Should I start a podcast?

Hi Manuscript Workers,

Gotta begin this week’s newsletter with another thank you to everyone who bought a copy of The Book Proposal Book in last week’s sale at Princeton University Press. Sixty-eight of you sent me $769 worth of receipts, so I made a donation of $770 to National Network of Abortion Funds, plus I chipped in a $30 donation to their fundraising platform.

My colleague Jane Jones (a fellow developmental editor and academic book coach) pledged to match my donation, and so did Christie Henry, director of Princeton University Press. That means that you drove $2400 total in donations to support people who need safe access to abortion. Can’t thank you, Jane, and Christie enough for that (and I hope your book purchases prove useful too).

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Last week’s newsletter, in which I recommended a few podcast episodes for editors and authors, got me thinking about asking you to share your feelings about podcasts.

I’m a fan of podcasts. I used to listen to mostly comedy podcasts, but in the last couple of years I’ve shifted toward podcasts related to my job. This means I consume a lot of podcasts about publishing, editing, and running a small business.

Maybe I’ve been a bit brainwashed by all the podcasts I listen to (“influenced” is probably a nicer word), but I’ve been contemplating starting one of my own for a couple years now. I haven’t quite decided whether I want to take the leap and do it, though.

My first concern is that it would be a lot of work. I’d want to make sure I could commit to recording it regularly and for a sustained period before jumping in. As I’ve learned from writing this newsletter, consistency is key.

My other concern is making sure there’s actually an audience for it. That’s where you come in.

Would you listen to a podcast aimed at demystifying the scholarly book publishing process?

If so, what would you like to hear in it?

Right now I’m considering a mix of the following types of episodes:

• Practical how-tos and Q&As (similar to the content of the newsletter)

• Interviews with people who work in scholarly publishing to get perspectives from behind the scenes and insight on what publishers are looking for from potential authors

• Interviews with authors about their book publishing processes

• Interviews with other support professionals (like freelance developmental editors and writing coaches) to share their insights that may be helpful to authors

• Hot seats or coaching sessions — e.g. scholars share their book proposal drafts or publishing dilemmas with me and I provide feedback on air for everyone to learn from

Do any of these sound appealing to you? Do you have other ideas I’m missing here? Are there any existing shows out there whose formats you particularly like? Any podcast pet peeves you want to gripe about?

I’d love to hear any thoughts you have. You can reply to this email and it will come directly to me. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!