A tip for authors asking: How do I get on popular podcasts?

Since our founding as a publishing house in 2007, we have encouraged our authors to participate in podcasts, so our Director of Marketing Susan Stitt has helped many authors connect with influential podcasters.

But here’s the most important bit of wisdom Susan shares with authors after her many years of talking with podcasters:

What’s the first question a prospective podcaster asks about a prospective guest?

“Do you have a podcast yourself?”

Podcasters truly are part of a national conversation and most of them who are producing interview-format episodes want to be hosted themselves as much as they want to host others.

“This really is a two-way conversation,” Susan tells authors. 

Crucial to building a popular podcast are two values:

Quality—from the quality of the content to the quality of the production values

Consistency—building an audience requires fresh content to regularly pop into their inboxes

Next year, 2024, is the 20th anniversary of the birth of “podcasts,” which brought together the power of portable media players with the reach of the worldwide web. Estimates of how many podcasts exist range from less than 1 million to way more than 5 million—depending on whether you count only “active” podcasts and how you define that term “active.” 

In short: Podcasting is an oversaturated media opportunity. Building an audience takes time and commitment. One study of the success rate suggests that a majority of new podcasters launch without even making it to the fifth episode! 

Our author making the biggest commitment to podcasting in 2023 is Howard Brown, author of Shining Brightly, an inspiring memoir that includes chapters about Howard’s early career as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and a social media innovator.

“It took me a while to get this right,” Howard said this week. “Now, I’m launching my first group of podcasts and, then, I will be adding a new one weekly.”

To demonstrate that he’s truly here to stay, Howard launched his podcast by posting his first five episodes right away. He chose those first five episodes to illustrate the breadth of the compelling ideas and personal stories he plans to share. Episodes called “Gratitude Is the Attitude” and “10 Ways to Say Thank You” are full of practical “take aways” that can make your day a little better than it was before you listened. But Howard also is known for sharing real-life stories that illustrate the truths of human resilience. Episode 3 in this new series is about a basketball player who fell victim to sudden cardiac death on the basketball court—while Howard and other friends were playing ball with him—and how that fallen player managed to revive and struggle toward recovery. These truly are stories you’ll want to share with friends.

At the same time, Howard already has more pre-produced episodes ready to go “live” on a weekly basis. He’s determined to rank among the minority of new podcasters who will last well beyond that initial few episodes.

Already, Howard is nailing the goal of consistency.

So, how about his quality?

Take a look! See all the podcasts Howard has published so far—

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