Podcasting for Authors

The Exciting New Thing:

This past week I stepped up my author tech game. No, I didn’t make my books into video games or think of a way to have my Loyalists using computers, interesting as those might be. Instead, I sought out an invitation to take part in a Google Hangout hosted by Arianna over at Abyssinian Books.

Now this young lady has tons of tech savvy so I can learn so much from her but she also loves books and authors and writing herself. What’s not to love? Arianna did a great job of setting me up for the event. She told me what I’d need ( a headset, mainly, although my Mac didn’t need that), where to log in for an interview time, and exactly what the procedure would be.

I went out and bought a new headset as my old one was toast and did some digging on both the Abyssinian Books website and Google Hangouts. (I always like to be prepared, don’t you?) On Friday afternoon I clicked on Arianna’s link and in just a few moments she was hanging out with me. Fantastic.

Here’s the unedited version of our talk. My goodness, I hate watching myself on video. Later in April Arianna will have another viewing of mine and many other authors’ interviews.

The Interview:

 

Podcasting Benefits:

Canada’s own two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock medal for humour, Terry Fallis, is an amazingly talented person besides being a touted writer. His rise to fame came because he had the courage to submit his self-published book, Best Laid Plans, to the Leacock contest and win it. Not once, but for two of his five books. (I’ve read every one and they’re great.) BEFORE all that fame, however, Terry resorted to podcasting, a chapter at a time, said book. He found an audience, won the Leacock, and suddenly publishers wanted him. It doesn’t hurt that he has an excellent voice for doing his podcasts.

An author has little enough time to get her books completed, let alone learn and employ all of the marketing techniques out there for telling the world about them. Every day my InBox is way too full of suggestions, appeals, ideas and examples of things to help me broadcast my Loyalist trilogy to the world. I use quite a few and they work. I just wonder when that 48 hour day is actually going to happen.

Nevertheless, we live in a brave new world far beyond the clever dreams of Aldous Huxley; and I’m glad I’ve tipped my toe into the Google Hangout pond. Thanks to Abyssinian Books for helping me along. One final note: if a picture is worth a thousand words, a talking picture must be worth a million. Let’s jump on the podcasting/video writer-go-round!

Elaine Cougler’s website: www.elainecougler.com

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