Host a Podcast and Be a Podcast Guest!John Kremer: Every author should have a podcast. I still believe that. I've been promoting it for a long, long time.I still really believe that because I think podcasting is one of the most powerful tools you have for getting the word out about yourself.The neat thing in today's world, it's easy to create a combined audio-video podcast that you can syndicate on 40 or 50 platforms.Judith Briles: How many people come in and start a podcast with absolutely amazing intentions? Kind of like when people are going to do a blog and then within six months the blog is dead. Is there any stats on the startup for podcasts that start petering out?John Kremer: I don't know of any specific stats, but I do know from my own anecdotal experience that probably 80 or 90% of podcasters give up on their podcasts within six months. It becomes too much work. It's too hard. It's every week. But the thing is, you don't always have to do a podcast that's going to be a forever podcast. You could do a limited edition 10-episode podcast.Some of the most popular podcasts in the world are limited podcasts. They cover a true crime case, and then once you're done covering it, the podcast is done. But the podcast lives on in all the podcast syndication sites. It lives on in Audible. It lives on in Amazon. It lives on in lots of places.Judith Briles: Some of the news shows I'll pick up once in a while, they have both the ongoing, like in perpetuity, like ours has been, and we're seven years old now. But they also have limited edition episodes, almost like a serial book and then it's over. And then maybe they'll come back again when they have a new serial to start up.John Kremer: Even a limited podcast series still gives you the benefits of a podcast, especially the power of syndication.One of the incredibly powerful things about podcasts is that it puts you on 30, 40, or even 50 of the major websites on the Internet, including Apple, Amazon, Audible, Google Play, Spotify, Pandora, and more!You know the power of a podcast because you built up a listenership for your podcast, and you've had millions and millions of listens and possibly views because I know you also put it up on YouTube.Podcasts not only allow you to syndicate it to all these powerful websites, but it also gives you the opportunity to exchange views and podcast episodes with other podcasters.Ask key influencers and authors this question: I'd love to interview you for my podcast, but I would really like it if you would also interview me for your podcast. I think we have complimentary audiences that would like to hear both of us talk on each other's podcasts.The Book of the Month ClubJohn Kremer: I'm going to talk about the Book of the Month Club. Now, this isn't the old line Book of the Month Club, which died a sad death.Judith Briles: So, how do we create our own Book of the Month Club?John Kremer: I met somebody once at one of your seminars, and I'm still trying to track down his name now because I seem to have misplaced it in my move to Arizona.But he offered a book of the month club. He was a business speaker and consultant to corporations. What he did is he wrote 12 short books. I'm talking about short books, 96 to 128 pages, somewhere in there.Then whenever he'd go out and speak or whenever he attended a convention, whenever he met somebody that might be a potential client or customer or speaking agent, he added them to his book of the month club.Once a month, he mailed out real books to his prospect list, a list of about 500 potential customers. He kept adding people to the list as he spoke in different venues and met people on planes, in hotels, or at convention sites.His book of the month bluc not only justified him printing hundreds or thousands of copies of his books but it also impacted his speaking engagements and his corporate consultations.From a business standpoint, his book of the month club made perfect sense for him because he picked up all kinds of coaching clients, speaking engagements, and corporate programs that he would do.To be successful with such a club, first you have to write 12 books. And you can't produce junk. You have to produce real content worth reading, something that would showcase your experience and help to sell people on other products and services you have to offer.The neat thing is that at the end of every book, of course, he included a pitch for his coaching and his speaking and his corporate programs.His book of the month club was designed for a business audience. But the thing is, novelists, memoir writers, cookbook authors, and other writers could release five to 10 pages per week instead of releasing a book a month.One chapter per month, a recipe per week, something like that. They could email it out. Or they could podcast out episodes. They could even do YouTube videos.I just ran across an old friend of mine, Peggy Glenn, who's now doing videos under the name Grandma Potty Mouth where she ...
