What a Podcast Host Wishes you Knew, Part 3: How to Be a Great Guest
By G.P. Gottlieb
Wondering how to best prepare for an interview? How to respond to a host’s questions? Here are my thoughts on being a great guest. There is a difference between describing your writing and editing process, delving into your characters, discussing the structure, themes, or arc of your book….and marketing.
Listeners can tell when an author is genuine and engaged, and when they’re not.
To prepare for the podcast:
1. Make sure that you are sitting in a quiet space, your audio is set up correctly, and your microphone works. Keep pet interruptions to a minimum.
2. Plan for about 22 -25 minutes of questions and answers. I think a total of 30 minutes, including the intro and outro, is about right for a podcast. If listeners want to know more about the book, they can buy it.
3. I never send questions ahead of an interview because there’s a difference between rehearsed answers and genuine conversation. I want to know why you wrote that specific story, why you chose the setting, and how you conducted your research.
4. If your dog is in the room barking before we start the interview, what are the chances that he’ll hush up during the recording? How enjoyable do you think barking is for listeners? Yes, this has happened many times. Although I’m seriously allergic to cats, at least they’re known to be quiet.
5. Take a drink before the recording starts. I know how hard it is to speak when my voice gets dry, so I empathize with you if you feel like you need to have a drink, but do you know how silly swallowing can sound during a podcast
6. An author once responded to a question by shutting me down with, “I don’t want to talk about it.” Since then, I always suggest that authors who are unprepared to address a subject should consider responding (enthusiastically), “That’s an interesting question, but I’m more interested in _______________________.”
7. Treat your interview as something lasting, because it really is. An NBN podcast lasts forever in the proverbial cloud. It’s not difficult to find, like a social media post from last year. Your interview with me will be accessible to your descendants years from now. Will it increase your visibility, build your audience, and sell books? I sure hope so. Wishing you many great podcast experiences.
G.P. Gottlieb is the author of Charred: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery (Anamcara Press 2026), book #3 in her Chicago-based, culinary mystery series. Pounded, Book #4 will launch in October. She is on the Sisters in Crime Chicagoland board, a member of Blackbird Writers, and has interviewed over 275 authors as host for New Books in Literature, a podcast channel on the New Books Network.