Finding Fantasy Reads

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► Tell us about you and your podcast

Finding Fantasy Reads is a podcast designed for listeners to find their next favorite fantasy author. Every week I pick an amazing (and clean!) fantasy story to share, ranging from fairytale retellings, urban fantasy, high fantasy, and young adult.

Each episode includes a little bit about the author, but I mostly get straight to the story. Stories told from a female perspective are narrated by me, while stories told from a male perspective are narrated by my brother, Paeter Frandsen, host of the Christian Geek Central podcast. Working with my brother on a project like this has been one of my favorite parts of the podcast.

As an epic fantasy author, I love finding and sharing amazing stories, both to connect with my readers and to network with other authors. I've found that this podcast hits the sweet spot of all the things I love about the fantasy author world.
 

► Why & how did you start this podcast? 

Finding Fantasy Reads was born out of my personal desire to find a wide variety of quality and clean fantasy books and authors. Anyone on the street will have heard of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. People who call themselves fantasy readers will recognize names like Brandon Sanderson or Michael J. Sullivan. But only the voracious readers have delved into the sea of small publishers and indie authors to find stories that hold just as much magic, adventure, and heart.

I started my search by subscribing to dozens of author newsletters, which almost always came with a free short story. It quickly became the number one way I decided whose book to read next. The only thing missing was a way to listen to the stories instead, which is where the podcast came in.

I actually thought I would never do a podcast. My brother has run his Christian Geek Central podcast for years, and that was always his thing. But once I ran the idea past him and discovered he was on board to help me, all the pieces began to fall together.

Even so, it took another six months for me to purchase equipment, build a website, and record some test episodes. After another three months, I had sample episodes I was proud of, and I started the process of approaching authors to be featured on the show.

With my family life, it's important to me that I'm really far ahead with recording, so I'm typically booked 10-12 weeks out, and recording episodes 4-6 weeks out. Which means it took me another three months to be ready to release my first episode. It was a year from the idea to the first episode, but the timing was perfect for my own writing deadlines, and after preparing and waiting for so long, I'm confident in the quality of the episodes.
 

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

On launch day, I dropped three episodes, but ever since then I've released one new episode each week. I'm always working on a few episodes at a time, but I've got it down to where I spend about 30-60 minutes a weekday completing podcast tasks. In many ways, this has become a part of my job, because as an author, this is a method of connecting with readers and networking with other authors, so allowing myself that time is well worth it.

The podcast is fully funded by my husband and me, which means we made the initial purchases for hosting (I did the PodOps lifetime deal on AppSumo for only $29), recording equipment (about $200), and Hindenburg Narrator ($500 - because my brother and I will likely narrate my novels as well). At this time I'm not paying for any marketing outside of what I was already spending for author marketing.
 

► What do you gain from podcasting?        

For me, podcasting is all about the relationships gained. At some point I might look into monetizing, whether through sponsorship or Patreon, but for now, I'm doing it to connect with readers and to network with other authors.

The podcast is a service I can offer readers. It's hitting a need that they have to listen to a quick story on their commute or during laundry/cooking, and it exposes them to new authors. It's also a service I can offer to authors to get their characters, worlds, and writing style out for readers to sample. Meeting the needs of readers and authors in this way is definitely a long-game for pay-off, but it's my favorite kind, because it centers around actual relationships and shared enjoyment.
 

► How does your podcasting process look like? 

I'm currently using a Q9U to record on my Mac laptop, and I use Hindenburg Narrator for editing. Because I'm not actually interviewing guests, my process is a little bit different. Once I find a story I want to feature, I reach out to the author to explain the podcast format and ask if I can share their story. I do have an application form on my website as well.

I typically book an author 12 weeks out, gather all the info I need for the blog post, pronunciations, etc over the next 2-3 weeks, and then assign the narration recording for my brother or myself (depending on if the story is told from a male, female, or dual narrative point of view) to record over the next 2-3 weeks. After recording and editing, I send it out to my sister-in-law (love you Holly!), who beta listens to the episode over the next week or two. Then I do one last round of edits, set up all the promotional material, and get it scheduled.
 

► How do you market your show?

One of the beautiful things about my podcast's structure is the built-in free marketing. Because I'm sharing a new author's story every week, I typically have a new author sharing the podcast with their audience every single week. I never require that they share it, but they're almost always eager to do so.

I've also set up a regular monthly giveaway that's optional for my featured authors to participate in. It benefits them by bringing in more newsletter subscribers and followers, and it does the same for me while providing fantastic prizes for my listeners every single month.
I share my podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube every week, but email is my favorite marketing channel. Because a lot of readers are audiobook listeners and not necessarily podcast listeners, I set up a weekly newsletter that sends them straight to my website. I get new subscribers that way on a daily basis in addition to typical podcast subscribers through Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, etc.

As of right now, 30% of my listeners come from Apple Podcasts, 20% come from Google Podcasts, and the other 50% comes from my own website and a variety of smaller platforms.
 

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

Even with all my planning and preparation, there were things I couldn't anticipate being an issue until I hit "publish," so it's important to have grace with yourself as you go through the learning process. Until I started the process, I didn't realize how important it was to do this with a friend. My brother has been a huge support for me, and even though he would say I do the bulk of the work, he is volunteering time every day to record for me and I'm constantly bouncing ideas off him. It's made the process less daunting and far more fun.

I highly recommend authormedia.com if you're an author looking to start a podcast. Thomas Umstattd has excellent free advice, but you can also take his podcasting course. It came for free with another author course I purchased, so it was perfect for my needs.

I've also really enjoyed using Chartable, which is a free service that tracks reviews, charts, and other helpful data.
 

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

Podcast website: https://www.findingfantasyreads.com
Author website: https://karynenorton.com
Monthly giveaway: https://findingfantasyreads.com/giveaway
Subscribe links: https://www.findingfantasyreads.com/subscribe
Instagram: http://instagram.com/karynenorton
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/karynenortonauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/karyne_norton
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@findingfantasyreads