Crime fiction by Mark Coggins featuring private investigator August Riordan

I am the author of a series of novels featuring private eye protagonist August Riordan. My books have been nominated for the Shamus and the Barry crime fiction awards and have been selected for best of the year lists compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Detroit Free Press and Amazon.com, among others.

Each season of the podcast is a one chapter/one episode reading of a Riordan novel by me.

My listeners are people who enjoy hard-boiled detective fiction.
 

I actually started podcasting my books some time ago on Podiobooks.com, a site that pioneered the idea of serialized audiobooks. Podiobooks has now merged with Scribl, but I decided to break out on my own and launch Riordan's Desk.

A fellow author, Seth Harwood, introduced me to Podiobooks and I was a big fan of his podcast CrimeWAV, which featured crime fiction authors reading short fiction. I contributed a reading of my short story, "Ride a Red Dragon."

My goal for joining Podiobooks and for launching my own podcast was to broaden my "readership" to people who might not always have time to a read a book, but can enjoy a serial audiobook while commuting or doing chores.

It took me a while to clear the minimum bar for both the technical and performance aspects of producing serialized audiobooks. I feel I've improved considerably since the first book I released in the format.
 

I try to release one episode (i.e., one chapter) a week. It takes 4-5 hours per episode, including reading, editing, processing for correct levels, filtering noise, etc.

My day job is as a writer, so I consider podcasting my books an adjunct to that job. Apart from helping me to grow my audience, reading my novels aloud helps me to improve my writing.

In terms of investment, I built a sound-proofed studio in my garage, purchased a high-end microphone and digital recorder and also bought special software to filter noise and saliva clicks (a particular bane of mine). I occasionally advertise on podcasting directories as well.
 

I haven't tried to recruit sponsors, but I do have a buymeacoffee link in each episode. Occasionally listeners will send me gifts as well, such as the time the manager of a coffee shop sent me several pounds of real coffee.

I average about 600-700 downloads a month, and as I said earlier, the main benefit for me is increasing my readership. My hope is listeners will enjoy my work enough in audio to buy a novel in hard copy or ebook format.
 

I use a Electro Voice RE 27 N/D microphone connected to a Zoom H8 to record each episode. I use Audicity for basic editing and filtering, but also apply filters from iZotope RX 8 to reduce noise and saliva pops.

I create a unique intro and outro for each book/season, featuring music I think fits the mood or theme of the book I'm reading.

Mostly I read each chapter myself, doing all the voices for each character. On occasion, though, I have recruited other voice actors to read the dialog for particular characters. When I do this, I loan the actor a Zoom digital recorder to capture the performance.
 

Unlike a lot of podcasts, the majority of my listeners do not come from Apple. Currently, Overcast is my leading source.

I've tried a variety of approaches for marketing, including Twitter, Reddit, my personal website and occasional advertising.
 

Two words: SLOW DOWN. I mean this in the context of a dramatic reading of a novel. When I started, I simply went too fast, provoking a lot of errors and resulting in a flat, uninteresting performance.

I've found the videos and blog posts done by the Buzzsprout staff to be quite helpful. Also, the original advice and guidance I received from Evo Terra--the founder of Podiobooks and the author of PODCASTING FOR DUMMIES--was invaluable in kick starting my podcasting career.
 

Website: http://www.markcoggins.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mark_coggins
Buymeacoffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MarkCoggins