Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Reaching Readers via Podcasting

Movies usually portray an author reaching out to her readership in a scene where she does a public reading at a library, college or bookstore. And doing an author reading still remains an intimate way to reach a small community. However, a reading has its drawbacks. It’s a single event where attendance is challenged by conflicting schedules, transportation needs, inertia, and myriad other entertainment options. Fortunately, there are alternatives, and one I’ll be exploring in this post is the increasingly popular podcast.

 The main advantages of a podcast are convenience, portability, and reach. It’s so convenient to upload an author reading onto a phone, tablet, or MP3 player in a matter of seconds. There’s no scheduling or transportation hassles three Sundays from now at a far-off library. Podcasts are also delightfully portable and can be listened to on a commute or in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. Finally, their reach is much greater than the dozen friends that dutifully show up at a dusty bookshop on that Sunday night. In fact hundreds of people can listen to your author reading over the course of a year, and it’s always ready to put on a good show, even when you’re tucked in bed.

The number of book related podcasts has exploded in the past few years. Here are a few on middle grade and young adult books and authors to give you some ideas on what to do and how to reach readers everywhere.

Let's start by checking out what the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators have to say: https://www.scbwi.org/online-resources/podcasts/

All The Wonders is a place for readers to discover new books and experience the stories they love in different ways. It is an entertainment channel, a variety show, and a modern library all wrapped up into one and has four podcast channels to choose from:
http://www.allthewonders.com/podcasts/

For a wealth of content, Player FM has dozens of middle grade and young adult fiction podcasts:
https://player.fm/podcasts/Middle-Grades
https://player.fm/podcasts/Youngadult

Most of the big league publishers have author podcasts, and HarperCollins Children’s Podcast page has up to 42 exclusive shows featuring their authors:
http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/kids/gamesandcontests/features/podcast/

Book Riot’s All the Books podcast is great way to find out about each week’s new releases. Go beyond the bestseller list and get recommendations for books from all genres, including middle grade and young adult books: https://bookriot.com/podcasts/

And then The Yarn takes listeners behind the scenes of children's literature and explores everything involved in creating a book:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-yarn/id1028877816?mt=2

I’m having so much fun researching this post, I wonder if I should ask the members of Kidliterati about doing our own MG/YA podcast as well. Let us know in the comments section below, if that’s something you’d be interested in listening to. Until next time, have fun checking out these pods!

All the best, Chris Brandon Whitaker

4 comments:

  1. Wow! Thanks for all these wonderful podcast references. And yes--a Kidliterati podcast sounds great!

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    1. Thanks, Wendy. Let's see if any of the other Kidliterati writers read this post and show any interest. :-)

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  2. I love LORE and BBC History podcasts! There are so many good ones. :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Mel, great recommendations! Speaking of the BBC, The Guardian used to host a great kidlit pod, too!

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