15 Inspirational Podcasts for Writers to Subscribe to Right Now
Hello, Writers!
These days it seems everyone has a podcast.
And, I mean everyone.
With the ever-growing podcast trend more and more creators turn to podcasts to reach more people with their message. Thanks to this increase in content it’s become harder to find the right podcast for you. So, what are the best podcasts for writers and self-published authors? I guess that depends on your goals. Before you roll your eyes and click away, I’ve done the hard work for you. I’ve created a list of fifteen podcasts for writers and self-published authors and divided them into four categories. These categories are Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing, and The Writer’s Journey.
Podcasts on Writing
Helping Writers Become Authors
The Helping Writers Become Authors podcast is hosted by Award-winning author KM Weiland. If your looking for short podcast episodes with an average length from ten to twenty minutes, then this podcast is for you. Each episode is a goldmine of tips about everything from developing a story idea to writing great character chemistry. So, be warned, you will need a pen and paper on hand as you listen along on your favourite podcasting platform.
How Do You Write Podcast
The How Do You Write podcast is hosted by best selling author Rachel Herron. This long form podcast episodes feature interviews with authors about how they write their books. Each thirty-minute interview is a treasure trove of writing wisdom in the form of a friendly chat between two writers. I love the message behind this podcast which is there’s more than one way to write fiction.
Story Grid Podcast
Image if you could get an inside listen to a conversation between a writing coach and editor and a first-time writer? Well, you can. This podcast does exactly that. It features a mix of great storytelling techniques from Veteran Editor Shawn Coyne and a writer asking those questions you’ve always wanted to ask an editor. Most of the episodes of this podcast are long form and exceed the forty-five minutes in length.
I Should Be Writing
The I Should Be Writing Podcast is hosted by Author Mur Lafferty and is dubbed as the podcast for wannabe fiction writers. It serves as the friendly kick in the pants you need to motivate yourself to get back to writing your novel. Mur shares an honest account of what it’s like to be a professional writer including struggles with procrastination, editing, and finding the right time of day for you to write.
Podcast about Self-Publishing
The Creative Penn Podcast
The Creative Penn Podcast started way back in 2009 before podcasting was cool and is hosted by the bubbly and positive focused Thriller Author Joanna Penn (J.F. Penn). This podcast has a 300 strong backlist of episodes. So, you’ll never run out of episodes to listen too. The Creative Penn is a one-stop shop covering interviews with experts on writing, book marketing, self-publishing and building a business around your writing. In recent years Joanna Penn has started dabbling with screenwriting and has started sharing her experiences as well as interviewing experts within the field of screenwriting.
Go Publish Yourself: An IngramSpark Podcast
As you can tell by the title of this podcast, Ingram Spark has joined the podcasting bandwagon with an excellent seasonal podcast focused on self-publishing. The podcast has four seasons a year with each season having twelve episodes. Each episode is approximately fifteen minutes in length and is hosted by Justine Bylo. This podcast was launched out of a growing demand from the IngramSpark Blog readers, which means the podcast content covers topics that are in high demand by indie authors. So far, Go Publish Yourself has eighteen episodes in the Apple Podcast store and other major podcast platforms as of June 18, 2018.
Kobo Writing Life Podcast
The Kobo Writing Life Podcast is hosted by Chrissy Munroe and Stephanie McGrath. Kobo is a Canadian retailer of eBooks and audiobooks that also runs a podcast featuring self-publishing advice and interviews with bestselling authors who publish on their platform. Even if you’re not publishing on Kobo this is still a great podcast for anyone who is or wants to self-publish their book.
Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing Formula
Bestselling thriller author Mark Dawson teams up with former BBC journalist and first-time fiction novelist James Blatch to bring you the Self-Publishing Formula podcast. The podcast boasts of long-form interview style episodes that run for over an hour. Each week they run experiments, talk to experts, and interview new and experienced authors. This podcast also releases bonus episodes that are just as informative as the long-form interviews. The bonus episodes cover question and answers with Mark Dawson, self-publishing masterclasses, and Mark’s income reports.
Ask ALLi
This podcast has a variety of hosts and shows and as a result, has something for everyone no matter where they are on the self-publishing journey. There’s four to be exact. The beginner’s self-publishing salon, hosted by Jyotsna Ramachandran and Iain Robb Wright airs on the first Friday of the month. As the title suggests, the episode is for writers and authors who are new to self-publishing.
On the second Friday of the month, in the Indie Voices show ALLi Managing Editor Howard Lovy conducts interviews and News Editor Dan Holloway shares industry updates. Dan Blank and Michael La Ronn host the ALLi Members Q&A show on the third Friday of every month. While you do need to be a member to get your question answered and featured, the show is a treasure trove of tips and advice for everyone who wants to self-publish. This episode is the one I listen to every month without fail.
On the fourth Friday of the month, Joanna Penn and Orna Ross host the Advanced Publishing Salon. This episode is a friendly chat between the posts about industry news and advanced self-publishing marketing tips and advice. And, best of all this amazing podcast has a YouTube channel where you can find all of these shows in video format.
