Interview Authors & Other Individuals In The Publishing Industry

My name is Cindy Burnett. I love to read and have become progressively more involved in the book world over the past 5 years. I started a bookstagram account (book account on Instagram) about four years ago called Thoughts from a Page. I work part time at an independent book store here in Houston, Murder by the Book, and I write two book columns (one online and one print) for a large Houston magazine called the Buzz Magazines. I also write round ups for SheReads.com and review a book or two a month for Bookreporter.com. Two years ago, my friend Krista Hensel and I formed a literary salon called Conversations from a Page where we invite authors to Houston and host events for them. At these salons, I interview the authors, and over time people kept suggesting that I expand that to a podcast, especially once everything moved online in March. I never had the time to focus on that idea, but with the pandemic opening up my schedule some, I decided I might as well try.

I talk books on social media - Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest - as @thoughtsfromapage so I used the name people already knew and expanded it to the podcast. My podcast is entitled Thoughts from a Page Podcast. I use an interview format, similar to what I do for the literary salon, and I ask 8-15 questions per interview. I always end by asking the author for their book recommendations which has worked very well; people frequently tell me that they love hearing what authors are reading, and I have learned about new books (and authors to interview for the podcast) that way myself. I publish new episodes on Tuesdays and Fridays and aim for them to run 22-28 minutes. Occasionally I run extra episodes when I am pitched an author that appeals to me, and I am already booked on my regular days. I focus on traditionally published-authors and only interview authors whose books appeal to me personally. 

I covered some of this question in my answer above but here it is again:

Two years ago, my friend Krista Hensel and I formed a literary salon called Conversations from a Page where we invite authors to Houston and host events for them. At these salons, I interview the authors, and over time people kept suggesting that I expand that to a podcast, especially once everything moved online in March. I never had the time to focus on that idea, but with the pandemic opening up my schedule some, I decided I might as well try. While I knew it would be time consuming, I had NO idea how much time it would truly take. However, I love the interviews and have met so many authors that I would not have had the chance to encounter if it were not for the podcast. I have also read books that I might not have picked up were it not for the podcast.

I enjoy interviewing and speaking with authors so my initial goal was to do more interviews than our salon allows for.

I started the podcast in June during the pandemic.

It took me about a month - I did some research, lined up authors to interview and reached out to publishers.

I release episodes twice weekly. It takes me about 3.5-4 hours to produce an episode.

I do have several smaller jobs but I feel podcasting supplements them well.

I spend money on podcast hosting, editing, and my webpage through Podpage. I hope to recoup those costs eventually.

The podcast has been a great addition to the rest of my book work and that was a pleasant surprise for me. It has opened doors for me with publishers even more than my book columns, literary salon, or social media presence.

I would love to have sponsors but do not yet. Someday....

I use a MacBook Pro, a Samson QU2 USB microphone with a pop filter and audio-technica headphones. Until recently, I used Zoom to record the interviews but have not been thrilled with the sound quality so I am currently trying Zencastr and hoping that the interviews will sound better. Podbean is my podcast hosting service, and I upload the interviews to Alitu and use it to edit the episodes and add my intro and outro. I recently switched my website from Podbean to Podpage.com, which I absolutely love. Podpage is very user friendly with so many design options, includes easy links to many of the big podcast players, allows me to write blog posts and much more. It is a huge upgrade from Podbean's website options. I just recently added transcripts and use Otter.ai. As I publish a new episode, I create the transcript for that episode then and upload it to Podpage. I am working my way through the older episodes and getting those transcripts uploaded as I complete them.

I am contacted by authors and publishers regularly with author pitches. If I like a book, I reach out to the author or publicist to see about scheduling an interview.

I currently use Zoom but am switching to Zencastr.

I post on Twitter, my Facebook book account, Pinterest and LinkedIn for each episode, and I ask each author guest to promote also. Some authors are fabulous about this, and some are not. I also post some on my Instagram story and post about a group of episodes occasionally on my personal Facebook account and on Instagram. I post regularly on Pinterest about recent episodes or by grouping episodes by genre. I have boosted pins on Pinterest and paid for ads on Overcast. I am also on Goodpods now and will be promoted there on December 1st. I recently learned that Podbean will promote a podcast they host for a week for free, and I am scheduled for February. I am a member of various podcasting Facebook groups, and I post about episodes when they have posts specifically for promoting and post about it in my various Facebook book groups. I continue to add the podcast to every player I can and to find other places that I can promote it.

I do a lot of Googling when I want to figure out the answer to an issue. I am also a member of a number of Facebook podcasting groups. That is super helpful to me.

The promotion is much harder than I thought it would be but I am slowly getting there.

My website is thoughtsfromapage.com.

thoughtsfromapage.com