Transform Your Stories into Audio: Podcasting for Writers

Have you ever dreamed about turning your stories into audio files so people can listen to what you write? I dreamed about it too but did something about it. Now I can share with you what I’ve learnt!

Not every writer has the time for podcasting. There’s already enough to do with everything in the book writing processes — plot mapping, creative writing, preliminary editing, proofing, structural editing, technical editing, beta reader testing, editing, titling, publishing and promoting.

A writer’s club meeting opened my eyes to audio narrating from an entirely different topic. Someone at the club shared information that book chapters should take no longer than three to five train station stops to read, and someone else compared reading and listening rates. I went away with an idea and then explored making an audio option for my blog.

“Podcasting? What’s podcasting?” I’d never heard of the term.

When I began recording and publishing bits of my stories to the ‘net, no one was using the word PODCAST in discussions. There were no categories for this type of audio at that time. If you wanted your spoken-word track to be found, you had to post it in a music catalogue but align your tags to what listeners might use in their searches (that’s all changed now). Then, you crossed your fingers and waited.

I stepped across the void by first speaking excerpts of SEETHINGS and SEETHINGS 2 into a small digital recorder. I then posted the results to the iTunes podcast library. It was a fantastic decision because the inundation of traffic was incredible and immediate. It grew every day.

After some adjustments to the content, my new, refocused podcast feed was linked to iTunes, and it became available to every other podcast app. Type the words Dirty Rabbit Hole into your favourite app’s search bar. Bingo! It will pop up. That podcast belongs to me. Here’s how it appears on Spotify.

I recommend that other writers should consider using a podcasting option for their book promotion, too. It’s a growing but underutilized market.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll upload more audio as I find time to read and convert more text to sound.   –Michael

‘Forman’s writing style is artful, with the protagonist Mitchell’s warped thought processes masterfully exposed. The author has a powerful and vivid command of language and his word pictures are stark and disturbingly real.’