Would I Want to Podcast?

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief for Southern Writers Magazine

Ever thought about doing a podcast?

Here is the definition listed on Wikipedia. “A podcast is a digital medium consisting of an episodic series of audio, video, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device."

In other words, you could put your book, one chapter at a time through podcasts. It isn’t an audio book. A reader subscribes to a podcast and reads your book one chapter at a time on many devices, whether they are at home or on the go. Some people find this easier to read books this way.

Obviously, this might be an excellent mode for a beginning author to build a reader following.  It might be worth checking out. As with any method, you aren’t familiar with, you should make sure and do your homework on the rules and guidelines.

Scott Carl Sigler is a contemporary American author of science fiction and horror as well as an avid podcaster. He started podcasting his novel in March 2005 as the world’s first novel to be podcast. This act built hype and garnered him an audience for his work. According to Wikipedia, he considered it a "no brainer" to offer the book as a free audio download. Having searched for podcast novels and finding none, Sigler decided to be the first. He was able to get EARTHCORE’S offered as a paid download on iTunes in 2006. After EARTHCORE’S success, (it had over10,000 subscribers). Sigler then released others. To find out more information visit his website http://scottsigler.com/ and Wikipedia’s site   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Sigler

Then look at Mignon Fogarty who produces an educational podcast called Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty tips for Better Writing. According to WD, 2008 issue her podcast had helped over 2 million listeners on grammar. Check out http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/ .

Podcast has directories for you to use to promote.