Tales from the Desolate Highway

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► Tell us about you and your podcast

Join me, Nathan Ogloff, as I go through the history of post-apocalyptic literature, starting from the very beginning. Every week I go through a different novel that is considered either post-apocalyptic or apocalyptic. If you like stories about the world's end and how far back this genre goes, or sci-fi in general, you've come to the right place.
 

► Why & how did you start this podcast? 

I like podcasting. There is an incredibly low entry barrier and I was told I have a good podcasting voice. I tend to listen to many comedy podcasts (Joe Rogan experience, Monday Morning podcast), but am open to listening to anything informative and interesting while I do other things around the house. I needed a way to build up my author platform and, after hearing that everyone should have a podcast, decided to take the dive. I've been doing podcasting since late 2020 but started Tales from the Desolate Highway in October 2021. It was about a week from when I started it until the first episode was released after I did a trailer and a promo episode.
 

► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?

I try to release my episodes weekly. I tend to spend Sundays doing research and planning. I then write a script for myself to read during the recording. I will then go back over the audio and edit out any dead spaces or mistakes. Episodes come out on Wednesday, giving myself Monday and Tuesday as buffer time in case something comes up. I don't currently have a full-time job, which I admit would get in the way of me doing this. Currently, the podcasting is not funded, but that might change if the proper sponsor came along ;) (wink wink).
 

► What do you gain from podcasting?        

An audience and market for my book when it comes out. I don't currently have any sponsors, but that might change with the right help (looking at you ListenNotes!). At the moment, I am below the average of 27 listens per episode for a podcast, but hope to improve that with the proper exposure. Podcasting has made me realize that I have what it takes to make entertaining and engaging content.
 

► How does your podcasting process look like? 

Currently, I use a Focusrite mixer and Podmic (courtesy of a friend) for my podcasts. I edit them with Audacity, which is pretty good despite what some might say. When I have guests, I've met them either through random messaging or facebook groups. Due to Covid, I have had all my interviews through Zoom. I do enough research on each guest to fill out about an hour. For my short episodes about a particular book, I do enough research about the plot, influences, and legacy to fill out around 15 - 30 minutes.
 

► How do you market your show?

Yes. Anchor.fm lets me know where my listeners are, what platforms they are listening to my podcast on, as well as how many plays each episode is getting. I'm not much of an expert in marketing quite yet, but I do hope this Interview garners me a couple more followers. As I said, Anchor.fm is good for distributing it to multiple platforms. From there, using the proper hashtags will make the algorithms show up in my target market's feed. With that being said, it never hurts to also use Twitter, Instagram, and any other social media.
 

► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?

Just do it! Don't be afraid to start small and dive in. All you need is a computer and a mic to start. You can always find better equipment later. I use anchor.fm to distribute my podcast. It can give you all the tips and tricks you need to distribute your podcast to other platforms. I also found Sacha Black helpful in understanding how to format and edit a podcast (she is how I found ListenNotes). But I find just doing a good google search is more than helpful.
 

► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?

www.nathanogloff.com
twitter : @UnusualAuthor
instagram : @unconventional_author