to make mistakes, as long as we keep going.
On the flip side, if you aren’t doing anything, you won’t fail.
Guaranteed.
Which would you prefer?
SHOW NOTES:
Failure is the chance to learn and grow – it’s not the end, it’s the beginning and an opportunity to evolve and improve your publishing / writing.
Shar’s notes:
Failure helps you conquer Fear Of Future Failure – from Psychology Today article ” Fear of failure is the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral reaction to the negative consequences you anticipate for failing to achieve a goal. It is the intense worry, the negative thinking, and the reluctance to take action you experience, when you imagine all the horrible things that could happen if you failed to achieve a goal.”
The Podcast “How To Fail” by Elizabeth Day features interviews with people about their failures and has written a book of the same name. She talks about failure as a key to success. Day’s advice is to remember that we all fail which is obvious and comforting! “We are all going to fail in our life, that’s a fact. You might as well build up emotional resilience and you might as well confront failure so that the next time it happens, because it will happen, you feel better equipped, stronger and you can learn more from it.” ~ https://www.stylist.co.uk/life/tips-on-how-to-cope-with-failure-elizabeth-day-memoir-how-to-fail/259440
It builds emotional resilience – important for writers!
You learn more from what doesn’t work than what does
Trudi’s Section
If you’re not experiencing failure as you go along, then you’re not trying hard enough! You’re not doing enough! Failure is how we all learn and grow.
If you’re doing everything in such a controlled, structured way that you never fail, you’re never going to grow. You’re never going to get better. You’re never going to achieve everything you could be achieving.
If we’re scared of failure, it’s often that we’re worried about what people might think or what they might say about us. Or even what we might say about ourselves. But when it comes down to it, what is failure?
Dictionary.com definition: nonperformance of something due, required, or expected.
So by that definition it’s not doing something that was required. So if we were to fail, it’s that we’re doing things, and we’re trying new things and we’re learning new things.
So which option do you think gives us the most growth, and the most opportunity for success?
Darren Hardy – It’s like building a muscle, right? The key to growth is massive repeated failure.
Like is like a pendulum, on one side is pain, rejection, failure and sadness, and on the other is love, joy, happiness and success. If you stay in the middle, you won’t experience pain, rejection and sadness, but you won’t enjoy love, joy and success either.
Push your pendulum into pain, rejection, failure and sadness and it will rock you back into the other side.
If I go a whole month without failing, I’m mad at myself. Because I’m not pushing myself enough. I want to be more successful, and I need to be putting myself out there more.
The only thing stopping you from reaching your potential is that you haven’t turned fear into fun.
Brooke Castillo says similar – if you’re not taking massive action, doing as much as you can to move yourself forward, and this will definitely include failures, then you’re not going to be as successful as you want.
Also, need to change how you think about failure. If you see it as the big bad thing that you have to avoid at all costs, then you’ll do everything to avoid it. But if you see it as a part of what you need to do, and it’s just another step in the ladder, then you will take the negative emotions out of it, and allow yourself to grow and change.
“There’s not a lot of consideration as to why. I have a lot of people say to me, “I have a real fear of failure,” and I’ll say “Well, what does that mean? What are you afraid of? What is failure? Why are you afraid of it?” They’ll think about it and come back and say “You know what? I’ve never really thought about it that way.””
Definition of Failure from Google:
“The omission of expected or required action.” The omission of expected or required action. I love this definition of failure. If failure means we just didn’t do our own expected action or something else didn’t do our expected action, it just seems so benign. It seems so “Okay. Well that’s what happened. There was an omission of action on either my part or your part.” That’s what we’re called failure? Well, that’s not a big deal, right? It’s just something didn’t turn out the way we had expected.”
“If failure is really just not meeting your own expectation or not taking the
required action to meet your own expectation, then really what’s going to
happen when that happens, is you are going to think some thought that’s
going to create some negative emotion.”
So what that means is that failure is in your head. You are the one making yourself feel bad. You are the one making it mean something that you don’t like. So you need to turn it around. Make failure mean something else. Give yourself failure goals. If you don’t fail at least once a week, you’re not doing it right. When you fail, you can be happy about it, because you’ve just met your fail quota!
Brooke on being a perfectionist:
“A lot of people will say to me that they’re perfectionists, and they’ll say that “I just want to do it all right, and I’m not willing to do it if I can’t do it perfectly.” I have this sense that I think perfectionism is for scared people. I think it gives them an excuse to not take the action, to not put themselves out there and to not fail, to not meet their own expectation.
The reason why they don’t want to not meet their own expectation is
because they know that they’re going to beat their own ass when that
happens. They’re going to beat themselves up. If you were to make a deal
with yourself and say “Hey. I’m going to go out there and try and do this.
There’s going to be, for sure, a chance that along the way I’m not going to
meet my expectation. I’m going to fail, and I’m going to fail many, many
times, but here’s there thing. When I fail, I’m going to have my own back.
I’m going to treat myself with respect. I’m going to honour myself. I’m going
to use that as an opportunity to learn and to take care of myself. I’m going
to use it as an opportunity to love myself more instead of loving myself less.
I will refuse when I don’t meet my own expectation, to say mean things to
myself, to beat myself up, or to quit.”
Go out and do something you think might have a chance of failing. If it fails, no big deal. But it might succeed.
We have to learn how to fail, just like little kids learn to walk. And it’s the process of them falling, and then picking themselves up, that makes them strong enough to eventually walk.
If you don’t make failure a bad thing, if you think, I’m going to be okay with myself if I don’t achieve what I’m setting out to achieve, then you’re more likely to start, to try. If you’re worried about how you’re going to feel, then you’re not going to do it.
Practice failure. It should be a skill that you have in your tool box. How to successfully fail, so that you can move on without making it mean something terrible and bad.
Thomas Edison quote: “No. I didn’t fail a thousand times. I learned a thousand things that didn’t work.”
Barbara Corcoran TedX Speech on REthinking Failure – “I have found that failure and innovation are kissing cousins. If you work on one, you automatically get the other.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU1DI8HsYAg
SPA Girls Podcast – EP200 – What We’ve Learned From Our Amazing Guests
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Here it is. Our 200th Episode! Yay! Who’d have thought that we’d ever make it this far??
First of all, we’d like to say thank you to everyone who listens to the show, we appreciate you all! It’s been an amazing few years, and we’ve loved every minute of it.
This week is a celebration episode, where we look back over those 200 episodes, and talk about the common traits of all the successful self publishers we’ve spoken to.
From the humbleness of Bella Andre and the flexible nature of Serena Woods, to the smart work ethic of Skye Warren and the focus of Kathryn Le Veque, we cover it all.
We will give you the ultimate list of self publishing traits that will help you rise to the top of the Indie pile! Don’t miss it!
Podcast interviews mentioned in the 200th Show
Serenity Woods https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep171-interview-with-serenity-woods/
Kathryn LeVeque https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep159-interview-with-kathryn-le-veque/
Skye Warren https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep191-seven-figure-success-with-skye-warren/
Zoe York https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep65-interview-with-zoe-york/
Maria Luis https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep182-facebook-ads-with-maria-luis/
Natasha Bajema https://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep186-what-authors-get-wrong-about-weapons-of-mass-destruction/