Podcasts about Book Marketing
Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast
This podcast is one of my favourite shows, even though I’m not a science fiction or fantasy author, I watch the show every week on YouTube. The show is co-hosted by Lindsay Buroker, Jo Lallo, and Jeffery M. Poole. Together all three authors have published more than 30 novels. Every episode the hosts interview other Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors and take a deep dive into their success. The premise for the show is three authors interview other traditional and self-published authors and learn from their marketing and writing success. Where can you find the podcast? It’s on all major podcasting platforms, as well as video podcast episodes available on YouTube.
The Sell More Books Show: Book Marketing, Digital Publishing and Kindle News, Tools and Advice
The Sell More Books Show is co-hosted by Jim Kukral and Bryan Cohen and does exactly what it says on the tin. This podcast is a unique news-style show that shares tried and tested tips related to aspects of book marketing and self-publishing. It’s another long-running podcast with over 200 episodes in its backlist. The show now has its own conference, titled the sell more book summit held every year during May in Chicago, and the hosts have already started selling tickets for next year.
Novel Marketing Podcast
The novel marketing podcast is the only podcast that’s exclusively focused on marketing fiction and is co-hosted by Thomas Umstaddt Jr and James L. Rubart. I’ve only just discovered this podcast, but from what I’ve listened too so far, it’s another chat based show focused on the basics of book promotion. If you’re an author who prefers to write and not spend countless hours market their books, then you might want to start listening to this podcast.
Podcasts Focusing on The Writing Journey
Self Publishing Journeys Podcast
This is another one of my favourite podcasts. It’s hosted by Thriller, Sci-fi, and Dystopian Author Paul Teague. Yes, he’s super busy and still manages to write, publish and produce two types of podcast episodes. Currently, for the summer period, Paul has reduced his author interview episodes down to one a month. He interviews self-published authors and writers who are on various stages of the self-publishing journey about writing, publishing, and promoting their books.
Every week, Paul shares a podcast diary where he shares an honest account of his publishing journey. His podcast diary is a favourite among the regular listeners and for a good reason. He’s not shy about sharing his successes and failures and paints a realistic picture of the journey to publication. The podcast diary was started because Paul wanted to separate the personal updates from the interviews to make the episodes a little shorter. It was this podcast diary that inspired me to take a similar approach with The Authorpreneur Podcast.
The Career Author Podcast (E)
This podcast is co-hosted by Authors J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon who are huge lovers of collaborative fiction writing. The career author podcast helps full-time writers take the overwhelm out of publishing, marketing and writing. Each episode is a friendly chat between the co-hosts on self-publishing news, writing advice, marketing tips, and how to self-publish. The co-hosts don’t just share news but share their unique perspectives on the news in the publishing industry.
Just a side note, the podcast episodes are labelled explicit because the co-hosts are quite frank do not censor their language. I haven’t noticed any ‘bad language’ but I’m Australian and grew up with three younger brothers, so I’m pretty immune to swear words. However, if you’re sensitive to this type of frank discussion, just understand that it contains minimal swearing (as in one per episode).
The Writer’s Journey Podcast with Michael La Ronn
This is a relatively new podcast hosted by Science Fiction and Fantasy Author Michael La Ronn, but I’m hooked already. In the inaugural episode, Michael shares how the podcast will document his author journey from nobody to a bestselling author. The podcast has a bestseller experiments meets author podcast feel. So, you get the best of both worlds great self-publishing tips and a peek at the behind-the-scenes of an author. On the podcast, La Ronn shares a different type of show every week, in a similar fashion to the Ask Alli Podcast. These shows include writing life updates, a page from his sketchbook, details about Michael’s writing process and experiments with writing, and a writing and marketing progress report.
The Authorpreneur Podcast
Yes, I included my podcast on this list. I’m super excited to announce that my podcast is back after a hiatus. The Authorpreneur Podcast is a seasonal podcast featuring twenty-four episodes all focused on one aspect of the journey to self-publishing your first book and beyond. Each week I will bring you writing, book marketing, and self-publishing advice, so that you can, create your dream author business, build your author platform, and be creatively independent. I created this podcast for writers and authors who want something short and to the point minus all of the fluff, and timeless tips that work without the trend-chasing. On top of all this, every Monday I share a behind the scenes podcast diary where I share my publishing journey.
Concluding Thoughts
I hope you found an inspirational writing or self-publishing podcast to help you on your journey to writing, publishing and marketing your first or next fiction novel. As always, I have an important question to ask you. What is your favourite writing or self-publishing related podcast? And, is it on my list? I want to hear from you. Let me know by sharing your favourite writing and self-publishing related podcast in the comments section below.
Thank you for reading, commenting and sharing with such enthusiasm.
Your coach,
Amelia xx
I’m Amelia. When I’m not hosting the Authorpreneur Podcast™️ and the Book Nerd Podcasts, I write Mystery Novels under the pen name A. D. Hay. And, I’m the author of Suspicion, the Lawn, and the Candidate.
On this blog, I help new writers to finish their first draft, prepare their manuscripts for professional editing, and when they get stuck in the first draft phase or are confused about the revision process.
Right now, I’m editing and preparing my soon to be published mystery novels, Suspicion, Duplicity, 24 Hours, and Immunity for publication.
