Why Podcast Interviews Aren’t Selling Your Book — And What Smart Authors Do Instead

Hey author, are you doing a bunch of podcast interviews to promote your book and you're not finding it's doing much? But hopefully you want to make the most of every opportunity. Well, if that's you, this video is for you. Hi, I'm Julie Broad, founder of Book Launchers and your host here at BookLaunchers.tv. Book Launchers is your first choice for all things related to writing, publishing, and promoting nonfiction books. To build your authority. Now this question came to me from one of our authors, Lee Carlson, and he asked, how do I actually leverage these podcast interviews into something for my book and my brand? And I love the question because a lot of authors are doing something that's, you know, difficult. They get booked on podcasts and they prep for their interview and then they do their best interview possible on the podcast and then nothing happens and they treat the interview like a one-and-done event. And podcast interview is not really promotion. I mean, yeah, you're getting in front of someone else's audience, which is great. And hopefully you're building rapport with the interviewer and maybe even getting a great connection out of that for your network. Those things do help you as an author, but the interview itself, well, instead of thinking of it as a promotion, let's think of it as raw material. One interview can generate weeks of content, grow your email list, and drive book sales if you treat it like a content engine instead of just a moment. And I'm gonna break this up into phases in 10 steps before the interview, during the interview, and after so that you can make the most of every single podcast interview. When you do this, you will see you don't necessarily need more podcast interviews or even ones with a bigger audience. You need to be more strategic, targeted, and intentional with everyone that you are getting. So let's start with before the interview. Number 1, build a lead magnet tied to your topic so that you're not saying, come join my newsletter. Give them something specific like the 5-step framework for a solution to a single problem. Give them a valuable checklist or an audit or a workbook page. Nonfiction readers want practical takeaways. Give them one. For example, if you wanna see how discoverable you are to the LLMs, you can head to authorlaunchkit.com and do an LLM discoverability audit when you get your 7-day free trial of Author Launch Kit. Or if you wanna create a robust plan to market your book and build authority, you can download the audiobook version of Self-Promote and Succeed at self-promoteandsucceed.com. Www.juliebroad.com/audio. Depending on the interview, I have different offers that I make. It's never going to be, come connect with me on my newsletter or download a free chapter. We always have something of high value to offer. Step 2, ask for raw files before the interview starts. You can just say, hey, would you be open to sharing the raw video or audio so that I can repurpose it for my social media? And I'll give credit to you and your podcast, of course. Most hosts say yes, because guess what? They're trying to build and grow their audience too. If there's video, even better, which most podcasts are recorded in video now too. Then you are going to be able to create all kinds of content from this. Step 3, prepare your calls to action, your CTAs. Have a couple of natural ways to say, if this resonated, grab my free resource at— don't wing these, practice it. Practice how you'll say it because every podcaster is going to say, tell the audience where they can connect with you, or where can our audience learn more? Please don't say they can find me on Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, and my YouTube channel and my have a singular clear call to action, ideally to download something of value so they can get connected with you. One cool way to do this is say, well, I'd like to give your listeners a gift. They can head to my website, give them the website URL, and download this or get this piece right now with my guide that I've put together just for them. So that's the before. During and right after, number 4, your step is speak in clips. This is huge, and we are all guilty of going on a long diatribe on a podcast. But the more you can think and speak in clips like 30, 60, 90 seconds, the more repurposable and memorable your content is. You have to practice and prepare succinct stories, frameworks, and steps so that you're not rambling. Clear frameworks, punchy statements. When you do an interview, you wanna work in some of these things. Sometimes you will have a little bit of a longer story, but do try to get some of these in. For example, I might say, most authors don't just wanna be an authority, they want authority they can monetize. Or putting your name on the COVID of a book isn't enough. It needs to be the right book and get into the hands of the right person. Or I might say a line like, you wanna write a book that gets read, reviewed, and recommended because that actually will change a life, not just your life, but the life of a reader. Having some sayings and shorts and steps, those become repostable content later, both for you and the podcast host. Step 5, leverage the moment right after the interview. Snap a picture so that you can use that picture. And ultimately, instead of saying, thanks so much, this was great, and then leave, ask the interviewer, hey, is there anyone else you think I'd be a great guest for? And are there guests you're looking for that I could introduce you to? This turns the interview into multiple opportunities and positions you as someone who brings value, not just takes it. Also capture the best moments You don't have to track timestamps while you're talking because that would break the flow of the interview. But you know, you can even ask the interviewer for what their favorite story was, or if there's a quote that you said that resonated and jot that down. Or you can just make a note of which story felt strongest, the quote that landed the hardest, or a framework you thought you explained well. But again, ask the host, was there a moment or idea that really stood out to you? And now you know what's gonna be the best clip, the best hook, or a moment the audience might connect with. And writing that down is gonna be gold because it could be weeks or even months before this episode comes out and you will not remember the stuff that you wanted to repurpose. The last phase is after the interview, and not just after the interview happens, but after it comes out. We're not just gonna post one link or an image that the podcast host sends you. We wanna take that raw material and use it to create a bunch of content. So there's tools to do this. You could also have a VA on your team that does this. If you get the transcript or if you get the files and you can create a transcript, you can load it into ChatGPT or Claude or whatever LLM is your favorite and ask for best sections or ask it to help you with the following things. So step 6, turn 1 interview into 5 to 10 pieces of content. 