A lot of publishers and other companies, including ZDocs with its partner Razorpages, are looking to podcasting, community blog sites and RSS feeds as tactics to help authors reach their niche markets directly. The Razorpages marketing strategy for a book is not to help authors get their books into bookstores, but to create an entirely new distribution channel. This distribution channel has three components:

1.  Create buzz for a book through Podcasting
2.  Use the power of a community blog site to drive traffic to individual author pages
3.  Get the word out about a book through RSS feed distribution

As each topic will take many words to explain, I’ll break each point above into three separate parts. Part One will discuss podcasting.

A Podcast is simply an audio file that can be downloaded onto your computer and then into your iPod or other audio device. What’s great about Podcasts are they can be distributed over the Internet through over 60 different distribution channels, the most common being iTunes. These channels act like search engines to help people find Podcasts that interest them.

Websites like www.businessjive.com, www.buzzbooster.com and www.razorpages.com and many others become portals that people can subscribe to via RSS feeds (to be discussed later). When people who have subscribed to these portals (or have subscribed to a channel in the iTunes) launch iTunes or other services, Podcasts are automatically downloaded to their computers.

What all this means to a self-publishing author is that he or she has the power to distribute an audio file to potentially thousands of people. This audio file can be the author reading parts of her book or the author may create his own Internet radio channel where he discusses topics that relate to his book. The way you can use this technology is really up to what makes the most sense to you and your audience.

At Razorpages, Sue Kwon interviews authors about their book. We have found that many authors are more comfortable in an interview situation than simply sitting in front of a microphone discussing their book.

The big publishers also seem to be embracing this technology. I have reprinted part of an article from the USA TODAY below titled, Podcasts give publishers another publicity tool, by Carol Memmott, USA TODAY.

As publishers look for innovative ways for books to compete with video games, DVDs, CDs and computers for consumer dollars, they’re hoping the proven popularity of digital players and podcasts - audio programming downloaded from the Internet - will beef up interest in the written word . . . “The number of listeners being entertained through digital players is in the tens of millions,” says Sue Fleming of Simon & Schuster, which launches SimonSays Podcast today. It joins a fledgling group of publishers that are testing whether free podcasts can help sell books.

“It’s really about readers getting in touch with books. Their interest may start with new technology, but we hope that, in the end, they go to a bookstore, buy a hardback or a paperback, and curl up with a book.”

In case you’re wondering how much it costs to produce a Podcast, many companies will have their own Podcast show and will invite authors to be interviewed for free. These types of programs usually have sponsors much like a radio program will have advertisers. At Razorpages, we charge $199.00 for a 20 minute Podcast interview with Sue Kwon. The interview takes about 1 hour and then Sue spends about an hour editing the Podcast. In addition, the Podcast then needs to be submitted to the search engines.

If you would like to sign up for your own Podcast, simply email me at phild@zdocsonline.com.

Stay tuned for more information about how to use the new technology to promote and sell your books.