1 good interview can become 3 to 5 shorts, you know, for Reels, Shorts, TikToks, 3 to 5 quote graphics with a caption or for social media posting, a full transcript, which you can turn into a blog or an article or a newsletter, which is great for your SEO and your LLM discoverability. Of course, email content. And, you know, for me, I like ChatGPT to analyze and Claude to help me draft things, but you can also use Descript or Otter to get your transcript, CapCut or Opus Clips for clips, Canva for graphics. You'll spend a few hours doing this, or again, have a VA do this, but now you've got 2 to 4 weeks of content from one podcast. And by the way, podcast hosts will love you for consistently talking about their podcast because they want traffic too. If you want a great VA company for this, we have two that we work with and refer our authors to. So you can either ask us in our Author Lab on School, which is free, or just ask in the comments below. All right, number 7: use this content to grow your authority and platform. This isn't about post the content and tell people to buy your book. I know we want book sales. Book sales are measurable and they feel important, but remember, your book already did the heavy lift of getting you the credibility and interest to get on podcast in the first place. Now leverage it. Every piece of content should point to your email list or community. Remember, grab that checklist or get the free guide here, download the framework. Podcast listeners are highly engaged and often ready to take action, so let's capture them and start building relationships. And from those relationships, you may sell them a book, but even greater than that, you may end up speaking at their event or an event that they're a member of, selling them services or doing a collaboration. This is about so much more than book sales. 8. Put heart into your promotion. At Book Launchers, we pitch and land a lot of podcasts for our authors, and some of the authors really make the most of each and every one. Some are landing partnerships, turning one interview into speaking opportunities, consulting gigs, events, future collaborations, and so much more. Other authors are complaining that podcast interviews don't sell books. Well, you're right. You don't usually see a big lift in book sales after an interview. A slow trickle, Sometimes nothing. But did you expect the host to do all the work? And I get it. It's a lot of work to really truly leverage a podcast. And as much as, you know, all of us at Book Launchers and other places try to put systems in place, you can get busy. But you know what I've seen over and over again? Our authors who put heart into talking about the podcast that they've been on, those interviews turn into more things. Because you know what? When a podcast host is looking at your social media and they see how enthusiastically and passionate you've talked about some of your other features. They want to be talked about like that, and a lot of those authors get asked to speak or have other opportunities come out of it. So here's what you should do when you're on a podcast: snap a photo while you're on it, post a thank you for the interview, and highlight something cool you talked about. And then of course, day of release, post on all platforms, tag the host, share why you love that conversation, and continue to share clips, share quotes, share lessons, and Share what I wish I would've said in answer to this question and do that and include the host and, and/or tag the podcast in this. So that's for your Instagram, your LinkedIn, your X, emails, et cetera. The other thing to do is post the link to this podcast interview on your media page on your website. Maybe you have an as seen on or just a media page. This is great. Put it there and then you also will be building a repository of your features. Number 9, this is long-term gold. Build the relationship. Don't just disappear after the interview. When you're actively promoting this interview like it mattered and you're thanking the host publicly and sharing the episode, you're in a great position to stay in touch and be remembered. And remember, strong relationships lead to referrals, more interviews, bigger opportunities. This is not a magic button, but it does matter. Number 10, track what is working and do more of what's working. Now, simple tracking like custom links, we use Pretty Links. If you have a WordPress site, you create your website forward slash the podcast name, or at the very least forward slash podcast, and then you'll know which podcast, or at least that somebody came from a podcast. It can be a lot of work if you're doing a lot of interviews to set up individual ones, so you may want to just do podcasts to at least track it. Ultimately though, this will help you understand if podcasts are moving the needle for you or not. You can also check your traffic sources on your website. You can see when someone's come to your site from show notes. If you have a form like we do on our site at booklaunchers.com/apply, if you want to schedule a call, you'll also see if people are mentioning hearing you on a podcast. And if you notice that one is generating high-quality connections, you may want to go back to the host and see if you can do more collaborations because clearly there's a really good message-market fit there. Now, if you're finding nothing's happening despite doing all this, Have a trusted friend or professional listen to your interview, or fellow podcast host, and give you a critique. You can also upload your transcript to Claude or ChatGPT and ask for an evaluation. Might not be fun to hear the results, but you may find areas where you're talking too much, not building rapport, or just not hitting a clear point. A lot of authors think, I need more podcast interviews, but if you're already doing a few podcast interviews a month, you don't actually need more. You just need to get more out of the ones that you're doing. And if you're thinking, how do I get 2 to 5 podcast interviews a month? Well, we have a whole system for that. I definitely recommend you get Author Launch Kit, but I also recommend you set yourself up on PodMatch. Use our affiliate link if you would, so our partners know we're sending them cool people. booklaunchers.com/podmatch. I'll put all the links in the description below. One well-used interview can outperform months and months of content. So don't just show up, leverage it, and tell me in the comments below how it's going for you. And what's been your best success from a podcast interview?